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7850580 | FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a resistance exercise apparatus and, more particularly, to a resistance exercise apparatus which has an improved resistance arrangement.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Indoor exercise is getting more and more popular during recent decades. One popular indoor exercise apparatus is the resistance exercise machine.
The resistance exercise machine typically includes a movable element to which the user applies a force to provide the exercise. The movable element is commonly connected through a mechanical linkage to a resistance assembly that provides the resistance.
In some machines, the resistance assembly includes a vertical central lifting bayonet, and a stack of vertically-arranged weight plates that are vertically movable with the central lifting bayonet during an exercise. The central lifting bayonet has a plurality of selection holes arranged vertically, and each weight plate has a through plate hole aligned with a corresponding one of the selection holes. A number of weight plates can be selected by inserting a selection pin through the plate hole of one weight plate into a corresponding selection hole of the central lifting bayonet, to thereby select the amount of resistance applied during exercise.
One drawback of this resistance exercise machine is that the selection pin can be difficult to insert into the stack and bayonet due to the large tolerance stack-up inherent to a weight stack. That is, the plate holes of the weight plates and the selection holes of the bayonet do not always line up due to small variations inherent in the manufacturing process.
In addition, the typical vertical weight stack cannot be totally enclosed due to the need to allow a user to insert the selection pin into the weight stack and bayonet. The exposed weight stack can be cosmetically undesirable.
Moreover, the user may often need to bend down to make the weight selection. This may make the user uncomfortable because of the bending down posture.
The present application discloses a resistance exercise apparatus that facilitates balanced resistance forces, and facilitates independent displacement of separate resistance forces. The apparatus comprises a frame, a guide (e.g., two guide rods) mounted on the frame, a resistance support movable relative to the guide (e.g., slidable along the guide rods) and including an input location, a transmission assembly coupled to the input location, and a resistance assembly for applying a resistance to the resistance support during an exercise. The resistance assembly includes a first resister (e.g., one or more weights or elastic members) having a first resistance and a second resister (e.g., one or more weights or elastic members) having a second resistance. The first resistance and the second resistance are capable of being independently applied by the first resister and the second resister. The first resister and the second resister each is arranged substantially symmetrical relative to the input location. Additional resisters can be incorporated into the above-described arrangement.
The present application also discloses a resistance exercise apparatus that facilitates adjustment of resistive forces utilizing a remote adjustment assembly. This apparatus includes a frame, a resistance support movable relative to the frame, a resistance assembly at least partially movable with the resistance support during exercise, and an adjustment assembly. The adjustment assembly includes a selector supported on the frame, and an adjustment mechanism interconnected with the selector. The adjustment mechanism is engageable with the resistance assembly to adjust the resistance to be applied by the resistance assembly. At least a portion of the resistance assembly is disengageable from and movable relative to the selector during the exercise.
In one embodiment, the adjustment mechanism includes a resistance gear assembly supported by the resistance assembly for movement with the resistance assembly during exercise, and an adjustment gear assembly supported by the frame and interconnected with the selector. The adjustment gear assembly is engageable with the resistance gear assembly to facilitate adjustment of the resistance to be applied by the resistance assembly. The resistance gear assembly is disengageable from the adjustment gear assembly during exercise.
Preferably, the apparatus further comprises an interlock assembly including a resistance gear lock assembly operable to retain the resistance gear assembly in a resistance setting orientation when the resistance gear assembly and the adjustment gear assembly are disengaged. The resistance gear lock assembly can include a pin engageable in a locking position between gear teeth of the resistance gear assembly to substantially prevent rotation of the resistance gear assembly from a resistance setting orientation when the resistance gear assembly and the adjustment gear assembly are disengaged. The pin is disengageable to an unlocking position when the resistance gear assembly and the adjustment gear assembly are engaged.
The interlock assembly can further include an adjustment gear lock assembly operable to retain the adjustment gear assembly in a resistance setting orientation when the resistance gear assembly and the adjustment gear assembly are disengaged. The adjustment gear lock assembly can include an adjustment gear pin engageable in a locking position between gear teeth of the adjustment gear assembly to substantially prevent rotation of the adjustment gear assembly from a resistance setting orientation when the resistance gear assembly and the adjustment gear assembly are disengaged. The pin is disengageable to an unlocking position when the resistance gear assembly and the adjustment gear assembly are engaged. Preferably, a biasing member operates to bias the adjustment gear pin toward the locking position.
The present application also discloses a method of operating a resistance exercise apparatus having a frame, a guide supported by the frame, a resistance support movable relative to the guide and including an input location, and a resistance assembly including a first resister having a first resistance and a second resister having a second resistance. The method comprises engaging the first resister with the resistance support while disengaging the second resister from the resistance support, exercising by applying a force at the input location and substantially symmetrical with the first resistance. The method continues by disengaging the first resister from the resistance support, engaging the second resister with the resistance support, and exercising by applying a force at the input location and substantially symmetrical with the second resistance. Finally, the method includes engaging the first resister and the second resister with the resistance support, and exercising by applying a force at the input location and substantially symmetrical with the first resistance and the second resistance.
Independent features and independent aspects of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon review of the following detailed description, claims, and drawings, wherein like elements have like numerals throughout the drawings.
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a resistance exercise apparatus and, more particularly, to a resistance exercise apparatus which has an improved resistance arrangement.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Indoor exercise is getting more and more popular during recent decades. One popular indoor exercise apparatus is the resistance exercise machine.
The resistance exercise machine typically includes a movable element to which the user applies a force to provide the exercise. The movable element is commonly connected through a mechanical linkage to a resistance assembly that provides the resistance.
In some machines, the resistance assembly includes a vertical central lifting bayonet, and a stack of vertically-arranged weight plates that are vertically movable with the central lifting bayonet during an exercise. The central lifting bayonet has a plurality of selection holes arranged vertically, and each weight plate has a through plate hole aligned with a corresponding one of the selection holes. A number of weight plates can be selected by inserting a selection pin through the plate hole of one weight plate into a corresponding selection hole of the central lifting bayonet, to thereby select the amount of resistance applied during exercise.
One drawback of this resistance exercise machine is that the selection pin can be difficult to insert into the stack and bayonet due to the large tolerance stack-up inherent to a weight stack. That is, the plate holes of the weight plates and the selection holes of the bayonet do not always line up due to small variations inherent in the manufacturing process.
In addition, the typical vertical weight stack cannot be totally enclosed due to the need to allow a user to insert the selection pin into the weight stack and bayonet. The exposed weight stack can be cosmetically undesirable.
Moreover, the user may often need to bend down to make the weight selection. This may make the user uncomfortable because of the bending down posture.
The present application discloses a resistance exercise apparatus that facilitates balanced resistance forces, and facilitates independent displacement of separate resistance forces. The apparatus comprises a frame, a guide (e.g., two guide rods) mounted on the frame, a resistance support movable relative to the guide (e.g., slidable along the guide rods) and including an input location, a transmission assembly coupled to the input location, and a resistance assembly for applying a resistance to the resistance support during an exercise. The resistance assembly includes a first resister (e.g., one or more weights or elastic members) having a first resistance and a second resister (e.g., one or more weights or elastic members) having a second resistance. The first resistance and the second resistance are capable of being independently applied by the first resister and the second resister. The first resister and the second resister each is arranged substantially symmetrical relative to the input location. Additional resisters can be incorporated into the above-described arrangement.
The present application also discloses a resistance exercise apparatus that facilitates adjustment of resistive forces utilizing a remote adjustment assembly. This apparatus includes a frame, a resistance support movable relative to the frame, a resistance assembly at least partially movable with the resistance support during exercise, and an adjustment assembly. The adjustment assembly includes a selector supported on the frame, and an adjustment mechanism interconnected with the selector. The adjustment mechanism is engageable with the resistance assembly to adjust the resistance to be applied by the resistance assembly. At least a portion of the resistance assembly is disengageable from and movable relative to the selector during the exercise.
In one embodiment, the adjustment mechanism includes a resistance gear assembly supported by the resistance assembly for movement with the resistance assembly during exercise, and an adjustment gear assembly supported by the frame and interconnected with the selector. The adjustment gear assembly is engageable with the resistance gear assembly to facilitate adjustment of the resistance to be applied by the resistance assembly. The resistance gear assembly is disengageable from the adjustment gear assembly during exercise.
Preferably, the apparatus further comprises an interlock assembly including a resistance gear lock assembly operable to retain the resistance gear assembly in a resistance setting orientation when the resistance gear assembly and the adjustment gear assembly are disengaged. The resistance gear lock assembly can include a pin engageable in a locking position between gear teeth of the resistance gear assembly to substantially prevent rotation of the resistance gear assembly from a resistance setting orientation when the resistance gear assembly and the adjustment gear assembly are disengaged. The pin is disengageable to an unlocking position when the resistance gear assembly and the adjustment gear assembly are engaged.
The interlock assembly can further include an adjustment gear lock assembly operable to retain the adjustment gear assembly in a resistance setting orientation when the resistance gear assembly and the adjustment gear assembly are disengaged. The adjustment gear lock assembly can include an adjustment gear pin engageable in a locking position between gear teeth of the adjustment gear assembly to substantially prevent rotation of the adjustment gear assembly from a resistance setting orientation when the resistance gear assembly and the adjustment gear assembly are disengaged. The pin is disengageable to an unlocking position when the resistance gear assembly and the adjustment gear assembly are engaged. Preferably, a biasing member operates to bias the adjustment gear pin toward the locking position.
The present application also discloses a method of operating a resistance exercise apparatus having a frame, a guide supported by the frame, a resistance support movable relative to the guide and including an input location, and a resistance assembly including a first resister having a first resistance and a second resister having a second resistance. The method comprises engaging the first resister with the resistance support while disengaging the second resister from the resistance support, exercising by applying a force at the input location and substantially symmetrical with the first resistance. The method continues by disengaging the first resister from the resistance support, engaging the second resister with the resistance support, and exercising by applying a force at the input location and substantially symmetrical with the second resistance. Finally, the method includes engaging the first resister and the second resister with the resistance support, and exercising by applying a force at the input location and substantially symmetrical with the first resistance and the second resistance.
Independent features and independent aspects of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon review of the following detailed description, claims, and drawings, wherein like elements have like numerals throughout the drawings.
Is this patent green technology? Respond with 'yes' or 'no'. |
7826976 | The present invention relates to the detection of chemical, biological, and radiological agents.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A chemical, biological, or radiological attack on a civilian population is a dreadful event. The best response requires the earliest possible detection of the attack so that individuals can flee and civil defense authorities can contain its effects. To this end, chemical, biological, and radiological (“CBR”) detection systems are being developed for deployment in urban centers.
But accurately detecting the presence of CBR agents that have been released in a public environment is a challenging task. A variety of factors can hamper detection and lead to false alarms. These factors include: background fluctuations in a property being monitored (e.g., particulate size, etc.), the presences of interferants, differing temperature and humidity conditions, low signal-to-noise ratio of a detector, and detector malfunctions, among others.
The public will have little tolerance for false alarms, especially those that result in significant inconvenience, such as the disruption of mass transit facilities during rush hour. If the false alarms were to occur with regularity, a “boy-who-called-wolf” attitude could rapidly develop; that is, the public would soon learn to ignore the alarms.
One way to reduce the incidence of false alarms would be to decrease detector sensitivity. But this is not a workable solution because however inconvenient a false alarm might be, a false-negative indication (i.e., an undetected attack), as might result from intentionally decreasing detector sensitivity, is far worse. Cognizant of this fact, scientists and engineers have addressed this problem in other ways.
One approach to improving the accuracy of CBR detection is to provide systems that incorporate plural detectors that use different analysis methods. The theory is that if multiple sensors that are based on different operating principles all indicate an alarm condition, there is a greater likelihood that the indication is correct than would be the case if the alarm were based on a single analysis method (even if performed by multiple sensors). The reality, however, is that the different analysis methods that are typically used are not truly independent, but rather quasi-independent. And these quasi-independent techniques might be susceptible to the same type of errors for a given set of conditions, thereby undercutting the validity of this approach. Furthermore, these sensors are typically expensive. And incorporating what is, essentially, redundant sensors, increases cost.
Another approach to decreasing false alarms is to use video cameras (e.g., to monitor suspicious activity, etc.) to supplement CBR sensors. Of course, to be of any value, the video feed requires constant human monitoring. The use of video monitoring is not, therefore, suitable for use with an autonomous system, as is most desired.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a method and system for CBR detection that avoids some of the costs and disadvantages of the prior art. In the illustrative embodiment of the present invention, two truly independent techniques are used to evaluate whether or not the release of a chemical, biological, or radiological agent has occurred.
In some embodiments, a CBR sensor and an acoustic sensor are situated in a environment that is to be monitored for the presence of a CBR agent. The CBR sensor, which can be based on any one or more of a variety of different sensing/detection technologies, provides a first indication of the presence of a CBR agent (e.g., a positive indication of its presence, an elevated concentration level in the monitored environment, etc.). In the illustrative embodiment, when the CBR sensor provides a positive indication of a CBR agent, acoustics-related data from the acoustic sensor is then analyzed.
The purpose of the acoustics-based analysis is to increase or decrease the confidence level of the initial positive indication from the CBR sensor. The confidence level of the initial indication is increased if an acoustics signature is identified that (1) is indicative of the release of a CBR agent and (2) is observed at a time that correlates to the time at which the CBR agent is identified from the CBR sensor. Conversely, the confidence level of the initial indication is decreased if there is an absence of such an acoustic signature at the relevant time.
The illustrative embodiment of the present invention comprises generating an alarm when:(i) information derived from a first time-varying signal indicates that, at a time t2, a chemical, biological, or radiological agent is present in a monitored environment; and(ii) acoustics-based information derived from a second time-varying signal is indicative of a release of the agent in said monitored environment at a time t1, wherein the times t1and t2correlate to one another in terms of the release.
| 1 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: The present invention relates to the detection of chemical, biological, and radiological agents.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A chemical, biological, or radiological attack on a civilian population is a dreadful event. The best response requires the earliest possible detection of the attack so that individuals can flee and civil defense authorities can contain its effects. To this end, chemical, biological, and radiological (“CBR”) detection systems are being developed for deployment in urban centers.
But accurately detecting the presence of CBR agents that have been released in a public environment is a challenging task. A variety of factors can hamper detection and lead to false alarms. These factors include: background fluctuations in a property being monitored (e.g., particulate size, etc.), the presences of interferants, differing temperature and humidity conditions, low signal-to-noise ratio of a detector, and detector malfunctions, among others.
The public will have little tolerance for false alarms, especially those that result in significant inconvenience, such as the disruption of mass transit facilities during rush hour. If the false alarms were to occur with regularity, a “boy-who-called-wolf” attitude could rapidly develop; that is, the public would soon learn to ignore the alarms.
One way to reduce the incidence of false alarms would be to decrease detector sensitivity. But this is not a workable solution because however inconvenient a false alarm might be, a false-negative indication (i.e., an undetected attack), as might result from intentionally decreasing detector sensitivity, is far worse. Cognizant of this fact, scientists and engineers have addressed this problem in other ways.
One approach to improving the accuracy of CBR detection is to provide systems that incorporate plural detectors that use different analysis methods. The theory is that if multiple sensors that are based on different operating principles all indicate an alarm condition, there is a greater likelihood that the indication is correct than would be the case if the alarm were based on a single analysis method (even if performed by multiple sensors). The reality, however, is that the different analysis methods that are typically used are not truly independent, but rather quasi-independent. And these quasi-independent techniques might be susceptible to the same type of errors for a given set of conditions, thereby undercutting the validity of this approach. Furthermore, these sensors are typically expensive. And incorporating what is, essentially, redundant sensors, increases cost.
Another approach to decreasing false alarms is to use video cameras (e.g., to monitor suspicious activity, etc.) to supplement CBR sensors. Of course, to be of any value, the video feed requires constant human monitoring. The use of video monitoring is not, therefore, suitable for use with an autonomous system, as is most desired.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a method and system for CBR detection that avoids some of the costs and disadvantages of the prior art. In the illustrative embodiment of the present invention, two truly independent techniques are used to evaluate whether or not the release of a chemical, biological, or radiological agent has occurred.
In some embodiments, a CBR sensor and an acoustic sensor are situated in a environment that is to be monitored for the presence of a CBR agent. The CBR sensor, which can be based on any one or more of a variety of different sensing/detection technologies, provides a first indication of the presence of a CBR agent (e.g., a positive indication of its presence, an elevated concentration level in the monitored environment, etc.). In the illustrative embodiment, when the CBR sensor provides a positive indication of a CBR agent, acoustics-related data from the acoustic sensor is then analyzed.
The purpose of the acoustics-based analysis is to increase or decrease the confidence level of the initial positive indication from the CBR sensor. The confidence level of the initial indication is increased if an acoustics signature is identified that (1) is indicative of the release of a CBR agent and (2) is observed at a time that correlates to the time at which the CBR agent is identified from the CBR sensor. Conversely, the confidence level of the initial indication is decreased if there is an absence of such an acoustic signature at the relevant time.
The illustrative embodiment of the present invention comprises generating an alarm when:(i) information derived from a first time-varying signal indicates that, at a time t2, a chemical, biological, or radiological agent is present in a monitored environment; and(ii) acoustics-based information derived from a second time-varying signal is indicative of a release of the agent in said monitored environment at a time t1, wherein the times t1and t2correlate to one another in terms of the release.
Is this patent green technology? Respond with 'yes' or 'no'. |
7798794 | This application is the national phase under 35 U.S.C. §371 of PCT International Application No. PCT/JP2007/067125 which has an International filing date of Sep. 3, 2007, which designated the United States of America.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a screw pump that draws fluid into a housing and discharges the fluid to the exterior of the housing by rotating a pair of screw rotors. The present invention further relates to screw rotors in a screw pump.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Patent Document 1 discloses a screw pump that has a pair of screw rotors engaged with each other. As the screw rotors rotate, the screw pump operates to transport fluid.
As shown inFIG. 11, a cross section of the tooth profile of a first conventional screw rotor90A perpendicular to the rotor axis is shaped and sized equally with that of a second conventional screw rotor90B. The cross section of the tooth profile of the first conventional screw rotor90A perpendicular to the rotor axis is to the shape of the tooth profile of the first conventional screw rotor90A on an imaginary plane extending perpendicular to the rotary axis of the first conventional screw rotor90A. The cross section of the tooth profile of the first conventional screw rotor90A perpendicular to the rotor axis includes a tooth top arc Q1R1, a tooth bottom arc S1T1, a first curve S1Q1, and a second curve T1R1. The first curve S1Q1connects a first end S1of the tooth bottom arc S1T1to a first end Q1of the tooth top arc Q1R1. The second curve T1R1connects a second end T1of the tooth bottom arc S1T1to a second end R1of the tooth top arc Q1R1.
The cross section of the tooth profile of the second conventional screw rotor90B perpendicular to the rotor axis includes a tooth top arc Q2R2, a tooth bottom arc S2T2, a first curve S2Q2, and a second curve T2R2. The first curve S2Q2connects a first end S2of the tooth bottom arc S2T2to a first end Q2of the tooth top arc Q2R2. The second curve T2R2connects a second end T2of the tooth bottom arc S2T2to a second end R2of the tooth top arc Q2R2.
The first curve S1Q1of the first conventional screw rotor90A includes a trochoidal curve U1S1and a connecting portion Q1U1. The trochoidal curve U1S1is created by the path of the first end Q2of the tooth top arc Q2R2when the second conventional screw rotor90B revolves about the first conventional screw rotor90A. The connecting portion Q1U1is a straight line that connects an end U1of the trochoidal curve U1S1to the first end Q1of the tooth top arc Q1R1. The second curve T1R1includes an outer circular arc R1W1, an involute curve W1Y1, and an inner circular arc Y1T1. The involute curve W1Y1is located between the outer circular arc R1W1and the inner circular arc Y1T1. The outer circular arc R1W1is connected to the tooth top arc Q1R1and the inner circular arc Y1T1is connected to the tooth bottom arc S1T1.
Similarly, the first curve S2Q2of the second conventional screw rotor90B includes a trochoidal curve U2S2and a connecting portion Q2U2, which is a straight line. The second curve T2R2includes an outer circular arc R2W2, an involute curve W2Y2, and an inner circular arc Y2T2.
Neither the first conventional screw rotor90A nor the second conventional screw rotor90B contacts the housing of the screw pump. Further, the first conventional screw rotor90A and the second conventional screw rotor90B do not contact each other. Such arrangement thus may potentially cause leakage of the fluid (leakage of gas). Although the tooth profiles of the first and second conventional screw rotors90A,90B are shaped in such a manner as to suppress the fluid leakage, the fluid leakage is desired to be suppressed further effectively.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-351238
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an objective of the present invention to provide a screw pump and a screw rotor that reliably suppress leakage of fluid.
In order to achieve the foregoing objective and in accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a screw pump including a housing, and a first screw rotor and a second screw rotor received in the housing is provided. The first screw rotor and the second screw rotor rotate in a direction in which the first and second screw rotors become engaged with each other. A fluid is drawn into the housing and then discharged to the exterior through rotation of the first screw rotor and the second screw rotor. A cross section of a tooth profile of the first screw rotor and a cross section of a tooth profile of the second screw rotor perpendicular to the respective rotor axes each include a first circular arc portion, a second circular arc portion, a first curved portion, and a second curved portion. The first circular arc portion and the second circular arc portion each have a first end and a second end. The radius of curvature of the second circular arc portion is smaller than the radius of curvature of the first circular arc portion. The first curved portion connects the first end of the first circular arc portion to the first end of the second circular arc portion. The second curved portion connects the second end of the first circular arc portion to the second end of the second circular arc portion. The first curved portion of the first screw rotor is a first trochoidal curve created by the first end of the first circular arc portion of the second screw rotor. The second curved portion of the first screw rotor includes an involute curve and a second trochoidal curve that extend continuously from each other. The involute curve extends continuously from the second end of the first circular arc portion of the first screw rotor. The second trochoidal curve is created by the second end of the first circular arc portion of the second screw rotor. The first curved portion of the second screw rotor is a first trochoidal curve created by the first end of the first circular arc portion of the first screw rotor. The second curved portion of the second screw rotor includes an involute curve and a second trochoidal curve that extend continuously from each other. The involute curve extends continuously from the second end of the first circular arc portion of the second screw rotor. The second trochoidal curve is created by the second end of the first circular arc portion of the first screw rotor.
The rotary axis of the first screw rotor can be referred to as a first axis, and the rotary axis of the second screw rotor can be referred to as a second axis. The angle of the first circular arc portion of the first screw rotor with respect to the first axis, the angle of the second circular arc portion of the first screw rotor with respect to the first axis, the angle of the first circular arc portion of the second screw rotor with respect to the second axis, and the angle of the second circular arc portion of the second screw rotor with respect to the second axis can all be set equal.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a screw rotor of a screw pump is provided. The screw rotor is one of a first screw rotor and a second screw rotor.
The term “a cross section of the tooth profile of a first screw rotor perpendicular to the rotor axis” refers to a cross-sectional shape of the tooth profile of the first screw rotor on an imaginary plane extending perpendicular to the rotary axis of the first screw rotor. The term “a cross section of a second screw rotor perpendicular to the rotor axis” refers to a cross-sectional shape of the tooth profile of the second screw rotor on an imaginary plane extending perpendicular to the rotary axis of the second screw rotor. The tooth profile according to the present invention increases the axial dimension (the dimension along the rotary axis) of a tooth top surface. The tooth top surface is a circumferential surface formed by a first circular arc portion. A tooth bottom surface is a circumferential surface formed by the second circular arc portion. The increased axial dimension of the tooth top surface decreases the amount of the fluid leaking from between a housing and the tooth top surface.
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: This application is the national phase under 35 U.S.C. §371 of PCT International Application No. PCT/JP2007/067125 which has an International filing date of Sep. 3, 2007, which designated the United States of America.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a screw pump that draws fluid into a housing and discharges the fluid to the exterior of the housing by rotating a pair of screw rotors. The present invention further relates to screw rotors in a screw pump.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Patent Document 1 discloses a screw pump that has a pair of screw rotors engaged with each other. As the screw rotors rotate, the screw pump operates to transport fluid.
As shown inFIG. 11, a cross section of the tooth profile of a first conventional screw rotor90A perpendicular to the rotor axis is shaped and sized equally with that of a second conventional screw rotor90B. The cross section of the tooth profile of the first conventional screw rotor90A perpendicular to the rotor axis is to the shape of the tooth profile of the first conventional screw rotor90A on an imaginary plane extending perpendicular to the rotary axis of the first conventional screw rotor90A. The cross section of the tooth profile of the first conventional screw rotor90A perpendicular to the rotor axis includes a tooth top arc Q1R1, a tooth bottom arc S1T1, a first curve S1Q1, and a second curve T1R1. The first curve S1Q1connects a first end S1of the tooth bottom arc S1T1to a first end Q1of the tooth top arc Q1R1. The second curve T1R1connects a second end T1of the tooth bottom arc S1T1to a second end R1of the tooth top arc Q1R1.
The cross section of the tooth profile of the second conventional screw rotor90B perpendicular to the rotor axis includes a tooth top arc Q2R2, a tooth bottom arc S2T2, a first curve S2Q2, and a second curve T2R2. The first curve S2Q2connects a first end S2of the tooth bottom arc S2T2to a first end Q2of the tooth top arc Q2R2. The second curve T2R2connects a second end T2of the tooth bottom arc S2T2to a second end R2of the tooth top arc Q2R2.
The first curve S1Q1of the first conventional screw rotor90A includes a trochoidal curve U1S1and a connecting portion Q1U1. The trochoidal curve U1S1is created by the path of the first end Q2of the tooth top arc Q2R2when the second conventional screw rotor90B revolves about the first conventional screw rotor90A. The connecting portion Q1U1is a straight line that connects an end U1of the trochoidal curve U1S1to the first end Q1of the tooth top arc Q1R1. The second curve T1R1includes an outer circular arc R1W1, an involute curve W1Y1, and an inner circular arc Y1T1. The involute curve W1Y1is located between the outer circular arc R1W1and the inner circular arc Y1T1. The outer circular arc R1W1is connected to the tooth top arc Q1R1and the inner circular arc Y1T1is connected to the tooth bottom arc S1T1.
Similarly, the first curve S2Q2of the second conventional screw rotor90B includes a trochoidal curve U2S2and a connecting portion Q2U2, which is a straight line. The second curve T2R2includes an outer circular arc R2W2, an involute curve W2Y2, and an inner circular arc Y2T2.
Neither the first conventional screw rotor90A nor the second conventional screw rotor90B contacts the housing of the screw pump. Further, the first conventional screw rotor90A and the second conventional screw rotor90B do not contact each other. Such arrangement thus may potentially cause leakage of the fluid (leakage of gas). Although the tooth profiles of the first and second conventional screw rotors90A,90B are shaped in such a manner as to suppress the fluid leakage, the fluid leakage is desired to be suppressed further effectively.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-351238
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an objective of the present invention to provide a screw pump and a screw rotor that reliably suppress leakage of fluid.
In order to achieve the foregoing objective and in accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a screw pump including a housing, and a first screw rotor and a second screw rotor received in the housing is provided. The first screw rotor and the second screw rotor rotate in a direction in which the first and second screw rotors become engaged with each other. A fluid is drawn into the housing and then discharged to the exterior through rotation of the first screw rotor and the second screw rotor. A cross section of a tooth profile of the first screw rotor and a cross section of a tooth profile of the second screw rotor perpendicular to the respective rotor axes each include a first circular arc portion, a second circular arc portion, a first curved portion, and a second curved portion. The first circular arc portion and the second circular arc portion each have a first end and a second end. The radius of curvature of the second circular arc portion is smaller than the radius of curvature of the first circular arc portion. The first curved portion connects the first end of the first circular arc portion to the first end of the second circular arc portion. The second curved portion connects the second end of the first circular arc portion to the second end of the second circular arc portion. The first curved portion of the first screw rotor is a first trochoidal curve created by the first end of the first circular arc portion of the second screw rotor. The second curved portion of the first screw rotor includes an involute curve and a second trochoidal curve that extend continuously from each other. The involute curve extends continuously from the second end of the first circular arc portion of the first screw rotor. The second trochoidal curve is created by the second end of the first circular arc portion of the second screw rotor. The first curved portion of the second screw rotor is a first trochoidal curve created by the first end of the first circular arc portion of the first screw rotor. The second curved portion of the second screw rotor includes an involute curve and a second trochoidal curve that extend continuously from each other. The involute curve extends continuously from the second end of the first circular arc portion of the second screw rotor. The second trochoidal curve is created by the second end of the first circular arc portion of the first screw rotor.
The rotary axis of the first screw rotor can be referred to as a first axis, and the rotary axis of the second screw rotor can be referred to as a second axis. The angle of the first circular arc portion of the first screw rotor with respect to the first axis, the angle of the second circular arc portion of the first screw rotor with respect to the first axis, the angle of the first circular arc portion of the second screw rotor with respect to the second axis, and the angle of the second circular arc portion of the second screw rotor with respect to the second axis can all be set equal.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a screw rotor of a screw pump is provided. The screw rotor is one of a first screw rotor and a second screw rotor.
The term “a cross section of the tooth profile of a first screw rotor perpendicular to the rotor axis” refers to a cross-sectional shape of the tooth profile of the first screw rotor on an imaginary plane extending perpendicular to the rotary axis of the first screw rotor. The term “a cross section of a second screw rotor perpendicular to the rotor axis” refers to a cross-sectional shape of the tooth profile of the second screw rotor on an imaginary plane extending perpendicular to the rotary axis of the second screw rotor. The tooth profile according to the present invention increases the axial dimension (the dimension along the rotary axis) of a tooth top surface. The tooth top surface is a circumferential surface formed by a first circular arc portion. A tooth bottom surface is a circumferential surface formed by the second circular arc portion. The increased axial dimension of the tooth top surface decreases the amount of the fluid leaking from between a housing and the tooth top surface.
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7847417 | This application claims foreign priorities based on Japanese Patent application No. 2005-369714, filed Dec. 22, 2005, and Japanese Patent application No. 2006-332444, filed Dec. 8, 2006, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flip-chip mounting substrate and a flip-chip mounting method. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a flip-chip mounting substrate and a flip-chip mounting method in which a semiconductor element is flip-chip mounted by using an Au (gold) bump.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, mounting structures have been widely utilized in which an electronic element (for example, semiconductor element) is flip-chip bonded to connecting pads formed on a flip-chip mounting substrate by using a bonding material while employing Au bumps on the electronic element as external connecting terminals (for instance, refer to JP-A-2001-332584).
FIG. 1shows one example of a semiconductor chip1which is to be flip-chip mounted.FIG. 2shows one example of a flip-chip mounting substrate5on which the semiconductor chip1is to be flip-chip mounted.FIG. 1shows a circuit formed surface1aof the semiconductor chip1, and the semiconductor chip1is flip-chip mounted in a face-down manner so that the circuit formed surface1afaces the flip-chip mounting substrate5.
Outer peripheral Au bumps2and central Au bumps3which are gold bumps are formed on the circuit formed surface1aof the semiconductor chip1. The outer peripheral Au bumps2are arranged on the circuit formed surface1ain a peripheral shape. Also, the central Au bumps3are formed at a central position of the circuit formed surface1a. In the related art, in a semiconductor element in which Au bumps are employed as external connecting terminals, a general structure is to arrange the Au bumps in a peripheral shape. However, a total number of terminals is increased as a density of recent semiconductor elements becoming higher. As a consequence, the central Au bumps3are arranged also at the central position of the circuit formed surface1a.
In connection to the above-explained structures, the flip-chip mounting substrate5on which the semiconductor chip1is flip-chip mounted also has a structure in which outer peripheral pads7corresponding to the outer peripheral Au bumps2and central pads8corresponding to the central Au bumps3are provided. Also, a solder resist10(indicated by satin finished surface) is provided on an upper surface side of the semiconductor chip1on the flip-chip mounting substrate5, and openings are formed in the solder resist10at positions in which the respective pads7and8are formed so that these pads7and8are exposed.
In the related art, as to the outer peripheral pads7to which the outer peripheral Au bumps2arranged in the peripheral shape are flip-chip mounted, a frame-shaped opening portion11having a frame shape is formed in the solder resist10. As a consequence, all of the outer peripheral pads7are positioned within this frame-shaped opening portion11. On the other hand, as to the central pads8positioned at the center, central opening portions12are formed in the solder resist10with respect to each of these central pads8.
After bonding materials (for example, solder) are provided on the respective pads7and8, the semiconductor chip1of the above-described structure is flip-chip mounted on the flip-chip mounting substrate5. Then, after the flip-chip mounting, an underfill resin is provided in a separated portion between the semiconductor chip1and the flip-chip mounting substrate5. This underfill resin is provided in order to prevent stresses caused by a thermal expansion difference between the semiconductor chip1and the flip-chip mounting substrate5from being applied between the respective Au bumps2,3and the respective pads7,8. Since this underfill resin is provided, mounting reliability between the semiconductor chip1and the flip-chip mounting substrate5can be increased.
FIG. 3is a sectional view showing a state after the semiconductor chip1is mounted on the flip-chip mounting substrate5and before the underfill resin is provided. More specifically,FIG. 3shows a portion in an enlarged manner, which is in vicinity of a portion where the outer peripheral Au bump2is flip-chip mounted to the outer peripheral pad7. As shown in this drawing, the outer peripheral Au bump2is flip-chip mounted via solder14to the outer peripheral pad7, and the outer peripheral pad7is positioned within the frame-shaped opening portion11formed in the solder resist10.
In order to provide an underfill resin15at a flip-chip mounting position between the outer peripheral Au bump2and the outer peripheral pad7, as shown by an arrow of a broken line inFIG. 3, the underfill resin15is filled from a gap between an outer peripheral edge1bof the semiconductor chip1and the flip-chip mounting substrate5into a bonding position (namely, within the frame-shaped opening portion11) of the outer peripheral Au bump2and the outer peripheral bump7.
The bonding position of the outer peripheral Au bump2and the outer peripheral pad7is located near the outer peripheral edge1bof the semiconductor chip1. As a consequence, a process of filling the underfill resin15into the bonding position (namely, within the frame-shaped opening portion11) of the outer peripheral Au bump2and the outer peripheral pad7could be smoothly and easily carried out. Also, the underfill resin15entered into the frame-shaped opening portion11moves along the frame-shaped opening portion11, so that the bonding position of the outer peripheral Au bump2and the outer peripheral pad7, which is within the frame-shaped opening portion11, could be firmly sealed by the underfill resin15.
However, currently the following problems occur. That is, since the central Au bumps3are provided at the central position of the circuit formed surface1aof the semiconductor chip1, and the central Au bumps3are bonded to the central pads8, voids16(refer toFIG. 7) are frequently generated at the position where the underfill resin15is provided. Referring: now toFIGS. 4A to 7B, a description is made of a reason why the voids16are generated near the flip-chip bonding positions of the central Au bumps3and the central pads8in the related art.
FIGS. 4A and 4Bshow the flip-chip mounting substrate5before the semiconductor chip1is mounted, and more specifically, shows a portion in vicinity of the central pads8in an enlarged manner.FIG. 4Ais a sectional view taken along an arrow line A-A ofFIG. 4B.
As explained above, central opening portions12are provided for each of the central pads8. Also, the central pad8is of a shape having a wide width portion8aand a narrow width portion8b. In the related art, the central opening portion12is formed larger with respect to the central pad8, and a separated portion6a(namely, a portion indicated by an arrow W2inFIG. 4A) is formed between the central pad8and the edge portion of the central opening portion12. In this separated portion6a, a surface of a substrate main body6(flip-chip mounting substrate5) is exposed. As a consequence, a depth of the central opening portion12becomes a distance measured from an upper face of a solder resist10to an upper face of the substrate main body6(namely, a thickness of the solder resist10, which is represented by an arrow H2inFIG. 4A).
FIGS. 5A and 5Bshow a state in which a solder14as a bonding material is provided on the upper face of the central pad8. This solder14is provided only on the upper portion of the central pad8, so that the separated portion6ais still present within the central opening portion12.
Also,FIGS. 6A and 6Bshow a state in which the central Au bump3is flip-chip bonded via the solder14to the central pad8, and the semiconductor chip1is flip-chip mounted on the flip-chip mounting substrate5. Even in this flip-chip mounting state, the separated portion6ais present within the central opening portion12.
Also,FIGS. 7A and 7Bshow a state in which the underfill resin15is provided between the flip-chip mounted semiconductor chip1and the flip-chip mounting substrate5.
As previously explained with reference toFIG. 3, the process of sealing the bonding position of the outer peripheral Au bump2and the outer peripheral pad7by the underfill resin15could be easily and firmly carried out. This is because since the outer peripheral Au bumps2are arranged at the outer peripheral position of the semiconductor chip1, the underfill resin15could be filled into the separated portion between the semiconductor chip1and the flip-chip mounting substrate5from the outer peripheral edge1b.
In contract thereto, the bonding position of the central Au bump3formed at the central position of the semiconductor chip1and the central pad8is sealed by such a way that the underfill resin15filled from the outer peripheral edge1bof the semiconductor chip1flows up to the bonding position of the central Au bump3and the central pad8.
However, when the underfill resin15flows up to the bonding position (namely, a position where the central opening portion12is formed in the solder resist10) of the central Au bump3and the central pad8, as shown by an arrow shown inFIG. 7B, such a phenomenon has occurred that the underfill resin15flows to the peripheral portion of the central opening portion12ahead of the internal portion of this central opening portion12, without flowing into the internal portion of the central opening portion12.
As explained above, when the underfill resin15does not flow into the internal portion of the central opening portion12, then the central Au bump3and the central pad8are not held by the underfill resin15. Thus, the stress caused by the thermal expansion difference between the semiconductor chip1and the flip-chip mounting substrate5is directly applied to the bonding position. As a result, the mounting reliability is lowered.
Also, the void (air gap)16is formed around the bonding position of the central Au bump3and the central pad8. When a heat application process operation or the like is subsequently performed, the void16is thermally expanded. Accordingly, there are such problems that the bonding of the central Au bump3and the central pad8is damaged, and cracks are made in the solder resist10, the underfill resin15and the like.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides a flip-chip mounting substrate and a flip-chip mounting method in which mounting reliability is increased by suppressing an occurrence of a void.
In some implementations, a flip-chip mounting substrate of the invention, comprising:
a substrate main body;
a solder resist on the substrate main body; and
a connecting pad to which an Au bump provided on an electronic element is flip-chip bonded, the connecting pad being provided on the substrate main body,
wherein the solder resist has an opening portion for exposing the connecting pad, and an edge portion of the opening portion of the solder resist is partially overlapped with an outer peripheral portion of the connecting pad.
Further, in some implementations, a flip-chip mounting substrate of the invention, comprising:
a substrate main body;
a solder resist on the substrate main body; and
a connecting pad to which an Au bump provided on an electronic element is flip-chip bonded, the connecting pad being provided on the substrate main body,
wherein the solder resist has an opening portion for exposing the connecting pad, and
an edge portion of the opening portion of the solder resist is substantially in contact with an outer peripheral edge of the connecting pad.
In accordance with the above-described flip-chip mounting substrate of the invention, in the opening portion of the solder resist for exposing the connecting pad, such a structure is arranged that the edge portion of the opening portion of the solder resist is partially overlapped with the outer peripheral portion of the connecting pad, or the edge portion of the opening portion of the solder resist is substantially in contact with the outer peripheral edge of the connecting pad. As a result, the depth of the opening portion becomes such a depth defined from the upper face of the solder resist up to the upper face of the connecting pad, and thus, becomes shallower than the depth defined from the upper face of the solder resist up to the surface of the substrate main body, as explained in the related flip-chip mounting substrate. As a consequence, when the underfill resin is provided, the underfill resin can easily enter into the opening portion, and it is possible to avoid that the void is generated in the underfill resin.
In the flip-chip mounting substrate, a bonding material for connecting the Au bump and the connecting pad fills up the opening portion formed in the solder resist when the Au bump and the connecting pad are connected.
In accordance with the above-described invention, since the opening portion formed in the solder resist is filled up with the bonding material when the Au bump and the connecting pad are connected, no concave portion (opening portion) is formed on the substrate main body. As a result, it is possible to avoid that the opening portion disturbs the flows of the underfill resin. Thus, the underfill resin can flow smoothly, and it is possible to prevent the void from being generated in the underfill resin.
In the flip-chip mounting substrate, the connecting pad of which outer peripheral portion is partially overlapped with the edge portion of the opening portion of the solder resist is provided at a central position of an area where the electronic element is mounted.
In the flip-chip mounting substrate, the connecting pad of which outer peripheral edge is substantially in contact with the edge portion of the opening portion of the solder resist is provided at a central position of an area where the electronic element is mounted.
In accordance with the above-described invention, even when the Au bump is provided at the central position of the electronic element, it is possible to suppress the generation of voids in the underfill resin. As a result, it is possible to arrange the Au bump at the central position of the electronic element, so that the Au bumps can be arranged on the electronic element in high density.
In some implementations, a flip-chip mounting method of the invention for flip-chip mounting an electronic element on which an Au bump is provided, the flip-chip mounting method comprising:
providing a bonding material on the connecting pad which is exposed from the opening portion formed in the solder resist of the flip-chip mounting substrate as described above;
bonding the Au bump and the connecting pad via the bonding material so as to mount the electronic element on the flip-chip mounting substrate; and
providing an underfill resin in a gap between the electronic element and the flip-chip mounting substrate.
In accordance with the present invention, the underfill resin can flow smoothly, and it is possible to prevent the void from being generated within the underfill resin.
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SUMMARY: This application claims foreign priorities based on Japanese Patent application No. 2005-369714, filed Dec. 22, 2005, and Japanese Patent application No. 2006-332444, filed Dec. 8, 2006, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flip-chip mounting substrate and a flip-chip mounting method. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a flip-chip mounting substrate and a flip-chip mounting method in which a semiconductor element is flip-chip mounted by using an Au (gold) bump.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, mounting structures have been widely utilized in which an electronic element (for example, semiconductor element) is flip-chip bonded to connecting pads formed on a flip-chip mounting substrate by using a bonding material while employing Au bumps on the electronic element as external connecting terminals (for instance, refer to JP-A-2001-332584).
FIG. 1shows one example of a semiconductor chip1which is to be flip-chip mounted.FIG. 2shows one example of a flip-chip mounting substrate5on which the semiconductor chip1is to be flip-chip mounted.FIG. 1shows a circuit formed surface1aof the semiconductor chip1, and the semiconductor chip1is flip-chip mounted in a face-down manner so that the circuit formed surface1afaces the flip-chip mounting substrate5.
Outer peripheral Au bumps2and central Au bumps3which are gold bumps are formed on the circuit formed surface1aof the semiconductor chip1. The outer peripheral Au bumps2are arranged on the circuit formed surface1ain a peripheral shape. Also, the central Au bumps3are formed at a central position of the circuit formed surface1a. In the related art, in a semiconductor element in which Au bumps are employed as external connecting terminals, a general structure is to arrange the Au bumps in a peripheral shape. However, a total number of terminals is increased as a density of recent semiconductor elements becoming higher. As a consequence, the central Au bumps3are arranged also at the central position of the circuit formed surface1a.
In connection to the above-explained structures, the flip-chip mounting substrate5on which the semiconductor chip1is flip-chip mounted also has a structure in which outer peripheral pads7corresponding to the outer peripheral Au bumps2and central pads8corresponding to the central Au bumps3are provided. Also, a solder resist10(indicated by satin finished surface) is provided on an upper surface side of the semiconductor chip1on the flip-chip mounting substrate5, and openings are formed in the solder resist10at positions in which the respective pads7and8are formed so that these pads7and8are exposed.
In the related art, as to the outer peripheral pads7to which the outer peripheral Au bumps2arranged in the peripheral shape are flip-chip mounted, a frame-shaped opening portion11having a frame shape is formed in the solder resist10. As a consequence, all of the outer peripheral pads7are positioned within this frame-shaped opening portion11. On the other hand, as to the central pads8positioned at the center, central opening portions12are formed in the solder resist10with respect to each of these central pads8.
After bonding materials (for example, solder) are provided on the respective pads7and8, the semiconductor chip1of the above-described structure is flip-chip mounted on the flip-chip mounting substrate5. Then, after the flip-chip mounting, an underfill resin is provided in a separated portion between the semiconductor chip1and the flip-chip mounting substrate5. This underfill resin is provided in order to prevent stresses caused by a thermal expansion difference between the semiconductor chip1and the flip-chip mounting substrate5from being applied between the respective Au bumps2,3and the respective pads7,8. Since this underfill resin is provided, mounting reliability between the semiconductor chip1and the flip-chip mounting substrate5can be increased.
FIG. 3is a sectional view showing a state after the semiconductor chip1is mounted on the flip-chip mounting substrate5and before the underfill resin is provided. More specifically,FIG. 3shows a portion in an enlarged manner, which is in vicinity of a portion where the outer peripheral Au bump2is flip-chip mounted to the outer peripheral pad7. As shown in this drawing, the outer peripheral Au bump2is flip-chip mounted via solder14to the outer peripheral pad7, and the outer peripheral pad7is positioned within the frame-shaped opening portion11formed in the solder resist10.
In order to provide an underfill resin15at a flip-chip mounting position between the outer peripheral Au bump2and the outer peripheral pad7, as shown by an arrow of a broken line inFIG. 3, the underfill resin15is filled from a gap between an outer peripheral edge1bof the semiconductor chip1and the flip-chip mounting substrate5into a bonding position (namely, within the frame-shaped opening portion11) of the outer peripheral Au bump2and the outer peripheral bump7.
The bonding position of the outer peripheral Au bump2and the outer peripheral pad7is located near the outer peripheral edge1bof the semiconductor chip1. As a consequence, a process of filling the underfill resin15into the bonding position (namely, within the frame-shaped opening portion11) of the outer peripheral Au bump2and the outer peripheral pad7could be smoothly and easily carried out. Also, the underfill resin15entered into the frame-shaped opening portion11moves along the frame-shaped opening portion11, so that the bonding position of the outer peripheral Au bump2and the outer peripheral pad7, which is within the frame-shaped opening portion11, could be firmly sealed by the underfill resin15.
However, currently the following problems occur. That is, since the central Au bumps3are provided at the central position of the circuit formed surface1aof the semiconductor chip1, and the central Au bumps3are bonded to the central pads8, voids16(refer toFIG. 7) are frequently generated at the position where the underfill resin15is provided. Referring: now toFIGS. 4A to 7B, a description is made of a reason why the voids16are generated near the flip-chip bonding positions of the central Au bumps3and the central pads8in the related art.
FIGS. 4A and 4Bshow the flip-chip mounting substrate5before the semiconductor chip1is mounted, and more specifically, shows a portion in vicinity of the central pads8in an enlarged manner.FIG. 4Ais a sectional view taken along an arrow line A-A ofFIG. 4B.
As explained above, central opening portions12are provided for each of the central pads8. Also, the central pad8is of a shape having a wide width portion8aand a narrow width portion8b. In the related art, the central opening portion12is formed larger with respect to the central pad8, and a separated portion6a(namely, a portion indicated by an arrow W2inFIG. 4A) is formed between the central pad8and the edge portion of the central opening portion12. In this separated portion6a, a surface of a substrate main body6(flip-chip mounting substrate5) is exposed. As a consequence, a depth of the central opening portion12becomes a distance measured from an upper face of a solder resist10to an upper face of the substrate main body6(namely, a thickness of the solder resist10, which is represented by an arrow H2inFIG. 4A).
FIGS. 5A and 5Bshow a state in which a solder14as a bonding material is provided on the upper face of the central pad8. This solder14is provided only on the upper portion of the central pad8, so that the separated portion6ais still present within the central opening portion12.
Also,FIGS. 6A and 6Bshow a state in which the central Au bump3is flip-chip bonded via the solder14to the central pad8, and the semiconductor chip1is flip-chip mounted on the flip-chip mounting substrate5. Even in this flip-chip mounting state, the separated portion6ais present within the central opening portion12.
Also,FIGS. 7A and 7Bshow a state in which the underfill resin15is provided between the flip-chip mounted semiconductor chip1and the flip-chip mounting substrate5.
As previously explained with reference toFIG. 3, the process of sealing the bonding position of the outer peripheral Au bump2and the outer peripheral pad7by the underfill resin15could be easily and firmly carried out. This is because since the outer peripheral Au bumps2are arranged at the outer peripheral position of the semiconductor chip1, the underfill resin15could be filled into the separated portion between the semiconductor chip1and the flip-chip mounting substrate5from the outer peripheral edge1b.
In contract thereto, the bonding position of the central Au bump3formed at the central position of the semiconductor chip1and the central pad8is sealed by such a way that the underfill resin15filled from the outer peripheral edge1bof the semiconductor chip1flows up to the bonding position of the central Au bump3and the central pad8.
However, when the underfill resin15flows up to the bonding position (namely, a position where the central opening portion12is formed in the solder resist10) of the central Au bump3and the central pad8, as shown by an arrow shown inFIG. 7B, such a phenomenon has occurred that the underfill resin15flows to the peripheral portion of the central opening portion12ahead of the internal portion of this central opening portion12, without flowing into the internal portion of the central opening portion12.
As explained above, when the underfill resin15does not flow into the internal portion of the central opening portion12, then the central Au bump3and the central pad8are not held by the underfill resin15. Thus, the stress caused by the thermal expansion difference between the semiconductor chip1and the flip-chip mounting substrate5is directly applied to the bonding position. As a result, the mounting reliability is lowered.
Also, the void (air gap)16is formed around the bonding position of the central Au bump3and the central pad8. When a heat application process operation or the like is subsequently performed, the void16is thermally expanded. Accordingly, there are such problems that the bonding of the central Au bump3and the central pad8is damaged, and cracks are made in the solder resist10, the underfill resin15and the like.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides a flip-chip mounting substrate and a flip-chip mounting method in which mounting reliability is increased by suppressing an occurrence of a void.
In some implementations, a flip-chip mounting substrate of the invention, comprising:
a substrate main body;
a solder resist on the substrate main body; and
a connecting pad to which an Au bump provided on an electronic element is flip-chip bonded, the connecting pad being provided on the substrate main body,
wherein the solder resist has an opening portion for exposing the connecting pad, and an edge portion of the opening portion of the solder resist is partially overlapped with an outer peripheral portion of the connecting pad.
Further, in some implementations, a flip-chip mounting substrate of the invention, comprising:
a substrate main body;
a solder resist on the substrate main body; and
a connecting pad to which an Au bump provided on an electronic element is flip-chip bonded, the connecting pad being provided on the substrate main body,
wherein the solder resist has an opening portion for exposing the connecting pad, and
an edge portion of the opening portion of the solder resist is substantially in contact with an outer peripheral edge of the connecting pad.
In accordance with the above-described flip-chip mounting substrate of the invention, in the opening portion of the solder resist for exposing the connecting pad, such a structure is arranged that the edge portion of the opening portion of the solder resist is partially overlapped with the outer peripheral portion of the connecting pad, or the edge portion of the opening portion of the solder resist is substantially in contact with the outer peripheral edge of the connecting pad. As a result, the depth of the opening portion becomes such a depth defined from the upper face of the solder resist up to the upper face of the connecting pad, and thus, becomes shallower than the depth defined from the upper face of the solder resist up to the surface of the substrate main body, as explained in the related flip-chip mounting substrate. As a consequence, when the underfill resin is provided, the underfill resin can easily enter into the opening portion, and it is possible to avoid that the void is generated in the underfill resin.
In the flip-chip mounting substrate, a bonding material for connecting the Au bump and the connecting pad fills up the opening portion formed in the solder resist when the Au bump and the connecting pad are connected.
In accordance with the above-described invention, since the opening portion formed in the solder resist is filled up with the bonding material when the Au bump and the connecting pad are connected, no concave portion (opening portion) is formed on the substrate main body. As a result, it is possible to avoid that the opening portion disturbs the flows of the underfill resin. Thus, the underfill resin can flow smoothly, and it is possible to prevent the void from being generated in the underfill resin.
In the flip-chip mounting substrate, the connecting pad of which outer peripheral portion is partially overlapped with the edge portion of the opening portion of the solder resist is provided at a central position of an area where the electronic element is mounted.
In the flip-chip mounting substrate, the connecting pad of which outer peripheral edge is substantially in contact with the edge portion of the opening portion of the solder resist is provided at a central position of an area where the electronic element is mounted.
In accordance with the above-described invention, even when the Au bump is provided at the central position of the electronic element, it is possible to suppress the generation of voids in the underfill resin. As a result, it is possible to arrange the Au bump at the central position of the electronic element, so that the Au bumps can be arranged on the electronic element in high density.
In some implementations, a flip-chip mounting method of the invention for flip-chip mounting an electronic element on which an Au bump is provided, the flip-chip mounting method comprising:
providing a bonding material on the connecting pad which is exposed from the opening portion formed in the solder resist of the flip-chip mounting substrate as described above;
bonding the Au bump and the connecting pad via the bonding material so as to mount the electronic element on the flip-chip mounting substrate; and
providing an underfill resin in a gap between the electronic element and the flip-chip mounting substrate.
In accordance with the present invention, the underfill resin can flow smoothly, and it is possible to prevent the void from being generated within the underfill resin.
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7746922 | TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates generally to electronic circuits and in particular to circuits used for data communications.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Conventional short range data radios typically divide the radio spectrum within which they operate into non-overlapping frequency channels. For example, radios with a 1 Megahertz (MHz) occupied bandwidth operating in the 2.4 Gigahertz (GHz) Industrial Scientific Medical (ISM) band typically divide that spectrum into approximately 80 1-MHz wide channels. These radio systems transmit and receive data using frequency modulated Radio Frequency (RF) signals centered on one of these 1-MHz channels. In some cases, the transmitter may hop between channels during normal data transmission. In other cases, having found a good channel, the transmitter may continue to use that one channel unless or until data transfer on that channel becomes unreliable.
Typically, these radio systems generate the RF carrier frequency by multiplying the frequency of a low frequency crystal oscillator up to the RF frequency used for transmission. Many 2.4 GHz radio systems use 13 MHz crystals for this purpose, but crystal frequencies in the 12-32 MHz range are also common.
Radio receivers, especially Frequency Modulation (FM) receivers using a low Intermediate Frequency (IF), typically implement a Band Pass Filter (BPF), through which the mixed-down signal is passed before demodulation. This is necessary in order to prevent RF signals on adjacent channels from being demodulated or interfering with the reception of signals on the channel the receiver is currently configured to receive.
The crystal oscillators of both the transmitter and receiver should be oscillating at almost exactly the same frequency. If not, part of the transmitted signal may be attenuated by the receiver's BPF. Frequency response12inFIG. 1Ashows the frequency spectrum of a transmit signal18and the frequency operation of a receiver's Band Pass Filter (BPF)16. When the transmitter and receiver have crystal oscillators with the same frequency, the transmit signal18should be substantially centered within the BPF16. In this common reference frequency condition, the transmitted signal18will have minimum attenuation.
Frequency response14inFIG. 1Bshows the frequency spectrum when the transmitter and receiver have crystal oscillators with different (offset) reference frequencies. In this offset frequency situation, the transmit signal18is no longer centered within the BPF16. Any portion of the transmit signal18extending outside of BPF16is attenuated, such as the shaded portion20. The attenuation20lowers the signal strength of signal18and can prevent the receiver from successfully or reliably receiving data carried in the transmit signal18.
In one example, a radio system may operate at 2.4 GHz, with a 1 MHz channel spacing and a 900 kHz occupied bandwidth. At 2450 MHz, a 50 parts per million (ppm) offset is equal to 122.5 kHz. As the occupied bandwidth is 100 kHz less than the channel spacing, there is 50 kHz on either side of a perfectly centered transmitter spectrum that is not part of the adjacent channel. In the 50 ppm offset example, 7.2% of the transmitted signal extends into the adjacent channel. Typically, the receiver BPF is a little wider than the channel, and the roll-off of the filter is not a “brick wall”, so a small offset can be tolerated with minimal impact on receive sensitivity. In a typical 2.4 GHz radio system, a 50 ppm offset is approximately the maximum that can be tolerated without significantly impacting performance.
Conventional wireless solutions use quartz crystals to derive a radio carrier reference frequency. These conventional solutions have disadvantages, including requiring expensive, high accuracy crystals. Even using such crystals, significant offsets may exist between the transmit and receive frequencies resulting in reduced receive sensitivity. Moderately affordable crystals may require time-of-manufacture crystal trimming, thereby increasing manufacturing cost and complexity.
The receiver and transmitter are each subject to separate oscillator frequency inaccuracies. Therefore, the receiver and transmitter require a crystal with an accuracy of better than ±25 ppm to prevent the oscillator accuracy from impacting system performance with a combined worst case error of greater than 50 ppm.
Crystal oscillator accuracy is typically specified as three components: initial tolerance, temperature variation, and long-term drift. In order to put products in the best possible light, crystal oscillator vendors typically quote only the initial tolerance. Frequency variation with temperature is usually similar to the initial tolerance, and aging is usually in the range of one to five ppm per year.
Crystals generally drift in the same direction. Two instances of the same crystal would not usually drift in opposite directions, but they may well drift at different rates in the same direction. One factor affecting drift is the drive strength of the oscillator circuit driving the crystal. Another factor may be the proportion of time that the crystal oscillator is active. Over 5 years, a crystal with a 3 ppm/year drift spec may drift only 5 ppm (or less) or not at all, while another may drift 15 ppm. This crystal drift depends on drive strength, the amount of time that the oscillator is running, and the physical properties of the individual crystal.
The frequency variation with temperature is not linear, but rather typically a quadratic or cubic curve. Therefore, variations in temperature across only part of the rated range may cause frequency to vary over most of the stated tolerance.
Therefore, a 25 ppm crystal, which initially may appear to be suitable for uses in the wireless applications discussed above, may not in fact be suitable. Such a crystal would typically have 25 ppm initial tolerance, 25 ppm variation over temperature, and 3 ppm/year drift. One such crystal, starting at −25 ppm, and operated at a temperature which caused the frequency to oscillate at close to its minimum frequency, may be oscillating at −50 ppm from its nominal after 5 years. Another crystal, starting at +25 ppm, at a different temperature may oscillate at +65 ppm from its nominal after 5 years, resulting in a difference of 115 ppm. This drift could severely impact the receive sensitivity of almost any 2.4 GHz radio system. Therefore, to meet the ±25 ppm specification discussed above, a more expensive 10 ppm crystal is required.
Above 30 ppm, the cost savings from specifying a looser tolerance is low. For example, one vendor may offer a 13 MHz 30 ppm crystal in volume at a given price, and the 50 ppm version of the same crystal may only be a few cents cheaper. However, crystals with tolerances below 30 ppm quickly become more expensive, and a 10 ppm crystal may typically cost 3× to 5× more than the 30 ppm crystal. Frequency accuracy requirements of a design may therefore place a significant cost burden on low cost wireless systems.
For this reason, many low cost radio Integrated Circuits (ICs) include a feature allowing trimming of the initial crystal frequency. Typically, this is implemented by using a digitally trimmable capacitance. At manufacturing test of a wireless product, the oscillator frequency is measured, and an appropriate trim factor is stored in non-volatile memory within the device. This trim factor is loaded into a radio Integrated Circuit (IC) after each reset and allows the digitally controlled capacitance of the crystal oscillator to tune the crystal frequency to a nominal value. This removes the initial tolerance component of the oscillator, reducing the variation to just the temperature and drift components. This technique allows the use of 15 ppm crystals with many 2.4 GHz radio ICs, without impacting radio performance. However, this comes at the cost and trouble of implementing crystal tuning during manufacture.
It would be desirable to use much less accurate crystals in low cost radio transmitters and receivers without the need of a factory calibration or memory to store said calibration. It would also be desirable to compensate for reference frequency offsets between transmitters and receivers due to variables such as temperature and power supply voltage.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Wireless devices transmit and receive radio signals based upon reference frequencies that are generated by crystal oscillators. If the reference frequencies of the transmitter and the receiver are different, the radio signals may not be received properly or may not be received at all. To align the frequencies of the transmitter and the receiver, a frequency offset circuit offsets the operating frequency of one of the devices according to the reception quality of the signals. A programmable constant added to the instantaneous frequency of the RF signal inputted to an accumulator creates a frequency offset and varies the operating frequency of the transmitter or the receiver. To align the frequencies of the radios, a first coarse acquisition is made at several different frequency offsets until communications is established between the transmitter and receiver. Feedback from the receiver indicates the frequency error. In one embodiment, a first offset transmit frequency may be generated by adjusting the operating frequency back and forth from one direction to an opposite direction until the bit error rate (BER) is low. A second offset transmit frequency may then be generated by adjusting the first offset transmit frequency back and forth from one direction to an opposite direction until the BER is high. A frequency value between the first and second offset transmit frequencies may then be used as the optimum offset transmit frequency. Thus, the operating frequencies of the transmitter and the receiver are aligned.
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SUMMARY: TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates generally to electronic circuits and in particular to circuits used for data communications.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Conventional short range data radios typically divide the radio spectrum within which they operate into non-overlapping frequency channels. For example, radios with a 1 Megahertz (MHz) occupied bandwidth operating in the 2.4 Gigahertz (GHz) Industrial Scientific Medical (ISM) band typically divide that spectrum into approximately 80 1-MHz wide channels. These radio systems transmit and receive data using frequency modulated Radio Frequency (RF) signals centered on one of these 1-MHz channels. In some cases, the transmitter may hop between channels during normal data transmission. In other cases, having found a good channel, the transmitter may continue to use that one channel unless or until data transfer on that channel becomes unreliable.
Typically, these radio systems generate the RF carrier frequency by multiplying the frequency of a low frequency crystal oscillator up to the RF frequency used for transmission. Many 2.4 GHz radio systems use 13 MHz crystals for this purpose, but crystal frequencies in the 12-32 MHz range are also common.
Radio receivers, especially Frequency Modulation (FM) receivers using a low Intermediate Frequency (IF), typically implement a Band Pass Filter (BPF), through which the mixed-down signal is passed before demodulation. This is necessary in order to prevent RF signals on adjacent channels from being demodulated or interfering with the reception of signals on the channel the receiver is currently configured to receive.
The crystal oscillators of both the transmitter and receiver should be oscillating at almost exactly the same frequency. If not, part of the transmitted signal may be attenuated by the receiver's BPF. Frequency response12inFIG. 1Ashows the frequency spectrum of a transmit signal18and the frequency operation of a receiver's Band Pass Filter (BPF)16. When the transmitter and receiver have crystal oscillators with the same frequency, the transmit signal18should be substantially centered within the BPF16. In this common reference frequency condition, the transmitted signal18will have minimum attenuation.
Frequency response14inFIG. 1Bshows the frequency spectrum when the transmitter and receiver have crystal oscillators with different (offset) reference frequencies. In this offset frequency situation, the transmit signal18is no longer centered within the BPF16. Any portion of the transmit signal18extending outside of BPF16is attenuated, such as the shaded portion20. The attenuation20lowers the signal strength of signal18and can prevent the receiver from successfully or reliably receiving data carried in the transmit signal18.
In one example, a radio system may operate at 2.4 GHz, with a 1 MHz channel spacing and a 900 kHz occupied bandwidth. At 2450 MHz, a 50 parts per million (ppm) offset is equal to 122.5 kHz. As the occupied bandwidth is 100 kHz less than the channel spacing, there is 50 kHz on either side of a perfectly centered transmitter spectrum that is not part of the adjacent channel. In the 50 ppm offset example, 7.2% of the transmitted signal extends into the adjacent channel. Typically, the receiver BPF is a little wider than the channel, and the roll-off of the filter is not a “brick wall”, so a small offset can be tolerated with minimal impact on receive sensitivity. In a typical 2.4 GHz radio system, a 50 ppm offset is approximately the maximum that can be tolerated without significantly impacting performance.
Conventional wireless solutions use quartz crystals to derive a radio carrier reference frequency. These conventional solutions have disadvantages, including requiring expensive, high accuracy crystals. Even using such crystals, significant offsets may exist between the transmit and receive frequencies resulting in reduced receive sensitivity. Moderately affordable crystals may require time-of-manufacture crystal trimming, thereby increasing manufacturing cost and complexity.
The receiver and transmitter are each subject to separate oscillator frequency inaccuracies. Therefore, the receiver and transmitter require a crystal with an accuracy of better than ±25 ppm to prevent the oscillator accuracy from impacting system performance with a combined worst case error of greater than 50 ppm.
Crystal oscillator accuracy is typically specified as three components: initial tolerance, temperature variation, and long-term drift. In order to put products in the best possible light, crystal oscillator vendors typically quote only the initial tolerance. Frequency variation with temperature is usually similar to the initial tolerance, and aging is usually in the range of one to five ppm per year.
Crystals generally drift in the same direction. Two instances of the same crystal would not usually drift in opposite directions, but they may well drift at different rates in the same direction. One factor affecting drift is the drive strength of the oscillator circuit driving the crystal. Another factor may be the proportion of time that the crystal oscillator is active. Over 5 years, a crystal with a 3 ppm/year drift spec may drift only 5 ppm (or less) or not at all, while another may drift 15 ppm. This crystal drift depends on drive strength, the amount of time that the oscillator is running, and the physical properties of the individual crystal.
The frequency variation with temperature is not linear, but rather typically a quadratic or cubic curve. Therefore, variations in temperature across only part of the rated range may cause frequency to vary over most of the stated tolerance.
Therefore, a 25 ppm crystal, which initially may appear to be suitable for uses in the wireless applications discussed above, may not in fact be suitable. Such a crystal would typically have 25 ppm initial tolerance, 25 ppm variation over temperature, and 3 ppm/year drift. One such crystal, starting at −25 ppm, and operated at a temperature which caused the frequency to oscillate at close to its minimum frequency, may be oscillating at −50 ppm from its nominal after 5 years. Another crystal, starting at +25 ppm, at a different temperature may oscillate at +65 ppm from its nominal after 5 years, resulting in a difference of 115 ppm. This drift could severely impact the receive sensitivity of almost any 2.4 GHz radio system. Therefore, to meet the ±25 ppm specification discussed above, a more expensive 10 ppm crystal is required.
Above 30 ppm, the cost savings from specifying a looser tolerance is low. For example, one vendor may offer a 13 MHz 30 ppm crystal in volume at a given price, and the 50 ppm version of the same crystal may only be a few cents cheaper. However, crystals with tolerances below 30 ppm quickly become more expensive, and a 10 ppm crystal may typically cost 3× to 5× more than the 30 ppm crystal. Frequency accuracy requirements of a design may therefore place a significant cost burden on low cost wireless systems.
For this reason, many low cost radio Integrated Circuits (ICs) include a feature allowing trimming of the initial crystal frequency. Typically, this is implemented by using a digitally trimmable capacitance. At manufacturing test of a wireless product, the oscillator frequency is measured, and an appropriate trim factor is stored in non-volatile memory within the device. This trim factor is loaded into a radio Integrated Circuit (IC) after each reset and allows the digitally controlled capacitance of the crystal oscillator to tune the crystal frequency to a nominal value. This removes the initial tolerance component of the oscillator, reducing the variation to just the temperature and drift components. This technique allows the use of 15 ppm crystals with many 2.4 GHz radio ICs, without impacting radio performance. However, this comes at the cost and trouble of implementing crystal tuning during manufacture.
It would be desirable to use much less accurate crystals in low cost radio transmitters and receivers without the need of a factory calibration or memory to store said calibration. It would also be desirable to compensate for reference frequency offsets between transmitters and receivers due to variables such as temperature and power supply voltage.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Wireless devices transmit and receive radio signals based upon reference frequencies that are generated by crystal oscillators. If the reference frequencies of the transmitter and the receiver are different, the radio signals may not be received properly or may not be received at all. To align the frequencies of the transmitter and the receiver, a frequency offset circuit offsets the operating frequency of one of the devices according to the reception quality of the signals. A programmable constant added to the instantaneous frequency of the RF signal inputted to an accumulator creates a frequency offset and varies the operating frequency of the transmitter or the receiver. To align the frequencies of the radios, a first coarse acquisition is made at several different frequency offsets until communications is established between the transmitter and receiver. Feedback from the receiver indicates the frequency error. In one embodiment, a first offset transmit frequency may be generated by adjusting the operating frequency back and forth from one direction to an opposite direction until the bit error rate (BER) is low. A second offset transmit frequency may then be generated by adjusting the first offset transmit frequency back and forth from one direction to an opposite direction until the BER is high. A frequency value between the first and second offset transmit frequencies may then be used as the optimum offset transmit frequency. Thus, the operating frequencies of the transmitter and the receiver are aligned.
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7785100 | FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to an improved burner assembly, and more particularly, to an improved burner assembly for heating and drying aggregate materials used in connection with the production of hot mix asphalt.
BACKGROUND AND DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
It is known to use a burner assembly to heat and dry aggregate materials used in connection with the production of hot mix asphalt. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,700,143, No. 5,511,970, No. 4,559,009 and No. 4,298,337. However, conventional burner assemblies suffer from several disadvantages. For example, conventional burner assemblies are incapable of producing a flame configuration satisfactory for asphalt production in a variety of different-sized combustion chambers. As a result, conventional burner assemblies typically include adjustable spin vanes or spin racks to accommodate different-sized combustion chambers. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,488,496 of Feese et al. describes a compact combination burner with an adjustable spin rack. Adjustable spin vanes, however, increase the cost of manufacture and maintenance and the amount of labor required to operate the burner. In addition, conventional burner assemblies do not adequately mix combustion air with fuel such as natural gas and/or vaporized liquid propane. As a result, conventional burner assemblies produce unwanted levels of harmful CO, NOx, CO2and VOC emissions.
It would be desirable, therefore, if an apparatus could be provided that would selectively fire on gaseous fuel, liquid fuel, or both gaseous and liquid fuel. It would also be desirable if such an apparatus could be provided that would fire on gaseous and/or liquid fuels without physically altering the components of the apparatus, changing the firing rate of the apparatus, or shutting down the apparatus. It would be further desirable if such an apparatus could be provided that would fire on oil or liquid propane without changing the atomizing nozzle. It would be still further desirable if such an apparatus could be provided that would supply natural gas or propane around the atomizing nozzle for use as pilot fuel. In addition, it would be desirable if such an apparatus could be provided that would produce a stable flame configuration having a short flame length and a narrow flame diameter adapted for use on a wide variety of different-sized combustion chambers. It would also be desirable if such an apparatus could be provided that would more completely and uniformly mix fuel and air in order to obtain more rapid combustion and improve combustion intensity, thereby reducing the combustion space required in the asphalt drum. It would be further desirable if such an apparatus could be provided that would more adequately mix combustion air with fuel such as natural gas and/or vaporized liquid propane such that levels of harmful CO, NOx, CO2and VOC emissions are minimized. In addition, it would be desirable if such an apparatus could be provided that would be capable of firing on low excess air pre-mix gas. It would also be desirable if such an apparatus could be provided that would produce a stabilizing gas base flame. It would be further desirable if such an apparatus could be provided that would reduce the temperature of the dryer drum breech plate where the burner is mounted. It would be still further desirable if such an apparatus could be provided that would eliminate the need to adjust spin vanes to achieve a desired flame configuration. It would also be desirable if such an apparatus could be provided that would be less complicated and expensive to manufacture, operate and maintain than conventional burners.
ADVANTAGES OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an advantage of the preferred embodiments of the invention described and claimed herein to provide an apparatus capable of selectively firing on gaseous fuel, liquid fuel, or both gaseous and liquid fuel. It is also an advantage of the preferred embodiments of the invention to provide an apparatus capable of firing on gaseous and/or liquid fuels without physically altering the components of the apparatus, changing the firing rate of the apparatus, or shutting down the apparatus. It is a further advantage of the preferred embodiments of the invention to provide an apparatus adapted to fire on oil or liquid propane without changing the atomizing nozzle. It is another advantage of the preferred embodiments of the invention to provide an apparatus that is capable of supplying natural gas or propane to the atomizing nozzle for use as pilot fuel. It is also an advantage of the preferred embodiments of the invention to provide an apparatus for producing a stable main flame configuration that has a short flame length and a narrow flame diameter. It is also an advantage of the preferred embodiments of the invention to provide an apparatus for producing a main flame configuration that is adapted for use on a wide variety of different-sized combustion chambers having different-sized combustion spaces. It is another advantage of the preferred embodiments of the invention to provide an apparatus that more rapidly, completely, and uniformly mixes fuel and air, thereby providing a more rapid combustion, improving combustion intensity and reducing the combustion space required in the asphalt drum. It is yet another advantage of the preferred embodiments of the invention to more adequately mix combustion air with fuel such as natural gas and/or vaporized liquid propane such that levels of harmful CO, NOx, CO2and VOC emissions are minimized. It is a further advantage of the preferred embodiments of the invention to provide an apparatus capable of firing on low excess air pre-mix gas. It is a still further advantage of the preferred embodiments of the invention to provide an apparatus for producing a stabilizing gas base flame. It is still another advantage of the preferred embodiments of the invention to provide an apparatus that reduces the temperature of the dryer drum breech plate. It is a further advantage of the preferred embodiments of the invention to provide an apparatus that eliminates the need for adjustable spin vanes in order to achieve a desired flame configuration. It is another advantage of the preferred embodiments of the invention to provide an apparatus having improved aerodynamics which reduce energy consumption and body pressure and produce a more free flowing burner assembly. It is still another advantage of the preferred embodiments of the invention to provide an apparatus which produces reduced noise levels during operation. It is yet another advantage of the preferred embodiments of the invention to provide an apparatus that is less complicated and expensive to manufacture, operate and maintain than conventional burner assemblies.
Additional advantages of the invention will become apparent from an examination of the drawings and the ensuing description.
EXPLANATION OF TECHNICAL TERMS
As used herein, the term “mounted about the periphery of the housing” means that the plurality of gas injection tubes are mounted within the interior of the housing of the burner assembly such that the tubes do not extend to the center of housing. More particularly, the term “mounted about the periphery of the housing” means that the plurality of gas injection tubes are mounted within the interior of the housing of the burner assembly such that the tubes leave an open area in the center of the housing through which the primary air tube, the pilot assembly and the like may pass unimpeded.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention claimed herein comprises a burner assembly including a housing having an air inlet and a burner end, a motor, and an impeller mounted in the housing. The impeller is in fluid communication with the air inlet, in mechanical communication with the motor, and adapted to direct air from the air inlet towards the burner end of the housing. The burner assembly also includes a plurality of gas injection tubes that are disposed substantially parallel to each other. Each of the plurality of gas injection tubes includes a tube inlet end, a tube outlet end and at least one aperture. In addition, the burner assembly includes a first tube sheet disposed near the tube inlet ends of the plurality of gas injection tubes and a second tube sheet disposed near the tube outlet end of the plurality of gas injection tubes. The burner assembly further includes a spin vane comprising at least one spin vane blade. The spin vane is mounted in the burner end of the housing and adapted to direct the flow of air in the burner end. The burner assembly still further includes an igniter mounted in the burner end of the housing. The igniter is adapted to ignite the air and fuel mixture in the burner end of the housing to produce a main flame.
In a preferred embodiment, the plurality of gas injection tubes are mounted about the periphery of the housing, and the first tube sheet and the second tube sheet produce a substantially sealed gas injection chamber. In the preferred embodiment, a gas manifold is adapted to convey gaseous fuel to the substantially sealed gas injection chamber, the gaseous fuel enters the plurality of gas injection tubes through the apertures in the gas injection tubes, and the gaseous fuel mixes with combustion air in the plurality of gas injection tubes. Also in the preferred embodiment, a liquid fuel system is provided in the burner assembly. In the preferred embodiment, an primary air tube is mounted within the housing. The primary air tube has a primary air tube inlet end located downstream of the impeller and a primary air tube outlet end located adjacent to the burner end. Also in this preferred embodiment, an atomizing nozzle is mounted on the outlet end of the primary air tube, a liquid fuel supply tube is mounted within the primary air tube so as to convey liquid fuel to the atomizing nozzle, a compressed atomizing air supply tube is mounted within the primary air tube so as to convey compressed air to the atomizing nozzle, and a swirl plate is mounted around the periphery of the primary air tube outlet end.
In order to facilitate an understanding of the invention, the preferred embodiments of the invention are illustrated in the drawings, and a detailed description thereof follows. It is not intended, however, that the invention be limited to the particular embodiments described or to use in connection with the apparatus illustrated herein. Various modifications and alternative embodiments such as would ordinarily occur to one skilled in the art to which the invention relates are also contemplated and included within the scope of the invention described herein.
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to an improved burner assembly, and more particularly, to an improved burner assembly for heating and drying aggregate materials used in connection with the production of hot mix asphalt.
BACKGROUND AND DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
It is known to use a burner assembly to heat and dry aggregate materials used in connection with the production of hot mix asphalt. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,700,143, No. 5,511,970, No. 4,559,009 and No. 4,298,337. However, conventional burner assemblies suffer from several disadvantages. For example, conventional burner assemblies are incapable of producing a flame configuration satisfactory for asphalt production in a variety of different-sized combustion chambers. As a result, conventional burner assemblies typically include adjustable spin vanes or spin racks to accommodate different-sized combustion chambers. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,488,496 of Feese et al. describes a compact combination burner with an adjustable spin rack. Adjustable spin vanes, however, increase the cost of manufacture and maintenance and the amount of labor required to operate the burner. In addition, conventional burner assemblies do not adequately mix combustion air with fuel such as natural gas and/or vaporized liquid propane. As a result, conventional burner assemblies produce unwanted levels of harmful CO, NOx, CO2and VOC emissions.
It would be desirable, therefore, if an apparatus could be provided that would selectively fire on gaseous fuel, liquid fuel, or both gaseous and liquid fuel. It would also be desirable if such an apparatus could be provided that would fire on gaseous and/or liquid fuels without physically altering the components of the apparatus, changing the firing rate of the apparatus, or shutting down the apparatus. It would be further desirable if such an apparatus could be provided that would fire on oil or liquid propane without changing the atomizing nozzle. It would be still further desirable if such an apparatus could be provided that would supply natural gas or propane around the atomizing nozzle for use as pilot fuel. In addition, it would be desirable if such an apparatus could be provided that would produce a stable flame configuration having a short flame length and a narrow flame diameter adapted for use on a wide variety of different-sized combustion chambers. It would also be desirable if such an apparatus could be provided that would more completely and uniformly mix fuel and air in order to obtain more rapid combustion and improve combustion intensity, thereby reducing the combustion space required in the asphalt drum. It would be further desirable if such an apparatus could be provided that would more adequately mix combustion air with fuel such as natural gas and/or vaporized liquid propane such that levels of harmful CO, NOx, CO2and VOC emissions are minimized. In addition, it would be desirable if such an apparatus could be provided that would be capable of firing on low excess air pre-mix gas. It would also be desirable if such an apparatus could be provided that would produce a stabilizing gas base flame. It would be further desirable if such an apparatus could be provided that would reduce the temperature of the dryer drum breech plate where the burner is mounted. It would be still further desirable if such an apparatus could be provided that would eliminate the need to adjust spin vanes to achieve a desired flame configuration. It would also be desirable if such an apparatus could be provided that would be less complicated and expensive to manufacture, operate and maintain than conventional burners.
ADVANTAGES OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an advantage of the preferred embodiments of the invention described and claimed herein to provide an apparatus capable of selectively firing on gaseous fuel, liquid fuel, or both gaseous and liquid fuel. It is also an advantage of the preferred embodiments of the invention to provide an apparatus capable of firing on gaseous and/or liquid fuels without physically altering the components of the apparatus, changing the firing rate of the apparatus, or shutting down the apparatus. It is a further advantage of the preferred embodiments of the invention to provide an apparatus adapted to fire on oil or liquid propane without changing the atomizing nozzle. It is another advantage of the preferred embodiments of the invention to provide an apparatus that is capable of supplying natural gas or propane to the atomizing nozzle for use as pilot fuel. It is also an advantage of the preferred embodiments of the invention to provide an apparatus for producing a stable main flame configuration that has a short flame length and a narrow flame diameter. It is also an advantage of the preferred embodiments of the invention to provide an apparatus for producing a main flame configuration that is adapted for use on a wide variety of different-sized combustion chambers having different-sized combustion spaces. It is another advantage of the preferred embodiments of the invention to provide an apparatus that more rapidly, completely, and uniformly mixes fuel and air, thereby providing a more rapid combustion, improving combustion intensity and reducing the combustion space required in the asphalt drum. It is yet another advantage of the preferred embodiments of the invention to more adequately mix combustion air with fuel such as natural gas and/or vaporized liquid propane such that levels of harmful CO, NOx, CO2and VOC emissions are minimized. It is a further advantage of the preferred embodiments of the invention to provide an apparatus capable of firing on low excess air pre-mix gas. It is a still further advantage of the preferred embodiments of the invention to provide an apparatus for producing a stabilizing gas base flame. It is still another advantage of the preferred embodiments of the invention to provide an apparatus that reduces the temperature of the dryer drum breech plate. It is a further advantage of the preferred embodiments of the invention to provide an apparatus that eliminates the need for adjustable spin vanes in order to achieve a desired flame configuration. It is another advantage of the preferred embodiments of the invention to provide an apparatus having improved aerodynamics which reduce energy consumption and body pressure and produce a more free flowing burner assembly. It is still another advantage of the preferred embodiments of the invention to provide an apparatus which produces reduced noise levels during operation. It is yet another advantage of the preferred embodiments of the invention to provide an apparatus that is less complicated and expensive to manufacture, operate and maintain than conventional burner assemblies.
Additional advantages of the invention will become apparent from an examination of the drawings and the ensuing description.
EXPLANATION OF TECHNICAL TERMS
As used herein, the term “mounted about the periphery of the housing” means that the plurality of gas injection tubes are mounted within the interior of the housing of the burner assembly such that the tubes do not extend to the center of housing. More particularly, the term “mounted about the periphery of the housing” means that the plurality of gas injection tubes are mounted within the interior of the housing of the burner assembly such that the tubes leave an open area in the center of the housing through which the primary air tube, the pilot assembly and the like may pass unimpeded.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention claimed herein comprises a burner assembly including a housing having an air inlet and a burner end, a motor, and an impeller mounted in the housing. The impeller is in fluid communication with the air inlet, in mechanical communication with the motor, and adapted to direct air from the air inlet towards the burner end of the housing. The burner assembly also includes a plurality of gas injection tubes that are disposed substantially parallel to each other. Each of the plurality of gas injection tubes includes a tube inlet end, a tube outlet end and at least one aperture. In addition, the burner assembly includes a first tube sheet disposed near the tube inlet ends of the plurality of gas injection tubes and a second tube sheet disposed near the tube outlet end of the plurality of gas injection tubes. The burner assembly further includes a spin vane comprising at least one spin vane blade. The spin vane is mounted in the burner end of the housing and adapted to direct the flow of air in the burner end. The burner assembly still further includes an igniter mounted in the burner end of the housing. The igniter is adapted to ignite the air and fuel mixture in the burner end of the housing to produce a main flame.
In a preferred embodiment, the plurality of gas injection tubes are mounted about the periphery of the housing, and the first tube sheet and the second tube sheet produce a substantially sealed gas injection chamber. In the preferred embodiment, a gas manifold is adapted to convey gaseous fuel to the substantially sealed gas injection chamber, the gaseous fuel enters the plurality of gas injection tubes through the apertures in the gas injection tubes, and the gaseous fuel mixes with combustion air in the plurality of gas injection tubes. Also in the preferred embodiment, a liquid fuel system is provided in the burner assembly. In the preferred embodiment, an primary air tube is mounted within the housing. The primary air tube has a primary air tube inlet end located downstream of the impeller and a primary air tube outlet end located adjacent to the burner end. Also in this preferred embodiment, an atomizing nozzle is mounted on the outlet end of the primary air tube, a liquid fuel supply tube is mounted within the primary air tube so as to convey liquid fuel to the atomizing nozzle, a compressed atomizing air supply tube is mounted within the primary air tube so as to convey compressed air to the atomizing nozzle, and a swirl plate is mounted around the periphery of the primary air tube outlet end.
In order to facilitate an understanding of the invention, the preferred embodiments of the invention are illustrated in the drawings, and a detailed description thereof follows. It is not intended, however, that the invention be limited to the particular embodiments described or to use in connection with the apparatus illustrated herein. Various modifications and alternative embodiments such as would ordinarily occur to one skilled in the art to which the invention relates are also contemplated and included within the scope of the invention described herein.
Is this patent green technology? Respond with 'yes' or 'no'. |
7822747 | FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a computer-based project assessment tool for schematically matching information into a project scheme.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Today, in project management, the focus of analysis and control is on the ability to estimate and associate what is effectively remembered as important with a given project. In other words, since seventy percent of all projects fail based on their original budget or finish date, it is clear that current systems struggle with successful estimations for outcomes. Part of this failure to predict, analyze and control project outcome stems from the inability to effectively mine and place into the proper context the avalanche of the data that could positively improve the predictive outcome of the project.
Project management, search software, data mining software and statistical/analytical tools could be used resolve project management shortfalls. However, these various tools exist in their own silos and are thereby not associated in a meaningful and usable manner. This failure is exacerbated as the complexity of projects increases as technology and society evolve.
Moreover, the concept of a project for many human endeavors is becoming widespread and mutating so that increasingly sophisticated tools, if applied correctly, could be implemented in more wide-ranging environments. For example, tools could be used in different ways, depending on the wide range of possibilities of what constitutes “a project”, and who is the “project manager”. For example, an individual planning threatening activities could be a deemed a “project manager” in the same way a more traditional individual, such as a certified project engineer, could plan a construction, research or information technology project. Other environments that rely heavily on project management and control and that could benefit from a more sophisticated analytical approach to project management include but are not limited to the film industry, the automotive industry, advertising, drug/pharmaceutical research, clinical medical trials, to name a few.
A need therefore exists in the art for a predictive analytic system and method that employs the best available software tools and that run on standard computer hardware in order to provide project predictive analytics to the end user.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The above-described deficiencies are overcome by a system and method adapted for use on a computer platform that provides an ontology that links objects and is capable of being mined. The ontology is comprised of a project ontology framework, a matching engine and a project status matrix that illustrates a multi-relational view of the project status, of confidence levels, or interdiction points and/or positions on project timelines.
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a computer-based project assessment tool for schematically matching information into a project scheme.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Today, in project management, the focus of analysis and control is on the ability to estimate and associate what is effectively remembered as important with a given project. In other words, since seventy percent of all projects fail based on their original budget or finish date, it is clear that current systems struggle with successful estimations for outcomes. Part of this failure to predict, analyze and control project outcome stems from the inability to effectively mine and place into the proper context the avalanche of the data that could positively improve the predictive outcome of the project.
Project management, search software, data mining software and statistical/analytical tools could be used resolve project management shortfalls. However, these various tools exist in their own silos and are thereby not associated in a meaningful and usable manner. This failure is exacerbated as the complexity of projects increases as technology and society evolve.
Moreover, the concept of a project for many human endeavors is becoming widespread and mutating so that increasingly sophisticated tools, if applied correctly, could be implemented in more wide-ranging environments. For example, tools could be used in different ways, depending on the wide range of possibilities of what constitutes “a project”, and who is the “project manager”. For example, an individual planning threatening activities could be a deemed a “project manager” in the same way a more traditional individual, such as a certified project engineer, could plan a construction, research or information technology project. Other environments that rely heavily on project management and control and that could benefit from a more sophisticated analytical approach to project management include but are not limited to the film industry, the automotive industry, advertising, drug/pharmaceutical research, clinical medical trials, to name a few.
A need therefore exists in the art for a predictive analytic system and method that employs the best available software tools and that run on standard computer hardware in order to provide project predictive analytics to the end user.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The above-described deficiencies are overcome by a system and method adapted for use on a computer platform that provides an ontology that links objects and is capable of being mined. The ontology is comprised of a project ontology framework, a matching engine and a project status matrix that illustrates a multi-relational view of the project status, of confidence levels, or interdiction points and/or positions on project timelines.
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7838755 | BACKGROUND
The present invention relates to audio applications in general and, in particular, to music-based searching.
Often, it may be desirable to find an audio sample, an album track, or other audio information when textual information about the audio (e.g., artist, title, etc.) is unknown. For example, after hearing a song on the radio, a person may wish to find the song on the Internet. If the person recalls the melody but does not know the name of the song, lyrics from the song, or even the artist, it may be very difficult to find the song using traditional (e.g., text-based) search engines.
Some existing search engines may provide the capability to organize audio compositions based on metadata manually supplied to a database about the audio composition. For example, it may be possible to provide a database with information relating to a song's genre, tempo, pitch sequence, pitch interval sequence, release date, artist, etc. This information may then be used by traditional search engines to help locate the particular song. To provide this capability, however, requires manually (and often subjectively) determining information about the audio composition and storing the information to a database. This may be prone to inefficiencies, inaccuracies, and limitations regarding what types of information are available.
Some existing search engines may further provide the capability to extract metadata from certain types of audio files. For example, the MPEG-7 file format and other file formats may be configured to store certain types of information about the audio content. A search engine may then be able to extract that information, for example, from the file's header information.
Yet other existing search engines may provide the capability to group songs by one particular high-level pattern. For example, high-level rhythmic signatures may be extracted from the envelopes of the audio signals, and those high-level signatures may be used to group songs. This may eliminate the need to manually enter certain types of information, but may still limit the search. One limitation is that the search may be restricted to a single, non-textual dimension. For example, the user may only be able to search on rhythmic signature, while millions of songs may share similar rhythmic signatures. Another limitation is that the single dimension may not be sufficiently elemental to provide useful results. For example, the user may wish to hum the melody of the chorus or drum out a portion of the rhythm, neither of which may be searchable against high-level patterns.
For at least these reasons, it may be desirable to provide improved capabilities for music search.
SUMMARY
Among other things, methods, systems, and devices are described for music-based searching.
Embodiments of the invention provide a variety of features and functionality. Some embodiments accept different types of search input (e.g., text, audio, score images, etc.) and generate different types of search output (e.g., textual lists, audio output, score output, etc.). Other embodiments of the invention support intelligent parsing of textual information, deconstruction of audio and score image data to generate music elements, orthogonal and weighted searching capabilities, and many other functions. Other embodiments are configured to operate locally (e.g., personal computers or local-area networks); while in other embodiments, the invention is configured to operate remotely (e.g., over the Internet or using remote servers). Other embodiment support output functionality, including generation of text, score, audio output of search results.
In one embodiment, a computer method of performing a music search is provided. The method includes receiving a music query that specifies a music element; generating a set of search parameters based on the music element specified by the received music query; directing the set of search parameters against a database including a number of data records, each data record being associated with a music piece and a set of music elements relating to the music piece, wherein the set of music elements associated with at least one data record includes data deconstructed from the at least one music piece; identifying a set of matching data records in the database, the set of matching data records including data records that match the set of search parameters; identifying a set of matched music pieces in the database, the set of matched music pieces including music pieces that are associated with the set of matching data records; and producing search output comprising the matched music pieces arranged in a ranked list.
Other features and advantages of the present invention should be apparent from the following description of preferred embodiments that illustrate, by way of example, the principles of the invention.
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SUMMARY: BACKGROUND
The present invention relates to audio applications in general and, in particular, to music-based searching.
Often, it may be desirable to find an audio sample, an album track, or other audio information when textual information about the audio (e.g., artist, title, etc.) is unknown. For example, after hearing a song on the radio, a person may wish to find the song on the Internet. If the person recalls the melody but does not know the name of the song, lyrics from the song, or even the artist, it may be very difficult to find the song using traditional (e.g., text-based) search engines.
Some existing search engines may provide the capability to organize audio compositions based on metadata manually supplied to a database about the audio composition. For example, it may be possible to provide a database with information relating to a song's genre, tempo, pitch sequence, pitch interval sequence, release date, artist, etc. This information may then be used by traditional search engines to help locate the particular song. To provide this capability, however, requires manually (and often subjectively) determining information about the audio composition and storing the information to a database. This may be prone to inefficiencies, inaccuracies, and limitations regarding what types of information are available.
Some existing search engines may further provide the capability to extract metadata from certain types of audio files. For example, the MPEG-7 file format and other file formats may be configured to store certain types of information about the audio content. A search engine may then be able to extract that information, for example, from the file's header information.
Yet other existing search engines may provide the capability to group songs by one particular high-level pattern. For example, high-level rhythmic signatures may be extracted from the envelopes of the audio signals, and those high-level signatures may be used to group songs. This may eliminate the need to manually enter certain types of information, but may still limit the search. One limitation is that the search may be restricted to a single, non-textual dimension. For example, the user may only be able to search on rhythmic signature, while millions of songs may share similar rhythmic signatures. Another limitation is that the single dimension may not be sufficiently elemental to provide useful results. For example, the user may wish to hum the melody of the chorus or drum out a portion of the rhythm, neither of which may be searchable against high-level patterns.
For at least these reasons, it may be desirable to provide improved capabilities for music search.
SUMMARY
Among other things, methods, systems, and devices are described for music-based searching.
Embodiments of the invention provide a variety of features and functionality. Some embodiments accept different types of search input (e.g., text, audio, score images, etc.) and generate different types of search output (e.g., textual lists, audio output, score output, etc.). Other embodiments of the invention support intelligent parsing of textual information, deconstruction of audio and score image data to generate music elements, orthogonal and weighted searching capabilities, and many other functions. Other embodiments are configured to operate locally (e.g., personal computers or local-area networks); while in other embodiments, the invention is configured to operate remotely (e.g., over the Internet or using remote servers). Other embodiment support output functionality, including generation of text, score, audio output of search results.
In one embodiment, a computer method of performing a music search is provided. The method includes receiving a music query that specifies a music element; generating a set of search parameters based on the music element specified by the received music query; directing the set of search parameters against a database including a number of data records, each data record being associated with a music piece and a set of music elements relating to the music piece, wherein the set of music elements associated with at least one data record includes data deconstructed from the at least one music piece; identifying a set of matching data records in the database, the set of matching data records including data records that match the set of search parameters; identifying a set of matched music pieces in the database, the set of matched music pieces including music pieces that are associated with the set of matching data records; and producing search output comprising the matched music pieces arranged in a ranked list.
Other features and advantages of the present invention should be apparent from the following description of preferred embodiments that illustrate, by way of example, the principles of the invention.
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7690208 | FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to hydrogen storage, and more particularly to a pressure release system for hydrogen storage.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Fuel cell systems are increasingly used as a power source in a wide variety of applications. Fuel cell propulsion systems have also been proposed for use in vehicles as a replacement for internal combustion engines. The fuel cells generate electricity that is used to charge batteries and/or to power an electric motor. A solid-polymer-electrolyte fuel cell includes a membrane that is sandwiched between an anode and a cathode. To produce electricity through an electrochemical reaction, a fuel, commonly hydrogen (H2), but also either methane (CH4) or methanol (CH3OH), is supplied to the anode and an oxidant, such as oxygen (O2) is supplied to the cathode. The source of the oxygen is commonly air.
In a first half-cell reaction, dissociation of the hydrogen (H2) at the anode generates hydrogen protons (H+) and electrons (e−). The membrane is proton conductive and dielectric. As a result, the protons are transported through the membrane. The electrons flow through an electrical load (such as the batteries or the electric motor) that is connected across the membrane. In a second half-cell reaction, oxygen (O2) at the cathode reacts with protons (H+), and electrons (e−) are taken up to form water (H2O).
Hydrogen storage systems have been developed to provide hydrogen to the fuel cell stack. Internal combustion engines can also run on hydrogen. The hydrogen is generally stored in a storage vessel in gas and liquid phases under pressure and at low temperature. If the system pressure is too high, gaseous hydrogen is vented to atmosphere.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the present invention provides a pressure management system for a hydrogen storage system. The pressure management system includes a hydrogen regulator valve that regulates a hydrogen gas release flow from the hydrogen storage tank when a pressure within the hydrogen tank is greater than a threshold pressure.
Further areas of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description provided hereinafter. It should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating the preferred embodiment of the invention, are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.
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SUMMARY: FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to hydrogen storage, and more particularly to a pressure release system for hydrogen storage.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Fuel cell systems are increasingly used as a power source in a wide variety of applications. Fuel cell propulsion systems have also been proposed for use in vehicles as a replacement for internal combustion engines. The fuel cells generate electricity that is used to charge batteries and/or to power an electric motor. A solid-polymer-electrolyte fuel cell includes a membrane that is sandwiched between an anode and a cathode. To produce electricity through an electrochemical reaction, a fuel, commonly hydrogen (H2), but also either methane (CH4) or methanol (CH3OH), is supplied to the anode and an oxidant, such as oxygen (O2) is supplied to the cathode. The source of the oxygen is commonly air.
In a first half-cell reaction, dissociation of the hydrogen (H2) at the anode generates hydrogen protons (H+) and electrons (e−). The membrane is proton conductive and dielectric. As a result, the protons are transported through the membrane. The electrons flow through an electrical load (such as the batteries or the electric motor) that is connected across the membrane. In a second half-cell reaction, oxygen (O2) at the cathode reacts with protons (H+), and electrons (e−) are taken up to form water (H2O).
Hydrogen storage systems have been developed to provide hydrogen to the fuel cell stack. Internal combustion engines can also run on hydrogen. The hydrogen is generally stored in a storage vessel in gas and liquid phases under pressure and at low temperature. If the system pressure is too high, gaseous hydrogen is vented to atmosphere.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the present invention provides a pressure management system for a hydrogen storage system. The pressure management system includes a hydrogen regulator valve that regulates a hydrogen gas release flow from the hydrogen storage tank when a pressure within the hydrogen tank is greater than a threshold pressure.
Further areas of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description provided hereinafter. It should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating the preferred embodiment of the invention, are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.
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7726758 | BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to printhead fire signals in ink jet printers, and, more particularly, to composite printhead fire signals.
2. Description of the Related Art
A printhead in an ink jet printer can include an array of nozzles, and associated actuators, that expel ink onto a printing medium according to an image to be produced on the printing medium. Signals are provided to the printhead that control the actuators and nozzles, including fire signals that energize the actuators for a sequence of durations. The array of nozzles can be divided into two or more groups of nozzles that are addressed separately and driven by separate fire signals. The separate fire signals can each require an input to the printhead, and printhead input/output (I/O) are relatively expensive in ink jet printhead design and manufacturing.
What is needed in the art is a method and device that combines printhead fire signals while at the same time minimizes printhead I/O requirements.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention comprises, in one form thereof, a method and device for providing a plurality of fire pulses in an ink jet printer, which includes a production of a plurality of fire signals. Each fire signal of the plurality of fire signals is asserted at a different timing than an other of the plurality of fire signals. The plurality of fire signals are combined to form a composite fire signal that maintains the different timing.
In another form thereof, the invention is directed to an ink jet printer including a printhead carrier and a controller communicatively coupled to the printhead carrier for producing a plurality of fire signals. Each fire signal of the plurality of fire signals is asserted at a different timing than other of the plurality of fire signals. The controller combines the plurality of fire signals to form a composite fire signal that maintains the different timing.
In another form thereof, the invention is directed to a printhead cartridge for an ink jet printer including at least one ink reservoir and a printhead fluidly coupled to the at least one ink reservoir. The printhead includes a plurality of nozzles for ejecting ink, a plurality of actuators associated with the plurality of nozzles, an actuator firing logic circuit connected to the plurality of actuators for selectively energizing the plurality of actuators and a decoder circuit connected to the actuator firing logic circuit. The decoder circuit includes at least one input for receiving at least one composite fire signal.
In another form thereof, the invention is directed to a printhead for an ink jet printer including a plurality of nozzles for ejecting ink, a plurality of actuators associated with the plurality of nozzles, an actuator firing logic circuit connected to the plurality of actuators for selectively energizing the plurality of actuators and a decoder circuit connected to the actuator firing logic circuit. The decoder circuit includes at least one input for receiving at least one composite fire signal.
In yet another form thereof, the invention is directed to a method for providing a plurality of fire pulses in an ink jet printer including the step of producing a plurality of fire signals specific to a particular color. Each fire signal of the plurality of fire signals are asserted at a different timing than other of the plurality of fire signals.
An advantage of certain embodiments of the present invention can include a reduction in the number of inputs required in an ink jet printhead.
Another advantage can include a reduced cost of ink jet printheads due to the lower number of printhead inputs.
Yet another advantage might include the ability to make fire signals specific to a particular color and concurrently maintain the number of printhead inputs low.
A further advantage could include that other functionality requiring printhead I/O can be added to the printhead design due to the reduced printhead inputs required by the fire signals.
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to printhead fire signals in ink jet printers, and, more particularly, to composite printhead fire signals.
2. Description of the Related Art
A printhead in an ink jet printer can include an array of nozzles, and associated actuators, that expel ink onto a printing medium according to an image to be produced on the printing medium. Signals are provided to the printhead that control the actuators and nozzles, including fire signals that energize the actuators for a sequence of durations. The array of nozzles can be divided into two or more groups of nozzles that are addressed separately and driven by separate fire signals. The separate fire signals can each require an input to the printhead, and printhead input/output (I/O) are relatively expensive in ink jet printhead design and manufacturing.
What is needed in the art is a method and device that combines printhead fire signals while at the same time minimizes printhead I/O requirements.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention comprises, in one form thereof, a method and device for providing a plurality of fire pulses in an ink jet printer, which includes a production of a plurality of fire signals. Each fire signal of the plurality of fire signals is asserted at a different timing than an other of the plurality of fire signals. The plurality of fire signals are combined to form a composite fire signal that maintains the different timing.
In another form thereof, the invention is directed to an ink jet printer including a printhead carrier and a controller communicatively coupled to the printhead carrier for producing a plurality of fire signals. Each fire signal of the plurality of fire signals is asserted at a different timing than other of the plurality of fire signals. The controller combines the plurality of fire signals to form a composite fire signal that maintains the different timing.
In another form thereof, the invention is directed to a printhead cartridge for an ink jet printer including at least one ink reservoir and a printhead fluidly coupled to the at least one ink reservoir. The printhead includes a plurality of nozzles for ejecting ink, a plurality of actuators associated with the plurality of nozzles, an actuator firing logic circuit connected to the plurality of actuators for selectively energizing the plurality of actuators and a decoder circuit connected to the actuator firing logic circuit. The decoder circuit includes at least one input for receiving at least one composite fire signal.
In another form thereof, the invention is directed to a printhead for an ink jet printer including a plurality of nozzles for ejecting ink, a plurality of actuators associated with the plurality of nozzles, an actuator firing logic circuit connected to the plurality of actuators for selectively energizing the plurality of actuators and a decoder circuit connected to the actuator firing logic circuit. The decoder circuit includes at least one input for receiving at least one composite fire signal.
In yet another form thereof, the invention is directed to a method for providing a plurality of fire pulses in an ink jet printer including the step of producing a plurality of fire signals specific to a particular color. Each fire signal of the plurality of fire signals are asserted at a different timing than other of the plurality of fire signals.
An advantage of certain embodiments of the present invention can include a reduction in the number of inputs required in an ink jet printhead.
Another advantage can include a reduced cost of ink jet printheads due to the lower number of printhead inputs.
Yet another advantage might include the ability to make fire signals specific to a particular color and concurrently maintain the number of printhead inputs low.
A further advantage could include that other functionality requiring printhead I/O can be added to the printhead design due to the reduced printhead inputs required by the fire signals.
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7809912 | BACKGROUND
I. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to the field of moving data.
II. Background Information
Many computer systems include one or more host computers, and one or more storage systems that store data used by the host computers. An example of such a computer system including a host computer1and storage systems3,4is shown inFIG. 1.
The storage systems3,4include a plurality of disk drives (5a,5bor6a,6b) and a plurality of disk controllers (7a,7bor8a,8b) that respectively control access to the disk drives. A plurality of storage bus directors (9,10) control communication with host computer1over communication buses (17,18). Each storage system3,4further includes a cache11,12to provide improved storage system performance. In particular, when the host computer1executes a read from one of the storage systems3,4, the storage system may service the read from its cache11,12(when the data is stored in the cache) rather than from one of the disk drives5a,5bor6a,6bto execute the read more efficiently. Similarly, when the host computer1executes a write to one of the storage systems3,4, corresponding storage bus directors9,10can execute the write to the cache11,12. Thereafter, the data can be de-staged asynchronously in a manner transparent to the host computer1to the appropriate one of the disk drives5a,5b,6a,6b. Finally, storage systems3,4include internal buses13,14over which storage bus directors9,10, disk controllers7a,7b,8a,8band caches11,12communicate.
The host computer1includes a processor16and one or more host bus adapters15that each controls communication between the processor16and one of the storage systems3,4via a corresponding one of the communication buses17,18. It should be appreciated that rather than a single processor16, host computer1can include multiple processors. Each bus17,18can be any of a number of different types of communication links, with the host bus adapter15and storage bus directors9,10being adapted to communicate using an appropriate protocol via the communication buses17,18coupled there between. For example, each of the communication buses17,18can be implemented as a SCSI bus with the storage bus directors9,10and adapters15each being a SCSI driver. Alternatively, communication between the host computer1and the storage systems3,4can be performed over a Fibre Channel fabric.
Typically, the storage systems3,4make storage resources available to the host computer for assignment to entities therein, such as a file system, a database manager, or a logical volume manager. If the storage systems are so-called “dumb” storage systems, the storage resources that are made available to the host computer will correspond in a one-to-one relationship to physical storage devices within the storage systems. However, when the storage systems are intelligent storage systems, they will present logical units of storage to the host computer1that need not necessarily correspond in a one-to-one relationship to any physical storage devices within the storage system. Instead, the intelligent storage systems may map each logical unit of storage presented to the host across one or more physical storage devices.
Administrators of computer systems like that depicted inFIG. 1may want to migrate sets of logically related data, such as a database or file system, from one storage resource to another. One common reason is that a data set might grow at such a rate that it will soon exceed the capacity of a storage system. Other common reasons include the administrator's desire to move the data set to a storage system with faster response time, to lay the data set out differently on the resource to facilitate faster access, to reconfigure disk striping for fault tolerance and/or performance purposes, or to optimize the geographic location where the data set is physically stored.
Data migrations are often complicated and problematic exercises. Administrators usually must take offline any applications executing on the host that use the source storage device. Depending on the size of the data set, applications can be offline for lengthy periods, leading to a loss of productivity, and opportunity costs associated with not having the data set available for important business functions. Migrations typically are manual labor-intensive efforts, and are therefore error-prone, costly, and labor-intensive.
Conventional data migration efforts typically involve the following four separate steps, requiring manual intervention between each: source discovery, target provisioning, data synchronization (i.e., movement), and reconfiguration to switch to target access.
The source discovery step identifies the physical locations (e.g., the storage system and logical unit) at which the data set is stored. This step is typically performed manually. An exemplary conventional method includes the use of spreadsheets to compile an inventory of file systems, database table spaces, and other data stored on individual storage volumes.
The target provisioning step identifies and configures the storage resources (typically logical units of storage presented by another storage system) to which the data set will be moved. Conventionally, this step requires extensive manual intervention by, for example, database administrators and system administrators. This step may include making new logical units visible to one or more host computers, mapping file systems and/or table spaces on target logical units, configuring switches, configuring volumes for redundancy, and planning for more efficient physical data access. This step is typically very time-consuming and labor-intensive, and thus expensive.
The synchronization step involves moving or copying the data set from the source locations to the target locations. Various techniques have been used to perform this step, including employing a utility application running on one or more host computers to read the data set from the source locations and write the data set to the target locations. Alternatively, a mirroring facility, such as the SYMMETRIX Remote Data Facility (SRDF) available from EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, Mass., may be used to create mirrors between source and target volumes on different storage systems and to then synchronize them so that the storage systems themselves perform the copy. Other data copy tools available from EMC include OPEN REPLICATOR for SYMMETRIX data storage systems and SANCOPY for CLARIION data storage systems. Synchronization is often the most time consuming of the four steps, and usually requires taking the applications that are accessing the data be taken offline (i.e., refused access to the data) while the step is performed.
After the data set has been moved or copied, the switch to target step typically involves reconfiguring the computer system so that applications using the data set recognize the target locations as the new storage location for the data set. Again, this conventionally requires human intervention and may require rebooting of the host computer(s) that access the data set.
EMC Corp. has recognized the desirability of being able to migrate data non-disruptively. U.S. Pat. No. 7,093,088, which is hereby incorporated by reference, for example, discloses some methods and systems that enable less disruptive migration. The inventors of the present invention, however, believed that alternative methods and systems would be more effective and more flexible in enabling less disruptive migration and virtualization of data storage systems.
SUMMARY
The inventors recognized that when migrating data from a source logical device to a target logical device, it would be desirable for a host to be able access the relevant data throughout the process, or at least for as much of the process as possible. The inventors also recognized that when virtualizing a source logical device as a target logical device, it would be desirable for a host to be able access the relevant data throughout the process, or at least for as much of the process as possible. The inventors recognized that the appropriate management of input/output (I/O) requests during the migration or virtualization process can be used to render the process less disruptive to a host that has data stored in a source logical unit. The inventors further recognized that the implementation of various input/output (I/O) request controls in a particular order during the migration or virtualization process can minimize the possibility of errors or other problems.
Possible benefits of management of I/O requests consistent with features and principles of the invention during migration or virtualization process include the capability of leveraging point-in-time copy tools to synchronize the source and target logical units while enabling access to the data thereon, the capability of maintaining synchronization of the source and target logical unit before committing to the target logical unit, the capability of evaluating the target logical unit before committing to the target logical unit, and the capability of switching back and forth between the source logical unit and the target logical unit before committing to the target logical unit. Other possible benefits of management of I/O requests consistent with features and principles of the invention during migration or virtualization process include the capability of using the native name of a device, the capability of applying the same state to all aliases of a device, and the capability of preventing another user from modifying the configuration of a storage device during the process. Further possible benefits of appropriate management of I/O requests include the capability of preventing access to source and target logical units at the same time and the capability of having a state persist across a reboot.
One embodiment consistent with principles of the invention is a method for enabling evaluation of a target logical unit associated with a source logical unit after synchronizing the target logical unit with the source logical unit and before committing to the target logical unit. The method includes redirecting a first plurality of I/O requests that were directed to the source logical unit to the target logical unit and redirecting any I/O requests that were directed to the target logical unit to the source logical unit. The method further includes preventing any I/O requests that were redirected to the source logical unit from accessing the source logical unit.
Another embodiment consistent with principles of the invention is a method for enabling evaluation of a target logical unit after encapsulating a source logical unit in a virtual storage device as the target logical unit and before committing to the target logical unit. The method includes redirecting a first set of I/O requests that were directed to the source logical unit to the target logical unit and redirecting any I/O requests that were directed to the target logical unit to the source logical unit. The method further includes preventing any I/O requests that were redirected to the source logical unit from accessing the source logical unit.
Another embodiment consistent with principles of the invention is a host computer in signal communication via a network with a storage system comprising a source logical unit and a target logical unit. The host computer is configured with instructions to perform one of the foregoing methods.
Another embodiment consistent with principles of the invention is a computer-readable medium including instructions to configure a computer system to execute one of the foregoing methods. In one embodiment, the medium includes a program for installation and execution on a host computer associated with one or more storage systems with a source logical unit and a target logical unit.
Additional embodiments consistent with principles of the invention are set forth in the detailed description which follows or may be learned by practice of methods or use of systems or articles of manufacture disclosed herein. It is understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only, and are not restrictive of the invention as claimed.
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SUMMARY: BACKGROUND
I. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to the field of moving data.
II. Background Information
Many computer systems include one or more host computers, and one or more storage systems that store data used by the host computers. An example of such a computer system including a host computer1and storage systems3,4is shown inFIG. 1.
The storage systems3,4include a plurality of disk drives (5a,5bor6a,6b) and a plurality of disk controllers (7a,7bor8a,8b) that respectively control access to the disk drives. A plurality of storage bus directors (9,10) control communication with host computer1over communication buses (17,18). Each storage system3,4further includes a cache11,12to provide improved storage system performance. In particular, when the host computer1executes a read from one of the storage systems3,4, the storage system may service the read from its cache11,12(when the data is stored in the cache) rather than from one of the disk drives5a,5bor6a,6bto execute the read more efficiently. Similarly, when the host computer1executes a write to one of the storage systems3,4, corresponding storage bus directors9,10can execute the write to the cache11,12. Thereafter, the data can be de-staged asynchronously in a manner transparent to the host computer1to the appropriate one of the disk drives5a,5b,6a,6b. Finally, storage systems3,4include internal buses13,14over which storage bus directors9,10, disk controllers7a,7b,8a,8band caches11,12communicate.
The host computer1includes a processor16and one or more host bus adapters15that each controls communication between the processor16and one of the storage systems3,4via a corresponding one of the communication buses17,18. It should be appreciated that rather than a single processor16, host computer1can include multiple processors. Each bus17,18can be any of a number of different types of communication links, with the host bus adapter15and storage bus directors9,10being adapted to communicate using an appropriate protocol via the communication buses17,18coupled there between. For example, each of the communication buses17,18can be implemented as a SCSI bus with the storage bus directors9,10and adapters15each being a SCSI driver. Alternatively, communication between the host computer1and the storage systems3,4can be performed over a Fibre Channel fabric.
Typically, the storage systems3,4make storage resources available to the host computer for assignment to entities therein, such as a file system, a database manager, or a logical volume manager. If the storage systems are so-called “dumb” storage systems, the storage resources that are made available to the host computer will correspond in a one-to-one relationship to physical storage devices within the storage systems. However, when the storage systems are intelligent storage systems, they will present logical units of storage to the host computer1that need not necessarily correspond in a one-to-one relationship to any physical storage devices within the storage system. Instead, the intelligent storage systems may map each logical unit of storage presented to the host across one or more physical storage devices.
Administrators of computer systems like that depicted inFIG. 1may want to migrate sets of logically related data, such as a database or file system, from one storage resource to another. One common reason is that a data set might grow at such a rate that it will soon exceed the capacity of a storage system. Other common reasons include the administrator's desire to move the data set to a storage system with faster response time, to lay the data set out differently on the resource to facilitate faster access, to reconfigure disk striping for fault tolerance and/or performance purposes, or to optimize the geographic location where the data set is physically stored.
Data migrations are often complicated and problematic exercises. Administrators usually must take offline any applications executing on the host that use the source storage device. Depending on the size of the data set, applications can be offline for lengthy periods, leading to a loss of productivity, and opportunity costs associated with not having the data set available for important business functions. Migrations typically are manual labor-intensive efforts, and are therefore error-prone, costly, and labor-intensive.
Conventional data migration efforts typically involve the following four separate steps, requiring manual intervention between each: source discovery, target provisioning, data synchronization (i.e., movement), and reconfiguration to switch to target access.
The source discovery step identifies the physical locations (e.g., the storage system and logical unit) at which the data set is stored. This step is typically performed manually. An exemplary conventional method includes the use of spreadsheets to compile an inventory of file systems, database table spaces, and other data stored on individual storage volumes.
The target provisioning step identifies and configures the storage resources (typically logical units of storage presented by another storage system) to which the data set will be moved. Conventionally, this step requires extensive manual intervention by, for example, database administrators and system administrators. This step may include making new logical units visible to one or more host computers, mapping file systems and/or table spaces on target logical units, configuring switches, configuring volumes for redundancy, and planning for more efficient physical data access. This step is typically very time-consuming and labor-intensive, and thus expensive.
The synchronization step involves moving or copying the data set from the source locations to the target locations. Various techniques have been used to perform this step, including employing a utility application running on one or more host computers to read the data set from the source locations and write the data set to the target locations. Alternatively, a mirroring facility, such as the SYMMETRIX Remote Data Facility (SRDF) available from EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, Mass., may be used to create mirrors between source and target volumes on different storage systems and to then synchronize them so that the storage systems themselves perform the copy. Other data copy tools available from EMC include OPEN REPLICATOR for SYMMETRIX data storage systems and SANCOPY for CLARIION data storage systems. Synchronization is often the most time consuming of the four steps, and usually requires taking the applications that are accessing the data be taken offline (i.e., refused access to the data) while the step is performed.
After the data set has been moved or copied, the switch to target step typically involves reconfiguring the computer system so that applications using the data set recognize the target locations as the new storage location for the data set. Again, this conventionally requires human intervention and may require rebooting of the host computer(s) that access the data set.
EMC Corp. has recognized the desirability of being able to migrate data non-disruptively. U.S. Pat. No. 7,093,088, which is hereby incorporated by reference, for example, discloses some methods and systems that enable less disruptive migration. The inventors of the present invention, however, believed that alternative methods and systems would be more effective and more flexible in enabling less disruptive migration and virtualization of data storage systems.
SUMMARY
The inventors recognized that when migrating data from a source logical device to a target logical device, it would be desirable for a host to be able access the relevant data throughout the process, or at least for as much of the process as possible. The inventors also recognized that when virtualizing a source logical device as a target logical device, it would be desirable for a host to be able access the relevant data throughout the process, or at least for as much of the process as possible. The inventors recognized that the appropriate management of input/output (I/O) requests during the migration or virtualization process can be used to render the process less disruptive to a host that has data stored in a source logical unit. The inventors further recognized that the implementation of various input/output (I/O) request controls in a particular order during the migration or virtualization process can minimize the possibility of errors or other problems.
Possible benefits of management of I/O requests consistent with features and principles of the invention during migration or virtualization process include the capability of leveraging point-in-time copy tools to synchronize the source and target logical units while enabling access to the data thereon, the capability of maintaining synchronization of the source and target logical unit before committing to the target logical unit, the capability of evaluating the target logical unit before committing to the target logical unit, and the capability of switching back and forth between the source logical unit and the target logical unit before committing to the target logical unit. Other possible benefits of management of I/O requests consistent with features and principles of the invention during migration or virtualization process include the capability of using the native name of a device, the capability of applying the same state to all aliases of a device, and the capability of preventing another user from modifying the configuration of a storage device during the process. Further possible benefits of appropriate management of I/O requests include the capability of preventing access to source and target logical units at the same time and the capability of having a state persist across a reboot.
One embodiment consistent with principles of the invention is a method for enabling evaluation of a target logical unit associated with a source logical unit after synchronizing the target logical unit with the source logical unit and before committing to the target logical unit. The method includes redirecting a first plurality of I/O requests that were directed to the source logical unit to the target logical unit and redirecting any I/O requests that were directed to the target logical unit to the source logical unit. The method further includes preventing any I/O requests that were redirected to the source logical unit from accessing the source logical unit.
Another embodiment consistent with principles of the invention is a method for enabling evaluation of a target logical unit after encapsulating a source logical unit in a virtual storage device as the target logical unit and before committing to the target logical unit. The method includes redirecting a first set of I/O requests that were directed to the source logical unit to the target logical unit and redirecting any I/O requests that were directed to the target logical unit to the source logical unit. The method further includes preventing any I/O requests that were redirected to the source logical unit from accessing the source logical unit.
Another embodiment consistent with principles of the invention is a host computer in signal communication via a network with a storage system comprising a source logical unit and a target logical unit. The host computer is configured with instructions to perform one of the foregoing methods.
Another embodiment consistent with principles of the invention is a computer-readable medium including instructions to configure a computer system to execute one of the foregoing methods. In one embodiment, the medium includes a program for installation and execution on a host computer associated with one or more storage systems with a source logical unit and a target logical unit.
Additional embodiments consistent with principles of the invention are set forth in the detailed description which follows or may be learned by practice of methods or use of systems or articles of manufacture disclosed herein. It is understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only, and are not restrictive of the invention as claimed.
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7797201 | BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and system for receiving and handling orders for commodities and delivering the ordered commodities.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, there are various needs for purchase methods, such as a one stop order, short delivery term purchase, etc. In order to meet such needs, in the field of office supply business, various companies including OA (Office Automation) supply companies and stationery companies, or domestic and foreign capital companies, compete with one another. Each of those various companies has so many kinds of commodities to be provided to users by what is so-called one stop order, so as to provide the users with the commodities of its own commodities and other companies' commodities. As a result of this, the whole sales of those companies tend to increase, and it is estimated that the market of the office supply goods in Japan will grow to $12 billion. There are various methods of receiving orders also. In addition to the facsimile or telephone ordering, there is the Internet ordering which is quite convenient. Typical example of such Internet ordering is “one-click order”. In such circumstances where the above-mentioned various companies compete with one another in the field of mail-order business and where there are various methods of ordering for commodities, the customer tends to choose the office-supplier.
The mail-order business using the Internet technology is rapidly spread, along with the wide use of the Internet. Usually, in the mail-order business using the Internet, those consumers who would like to purchase commodities accesses commodities information served on a Web page on the Internet and finds the desired commodities from the commodities information.
Under the present situation of the mail-order business of stationary goods, each of those companies serves as a purchase agent (distribution business) for the consumers, and deals with personal business small, medium and large companies and the like. According to their sales method, there is prepared a catalog showing a plurality of commodities in association with their regular prices, and the actual prices of the commodities are determined upon determination between each customer and an SA (Service Assistant). Additionally, there is also another method wherein each of the companies waits for orders from the customers. Further, the catalog may show in advance “off prices” that are prices discounted from the regular prices, and each of the companies then waits for orders from the customers. In such conditions, orders received through the Internet comes to 15% to 30% of the total sales.
In the actual sales, each of the above-described companies sets a sales condition that it is necessary that the total price of each order be $100 or more, in order to avoid a decrease in the benefit rate. In addition to the stationary goods including the toner, paper, OA supplies for computers, office electronics products and the like, daily necessities are also sold through the Internet.
In consideration of the present circumstances of OA supply dealers, the number of C/V to be provided decreases, while a number of cancellations of machines contracted increases. This can be applied especially to customers with a great deal of C/V. For example, in an OA stationary dealer, according the study of the usage context of paper for the year 1998, it is clear that more than 90% of paper for C/V 5K or higher, whose contract is being cancelled, is purchased from other companies. According to data representing the relationship between the number of machines whose contract is cancelled and the provided rate of the C/V, it is essential to sell desired paper in order to avoid the cancellation of the machines contracted. Therefore, to maintain contracts with customers while increasing the sufficiency level of the C/V, it is necessary to have alliance with a paper manufacturer.
Those requirements that consumers purchase commodities of a corresponding company in the above-described sales circumstances are: low prices for those large-scale companies; easy way to purchase commodities; delivery of a requested commodity the next day at latest; and the like. In addition to the above requirements, for those small-scale companies and personal customers, it is preferred that customers purchase commodities by “one stop order”. The customers of small-scale companies purchase any commodities by one stop, while customers of relatively large-scale companies purchase a plurality of commodites from different sellers. Demands from consumers are: appropriate attitude in a case where an ordering mistake is found; urgent delivery, keeping a rich assortment of commodities in each category, collection of used items at the time when delivering a new commodities/collection of rapping materials/additional service for delivering and putting the commodities onto a specified rack, etc. That is, there tends to be various customer needs, such as (1) various manufacturer supplies by “one stop order” (to aim for reducing the cost) and short delivery term, (2) reasonable price, (3) additional service, (4) easy way to order commodities (e.g. using a facsimile or through the Web (Internet), and (5) purchase and collection of used goods for the environmental sake.
Conventionally, manufacturers (vendors) sell commodities (product items) from their assigned distributors or from their own sales section, according to a mail-order selling method without the Internet technology. For example, if the user gives an order through a telephone call or facsimile in a particular order form, data representing the order contents is sent to a corresponding distributor or its own main business management system. Upon this, the distributor or the main business management system informs the user of the delivery date. The main business management system sends order-reception information to the terminal of the O/E system (Order Entry System), and the O/E system sends an order for a particular commodity (product item) toward a manufacture section of the manufacturer or vender. For the inquiries from the user about the price of the commodity, specification of the commodity (product), a request for returning back once-purchased commodity or a request for delivering the commodity in a short delivery term, the distributor or the sales section responds. Additionally, for those inquiries regarding the delivery date, delivery time, stock information, addition or cancellation of ordered commodity, confirmation as to whether facsimile data has been received, the manufacturer or the sales section responds.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above. It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a system for receiving orders for commodities and delivering the ordered commodities, and for realizing a mechanism corresponding to various customer needs and a new delivery service for providing users with commodities, and also to provide a method for receiving orders for commodities and delivering the commodities ordered, as employed in the above system.
In order to achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of receiving and handling an order from a customer using at least one computer, comprising the steps of:
receiving customer order information sent from the customer, said customer order information including customer information regarding the customer and at least one of ordering information representing contents of an order for a commodity ordered by the customer and support request information representing contents of a support request;
performing the order reception processing based on the received customer order information;
determining to deliver the commodity specified in the ordering information
and to provide a support specified in the support information, based on a result of the order reception processing;
confirming whether the commodity is delivered and the support is provided; and
charging a price of the commodity specified in the ordering information and a cost of the support specified in the support request information, based on the customer information including information regarding a price of each commodity purchased by the customer with high frequency and a cost of each support requested by the customer with high frequency, wherein the price and the cost are set by a seller of the commodity and support.
According to this invention, various services and prices in accordance with various customers can be realized, in response to a request therefor.
The method may further includes the steps of:
checking whether there is a stock of the commodity specified in the ordering information based on stock information;
determining a delivery date for delivering the ordered commodity; and
sending order-reception confirmation information including delivery-date information representing the determined delivery date and the customer order information to the customer either in a facsimile form or e-mail form.
According to this invention, the customer can check the contents of the order, and can be aware of the delivery date. Hence, the customer should highly be satisfied with this system.
The method may further including the steps of:
storing, in a storage, Q&A information representing the contents of inquiries sent from the customer and the seller and the contents of responses to the inquiries, the inquiries regarding commodities to be sold and supports to be provided; and
providing the Q&A information stored in the storage, in response to a request.
According to this invention, the customer can know the specific contents the services, and hence it is quite convenient for making orders for commodities or for requesting for services. At the same time, the service provider can know the customer needs, and can provide better services to customers based on their needs.
The method may further include the step of
gathering statistical data based on the customer information and customer order information of each of a plurality of customers; and
reflecting the statistical data to the Q&A information.
The support request information may include information regarding a request for collecting recyclable items including at least one of a used cartridge, a used toner container and used paper.
The method may further include the step of
arranging collection of used paper, in response to a support request for collecting used paper from the customer when a used-paper collection box provided to the customer is filled with used paper.
The support request information includes information regarding a request for at least one of:
a service for delivering the commodity to a place specified by the customer;
a service for unpacking the ordered commodity at a time of delivery;
a service for collecting an empty box that the customer does not need any more;
a service for delivering commodities that are repeatedly supplied to the customer on a FIFO basis;
a service for specifying a delivery date for delivering the commodity to be delivered;
a service for urgently delivering the ordered commodity; and
a service for periodically delivering a constant number of commodities specified by the customer.
The method may further include the steps of:
storing, in a storage in response to a customer registration operation of the seller, the customer information including information regarding a price of a commodity purchased by the customer with high frequency and a cost of a support requested by the customer with high frequency, wherein the price and the cost are set by the seller; and
creating a purchase application form and a catalog based on the stored customer information, and providing the customer with the created application form and catalog.
The customer order information may be sent from the customer through a telephone call, via facsimile or through Internet.
In a case where the customer has made a contract of maintenance service for one of a plurality of apparatus including OA apparatuses, a delivery of the commodity is assigned to a service person who can execute the maintenance service when it is determined that to deliver the commodity specified in the ordering information, and it may be determined to execute a maintenance service based on the maintenance contract at a time of delivering the commodity, based on the customer information and customer order information.
The method may further comprise the steps of:
arranging delivery of the commodity specified in the ordering information based on the customer order information, upon determination of the delivery of the commodity specified in the ordering information and the providing of the support; and
instructing a distributor to perform a support when delivering the commodity, in a case where the support is specified in the customer order information.
The method may further include the steps of:
confirming whether there is a stock of the ordered commodity based on stock information;
determining a delivery date for delivering the ordered commodity;
sending, to the customer, order-reception confirmation information including delivery-date information representing the determined delivery date and the customer order information in a facsimile form or e-mail form; and
arranging the delivery of the ordered commodity based on the delivery-date information and customer order information.
In order to achieve the above object, according to the second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an order-reception system comprising:
an order-reception subsystem which receives customer order information sent from a customer, wherein the customer order information includes customer information regarding the customer and at least one of ordering information representing contents of an order for a commodity ordered by the customer and support request information representing contents of a support request;
a business management subsystem which has a customer information database storing the customer information regarding a price of a commodity purchased by the customer with high frequency and a cost of a support requested by the customer with high frequency, and set by a seller; and
an order-entry subsystem which executes an order-reception processing based on the customer order information received by said order-reception subsystem,wherein said order-reception subsystemdetermines to deliver the commodity specified in the ordering information and to provide the support specified in the support information, based on a result of the order reception processing,confirms whether the ordered commodity is delivered and whether the support is provided; andcharging the price of the commodity and the cost of the support specified in the ordering information.
In addition to the ordering through a telephone call or facsimile transmission, the order-reception system may further include a network-order-reception subsystem which receives the customer order information sent from the customer through the Internet.
In order to achieve the above object, according to the third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an order-reception system for receiving and handling an order from a customer using at least one computer, said system comprising:
means for receiving customer order information sent from the customer, said customer order information including customer information regarding the customer and at least one of ordering information representing contents of an order for a commodity ordered by the customer and support request information representing contents of a support request;
means for performing the order reception processing based on the received customer order information
means for determining to deliver the commodity specified in the ordering information and to provide a support specified in the support request information, based on a result of the order reception processing;
means for confirming whether the commodity is delivered and the support is provided;
a customer-information database which stores the customer information including information regarding a price of a commodity purchased by the customer with high frequency and a cost of a support requested by the customer with high frequency, wherein the price and the cost are set by a seller of the commodity and support; and
means for charging a price of the commodity specified in the ordering information and a cost of the support specified in the support request information based on the customer information.
In order to achieve the above object, according to the fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a program for controlling a computer to execute the following steps of:
receiving customer order information sent from a customer, the customer order information including customer information regarding the customer and at least one of ordering information representing contents of an order for a commodity ordered by the customer and support request information representing contents of a request for a support;
executing an order-reception processing based on the received customer order information;
determining to deliver the commodity specified in the ordering information and to provide the support specified in the support request information, based on a result of the order-reception processing;
confirming whether the commodity has been delivered and whether the support has been provided; and
charging a price of the commodity specified in the ordering information and a cost of the support specified in the support request information, based on the customer information including information regarding a price of each commodity purchased by the customer with high frequency and a cost of each support requested by the customer with high frequency, wherein the price and the cost are set by a seller of the commodity and support.
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SUMMARY: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and system for receiving and handling orders for commodities and delivering the ordered commodities.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, there are various needs for purchase methods, such as a one stop order, short delivery term purchase, etc. In order to meet such needs, in the field of office supply business, various companies including OA (Office Automation) supply companies and stationery companies, or domestic and foreign capital companies, compete with one another. Each of those various companies has so many kinds of commodities to be provided to users by what is so-called one stop order, so as to provide the users with the commodities of its own commodities and other companies' commodities. As a result of this, the whole sales of those companies tend to increase, and it is estimated that the market of the office supply goods in Japan will grow to $12 billion. There are various methods of receiving orders also. In addition to the facsimile or telephone ordering, there is the Internet ordering which is quite convenient. Typical example of such Internet ordering is “one-click order”. In such circumstances where the above-mentioned various companies compete with one another in the field of mail-order business and where there are various methods of ordering for commodities, the customer tends to choose the office-supplier.
The mail-order business using the Internet technology is rapidly spread, along with the wide use of the Internet. Usually, in the mail-order business using the Internet, those consumers who would like to purchase commodities accesses commodities information served on a Web page on the Internet and finds the desired commodities from the commodities information.
Under the present situation of the mail-order business of stationary goods, each of those companies serves as a purchase agent (distribution business) for the consumers, and deals with personal business small, medium and large companies and the like. According to their sales method, there is prepared a catalog showing a plurality of commodities in association with their regular prices, and the actual prices of the commodities are determined upon determination between each customer and an SA (Service Assistant). Additionally, there is also another method wherein each of the companies waits for orders from the customers. Further, the catalog may show in advance “off prices” that are prices discounted from the regular prices, and each of the companies then waits for orders from the customers. In such conditions, orders received through the Internet comes to 15% to 30% of the total sales.
In the actual sales, each of the above-described companies sets a sales condition that it is necessary that the total price of each order be $100 or more, in order to avoid a decrease in the benefit rate. In addition to the stationary goods including the toner, paper, OA supplies for computers, office electronics products and the like, daily necessities are also sold through the Internet.
In consideration of the present circumstances of OA supply dealers, the number of C/V to be provided decreases, while a number of cancellations of machines contracted increases. This can be applied especially to customers with a great deal of C/V. For example, in an OA stationary dealer, according the study of the usage context of paper for the year 1998, it is clear that more than 90% of paper for C/V 5K or higher, whose contract is being cancelled, is purchased from other companies. According to data representing the relationship between the number of machines whose contract is cancelled and the provided rate of the C/V, it is essential to sell desired paper in order to avoid the cancellation of the machines contracted. Therefore, to maintain contracts with customers while increasing the sufficiency level of the C/V, it is necessary to have alliance with a paper manufacturer.
Those requirements that consumers purchase commodities of a corresponding company in the above-described sales circumstances are: low prices for those large-scale companies; easy way to purchase commodities; delivery of a requested commodity the next day at latest; and the like. In addition to the above requirements, for those small-scale companies and personal customers, it is preferred that customers purchase commodities by “one stop order”. The customers of small-scale companies purchase any commodities by one stop, while customers of relatively large-scale companies purchase a plurality of commodites from different sellers. Demands from consumers are: appropriate attitude in a case where an ordering mistake is found; urgent delivery, keeping a rich assortment of commodities in each category, collection of used items at the time when delivering a new commodities/collection of rapping materials/additional service for delivering and putting the commodities onto a specified rack, etc. That is, there tends to be various customer needs, such as (1) various manufacturer supplies by “one stop order” (to aim for reducing the cost) and short delivery term, (2) reasonable price, (3) additional service, (4) easy way to order commodities (e.g. using a facsimile or through the Web (Internet), and (5) purchase and collection of used goods for the environmental sake.
Conventionally, manufacturers (vendors) sell commodities (product items) from their assigned distributors or from their own sales section, according to a mail-order selling method without the Internet technology. For example, if the user gives an order through a telephone call or facsimile in a particular order form, data representing the order contents is sent to a corresponding distributor or its own main business management system. Upon this, the distributor or the main business management system informs the user of the delivery date. The main business management system sends order-reception information to the terminal of the O/E system (Order Entry System), and the O/E system sends an order for a particular commodity (product item) toward a manufacture section of the manufacturer or vender. For the inquiries from the user about the price of the commodity, specification of the commodity (product), a request for returning back once-purchased commodity or a request for delivering the commodity in a short delivery term, the distributor or the sales section responds. Additionally, for those inquiries regarding the delivery date, delivery time, stock information, addition or cancellation of ordered commodity, confirmation as to whether facsimile data has been received, the manufacturer or the sales section responds.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above. It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a system for receiving orders for commodities and delivering the ordered commodities, and for realizing a mechanism corresponding to various customer needs and a new delivery service for providing users with commodities, and also to provide a method for receiving orders for commodities and delivering the commodities ordered, as employed in the above system.
In order to achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of receiving and handling an order from a customer using at least one computer, comprising the steps of:
receiving customer order information sent from the customer, said customer order information including customer information regarding the customer and at least one of ordering information representing contents of an order for a commodity ordered by the customer and support request information representing contents of a support request;
performing the order reception processing based on the received customer order information;
determining to deliver the commodity specified in the ordering information
and to provide a support specified in the support information, based on a result of the order reception processing;
confirming whether the commodity is delivered and the support is provided; and
charging a price of the commodity specified in the ordering information and a cost of the support specified in the support request information, based on the customer information including information regarding a price of each commodity purchased by the customer with high frequency and a cost of each support requested by the customer with high frequency, wherein the price and the cost are set by a seller of the commodity and support.
According to this invention, various services and prices in accordance with various customers can be realized, in response to a request therefor.
The method may further includes the steps of:
checking whether there is a stock of the commodity specified in the ordering information based on stock information;
determining a delivery date for delivering the ordered commodity; and
sending order-reception confirmation information including delivery-date information representing the determined delivery date and the customer order information to the customer either in a facsimile form or e-mail form.
According to this invention, the customer can check the contents of the order, and can be aware of the delivery date. Hence, the customer should highly be satisfied with this system.
The method may further including the steps of:
storing, in a storage, Q&A information representing the contents of inquiries sent from the customer and the seller and the contents of responses to the inquiries, the inquiries regarding commodities to be sold and supports to be provided; and
providing the Q&A information stored in the storage, in response to a request.
According to this invention, the customer can know the specific contents the services, and hence it is quite convenient for making orders for commodities or for requesting for services. At the same time, the service provider can know the customer needs, and can provide better services to customers based on their needs.
The method may further include the step of
gathering statistical data based on the customer information and customer order information of each of a plurality of customers; and
reflecting the statistical data to the Q&A information.
The support request information may include information regarding a request for collecting recyclable items including at least one of a used cartridge, a used toner container and used paper.
The method may further include the step of
arranging collection of used paper, in response to a support request for collecting used paper from the customer when a used-paper collection box provided to the customer is filled with used paper.
The support request information includes information regarding a request for at least one of:
a service for delivering the commodity to a place specified by the customer;
a service for unpacking the ordered commodity at a time of delivery;
a service for collecting an empty box that the customer does not need any more;
a service for delivering commodities that are repeatedly supplied to the customer on a FIFO basis;
a service for specifying a delivery date for delivering the commodity to be delivered;
a service for urgently delivering the ordered commodity; and
a service for periodically delivering a constant number of commodities specified by the customer.
The method may further include the steps of:
storing, in a storage in response to a customer registration operation of the seller, the customer information including information regarding a price of a commodity purchased by the customer with high frequency and a cost of a support requested by the customer with high frequency, wherein the price and the cost are set by the seller; and
creating a purchase application form and a catalog based on the stored customer information, and providing the customer with the created application form and catalog.
The customer order information may be sent from the customer through a telephone call, via facsimile or through Internet.
In a case where the customer has made a contract of maintenance service for one of a plurality of apparatus including OA apparatuses, a delivery of the commodity is assigned to a service person who can execute the maintenance service when it is determined that to deliver the commodity specified in the ordering information, and it may be determined to execute a maintenance service based on the maintenance contract at a time of delivering the commodity, based on the customer information and customer order information.
The method may further comprise the steps of:
arranging delivery of the commodity specified in the ordering information based on the customer order information, upon determination of the delivery of the commodity specified in the ordering information and the providing of the support; and
instructing a distributor to perform a support when delivering the commodity, in a case where the support is specified in the customer order information.
The method may further include the steps of:
confirming whether there is a stock of the ordered commodity based on stock information;
determining a delivery date for delivering the ordered commodity;
sending, to the customer, order-reception confirmation information including delivery-date information representing the determined delivery date and the customer order information in a facsimile form or e-mail form; and
arranging the delivery of the ordered commodity based on the delivery-date information and customer order information.
In order to achieve the above object, according to the second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an order-reception system comprising:
an order-reception subsystem which receives customer order information sent from a customer, wherein the customer order information includes customer information regarding the customer and at least one of ordering information representing contents of an order for a commodity ordered by the customer and support request information representing contents of a support request;
a business management subsystem which has a customer information database storing the customer information regarding a price of a commodity purchased by the customer with high frequency and a cost of a support requested by the customer with high frequency, and set by a seller; and
an order-entry subsystem which executes an order-reception processing based on the customer order information received by said order-reception subsystem,wherein said order-reception subsystemdetermines to deliver the commodity specified in the ordering information and to provide the support specified in the support information, based on a result of the order reception processing,confirms whether the ordered commodity is delivered and whether the support is provided; andcharging the price of the commodity and the cost of the support specified in the ordering information.
In addition to the ordering through a telephone call or facsimile transmission, the order-reception system may further include a network-order-reception subsystem which receives the customer order information sent from the customer through the Internet.
In order to achieve the above object, according to the third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an order-reception system for receiving and handling an order from a customer using at least one computer, said system comprising:
means for receiving customer order information sent from the customer, said customer order information including customer information regarding the customer and at least one of ordering information representing contents of an order for a commodity ordered by the customer and support request information representing contents of a support request;
means for performing the order reception processing based on the received customer order information
means for determining to deliver the commodity specified in the ordering information and to provide a support specified in the support request information, based on a result of the order reception processing;
means for confirming whether the commodity is delivered and the support is provided;
a customer-information database which stores the customer information including information regarding a price of a commodity purchased by the customer with high frequency and a cost of a support requested by the customer with high frequency, wherein the price and the cost are set by a seller of the commodity and support; and
means for charging a price of the commodity specified in the ordering information and a cost of the support specified in the support request information based on the customer information.
In order to achieve the above object, according to the fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a program for controlling a computer to execute the following steps of:
receiving customer order information sent from a customer, the customer order information including customer information regarding the customer and at least one of ordering information representing contents of an order for a commodity ordered by the customer and support request information representing contents of a request for a support;
executing an order-reception processing based on the received customer order information;
determining to deliver the commodity specified in the ordering information and to provide the support specified in the support request information, based on a result of the order-reception processing;
confirming whether the commodity has been delivered and whether the support has been provided; and
charging a price of the commodity specified in the ordering information and a cost of the support specified in the support request information, based on the customer information including information regarding a price of each commodity purchased by the customer with high frequency and a cost of each support requested by the customer with high frequency, wherein the price and the cost are set by a seller of the commodity and support.
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7833887 | BACKGROUND
The present invention relates generally to semiconductor devices, and more particularly to reducing parasitic resistance in source and drain contacts in non-planar integrated circuit transistors.
Trigate and finFET devices employ a channel connecting source and drain contact regions structured as a three-dimensional fin. The gate electrode controlling the channel current is applied to three exposed surfaces, i.e., two sides and a top. An insulating spacer layer may be applied to protect the gate electrode wrapped around and over the channel portion of the fin. The exposed source and drain regions of the fin may be metalized for electrical contact with a salicidation process. The thickness of the spacer generally limits the contact surface area available to the source drain region, a condition that becomes increasingly burdensome as device technology scales to smaller dimensions. The spacer conventionally flares at the base of the gate, limiting source/drain contact area and the uniformity of the gate on the fin's sidewalls and top.
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: BACKGROUND
The present invention relates generally to semiconductor devices, and more particularly to reducing parasitic resistance in source and drain contacts in non-planar integrated circuit transistors.
Trigate and finFET devices employ a channel connecting source and drain contact regions structured as a three-dimensional fin. The gate electrode controlling the channel current is applied to three exposed surfaces, i.e., two sides and a top. An insulating spacer layer may be applied to protect the gate electrode wrapped around and over the channel portion of the fin. The exposed source and drain regions of the fin may be metalized for electrical contact with a salicidation process. The thickness of the spacer generally limits the contact surface area available to the source drain region, a condition that becomes increasingly burdensome as device technology scales to smaller dimensions. The spacer conventionally flares at the base of the gate, limiting source/drain contact area and the uniformity of the gate on the fin's sidewalls and top.
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7645497 | FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an electronically conductive article comprising at least one conductive carbon nanotube layer in contact with at least one conductive layer comprising electronically conductive polymer.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are essentially graphene sheets rolled into hollow cylinders thereby resulting in tubules composed of sp2hybridized carbon arranged in hexagons and pentagons, which have outer diameters between 0.4 nm and 10 nm. These SWCNTs are typically capped on each end with a hemispherical fullerene (buckyball) appropriately sized for the diameter of the SWCNT. However, these end caps may be removed via appropriate processing techniques leaving uncapped tubules. SWCNTs can exist as single tubules or in aggregated form typically referred to as ropes or bundles. These ropes or bundles may contain several or a few hundred SWCNTs aggregated through Van der Waals interactions forming triangular lattices where the tube-tube separation is approximately 3-4 Å. Ropes of SWCNTs may be composed of associated bundles of SWCNTs.
The inherent properties of SWCNTs make them attractive for use in many applications. SWCNTs can possess high (e.g. metallic conductivities) electronic conductivities, high thermal conductivities, high modulus and tensile strength, high aspect ratio and other unique properties. Further, SWCNTs may be metallic, semi-metallic, or semiconducting dependant on the geometrical arrangement of the carbon atoms and the physical dimensions of the SWCNT. To specify the size and conformation of single-wall carbon nanotubes, a system has been developed, described below, and is currently utilized. SWCNTs are described by an index (n, m), where n and m are integers that describe how to cut a single strip of hexagonal graphite such that its edges join seamlessly when the strip is wrapped into the form of a cylinder. When n=m e.g. (n, n), the resultant tube is said to be of the “arm-chair” or (n, n) type, since when the tube is cut perpendicularly to the tube axis, only the sides of the hexagons are exposed and their pattern around the periphery of the tube edge resembles the arm and seat of an arm chair repeated n times. When m=0, the resultant tube is said to be of the “zig zag” or (n, 0) type, since when the tube is cut perpendicular to the tube axis, the edge is a zig zag pattern. Where n≠m and m≠0, the resulting tube has chirality. The electronic properties are dependent on the conformation, for example, arm-chair tubes are metallic and have extremely high electrical conductivity. Other tube types are semimetals or semi-conductors, depending on their conformation. SWCNTs have extremely high thermal conductivity and tensile strength irrespective of the chirality. The work functions of the metallic (approximately 4.7 eV) and semiconducting (approximately 5.1 eV) types of SWCNTs are different.
Similar to other forms of carbon allotropes (e.g. graphite, diamond) these SWCNTs are intractable and essentially insoluble in most solvents (organic and aqueous alike). Thus, SWCNTs have been extremely difficult to process for various uses. Several methods to make SWCNTs soluble in various solvents have been employed. One approach is to covalently functionalize the ends of the SWCNTs with either hydrophilic or hydrophobic moieties. A second approach is to add high levels of surfactant and/or dispersants (small molecule or polymeric) to help solubilize the SWCNTs.
Lavin et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,426,134 disclose a method to form polymer composites using SWCNTs. This method provides a means to melt extrude a SWCNT/polymer composite wherein at least one end of the SWCNT is chemically bonded to the polymer, where the polymer is selected from a linear or branched polyamide, polyester, polyimide, or polyurethane. This method does not provide opportunities for solvent based processing and is limited to melt extrusion which can limit opportunities for patterning or device making. The chemically bonded polymers identified typically have high molecular weights and could interfere with some material properties of the SWCNTs (e.g. electronic or thermal transport) via wrapping around the SWCNTs and preventing tube-tube contacts.
Connell et al in US Patent Application Publication 2003/0158323 A1 describes a method to produce polymer/SWCNT composites that are electronically conductive and transparent. The polymers (polyimides, copolyimides, polyamide acid, polyaryleneether, polymethylmethacrylate) and the SWCNTs or MWCNTs are mixed in organic solvents (DMF, N,N-dimethlacetamide, N-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone, toluene,) to cast films that have conductivities in the range of 10−5-10−12S/cm with varying transmissions in the visible spectrum. Additionally, monomers of the resultant polymers may be mixed with SWCNTs in appropriate solvents and polymerized in the presence of these SWCNTs to result in composites with varying weight ratios. The conductivities achieved in these polymer composites are several orders of magnitude too low and not optimal for use in most electronic devices as electronic conductors or EMI shields. Additionally, the organic solvents used are toxic, costly and pose problems in processing. Moreover, the polymers used or polymerized are not conductive and can impede tube-tube contact further increasing the resistivity of the composite.
Kuper et al in Publication WO 03/060941A2 disclose compositions to make suspended carbon nanotubes. The compositions are composed of liquids and SWCNTs or MWCNTs with suitable surfactants (cetyl trimethylammonium bromide/chloride/iodide). The ratio by weight of surfactant to SWCNTs given in the examples range from 1.4-5.2. This method is problematic as it needs extremely large levels of surfactant to solubilize the SWCNTs. The surfactant is insulating and impedes conductivity of a film deposited from this composition. The surfactant may be washed from the film but this step adds complexity and may decrease efficiency in processing. Further, due to the structure formed in films deposited from such a composition, it would be very difficult to remove all the surfactant.
Papadaopoulos et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,576,162 describe an imaging element which comprises carbon nanofibers to be used primarily as an anti-static material within the imaging element. These materials may not provide the highly transparent and highly conductive (low sheet resistance, RS) layer that is necessary in many current electronic devices, especially displays.
Smalley et al in U.S. Pat. No. 6,645,455 disclose methods to chemically derivatize SWCNTs to facilitate solvation in various solvents. Primarily the various derivative groups (alkyl chains, acyl, thiols, aminos, aryls etc.) are added to the ends of the SWCNTs. The side-walls of the SWCNTs are functionalized primarily with fluorine groups resulting in fluorinated SWCNTs. The solubility limit of such “fluorotubes” in 2-propanol is approximately 0.1 mg/mL and in water or water/acetone mixtures the solubility is essentially zero. The fluorinated SWCNTs were subjected to further chemical reactions to yield methylated SWCNTs and these tubes have a low solubility in Chloroform but not other solvents. Such low concentrations are impractical and unusable for most deposition techniques useful in high quantity manufacturing. Further, such high liquid loads need extra drying considerations and can destroy patterned images due to intermixing from the excess solvent. In addition, the method discloses functionalization of the tubule ends with various functionalization groups (acyl, aryl, aralkyl, halogen, alkyl, amino, halogen, thiol) but the end functionalization alone may not be enough to produce viable dispersions via solubilization. Further, the side-wall functionalization is done with fluorine only, which gives limited solubility in alcohols, which can make manufacturing and product fabrication more difficult. Additionally, the fluorinated SWCNTs are insulators due to the fluorination and thereby are not useful for electronic devices especially as electronic conductors. Moreover, the chemical transformations needed to add these functional groups to the end points of the SWCNTs require additional processing steps and chemicals which can be hazardous and costly.
Smalley et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,683,783 disclose methods to purify SWCNT materials resulting in SWCNTs with lengths from 5-500 nm. Within this patent, formulations are disclosed that use 0.5 wt % of a surfactant, Triton X-100 to disperse 0.1 mg/mL of SWCNT in water. Such low concentrations are impractical and unusable for most deposition techniques useful in high quantity manufacturing. Further, such high liquid loads need extra drying considerations and can destroy patterned images due to intermixing from the excess solvent. In addition, the method discloses functionalization of the tubule ends with various functionalization groups (acyl, aryl, aralkyl, halogen, alkyl, amino, halogen, thiol) but the end functionalization alone may not be enough to produce viable dispersions via solubilization. Moreover, the chemical transformations needed to add these functional groups to the end points of the SWCNTs require additional processing steps and chemicals which can be hazardous and costly. Also, the patent discloses a composition of matter which is at least 99% by weight of single wall carbon molecules which obviously limits the amount of functionalization that can be put onto the SWCNTs thereby limiting its solubilization levels and processability.
Rinzler et al. in PCT Publication WO2004/009884 A1 disclose a method of forming SWCNT films on a porous membrane such that it achieves 200 ohms/square and at least 30% transmission at a wavelength of 3 um. This method is disadvantaged since it needs a porous membrane (e.g. polycarbonate or mixed cellulose ester) with a high volume of porosity with a plurality of sub-micron pores as a substrate which may lose a significant amount of the SWCNT dispersion through said pores thereby wasting a significant amount of material. Also, such membranes may not have the optical transparency required for many electronic devices such as displays. Further, the membrane is set within a vacuum filtration system which severely limits the processability of such a system and makes the roll-to-roll coating application of the SWCNT solution impossible. Moreover, the weight percent of the dispersion used to make the SWCNT film was 0.005 mg/mL in an aqueous solution. Such weight percents are impractical and unusable in most coating and deposition systems with such a high liquid load. Such high liquid loads make it virtually impossible to make patterned images due to solvent spreading and therefore image bleeding/destruction.
Blanchet-Fincher et al in Publication WO 02/080195A1 and in US 20040065970 A1 illustrate high conductivity compositions composed of polyaniline (PANI) and SWCNTs or MWCNTs and methods to deposit such compositions from a donor element onto a receiver substrate. The nitrogen base salt derivative of emeraldine polyaniline is mixed with SWCNTs in organic solvents (toluene, xylene, turpinol, aromatics) and cast into films with conductivity values of 62 S/cm (1 wt % SWCNT in PANI) and 44 S/cm (2 wt % SWCNT in PANI). These films alternatively may be produced as part of a multi-layer donor structure suitable for a material transfer system. The PANI/SWCNT composite are transferred from the donor sheet to a suitable receiver substrate in imagewise form. PANI is a highly colored conductive polymer thus resulting in a conductive composite with unsatisfactory transparency and color, thus it is not suitable for high transparency/high conductivity applications such as displays. Further, the conductivity values are not suitable for many electronic device applications. In addition, the compositions are made in organic solvents, which may require special handling for health and safety, making manufacturing difficult and expensive.
Hsu in WO 2004/029176 A1 disclose compositions for electronically conducting organic polymer/nanoparticle composites. Polyaniline (Ormecon) or PEDT (Baytron P) are mixed with Molybdenum nanowires or carbon nanotubes (8 nm diameter, 20 um length, 60 S/cm). The compositions disclosed in this invention are disadvantaged by marginal conductivity.
Arthur et al in PCT Publication WO 03/099709 A2 disclose methods for patterning carbon nanotubes coatings. Dilute dispersions (10 to 100 ppm) of SWCNTs in isopropyl alcohol (IPA) and water (which may include viscosity modifying agents) are spray coated onto substrates. After application of the SWCNT coating, a binder is printed in imagewise fashion and cured. Alternatively, a photo-definable binder may be used to create the image using standard photolithographic processes. Materials not held to the substrate with binder are removed by washing. Dilute dispersions (10 to 100 ppm) of SWCNTs in isopropyl alcohol (IPA) and water with viscosity modifying agents are gravure coated onto substrates. Dilute dispersions (10 to 100 ppm) of SWCNTs in isopropyl alcohol (IPA) and water are spray coated onto substrates. The coated films are then exposed through a mask to a high intensity light source in order to significantly alter the electronic properties of the SWCNTs. This step is followed by a binder coating. The dispersion concentrations used in these methods make it very difficult to produce images via direct deposition (inkjet etc.) techniques. Further, such high solvent loads due to the low solids dispersions create long process times and difficulties handling the excess solvent. In addition, these patterning methods are subtractive processes, which unnecessarily waste the SWCNT material via additional removal steps thereby incurring cost and process time. This application also discloses method to make conductive compositions and coatings from such compositions but it does not teach satisfactory methods nor compositions to execute such methods.
Transparent electronically-conductive layers (TCL) of metal oxides such as indium tin oxide (ITO), antimony doped tin oxide, and cadmium stannate (cadmium tin oxide) are commonly used in the manufacture of electrooptical display devices such as liquid crystal display devices (LCDs), electroluminescent display devices, photocells, solid-state image sensors and electrochromic windows or as components of these devices such as electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding. They are also employed in resistive touch screens.
Devices such as flat-panel displays, typically contain a substrate provided with an indium tin oxide (ITO) layer as a transparent electrode. The coating of ITO is carried out by vacuum sputtering methods which involve high substrate temperature conditions up to 250° C., and therefore, glass substrates are generally used. The high cost of the fabrication methods and the low flexibility of such electrodes, due to the brittleness of the inorganic ITO layer as well as the glass substrate, limit the range of potential applications. As a result, there is a growing interest in making all-organic devices, comprising plastic resins as a flexible substrate and organic electroconductive polymer layers as an electrode. Such plastic electronics allow low cost devices with new properties. Flexible plastic substrates can be provided with an electroconductive polymer layer by continuous hopper or roller coating methods (compared to batch process such as sputtering) and the resulting organic electrodes enable the “roll to roll” fabrication of electronic devices which are more flexible, lower cost, and lower weight.
Intrinsically conductive polymers have recently received attention from various industries because of their electronic conductivity. Although many of these polymers are highly colored and are less suited for TCL applications, some of these intrinsically conductive polymers, such as substituted or unsubstituted pyrrole-containing polymers (as mentioned in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,665,498 and 5,674,654), substituted or unsubstituted thiophene-containing polymers (as mentioned in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,300,575, 5,312,681, 5,354,613, 5,370,981, 5,372,924, 5,391,472, 5,403,467, 5,443,944, 5,575,898, 4,987,042, and 4,731,408) and substituted or unsubstituted aniline-containing polymers (as mentioned in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,716,550, 5,093,439, and 4,070,189) are transparent and not prohibitively colored, at least when coated in thin layers at moderate coverage. Because of their electronic conductivity instead of ionic conductivity, these polymers are conducting even at low humidity.
EP-A-440 957 describes a method for preparing polythiophene in an aqueous mixture by oxidative polymerization in the presence of a polyanion as a doping agent. In EP-A-686 662 it has been disclosed that highly conductive layers of polythiophene, coated from an aqueous coating solution, could be made by the addition of a di- or polyhydroxy and/or a carbonic acid, amide or lactam group containing compound in the coating solution of the polythiophene. Coated layers of organic electroconductive polymers can be patterned into electrode arrays using different methods. The known wet-etching microlithography technique is described in WO97/18944 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,976,274 wherein a positive or negative photoresist is applied on top of a coated layer of an organic electroconductive polymer, and after the steps of selectively exposing the photoresist to UV light, developing the photoresist, etching the electroconductive polymer layer and finally stripping the non-developed photoresist, a patterned layer is obtained. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,561,030 a similar method is used to form the pattern except that the pattern is formed in a continuous layer of prepolymer which is not yet conductive and that after washing the mask away the remaining prepolymer is rendered conductive by oxidation. Such methods that involve conventional lithographic techniques are cumbersome as they involve many steps and require the use of hazardous chemicals.
EP-A-615 256 describes a method to produce a pattern of a conductive polymer on a substrate that involves coating and drying a composition containing 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene monomer, an oxidation agent, and a base; exposing the dried layer to UV radiation through a mask; and then heating. The UV exposed areas of the coating comprise non-conductive polymer and the unexposed areas comprise conductive polymer. The formation of a conductive polymer pattern in accordance with this method does not require the coating and patterning of a separate photoresist layer.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,045,977 describes a process for patterning conductive polyaniline layers containing a photobase generator. UV exposure of such layers produces a base that reduces the conductivity in the exposed areas.
EP-A-1 054 414 describes a method to pattern a conductive polymer layer by printing an electrode pattern onto said conductive polymer layer using a printing solution containing an oxidant selected from the group ClO−, BrO−, MnO4−, Cr2O7−2, S2O8−2, and H2O2. The areas of the conductive layer exposed to the oxidant solution are rendered nonconductive.
Research Disclosure, November 1998, page 1473 (disclosure no. 41548) describes various means to form patterns in conducting polymer, including photoablation wherein the selected areas are removed from the substrate by laser irradiation. Such photoablation processes are convenient, dry, one-step methods but the generation of debris may require a wet cleaning step and may contaminate the optics and mechanics of the laser device. Prior art methods involving removal of the electroconductive polymer to form the electrode pattern also induce a difference of the optical density between electroconductive and non-conductive areas of the patterned surface, which should be avoided.
Methods of patterning organic electroconductive polymer layers by image-wise heating by means of a laser have been disclosed in EP 1 079 397 A1. That method induces about a 10 to 1000 fold decrease in resistivity without substantially ablating or destroying the layer.
The application of electronically conductive polymers in display related device has been envisioned in the past. European Patent Application 1,172,831 describes a light transmissive substrate having a light transmissive conductive polymer coating for use in resistive touch screens. U.S. Pat. No. 5,738,934 describes touchscreen cover sheets having a conductive polymer coating.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,828,432 and 5,976,284 describe conductive polymer layers employed in liquid crystal display devices. The example conductive layers are highly conductive but typically have transparency of 60% or less.
Use of polythiophene as transparent field spreading layers in displays comprising polymer dispersed liquid crystals has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,639,637 and 6,707,517. However, the polythiophene layers in these patents are non-conductive in nature.
Use of commercial polythiophene coated sheet such as Orgacon from Agfa has been suggested for manufacturing of thin film inorganic light emitting diode in U.S. Pat. No. 6,737,293. However, the transparency vs. surface electrical resistivity of such products may not be sufficient for some applications.
Use of conductive high molecular film for preventing the fringe field in the in-plane switching mode in liquid crystal display has been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,959,708. However, the conductivity requirement for these films appears to be not very stringent. For example, in one embodiment (col. .5, lines 6-10) the high molecular film can be totally non-conductive. Moreover, U.S. Pat. No. 5,959,708 does not refer to any specification involving transmission characteristics of these films.
Use of transparent coating on glass substrates for cathode ray tubes using polythiophene and silicon oxide composites has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,404,120. However, the method suggests in-situ polymerization of an ethylenedioxythiohene monomer on glass, baking it at an elevated temperature and subsequent washing with tetra ethyl orthosilicate. Such an involved process may be difficult to practice for roll-to-roll production of a wide flexible plastic substrate.
Use of in-situ polymerized polythiophene and polypyrrole has been proposed in U.S. Pat Appl. Pub. 2003/0008135 A1 as conductive films, for ITO replacement. As mentioned earlier, such processes are difficult to implement for roll-to-roll production of conductive coatings. In the same patent application, a comparative example was created using a dispersion of poly(3,4 ethylene dioxythiophene)/polystyrene sulfonic acid which resulted in inferior coating properties.
Addition of conductivity enhancing agents such as organic compounds with dihydroxy or polyhydroxy and/or carboxyl groups or amide groups or lactam groups are suggested for incorporation in polythiophene in U.S. Pat. No. 5,766,515. Recently, U.S. Pat. Appl. Pub. 2003/0193042 A1 claims further improvement in conductivity of polythiophene through the addition of a substantial quantity of organic compounds such as phenols. But, health and safety concerns will dictate special precautionary measures, which may need to be taken, for the introduction of such hazardous compounds to a typical web manufacturing and coating site, thus possibly adding cost to the final product.
In another recent publication titled “Hydroxylated secondary dopants for surface resistance enhancement in transparent poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrenesulfonate) thin films” by B. D. Martin, N. Nikolov, S. K. Pollack, A. Saprigin, R. Shashidhar, F. Zhang and P. A. Heiney, published in Synthetic Metals, vol. 142 (2004), p. 187-193, it was stated that the addition of small hydroxylated secondary dopants could greatly decrease the surface resistance of polythiophene films without reducing film transparency.
Devices such as resistive touch screens also employ a substrate provided with transparent conductors. Typically substrates are formed from rigid glass and a coating of ITO forms the transparent conductor. However, in this application, a flexible transparent cover sheet coated with a transparent conductor overlies the substrate and is separated from the substrate by spacer dots. The flexible cover sheet is deformed in operation by a stylus or finger to bring the two transparent conductive layers into contact. ITO is also commonly employed as the transparent conductor on the flexible transparent cover sheet. However, ITO tends to crack under stress and its conductivity altered. More flexible conductive polymers have also been considered for this application, but these conductive polymers are softer than ITO and tend to degrade from repeated contacts.
As indicated herein above, the art discloses a wide variety of electronically conductive TCL compositions that can be incorporated in displays and touch screens. Although application of electronically conductive polymers in display and touch screen related devices has been contemplated in the past, the stringent requirements of high transparency, low surface electrical resistivity, flexibility, and robustness under repeated contact demanded by modern display devices or touch screens is extremely difficult to attain with electronically conductive polymers. Thus, there is still a critical need in the art for transparent conductors that can be coated roll-to-roll on a wide variety of substrates under typical manufacturing conditions using environmentally desirable components. In addition to providing superior electrode performance, the TCL layers also must be highly transparent, must be patternable, must resist the effects of humidity change, and be manufacturable at a reasonable cost.
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED BY THE INVENTION
There is a need to provide improved electronically conductive, patternable, preferably coatable, conductive films that more effectively meet the diverse commercial needs than those of the prior art toward which the present invention is directed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides an electronically conductive article comprising at least one conductive carbon nanotube layer in contact with at least one conductive layer comprising electronically conductive polymer.
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SUMMARY: FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an electronically conductive article comprising at least one conductive carbon nanotube layer in contact with at least one conductive layer comprising electronically conductive polymer.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are essentially graphene sheets rolled into hollow cylinders thereby resulting in tubules composed of sp2hybridized carbon arranged in hexagons and pentagons, which have outer diameters between 0.4 nm and 10 nm. These SWCNTs are typically capped on each end with a hemispherical fullerene (buckyball) appropriately sized for the diameter of the SWCNT. However, these end caps may be removed via appropriate processing techniques leaving uncapped tubules. SWCNTs can exist as single tubules or in aggregated form typically referred to as ropes or bundles. These ropes or bundles may contain several or a few hundred SWCNTs aggregated through Van der Waals interactions forming triangular lattices where the tube-tube separation is approximately 3-4 Å. Ropes of SWCNTs may be composed of associated bundles of SWCNTs.
The inherent properties of SWCNTs make them attractive for use in many applications. SWCNTs can possess high (e.g. metallic conductivities) electronic conductivities, high thermal conductivities, high modulus and tensile strength, high aspect ratio and other unique properties. Further, SWCNTs may be metallic, semi-metallic, or semiconducting dependant on the geometrical arrangement of the carbon atoms and the physical dimensions of the SWCNT. To specify the size and conformation of single-wall carbon nanotubes, a system has been developed, described below, and is currently utilized. SWCNTs are described by an index (n, m), where n and m are integers that describe how to cut a single strip of hexagonal graphite such that its edges join seamlessly when the strip is wrapped into the form of a cylinder. When n=m e.g. (n, n), the resultant tube is said to be of the “arm-chair” or (n, n) type, since when the tube is cut perpendicularly to the tube axis, only the sides of the hexagons are exposed and their pattern around the periphery of the tube edge resembles the arm and seat of an arm chair repeated n times. When m=0, the resultant tube is said to be of the “zig zag” or (n, 0) type, since when the tube is cut perpendicular to the tube axis, the edge is a zig zag pattern. Where n≠m and m≠0, the resulting tube has chirality. The electronic properties are dependent on the conformation, for example, arm-chair tubes are metallic and have extremely high electrical conductivity. Other tube types are semimetals or semi-conductors, depending on their conformation. SWCNTs have extremely high thermal conductivity and tensile strength irrespective of the chirality. The work functions of the metallic (approximately 4.7 eV) and semiconducting (approximately 5.1 eV) types of SWCNTs are different.
Similar to other forms of carbon allotropes (e.g. graphite, diamond) these SWCNTs are intractable and essentially insoluble in most solvents (organic and aqueous alike). Thus, SWCNTs have been extremely difficult to process for various uses. Several methods to make SWCNTs soluble in various solvents have been employed. One approach is to covalently functionalize the ends of the SWCNTs with either hydrophilic or hydrophobic moieties. A second approach is to add high levels of surfactant and/or dispersants (small molecule or polymeric) to help solubilize the SWCNTs.
Lavin et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,426,134 disclose a method to form polymer composites using SWCNTs. This method provides a means to melt extrude a SWCNT/polymer composite wherein at least one end of the SWCNT is chemically bonded to the polymer, where the polymer is selected from a linear or branched polyamide, polyester, polyimide, or polyurethane. This method does not provide opportunities for solvent based processing and is limited to melt extrusion which can limit opportunities for patterning or device making. The chemically bonded polymers identified typically have high molecular weights and could interfere with some material properties of the SWCNTs (e.g. electronic or thermal transport) via wrapping around the SWCNTs and preventing tube-tube contacts.
Connell et al in US Patent Application Publication 2003/0158323 A1 describes a method to produce polymer/SWCNT composites that are electronically conductive and transparent. The polymers (polyimides, copolyimides, polyamide acid, polyaryleneether, polymethylmethacrylate) and the SWCNTs or MWCNTs are mixed in organic solvents (DMF, N,N-dimethlacetamide, N-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone, toluene,) to cast films that have conductivities in the range of 10−5-10−12S/cm with varying transmissions in the visible spectrum. Additionally, monomers of the resultant polymers may be mixed with SWCNTs in appropriate solvents and polymerized in the presence of these SWCNTs to result in composites with varying weight ratios. The conductivities achieved in these polymer composites are several orders of magnitude too low and not optimal for use in most electronic devices as electronic conductors or EMI shields. Additionally, the organic solvents used are toxic, costly and pose problems in processing. Moreover, the polymers used or polymerized are not conductive and can impede tube-tube contact further increasing the resistivity of the composite.
Kuper et al in Publication WO 03/060941A2 disclose compositions to make suspended carbon nanotubes. The compositions are composed of liquids and SWCNTs or MWCNTs with suitable surfactants (cetyl trimethylammonium bromide/chloride/iodide). The ratio by weight of surfactant to SWCNTs given in the examples range from 1.4-5.2. This method is problematic as it needs extremely large levels of surfactant to solubilize the SWCNTs. The surfactant is insulating and impedes conductivity of a film deposited from this composition. The surfactant may be washed from the film but this step adds complexity and may decrease efficiency in processing. Further, due to the structure formed in films deposited from such a composition, it would be very difficult to remove all the surfactant.
Papadaopoulos et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,576,162 describe an imaging element which comprises carbon nanofibers to be used primarily as an anti-static material within the imaging element. These materials may not provide the highly transparent and highly conductive (low sheet resistance, RS) layer that is necessary in many current electronic devices, especially displays.
Smalley et al in U.S. Pat. No. 6,645,455 disclose methods to chemically derivatize SWCNTs to facilitate solvation in various solvents. Primarily the various derivative groups (alkyl chains, acyl, thiols, aminos, aryls etc.) are added to the ends of the SWCNTs. The side-walls of the SWCNTs are functionalized primarily with fluorine groups resulting in fluorinated SWCNTs. The solubility limit of such “fluorotubes” in 2-propanol is approximately 0.1 mg/mL and in water or water/acetone mixtures the solubility is essentially zero. The fluorinated SWCNTs were subjected to further chemical reactions to yield methylated SWCNTs and these tubes have a low solubility in Chloroform but not other solvents. Such low concentrations are impractical and unusable for most deposition techniques useful in high quantity manufacturing. Further, such high liquid loads need extra drying considerations and can destroy patterned images due to intermixing from the excess solvent. In addition, the method discloses functionalization of the tubule ends with various functionalization groups (acyl, aryl, aralkyl, halogen, alkyl, amino, halogen, thiol) but the end functionalization alone may not be enough to produce viable dispersions via solubilization. Further, the side-wall functionalization is done with fluorine only, which gives limited solubility in alcohols, which can make manufacturing and product fabrication more difficult. Additionally, the fluorinated SWCNTs are insulators due to the fluorination and thereby are not useful for electronic devices especially as electronic conductors. Moreover, the chemical transformations needed to add these functional groups to the end points of the SWCNTs require additional processing steps and chemicals which can be hazardous and costly.
Smalley et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,683,783 disclose methods to purify SWCNT materials resulting in SWCNTs with lengths from 5-500 nm. Within this patent, formulations are disclosed that use 0.5 wt % of a surfactant, Triton X-100 to disperse 0.1 mg/mL of SWCNT in water. Such low concentrations are impractical and unusable for most deposition techniques useful in high quantity manufacturing. Further, such high liquid loads need extra drying considerations and can destroy patterned images due to intermixing from the excess solvent. In addition, the method discloses functionalization of the tubule ends with various functionalization groups (acyl, aryl, aralkyl, halogen, alkyl, amino, halogen, thiol) but the end functionalization alone may not be enough to produce viable dispersions via solubilization. Moreover, the chemical transformations needed to add these functional groups to the end points of the SWCNTs require additional processing steps and chemicals which can be hazardous and costly. Also, the patent discloses a composition of matter which is at least 99% by weight of single wall carbon molecules which obviously limits the amount of functionalization that can be put onto the SWCNTs thereby limiting its solubilization levels and processability.
Rinzler et al. in PCT Publication WO2004/009884 A1 disclose a method of forming SWCNT films on a porous membrane such that it achieves 200 ohms/square and at least 30% transmission at a wavelength of 3 um. This method is disadvantaged since it needs a porous membrane (e.g. polycarbonate or mixed cellulose ester) with a high volume of porosity with a plurality of sub-micron pores as a substrate which may lose a significant amount of the SWCNT dispersion through said pores thereby wasting a significant amount of material. Also, such membranes may not have the optical transparency required for many electronic devices such as displays. Further, the membrane is set within a vacuum filtration system which severely limits the processability of such a system and makes the roll-to-roll coating application of the SWCNT solution impossible. Moreover, the weight percent of the dispersion used to make the SWCNT film was 0.005 mg/mL in an aqueous solution. Such weight percents are impractical and unusable in most coating and deposition systems with such a high liquid load. Such high liquid loads make it virtually impossible to make patterned images due to solvent spreading and therefore image bleeding/destruction.
Blanchet-Fincher et al in Publication WO 02/080195A1 and in US 20040065970 A1 illustrate high conductivity compositions composed of polyaniline (PANI) and SWCNTs or MWCNTs and methods to deposit such compositions from a donor element onto a receiver substrate. The nitrogen base salt derivative of emeraldine polyaniline is mixed with SWCNTs in organic solvents (toluene, xylene, turpinol, aromatics) and cast into films with conductivity values of 62 S/cm (1 wt % SWCNT in PANI) and 44 S/cm (2 wt % SWCNT in PANI). These films alternatively may be produced as part of a multi-layer donor structure suitable for a material transfer system. The PANI/SWCNT composite are transferred from the donor sheet to a suitable receiver substrate in imagewise form. PANI is a highly colored conductive polymer thus resulting in a conductive composite with unsatisfactory transparency and color, thus it is not suitable for high transparency/high conductivity applications such as displays. Further, the conductivity values are not suitable for many electronic device applications. In addition, the compositions are made in organic solvents, which may require special handling for health and safety, making manufacturing difficult and expensive.
Hsu in WO 2004/029176 A1 disclose compositions for electronically conducting organic polymer/nanoparticle composites. Polyaniline (Ormecon) or PEDT (Baytron P) are mixed with Molybdenum nanowires or carbon nanotubes (8 nm diameter, 20 um length, 60 S/cm). The compositions disclosed in this invention are disadvantaged by marginal conductivity.
Arthur et al in PCT Publication WO 03/099709 A2 disclose methods for patterning carbon nanotubes coatings. Dilute dispersions (10 to 100 ppm) of SWCNTs in isopropyl alcohol (IPA) and water (which may include viscosity modifying agents) are spray coated onto substrates. After application of the SWCNT coating, a binder is printed in imagewise fashion and cured. Alternatively, a photo-definable binder may be used to create the image using standard photolithographic processes. Materials not held to the substrate with binder are removed by washing. Dilute dispersions (10 to 100 ppm) of SWCNTs in isopropyl alcohol (IPA) and water with viscosity modifying agents are gravure coated onto substrates. Dilute dispersions (10 to 100 ppm) of SWCNTs in isopropyl alcohol (IPA) and water are spray coated onto substrates. The coated films are then exposed through a mask to a high intensity light source in order to significantly alter the electronic properties of the SWCNTs. This step is followed by a binder coating. The dispersion concentrations used in these methods make it very difficult to produce images via direct deposition (inkjet etc.) techniques. Further, such high solvent loads due to the low solids dispersions create long process times and difficulties handling the excess solvent. In addition, these patterning methods are subtractive processes, which unnecessarily waste the SWCNT material via additional removal steps thereby incurring cost and process time. This application also discloses method to make conductive compositions and coatings from such compositions but it does not teach satisfactory methods nor compositions to execute such methods.
Transparent electronically-conductive layers (TCL) of metal oxides such as indium tin oxide (ITO), antimony doped tin oxide, and cadmium stannate (cadmium tin oxide) are commonly used in the manufacture of electrooptical display devices such as liquid crystal display devices (LCDs), electroluminescent display devices, photocells, solid-state image sensors and electrochromic windows or as components of these devices such as electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding. They are also employed in resistive touch screens.
Devices such as flat-panel displays, typically contain a substrate provided with an indium tin oxide (ITO) layer as a transparent electrode. The coating of ITO is carried out by vacuum sputtering methods which involve high substrate temperature conditions up to 250° C., and therefore, glass substrates are generally used. The high cost of the fabrication methods and the low flexibility of such electrodes, due to the brittleness of the inorganic ITO layer as well as the glass substrate, limit the range of potential applications. As a result, there is a growing interest in making all-organic devices, comprising plastic resins as a flexible substrate and organic electroconductive polymer layers as an electrode. Such plastic electronics allow low cost devices with new properties. Flexible plastic substrates can be provided with an electroconductive polymer layer by continuous hopper or roller coating methods (compared to batch process such as sputtering) and the resulting organic electrodes enable the “roll to roll” fabrication of electronic devices which are more flexible, lower cost, and lower weight.
Intrinsically conductive polymers have recently received attention from various industries because of their electronic conductivity. Although many of these polymers are highly colored and are less suited for TCL applications, some of these intrinsically conductive polymers, such as substituted or unsubstituted pyrrole-containing polymers (as mentioned in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,665,498 and 5,674,654), substituted or unsubstituted thiophene-containing polymers (as mentioned in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,300,575, 5,312,681, 5,354,613, 5,370,981, 5,372,924, 5,391,472, 5,403,467, 5,443,944, 5,575,898, 4,987,042, and 4,731,408) and substituted or unsubstituted aniline-containing polymers (as mentioned in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,716,550, 5,093,439, and 4,070,189) are transparent and not prohibitively colored, at least when coated in thin layers at moderate coverage. Because of their electronic conductivity instead of ionic conductivity, these polymers are conducting even at low humidity.
EP-A-440 957 describes a method for preparing polythiophene in an aqueous mixture by oxidative polymerization in the presence of a polyanion as a doping agent. In EP-A-686 662 it has been disclosed that highly conductive layers of polythiophene, coated from an aqueous coating solution, could be made by the addition of a di- or polyhydroxy and/or a carbonic acid, amide or lactam group containing compound in the coating solution of the polythiophene. Coated layers of organic electroconductive polymers can be patterned into electrode arrays using different methods. The known wet-etching microlithography technique is described in WO97/18944 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,976,274 wherein a positive or negative photoresist is applied on top of a coated layer of an organic electroconductive polymer, and after the steps of selectively exposing the photoresist to UV light, developing the photoresist, etching the electroconductive polymer layer and finally stripping the non-developed photoresist, a patterned layer is obtained. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,561,030 a similar method is used to form the pattern except that the pattern is formed in a continuous layer of prepolymer which is not yet conductive and that after washing the mask away the remaining prepolymer is rendered conductive by oxidation. Such methods that involve conventional lithographic techniques are cumbersome as they involve many steps and require the use of hazardous chemicals.
EP-A-615 256 describes a method to produce a pattern of a conductive polymer on a substrate that involves coating and drying a composition containing 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene monomer, an oxidation agent, and a base; exposing the dried layer to UV radiation through a mask; and then heating. The UV exposed areas of the coating comprise non-conductive polymer and the unexposed areas comprise conductive polymer. The formation of a conductive polymer pattern in accordance with this method does not require the coating and patterning of a separate photoresist layer.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,045,977 describes a process for patterning conductive polyaniline layers containing a photobase generator. UV exposure of such layers produces a base that reduces the conductivity in the exposed areas.
EP-A-1 054 414 describes a method to pattern a conductive polymer layer by printing an electrode pattern onto said conductive polymer layer using a printing solution containing an oxidant selected from the group ClO−, BrO−, MnO4−, Cr2O7−2, S2O8−2, and H2O2. The areas of the conductive layer exposed to the oxidant solution are rendered nonconductive.
Research Disclosure, November 1998, page 1473 (disclosure no. 41548) describes various means to form patterns in conducting polymer, including photoablation wherein the selected areas are removed from the substrate by laser irradiation. Such photoablation processes are convenient, dry, one-step methods but the generation of debris may require a wet cleaning step and may contaminate the optics and mechanics of the laser device. Prior art methods involving removal of the electroconductive polymer to form the electrode pattern also induce a difference of the optical density between electroconductive and non-conductive areas of the patterned surface, which should be avoided.
Methods of patterning organic electroconductive polymer layers by image-wise heating by means of a laser have been disclosed in EP 1 079 397 A1. That method induces about a 10 to 1000 fold decrease in resistivity without substantially ablating or destroying the layer.
The application of electronically conductive polymers in display related device has been envisioned in the past. European Patent Application 1,172,831 describes a light transmissive substrate having a light transmissive conductive polymer coating for use in resistive touch screens. U.S. Pat. No. 5,738,934 describes touchscreen cover sheets having a conductive polymer coating.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,828,432 and 5,976,284 describe conductive polymer layers employed in liquid crystal display devices. The example conductive layers are highly conductive but typically have transparency of 60% or less.
Use of polythiophene as transparent field spreading layers in displays comprising polymer dispersed liquid crystals has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,639,637 and 6,707,517. However, the polythiophene layers in these patents are non-conductive in nature.
Use of commercial polythiophene coated sheet such as Orgacon from Agfa has been suggested for manufacturing of thin film inorganic light emitting diode in U.S. Pat. No. 6,737,293. However, the transparency vs. surface electrical resistivity of such products may not be sufficient for some applications.
Use of conductive high molecular film for preventing the fringe field in the in-plane switching mode in liquid crystal display has been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,959,708. However, the conductivity requirement for these films appears to be not very stringent. For example, in one embodiment (col. .5, lines 6-10) the high molecular film can be totally non-conductive. Moreover, U.S. Pat. No. 5,959,708 does not refer to any specification involving transmission characteristics of these films.
Use of transparent coating on glass substrates for cathode ray tubes using polythiophene and silicon oxide composites has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,404,120. However, the method suggests in-situ polymerization of an ethylenedioxythiohene monomer on glass, baking it at an elevated temperature and subsequent washing with tetra ethyl orthosilicate. Such an involved process may be difficult to practice for roll-to-roll production of a wide flexible plastic substrate.
Use of in-situ polymerized polythiophene and polypyrrole has been proposed in U.S. Pat Appl. Pub. 2003/0008135 A1 as conductive films, for ITO replacement. As mentioned earlier, such processes are difficult to implement for roll-to-roll production of conductive coatings. In the same patent application, a comparative example was created using a dispersion of poly(3,4 ethylene dioxythiophene)/polystyrene sulfonic acid which resulted in inferior coating properties.
Addition of conductivity enhancing agents such as organic compounds with dihydroxy or polyhydroxy and/or carboxyl groups or amide groups or lactam groups are suggested for incorporation in polythiophene in U.S. Pat. No. 5,766,515. Recently, U.S. Pat. Appl. Pub. 2003/0193042 A1 claims further improvement in conductivity of polythiophene through the addition of a substantial quantity of organic compounds such as phenols. But, health and safety concerns will dictate special precautionary measures, which may need to be taken, for the introduction of such hazardous compounds to a typical web manufacturing and coating site, thus possibly adding cost to the final product.
In another recent publication titled “Hydroxylated secondary dopants for surface resistance enhancement in transparent poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrenesulfonate) thin films” by B. D. Martin, N. Nikolov, S. K. Pollack, A. Saprigin, R. Shashidhar, F. Zhang and P. A. Heiney, published in Synthetic Metals, vol. 142 (2004), p. 187-193, it was stated that the addition of small hydroxylated secondary dopants could greatly decrease the surface resistance of polythiophene films without reducing film transparency.
Devices such as resistive touch screens also employ a substrate provided with transparent conductors. Typically substrates are formed from rigid glass and a coating of ITO forms the transparent conductor. However, in this application, a flexible transparent cover sheet coated with a transparent conductor overlies the substrate and is separated from the substrate by spacer dots. The flexible cover sheet is deformed in operation by a stylus or finger to bring the two transparent conductive layers into contact. ITO is also commonly employed as the transparent conductor on the flexible transparent cover sheet. However, ITO tends to crack under stress and its conductivity altered. More flexible conductive polymers have also been considered for this application, but these conductive polymers are softer than ITO and tend to degrade from repeated contacts.
As indicated herein above, the art discloses a wide variety of electronically conductive TCL compositions that can be incorporated in displays and touch screens. Although application of electronically conductive polymers in display and touch screen related devices has been contemplated in the past, the stringent requirements of high transparency, low surface electrical resistivity, flexibility, and robustness under repeated contact demanded by modern display devices or touch screens is extremely difficult to attain with electronically conductive polymers. Thus, there is still a critical need in the art for transparent conductors that can be coated roll-to-roll on a wide variety of substrates under typical manufacturing conditions using environmentally desirable components. In addition to providing superior electrode performance, the TCL layers also must be highly transparent, must be patternable, must resist the effects of humidity change, and be manufacturable at a reasonable cost.
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED BY THE INVENTION
There is a need to provide improved electronically conductive, patternable, preferably coatable, conductive films that more effectively meet the diverse commercial needs than those of the prior art toward which the present invention is directed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides an electronically conductive article comprising at least one conductive carbon nanotube layer in contact with at least one conductive layer comprising electronically conductive polymer.
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7708886 | BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to improvements in the design and operation of expanded or fluidised beds in which a fluid, particularly a liquid, is used to transmit the energy for bed expansion. An expanded or fluidised bed is one in which the particles are suspended in a fluid flow but do not substantially move with the bulk flow of that fluid. The classical chemical engineering definition of an expanded bed is one that is increased in volume up to 50% or 100% over that of the bed when static, i.e., with no fluid flow; whilst a fluidised bed is defined as having a volume more than 50% or 100% greater than that of the static bed with no fluid flow. In particular, the present invention relates to biological processes such as water and wastewater treatment, fermentation, and bio-catalysis. For such processes, areas in need of improvement include distribution of the liquid flow; energy costs for pumping and aeration; control of biomass overgrowth; and biomass support materials
Recent publications in the scientific literature have highlighted aspects of fluidised bed design and operation, which are in need of improvement. For example, P. M. Sutton and P. N. Mishra (“Activated carbon based biological fluidised beds for contaminated water and wastewater treatment: a state of the art review”, Water Science and Technology Vol. 29 10-11: 309-317, 1994) point out that “The mechanical components and sub-systems critical to the design of BFB (biological fluidised bed) commercial system embodiments are the following” and went on to cite the distributor, oxygen transfer, and control of biofilm growth. Their paper was based on a review of “Over 80 commercial, media-based BFB reactors (that) have been installed in North America and Europe.”
In a more recent review, C. Nicolella, M. C. M. van Loosdrecht and J. J. Heijnen (“Wastewater treatment with particulate biofilm reactors”, Journal of Biotechnology 80: 1-33, 2000) identified four key disadvantages of fluidised bed operation:
1. Biofilm formation on carriers, which poses problems leading to long start-up times.
2. Difficulty in control of biofilm thickness.
3. Overgrowth of biofilm leading to elutriation of particles.
4. High cost of liquid distributors for fluidised systems for large-scale reactors and associated problems with respect to clogging and uniform fluidization.
Since the introduction of liquid fluidised bed technology, a number of patents have been granted for devices to ensure the uniform distribution of liquid flow at the base of the bed. These include downward flow through expansion nozzles (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,202,774, U.S. Pat. No. 4,464,262, U.S. Pat. No. 4,618,418, U.S. Pat. No. 5,584,996); nozzles with a perforated grid or plate above (U.S. Pat. No. 4,702,891, U.S. Pat. No. 4,933,149); perforated distributor plates, similar to those used in conventional gas-fluidised systems (U.S. Pat. No. 4,322,296) or with a static bed of coarse sand and fine grades of sand above (U.S. Pat. No. 5,965,016); or simply a static bed of granular material (U.S. Pat. No. 5,895,576), sand (GB780406) or both (GB2149683).
If the fluid flow at the base of the bed is turbulent, this results in increased impacts between fluidised particles producing abrasion, or in the case of particles carrying a reactant layer, premature stripping of the reactant layer from the fluidised carrier particles.
GB780406 discloses a particulate distributor comprising a static bed of sand lying on a perforated screen with flow rates of the order of 1 gallon per square foot per minute (49 L per m2per mm) or an upward velocity of about 0.08 cm per cm per sec. This low rate of flow through the distributor is insufficient to cause movement of its particles, and the teaching here is that the granular material is being used in effect as a “3-dimensional” perforated plate. In an attempt to improve the fluid flow characteristic in a fluidised bed, Bernard Suchowski, Joseph E. Gargas, Robert H. Hyde and Joseph Pluchino (U.S. Pat. No. 5,965,016) proposed the use of larger and heavier particles of sand collected just above a perforated distributor plate, where they help distribute the flow more evenly.
In spite of this, the presence of the perforated plate itself poses physical constraints to fluid flow.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE
We have found that by removing the plate completely and causing or allowing the particles of the distributor layer to move, but not themselves to be fluidised, a significant improvement in fluid flow properties in the lower part of the bed results.
In one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for improving the performance of a fluidised bed in which a bed of particulate material is fluidised by the passage of a fluidizing medium there through, characterised by the provision of a distributor layer through which the fluidizing medium is caused or allowed to pass prior to passing through the fluidised bed, the density of the particles of the distributor layer and the flow rate of the fluidizing medium being selected such that turbulence in the fluidizing medium is substantially reduced or eliminated before acting on the fluidised bed.
In a particular aspect of the present invention, a reactant moiety of the fluidised bed may be carried as a film or layer on a particulate carrier. In this particular case, the thickness of the reactant layer on the inert carrier medium may be controlled by allowing particles containing excess of reactant on the surface to be removed from the upper part of the fluidised bed to be recycled into the distributor layer, whereby excess biomass material is stripped from the carrier particles by the action of the distributor layer as the carrier particles pass therethrough towards the fluidised bed. Moreover, it has also been observed that biofilm thickness control can be achieved without recycling particles from one end of the bed to the other end.
Interactions at the interface between the moving bed distributor and the fluidised bed cause stripping of excess biofilm, resulting in a more compact biofilm. Evidence for the more compact nature of the biofilm arises from observations that the degree of bed expansion reduced (from 117.5 to 98.0 cm) but the static bed height remained substantially the same (52.9-53.3 cm); and that the bed began to compact more rapidly, once settled from the expanded state, during the period over which this effect occurred.
The invention provides in a further aspect an apparatus for improving the performance of a fluidised bed, which apparatus comprises:
means for establishing a bed of material to be fluidised, and
injection means for injecting a stream of fluidizing medium through said bed,
characterised by the provision of a distributor layer of particulate material through which the fluidizing medium is passed substantially prior to passing through said bed whereby turbulence in the fluidizing medium as it passes through said fluidised bed is substantially reduced.
The distributor layer may be a layer of a particulate material having a density greater than that of the particles constituting the fluidised layer itself. In a particular embodiment of the present invention the distributor layer is agitated by the fluidizing medium but is not itself fluidised. What is required is that the particles constituting the distributor layer move with the flow of fluidised medium but the bed itself is not fluidised. In this way, the layer of distributor material acts to constrain the turbulence of the flow of fluidizing medium, which turbulence is damped by the movement of the particles in the distributor layer. As a result, the fluidizing medium serves to fluidize the bed without undue turbulence or violent movement of the particles constituting the bed. In this way, if the bed constitutes a delicate material, abrasion or damage to the particles constituting the bed is reduced to a minimum.
The distributor layer in a preferred embodiment of the invention is a moving distributor layer in which the movement of the particles of the distributor layer serves to distribute more evenly the flow of fluid medium to the underside of the fluidised bed while at the same time serving to damp out turbulence within the fluid flow. The result is a substantially lamina flow of fluid through the fluidised bed which serves to open the structure of the fluidised bed to permit interaction between the fluidizing medium and the particles constituting the bed thus promoting interaction between the two while at the same time reducing to a minimum the severity of collisions between particles within the fluidised bed.
This overcomes a long-standing problem of fluidised bed technology, where hitherto the strong movement of fluidizing material within the centre of the bed or in juxtaposition the fluid inlet has caused excessive agitation of the bed and the lack of uniformity of reaction conditions across it. As discussed in the introduction to this specification, a significant amount of technology in terms of nozzles, injection means, baffle plates and the like have been used in an attempt to overcome this problem.
The distributor layer may be a distinct layer below the fluidised bed and the overlap between the two layers is preferably at a minimum to reduce abrasion and/or removal of the reactant from the carrier particles, although some minimal interaction is to be encouraged as it serves to control the biofilm and allow its development in a more compact form. Typically, the fluidizing medium may be a liquid.
It will be appreciated by the person skilled in the art that the thickness of the distributor layer and the fluidizing medium flow rate may be selected such that substantially no turbulence is experienced in the fluidised reactant bed as a result of passage of the fluidizing medium therethrough.
The precise parameters constitute something of a balancing act. The denser the particles of the distributor layer, the greater the amount of energy necessary to produce appropriate movement within the distributor layer. Thus, there is a trade-off between density of the particles and size of particles in the distributor layer with the pressure/velocity of the fluidizing medium feed. This balance is also important in gaining the benefit of biofilm control solely through interactions at the interface.
The present invention has been found to be particularly useful in fluidised bed or fermentation reactions involving biological material. In a particular aspect of the present invention the fluidised bed particles may be coated with a biofilm layer as a reactant moiety.
According to one aspect of the invention, in this particular case the particulate material constituting the fluidised bed particles may be the inert carrier medium for the biofilm. In a further aspect of the invention the inert carrier medium may be a glassy coke, upon the surface of which the biofilm layer is immobilised.
Such a material is described and claimed in our No GB99/03542, the disclosure of the specification of which is incorporated herein by reference. Cells grow best on slightly porous materials, which enables them to adhere and the biofilm to develop, while at the same time providing the largest possible surface area. Glassy cokes, produced by the high-temperature treatment of bituminous coals, tend to give the best results. What is required is a coke with at least a slightly glassy or vitreous surface. This results in a material that has a surface substantially impervious to the passage of mineral matter from within the coke to the biofilm layer thereon. The presence of the “glassy” surface, therefore, serves to protect the biofilm from the effects of injurious minerals and compounds frequently present in cokes. Typically, however, the coke will have a substantially uniform composition and the glassy nature of the coke will not be limited to the surface only. The glassy coke particles may have a size substantially within the range of 0.25 to 2.50 mm., in a preferred embodiment the particle size may be within the range of 1.0 to 1.7 mm.
In many processes, particularly where a biomass is involved, as, for example, in a wastewater treatment, fermentation or biocatalytic process, the reactant in the fluidised bed is a film of biomass material carried as a layer on the particles of a particulate fluidised carrier. This invention has particular application to such arrangements since an extremely valuable feature of the invention is that it allows substantially automatic control of the thickness of the reactant layer on the inert carrier medium. In a bioreactor, the layer of biological material carried by the individual particles of the fluidised bed is encouraged to grow and to reproduce. As a result, the overall density of the particles (including the biomass or biofilm layer) is reduced with a result that those particles having an increased biofilm thickness on the surface will tend to be carried upwardly through the bed towards the upper part of the reactor vessel and will eventually be carried out of the vessel itself.
We have found that by redirecting this feed from below the exit of the reactor vessel and re-introducing the particulate and biomass material at the base of the reactor vessel, the effect of the distributor layer is to strip the outer biomass material from the surface of the particles and allow the particles to resume their place in the lower portion of the fluidised bed where the residual biomass will begin, once again, in the fertile conditions within the bed, to produce a further biofilm.
In an alternative embodiment, the balance between the inlet velocity and hence momentum of silica sand can effect biofilm control substantially by interactions between the moving bed distributor material and the fluidised bioparticles.
The recycled particles may be combined with fluidizing medium and prior to introduction to the distributor layer, or in an alternative embodiment, the recycled particles may be injected separately into the distributor layer.
In this latter case, it is preferred that the temperature of the liquid is controlled to within the range of 13 to 22 degrees centigrade, typically, 14-21° C.
In a further embodiment of the present invention the fluidised bed may contain an upper denitrification layer above the nitrification layer. This additional layer incorporates denitrifying bacteria to break down the nitrites and/or nitrates produced by the aerobic nitrifying bacteria in the lower nitrification layer. By allowing the nitrification to proceed almost to a stage in which the liquid, in this case water, is almost completely de-oxygenated, the conditions are ideal for anoxic conversion of the resulting nitrite/nitrates to nitrogen gas thus eliminating the nitrite/nitrates from the liquid.
The microbes involved in denitrification are normally bacteria capable of “anaerobic respiration”, that is, bacteria that respire using oxygen, but also have the ability to use chemically combined oxygen when molecular oxygen (O2) is at low concentration or absent. Sources of chemically combined oxygen that bacteria and archaea can utilise include nitrite (NO2−), nitrate (NO3−), sulphate (SO2−) and carbonate (CO32−) and, by operating the nitrification reactor in such a way as to remove all the dissolved molecular oxygen, denitrifying microbes can respire the nitrite and/or nitrate. In this way, and if process control is adequate, nitrite and/or nitrate is converted to molecular nitrogen (di-nitrogen, N2), which returns to the atmosphere (air=78% N). When process control is inadequate, the intermediates in the reduction of nitrate may be released into the atmosphere. Suitable denitrifying bacteria may be one or more of:
Achromobacter piechaudii(Alcaligenes piechaudii),Achromobacter ruhlandii(Alcaligenes ruhlandii),Achromobacter xylosoxidanssubsp.denitrificans, Alcaligenes denitrificans, Alcaligenes xylosoxidans, Azoarcus tolulyticus, Azoarcus toluvorans, Azospirillum brasilense(Spirillum lipoferum)Azozoarcus toluclasticus, Bacillus halodenitrificans, Blastobacter aggregatus, Blastobacter capsulatus, Blastobacter denitrWcans, Candidatus “Brocadia anammoxidans”, Comamonas denitrificans, Flavobacteriumsp.Flexibacter canadensis, Haloferax denitrificans(Halobacterium denitrificans),Halomonas campisalis, Hyphomicrobium denitrificans, Jonesia denitrificans, (Listeria denitrificans)Kingella denitrificans Neisseria denitrificans, Ochrobactrum anthropi, Paracoccus denitrificans(Micrococcus denitrificans),Pseudoalteramonas denitrificans(Alteromonas denitrificans),Pseudomonas denitrificans, Pseudomonas putida, Pseudomonas stutzeri, Roseobacter denitrificans, Roseobacter litoralis, Thauera aromatica, Thauera chlorobenzoica, Thiobacillus denitrificans, Thiomicrospira denitrificans, Thiosphaera pantotropha.
This list is not, however, exhaustive.
The relatively deoxygenated water may be exhausted from the top of the fluidised bed and caused or allowed to overflow or cascade as a thin film to effect rapid aeration of the medium. Alternatively, it may be recycled through a counter-current aerator, i.e. downwards from or near the top of a narrow column; where air, oxygen-enriched air, or pure oxygen is bubbled upwards from at or near the bottom. The column diameter being sized such that the downward velocity of the liquid to be aerated or oxygenated is slightly less than the natural rise velocity of the gas bubbles, which is typically 22 centimeters per second for a 2 mm diameter air bubble rising in quiescent water and 42 cm−1for a swarm of bubbles. In this way, the bubbles are retained for the longest time possible and therefore have the greatest opportunity to transfer oxygen into solution.
In a fully operating system and in accordance with the present invention another useful by-product is waste biomass material which can be packaged and sold e.g. as a fertiliser or fish-feed.
Typical apparatus in accordance with the present invention may include a generally vertical tower or reactor incorporating means for establishing a bed of material to be fluidised wherein the fluidizing medium is introduced at the base of the tower to pass upwardly through the medium to be fluidised.
In one embodiment of this aspect of the invention, the fluidizing medium may be injected directly to the distributor layer without first passing through a perforated or like support plate. In a preferred embodiment, the distributor layer should preferably have a density greater than that of the fluidised layer and should form a distinct layer below that of the fluidised bed.
It will be apparent to the person skilled in the art that in the absence of a support plate, the particle size of the distributor layer required for effective operation of the fluidised bed is dependent to the velocity of the fluidizing medium. It is preferred that the particle size of the distributor layer should be selected such that under the prevailing conditions, the particles constituting the distributor layer move but are not themselves fluidised.
In a further aspect of the present invention the means for establishing a bed of material to be fluidised is preferably a vertical tower or reactor vessel and the fluidizing medium is preferably injected at the base of the tower to pass upwardly through the medium to be fluidised.
The tower or reactor vessel may be provided with a central conduit for the supply of fluidizing medium through which the supply of fluidizing medium passes downwardly toward the base of the reactor or tower whereby the fluidizing medium is injected downwardly against a reflector element for redirection upwardly through the distributor layer and the fluidised bed. The injection means may include a supply conduit, therefore, which is sized to have sufficient frictional losses to allow a degree of control over the flow through it by varying the hydrostatic head.
In the embodiment in which the fluidised bed carries a reactant layer on the surface of the particulate material constituting the fluidised bed itself, the thickness of the reactant layer on the carrier medium may be controlled by allowing particles containing excess of reactant on the surface to be removed from the upper part of the fluidised bed and to be recycled and injected into the bed with the fluidizing medium in the manner described above. In an alternative embodiment, substantial biofilm control can be achieved simply through interactions between the moving bed distributor particles and the biofilm-coated particles.
It will be apparent from the foregoing that there will need to be control means for controlling the rate of fluid flow through the reactant bed. Such control means should include means for sampling the oxygen concentration in the fluid before or during entry into the reactor and means for sampling the oxygen concentration of the fluid or liquid on exit or after exiting the reactor. Means may be provided for adjusting the flow rate of fluid through the reactor and/or for sensing other reactor parameters such that the oxygen concentration on leaving the reactor is just above a concentration at which the oxygen concentration would be rate controlling for the nitrification process. In one embodiment of the invention, this is about 0.1 to 0.3 mg/l. The apparatus in accordance with the present invention may also include means for aerating the liquid exiting from the reactor vessel. In this connection, the aeration may be effected by cascading the liquid over the top of the reactor and allow it to fall through air for collection. In an alternative embodiment, aeration may be effected by recycling fluid from the end of the fluidised bed distal to the distributor to the upper end of an aeration column, where oxygen-containing gas bubbles are injected at or near the lower end and rise, counter-current, to the descending liquid; thereby transferring oxygen with increased efficiency. A typical aeration efficiency in a prior art co-current process is in the order of 3-6%; whereas in the present invention, efficiencies of the order of 7-12% in the counter-current process of the present invention.
Means may be the provided to separate sloughed biomass from the reactor; such means may be a sedimentation tank or hydrocyclone. Another means of controlling the fluid flow through the system may be effected by providing header tank means, pump means for pumping fluidizing medium to the head tank and supply means from said header tank to the injection means for the fluidised bed, the arrangement being such that the header tank provide sufficient hydrostatic pressure at the injection means to maintain the distributor layer and to effect fluidization of the bed. It follows from this, therefore, that control of the flow rate through the apparatus in accordance with the invention may be effected by controlling the hydrostatic head in the header tank. In a particular aspect, the injection means may include a supply conduit therefore, which is sized to have sufficient frictional losses to allow a degree of control over the flow simply by varying the applied hydrostatic head to the fluid entering the conduit.
Where the method and apparatus of the present invention is used in the purification of water, it is frequently the case that wastewater is discharged to a waste tank in which further purification takes place by virtue of membrane filtration. Such a process is relatively slow and quite expensive to operate. From time to time the membrane “blinds” as a result of being clogged by suspended matter. We have found surprisingly that the proportion of suspended matter and biological residues, including suspended, viable bacteria in water purified in accordance with the present invention is reduced quite significantly with a result that membrane filtration treatment subsequent to the nitrification treatment in accordance with this invention can proceed much more efficiently. The average reduction in suspended solids concentration using the British Standard method (BS EN 872: 1996 BS 6068: Section 2.54: 1996) was 2.4 mg/l, which equated to 21 percent; and the average reduction in numbers of viableEscherichia coliwas nearly 80 percent.
| 1 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to improvements in the design and operation of expanded or fluidised beds in which a fluid, particularly a liquid, is used to transmit the energy for bed expansion. An expanded or fluidised bed is one in which the particles are suspended in a fluid flow but do not substantially move with the bulk flow of that fluid. The classical chemical engineering definition of an expanded bed is one that is increased in volume up to 50% or 100% over that of the bed when static, i.e., with no fluid flow; whilst a fluidised bed is defined as having a volume more than 50% or 100% greater than that of the static bed with no fluid flow. In particular, the present invention relates to biological processes such as water and wastewater treatment, fermentation, and bio-catalysis. For such processes, areas in need of improvement include distribution of the liquid flow; energy costs for pumping and aeration; control of biomass overgrowth; and biomass support materials
Recent publications in the scientific literature have highlighted aspects of fluidised bed design and operation, which are in need of improvement. For example, P. M. Sutton and P. N. Mishra (“Activated carbon based biological fluidised beds for contaminated water and wastewater treatment: a state of the art review”, Water Science and Technology Vol. 29 10-11: 309-317, 1994) point out that “The mechanical components and sub-systems critical to the design of BFB (biological fluidised bed) commercial system embodiments are the following” and went on to cite the distributor, oxygen transfer, and control of biofilm growth. Their paper was based on a review of “Over 80 commercial, media-based BFB reactors (that) have been installed in North America and Europe.”
In a more recent review, C. Nicolella, M. C. M. van Loosdrecht and J. J. Heijnen (“Wastewater treatment with particulate biofilm reactors”, Journal of Biotechnology 80: 1-33, 2000) identified four key disadvantages of fluidised bed operation:
1. Biofilm formation on carriers, which poses problems leading to long start-up times.
2. Difficulty in control of biofilm thickness.
3. Overgrowth of biofilm leading to elutriation of particles.
4. High cost of liquid distributors for fluidised systems for large-scale reactors and associated problems with respect to clogging and uniform fluidization.
Since the introduction of liquid fluidised bed technology, a number of patents have been granted for devices to ensure the uniform distribution of liquid flow at the base of the bed. These include downward flow through expansion nozzles (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,202,774, U.S. Pat. No. 4,464,262, U.S. Pat. No. 4,618,418, U.S. Pat. No. 5,584,996); nozzles with a perforated grid or plate above (U.S. Pat. No. 4,702,891, U.S. Pat. No. 4,933,149); perforated distributor plates, similar to those used in conventional gas-fluidised systems (U.S. Pat. No. 4,322,296) or with a static bed of coarse sand and fine grades of sand above (U.S. Pat. No. 5,965,016); or simply a static bed of granular material (U.S. Pat. No. 5,895,576), sand (GB780406) or both (GB2149683).
If the fluid flow at the base of the bed is turbulent, this results in increased impacts between fluidised particles producing abrasion, or in the case of particles carrying a reactant layer, premature stripping of the reactant layer from the fluidised carrier particles.
GB780406 discloses a particulate distributor comprising a static bed of sand lying on a perforated screen with flow rates of the order of 1 gallon per square foot per minute (49 L per m2per mm) or an upward velocity of about 0.08 cm per cm per sec. This low rate of flow through the distributor is insufficient to cause movement of its particles, and the teaching here is that the granular material is being used in effect as a “3-dimensional” perforated plate. In an attempt to improve the fluid flow characteristic in a fluidised bed, Bernard Suchowski, Joseph E. Gargas, Robert H. Hyde and Joseph Pluchino (U.S. Pat. No. 5,965,016) proposed the use of larger and heavier particles of sand collected just above a perforated distributor plate, where they help distribute the flow more evenly.
In spite of this, the presence of the perforated plate itself poses physical constraints to fluid flow.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE
We have found that by removing the plate completely and causing or allowing the particles of the distributor layer to move, but not themselves to be fluidised, a significant improvement in fluid flow properties in the lower part of the bed results.
In one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for improving the performance of a fluidised bed in which a bed of particulate material is fluidised by the passage of a fluidizing medium there through, characterised by the provision of a distributor layer through which the fluidizing medium is caused or allowed to pass prior to passing through the fluidised bed, the density of the particles of the distributor layer and the flow rate of the fluidizing medium being selected such that turbulence in the fluidizing medium is substantially reduced or eliminated before acting on the fluidised bed.
In a particular aspect of the present invention, a reactant moiety of the fluidised bed may be carried as a film or layer on a particulate carrier. In this particular case, the thickness of the reactant layer on the inert carrier medium may be controlled by allowing particles containing excess of reactant on the surface to be removed from the upper part of the fluidised bed to be recycled into the distributor layer, whereby excess biomass material is stripped from the carrier particles by the action of the distributor layer as the carrier particles pass therethrough towards the fluidised bed. Moreover, it has also been observed that biofilm thickness control can be achieved without recycling particles from one end of the bed to the other end.
Interactions at the interface between the moving bed distributor and the fluidised bed cause stripping of excess biofilm, resulting in a more compact biofilm. Evidence for the more compact nature of the biofilm arises from observations that the degree of bed expansion reduced (from 117.5 to 98.0 cm) but the static bed height remained substantially the same (52.9-53.3 cm); and that the bed began to compact more rapidly, once settled from the expanded state, during the period over which this effect occurred.
The invention provides in a further aspect an apparatus for improving the performance of a fluidised bed, which apparatus comprises:
means for establishing a bed of material to be fluidised, and
injection means for injecting a stream of fluidizing medium through said bed,
characterised by the provision of a distributor layer of particulate material through which the fluidizing medium is passed substantially prior to passing through said bed whereby turbulence in the fluidizing medium as it passes through said fluidised bed is substantially reduced.
The distributor layer may be a layer of a particulate material having a density greater than that of the particles constituting the fluidised layer itself. In a particular embodiment of the present invention the distributor layer is agitated by the fluidizing medium but is not itself fluidised. What is required is that the particles constituting the distributor layer move with the flow of fluidised medium but the bed itself is not fluidised. In this way, the layer of distributor material acts to constrain the turbulence of the flow of fluidizing medium, which turbulence is damped by the movement of the particles in the distributor layer. As a result, the fluidizing medium serves to fluidize the bed without undue turbulence or violent movement of the particles constituting the bed. In this way, if the bed constitutes a delicate material, abrasion or damage to the particles constituting the bed is reduced to a minimum.
The distributor layer in a preferred embodiment of the invention is a moving distributor layer in which the movement of the particles of the distributor layer serves to distribute more evenly the flow of fluid medium to the underside of the fluidised bed while at the same time serving to damp out turbulence within the fluid flow. The result is a substantially lamina flow of fluid through the fluidised bed which serves to open the structure of the fluidised bed to permit interaction between the fluidizing medium and the particles constituting the bed thus promoting interaction between the two while at the same time reducing to a minimum the severity of collisions between particles within the fluidised bed.
This overcomes a long-standing problem of fluidised bed technology, where hitherto the strong movement of fluidizing material within the centre of the bed or in juxtaposition the fluid inlet has caused excessive agitation of the bed and the lack of uniformity of reaction conditions across it. As discussed in the introduction to this specification, a significant amount of technology in terms of nozzles, injection means, baffle plates and the like have been used in an attempt to overcome this problem.
The distributor layer may be a distinct layer below the fluidised bed and the overlap between the two layers is preferably at a minimum to reduce abrasion and/or removal of the reactant from the carrier particles, although some minimal interaction is to be encouraged as it serves to control the biofilm and allow its development in a more compact form. Typically, the fluidizing medium may be a liquid.
It will be appreciated by the person skilled in the art that the thickness of the distributor layer and the fluidizing medium flow rate may be selected such that substantially no turbulence is experienced in the fluidised reactant bed as a result of passage of the fluidizing medium therethrough.
The precise parameters constitute something of a balancing act. The denser the particles of the distributor layer, the greater the amount of energy necessary to produce appropriate movement within the distributor layer. Thus, there is a trade-off between density of the particles and size of particles in the distributor layer with the pressure/velocity of the fluidizing medium feed. This balance is also important in gaining the benefit of biofilm control solely through interactions at the interface.
The present invention has been found to be particularly useful in fluidised bed or fermentation reactions involving biological material. In a particular aspect of the present invention the fluidised bed particles may be coated with a biofilm layer as a reactant moiety.
According to one aspect of the invention, in this particular case the particulate material constituting the fluidised bed particles may be the inert carrier medium for the biofilm. In a further aspect of the invention the inert carrier medium may be a glassy coke, upon the surface of which the biofilm layer is immobilised.
Such a material is described and claimed in our No GB99/03542, the disclosure of the specification of which is incorporated herein by reference. Cells grow best on slightly porous materials, which enables them to adhere and the biofilm to develop, while at the same time providing the largest possible surface area. Glassy cokes, produced by the high-temperature treatment of bituminous coals, tend to give the best results. What is required is a coke with at least a slightly glassy or vitreous surface. This results in a material that has a surface substantially impervious to the passage of mineral matter from within the coke to the biofilm layer thereon. The presence of the “glassy” surface, therefore, serves to protect the biofilm from the effects of injurious minerals and compounds frequently present in cokes. Typically, however, the coke will have a substantially uniform composition and the glassy nature of the coke will not be limited to the surface only. The glassy coke particles may have a size substantially within the range of 0.25 to 2.50 mm., in a preferred embodiment the particle size may be within the range of 1.0 to 1.7 mm.
In many processes, particularly where a biomass is involved, as, for example, in a wastewater treatment, fermentation or biocatalytic process, the reactant in the fluidised bed is a film of biomass material carried as a layer on the particles of a particulate fluidised carrier. This invention has particular application to such arrangements since an extremely valuable feature of the invention is that it allows substantially automatic control of the thickness of the reactant layer on the inert carrier medium. In a bioreactor, the layer of biological material carried by the individual particles of the fluidised bed is encouraged to grow and to reproduce. As a result, the overall density of the particles (including the biomass or biofilm layer) is reduced with a result that those particles having an increased biofilm thickness on the surface will tend to be carried upwardly through the bed towards the upper part of the reactor vessel and will eventually be carried out of the vessel itself.
We have found that by redirecting this feed from below the exit of the reactor vessel and re-introducing the particulate and biomass material at the base of the reactor vessel, the effect of the distributor layer is to strip the outer biomass material from the surface of the particles and allow the particles to resume their place in the lower portion of the fluidised bed where the residual biomass will begin, once again, in the fertile conditions within the bed, to produce a further biofilm.
In an alternative embodiment, the balance between the inlet velocity and hence momentum of silica sand can effect biofilm control substantially by interactions between the moving bed distributor material and the fluidised bioparticles.
The recycled particles may be combined with fluidizing medium and prior to introduction to the distributor layer, or in an alternative embodiment, the recycled particles may be injected separately into the distributor layer.
In this latter case, it is preferred that the temperature of the liquid is controlled to within the range of 13 to 22 degrees centigrade, typically, 14-21° C.
In a further embodiment of the present invention the fluidised bed may contain an upper denitrification layer above the nitrification layer. This additional layer incorporates denitrifying bacteria to break down the nitrites and/or nitrates produced by the aerobic nitrifying bacteria in the lower nitrification layer. By allowing the nitrification to proceed almost to a stage in which the liquid, in this case water, is almost completely de-oxygenated, the conditions are ideal for anoxic conversion of the resulting nitrite/nitrates to nitrogen gas thus eliminating the nitrite/nitrates from the liquid.
The microbes involved in denitrification are normally bacteria capable of “anaerobic respiration”, that is, bacteria that respire using oxygen, but also have the ability to use chemically combined oxygen when molecular oxygen (O2) is at low concentration or absent. Sources of chemically combined oxygen that bacteria and archaea can utilise include nitrite (NO2−), nitrate (NO3−), sulphate (SO2−) and carbonate (CO32−) and, by operating the nitrification reactor in such a way as to remove all the dissolved molecular oxygen, denitrifying microbes can respire the nitrite and/or nitrate. In this way, and if process control is adequate, nitrite and/or nitrate is converted to molecular nitrogen (di-nitrogen, N2), which returns to the atmosphere (air=78% N). When process control is inadequate, the intermediates in the reduction of nitrate may be released into the atmosphere. Suitable denitrifying bacteria may be one or more of:
Achromobacter piechaudii(Alcaligenes piechaudii),Achromobacter ruhlandii(Alcaligenes ruhlandii),Achromobacter xylosoxidanssubsp.denitrificans, Alcaligenes denitrificans, Alcaligenes xylosoxidans, Azoarcus tolulyticus, Azoarcus toluvorans, Azospirillum brasilense(Spirillum lipoferum)Azozoarcus toluclasticus, Bacillus halodenitrificans, Blastobacter aggregatus, Blastobacter capsulatus, Blastobacter denitrWcans, Candidatus “Brocadia anammoxidans”, Comamonas denitrificans, Flavobacteriumsp.Flexibacter canadensis, Haloferax denitrificans(Halobacterium denitrificans),Halomonas campisalis, Hyphomicrobium denitrificans, Jonesia denitrificans, (Listeria denitrificans)Kingella denitrificans Neisseria denitrificans, Ochrobactrum anthropi, Paracoccus denitrificans(Micrococcus denitrificans),Pseudoalteramonas denitrificans(Alteromonas denitrificans),Pseudomonas denitrificans, Pseudomonas putida, Pseudomonas stutzeri, Roseobacter denitrificans, Roseobacter litoralis, Thauera aromatica, Thauera chlorobenzoica, Thiobacillus denitrificans, Thiomicrospira denitrificans, Thiosphaera pantotropha.
This list is not, however, exhaustive.
The relatively deoxygenated water may be exhausted from the top of the fluidised bed and caused or allowed to overflow or cascade as a thin film to effect rapid aeration of the medium. Alternatively, it may be recycled through a counter-current aerator, i.e. downwards from or near the top of a narrow column; where air, oxygen-enriched air, or pure oxygen is bubbled upwards from at or near the bottom. The column diameter being sized such that the downward velocity of the liquid to be aerated or oxygenated is slightly less than the natural rise velocity of the gas bubbles, which is typically 22 centimeters per second for a 2 mm diameter air bubble rising in quiescent water and 42 cm−1for a swarm of bubbles. In this way, the bubbles are retained for the longest time possible and therefore have the greatest opportunity to transfer oxygen into solution.
In a fully operating system and in accordance with the present invention another useful by-product is waste biomass material which can be packaged and sold e.g. as a fertiliser or fish-feed.
Typical apparatus in accordance with the present invention may include a generally vertical tower or reactor incorporating means for establishing a bed of material to be fluidised wherein the fluidizing medium is introduced at the base of the tower to pass upwardly through the medium to be fluidised.
In one embodiment of this aspect of the invention, the fluidizing medium may be injected directly to the distributor layer without first passing through a perforated or like support plate. In a preferred embodiment, the distributor layer should preferably have a density greater than that of the fluidised layer and should form a distinct layer below that of the fluidised bed.
It will be apparent to the person skilled in the art that in the absence of a support plate, the particle size of the distributor layer required for effective operation of the fluidised bed is dependent to the velocity of the fluidizing medium. It is preferred that the particle size of the distributor layer should be selected such that under the prevailing conditions, the particles constituting the distributor layer move but are not themselves fluidised.
In a further aspect of the present invention the means for establishing a bed of material to be fluidised is preferably a vertical tower or reactor vessel and the fluidizing medium is preferably injected at the base of the tower to pass upwardly through the medium to be fluidised.
The tower or reactor vessel may be provided with a central conduit for the supply of fluidizing medium through which the supply of fluidizing medium passes downwardly toward the base of the reactor or tower whereby the fluidizing medium is injected downwardly against a reflector element for redirection upwardly through the distributor layer and the fluidised bed. The injection means may include a supply conduit, therefore, which is sized to have sufficient frictional losses to allow a degree of control over the flow through it by varying the hydrostatic head.
In the embodiment in which the fluidised bed carries a reactant layer on the surface of the particulate material constituting the fluidised bed itself, the thickness of the reactant layer on the carrier medium may be controlled by allowing particles containing excess of reactant on the surface to be removed from the upper part of the fluidised bed and to be recycled and injected into the bed with the fluidizing medium in the manner described above. In an alternative embodiment, substantial biofilm control can be achieved simply through interactions between the moving bed distributor particles and the biofilm-coated particles.
It will be apparent from the foregoing that there will need to be control means for controlling the rate of fluid flow through the reactant bed. Such control means should include means for sampling the oxygen concentration in the fluid before or during entry into the reactor and means for sampling the oxygen concentration of the fluid or liquid on exit or after exiting the reactor. Means may be provided for adjusting the flow rate of fluid through the reactor and/or for sensing other reactor parameters such that the oxygen concentration on leaving the reactor is just above a concentration at which the oxygen concentration would be rate controlling for the nitrification process. In one embodiment of the invention, this is about 0.1 to 0.3 mg/l. The apparatus in accordance with the present invention may also include means for aerating the liquid exiting from the reactor vessel. In this connection, the aeration may be effected by cascading the liquid over the top of the reactor and allow it to fall through air for collection. In an alternative embodiment, aeration may be effected by recycling fluid from the end of the fluidised bed distal to the distributor to the upper end of an aeration column, where oxygen-containing gas bubbles are injected at or near the lower end and rise, counter-current, to the descending liquid; thereby transferring oxygen with increased efficiency. A typical aeration efficiency in a prior art co-current process is in the order of 3-6%; whereas in the present invention, efficiencies of the order of 7-12% in the counter-current process of the present invention.
Means may be the provided to separate sloughed biomass from the reactor; such means may be a sedimentation tank or hydrocyclone. Another means of controlling the fluid flow through the system may be effected by providing header tank means, pump means for pumping fluidizing medium to the head tank and supply means from said header tank to the injection means for the fluidised bed, the arrangement being such that the header tank provide sufficient hydrostatic pressure at the injection means to maintain the distributor layer and to effect fluidization of the bed. It follows from this, therefore, that control of the flow rate through the apparatus in accordance with the invention may be effected by controlling the hydrostatic head in the header tank. In a particular aspect, the injection means may include a supply conduit therefore, which is sized to have sufficient frictional losses to allow a degree of control over the flow simply by varying the applied hydrostatic head to the fluid entering the conduit.
Where the method and apparatus of the present invention is used in the purification of water, it is frequently the case that wastewater is discharged to a waste tank in which further purification takes place by virtue of membrane filtration. Such a process is relatively slow and quite expensive to operate. From time to time the membrane “blinds” as a result of being clogged by suspended matter. We have found surprisingly that the proportion of suspended matter and biological residues, including suspended, viable bacteria in water purified in accordance with the present invention is reduced quite significantly with a result that membrane filtration treatment subsequent to the nitrification treatment in accordance with this invention can proceed much more efficiently. The average reduction in suspended solids concentration using the British Standard method (BS EN 872: 1996 BS 6068: Section 2.54: 1996) was 2.4 mg/l, which equated to 21 percent; and the average reduction in numbers of viableEscherichia coliwas nearly 80 percent.
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7836817 | BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fluid pressure cylinder in which a piston is displaced along an axial direction under the supply of a pressure fluid.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, a fluid pressure cylinder, having a piston therein displaced under the supply of a pressure fluid, has been used, for example, as a transport device for transporting various workpieces and the like.
In such a fluid pressure cylinder, a construction is provided in which a piston is disposed displaceably inside of a cylinder chamber, which is defined at the interior of a tubular cylinder body, and a head cover and a rod cover are installed respectively on both ends of the cylinder body, thereby closing the cylinder chamber.
Such a fluid pressure cylinder, for example as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 09-303320, employs a piston, which is elliptically shaped in cross section with the major axis thereof aligned in the horizontal direction. By employing an elliptically shaped cylinder chamber as well, it is known to provide a cylinder body, having the piston installed therein, which is thin-shaped and low in profile. Further, in the fluid pressure cylinder, a head cover and a rod cover are fixed onto both ends of the cylinder body by a plurality of bolts, and gaskets are sandwiched between the head and rod covers and the cylinder body. The gaskets are formed with substantially elliptical shapes in cross section, corresponding to the cross sectional shape of the piston hole. In addition, portions of the gaskets are accommodated within the piston hole and abut against an inner circumferential surface of the piston hole, such that the gaskets maintain an airtight state between the head and rod covers and the cylinder body.
Incidentally, in the conventional technique disclosed by Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 09-303320, it is essential to perform processing on the outer circumferential surfaces of the gaskets, which abut against the piston hole. Notwithstanding, since the outer circumferential surfaces of the gaskets are formed with elliptical cross sectional shapes, a heavy processing cost is required when such processing is implemented along the entire surface thereof. As a result, manufacturing costs for the fluid pressure cylinder are steeply increased.
Further, in the conventional technique according to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 09-303320, because a structure is used in which the head cover and the rod cover are fixed with respect to both ends of the cylinder body by a plurality of bolts, the longitudinal dimension of the fluid pressure cylinder is increased by the width of the head cover and the rod cover, thereby increasing the size of the fluid pressure cylinder.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A general object of the present invention is to provide a fluid pressure cylinder, which enables a reduction in manufacturing costs, along with minimizing the size of the fluid pressure cylinder.
The above and other objects features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which preferred embodiments of the present invention are shown by way of illustrative example.
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fluid pressure cylinder in which a piston is displaced along an axial direction under the supply of a pressure fluid.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, a fluid pressure cylinder, having a piston therein displaced under the supply of a pressure fluid, has been used, for example, as a transport device for transporting various workpieces and the like.
In such a fluid pressure cylinder, a construction is provided in which a piston is disposed displaceably inside of a cylinder chamber, which is defined at the interior of a tubular cylinder body, and a head cover and a rod cover are installed respectively on both ends of the cylinder body, thereby closing the cylinder chamber.
Such a fluid pressure cylinder, for example as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 09-303320, employs a piston, which is elliptically shaped in cross section with the major axis thereof aligned in the horizontal direction. By employing an elliptically shaped cylinder chamber as well, it is known to provide a cylinder body, having the piston installed therein, which is thin-shaped and low in profile. Further, in the fluid pressure cylinder, a head cover and a rod cover are fixed onto both ends of the cylinder body by a plurality of bolts, and gaskets are sandwiched between the head and rod covers and the cylinder body. The gaskets are formed with substantially elliptical shapes in cross section, corresponding to the cross sectional shape of the piston hole. In addition, portions of the gaskets are accommodated within the piston hole and abut against an inner circumferential surface of the piston hole, such that the gaskets maintain an airtight state between the head and rod covers and the cylinder body.
Incidentally, in the conventional technique disclosed by Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 09-303320, it is essential to perform processing on the outer circumferential surfaces of the gaskets, which abut against the piston hole. Notwithstanding, since the outer circumferential surfaces of the gaskets are formed with elliptical cross sectional shapes, a heavy processing cost is required when such processing is implemented along the entire surface thereof. As a result, manufacturing costs for the fluid pressure cylinder are steeply increased.
Further, in the conventional technique according to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 09-303320, because a structure is used in which the head cover and the rod cover are fixed with respect to both ends of the cylinder body by a plurality of bolts, the longitudinal dimension of the fluid pressure cylinder is increased by the width of the head cover and the rod cover, thereby increasing the size of the fluid pressure cylinder.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A general object of the present invention is to provide a fluid pressure cylinder, which enables a reduction in manufacturing costs, along with minimizing the size of the fluid pressure cylinder.
The above and other objects features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which preferred embodiments of the present invention are shown by way of illustrative example.
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7660226 | This application is a 371 of PCT/JP2006/304516, filed Mar. 2, 2006.
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to an optical system, an optical pickup apparatus, and an optical disk apparatus, and more particularly to an optical system for extracting signal light components from a beam, an optical pickup apparatus including the optical system, and an optical disk apparatus including the optical pickup apparatus.
BACKGROUND ART
In recent years and continuing, optical disks (e.g., CDs (Compact Disc) and DVDs (Digital Versatile Disc)) serving to record computer programs, audio information, video information (hereinafter referred to as “contents”) are drawing greater attention owing to the advances in digital technology and the improvements in data compression technology. Accordingly, as the optical disks become less expensive, optical disk apparatuses for reading out the information recorded in the optical disks have grown to become widely used.
The amount of information to be recorded in the optical disks is growing year by year. Therefore, further increase in the recording capacity of a single optical disk is expected. As for measures that are being developed for increasing the recording capacity of the optical disk, there is, for example, increasing the number of recording layers. Accordingly, vigorous research is being made on optical disks having plural recording layers (hereinafter referred to as “multilayer disk”) and optical disk apparatuses that access the multilayered disks.
In the multilayer disks, there is a possibility that the signals from a target recording layer be adversely affected by spherical aberration if the spaces between the recording layers are too large. Accordingly, there is a trend of reducing the space between the recording layers. However, reducing the space between the recording layers causes cross-talk between the recording layers (so-called “interlayer cross-talk”). As a result, the beam returning (reflected) from the multilayer disk contains not only desired beams reflected from a target recording layer (hereinafter referred to as “signal light”) but also a significant amount of undesired beams reflected from recording layers besides the target recording layer (hereinafter referred to as “stray light”). This leads to the decrease in S/N ratio of reproduction signals.
For example,FIGS. 50A and 50Bare schematic drawings for describing an operation of reading out information from a dual layer recording medium.FIG. 50Ais a ray diagram showing a case of reading information recorded in a first recording layer L′0, andFIG. 50Bis a ray diagram showing a case of reading information recorded in a second recording layer L′1(See alsoFIG. 2).
InFIG. 50A, the objective lens104is positioned away from the substrate surface to form a fine beam spot on the first layer L′0. InFIG. 50B, the objective lens104is positioned closer to the substrate surface to form a fine beam spot on the second layer L′1. As shown in bothFIGS. 50A and 50B, the signal light rays reflected from the first and second layers L′0, L′1are changed to parallel rays when they are transmitted through the objective lens104, and are condensed and detected at the same light reception surface108if the detection lens106is arranged at a fixed position.
FIG. 51shows the results observing the degradation of jitter of the signal reproduced from the first layer MB0in a case of reducing the thickness of an intermediate layer between the first and second layers MB0and MB1of a dual layer DVD disk.
In a case of reading out information from the first layer MB0, stray light is generated from the second layer MB1, as shown with the dotted lines inFIG. 51A. In a case of reading out information from the second layer MB1, stray light is generated from the first recording layer MB0, as shown with the dotted lines inFIG. 51B. A portion of the stray light overlaps with a beam reflected from the target recording layer and is detected at the optical detector108.
This stray light is generally detected as the offset for various signals (described in further detail in “Analyses for Design of Drives and Disks for Dual-layer Phase Change Optical Disks”, pp. 281-283, Shintani et. al).
Furthermore, in a case of reducing the thickness of the intermediate layer, interference between the signal light and the stray light before reaching the optical detecting unit108. This interference creates noise components for focus error signals, track error signals, and disk reproduction signals (jitter). For example, in observing the jitter of the signals reproduced from the first recording layer MB0,FIG. 52shows that the jitter is adversely affected when the intermediate layer is formed with a thickness less than 30 μm. This phenomenon is typically referred to as cross-talk. Accordingly, in a case of reducing the thickness of the intermediate layer of a dual layer recording medium, it is desired to eliminate or reduce the stray light in an optical pickup apparatus.
In one related art example, offset caused by stray light may be eliminated by providing a diffraction grating in an optical detecting system for dividing the signal light and the stray light into primary light and secondary light, detecting the stray light from plural layers with different optical detectors, and calculating the difference between the signal light and the stray light (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2001-273640). However, with this related art example, not only is the stray light diffracted by the diffraction grating but the signal light is also subjected to the diffraction. This causes loss of signal light components included in the beam reflected from the optical disk. Furthermore, this related art cannot eliminate the changes in the quantity of light caused by the interference between the signal light and stray light prior to reaching the optical detecting surface, to thereby cause the strength of the signal light to vary.
In another related art example, the effects of the stray light may be reduced by providing a condenser lens and a pin hole in an optical detecting system (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2003-323736). However, with this related art example, the strongest component of the stray light may pass through the pin hole and be detected by the optical detector. Therefore, detection of the stray light cannot be sufficiently prevented. Furthermore, since the objective lens typically is driven in the tracking direction, deviation of the optical axis is likely to occur. In such a case, the signal light may be blocked due to the position of the pin hole, to thereby lead to a change in the strength of the signal light.
As another related art example, Japanese Registered Patent No. 2624255 proposes an apparatus for reducing interlayer cross-talk when reading out from a multilayer disk.
This apparatus requires to further reduce the diameter of a pin hole of its detector for reducing the components of the stray light that is incident on the detector. However, reducing the diameter of the pin hole also causes loss of the components of the signal light that is incident on the detector.
DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION
It is a general object of the present invention to provide an optical system, an optical pickup apparatus, and an optical disk apparatus that substantially obviate one or more of the problems caused by the limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
Features and advantages of the present invention are set forth in the description which follows, and in part will become apparent from the description and the accompanying drawings, or may be learned by practice of the invention according to the teachings provided in the description. Objects as well as other features and advantages of the present invention can be realized and attained by an optical system, an optical pickup apparatus, and an optical disk apparatus particularly pointed out in the specification in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable a person having ordinary skill in the art to practice the invention.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, the present invention provides an optical system for extracting signal light components from a beam including the signal light components and stray light components, the optical system including: a condensing optical element situated on an optical path of the beam for condensing the beam; a polarization changing unit for changing the state of polarization of at least one of the signal light components and the stray light components included in the incident beam transmitted through the condensing optical element; and an extracting element for extracting the signal light components included in the beam transmitted through the polarization changing unit.
Furthermore, an optical system for extracting signal light components from abeam including the signal light components and stray light components, the optical system comprising: a condensing optical element situated on an optical path of the beam for condensing the beam; a polarization changing unit including a combination of a polarization changing element and a reflecting part for changing the state of polarization of at least one of the signal light components and the stray light components included in the incident beam transmitted through the condensing optical element; and an extracting element for extracting the signal light components included in the beam transmitted through the polarization changing unit.
Furthermore, the present invention provides an optical pickup apparatus including: a light source for irradiating a beam; an optical system including an objective lens for condensing the beam to a target recording layer of an optical disk having a plurality of recording layers; the optical system according to an embodiment of the present invention; and an optical detecting system for generating signals in accordance with the amount of light of the extracted signal light components.
Furthermore, the present invention provides an optical disk apparatus including: the optical pickup apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention; and a processing apparatus for reading out information recorded in the optical disk in accordance with the signals generated by the optical detecting system.
Furthermore, the present invention provides an optical system for extracting signal light components from a beam including the signal light components and stray light components, the optical system including: a condensing optical element situated on an optical path of the beam for condensing the beam, the condensing optical element condensing the signal light components at a first focus point and the stray light components at a second focus point; a first polarization changing element positioned between the condensing optical element and the second focus point that is situated closer to the condensing optical element than the first focus point, the first polarization changing element including first and second areas that are divided by a line perpendicularly intersecting with the optical axis of the condensing optical element, the first polarization changing element having an optical characteristic of changing the polarization direction of the beam incident on the first area to an angle of 90 degrees; a first separating element being positioned between the first and second focus points, the first separating element being operable to reflect or absorb the stray light components condensed more toward the condensing optical element than the first focus point; a second separating element positioned between the first focus point and a third focus point at which the stray light components transmitted through first separating element are condensed, the second separating element being operable to reflect or absorb the stray light components transmitted through the first separating element; and a second polarization changing element including first and second areas that are divided by a line perpendicularly intersecting with the optical axis of the condensing optical element, the second polarization changing element having an optical characteristic of changing the polarization direction of the beam incident on at least one of the first area and the second area of the second polarization changing element to an angle of 90 degrees.
Furthermore, the present invention provides an optical pickup apparatus including: a light source for irradiating a beam; an optical system including an objective lens for condensing the beam to a target recording layer of an optical disk having a plurality of recording layers, and the optical system according to an embodiment of the present invention; and an optical detecting system for generating signals in accordance with the amount of light of the extracted signal light components.
Furthermore, the present invention provides an optical disk apparatus including: the optical pickup apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention; and a processing apparatus for reading out information recorded in the optical disk in accordance with the signals generated by the optical detecting system.
Furthermore, the present invention provides an optical pickup apparatus provided with a light source, a collimator lens, a detector and separating part, an objective lens, an optical detecting system, and an optical detector for recording and reading out information to and from an optical disk having a plurality of layers, the optical pickup apparatus including: a condensing optical element for condensing a beam reflected from the plural layers of the optical disk, the beam including a signal light beam Lm that is reflected from an mthlayer of the plural layers, a first stray light beam Lm+1 that is reflected from a m+1thlayer of the plural layers, and a second stray light beam Lm−1 that is reflected from a m−1thlayer of the plural layers, the signal light beam Lm being condensed at a first focus point fm, the first stray light beam Lm+1 being condensed at a second focus point fm+1, and the second stray light beam Lm−1 being condensed at a third focus point fm−1; a front shielding part positioned between the first focus point fm and the second focus point fm+1 for shielding the beam oriented to a first area; and a rear shielding part positioned between the first focus point fm and the third focus point fm−1 for shielding the beam oriented to a second area; wherein the first and second areas are divided by an optical axis of the condensing optical element.
Furthermore, the present invention provides an optical pickup apparatus provided with a light source, a collimator lens, a detector and separating part, an objective lens, an optical detecting system, and an optical detector for recording and reading out information to and from an optical disk having a plurality of layers, the optical pickup apparatus including: a condensing optical element for condensing a beam reflected from the plural layers of the optical disk, the beam including a signal light beam Lm that is reflected from an mthlayer of the plural layers, a first stray light beam Lm+1 that is reflected from a m+1thlayer of the plural layers, and a second stray light beam Lm−1 that is reflected from a m−1thlayer of the plural layers, the signal light beam Lm being condensed at a first focus point fm, the first stray light beam Lm+1 being condensed at a second focus point fm+1, and the second stray light beam Lm−1 being condensed at a third focus point fm−1; a beam splitting part positioned closer to the condenser part than the second focus point fm+1 for splitting the beam into first and second areas divided by an optical axis of the condensing optical element; a front shielding part positioned between the first focus point fm and the second focus point fm+1 on the side of the first area for shielding the first stray light beam Lm+1; and a rear shielding part positioned between the first focus point fm and the third focus point fm−1 on the side of the second area for shielding the second stray light beam Lm−1.
Furthermore, the present invention provides an optical pickup apparatus provided with a light source, a collimator lens, a detector and separating part, an objective lens, an optical detecting system, and an optical detector for recording and reading out information to and from an optical disk having a plurality of layers, the optical pickup apparatus including: a condensing optical element for condensing a beam reflected from the plural layers of the optical disk, the beam including a signal light beam Lm that is reflected from an mthlayer of the plural layers, a first stray light beam Lm+1 that is reflected from a m+1thlayer of the plural layers, and a second stray light beam Lm−1 that is reflected from a m−1thlayer of the plural layers, the signal light beam Lm being condensed at a first focus point fm, the first stray light beam Lm+1 being condensed at a second focus point fm+1, and the second stray light beam Lm−1 being condensed at a third focus point fm−1; a beam splitting part positioned between the first focus point fm and the second focus point fm+1 for splitting the beam into first and second areas divided by an optical axis of the condensing optical element; and a shielding part positioned between the first focus point fm and the third focus point fm−1 for shielding the first stray light beam Lm+1 and the second stray light beam Lm−1.
Furthermore, the present invention provides an optical recording apparatus including: the optical pickup apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Furthermore, the present invention provides an optical reproduction apparatus includes: the optical pickup apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Furthermore, the present invention provides an optical recording and reproduction apparatus including: the optical pickup apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
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SUMMARY: This application is a 371 of PCT/JP2006/304516, filed Mar. 2, 2006.
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to an optical system, an optical pickup apparatus, and an optical disk apparatus, and more particularly to an optical system for extracting signal light components from a beam, an optical pickup apparatus including the optical system, and an optical disk apparatus including the optical pickup apparatus.
BACKGROUND ART
In recent years and continuing, optical disks (e.g., CDs (Compact Disc) and DVDs (Digital Versatile Disc)) serving to record computer programs, audio information, video information (hereinafter referred to as “contents”) are drawing greater attention owing to the advances in digital technology and the improvements in data compression technology. Accordingly, as the optical disks become less expensive, optical disk apparatuses for reading out the information recorded in the optical disks have grown to become widely used.
The amount of information to be recorded in the optical disks is growing year by year. Therefore, further increase in the recording capacity of a single optical disk is expected. As for measures that are being developed for increasing the recording capacity of the optical disk, there is, for example, increasing the number of recording layers. Accordingly, vigorous research is being made on optical disks having plural recording layers (hereinafter referred to as “multilayer disk”) and optical disk apparatuses that access the multilayered disks.
In the multilayer disks, there is a possibility that the signals from a target recording layer be adversely affected by spherical aberration if the spaces between the recording layers are too large. Accordingly, there is a trend of reducing the space between the recording layers. However, reducing the space between the recording layers causes cross-talk between the recording layers (so-called “interlayer cross-talk”). As a result, the beam returning (reflected) from the multilayer disk contains not only desired beams reflected from a target recording layer (hereinafter referred to as “signal light”) but also a significant amount of undesired beams reflected from recording layers besides the target recording layer (hereinafter referred to as “stray light”). This leads to the decrease in S/N ratio of reproduction signals.
For example,FIGS. 50A and 50Bare schematic drawings for describing an operation of reading out information from a dual layer recording medium.FIG. 50Ais a ray diagram showing a case of reading information recorded in a first recording layer L′0, andFIG. 50Bis a ray diagram showing a case of reading information recorded in a second recording layer L′1(See alsoFIG. 2).
InFIG. 50A, the objective lens104is positioned away from the substrate surface to form a fine beam spot on the first layer L′0. InFIG. 50B, the objective lens104is positioned closer to the substrate surface to form a fine beam spot on the second layer L′1. As shown in bothFIGS. 50A and 50B, the signal light rays reflected from the first and second layers L′0, L′1are changed to parallel rays when they are transmitted through the objective lens104, and are condensed and detected at the same light reception surface108if the detection lens106is arranged at a fixed position.
FIG. 51shows the results observing the degradation of jitter of the signal reproduced from the first layer MB0in a case of reducing the thickness of an intermediate layer between the first and second layers MB0and MB1of a dual layer DVD disk.
In a case of reading out information from the first layer MB0, stray light is generated from the second layer MB1, as shown with the dotted lines inFIG. 51A. In a case of reading out information from the second layer MB1, stray light is generated from the first recording layer MB0, as shown with the dotted lines inFIG. 51B. A portion of the stray light overlaps with a beam reflected from the target recording layer and is detected at the optical detector108.
This stray light is generally detected as the offset for various signals (described in further detail in “Analyses for Design of Drives and Disks for Dual-layer Phase Change Optical Disks”, pp. 281-283, Shintani et. al).
Furthermore, in a case of reducing the thickness of the intermediate layer, interference between the signal light and the stray light before reaching the optical detecting unit108. This interference creates noise components for focus error signals, track error signals, and disk reproduction signals (jitter). For example, in observing the jitter of the signals reproduced from the first recording layer MB0,FIG. 52shows that the jitter is adversely affected when the intermediate layer is formed with a thickness less than 30 μm. This phenomenon is typically referred to as cross-talk. Accordingly, in a case of reducing the thickness of the intermediate layer of a dual layer recording medium, it is desired to eliminate or reduce the stray light in an optical pickup apparatus.
In one related art example, offset caused by stray light may be eliminated by providing a diffraction grating in an optical detecting system for dividing the signal light and the stray light into primary light and secondary light, detecting the stray light from plural layers with different optical detectors, and calculating the difference between the signal light and the stray light (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2001-273640). However, with this related art example, not only is the stray light diffracted by the diffraction grating but the signal light is also subjected to the diffraction. This causes loss of signal light components included in the beam reflected from the optical disk. Furthermore, this related art cannot eliminate the changes in the quantity of light caused by the interference between the signal light and stray light prior to reaching the optical detecting surface, to thereby cause the strength of the signal light to vary.
In another related art example, the effects of the stray light may be reduced by providing a condenser lens and a pin hole in an optical detecting system (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2003-323736). However, with this related art example, the strongest component of the stray light may pass through the pin hole and be detected by the optical detector. Therefore, detection of the stray light cannot be sufficiently prevented. Furthermore, since the objective lens typically is driven in the tracking direction, deviation of the optical axis is likely to occur. In such a case, the signal light may be blocked due to the position of the pin hole, to thereby lead to a change in the strength of the signal light.
As another related art example, Japanese Registered Patent No. 2624255 proposes an apparatus for reducing interlayer cross-talk when reading out from a multilayer disk.
This apparatus requires to further reduce the diameter of a pin hole of its detector for reducing the components of the stray light that is incident on the detector. However, reducing the diameter of the pin hole also causes loss of the components of the signal light that is incident on the detector.
DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION
It is a general object of the present invention to provide an optical system, an optical pickup apparatus, and an optical disk apparatus that substantially obviate one or more of the problems caused by the limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
Features and advantages of the present invention are set forth in the description which follows, and in part will become apparent from the description and the accompanying drawings, or may be learned by practice of the invention according to the teachings provided in the description. Objects as well as other features and advantages of the present invention can be realized and attained by an optical system, an optical pickup apparatus, and an optical disk apparatus particularly pointed out in the specification in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable a person having ordinary skill in the art to practice the invention.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, the present invention provides an optical system for extracting signal light components from a beam including the signal light components and stray light components, the optical system including: a condensing optical element situated on an optical path of the beam for condensing the beam; a polarization changing unit for changing the state of polarization of at least one of the signal light components and the stray light components included in the incident beam transmitted through the condensing optical element; and an extracting element for extracting the signal light components included in the beam transmitted through the polarization changing unit.
Furthermore, an optical system for extracting signal light components from abeam including the signal light components and stray light components, the optical system comprising: a condensing optical element situated on an optical path of the beam for condensing the beam; a polarization changing unit including a combination of a polarization changing element and a reflecting part for changing the state of polarization of at least one of the signal light components and the stray light components included in the incident beam transmitted through the condensing optical element; and an extracting element for extracting the signal light components included in the beam transmitted through the polarization changing unit.
Furthermore, the present invention provides an optical pickup apparatus including: a light source for irradiating a beam; an optical system including an objective lens for condensing the beam to a target recording layer of an optical disk having a plurality of recording layers; the optical system according to an embodiment of the present invention; and an optical detecting system for generating signals in accordance with the amount of light of the extracted signal light components.
Furthermore, the present invention provides an optical disk apparatus including: the optical pickup apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention; and a processing apparatus for reading out information recorded in the optical disk in accordance with the signals generated by the optical detecting system.
Furthermore, the present invention provides an optical system for extracting signal light components from a beam including the signal light components and stray light components, the optical system including: a condensing optical element situated on an optical path of the beam for condensing the beam, the condensing optical element condensing the signal light components at a first focus point and the stray light components at a second focus point; a first polarization changing element positioned between the condensing optical element and the second focus point that is situated closer to the condensing optical element than the first focus point, the first polarization changing element including first and second areas that are divided by a line perpendicularly intersecting with the optical axis of the condensing optical element, the first polarization changing element having an optical characteristic of changing the polarization direction of the beam incident on the first area to an angle of 90 degrees; a first separating element being positioned between the first and second focus points, the first separating element being operable to reflect or absorb the stray light components condensed more toward the condensing optical element than the first focus point; a second separating element positioned between the first focus point and a third focus point at which the stray light components transmitted through first separating element are condensed, the second separating element being operable to reflect or absorb the stray light components transmitted through the first separating element; and a second polarization changing element including first and second areas that are divided by a line perpendicularly intersecting with the optical axis of the condensing optical element, the second polarization changing element having an optical characteristic of changing the polarization direction of the beam incident on at least one of the first area and the second area of the second polarization changing element to an angle of 90 degrees.
Furthermore, the present invention provides an optical pickup apparatus including: a light source for irradiating a beam; an optical system including an objective lens for condensing the beam to a target recording layer of an optical disk having a plurality of recording layers, and the optical system according to an embodiment of the present invention; and an optical detecting system for generating signals in accordance with the amount of light of the extracted signal light components.
Furthermore, the present invention provides an optical disk apparatus including: the optical pickup apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention; and a processing apparatus for reading out information recorded in the optical disk in accordance with the signals generated by the optical detecting system.
Furthermore, the present invention provides an optical pickup apparatus provided with a light source, a collimator lens, a detector and separating part, an objective lens, an optical detecting system, and an optical detector for recording and reading out information to and from an optical disk having a plurality of layers, the optical pickup apparatus including: a condensing optical element for condensing a beam reflected from the plural layers of the optical disk, the beam including a signal light beam Lm that is reflected from an mthlayer of the plural layers, a first stray light beam Lm+1 that is reflected from a m+1thlayer of the plural layers, and a second stray light beam Lm−1 that is reflected from a m−1thlayer of the plural layers, the signal light beam Lm being condensed at a first focus point fm, the first stray light beam Lm+1 being condensed at a second focus point fm+1, and the second stray light beam Lm−1 being condensed at a third focus point fm−1; a front shielding part positioned between the first focus point fm and the second focus point fm+1 for shielding the beam oriented to a first area; and a rear shielding part positioned between the first focus point fm and the third focus point fm−1 for shielding the beam oriented to a second area; wherein the first and second areas are divided by an optical axis of the condensing optical element.
Furthermore, the present invention provides an optical pickup apparatus provided with a light source, a collimator lens, a detector and separating part, an objective lens, an optical detecting system, and an optical detector for recording and reading out information to and from an optical disk having a plurality of layers, the optical pickup apparatus including: a condensing optical element for condensing a beam reflected from the plural layers of the optical disk, the beam including a signal light beam Lm that is reflected from an mthlayer of the plural layers, a first stray light beam Lm+1 that is reflected from a m+1thlayer of the plural layers, and a second stray light beam Lm−1 that is reflected from a m−1thlayer of the plural layers, the signal light beam Lm being condensed at a first focus point fm, the first stray light beam Lm+1 being condensed at a second focus point fm+1, and the second stray light beam Lm−1 being condensed at a third focus point fm−1; a beam splitting part positioned closer to the condenser part than the second focus point fm+1 for splitting the beam into first and second areas divided by an optical axis of the condensing optical element; a front shielding part positioned between the first focus point fm and the second focus point fm+1 on the side of the first area for shielding the first stray light beam Lm+1; and a rear shielding part positioned between the first focus point fm and the third focus point fm−1 on the side of the second area for shielding the second stray light beam Lm−1.
Furthermore, the present invention provides an optical pickup apparatus provided with a light source, a collimator lens, a detector and separating part, an objective lens, an optical detecting system, and an optical detector for recording and reading out information to and from an optical disk having a plurality of layers, the optical pickup apparatus including: a condensing optical element for condensing a beam reflected from the plural layers of the optical disk, the beam including a signal light beam Lm that is reflected from an mthlayer of the plural layers, a first stray light beam Lm+1 that is reflected from a m+1thlayer of the plural layers, and a second stray light beam Lm−1 that is reflected from a m−1thlayer of the plural layers, the signal light beam Lm being condensed at a first focus point fm, the first stray light beam Lm+1 being condensed at a second focus point fm+1, and the second stray light beam Lm−1 being condensed at a third focus point fm−1; a beam splitting part positioned between the first focus point fm and the second focus point fm+1 for splitting the beam into first and second areas divided by an optical axis of the condensing optical element; and a shielding part positioned between the first focus point fm and the third focus point fm−1 for shielding the first stray light beam Lm+1 and the second stray light beam Lm−1.
Furthermore, the present invention provides an optical recording apparatus including: the optical pickup apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Furthermore, the present invention provides an optical reproduction apparatus includes: the optical pickup apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Furthermore, the present invention provides an optical recording and reproduction apparatus including: the optical pickup apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
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7705148 | CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application claims priority to U.S. application Ser. No. 10/523,753 filed Feb. 8, 2005 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,399,856), which is the national stage of application no. PCT/EP2003/050366 filed Aug. 7, 2003, which application claims priority from EP patent application no. 02078306.4 filed Aug. 9, 2002.
The present invention relates to 4-[[4-[[4-(2-cyanoethenyl)-2,6-dimethylphenyl]-amino]-2-pyrimidinyl]amino]benzonitrile, a N-oxide, a pharmaceutically acceptable addition salt, a quaternary amine or a stereochemically isomeric form thereof and to the preparation thereof as well as to the preparation of a key intermediate in said preparation.
WO 99/50250 discloses substituted diaminopyrimidine compounds having HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) inhibiting properties and the preparation thereof. WO 03/16306 discloses the preparation of 4-[[4-[[4-(2-cyanoethenyl)-2,6-dimethylphenyl]amino]-2-pyrimidinyl]amino]benzonitrile from a melt of [4-[(4-chloro-2-pyrimidinyl)amino]benzonitrile and 3-(4-amino-3,5-dimethylphenyl)-2-propenenitrile.
4-[[4-[[4-(2-cyanoethenyl)-2,6-dimethylphenyl]amino]-2-pyrimidinyl]amino]-benzonitrile, N-oxides, pharmaceutically acceptable addition salts, quaternary amines and stereochemically isomeric forms thereof are novel, very potent HIV, especially HIV-1, replication inhibiting compounds. They have a high ability to inhibit the replication of the wild type Human Immunodeficiency Virus as well as resistant mutant strains thereof.
Therefore, 4-[[4-[[4-(2-cyanoethenyl)-2,6-dimethylphenyl]amino]-2-pyrimidinyl]-amino]benzonitrile, N-oxides, pharmaceutically acceptable addition salts, quaternary amines and stereochemically isomeric forms thereof can be used as a medicine. They may be useful in the prevention or treatment of HIV infection, including the prevention or the treatment of HIV infection of mutant strains, i.e. strains which have become resistant to art-known drug(s) (drug or multidrug resistant HIV strains); they may be useful in the treatment of warm-blooded animals including humans infected with HIV or infected with viruses whose existence is mediated by, or depends upon, the enzyme reverse transcriptase, or for the prophylaxis of those infections in these warm-blooded animals. Thus, the present invention also relates to the use of 4-[[4-[[4-(2-cyanoethenyl)-2,6-dimethylphenyl]amino]-2-pyrimidinyl]amino]benzonitrile, a N-oxide, a pharmaceutically acceptable addition salt, a quaternary amine or a stereochemically isomeric form thereof for the manufacture of a medicament for the prevention or the treatment of HIV infection. The invention also relates to a method of treating warm-blooded animals, including humans, suffering from or a method of preventing warm-blooded animals, including humans, to suffer from viral infections, especially HIV infections. Said method comprises the administration, preferably oral administration, of an effective amount of a compound of formula (I), a N-oxide form, a pharmaceutically acceptable addition salt, a quaternary amine or a possible stereoisomeric form thereof, to warm-blooded animals, including humans.
The present invention also provides compositions for treating viral infections comprising a therapeutically effective amount of 4-[[4-[[4-(2-cyanoethenyl)-2,6-dimethylphenyl]amino]-2-pyrimidinyl]amino]benzonitrile, a N-oxide, a pharmaceutically acceptable addition salt, a quaternary amine or a stereochemically isomeric form thereof and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier or diluent.
The compounds of the present invention or any subgroup thereof may be formulated into various pharmaceutical forms for administration purposes. As appropriate compositions there may be cited all compositions usually employed for systemically administering drugs. To prepare the pharmaceutical compositions of this invention, an effective amount of the particular compound, optionally in addition salt form, as the active ingredient is combined in intimate admixture with a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier, which carrier may take a wide variety of forms depending on the form of preparation desired for administration. These pharmaceutical compositions are desirable in unitary dosage form suitable, particularly, for administration orally, rectally, percutaneously, or by parenteral injection. For example, in preparing the compositions in oral dosage form, any of the usual pharmaceutical media may be employed such as, for example, water, glycols, oils, alcohols and the like in the case of oral liquid preparations such as suspensions, syrups, elixirs, emulsions and solutions; or solid carriers such as starches, sugars, kaolin, diluents, lubricants, binders, disintegrating agents and the like in the case of powders, pills, capsules, and tablets. Because of their ease in administration, tablets and capsules represent the most advantageous oral dosage unit forms, in which case solid pharmaceutical carriers are obviously employed. For parenteral compositions, the carrier will usually comprise sterile water, at least in large part, though other ingredients, for example, to aid solubility, may be included. Injectable solutions, for example, may be prepared in which the carrier comprises saline solution, glucose solution or a mixture of saline and glucose solution. Injectable suspensions may also be prepared in which case appropriate liquid carriers, suspending agents and the like may be employed. Also included are solid form preparations which are intended to be converted, shortly before use, to liquid form preparations. In the compositions suitable for percutaneous administration, the carrier optionally comprises a penetration enhancing agent and/or a suitable wetting agent, optionally combined with suitable additives of any nature in minor proportions, which additives do not introduce a significant deleterious effect on the skin. Said additives may facilitate the administration to the skin and/or may be helpful for preparing the desired compositions. These compositions may be administered in various ways, e.g., as a transdermal patch, as a spot-on, as an ointment. The compounds of the present invention may also be administered via inhalation or insufflation by means of methods and formulations employed in the art for administration via this way. Thus, in general the compounds of the present invention may be administered to the lungs in the form of a solution, a suspension or a dry powder. Any system developed for the delivery of solutions, suspensions or dry powders via oral or nasal inhalation or insufflation are suitable for the administration of the present compounds.
The HIV replication inhibiting activity of 4-[[4-[[4-(2-cyanoethenyl)-2,6-dimethylphenyl]amino]-2-pyrimidinyl]amino]benzonitrile, a N-oxide, a pharmaceutically acceptable addition salt, a quaternary amine or a stereochemically isomeric form thereof, can be tested using the following test.
Determination of Anti-HIV Activity
A rapid, sensitive and automated assay procedure was used for the in vitro evaluation of anti-HIV agents. An HIV-1 transformed T4-cell line, MT-4, which was previously shown (Koyanagi et al.,Int. J. Cancer,36, 445-451, 1985) to be highly susceptible to and permissive for HIV infection, served as the target cell line. Inhibition of the HIV-induced cytopathic effect was used as the end point. The viability of both HIV- and mock-infected cells was assessed spectrophotometrically via the in situ reduction of 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT). The 50% cytotoxic concentration (CC50in M) was defined as the concentration of compound that reduced the absorbance of the mock-infected control sample by 50%. The percent protection achieved by the compound in HIV-infected cells was calculated by the following formula:
(ODT)HIV-(ODC)HIV(ODC)MOCK-(ODC)HIVexpressedin%,
whereby (ODT)HIVis the optical density measured with a given concentration of the test compound in HIV-infected cells; (ODC)HIVis the optical density measured for the control untreated HIV-infected cells; (ODC)MOCKis the optical density measured for the control untreated mock-infected cells; all optical density values were determined at 540 nm. The dose achieving 50% protection according to the above formula was defined as the 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50in M). The ratio of CC50to IC50was defined as the selectivity index (SI).
The results obtained for Compound X, i.e
(E-isomer), are the following:IC50=10-−9.4M;CC50=10−5M;SI of 10−5M/10-−9.4M=25,119.
Compound X was also tested for its replication inhibiting activity towards resistant mutants of HIV-1 (single and double mutants). The obtained results revealed a high activity of Compound X against resistant strains.
In order to ensure an economical supply of the compounds of the invention for development purposes and marketing, an efficient synthetic process which can be carried out on a large, commercial scale is required for the production of the compounds.
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SUMMARY: CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application claims priority to U.S. application Ser. No. 10/523,753 filed Feb. 8, 2005 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,399,856), which is the national stage of application no. PCT/EP2003/050366 filed Aug. 7, 2003, which application claims priority from EP patent application no. 02078306.4 filed Aug. 9, 2002.
The present invention relates to 4-[[4-[[4-(2-cyanoethenyl)-2,6-dimethylphenyl]-amino]-2-pyrimidinyl]amino]benzonitrile, a N-oxide, a pharmaceutically acceptable addition salt, a quaternary amine or a stereochemically isomeric form thereof and to the preparation thereof as well as to the preparation of a key intermediate in said preparation.
WO 99/50250 discloses substituted diaminopyrimidine compounds having HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) inhibiting properties and the preparation thereof. WO 03/16306 discloses the preparation of 4-[[4-[[4-(2-cyanoethenyl)-2,6-dimethylphenyl]amino]-2-pyrimidinyl]amino]benzonitrile from a melt of [4-[(4-chloro-2-pyrimidinyl)amino]benzonitrile and 3-(4-amino-3,5-dimethylphenyl)-2-propenenitrile.
4-[[4-[[4-(2-cyanoethenyl)-2,6-dimethylphenyl]amino]-2-pyrimidinyl]amino]-benzonitrile, N-oxides, pharmaceutically acceptable addition salts, quaternary amines and stereochemically isomeric forms thereof are novel, very potent HIV, especially HIV-1, replication inhibiting compounds. They have a high ability to inhibit the replication of the wild type Human Immunodeficiency Virus as well as resistant mutant strains thereof.
Therefore, 4-[[4-[[4-(2-cyanoethenyl)-2,6-dimethylphenyl]amino]-2-pyrimidinyl]-amino]benzonitrile, N-oxides, pharmaceutically acceptable addition salts, quaternary amines and stereochemically isomeric forms thereof can be used as a medicine. They may be useful in the prevention or treatment of HIV infection, including the prevention or the treatment of HIV infection of mutant strains, i.e. strains which have become resistant to art-known drug(s) (drug or multidrug resistant HIV strains); they may be useful in the treatment of warm-blooded animals including humans infected with HIV or infected with viruses whose existence is mediated by, or depends upon, the enzyme reverse transcriptase, or for the prophylaxis of those infections in these warm-blooded animals. Thus, the present invention also relates to the use of 4-[[4-[[4-(2-cyanoethenyl)-2,6-dimethylphenyl]amino]-2-pyrimidinyl]amino]benzonitrile, a N-oxide, a pharmaceutically acceptable addition salt, a quaternary amine or a stereochemically isomeric form thereof for the manufacture of a medicament for the prevention or the treatment of HIV infection. The invention also relates to a method of treating warm-blooded animals, including humans, suffering from or a method of preventing warm-blooded animals, including humans, to suffer from viral infections, especially HIV infections. Said method comprises the administration, preferably oral administration, of an effective amount of a compound of formula (I), a N-oxide form, a pharmaceutically acceptable addition salt, a quaternary amine or a possible stereoisomeric form thereof, to warm-blooded animals, including humans.
The present invention also provides compositions for treating viral infections comprising a therapeutically effective amount of 4-[[4-[[4-(2-cyanoethenyl)-2,6-dimethylphenyl]amino]-2-pyrimidinyl]amino]benzonitrile, a N-oxide, a pharmaceutically acceptable addition salt, a quaternary amine or a stereochemically isomeric form thereof and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier or diluent.
The compounds of the present invention or any subgroup thereof may be formulated into various pharmaceutical forms for administration purposes. As appropriate compositions there may be cited all compositions usually employed for systemically administering drugs. To prepare the pharmaceutical compositions of this invention, an effective amount of the particular compound, optionally in addition salt form, as the active ingredient is combined in intimate admixture with a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier, which carrier may take a wide variety of forms depending on the form of preparation desired for administration. These pharmaceutical compositions are desirable in unitary dosage form suitable, particularly, for administration orally, rectally, percutaneously, or by parenteral injection. For example, in preparing the compositions in oral dosage form, any of the usual pharmaceutical media may be employed such as, for example, water, glycols, oils, alcohols and the like in the case of oral liquid preparations such as suspensions, syrups, elixirs, emulsions and solutions; or solid carriers such as starches, sugars, kaolin, diluents, lubricants, binders, disintegrating agents and the like in the case of powders, pills, capsules, and tablets. Because of their ease in administration, tablets and capsules represent the most advantageous oral dosage unit forms, in which case solid pharmaceutical carriers are obviously employed. For parenteral compositions, the carrier will usually comprise sterile water, at least in large part, though other ingredients, for example, to aid solubility, may be included. Injectable solutions, for example, may be prepared in which the carrier comprises saline solution, glucose solution or a mixture of saline and glucose solution. Injectable suspensions may also be prepared in which case appropriate liquid carriers, suspending agents and the like may be employed. Also included are solid form preparations which are intended to be converted, shortly before use, to liquid form preparations. In the compositions suitable for percutaneous administration, the carrier optionally comprises a penetration enhancing agent and/or a suitable wetting agent, optionally combined with suitable additives of any nature in minor proportions, which additives do not introduce a significant deleterious effect on the skin. Said additives may facilitate the administration to the skin and/or may be helpful for preparing the desired compositions. These compositions may be administered in various ways, e.g., as a transdermal patch, as a spot-on, as an ointment. The compounds of the present invention may also be administered via inhalation or insufflation by means of methods and formulations employed in the art for administration via this way. Thus, in general the compounds of the present invention may be administered to the lungs in the form of a solution, a suspension or a dry powder. Any system developed for the delivery of solutions, suspensions or dry powders via oral or nasal inhalation or insufflation are suitable for the administration of the present compounds.
The HIV replication inhibiting activity of 4-[[4-[[4-(2-cyanoethenyl)-2,6-dimethylphenyl]amino]-2-pyrimidinyl]amino]benzonitrile, a N-oxide, a pharmaceutically acceptable addition salt, a quaternary amine or a stereochemically isomeric form thereof, can be tested using the following test.
Determination of Anti-HIV Activity
A rapid, sensitive and automated assay procedure was used for the in vitro evaluation of anti-HIV agents. An HIV-1 transformed T4-cell line, MT-4, which was previously shown (Koyanagi et al.,Int. J. Cancer,36, 445-451, 1985) to be highly susceptible to and permissive for HIV infection, served as the target cell line. Inhibition of the HIV-induced cytopathic effect was used as the end point. The viability of both HIV- and mock-infected cells was assessed spectrophotometrically via the in situ reduction of 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT). The 50% cytotoxic concentration (CC50in M) was defined as the concentration of compound that reduced the absorbance of the mock-infected control sample by 50%. The percent protection achieved by the compound in HIV-infected cells was calculated by the following formula:
(ODT)HIV-(ODC)HIV(ODC)MOCK-(ODC)HIVexpressedin%,
whereby (ODT)HIVis the optical density measured with a given concentration of the test compound in HIV-infected cells; (ODC)HIVis the optical density measured for the control untreated HIV-infected cells; (ODC)MOCKis the optical density measured for the control untreated mock-infected cells; all optical density values were determined at 540 nm. The dose achieving 50% protection according to the above formula was defined as the 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50in M). The ratio of CC50to IC50was defined as the selectivity index (SI).
The results obtained for Compound X, i.e
(E-isomer), are the following:IC50=10-−9.4M;CC50=10−5M;SI of 10−5M/10-−9.4M=25,119.
Compound X was also tested for its replication inhibiting activity towards resistant mutants of HIV-1 (single and double mutants). The obtained results revealed a high activity of Compound X against resistant strains.
In order to ensure an economical supply of the compounds of the invention for development purposes and marketing, an efficient synthetic process which can be carried out on a large, commercial scale is required for the production of the compounds.
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7832058 | BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to swivel hinge assemblies, and more particularly to a biaxial swivel hinge assembly typically used for foldable electronic devices.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Generally, portable wireless terminals allow wireless communication with users of other portable wireless terminals. Such portable wireless terminals are mainly classified into bar-type, flip-type, and folder-type terminals according to the mechanical functionalities. The bar-type terminal includes a single housing having a bar-shape. The flip-type terminal includes a flip or a cover rotatably coupled to a bar-type housing by means of a hinge device. The folder-type terminal includes a folder rotatably and foldably coupled to a single bar-type housing by means of a hinge device.
The above-mentioned portable wireless terminals are well known to those skilled in the art, and typically include an antenna device, a data input/output device, and a data transmitting/receiving device. Generally, a keypad allowing data input data by pressing buttons on the keypad is mainly used as a data input device. A touch pad or a touch screen can also be used as a data input/output device. In addition, an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) is mainly used as a data output device, i.e., a display device.
Nowadays, some portable wireless terminals are configured with additional functions such as cameras and camcorders, however, the display for data output is usually only rotatable about one axis. That is, the display can only be tilted relative to a horizontal pivot. When using the camera or camcorder to capture self-image or for video conference, the display usually needs to be pivoted about a vertical axis. Therefore the portable wireless terminal which can only tilt about the horizontal pivot are inconvenient to use.
Therefore, a portable wireless terminal having a display device that is rotatable about more than one axis is desired. More particularly, a swivel hinge assembly, which can connect a display unit to a main body of a portable wireless terminal, is desired.
SUMMARY
An exemplary swivel hinge assembly includes a bracket, a hinge mechanism, a hinge follower mechanism, and a swivel mechanism. The hinge mechanism and the hinge follower mechanism are configured to provide the swivel hinge assembly with rotation about a first rotational axis. The hinge mechanism includes a first pivot shaft, a first connecting member, a positioning ring, a ring follower, an elastic member, a cam, and a cam follower. The hinge follower mechanism includes a second pivot shaft and a second connecting member. The swivel mechanism is connected to the bracket and configured to provide the swivel hinge assembly with rotation about a second rotational axis.
Other advantages and novel features will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to swivel hinge assemblies, and more particularly to a biaxial swivel hinge assembly typically used for foldable electronic devices.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Generally, portable wireless terminals allow wireless communication with users of other portable wireless terminals. Such portable wireless terminals are mainly classified into bar-type, flip-type, and folder-type terminals according to the mechanical functionalities. The bar-type terminal includes a single housing having a bar-shape. The flip-type terminal includes a flip or a cover rotatably coupled to a bar-type housing by means of a hinge device. The folder-type terminal includes a folder rotatably and foldably coupled to a single bar-type housing by means of a hinge device.
The above-mentioned portable wireless terminals are well known to those skilled in the art, and typically include an antenna device, a data input/output device, and a data transmitting/receiving device. Generally, a keypad allowing data input data by pressing buttons on the keypad is mainly used as a data input device. A touch pad or a touch screen can also be used as a data input/output device. In addition, an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) is mainly used as a data output device, i.e., a display device.
Nowadays, some portable wireless terminals are configured with additional functions such as cameras and camcorders, however, the display for data output is usually only rotatable about one axis. That is, the display can only be tilted relative to a horizontal pivot. When using the camera or camcorder to capture self-image or for video conference, the display usually needs to be pivoted about a vertical axis. Therefore the portable wireless terminal which can only tilt about the horizontal pivot are inconvenient to use.
Therefore, a portable wireless terminal having a display device that is rotatable about more than one axis is desired. More particularly, a swivel hinge assembly, which can connect a display unit to a main body of a portable wireless terminal, is desired.
SUMMARY
An exemplary swivel hinge assembly includes a bracket, a hinge mechanism, a hinge follower mechanism, and a swivel mechanism. The hinge mechanism and the hinge follower mechanism are configured to provide the swivel hinge assembly with rotation about a first rotational axis. The hinge mechanism includes a first pivot shaft, a first connecting member, a positioning ring, a ring follower, an elastic member, a cam, and a cam follower. The hinge follower mechanism includes a second pivot shaft and a second connecting member. The swivel mechanism is connected to the bracket and configured to provide the swivel hinge assembly with rotation about a second rotational axis.
Other advantages and novel features will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
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7789811 | FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention generally relates to training devices, and more particularly to mobile training devices for simultaneous use by multiple users.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Physical exercise is an important activity undertaken by many individuals to maintain their physical fitness. It has been shown, for example, that physical fitness contributes positively toward maintaining healthy body weight; building and maintaining healthy bone density, muscle strength, and joint mobility; promoting physiological well-being; reducing surgical risks; and strengthening the immune system.
Many physical exercise activities, however, such as running, mountain climbing, skiing, etc., require the correct outdoor terrain to support such activities. As such, many outdoor activities do not lend themselves conveniently for physical exercise. Thus, many individuals utilize indoor facilities instead, which offer specialized exercise equipment that may be accessed much more readily.
Public fitness centers, for example, offer a wide variety of exercise equipment within a relatively small proximity. As such, each individual may obtain convenient access to a piece of cardiovascular exercise equipment, for example, while maintaining close proximity access to other specialized fitness equipment, such as strength training equipment.
In many instances, however, athletes that require specialized fitness equipment, such as martial arts athletes, cannot find equipment within the public fitness centers that is suitable for martial arts training. As such, martial arts athletes are often required to provide their own specialized training equipment and are then relegated to train at locations such as gymnasiums, garages, rented or private facilities, parks, backyards, beaches, etc.
Martial arts athletes that train in such facilities, therefore, are often required to temporarily assemble the specialized training equipment in order to support the plurality of workout regimes that may be utilized by a typical group of martial arts athletes. The temporary accommodations are adequate, but generally require disassembly of the specialized training equipment once the workout regimes have been completed. Thus, valuable time and effort is wasted during setup/teardown of the temporary training equipment.
In addition, given that the equipment is setup for temporary use, the equipment often exhibits less than optimum structural integrity. Thus, a first martial arts athlete is often required to stabilize the equipment, while a second martial arts athlete executes the workout regime on the temporarily stabilized equipment. As such, workout efficiency is significantly reduced because the first and second athletes must switch positions after the first athlete completes the workout regime, which essentially doubles the amount of time required for two athletes to achieve a complete workout.
Furthermore, the temporarily deployed training equipment is often utilized within a gymnasium, or other facility, in support of martial arts competitions. As such, the training equipment is deployed during, e.g., warm-up or exhibition exercises, but is then required to be disassembled, relocated, and then reassembled in another area within the gymnasium in support of other competition activities. The lack of mobility offered by conventional training equipment is, therefore, another source of time inefficiency, since teardown/setup activities must be executed each time the training equipment is to be relocated.
Efforts continue, therefore, to develop a training solution that not only offers a full complement of physical training equipment, but also provides mobility for a relocatable solution that facilitates multiple exercise positions simultaneously.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To overcome limitations in the prior art, and to overcome other limitations that will become apparent upon reading and understanding the present specification, various embodiments of the present invention disclose a method and apparatus that provides a full complement of specialized martial arts equipment and/or generalized physical exercise equipment. The method and apparatus of the present invention also provides mobility for a relocatable training apparatus that facilitates multiple exercise/workout positions simultaneously.
In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, a physical training device comprises a pair of longitudinal frame members, a first pair of vertical frame members having a first end that is coupled to a first end of the pair of longitudinal frame members and a second pair of vertical frame members having a first end that is coupled to a second end of the pair of longitudinal frame members. The physical training device further comprises a first plurality of workout stations that are slidably coupled to the first and second pair of vertical frame members and a second plurality of workout stations that are slidably coupled to the pair of longitudinal frame members. The physical training device further comprises a first lateral frame member having a first surface that is coupled to a second end of the first pair of vertical frame members and a second lateral frame member having a first surface that is coupled to a second end of the second pair of vertical frame members. The physical training device further comprises a mobility device that is coupled to each end of the first and second lateral frame members.
In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, a cluster of physical training devices comprises a cage and a plurality of physical training devices that are coupled to the cage. Each of the plurality of physical training devices comprises a pair of longitudinal frame members, a first pair of vertical frame members having a first end that is coupled to a first end of the pair of longitudinal frame members and a second pair of vertical frame members having a first end that is coupled to a second end of the pair of longitudinal frame members. Each of the plurality of physical training devices further comprising a first plurality of workout stations that are slidably coupled to the first and second pair of vertical frame members and a second plurality of workout stations that are slidably coupled to the pair of longitudinal frame members. Each of the plurality of physical training devices further comprising a first lateral frame member having a first surface that is coupled to a second end of the first pair of vertical frame members and a second lateral frame member having a first surface that is coupled to a second end of the second pair of vertical frame members.
In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, a method of utilizing at least one physical training device comprises slidably configuring a position of one or more workout stations on the at least one physical training device, engaging mobility devices of the at least one physical training device to deploy the at least one physical training device to a desired location, disengaging the mobility devices of the at least one physical training device to stabilize the at least one physical training device at the desired location, and executing one or more workout scenarios on the at least one physical training device at the desired location.
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention generally relates to training devices, and more particularly to mobile training devices for simultaneous use by multiple users.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Physical exercise is an important activity undertaken by many individuals to maintain their physical fitness. It has been shown, for example, that physical fitness contributes positively toward maintaining healthy body weight; building and maintaining healthy bone density, muscle strength, and joint mobility; promoting physiological well-being; reducing surgical risks; and strengthening the immune system.
Many physical exercise activities, however, such as running, mountain climbing, skiing, etc., require the correct outdoor terrain to support such activities. As such, many outdoor activities do not lend themselves conveniently for physical exercise. Thus, many individuals utilize indoor facilities instead, which offer specialized exercise equipment that may be accessed much more readily.
Public fitness centers, for example, offer a wide variety of exercise equipment within a relatively small proximity. As such, each individual may obtain convenient access to a piece of cardiovascular exercise equipment, for example, while maintaining close proximity access to other specialized fitness equipment, such as strength training equipment.
In many instances, however, athletes that require specialized fitness equipment, such as martial arts athletes, cannot find equipment within the public fitness centers that is suitable for martial arts training. As such, martial arts athletes are often required to provide their own specialized training equipment and are then relegated to train at locations such as gymnasiums, garages, rented or private facilities, parks, backyards, beaches, etc.
Martial arts athletes that train in such facilities, therefore, are often required to temporarily assemble the specialized training equipment in order to support the plurality of workout regimes that may be utilized by a typical group of martial arts athletes. The temporary accommodations are adequate, but generally require disassembly of the specialized training equipment once the workout regimes have been completed. Thus, valuable time and effort is wasted during setup/teardown of the temporary training equipment.
In addition, given that the equipment is setup for temporary use, the equipment often exhibits less than optimum structural integrity. Thus, a first martial arts athlete is often required to stabilize the equipment, while a second martial arts athlete executes the workout regime on the temporarily stabilized equipment. As such, workout efficiency is significantly reduced because the first and second athletes must switch positions after the first athlete completes the workout regime, which essentially doubles the amount of time required for two athletes to achieve a complete workout.
Furthermore, the temporarily deployed training equipment is often utilized within a gymnasium, or other facility, in support of martial arts competitions. As such, the training equipment is deployed during, e.g., warm-up or exhibition exercises, but is then required to be disassembled, relocated, and then reassembled in another area within the gymnasium in support of other competition activities. The lack of mobility offered by conventional training equipment is, therefore, another source of time inefficiency, since teardown/setup activities must be executed each time the training equipment is to be relocated.
Efforts continue, therefore, to develop a training solution that not only offers a full complement of physical training equipment, but also provides mobility for a relocatable solution that facilitates multiple exercise positions simultaneously.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To overcome limitations in the prior art, and to overcome other limitations that will become apparent upon reading and understanding the present specification, various embodiments of the present invention disclose a method and apparatus that provides a full complement of specialized martial arts equipment and/or generalized physical exercise equipment. The method and apparatus of the present invention also provides mobility for a relocatable training apparatus that facilitates multiple exercise/workout positions simultaneously.
In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, a physical training device comprises a pair of longitudinal frame members, a first pair of vertical frame members having a first end that is coupled to a first end of the pair of longitudinal frame members and a second pair of vertical frame members having a first end that is coupled to a second end of the pair of longitudinal frame members. The physical training device further comprises a first plurality of workout stations that are slidably coupled to the first and second pair of vertical frame members and a second plurality of workout stations that are slidably coupled to the pair of longitudinal frame members. The physical training device further comprises a first lateral frame member having a first surface that is coupled to a second end of the first pair of vertical frame members and a second lateral frame member having a first surface that is coupled to a second end of the second pair of vertical frame members. The physical training device further comprises a mobility device that is coupled to each end of the first and second lateral frame members.
In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, a cluster of physical training devices comprises a cage and a plurality of physical training devices that are coupled to the cage. Each of the plurality of physical training devices comprises a pair of longitudinal frame members, a first pair of vertical frame members having a first end that is coupled to a first end of the pair of longitudinal frame members and a second pair of vertical frame members having a first end that is coupled to a second end of the pair of longitudinal frame members. Each of the plurality of physical training devices further comprising a first plurality of workout stations that are slidably coupled to the first and second pair of vertical frame members and a second plurality of workout stations that are slidably coupled to the pair of longitudinal frame members. Each of the plurality of physical training devices further comprising a first lateral frame member having a first surface that is coupled to a second end of the first pair of vertical frame members and a second lateral frame member having a first surface that is coupled to a second end of the second pair of vertical frame members.
In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, a method of utilizing at least one physical training device comprises slidably configuring a position of one or more workout stations on the at least one physical training device, engaging mobility devices of the at least one physical training device to deploy the at least one physical training device to a desired location, disengaging the mobility devices of the at least one physical training device to stabilize the at least one physical training device at the desired location, and executing one or more workout scenarios on the at least one physical training device at the desired location.
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7767062 | FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a water purification apparatus and method using electrosorption. More specifically, the present invention relates to a submerged-type, electrosorption-based desalination apparatus for water purification and method, comprising submerging an electrosorption-based purification reactor composed of a current collector plate, electrodes and a spacer in treating water, allowing the flow of treating water into the purification reactor using a suction pump, applying a DC voltage of 0.1 to 2.0 volts to a plate-like activated carbon electrode in the purification reactor such that inorganic ions in water are removed by adsorption of ions onto the plate-like activated carbon electrode, thereby converting high-salinity water such as sea water and brine water into fresh water.
DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART
Dryness of electrodes in the air leads to deterioration of adsorption capacity due to the entry of air into pores of the electrodes. That is, conventional desalination methods are susceptible to the risk of electrode dryness during a non-operating period. Occurrence of electrode dryness entails the entry of air into great numbers of pores within carbon electrodes, thereby blocking the entrances of pores. As a result, it is impossible to achieve adsorption of ions into pores during operation of the apparatus. In addition, electrode dryness leads to a decrease in adsorption capacity of the electrodes.
During operation of the apparatus, a DC voltage is applied in a range of 0.8 to 1.4 volts. The thus-applied electrical energy is largely used to adsorb ions, but some electrical energy is utilized in electrolysis of water. The electrolysis is accompanied by formation of gases as shown in the following reactions, and the thus-formed gases enter into numerous pores of the carbon electrodes, thereby blocking pore entrances. Consequently, it is impossible to achieve adsorption of ions into pores during operation of the apparatus, and adsorption capacity of the electrodes is also decreased.
Cathodic reaction: 2Cl−−2e−→Cl24OH−−4e−→O2+2H2OCl2+H2O→HCl+HClO
Anodic reaction: 2H++2e−→H22Na++2e−→2Na2Na++2H2O→2NaOH+H2
As state above, the air or gas existing in pores of the carbon electrode is not easily eliminated in conventional desalination methods and remained as such.
For these reasons, a decrease in adsorption capacity of the electrode subsequently leads to a decrease in the recovery rate of the apparatus. In fact, the conventional methods exhibit a recovery rate of about 50%, which is as low as that of a reverse osmosis membrane process, a generalized technology among currently available desalination technologies. In conclusion, the recovery rate is linked directly with energy consumption, and therefore decreased adsorption capacity of the electrode due to the presence of air or gas leads to deterioration in low-energy consumption which is a strong point of the electrosorption-based desalination process.
General electrosorption-based desalination apparatuses use the same flow tube during both purification process operation and regeneration process operation, wherein the end part of the flow tube is branched into two lines. Therefore, such types of desalination apparatuses are operated under fixed operation conditions, irrespective of changes in the water quality, and therefore exhibit disadvantages such as slow responsiveness to changes of the water quality, difficulty to set operation conditions in compliance with such changes and thereby difficulty to accomplish maximization of the recovery rate under given environment.
Due to a very narrow distance of less than 1 mm between electrodes in the purification reactor, it is not easy to remove foreign substances when such materials adhere to fluid flow paths positioned at the inflow water side of the purification reactor or flow paths within other purification reactors. The purification reactor is largely composed of large numbers of structural components including several tens to several hundreds of electrodes, thus taking a great deal of time to disassemble the reactor for removal of foreign substances.
Extension of a flow path via installation of it over the total area of one electrode sheet in a serpentine fashion may enhance a utilization rate of the electrode area, but pose difficulty in realization of large-capacity electrode. Particularly, if a carbon fiber is used as an electrode material, since the contact of some electrode part with water leads to drenching of the electrode throughout the overall electrode by the capillary action of fiber, it is impossible to extend the length of path.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,432, issued to Andelman, discloses a spirally wound form of a flow-through capacitor, but suffers from problems such as occurrence of channeling upon the passage of fluid through the spirally wound flow-through capacitor, a fluctuating removal rate of ions, and a low-average removal rate of ions. It is thus difficult to realize industrial scale application with this technique.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,538,611, issued to Otowa, which is an improved version intended to solve shortcomings of U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,432, describes a planar flow-through capacitor. Ths patent may provide some effects of a steady removal rate of ions, but is still unsuitable for industrial-scale treatment due to the configuration with the entry of water from one side of the plate-like electrode and the discharge of water to the opposite side thereof.
Desalination efficiency and recovery rate of the electrosorption-based desalination apparatus are most significantly affected by adsorption capacity of the electrodes in the purification reactor, among a variety of factors. Electrodes used therein may be made of various forms of carbonaceous materials, for example, including carbon cloths (carbon fibers), plate-like carbon electrode sheets and carbon aerogels. The electrodes formed of such materials have their own unique physical and electrochemical properties, but exhibit limitations in their inherent ion adsorption capacity which is known as the most important factor considered for use in the desalination apparatus. In addition, it is not easy to enhance ion adsorption capacity per unit area.
Taken together, the key point required for the electrodes in the desalination apparatus is to enhance the desalination efficiency and recovery rate and also is to reduce power consumption by efficient removal of air or gas adhered to electrodes, enhancement of regeneration efficiency of electrodes and an increase of ion adsorption capacity of an electrode per unit area.
Further, in order to make a contribution to securing of large quantities of alternative water resources using such an apparatus, it is important to easily realize industrial-scale application.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to enhance desalination efficiency and recovery rate and reduce energy consumption as compared to conventional desalination methods, and to implement a large-capacity apparatus.
In this connection, the desalination efficiency can be defined by Equation 1 below:
De(%)=I/O×100 (1)
Where in 1, De represents desalination efficiency (%), I represent the water quality of outflow water, and O represents the water quality of inflow water. The desalination efficiency is one of the indicators representing performance of the apparatus.
The recovery rate can be defined by Equation 2 below:
R=P/T×100 (2)
Where in, R represents a recovery rate (%), P represents the volume of the produced outflow water (m3), and T represents the volume of the total inflow water (m3). The volume of the produced outflow water refers to the quantity of water discharged from the desalination apparatus during the purification process and is the quantity of water which will be used in various applications. The total inflow water volume can be defined by Equation 3 below:
T=P+R(3)
Where in, T represents the volume of the total inflow water (m3), P represents the volume of the produced outflow water (m3), and R represents the volume of the regenerated outflow water (m3). The volume of the produced outflow water refers to the quantity of water discharged from the desalination apparatus during the purification process and is the quantity of water which will be used in various applications. The volume of the regenerated outflow water refers to the quantity of water discharged during the regeneration process and is thus the quantity of water which is discarded. Herein, the purification process refers to a process in which, upon applying a direct voltage to the electrode, inorganic ion components in water, in contact with the electrode, migrate toward the electrode and are adsorbed on the electrode surface, thereby effecting purification of water. The regeneration process refers to a process in which inorganic ions adsorbed onto the electrode during the purification process are desorbed by application of a reverse DC voltage to the electrode, in polarity opposite the DC voltage applied to the electrode during the purification process.
The recovery rate should be considered in combination with energy consumption because only an increase of the recovery rate per se is meaningless. The energy consumption during operation of the apparatus can be defined by Equation 4 below:
EC=EP/P(4)
Where in, EC represents energy consumption (kWh/□), EP represents wattage (kWh), and P represents the quantity of the produced outflow water (□). Wattage is the product of instantaneous power (kW) and time (h).
In Equation 2, since the quantity of inflow water, is fixed upon operation of the apparatus, the recovery rate increases with an increase of the quantity of outflow water. That is, an increase in the quantity of outflow water leads to an increase in the recovery rate, and therefore an increasing recovery rate results in reduction of energy consumption as can be seen from Equation 4. In order to decrease energy consumption, various methods may be used including a method of reducing contact resistance of various components in the apparatus, a method of reducing power consumption of a power unit to be used and a method of increasing the recovery rate. Among these methods, it is considered that the method of increasing the recovery rate is most feasible and will provide a large increase in the recovery rate. Therefore, it is very crucial to increase the recovery rate in the electrosorption-based desalination apparatus.
As such, in order to increase the recovery rate, it is necessary to increase the quantity of purified outflow water and decrease the quantity of regenerated outflow water per unit time during operation of the apparatus, as shown in Equations 2 and 3. As a method of increasing the recovery rate, there may be exemplified a variety of methods such as a method of increasing the number of electrodes to be used, a method of increasing unit adsorption capacity of the electrode, and the like. However, the method of increasing the number of electrodes is also accompanied by increased power consumption with increasing electrode numbers and is therefore insignificant. To this end, the technical object of the present invention is to increase the unit adsorption capacity of the electrode.
As such, it is another object of the present invention to provide a submerged-type, electrosorption-based water purification apparatus and method, which are capable of enhancing the desalination efficiency and recovery rate and are capable of reducing power consumption, via efficient removal of air or gas adhered to electrodes, enhancement of regeneration efficiency of electrodes and increase of ion adsorption capacity of an electrode per unit area.
Further, it is a yet another object of the present invention to provide a submerged-type, electrosorption-based water purification apparatus and method, which can be easily applied on industrial scale, so as to make a contribution to securing of large quantities of alternative water resources.
The highly efficient and regenerative, electrosorption-based water purification apparatus according to the present invention comprises a DC power supply system capable of applying negative and positive voltages of 0.1 to 2.0 volts; one or more electrosorption-based purification reactors in tandem or parallel array, connected via voltage-applying lines to the DC power supply system and separately adsorbing/desorbing inorganic ions in water into cations and anions, thereby removing ions; an inflow water storage/purification reaction bath storing water to be treated and having the purification reactor submerged therein; a control panel for setting operation conditions; and an electrical conductivity meter for monitoring the operation state of the apparatus.
According to the present invention, the electrosorption-based purification reactor is comprised of a spacer through which water flows; and positive and negative electrode current collectors made of carbon foil and connected to positive and negative voltage-applying lines of the DC power supply system; and one or more unit cells composed of positive and negative electrodes which adsorb cations and anions by positive and negative voltages via the negative and positive electrode current collectors and are made of activated carbon materials.
In addition, the highly efficient and regenerative, electrosorption-based water purification method according to the present invention comprises applying negative and positive voltages of 0.1 to 2.0 volts from a DC power supply system to one or more positive and negative electrodes positioned in unit cells in one or more parallel electrosorption-based purification reactors in water-submerged state in an inflow water storage/purification reaction bath for 10 to 20 min; selectively adsorbing inorganic ions in introduced water by the positive and negative electrodes, and discharging water while repeating the above same operation in one or more inflow-water storage/purification reaction baths in tandem array; and desorbing the adsorbed inorganic ions by applying the reverse voltages to each electrode upon saturated adsorption thereof, thereby desorbing ions, discharging the supplied regeneration water from each purification reaction bath, and allowing the flow of the treating water using a suction pump, thereby removing inorganic ions.
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SUMMARY: FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a water purification apparatus and method using electrosorption. More specifically, the present invention relates to a submerged-type, electrosorption-based desalination apparatus for water purification and method, comprising submerging an electrosorption-based purification reactor composed of a current collector plate, electrodes and a spacer in treating water, allowing the flow of treating water into the purification reactor using a suction pump, applying a DC voltage of 0.1 to 2.0 volts to a plate-like activated carbon electrode in the purification reactor such that inorganic ions in water are removed by adsorption of ions onto the plate-like activated carbon electrode, thereby converting high-salinity water such as sea water and brine water into fresh water.
DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART
Dryness of electrodes in the air leads to deterioration of adsorption capacity due to the entry of air into pores of the electrodes. That is, conventional desalination methods are susceptible to the risk of electrode dryness during a non-operating period. Occurrence of electrode dryness entails the entry of air into great numbers of pores within carbon electrodes, thereby blocking the entrances of pores. As a result, it is impossible to achieve adsorption of ions into pores during operation of the apparatus. In addition, electrode dryness leads to a decrease in adsorption capacity of the electrodes.
During operation of the apparatus, a DC voltage is applied in a range of 0.8 to 1.4 volts. The thus-applied electrical energy is largely used to adsorb ions, but some electrical energy is utilized in electrolysis of water. The electrolysis is accompanied by formation of gases as shown in the following reactions, and the thus-formed gases enter into numerous pores of the carbon electrodes, thereby blocking pore entrances. Consequently, it is impossible to achieve adsorption of ions into pores during operation of the apparatus, and adsorption capacity of the electrodes is also decreased.
Cathodic reaction: 2Cl−−2e−→Cl24OH−−4e−→O2+2H2OCl2+H2O→HCl+HClO
Anodic reaction: 2H++2e−→H22Na++2e−→2Na2Na++2H2O→2NaOH+H2
As state above, the air or gas existing in pores of the carbon electrode is not easily eliminated in conventional desalination methods and remained as such.
For these reasons, a decrease in adsorption capacity of the electrode subsequently leads to a decrease in the recovery rate of the apparatus. In fact, the conventional methods exhibit a recovery rate of about 50%, which is as low as that of a reverse osmosis membrane process, a generalized technology among currently available desalination technologies. In conclusion, the recovery rate is linked directly with energy consumption, and therefore decreased adsorption capacity of the electrode due to the presence of air or gas leads to deterioration in low-energy consumption which is a strong point of the electrosorption-based desalination process.
General electrosorption-based desalination apparatuses use the same flow tube during both purification process operation and regeneration process operation, wherein the end part of the flow tube is branched into two lines. Therefore, such types of desalination apparatuses are operated under fixed operation conditions, irrespective of changes in the water quality, and therefore exhibit disadvantages such as slow responsiveness to changes of the water quality, difficulty to set operation conditions in compliance with such changes and thereby difficulty to accomplish maximization of the recovery rate under given environment.
Due to a very narrow distance of less than 1 mm between electrodes in the purification reactor, it is not easy to remove foreign substances when such materials adhere to fluid flow paths positioned at the inflow water side of the purification reactor or flow paths within other purification reactors. The purification reactor is largely composed of large numbers of structural components including several tens to several hundreds of electrodes, thus taking a great deal of time to disassemble the reactor for removal of foreign substances.
Extension of a flow path via installation of it over the total area of one electrode sheet in a serpentine fashion may enhance a utilization rate of the electrode area, but pose difficulty in realization of large-capacity electrode. Particularly, if a carbon fiber is used as an electrode material, since the contact of some electrode part with water leads to drenching of the electrode throughout the overall electrode by the capillary action of fiber, it is impossible to extend the length of path.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,432, issued to Andelman, discloses a spirally wound form of a flow-through capacitor, but suffers from problems such as occurrence of channeling upon the passage of fluid through the spirally wound flow-through capacitor, a fluctuating removal rate of ions, and a low-average removal rate of ions. It is thus difficult to realize industrial scale application with this technique.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,538,611, issued to Otowa, which is an improved version intended to solve shortcomings of U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,432, describes a planar flow-through capacitor. Ths patent may provide some effects of a steady removal rate of ions, but is still unsuitable for industrial-scale treatment due to the configuration with the entry of water from one side of the plate-like electrode and the discharge of water to the opposite side thereof.
Desalination efficiency and recovery rate of the electrosorption-based desalination apparatus are most significantly affected by adsorption capacity of the electrodes in the purification reactor, among a variety of factors. Electrodes used therein may be made of various forms of carbonaceous materials, for example, including carbon cloths (carbon fibers), plate-like carbon electrode sheets and carbon aerogels. The electrodes formed of such materials have their own unique physical and electrochemical properties, but exhibit limitations in their inherent ion adsorption capacity which is known as the most important factor considered for use in the desalination apparatus. In addition, it is not easy to enhance ion adsorption capacity per unit area.
Taken together, the key point required for the electrodes in the desalination apparatus is to enhance the desalination efficiency and recovery rate and also is to reduce power consumption by efficient removal of air or gas adhered to electrodes, enhancement of regeneration efficiency of electrodes and an increase of ion adsorption capacity of an electrode per unit area.
Further, in order to make a contribution to securing of large quantities of alternative water resources using such an apparatus, it is important to easily realize industrial-scale application.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to enhance desalination efficiency and recovery rate and reduce energy consumption as compared to conventional desalination methods, and to implement a large-capacity apparatus.
In this connection, the desalination efficiency can be defined by Equation 1 below:
De(%)=I/O×100 (1)
Where in 1, De represents desalination efficiency (%), I represent the water quality of outflow water, and O represents the water quality of inflow water. The desalination efficiency is one of the indicators representing performance of the apparatus.
The recovery rate can be defined by Equation 2 below:
R=P/T×100 (2)
Where in, R represents a recovery rate (%), P represents the volume of the produced outflow water (m3), and T represents the volume of the total inflow water (m3). The volume of the produced outflow water refers to the quantity of water discharged from the desalination apparatus during the purification process and is the quantity of water which will be used in various applications. The total inflow water volume can be defined by Equation 3 below:
T=P+R(3)
Where in, T represents the volume of the total inflow water (m3), P represents the volume of the produced outflow water (m3), and R represents the volume of the regenerated outflow water (m3). The volume of the produced outflow water refers to the quantity of water discharged from the desalination apparatus during the purification process and is the quantity of water which will be used in various applications. The volume of the regenerated outflow water refers to the quantity of water discharged during the regeneration process and is thus the quantity of water which is discarded. Herein, the purification process refers to a process in which, upon applying a direct voltage to the electrode, inorganic ion components in water, in contact with the electrode, migrate toward the electrode and are adsorbed on the electrode surface, thereby effecting purification of water. The regeneration process refers to a process in which inorganic ions adsorbed onto the electrode during the purification process are desorbed by application of a reverse DC voltage to the electrode, in polarity opposite the DC voltage applied to the electrode during the purification process.
The recovery rate should be considered in combination with energy consumption because only an increase of the recovery rate per se is meaningless. The energy consumption during operation of the apparatus can be defined by Equation 4 below:
EC=EP/P(4)
Where in, EC represents energy consumption (kWh/□), EP represents wattage (kWh), and P represents the quantity of the produced outflow water (□). Wattage is the product of instantaneous power (kW) and time (h).
In Equation 2, since the quantity of inflow water, is fixed upon operation of the apparatus, the recovery rate increases with an increase of the quantity of outflow water. That is, an increase in the quantity of outflow water leads to an increase in the recovery rate, and therefore an increasing recovery rate results in reduction of energy consumption as can be seen from Equation 4. In order to decrease energy consumption, various methods may be used including a method of reducing contact resistance of various components in the apparatus, a method of reducing power consumption of a power unit to be used and a method of increasing the recovery rate. Among these methods, it is considered that the method of increasing the recovery rate is most feasible and will provide a large increase in the recovery rate. Therefore, it is very crucial to increase the recovery rate in the electrosorption-based desalination apparatus.
As such, in order to increase the recovery rate, it is necessary to increase the quantity of purified outflow water and decrease the quantity of regenerated outflow water per unit time during operation of the apparatus, as shown in Equations 2 and 3. As a method of increasing the recovery rate, there may be exemplified a variety of methods such as a method of increasing the number of electrodes to be used, a method of increasing unit adsorption capacity of the electrode, and the like. However, the method of increasing the number of electrodes is also accompanied by increased power consumption with increasing electrode numbers and is therefore insignificant. To this end, the technical object of the present invention is to increase the unit adsorption capacity of the electrode.
As such, it is another object of the present invention to provide a submerged-type, electrosorption-based water purification apparatus and method, which are capable of enhancing the desalination efficiency and recovery rate and are capable of reducing power consumption, via efficient removal of air or gas adhered to electrodes, enhancement of regeneration efficiency of electrodes and increase of ion adsorption capacity of an electrode per unit area.
Further, it is a yet another object of the present invention to provide a submerged-type, electrosorption-based water purification apparatus and method, which can be easily applied on industrial scale, so as to make a contribution to securing of large quantities of alternative water resources.
The highly efficient and regenerative, electrosorption-based water purification apparatus according to the present invention comprises a DC power supply system capable of applying negative and positive voltages of 0.1 to 2.0 volts; one or more electrosorption-based purification reactors in tandem or parallel array, connected via voltage-applying lines to the DC power supply system and separately adsorbing/desorbing inorganic ions in water into cations and anions, thereby removing ions; an inflow water storage/purification reaction bath storing water to be treated and having the purification reactor submerged therein; a control panel for setting operation conditions; and an electrical conductivity meter for monitoring the operation state of the apparatus.
According to the present invention, the electrosorption-based purification reactor is comprised of a spacer through which water flows; and positive and negative electrode current collectors made of carbon foil and connected to positive and negative voltage-applying lines of the DC power supply system; and one or more unit cells composed of positive and negative electrodes which adsorb cations and anions by positive and negative voltages via the negative and positive electrode current collectors and are made of activated carbon materials.
In addition, the highly efficient and regenerative, electrosorption-based water purification method according to the present invention comprises applying negative and positive voltages of 0.1 to 2.0 volts from a DC power supply system to one or more positive and negative electrodes positioned in unit cells in one or more parallel electrosorption-based purification reactors in water-submerged state in an inflow water storage/purification reaction bath for 10 to 20 min; selectively adsorbing inorganic ions in introduced water by the positive and negative electrodes, and discharging water while repeating the above same operation in one or more inflow-water storage/purification reaction baths in tandem array; and desorbing the adsorbed inorganic ions by applying the reverse voltages to each electrode upon saturated adsorption thereof, thereby desorbing ions, discharging the supplied regeneration water from each purification reaction bath, and allowing the flow of the treating water using a suction pump, thereby removing inorganic ions.
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7787767 | BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multi-channel or parallel electro-optical module and method of operation thereof wherein a loss of signal can be detected at a receive end of a parallel optical link, and information relating thereto communicated to a transmit end.
2. Description of the Related Art
A typical parallel optical transceiver consists of a vertical cavity surface emitter laser (VCSEL) array, to provide N optical beams coupled to N parallel optical transmission channels or lanes, and a photodiode array, to provide N parallel optical receiver lanes. A parallel optical fiber ribbon connects the transmitter array of the first optical transceiver, with the photodiode receiver array of a second optical transceiver, and vice versa.
Various standards bodies typically dictate that in the case of a fault condition where laser light could be exposed, an optical transceiver should enter an “eyesafe” mode, wherein the average optical power transmitted by the transceiver is reduced to a level which will not cause damage to the human eye. In the case of parallel optical transceivers, meeting the “eyesafe” standards can be difficult, because of the parallel nature of the arrangement. In this respect, a parallel optical transceiver with N optical transmit and receive lanes, will typically transmit N times the power of a single optical fiber. Thus, if a parallel optical ribbon is damaged, a significant amount of laser light well above the “eyesafe” levels can be released.
The problem is exacerbated for integrated cable/transceivers, where the parallel ribbon fiber is permanently attached to the electro-optical transceivers at each end. In this case, there is no accessible optical interface normally, and the optical power launched into the fibers is impossible to measure. Moreover, since the optical interface is not accessible, there is an unknown coupling loss in assembly, and hence it is not desirable to limit the maximum permitted power from each of the VCSELs. Thus, individual VCSEL optical emission may, in some cases, exceed the eye safety limit if exposed. In addition the power launched into a single fiber might exceed safe level if exposed due to fiber breakage.
US 2003/0095303 describes how open fiber control may be performed in an optical transceiver. More particularly, during normal operation a transceiver transmits signals through a connection to an optical network. When the connection breaks, the transceiver detects the loss of signal, and disables transmissions over all channels except for one. The transceiver continues transmission on a single enabled channel at an eye safe level. When the connection is fixed and the signal reappears, the transceiver detects the signal reappearance, and re-enables all channels that had previously been disabled.
A similar system is described in US 2002/0149810. Here, a duplex parallel optical link includes a transmitter and receiver pair and a fiber-optic ribbon that includes a designated number N of channels that cannot be split. The duplex transceiver includes a corresponding transmitter and receiver which are physically attached to each other, and cannot be detached therefrom, so as to ensure safe, laser optical power in the event that the fiber-optic ribbon cable is broken or severed. In the case of the fiber optic ribbon cable being broken or severed, all of the channels except for a designated safety channel are shut down. That is, only the designated safety channel remains enabled.
Within the prior art, therefore, the problem of maintaining eye safety in parallel optical transceivers is solved by shutting down all of the parallel optical lanes between two optical transceivers in the event of a fault being detected in one of them. Then, a single designated safety channel is maintained open, which transmits at an eye safe level, and which is used to detect when the link is repaired. However, this means that a fault in a single one of the optical fibers results in the entire link being lost. It would therefore be advantageous to provide a technique that a break in a single one of the optical fibers does not mean that the entire parallel link is lost, and some of the optical lanes can remain open.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Embodiments of the invention address the above problem by providing a pluggable electro-optical module having a plurality of parallel optical transmit lanes and a plurality of parallel optical receiver lanes, the module comprising optical receiver lane signal detection circuitry to detect a loss of signal on one or more of the receive lanes, and optical transmit lane control circuitry to control a corresponding optical transmit lane to the receive lane on which a loss of signal was detected to transmit a signaling mode optical signal indicating the loss of signal on the receive lane.
Preferably, the signaling mode optical signal is an eye safe optical signal. More preferably the transmitted optical signal is a beacon signal of a predetermined format. Even more preferably the predetermined format is that the signal is on for a predetermined, relatively short and known, period of time, and then off for a predetermined, relatively long and known, period of time. The lower duty cycle of the optical signal will ensure that the average power level, if exposed, is safe.
In a preferred embodiment, the optical receiver lane signal detection circuitry is further arranged to detect the transmitted signaling mode optical signal, and the optical transmit lane control circuitry is further arranged to control a corresponding optical transmit lane to the receive lane on which the optical signal was received, to render any optical signals transmitted on the corresponding transmit lane eye safe.
Preferably, any optical signals transmitted on the corresponding transmit optical lane are in the same format as the received signaling mode optical signal.
Further features and aspects will be apparent from the appended claims.
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multi-channel or parallel electro-optical module and method of operation thereof wherein a loss of signal can be detected at a receive end of a parallel optical link, and information relating thereto communicated to a transmit end.
2. Description of the Related Art
A typical parallel optical transceiver consists of a vertical cavity surface emitter laser (VCSEL) array, to provide N optical beams coupled to N parallel optical transmission channels or lanes, and a photodiode array, to provide N parallel optical receiver lanes. A parallel optical fiber ribbon connects the transmitter array of the first optical transceiver, with the photodiode receiver array of a second optical transceiver, and vice versa.
Various standards bodies typically dictate that in the case of a fault condition where laser light could be exposed, an optical transceiver should enter an “eyesafe” mode, wherein the average optical power transmitted by the transceiver is reduced to a level which will not cause damage to the human eye. In the case of parallel optical transceivers, meeting the “eyesafe” standards can be difficult, because of the parallel nature of the arrangement. In this respect, a parallel optical transceiver with N optical transmit and receive lanes, will typically transmit N times the power of a single optical fiber. Thus, if a parallel optical ribbon is damaged, a significant amount of laser light well above the “eyesafe” levels can be released.
The problem is exacerbated for integrated cable/transceivers, where the parallel ribbon fiber is permanently attached to the electro-optical transceivers at each end. In this case, there is no accessible optical interface normally, and the optical power launched into the fibers is impossible to measure. Moreover, since the optical interface is not accessible, there is an unknown coupling loss in assembly, and hence it is not desirable to limit the maximum permitted power from each of the VCSELs. Thus, individual VCSEL optical emission may, in some cases, exceed the eye safety limit if exposed. In addition the power launched into a single fiber might exceed safe level if exposed due to fiber breakage.
US 2003/0095303 describes how open fiber control may be performed in an optical transceiver. More particularly, during normal operation a transceiver transmits signals through a connection to an optical network. When the connection breaks, the transceiver detects the loss of signal, and disables transmissions over all channels except for one. The transceiver continues transmission on a single enabled channel at an eye safe level. When the connection is fixed and the signal reappears, the transceiver detects the signal reappearance, and re-enables all channels that had previously been disabled.
A similar system is described in US 2002/0149810. Here, a duplex parallel optical link includes a transmitter and receiver pair and a fiber-optic ribbon that includes a designated number N of channels that cannot be split. The duplex transceiver includes a corresponding transmitter and receiver which are physically attached to each other, and cannot be detached therefrom, so as to ensure safe, laser optical power in the event that the fiber-optic ribbon cable is broken or severed. In the case of the fiber optic ribbon cable being broken or severed, all of the channels except for a designated safety channel are shut down. That is, only the designated safety channel remains enabled.
Within the prior art, therefore, the problem of maintaining eye safety in parallel optical transceivers is solved by shutting down all of the parallel optical lanes between two optical transceivers in the event of a fault being detected in one of them. Then, a single designated safety channel is maintained open, which transmits at an eye safe level, and which is used to detect when the link is repaired. However, this means that a fault in a single one of the optical fibers results in the entire link being lost. It would therefore be advantageous to provide a technique that a break in a single one of the optical fibers does not mean that the entire parallel link is lost, and some of the optical lanes can remain open.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Embodiments of the invention address the above problem by providing a pluggable electro-optical module having a plurality of parallel optical transmit lanes and a plurality of parallel optical receiver lanes, the module comprising optical receiver lane signal detection circuitry to detect a loss of signal on one or more of the receive lanes, and optical transmit lane control circuitry to control a corresponding optical transmit lane to the receive lane on which a loss of signal was detected to transmit a signaling mode optical signal indicating the loss of signal on the receive lane.
Preferably, the signaling mode optical signal is an eye safe optical signal. More preferably the transmitted optical signal is a beacon signal of a predetermined format. Even more preferably the predetermined format is that the signal is on for a predetermined, relatively short and known, period of time, and then off for a predetermined, relatively long and known, period of time. The lower duty cycle of the optical signal will ensure that the average power level, if exposed, is safe.
In a preferred embodiment, the optical receiver lane signal detection circuitry is further arranged to detect the transmitted signaling mode optical signal, and the optical transmit lane control circuitry is further arranged to control a corresponding optical transmit lane to the receive lane on which the optical signal was received, to render any optical signals transmitted on the corresponding transmit lane eye safe.
Preferably, any optical signals transmitted on the corresponding transmit optical lane are in the same format as the received signaling mode optical signal.
Further features and aspects will be apparent from the appended claims.
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7679331 | FIELD OF THE INVENTION
Aspects of the present invention relate to battery protection circuits. More specifically, aspects of the present invention provide battery protection circuits that may bypass shutoff procedures during known high demand conditions.
BACKGROUND
It is common for existing battery packs, such as lithium ion battery packs, to have a low voltage protection circuits integrated into the battery packs. When the battery voltage drops below a predetermined voltage the low voltage protection circuit turns off the battery pack. The low voltage protection circuit then will not let the battery pack resume providing power until the voltage exceeds a predetermined voltage and the battery pack is removed from the circuit and reinserted into the host device. For example, a battery pack having a low voltage protection circuit having a threshold voltage of 6.0 volts will be shutoff by the low voltage protection circuit when the battery pack generates an output voltage of less than 6.0 volts. Even after the battery pack has been removed and reinserted, the low voltage protection circuit will not allow the battery to provide power until the voltage generated by the battery pack exceeds 6.5 volts.
There are several drawbacks associated with such conventional battery packs. Existing devices that use conventional battery packs are forced to stop operating when the conventional low voltage protection circuit removes power. This can be problematic in many situations, such as when data is stored in a volatile memory or when a device shutdown procedure is desired for proper operations.
Another drawback associated with conventional battery packs that include low voltage protection circuits is that the low voltage protection circuits do not account for predictable and momentary high current drain conditions. For example, a printing device may have a high current drain and produce a low output voltage during a printing operation. This momentary low voltage condition may cause the low voltage protection circuit to shut off power, even though the battery pack does not need to be recharged.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for systems and methods that provide better control over how and when power is removed from battery packs during low voltage conditions.
BRIEF SUMMARY
Aspects of the present invention address one or more of the issues mentioned above, thereby providing device power control systems that better control when and how power is removed from devices. In one embodiment of the invention a power control system includes a sensing module, a shutoff module and a bypass module. The sensing module may be used to detect an output voltage level of a battery pack. The shutoff module initiates a shutoff routine when the output voltage level decreases to a device shutoff voltage level. The device shutoff voltage level is greater than the battery pack shutoff voltage level. The bypass module prevents the initiation of the shutoff routine when the device performs one or more operations that are known to cause high battery current spikes. The shutoff routine may include removing power from all components or may include additional steps such as saving data stored in volatile memory, removing power from components in a predetermined sequence, alerting the user that the device will be shutdown, etc.
In a second embodiment a power control system includes a sensing module and a shutoff module. The sensing module detects output voltage levels of a battery pack and generates an average voltage level that represents a voltage level that is between a current output voltage level and an output voltage level that existed at a previous time. The shutoff module initiates a shutoff routine when the average voltage level decreases to a device shutoff voltage level. The device shutoff voltage level is greater than a battery pack shutoff voltage level.
In other embodiments of the invention, computer-executable instructions for implementing the disclosed methods are stored as control logic or computer-readable instructions on computer-readable media, such as an optical or magnetic disk.
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: FIELD OF THE INVENTION
Aspects of the present invention relate to battery protection circuits. More specifically, aspects of the present invention provide battery protection circuits that may bypass shutoff procedures during known high demand conditions.
BACKGROUND
It is common for existing battery packs, such as lithium ion battery packs, to have a low voltage protection circuits integrated into the battery packs. When the battery voltage drops below a predetermined voltage the low voltage protection circuit turns off the battery pack. The low voltage protection circuit then will not let the battery pack resume providing power until the voltage exceeds a predetermined voltage and the battery pack is removed from the circuit and reinserted into the host device. For example, a battery pack having a low voltage protection circuit having a threshold voltage of 6.0 volts will be shutoff by the low voltage protection circuit when the battery pack generates an output voltage of less than 6.0 volts. Even after the battery pack has been removed and reinserted, the low voltage protection circuit will not allow the battery to provide power until the voltage generated by the battery pack exceeds 6.5 volts.
There are several drawbacks associated with such conventional battery packs. Existing devices that use conventional battery packs are forced to stop operating when the conventional low voltage protection circuit removes power. This can be problematic in many situations, such as when data is stored in a volatile memory or when a device shutdown procedure is desired for proper operations.
Another drawback associated with conventional battery packs that include low voltage protection circuits is that the low voltage protection circuits do not account for predictable and momentary high current drain conditions. For example, a printing device may have a high current drain and produce a low output voltage during a printing operation. This momentary low voltage condition may cause the low voltage protection circuit to shut off power, even though the battery pack does not need to be recharged.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for systems and methods that provide better control over how and when power is removed from battery packs during low voltage conditions.
BRIEF SUMMARY
Aspects of the present invention address one or more of the issues mentioned above, thereby providing device power control systems that better control when and how power is removed from devices. In one embodiment of the invention a power control system includes a sensing module, a shutoff module and a bypass module. The sensing module may be used to detect an output voltage level of a battery pack. The shutoff module initiates a shutoff routine when the output voltage level decreases to a device shutoff voltage level. The device shutoff voltage level is greater than the battery pack shutoff voltage level. The bypass module prevents the initiation of the shutoff routine when the device performs one or more operations that are known to cause high battery current spikes. The shutoff routine may include removing power from all components or may include additional steps such as saving data stored in volatile memory, removing power from components in a predetermined sequence, alerting the user that the device will be shutdown, etc.
In a second embodiment a power control system includes a sensing module and a shutoff module. The sensing module detects output voltage levels of a battery pack and generates an average voltage level that represents a voltage level that is between a current output voltage level and an output voltage level that existed at a previous time. The shutoff module initiates a shutoff routine when the average voltage level decreases to a device shutoff voltage level. The device shutoff voltage level is greater than a battery pack shutoff voltage level.
In other embodiments of the invention, computer-executable instructions for implementing the disclosed methods are stored as control logic or computer-readable instructions on computer-readable media, such as an optical or magnetic disk.
Is this patent green technology? Respond with 'yes' or 'no'. |
7834013 | FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to novel therapeutic compounds and more particularly to novel compounds, their use as GPR40 agonists, processes for their manufacture, and intermediates useful in their preparation.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Diabetes mellitus is an ever-increasing threat to human health. For example, in the United States current estimates maintain that about 16 million people suffer from diabetes mellitus.
Type I diabetes, also known as insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM), is caused by the autoimmune destruction of the insulin producing pancreatic β-cells, and necessitates regular administration of exogenous insulin. Without insulin, cells cannot absorb sugar (glucose), which they need to produce energy. Symptoms of Type I diabetes usually start in childhood or young adulthood. People often seek medical help because they are seriously ill from sudden symptoms of high blood sugar (hyperglycemia).
Type II diabetes, also known as non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, manifests as an inability to adequately regulate blood-glucose levels. Type II diabetes may be characterized by a defect in insulin secretion or by insulin resistance, namely those that suffer from Type II diabetes have too little insulin or cannot use insulin effectively. Insulin resistance refers to the inability of the body tissues to respond properly to endogenous insulin. Insulin resistance develops because of multiple factors, including genetics, obesity, increasing age, and having high blood sugar over long periods of time. Type II diabetes, sometimes called mature onset, can develop at any age, but most commonly becomes apparent during adulthood. The incidence of type II diabetes in children, however, is rising.
In diabetics glucose levels build up in the blood and urine causing excessive urination, thirst, hunger, and problems with fat and protein metabolism. If left untreated, diabetes mellitus may cause life-threatening complications, including blindness, kidney failure, and heart disease.
Type II diabetes accounts for approximately 90-95% of diabetes cases, killing about 193,000 U.S. residents each year. Type II diabetes is the seventh leading cause of all deaths. In Western societies, type II diabetes currently affects 6% of the adult population with world-wide frequency expected to grow by 6% per annum. Although there are certain inheritable traits that may predispose particular individuals to developing type II diabetes, the driving force behind the current increase in incidence of the disease is the increased sedentary life-style, diet, and obesity now prevalent in developed countries. About 80% of diabetics with type ii diabetes are significantly overweight. As noted above, an increasing number of young people are developing the disease. Type II diabetes is now internationally recognized as one of the major threats to human health in the 21stcentury.
Type II diabetes currently is treated at several levels. A first level of therapy is through diet and/or exercise, either alone or in combination with therapeutic agents. Such agents may include insulin or pharmaceuticals that lower blood glucose levels. About 49% of individuals with Type II diabetes require oral medications, about 40% require insulin injections or a combination of insulin injections and oral medications, and 10% use diet and exercise alone.
Current therapies include: insulin secretagogues, such as sulphonylureas, which increase insulin production from pancreatic β-cells; glucose-lowering effectors, such as metformin which reduce glucose production from the liver; activators of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors-γ (PPAR-γ), such as the thiazolidinediones, which enhances insulin action; and α-glucosidase inhibitors which interfere with gut glucose production. There are, however, deficiencies associated with currently available treatments. For example sulphonylureas and insulin injections can be associated with hypoglycemic episodes and weight gain. Furthermore, patients often lose responsiveness to sulphonylureas over time. Metformin and α-glucosidase inhibitors often lead to gastrointestinal problems and PPAR-γ agonists tend to cause increased weight gain and edema.
There are several areas at which research is being targeted in order to bring new, more effective, therapies to the marketplace. As one example, the present inventors are exploring a reduction in excessive hepatic glucose production, enhancing the pathway by which insulin transmits its signal to the cells such that they take up glucose, enhancing glucose-stimulated insulin secretion from the pancreatic β-cells, and targeting obesity and associated problems with fat metabolism and accumulation.
Free fatty acids (FFA) play key roles in several aspects of metabolism, including the ‘priming’ of the pancreatic β-cell to potentiate the insulin response to glucose in the fasted state and as a starting point in lipogenesis. GPR40 is the first cell-surface receptor identified for fatty acids most prevalent in plasma such as palmitate, oleate, stearate, linoleate, and linolenate. GPR40 could be considered to be a ‘nutrient sensing’ receptor, playing several tissue-dependent roles which may inter-play to effect overall glucose disposal and/or fat metabolism. For example, and herein incorporated by reference, Itoh et al. (Nature, 23 Feb. 2003, doi:10.1038/nature01478) describe that long-chain FFAs amplify glucose-stimulated insulin secretion from the pancreatic β cells through activation of GPR40.
On this basis, agonists to GPR40 may be of therapeutic value for diabetes and associated conditions, particularly type II diabetes, obesity, glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome X, hyperlipidemia, hypercholesterolemia, atherosclerosis, neurodegenerative diseases (for example Alzheimer's disease), and other indications such as stroke.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention includes compounds of formula (I)
including salts, solvates, and pharmaceutically functional derivatives thereof, wherein t is 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4;R1is alkyl, alkoxy, halogen, haloalkyl, nitro, cyano, or —NR7R8, where each of R7andR8independently are H or alkyl;A is —OH or —NR2R3;each of R2and R3independently is H or -(Q1)n-R4;n is 0, 1 or 2;Q1is alkylene;each R4independently is alkyl, haloalkyl, aryl, heteroaryl, cycloalkyl, heterocyclyl, hydroxy, alkoxy, or aryloxy;X1is —NH—;X2is —C(R5)2—;each R5independently is H or alkyl;Y is aryl or heteroaryl;Z is -(Q2)m-R6;m is 0 or 1;Q2is —NR5—, —O—, —S—, —O(CH2)p—, or —CH2—;p is 1, 2, or 3; andR6is aryl or heteroaryl.
Preferably X2is —CH2—. Preferably X1is substituted para to the depicted cyclopropyl ring.
Preferably t is 0.
Preferably Y is aryl. Preferably Y is phenyl. Preferably when Y is phenyl, the phenyl is unsubstituted or is optionally substituted with C1-C6alkyl, C1-C6alkoxy, halogen, or C1-C6haloalkyl.
In another embodiment preferably Y is heteroaryl. Preferably Y is thiazolyl. Preferably when Y is thiazolyl, the thiazolyl is unsubstituted or is optionally substituted with C1-C6alkyl, aryl, or heteroaryl.
Preferably A is —OH. In addition, the compound of formula (I) may be a pharmaceutically functional derivative. Thus, the present invention includes where A is —OR9, where R9is alkyl or aryl.
Preferably Q1is unsubstituted alkylene. In another embodiment Q1is optionally substituted alkylene.
Preferably Z is —O—R3. Preferably R6is phenyl. Preferably when R6is phenyl, the phenyl is unsubstituted or is optionally substituted with halogen, C1-C6haloalkyl, C1-C6alkyl, or C1-C6alkoxy.
In another embodiment Z is —R6. Preferably R6is phenyl. Preferably when R6is phenyl, the phenyl is unsubstituted or is optionally substituted with halogen, C1-C6haloalkyl, C1-C6alkyl, or C1-C6alkoxy. In another embodiment R6is heteroaryl.
In one embodiment A is —OH, t is 0, X1is —NH—, X2is —CH2—, Y is phenyl, m is 1, Q2is —O—, and R6is phenyl.
In another embodiment A is —OH, t is 0, X1is —NH—, X2is —CH2—, Y is thiazolyl, m is 0, and R6is phenyl substituted with —CF3.
Particularly preferred compounds include:Racemic-(trans)-2-[4-({[3-(phenyloxy)phenyl]methyl}ammonium)phenyl]cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)2{4-[(4-biphenylylmethyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-[4-({[4-(2-pyridinyl)phenyl]methyl}amino)phenyl]cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-{4-[({3-[(3,4-dichlorophenyl)oxy]phenyl}methyl)ammonium]phenyl}-cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-(4-{[(3-{[(4-(methyloxy)phenyl]oxy}phenyl)methyl]ammonium}phenyl)-cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-{4-[({3-[(4-chlorophenyl)oxy]phenyl}methyl)ammonium]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-(4-{[(3-{[4-(1,1-dimethylethyl)phenyl]oxy}phenyl)methyl]ammonium}phenyl)cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-{4-[({3-[(3,5-dichlorophenyl)oxy]phenyl}methyl)ammonium]phenyl}-cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-(4{[(3{[3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]oxy}phenyl)methyl]ammonium}phenyl)cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-{4-[({3-[(4-methylphenyl)oxy]phenyl}methyl)ammonium]phenyl}-cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-{4-[({3-[(phenylmethyl)oxy]phenyl}methyl)ammonium]phenyl}-cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-[4-({[4-methyl-2-(phenyloxy)-1,3-thiazol-5-yl]methyl}ammonium)-phenyl]cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-{4-[({4-methyl-2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-{4-[({4-isopropyl-2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-[4-({[5-(4-chlorophenyl)-2-furanyl]methyl}amino)phenyl]cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-{4-[({4-[(phenylmethyl)oxy]phenyl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-{4-[({2-[(3,4-difluorophenyl)oxy]-4-methyl-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-(4-[({5-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-2-furanyl)methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-{4-[({5-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-2-thienyl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-{4-[({4-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-2-furanyl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)2-[4-({[3-(phenylmethyl)phenyl]methyl}amino)phenyl]cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)2-{4-[({3-[(4-nitrophenyl)oxy]phenyl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-[4-({[3-(phenylthio)phenyl]methyl}amino)phenyl]cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-{4-[({3-[(4-aminophenyl)oxy]phenyl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;(−)-(Trans)-2-[4-({[3-(phenyloxy)phenyl]methyl}amino)phenyl]cyclopropane carboxylic acid;(+)-(Trans)-2-{4-[(3-phenoxybenzyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;(+)-(Trans)-2-{4-[({4-methyl-2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Enantiomerically enriched (trans)-ethyl-2-{4-[({3-[(3,4-dichlorophenyl)oxy]phenyl}methyl)amino]phenyl}-cyclopropanecarboxylate;(+)-(Trans)-2-{4-[({3-[(3,4-dichlorophenyl)oxy]phenyl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;(−)-(cis)-2-{4-[({4-methyl-2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Enantiomerically enriched-(trans)-ethyl-2-[2-chloro-4-({[3-(phenyloxy)phenyl]methyl}amino)phenyl]cyclopropanecarboxylate;(+)-(Trans)-2-[2-chloro-4-({[3-(phenyloxy)phenyl]methyl}amino)phenyl]cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Enantiomerically enriched-(trans)-ethyl-2-[2,5-difluoro-4-({[3-(phenyloxy)phenyl]methyl}amino)phenyl]cyclopropanecarboxylate;(+)-(trans)-2-[2,5-difluoro-4-({[3-(phenyloxy)phenyl]methyl}amino)phenyl]cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;(+)-(trans)-2-{4-[({3-[(3,5-dichlorophenyl)oxy]phenyl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;(+)-(trans)-2-(4-{[(3-{[3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]oxy}phenyl)methyl]amino}phenyl)cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;(+)-(trans)-2{-4-[({3-[(4-methylphenyl)oxy]phenyl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2{-4-[(4-biphenylmethyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxamide;Racemic-(trans)2-[4-({[4-(2-pyridinyl)phenyl]methyl}amino)phenyl]cyclopropanecarboxamide;Racemic-(trans)-2-{4-[({4-methyl-2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)amino]phenyl}-N-(4-pyridinylmethyl)cyclopropanecarboxamide;Enantiomerically enriched (trans)-2-{4-[({4-methyl-2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)amino]phenyl}-N-(4-pyridinylmethyl)cyclopropanecarboxamide;Enantiomerically enriched (trans)-2-{4-[({4-methyl-2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxamide;Enantiomerically enriched (trans)2-{4-[({4-methyl-2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)amino]phenyl}-N-[(1S)-1-phenylethyl]cyclopropanecarboxamide;Enantiomerically enriched (trans)-N-hydroxy-2-{4-[({4-methyl-2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxamide;Enantiomerically enriched (trans)-N-cyclobutyl-2-{4-[({4-methyl-2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxamide;Racemic-(trans)-2-{4-[({4-methyl-2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxamide;(+)-(trans)-N-(1-methylethyl)-2-[4-({[3-(phenyloxy)phenyl]methyl}amino)phenyl]cyclopropanecarboxamide;Racemic-(trans)-N-isopropyl-2-{4-[({4-methyl-2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxamide;Racemic-(trans)-N,N-dimethyl-2-{4-[({4-methyl-2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxamide;Racemic-(trans)-2-[4-({[3-(phenyloxy)phenyl]methyl}amino)phenyl]-N-(4-pyridinylmethyl)cyclopropanecarboxamide;Racemic-(trans)-N-(4-methoxybenzyl)-2-{4-[(3-phenoxybenzyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxamide;Racemic-(trans)-2-{4-[(3-phenoxybenzyl)amino]phenyl}N-[4-(trifluoromethyl)benzyl]cyclopropanecarboxamide;Racemic-(trans)-N-(2-morpholin-4-ylethyl)-2-{4-[(3-phenoxybenzyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxamide;Racemic-(trans)-2-{4-[(3-phenoxybenzyl)amino]phenyl}-N-(2,2,2-trifluoroethyl)cyclopropanecarboxamide;Racemic-(trans)-N-isopropyl-2-{4-[({4-isopropyl-2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxamide;Enantiomerically enriched N-isopropyl-2-{4-[({4-methyl-2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxamide; andEnantiomerically enriched N-(cyclopropylmethyl)-2-{4-[(3-phenoxybenzyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxamide,
including salts, solvates, and physiologically functional derivatives thereof.
Another aspect of the present invention includes the compounds of the present invention substantially as hereinbefore defined with reference to any one of the Examples.
Another aspect of the present invention includes pharmaceutical compositions that include the compounds of the present invention, preferably with a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier.
Another aspect of the present invention includes the compounds of the present invention for use as an active therapeutic substance.
Another aspect of the present invention includes the compounds of the present invention for use in the treatment or prophylaxis of conditions or disorders affected by GPR40. Preferably the condition or disorder is one or more of diabetes, obesity, glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome X, hyperlipidemia, hypercholesterolemia, atherosclerosis, neurodegenerative diseases, and cerebrovascular conditions.
Another aspect of the present invention includes the use of one or more compound of the present invention in the manufacture of a medicament for use in the treatment or prophylaxis of conditions or disorders affected by GPR40. Preferably the condition or disorder is one or more of diabetes, obesity, glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome X, hyperlipidemia, hypercholesterolemia, atherosclerosis, neurodegenerative diseases, and cerebrovascular conditions.
Another aspect of the present invention includes methods for the treatment or prophylaxis of conditions or disorders affected by GPR40 comprising the administration of one or more of the compounds of the present invention. Preferably the condition or disorder is one or more of diabetes, obesity, glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome X, hyperlipidemia, hypercholesterolemia, atherosclerosis, neurodegenerative diseases, and cerebrovascular conditions.
Another aspect of the present invention includes synthetic processes for preparing the compounds of the present invention. One aspect of the present invention includes a process for the preparation of enantiomerically enriched-(trans)-ethyl-2-(4-amino-aryl)-cyclopropanecarboxylates that includes mixing a nitrobenzene compound, a palladium compound, and a tin compound in an appropriate solvent with heating to prepare a styrene product; dissolving said styrene product in an appropriate solvent and adding a mixture of a copper (I) trifluoromethanesulfonate-toluene complex and (2R)-4-tert-Butyl-2-{1-[(4R)-4-tert-butyl-4,5-dihydro-1,3-oxazol-2-yl]-1-methylethyl}-4,5-dihydro-1,3-oxazole and ethyldiazoacetate; and purifying to give enantiomerically enriched cyclopropanecarboxylates.
Particularly preferred intermediates include intermediates of formula IIId and IIIe:
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to novel therapeutic compounds and more particularly to novel compounds, their use as GPR40 agonists, processes for their manufacture, and intermediates useful in their preparation.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Diabetes mellitus is an ever-increasing threat to human health. For example, in the United States current estimates maintain that about 16 million people suffer from diabetes mellitus.
Type I diabetes, also known as insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM), is caused by the autoimmune destruction of the insulin producing pancreatic β-cells, and necessitates regular administration of exogenous insulin. Without insulin, cells cannot absorb sugar (glucose), which they need to produce energy. Symptoms of Type I diabetes usually start in childhood or young adulthood. People often seek medical help because they are seriously ill from sudden symptoms of high blood sugar (hyperglycemia).
Type II diabetes, also known as non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, manifests as an inability to adequately regulate blood-glucose levels. Type II diabetes may be characterized by a defect in insulin secretion or by insulin resistance, namely those that suffer from Type II diabetes have too little insulin or cannot use insulin effectively. Insulin resistance refers to the inability of the body tissues to respond properly to endogenous insulin. Insulin resistance develops because of multiple factors, including genetics, obesity, increasing age, and having high blood sugar over long periods of time. Type II diabetes, sometimes called mature onset, can develop at any age, but most commonly becomes apparent during adulthood. The incidence of type II diabetes in children, however, is rising.
In diabetics glucose levels build up in the blood and urine causing excessive urination, thirst, hunger, and problems with fat and protein metabolism. If left untreated, diabetes mellitus may cause life-threatening complications, including blindness, kidney failure, and heart disease.
Type II diabetes accounts for approximately 90-95% of diabetes cases, killing about 193,000 U.S. residents each year. Type II diabetes is the seventh leading cause of all deaths. In Western societies, type II diabetes currently affects 6% of the adult population with world-wide frequency expected to grow by 6% per annum. Although there are certain inheritable traits that may predispose particular individuals to developing type II diabetes, the driving force behind the current increase in incidence of the disease is the increased sedentary life-style, diet, and obesity now prevalent in developed countries. About 80% of diabetics with type ii diabetes are significantly overweight. As noted above, an increasing number of young people are developing the disease. Type II diabetes is now internationally recognized as one of the major threats to human health in the 21stcentury.
Type II diabetes currently is treated at several levels. A first level of therapy is through diet and/or exercise, either alone or in combination with therapeutic agents. Such agents may include insulin or pharmaceuticals that lower blood glucose levels. About 49% of individuals with Type II diabetes require oral medications, about 40% require insulin injections or a combination of insulin injections and oral medications, and 10% use diet and exercise alone.
Current therapies include: insulin secretagogues, such as sulphonylureas, which increase insulin production from pancreatic β-cells; glucose-lowering effectors, such as metformin which reduce glucose production from the liver; activators of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors-γ (PPAR-γ), such as the thiazolidinediones, which enhances insulin action; and α-glucosidase inhibitors which interfere with gut glucose production. There are, however, deficiencies associated with currently available treatments. For example sulphonylureas and insulin injections can be associated with hypoglycemic episodes and weight gain. Furthermore, patients often lose responsiveness to sulphonylureas over time. Metformin and α-glucosidase inhibitors often lead to gastrointestinal problems and PPAR-γ agonists tend to cause increased weight gain and edema.
There are several areas at which research is being targeted in order to bring new, more effective, therapies to the marketplace. As one example, the present inventors are exploring a reduction in excessive hepatic glucose production, enhancing the pathway by which insulin transmits its signal to the cells such that they take up glucose, enhancing glucose-stimulated insulin secretion from the pancreatic β-cells, and targeting obesity and associated problems with fat metabolism and accumulation.
Free fatty acids (FFA) play key roles in several aspects of metabolism, including the ‘priming’ of the pancreatic β-cell to potentiate the insulin response to glucose in the fasted state and as a starting point in lipogenesis. GPR40 is the first cell-surface receptor identified for fatty acids most prevalent in plasma such as palmitate, oleate, stearate, linoleate, and linolenate. GPR40 could be considered to be a ‘nutrient sensing’ receptor, playing several tissue-dependent roles which may inter-play to effect overall glucose disposal and/or fat metabolism. For example, and herein incorporated by reference, Itoh et al. (Nature, 23 Feb. 2003, doi:10.1038/nature01478) describe that long-chain FFAs amplify glucose-stimulated insulin secretion from the pancreatic β cells through activation of GPR40.
On this basis, agonists to GPR40 may be of therapeutic value for diabetes and associated conditions, particularly type II diabetes, obesity, glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome X, hyperlipidemia, hypercholesterolemia, atherosclerosis, neurodegenerative diseases (for example Alzheimer's disease), and other indications such as stroke.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention includes compounds of formula (I)
including salts, solvates, and pharmaceutically functional derivatives thereof, wherein t is 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4;R1is alkyl, alkoxy, halogen, haloalkyl, nitro, cyano, or —NR7R8, where each of R7andR8independently are H or alkyl;A is —OH or —NR2R3;each of R2and R3independently is H or -(Q1)n-R4;n is 0, 1 or 2;Q1is alkylene;each R4independently is alkyl, haloalkyl, aryl, heteroaryl, cycloalkyl, heterocyclyl, hydroxy, alkoxy, or aryloxy;X1is —NH—;X2is —C(R5)2—;each R5independently is H or alkyl;Y is aryl or heteroaryl;Z is -(Q2)m-R6;m is 0 or 1;Q2is —NR5—, —O—, —S—, —O(CH2)p—, or —CH2—;p is 1, 2, or 3; andR6is aryl or heteroaryl.
Preferably X2is —CH2—. Preferably X1is substituted para to the depicted cyclopropyl ring.
Preferably t is 0.
Preferably Y is aryl. Preferably Y is phenyl. Preferably when Y is phenyl, the phenyl is unsubstituted or is optionally substituted with C1-C6alkyl, C1-C6alkoxy, halogen, or C1-C6haloalkyl.
In another embodiment preferably Y is heteroaryl. Preferably Y is thiazolyl. Preferably when Y is thiazolyl, the thiazolyl is unsubstituted or is optionally substituted with C1-C6alkyl, aryl, or heteroaryl.
Preferably A is —OH. In addition, the compound of formula (I) may be a pharmaceutically functional derivative. Thus, the present invention includes where A is —OR9, where R9is alkyl or aryl.
Preferably Q1is unsubstituted alkylene. In another embodiment Q1is optionally substituted alkylene.
Preferably Z is —O—R3. Preferably R6is phenyl. Preferably when R6is phenyl, the phenyl is unsubstituted or is optionally substituted with halogen, C1-C6haloalkyl, C1-C6alkyl, or C1-C6alkoxy.
In another embodiment Z is —R6. Preferably R6is phenyl. Preferably when R6is phenyl, the phenyl is unsubstituted or is optionally substituted with halogen, C1-C6haloalkyl, C1-C6alkyl, or C1-C6alkoxy. In another embodiment R6is heteroaryl.
In one embodiment A is —OH, t is 0, X1is —NH—, X2is —CH2—, Y is phenyl, m is 1, Q2is —O—, and R6is phenyl.
In another embodiment A is —OH, t is 0, X1is —NH—, X2is —CH2—, Y is thiazolyl, m is 0, and R6is phenyl substituted with —CF3.
Particularly preferred compounds include:Racemic-(trans)-2-[4-({[3-(phenyloxy)phenyl]methyl}ammonium)phenyl]cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)2{4-[(4-biphenylylmethyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-[4-({[4-(2-pyridinyl)phenyl]methyl}amino)phenyl]cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-{4-[({3-[(3,4-dichlorophenyl)oxy]phenyl}methyl)ammonium]phenyl}-cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-(4-{[(3-{[(4-(methyloxy)phenyl]oxy}phenyl)methyl]ammonium}phenyl)-cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-{4-[({3-[(4-chlorophenyl)oxy]phenyl}methyl)ammonium]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-(4-{[(3-{[4-(1,1-dimethylethyl)phenyl]oxy}phenyl)methyl]ammonium}phenyl)cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-{4-[({3-[(3,5-dichlorophenyl)oxy]phenyl}methyl)ammonium]phenyl}-cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-(4{[(3{[3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]oxy}phenyl)methyl]ammonium}phenyl)cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-{4-[({3-[(4-methylphenyl)oxy]phenyl}methyl)ammonium]phenyl}-cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-{4-[({3-[(phenylmethyl)oxy]phenyl}methyl)ammonium]phenyl}-cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-[4-({[4-methyl-2-(phenyloxy)-1,3-thiazol-5-yl]methyl}ammonium)-phenyl]cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-{4-[({4-methyl-2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-{4-[({4-isopropyl-2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-[4-({[5-(4-chlorophenyl)-2-furanyl]methyl}amino)phenyl]cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-{4-[({4-[(phenylmethyl)oxy]phenyl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-{4-[({2-[(3,4-difluorophenyl)oxy]-4-methyl-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-(4-[({5-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-2-furanyl)methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-{4-[({5-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-2-thienyl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-{4-[({4-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-2-furanyl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)2-[4-({[3-(phenylmethyl)phenyl]methyl}amino)phenyl]cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)2-{4-[({3-[(4-nitrophenyl)oxy]phenyl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-[4-({[3-(phenylthio)phenyl]methyl}amino)phenyl]cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2-{4-[({3-[(4-aminophenyl)oxy]phenyl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;(−)-(Trans)-2-[4-({[3-(phenyloxy)phenyl]methyl}amino)phenyl]cyclopropane carboxylic acid;(+)-(Trans)-2-{4-[(3-phenoxybenzyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;(+)-(Trans)-2-{4-[({4-methyl-2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Enantiomerically enriched (trans)-ethyl-2-{4-[({3-[(3,4-dichlorophenyl)oxy]phenyl}methyl)amino]phenyl}-cyclopropanecarboxylate;(+)-(Trans)-2-{4-[({3-[(3,4-dichlorophenyl)oxy]phenyl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;(−)-(cis)-2-{4-[({4-methyl-2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Enantiomerically enriched-(trans)-ethyl-2-[2-chloro-4-({[3-(phenyloxy)phenyl]methyl}amino)phenyl]cyclopropanecarboxylate;(+)-(Trans)-2-[2-chloro-4-({[3-(phenyloxy)phenyl]methyl}amino)phenyl]cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Enantiomerically enriched-(trans)-ethyl-2-[2,5-difluoro-4-({[3-(phenyloxy)phenyl]methyl}amino)phenyl]cyclopropanecarboxylate;(+)-(trans)-2-[2,5-difluoro-4-({[3-(phenyloxy)phenyl]methyl}amino)phenyl]cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;(+)-(trans)-2-{4-[({3-[(3,5-dichlorophenyl)oxy]phenyl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;(+)-(trans)-2-(4-{[(3-{[3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]oxy}phenyl)methyl]amino}phenyl)cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;(+)-(trans)-2{-4-[({3-[(4-methylphenyl)oxy]phenyl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxylic acid;Racemic-(trans)-2{-4-[(4-biphenylmethyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxamide;Racemic-(trans)2-[4-({[4-(2-pyridinyl)phenyl]methyl}amino)phenyl]cyclopropanecarboxamide;Racemic-(trans)-2-{4-[({4-methyl-2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)amino]phenyl}-N-(4-pyridinylmethyl)cyclopropanecarboxamide;Enantiomerically enriched (trans)-2-{4-[({4-methyl-2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)amino]phenyl}-N-(4-pyridinylmethyl)cyclopropanecarboxamide;Enantiomerically enriched (trans)-2-{4-[({4-methyl-2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxamide;Enantiomerically enriched (trans)2-{4-[({4-methyl-2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)amino]phenyl}-N-[(1S)-1-phenylethyl]cyclopropanecarboxamide;Enantiomerically enriched (trans)-N-hydroxy-2-{4-[({4-methyl-2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxamide;Enantiomerically enriched (trans)-N-cyclobutyl-2-{4-[({4-methyl-2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxamide;Racemic-(trans)-2-{4-[({4-methyl-2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxamide;(+)-(trans)-N-(1-methylethyl)-2-[4-({[3-(phenyloxy)phenyl]methyl}amino)phenyl]cyclopropanecarboxamide;Racemic-(trans)-N-isopropyl-2-{4-[({4-methyl-2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxamide;Racemic-(trans)-N,N-dimethyl-2-{4-[({4-methyl-2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxamide;Racemic-(trans)-2-[4-({[3-(phenyloxy)phenyl]methyl}amino)phenyl]-N-(4-pyridinylmethyl)cyclopropanecarboxamide;Racemic-(trans)-N-(4-methoxybenzyl)-2-{4-[(3-phenoxybenzyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxamide;Racemic-(trans)-2-{4-[(3-phenoxybenzyl)amino]phenyl}N-[4-(trifluoromethyl)benzyl]cyclopropanecarboxamide;Racemic-(trans)-N-(2-morpholin-4-ylethyl)-2-{4-[(3-phenoxybenzyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxamide;Racemic-(trans)-2-{4-[(3-phenoxybenzyl)amino]phenyl}-N-(2,2,2-trifluoroethyl)cyclopropanecarboxamide;Racemic-(trans)-N-isopropyl-2-{4-[({4-isopropyl-2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxamide;Enantiomerically enriched N-isopropyl-2-{4-[({4-methyl-2-[4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,3-thiazol-5-yl}methyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxamide; andEnantiomerically enriched N-(cyclopropylmethyl)-2-{4-[(3-phenoxybenzyl)amino]phenyl}cyclopropanecarboxamide,
including salts, solvates, and physiologically functional derivatives thereof.
Another aspect of the present invention includes the compounds of the present invention substantially as hereinbefore defined with reference to any one of the Examples.
Another aspect of the present invention includes pharmaceutical compositions that include the compounds of the present invention, preferably with a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier.
Another aspect of the present invention includes the compounds of the present invention for use as an active therapeutic substance.
Another aspect of the present invention includes the compounds of the present invention for use in the treatment or prophylaxis of conditions or disorders affected by GPR40. Preferably the condition or disorder is one or more of diabetes, obesity, glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome X, hyperlipidemia, hypercholesterolemia, atherosclerosis, neurodegenerative diseases, and cerebrovascular conditions.
Another aspect of the present invention includes the use of one or more compound of the present invention in the manufacture of a medicament for use in the treatment or prophylaxis of conditions or disorders affected by GPR40. Preferably the condition or disorder is one or more of diabetes, obesity, glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome X, hyperlipidemia, hypercholesterolemia, atherosclerosis, neurodegenerative diseases, and cerebrovascular conditions.
Another aspect of the present invention includes methods for the treatment or prophylaxis of conditions or disorders affected by GPR40 comprising the administration of one or more of the compounds of the present invention. Preferably the condition or disorder is one or more of diabetes, obesity, glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome X, hyperlipidemia, hypercholesterolemia, atherosclerosis, neurodegenerative diseases, and cerebrovascular conditions.
Another aspect of the present invention includes synthetic processes for preparing the compounds of the present invention. One aspect of the present invention includes a process for the preparation of enantiomerically enriched-(trans)-ethyl-2-(4-amino-aryl)-cyclopropanecarboxylates that includes mixing a nitrobenzene compound, a palladium compound, and a tin compound in an appropriate solvent with heating to prepare a styrene product; dissolving said styrene product in an appropriate solvent and adding a mixture of a copper (I) trifluoromethanesulfonate-toluene complex and (2R)-4-tert-Butyl-2-{1-[(4R)-4-tert-butyl-4,5-dihydro-1,3-oxazol-2-yl]-1-methylethyl}-4,5-dihydro-1,3-oxazole and ethyldiazoacetate; and purifying to give enantiomerically enriched cyclopropanecarboxylates.
Particularly preferred intermediates include intermediates of formula IIId and IIIe:
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7806996 | BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a copper-based alloy that possesses prescribed machinability securely, enjoys enhanced mechanical properties and enjoys enhanced castability as well and to a cast ingot and a liquid-contacting part that each use the alloy.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Among other alloys, particularly the bronze casting (CAC406) excels in castability, corrosion resistance, machinability and pressure resistance and, when molten, exhibits satisfactory flowability and, therefore, is suitable for cast parts with fairly complicated shapes. Thus, it has been being copiously used hitherto in the general plumbing hardware, such as valves, cocks and joints.
The CAC406 is used in copious amounts in water-contacting fittings for the plumbing hardware of this kind because it allows easy manufacture of wholesome castings and particularly excels in machinability owing to containing Pb in a weight ratio of about 5%.
When this bronze alloy is used for the material of water-contacting fittings, such as valves, the lead that is contained in the bronze castings in a state only sparingly reduced to a solid solution is eluted into the ambient water and consequently suffered to deteriorate the quality of the water. This phenomenon grows in prominence particularly when water stagnates in the water-contacting fittings.
Thus, the development of the so-called leadless copper alloy is underway at present. The efforts directed toward the development have resulted in proposing a number of improved alloys.
Typical examples thereof will be described hereinafter.
For example, a leadless copper alloy that acquires enhanced machinability and allows prevention of dezincification by incorporating Bi in the place of lead into the copper alloy has been proposed (refer to pages 2-3 of JP-B HEI 5-63536).
A leadless bronze that enjoys enhanced machinability in consequence of adding Ca to BC6 (CAC406), for example, thereby chiefly forming compounds with P (CaP, Ca3P2) and giving birth to an action of refining chips has been proposed (refer to pages 2-3 and FIG. 2 of Japanese Patent No. 2949061).
In this case, the precipitation of intermetallic compounds of CaP characterizes the production of the leadless bronze. The actual use of this product is difficult because Ca is an active metal and the addition of Ca into a copper alloy therefore results in inducing vigorous oxidation and markedly lowering the yield.
As another example, a leadless bronze that has enhanced the mechanical strength thereof by adding Sb and consequently suppressing the occurrence of porosity during the course of casting due to the addition of Bi directed toward enhancing machinability has been proposed (refer to pages 3-6 of Japanese Patent No. 2889829). In this case, the addition of Ni is directed toward fortifying the matrix and preventing segregation.
As yet another example, a bronze cast material that has the crystal thereof refined as a substitution type intermetallic compound by the addition of Ti and has the crystal grain boundary strength thereof fortified as a penetration type intermetallic compound by the addition of B has been proposed (refer to pages 2-10 of Japanese Patent No. 2723817).
As still another example, a leadless free-cutting bronze alloy that has the machinability and the anti-seizing property thereof enhanced by the addition of Bi and has the anti-dezincification and the mechanical properties thereof acquired securely by the addition of Sn, Ni and P has been proposed (refer to pages 3-4 of JP-A 2000-336442).
As a further example, a bronze alloy that has the mechanical properties and the machinability thereof equalized with those of the CAC406 by adding Se and Bi to thereby particularly induce precipitation of a Se—Zn compound has been proposed (refer to columns 1-4 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,614,038).
Though the leadless bronze alloy materials proposed as described above invariably secure the specified magnitudes (tensile strength of 195 N/mm2or more and elongation of 15% or more) of a bronze alloy of JIS H5120 (CAC406), the aforementioned properties which the CAC406 materials distributed in the market exhibit are in much greater magnitudes than those specified by JIS, such as tensile strength in the neighborhood of 240 N/mm2and elongation in the neighborhood of 33%. Thus, an alloy that is capable of securing mechanical properties and machinability equal to those secured by the materials circulating in the market has not been developed in the prior art mentioned above. Such is the existing state of affairs.
Then, the leadless bronze alloy mentioned above has added thereto Se, Bi, etc. as alternative components for Pb. Since these alternative components are expensive rare elements, the desirability of developing an alloy that secures the aforementioned properties in magnitudes equal to those of the CAC406 in the materials distributed in the market while the amounts of the rare elements to be added are decreased has been finding recognition.
Further, the leadless bronze alloy mentioned above has been proposed with a view to enhancing mechanical properties and machinability. Pb, however, is a component that contributes to the wholesomeness of a casting. The question how the leadless bronze alloy secures the wholesomeness of a casting has not yet been elucidated.
This invention has been developed in consequence of a diligent study. It is aimed at providing a copper-based alloy that acquires mechanical properties at least equal to the bronze alloy (CAC406) generally used hitherto while securing machinability equal to the CAC406 in spite of a decrease in the content of rare elements (such as Bi and Se) in the alloy in consequence of exactly comprehending the true properties of the elements (such as Bi and Se) which are alternative components for Pb, realizes suppression of the occurrence of casting defects by elucidating the unresolved influence of the decrease of the alternative components (such as Bi and Se) for Pb on the wholesomeness of a casting, and further enables inexpensive production by decreasing the rare elements and is also aimed at providing a cast ingot and a liquid-contacting part each using the alloy.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To attain the above object, a first aspect of the present invention provides a copper-based alloy consisting essentially of 5.0 to 10.0 wt % of Zn, 2.8 to 5.0 wt % of Sn, 0.4 to 3.0 wt % of Bi, 0<Se≦0.35 wt %, 0<P≦2 wt %, one of 0<Sb≦2.2 wt % and 0<Ni≦4.8 wt %, and a balance of Cu and unavoidable impurities.
The copper-based alloy contains the Se of 0.2 wt % or less.
The copper-based alloy contains the Sn in a range of 3.5 to 4.5 wt %.
Another aspect of the present invention provides a copper-based alloy consisting essentially of 5.0 to 10.0 wt % of Zn, 2.8 to 5.0 wt % of Sn, 0.4 to 3.0 wt % of Bi, 0≦Se≦0.35 wt %, 0<P<0.5 wt %, one of 0<Sb≦2.2 wt % and 0<Ni≦4.8 wt %, 1.20 to 4.90 Vol. % of at least one selected from the group consisting of a non-solid solution substance secured with Bi and a non-solid solution secured with Bi and Se, and a balance of Cu and unavoidable impurities.
In the copper-based alloy according to another aspect of the invention, at least one non-solid solution secured with Bi or with Bi and Se.
In the copper-based alloys according to the second aspect of the invention contains Sn in a range of 3.5 to 4.5 wt %.
Still another aspect of the present invention provides a cast ingot produced using any one of the alloys and a liquid-contacting part formed of the cast ingot.
According to the one aspect of the invention, by exactly comprehending the true properties of the rare elements (such as Bi and Se) which are alternative components for Pb, the alloy is enabled to secure machinability equal to the bronze alloy (CAC406) generally used hitherto and acquire mechanical properties at least equal to the CAC406 as well in spite of a decrease in the content of the rare elements (such as Bi and Se) in the alloy.
Further, the one aspect of the invention has succeeded in suppressing the occurrence of casting defects by elucidating the unresolved influence of the decrease of the alternative components (such as Bi and Se) for Pb on the wholesomeness of a casting.
Another aspect of the invention has made it possible to secure an amount of a non-solid solution effectively, suppress the occurrence of a casting defect and acquire a leadless copper-based alloy excelling in properties, such as pressure resistance.
Still another aspect of the invention has made it possible by decreasing the rare elements (such as Bi and Se) to produce a copper-based alloy containing rare elements (such as Bi and Se) at a low cost and provide an ingot and a liquid-contacting part each using the alloy.
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SUMMARY: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a copper-based alloy that possesses prescribed machinability securely, enjoys enhanced mechanical properties and enjoys enhanced castability as well and to a cast ingot and a liquid-contacting part that each use the alloy.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Among other alloys, particularly the bronze casting (CAC406) excels in castability, corrosion resistance, machinability and pressure resistance and, when molten, exhibits satisfactory flowability and, therefore, is suitable for cast parts with fairly complicated shapes. Thus, it has been being copiously used hitherto in the general plumbing hardware, such as valves, cocks and joints.
The CAC406 is used in copious amounts in water-contacting fittings for the plumbing hardware of this kind because it allows easy manufacture of wholesome castings and particularly excels in machinability owing to containing Pb in a weight ratio of about 5%.
When this bronze alloy is used for the material of water-contacting fittings, such as valves, the lead that is contained in the bronze castings in a state only sparingly reduced to a solid solution is eluted into the ambient water and consequently suffered to deteriorate the quality of the water. This phenomenon grows in prominence particularly when water stagnates in the water-contacting fittings.
Thus, the development of the so-called leadless copper alloy is underway at present. The efforts directed toward the development have resulted in proposing a number of improved alloys.
Typical examples thereof will be described hereinafter.
For example, a leadless copper alloy that acquires enhanced machinability and allows prevention of dezincification by incorporating Bi in the place of lead into the copper alloy has been proposed (refer to pages 2-3 of JP-B HEI 5-63536).
A leadless bronze that enjoys enhanced machinability in consequence of adding Ca to BC6 (CAC406), for example, thereby chiefly forming compounds with P (CaP, Ca3P2) and giving birth to an action of refining chips has been proposed (refer to pages 2-3 and FIG. 2 of Japanese Patent No. 2949061).
In this case, the precipitation of intermetallic compounds of CaP characterizes the production of the leadless bronze. The actual use of this product is difficult because Ca is an active metal and the addition of Ca into a copper alloy therefore results in inducing vigorous oxidation and markedly lowering the yield.
As another example, a leadless bronze that has enhanced the mechanical strength thereof by adding Sb and consequently suppressing the occurrence of porosity during the course of casting due to the addition of Bi directed toward enhancing machinability has been proposed (refer to pages 3-6 of Japanese Patent No. 2889829). In this case, the addition of Ni is directed toward fortifying the matrix and preventing segregation.
As yet another example, a bronze cast material that has the crystal thereof refined as a substitution type intermetallic compound by the addition of Ti and has the crystal grain boundary strength thereof fortified as a penetration type intermetallic compound by the addition of B has been proposed (refer to pages 2-10 of Japanese Patent No. 2723817).
As still another example, a leadless free-cutting bronze alloy that has the machinability and the anti-seizing property thereof enhanced by the addition of Bi and has the anti-dezincification and the mechanical properties thereof acquired securely by the addition of Sn, Ni and P has been proposed (refer to pages 3-4 of JP-A 2000-336442).
As a further example, a bronze alloy that has the mechanical properties and the machinability thereof equalized with those of the CAC406 by adding Se and Bi to thereby particularly induce precipitation of a Se—Zn compound has been proposed (refer to columns 1-4 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,614,038).
Though the leadless bronze alloy materials proposed as described above invariably secure the specified magnitudes (tensile strength of 195 N/mm2or more and elongation of 15% or more) of a bronze alloy of JIS H5120 (CAC406), the aforementioned properties which the CAC406 materials distributed in the market exhibit are in much greater magnitudes than those specified by JIS, such as tensile strength in the neighborhood of 240 N/mm2and elongation in the neighborhood of 33%. Thus, an alloy that is capable of securing mechanical properties and machinability equal to those secured by the materials circulating in the market has not been developed in the prior art mentioned above. Such is the existing state of affairs.
Then, the leadless bronze alloy mentioned above has added thereto Se, Bi, etc. as alternative components for Pb. Since these alternative components are expensive rare elements, the desirability of developing an alloy that secures the aforementioned properties in magnitudes equal to those of the CAC406 in the materials distributed in the market while the amounts of the rare elements to be added are decreased has been finding recognition.
Further, the leadless bronze alloy mentioned above has been proposed with a view to enhancing mechanical properties and machinability. Pb, however, is a component that contributes to the wholesomeness of a casting. The question how the leadless bronze alloy secures the wholesomeness of a casting has not yet been elucidated.
This invention has been developed in consequence of a diligent study. It is aimed at providing a copper-based alloy that acquires mechanical properties at least equal to the bronze alloy (CAC406) generally used hitherto while securing machinability equal to the CAC406 in spite of a decrease in the content of rare elements (such as Bi and Se) in the alloy in consequence of exactly comprehending the true properties of the elements (such as Bi and Se) which are alternative components for Pb, realizes suppression of the occurrence of casting defects by elucidating the unresolved influence of the decrease of the alternative components (such as Bi and Se) for Pb on the wholesomeness of a casting, and further enables inexpensive production by decreasing the rare elements and is also aimed at providing a cast ingot and a liquid-contacting part each using the alloy.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To attain the above object, a first aspect of the present invention provides a copper-based alloy consisting essentially of 5.0 to 10.0 wt % of Zn, 2.8 to 5.0 wt % of Sn, 0.4 to 3.0 wt % of Bi, 0<Se≦0.35 wt %, 0<P≦2 wt %, one of 0<Sb≦2.2 wt % and 0<Ni≦4.8 wt %, and a balance of Cu and unavoidable impurities.
The copper-based alloy contains the Se of 0.2 wt % or less.
The copper-based alloy contains the Sn in a range of 3.5 to 4.5 wt %.
Another aspect of the present invention provides a copper-based alloy consisting essentially of 5.0 to 10.0 wt % of Zn, 2.8 to 5.0 wt % of Sn, 0.4 to 3.0 wt % of Bi, 0≦Se≦0.35 wt %, 0<P<0.5 wt %, one of 0<Sb≦2.2 wt % and 0<Ni≦4.8 wt %, 1.20 to 4.90 Vol. % of at least one selected from the group consisting of a non-solid solution substance secured with Bi and a non-solid solution secured with Bi and Se, and a balance of Cu and unavoidable impurities.
In the copper-based alloy according to another aspect of the invention, at least one non-solid solution secured with Bi or with Bi and Se.
In the copper-based alloys according to the second aspect of the invention contains Sn in a range of 3.5 to 4.5 wt %.
Still another aspect of the present invention provides a cast ingot produced using any one of the alloys and a liquid-contacting part formed of the cast ingot.
According to the one aspect of the invention, by exactly comprehending the true properties of the rare elements (such as Bi and Se) which are alternative components for Pb, the alloy is enabled to secure machinability equal to the bronze alloy (CAC406) generally used hitherto and acquire mechanical properties at least equal to the CAC406 as well in spite of a decrease in the content of the rare elements (such as Bi and Se) in the alloy.
Further, the one aspect of the invention has succeeded in suppressing the occurrence of casting defects by elucidating the unresolved influence of the decrease of the alternative components (such as Bi and Se) for Pb on the wholesomeness of a casting.
Another aspect of the invention has made it possible to secure an amount of a non-solid solution effectively, suppress the occurrence of a casting defect and acquire a leadless copper-based alloy excelling in properties, such as pressure resistance.
Still another aspect of the invention has made it possible by decreasing the rare elements (such as Bi and Se) to produce a copper-based alloy containing rare elements (such as Bi and Se) at a low cost and provide an ingot and a liquid-contacting part each using the alloy.
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7771864 | This is a 371 application of PCT/JP2005/015498 filed on 19 Aug. 2005, claiming priority to Japanese Application No. 2004-245194 filed on 25 Aug. 2004, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a power supply device, and more particularly to failure detection of cooling systems and coordinated control between the cooling systems in a power supply device provided with a plurality of voltage generators and the cooling systems.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A power supply system including a secondary battery is used in various equipment and systems, a typical example of which is a hybrid vehicle. The secondary battery has a temperature range in which the charging efficiency thereof is sharply reduced when the temperature of the secondary battery itself rises by heat generated as the secondary battery is charged and discharged. Therefore, such a power supply system requires a cooling system for a secondary battery.
For this type of a secondary battery cooling system, there has conventionally been proposed a configuration that controls on/off of a cooling fan in accordance with the temperature of the secondary battery to cool the secondary battery. The cooling fan is operated to prevent the temperature rise so that the temperature of the secondary battery can be kept within an appropriate temperature range.
However, an anomaly may occur in the secondary battery cooling system. For example, there may be a case where the cooling fan is made inoperable because of wire breaking and others, or a case where the cooling fan is made uncontrollable because of an anomaly of the control system thereof and others. Alternatively, a cooling air path may be clogged with dust so that the circulation of air serving as a cooling medium is blocked, although neither mechanical nor electrical anomaly occurs in the cooling system. Such an anomaly of the cooling fan directly affects the cooling state of the secondary battery, and hinders the secondary battery in use from delivering a desired performance. In view of these points, various configurations that detect a failure of the secondary battery cooling fan have been proposed.
For a power supply device provided with a cooling fan for cooling a secondary battery, for example, there has been proposed a configuration that calculates an assumed amount of temperature change of the battery, from input and output power and a temperature difference between the temperatures of the battery and a cooling medium, and based on the result of comparison between the assumed amount of temperature change and an actual amount of temperature change, senses a failure of the battery cooling fan (e.g. in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2001-86601).
Alternatively, there has been proposed, for example, a configuration that monitors the temperature of cooling air after a driving signal is output to a battery cooling fan, and detects a failure of the cooling fan if an amount of temperature drop of the cooling air is small (e.g. in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2001-210389), or a configuration that senses a failure of a cooling system if a deviation of an actual battery temperature from an expected battery temperature, which is calculated from charge and discharge current and a cooling state, is large (e.g. in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2001-313092).
However, if another power supply (voltage generator), which can be a heat generation source, is disposed in proximity to the secondary battery, a configuration for efficiently cooling both of them is required. For a power supply device in which a DC/DC converter that supplies a power supply voltage to other equipment and others is disposed in proximity to the secondary battery, for example, such a configuration is required.
Such a power supply device adopts a configuration in which individual cooling fans are provided to correspond to the secondary battery and the DC/DC converter, respectively, and arranged in parallel, to ensure sufficient cooling capacity for both of the secondary battery and the DC/DC converter.
In such a configuration with parallel arrangement, the cooling fans may be in proximity to each other, and flows of air serving as a cooling medium (coolant) may affect each other. It is therefore necessary to control both of the cooling fans in a coordinated manner. In a configuration in which a revolution speed sensor and others are disposed to detect a failure of the cooling fans, the number of failure detection sensors to be disposed increases as the number of the cooling fans to be disposed increases, which result in cost increase. If a malfunction of the failure detection sensors themselves is considered, in particular, reliability of the failure detection is decreased as the number of the cooling fans to be disposed increases.
Accordingly, in a power supply device provided with a plurality of cooling fans, it is desirable to detect a failure of the cooling fans without providing a sensor that detects an operating state of the cooling fans.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is made to overcome such a problem. An object of the present invention is to, in a power supply device that adopts a cooling configuration where cooling systems are provided in parallel to correspond to a plurality of voltage generators, respectively, enable failure detection of the cooling systems without providing a sensor that detects an operating state of each of the cooling systems.
Another object of the present invention is to, in the power supply device that adopts the cooling configuration above, provide coordinated control between the plurality of cooling systems arranged in parallel to sufficiently cool each of the voltage generators.
A power supply device according to the present invention includes: a first voltage generator; a second voltage generator; a first cooling system; a second cooling system; a coolant discharge path; first and second temperature sensors; and a control circuit. The first voltage generator has a first coolant path allowing a coolant for cooling the first voltage generator to pass therethrough. The second voltage generator has a second coolant path allowing the coolant for cooling the second voltage generator to pass therethrough. The first cooling system supplies the coolant to a coolant intake side of the first coolant path. The second cooling system supplies the coolant to a coolant intake side of the second coolant path. The coolant discharge path is connected to both of a coolant discharge side of the first coolant path and a coolant discharge side of the second coolant path. The first temperature sensor is attached to the first voltage generator. The second temperature sensor is attached to the first voltage generator on the coolant discharge side of the first coolant path, relative to the first temperature sensor. The control circuit controls an operation of each of the first and second cooling systems. When the control circuit issues an operation instruction to each of the first and second cooling systems, in particular, the control circuit detects failure in the first cooling system when a temperature difference between temperature detected by the first temperature sensor and temperature detected by said second temperature sensor is larger than a reference value.
In the power supply device above, the first and second cooling systems are arranged in parallel, with a coolant discharge path (e.g. air discharge path) shared by them. Therefore, when the first cooling system is in failure, a backflow of the discharged coolant (a typical example of which is a discharge air) is generated through the coolant discharge path, as the second cooling system operates. Based on the phenomenon, in accordance with the a temperature difference between the coolant intake side (air intake side) and the coolant discharge side (air discharge side) of the first voltage generator increasing to be larger than a prescribed reference value, a failure in the first cooling system can efficiently be detected without providing at the first cooling system a failure detection sensor such as a revolution speed sensor.
Preferably, the power supply device according to the present invention further includes a third temperature sensor. The third temperature sensor is attached to the second voltage generator. Furthermore, when the control circuit operates the second cooling system to cool the second voltage generator based on a temperature detected by the third temperature sensor, the control circuit also operates the first cooling system in an auxiliary manner to prevent the coolant discharged from the second coolant path from flowing back to the first coolant path through the coolant discharge path even when it is determined that cooling of the first voltage generator is unnecessary based on the temperatures detected by the first and second temperature sensors.
In the power supply device above, when the second cooling system is operated, the first cooling system is operated in an auxiliary manner even when it is determined that cooling of the first voltage generator is unnecessary. It is therefore possible to prevent a backflow of the coolant discharged from the coolant path of the second voltage generator to the coolant path of the first voltage generator through the common coolant discharge path (air discharge path). As a result, when the first cooling system is in a normal state, it is possible to reduce a temperature deviation between the coolant intake side (air intake side) and the coolant discharge side (air discharge side) of the first voltage generator.
Preferably, in the power supply device according to the present invention, a flow rate of the coolant from the first cooling system when the first cooling system is operated in the auxiliary manner is set to be lower than a flow rate of the coolant when the first cooling system is operated to cool the first voltage generator.
In the power supply device above, the flow rate of the coolant in the first cooling system when the first cooling system is operated in an auxiliary manner, can be made lower than that of the coolant when the first cooling system cools the first voltage generator, and specifically, can be restricted to a level required for preventing a backflow of the discharged coolant (warm discharge air) through the coolant discharge path (air discharge path). As a result, it is possible to reduce driving power for, and noise generation of, the first cooling system, when compared with the case where the coolant flow rates in an auxiliary operation and during cooling are set to the same value.
More preferably, in the power supply device according to the present invention, the first voltage generator is a secondary battery, and the second voltage generator is a power converter having a semiconductor power switching element embedded therein.
In the power supply device above that adopts a configuration where the secondary battery and the power converter, and the respective cooling systems thereof are arranged in parallel, it is possible to efficiently detect a failure in the cooling system corresponding to the secondary battery where the temperature deviation in the device increases, based on the temperatures detected by the plurality of temperature sensors attached to the secondary battery.
Alternatively, a power supply device according to the present invention includes: a first voltage generator; a second voltage generator; a first cooling system; a second cooling system; a coolant discharge path; and a control circuit. The first voltage generator has a first coolant path allowing a coolant for cooling the first voltage generator to pass therethrough. The second voltage generator has a second coolant path allowing the coolant for cooling the second voltage generator to pass therethrough. The first cooling system supplies the coolant to a coolant intake side of the first coolant path. The second cooling system supplies the coolant to a coolant intake side of the second coolant path. The coolant discharge path is connected to both of a coolant discharge side of the first coolant path and a coolant discharge side of the second coolant path. The control circuit controls an operation of each of the first and second cooling systems. When the control circuit operates one cooling system of the first and second cooling systems, in particular, the control circuit also operates the other cooling system of the first and second cooling systems even when cooling of the voltage generator corresponding to the other cooling system is unnecessary.
In the power supply device above, the first and second cooling systems are arranged in parallel, with the coolant discharge path (discharge path) shared by them. Therefore, when only one of the cooling systems is operated, there is a possibility of the temperature rise of the voltage generator corresponding to the other of the cooling systems, due to a backflow of the discharged coolant (warm discharge air) through the coolant discharge path. Accordingly, when one of the cooling systems is operated, the other of the cooling systems is also operated even when cooling of the voltage generator that corresponds thereto is unnecessary. By doing so, it is possible to prevent the generation of the above-described backflow of the discharged coolant (warm discharge air) and sufficiently cool each of the voltage generators.
Preferably, in the power supply device according to the present invention, the control circuit controls the operation of each of the first and second cooling systems, based on an output of each of temperature sensors provided at the first and second voltage generators.
In the power supply device above, an operation of each of the cooling systems is controlled based on a value actually measured by each of the temperature sensors, and hence each of the voltage generators can more reliably be maintained at not more than the control target temperature.
More preferably, in the power supply device according to the present invention, when the control circuit operates the one cooling system, and when the control circuit also operates the other cooling system even when cooling of the voltage generator corresponding to the other cooling system is unnecessary, the control circuit sets a flow rate of the coolant from the one cooling system to be relatively higher than a flow rate of the coolant from the other cooling system.
In the power supply device above, the flow rate of the coolant in the cooling system when the cooling system is operated in an auxiliary manner even when coolant supply is originally unnecessary, can be made lower than that of the coolant from the cooling system operated to cool the voltage generator, and specifically, can be restricted to a level required for preventing a backflow of the discharged coolant (warm discharge air) through the coolant discharge path (air discharge path). As a result, it is possible to reduce power consumption and noise generation in the cooling system in an auxiliary operation, when compared with the case where the coolant flow rates are set to the same value.
Alternatively, in the power supply device according to the present invention, the control circuit preferably controls the operation of the first cooling system such that the first voltage generator is maintained to be at not more than a first reference temperature, and controls the operation of the second cooling system such that the second voltage generator is maintained to be at not more than a second reference temperature. The first reference temperature is lower than the second reference temperature. Furthermore, when the control circuit operates the second cooling system to cool the second voltage generator, the control circuit also operates the first cooling system even when cooling of the first voltage generator is unnecessary.
In the power supply device above, when the voltage generators have different reference temperatures each serving as a control target, only the first cooling system corresponding to the voltage generator having a lower reference temperature is allowed to be a cooling system operated in an auxiliary manner to prevent a backflow of the discharged coolant even when cooling is unnecessary. In other words, in view of the fact that a backflow of the discharged coolant from the voltage generator that has a lower reference temperature to the voltage generator that has a higher reference temperature has less adverse effect on temperature rise in the voltage generator, an auxiliary operation described above is not executed in the second cooling system corresponding to the voltage generator that has a higher reference temperature, which can reduce power consumption and noise generation therein.
More preferably, in the power supply device according to the present invention, when the control circuit operates the second cooling system, and when the control circuit also operates the first cooling system even when cooling of the first voltage generator is unnecessary, the control circuit sets a flow rate of the coolant from the second cooling system is set to be relatively higher than a flow rate of the coolant from the first cooling system.
In the power supply device above, the flow rate of the coolant in the cooling system (first cooling system) operated in an auxiliary manner when cooling is unnecessary can be made lower than that of the coolant from the cooling system (second cooling system) operated for cooling the voltage generator, and specifically, can be restricted to a level required for preventing a backflow of the discharged coolant (discharge air) through the coolant discharge path (air discharge path). As a result, it is possible to reduce power consumption and noise generation in the first cooling system in an auxiliary operation, when compared with the case where the coolant flow rates are set to the same value.
Preferably, the power supply device according to the present invention further includes first and second ducts. The first duct is provided between a discharge side of the first cooling system and the first coolant path. The second duct is provided to branch off from the first duct. Furthermore, an intake side and a discharge side of the second cooling system are coupled to the second duct and the second coolant path, respectively.
In the power supply device above, the coolant can be supplied from each of the first and second cooling systems, only by providing a coolant introduction path on the intake side of the first cooling system. Furthermore, the coolant discharge path (air discharge path) can also be shared by the first and second cooling systems, and hence both of the first and second voltage generators can be cooled with the compact cooling configuration.
More preferably, in the power supply device according to the present invention, the control circuit controls the operation of each of the first and second cooling systems such that the first and second voltage generators are maintained to be at not more than control target temperatures, respectively. In particular, the first voltage generator is a secondary battery, and the second voltage generator is a power converter having a semiconductor power switching element embedded therein. The control target temperature of the power converter is higher than the control target temperature of the secondary battery.
In the power supply device above that adopts a configuration where the secondary battery and the power converter, and the respective cooling systems thereof are arranged in parallel, it is possible to sufficiently cool the secondary battery and the power converter by preventing, in particular, the generation of a backflow of the discharged coolant (discharge air) to the secondary battery having a relatively low control target temperature.
Accordingly, in the power supply device according to the present invention, the power supply device adopting a configuration where the cooling systems corresponding to the plurality of voltage generators, respectively, are arranged in parallel and the coolant discharge path (air discharge path) is shared, a failure in the cooling systems can be detected without providing a sensor that detects an operating state of each of the cooling systems.
Furthermore, in the power supply device according to the present invention, the power supply device adopting a configuration where the cooling systems corresponding to the plurality of voltage generators, respectively, are arranged in parallel, and the coolant discharge path (air discharge path) is shared, the respective voltage generators can sufficiently be cooled by providing coordinated control among the cooling systems.
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SUMMARY: This is a 371 application of PCT/JP2005/015498 filed on 19 Aug. 2005, claiming priority to Japanese Application No. 2004-245194 filed on 25 Aug. 2004, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a power supply device, and more particularly to failure detection of cooling systems and coordinated control between the cooling systems in a power supply device provided with a plurality of voltage generators and the cooling systems.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A power supply system including a secondary battery is used in various equipment and systems, a typical example of which is a hybrid vehicle. The secondary battery has a temperature range in which the charging efficiency thereof is sharply reduced when the temperature of the secondary battery itself rises by heat generated as the secondary battery is charged and discharged. Therefore, such a power supply system requires a cooling system for a secondary battery.
For this type of a secondary battery cooling system, there has conventionally been proposed a configuration that controls on/off of a cooling fan in accordance with the temperature of the secondary battery to cool the secondary battery. The cooling fan is operated to prevent the temperature rise so that the temperature of the secondary battery can be kept within an appropriate temperature range.
However, an anomaly may occur in the secondary battery cooling system. For example, there may be a case where the cooling fan is made inoperable because of wire breaking and others, or a case where the cooling fan is made uncontrollable because of an anomaly of the control system thereof and others. Alternatively, a cooling air path may be clogged with dust so that the circulation of air serving as a cooling medium is blocked, although neither mechanical nor electrical anomaly occurs in the cooling system. Such an anomaly of the cooling fan directly affects the cooling state of the secondary battery, and hinders the secondary battery in use from delivering a desired performance. In view of these points, various configurations that detect a failure of the secondary battery cooling fan have been proposed.
For a power supply device provided with a cooling fan for cooling a secondary battery, for example, there has been proposed a configuration that calculates an assumed amount of temperature change of the battery, from input and output power and a temperature difference between the temperatures of the battery and a cooling medium, and based on the result of comparison between the assumed amount of temperature change and an actual amount of temperature change, senses a failure of the battery cooling fan (e.g. in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2001-86601).
Alternatively, there has been proposed, for example, a configuration that monitors the temperature of cooling air after a driving signal is output to a battery cooling fan, and detects a failure of the cooling fan if an amount of temperature drop of the cooling air is small (e.g. in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2001-210389), or a configuration that senses a failure of a cooling system if a deviation of an actual battery temperature from an expected battery temperature, which is calculated from charge and discharge current and a cooling state, is large (e.g. in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2001-313092).
However, if another power supply (voltage generator), which can be a heat generation source, is disposed in proximity to the secondary battery, a configuration for efficiently cooling both of them is required. For a power supply device in which a DC/DC converter that supplies a power supply voltage to other equipment and others is disposed in proximity to the secondary battery, for example, such a configuration is required.
Such a power supply device adopts a configuration in which individual cooling fans are provided to correspond to the secondary battery and the DC/DC converter, respectively, and arranged in parallel, to ensure sufficient cooling capacity for both of the secondary battery and the DC/DC converter.
In such a configuration with parallel arrangement, the cooling fans may be in proximity to each other, and flows of air serving as a cooling medium (coolant) may affect each other. It is therefore necessary to control both of the cooling fans in a coordinated manner. In a configuration in which a revolution speed sensor and others are disposed to detect a failure of the cooling fans, the number of failure detection sensors to be disposed increases as the number of the cooling fans to be disposed increases, which result in cost increase. If a malfunction of the failure detection sensors themselves is considered, in particular, reliability of the failure detection is decreased as the number of the cooling fans to be disposed increases.
Accordingly, in a power supply device provided with a plurality of cooling fans, it is desirable to detect a failure of the cooling fans without providing a sensor that detects an operating state of the cooling fans.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is made to overcome such a problem. An object of the present invention is to, in a power supply device that adopts a cooling configuration where cooling systems are provided in parallel to correspond to a plurality of voltage generators, respectively, enable failure detection of the cooling systems without providing a sensor that detects an operating state of each of the cooling systems.
Another object of the present invention is to, in the power supply device that adopts the cooling configuration above, provide coordinated control between the plurality of cooling systems arranged in parallel to sufficiently cool each of the voltage generators.
A power supply device according to the present invention includes: a first voltage generator; a second voltage generator; a first cooling system; a second cooling system; a coolant discharge path; first and second temperature sensors; and a control circuit. The first voltage generator has a first coolant path allowing a coolant for cooling the first voltage generator to pass therethrough. The second voltage generator has a second coolant path allowing the coolant for cooling the second voltage generator to pass therethrough. The first cooling system supplies the coolant to a coolant intake side of the first coolant path. The second cooling system supplies the coolant to a coolant intake side of the second coolant path. The coolant discharge path is connected to both of a coolant discharge side of the first coolant path and a coolant discharge side of the second coolant path. The first temperature sensor is attached to the first voltage generator. The second temperature sensor is attached to the first voltage generator on the coolant discharge side of the first coolant path, relative to the first temperature sensor. The control circuit controls an operation of each of the first and second cooling systems. When the control circuit issues an operation instruction to each of the first and second cooling systems, in particular, the control circuit detects failure in the first cooling system when a temperature difference between temperature detected by the first temperature sensor and temperature detected by said second temperature sensor is larger than a reference value.
In the power supply device above, the first and second cooling systems are arranged in parallel, with a coolant discharge path (e.g. air discharge path) shared by them. Therefore, when the first cooling system is in failure, a backflow of the discharged coolant (a typical example of which is a discharge air) is generated through the coolant discharge path, as the second cooling system operates. Based on the phenomenon, in accordance with the a temperature difference between the coolant intake side (air intake side) and the coolant discharge side (air discharge side) of the first voltage generator increasing to be larger than a prescribed reference value, a failure in the first cooling system can efficiently be detected without providing at the first cooling system a failure detection sensor such as a revolution speed sensor.
Preferably, the power supply device according to the present invention further includes a third temperature sensor. The third temperature sensor is attached to the second voltage generator. Furthermore, when the control circuit operates the second cooling system to cool the second voltage generator based on a temperature detected by the third temperature sensor, the control circuit also operates the first cooling system in an auxiliary manner to prevent the coolant discharged from the second coolant path from flowing back to the first coolant path through the coolant discharge path even when it is determined that cooling of the first voltage generator is unnecessary based on the temperatures detected by the first and second temperature sensors.
In the power supply device above, when the second cooling system is operated, the first cooling system is operated in an auxiliary manner even when it is determined that cooling of the first voltage generator is unnecessary. It is therefore possible to prevent a backflow of the coolant discharged from the coolant path of the second voltage generator to the coolant path of the first voltage generator through the common coolant discharge path (air discharge path). As a result, when the first cooling system is in a normal state, it is possible to reduce a temperature deviation between the coolant intake side (air intake side) and the coolant discharge side (air discharge side) of the first voltage generator.
Preferably, in the power supply device according to the present invention, a flow rate of the coolant from the first cooling system when the first cooling system is operated in the auxiliary manner is set to be lower than a flow rate of the coolant when the first cooling system is operated to cool the first voltage generator.
In the power supply device above, the flow rate of the coolant in the first cooling system when the first cooling system is operated in an auxiliary manner, can be made lower than that of the coolant when the first cooling system cools the first voltage generator, and specifically, can be restricted to a level required for preventing a backflow of the discharged coolant (warm discharge air) through the coolant discharge path (air discharge path). As a result, it is possible to reduce driving power for, and noise generation of, the first cooling system, when compared with the case where the coolant flow rates in an auxiliary operation and during cooling are set to the same value.
More preferably, in the power supply device according to the present invention, the first voltage generator is a secondary battery, and the second voltage generator is a power converter having a semiconductor power switching element embedded therein.
In the power supply device above that adopts a configuration where the secondary battery and the power converter, and the respective cooling systems thereof are arranged in parallel, it is possible to efficiently detect a failure in the cooling system corresponding to the secondary battery where the temperature deviation in the device increases, based on the temperatures detected by the plurality of temperature sensors attached to the secondary battery.
Alternatively, a power supply device according to the present invention includes: a first voltage generator; a second voltage generator; a first cooling system; a second cooling system; a coolant discharge path; and a control circuit. The first voltage generator has a first coolant path allowing a coolant for cooling the first voltage generator to pass therethrough. The second voltage generator has a second coolant path allowing the coolant for cooling the second voltage generator to pass therethrough. The first cooling system supplies the coolant to a coolant intake side of the first coolant path. The second cooling system supplies the coolant to a coolant intake side of the second coolant path. The coolant discharge path is connected to both of a coolant discharge side of the first coolant path and a coolant discharge side of the second coolant path. The control circuit controls an operation of each of the first and second cooling systems. When the control circuit operates one cooling system of the first and second cooling systems, in particular, the control circuit also operates the other cooling system of the first and second cooling systems even when cooling of the voltage generator corresponding to the other cooling system is unnecessary.
In the power supply device above, the first and second cooling systems are arranged in parallel, with the coolant discharge path (discharge path) shared by them. Therefore, when only one of the cooling systems is operated, there is a possibility of the temperature rise of the voltage generator corresponding to the other of the cooling systems, due to a backflow of the discharged coolant (warm discharge air) through the coolant discharge path. Accordingly, when one of the cooling systems is operated, the other of the cooling systems is also operated even when cooling of the voltage generator that corresponds thereto is unnecessary. By doing so, it is possible to prevent the generation of the above-described backflow of the discharged coolant (warm discharge air) and sufficiently cool each of the voltage generators.
Preferably, in the power supply device according to the present invention, the control circuit controls the operation of each of the first and second cooling systems, based on an output of each of temperature sensors provided at the first and second voltage generators.
In the power supply device above, an operation of each of the cooling systems is controlled based on a value actually measured by each of the temperature sensors, and hence each of the voltage generators can more reliably be maintained at not more than the control target temperature.
More preferably, in the power supply device according to the present invention, when the control circuit operates the one cooling system, and when the control circuit also operates the other cooling system even when cooling of the voltage generator corresponding to the other cooling system is unnecessary, the control circuit sets a flow rate of the coolant from the one cooling system to be relatively higher than a flow rate of the coolant from the other cooling system.
In the power supply device above, the flow rate of the coolant in the cooling system when the cooling system is operated in an auxiliary manner even when coolant supply is originally unnecessary, can be made lower than that of the coolant from the cooling system operated to cool the voltage generator, and specifically, can be restricted to a level required for preventing a backflow of the discharged coolant (warm discharge air) through the coolant discharge path (air discharge path). As a result, it is possible to reduce power consumption and noise generation in the cooling system in an auxiliary operation, when compared with the case where the coolant flow rates are set to the same value.
Alternatively, in the power supply device according to the present invention, the control circuit preferably controls the operation of the first cooling system such that the first voltage generator is maintained to be at not more than a first reference temperature, and controls the operation of the second cooling system such that the second voltage generator is maintained to be at not more than a second reference temperature. The first reference temperature is lower than the second reference temperature. Furthermore, when the control circuit operates the second cooling system to cool the second voltage generator, the control circuit also operates the first cooling system even when cooling of the first voltage generator is unnecessary.
In the power supply device above, when the voltage generators have different reference temperatures each serving as a control target, only the first cooling system corresponding to the voltage generator having a lower reference temperature is allowed to be a cooling system operated in an auxiliary manner to prevent a backflow of the discharged coolant even when cooling is unnecessary. In other words, in view of the fact that a backflow of the discharged coolant from the voltage generator that has a lower reference temperature to the voltage generator that has a higher reference temperature has less adverse effect on temperature rise in the voltage generator, an auxiliary operation described above is not executed in the second cooling system corresponding to the voltage generator that has a higher reference temperature, which can reduce power consumption and noise generation therein.
More preferably, in the power supply device according to the present invention, when the control circuit operates the second cooling system, and when the control circuit also operates the first cooling system even when cooling of the first voltage generator is unnecessary, the control circuit sets a flow rate of the coolant from the second cooling system is set to be relatively higher than a flow rate of the coolant from the first cooling system.
In the power supply device above, the flow rate of the coolant in the cooling system (first cooling system) operated in an auxiliary manner when cooling is unnecessary can be made lower than that of the coolant from the cooling system (second cooling system) operated for cooling the voltage generator, and specifically, can be restricted to a level required for preventing a backflow of the discharged coolant (discharge air) through the coolant discharge path (air discharge path). As a result, it is possible to reduce power consumption and noise generation in the first cooling system in an auxiliary operation, when compared with the case where the coolant flow rates are set to the same value.
Preferably, the power supply device according to the present invention further includes first and second ducts. The first duct is provided between a discharge side of the first cooling system and the first coolant path. The second duct is provided to branch off from the first duct. Furthermore, an intake side and a discharge side of the second cooling system are coupled to the second duct and the second coolant path, respectively.
In the power supply device above, the coolant can be supplied from each of the first and second cooling systems, only by providing a coolant introduction path on the intake side of the first cooling system. Furthermore, the coolant discharge path (air discharge path) can also be shared by the first and second cooling systems, and hence both of the first and second voltage generators can be cooled with the compact cooling configuration.
More preferably, in the power supply device according to the present invention, the control circuit controls the operation of each of the first and second cooling systems such that the first and second voltage generators are maintained to be at not more than control target temperatures, respectively. In particular, the first voltage generator is a secondary battery, and the second voltage generator is a power converter having a semiconductor power switching element embedded therein. The control target temperature of the power converter is higher than the control target temperature of the secondary battery.
In the power supply device above that adopts a configuration where the secondary battery and the power converter, and the respective cooling systems thereof are arranged in parallel, it is possible to sufficiently cool the secondary battery and the power converter by preventing, in particular, the generation of a backflow of the discharged coolant (discharge air) to the secondary battery having a relatively low control target temperature.
Accordingly, in the power supply device according to the present invention, the power supply device adopting a configuration where the cooling systems corresponding to the plurality of voltage generators, respectively, are arranged in parallel and the coolant discharge path (air discharge path) is shared, a failure in the cooling systems can be detected without providing a sensor that detects an operating state of each of the cooling systems.
Furthermore, in the power supply device according to the present invention, the power supply device adopting a configuration where the cooling systems corresponding to the plurality of voltage generators, respectively, are arranged in parallel, and the coolant discharge path (air discharge path) is shared, the respective voltage generators can sufficiently be cooled by providing coordinated control among the cooling systems.
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7651334 | BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the art of electrical connectors, and more particularly to a coaxial electrical connector for being connected to a printed circuit board.
2. Description of the Related Art
Impedance match issue is one of the most important things for signal transmission of electrical connectors. Different kinds of ways are adopted by designers to adjust the impedance of contacts to a proper value. In order to adjust the impedance of contacts to a proper value, designers usually adopt the way of changing the dielectric constant around the contacts. As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,902,408, a coaxial electrical connector includes an outer conductor having a tubular section, a central conductor having a contact section that extends in an axial direction within the tubular section, a dielectric block molded so as to hold together the outer and central conductors as a unit, and a radial section extending outwardly from a bottom of the contact section. There has a part of the dielectric block attached around a bottom surface of the radial section, which may influence the impedance of contacts due to having the dielectric material disposed around the radial section. Due to high speed data rate was arisen, the above design of the coaxial electrical connector could not meet the electrical performance requirement because of the impedance of the contact (i.e. around the contact section). Thus, it is supposed to adjust the impedance of the contact by changing the dielectric constant around the contact.
Therefore, there is a need to provide a coaxial electrical connector to resolve the above-mentioned problem.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A coaxial electrical connector, to be connected to a printed circuit board, according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an outer conductor having a tubular section, a central conductor having a contact section that extends in an axial direction within the tubular section, and a dielectric block molded so as to hold together the outer and central conductors as a unit. A radial section extends outwardly from a bottom of the contact section. An extension section extends from the radial section in a radial direction at a connection point, with a lower face of said extension section adapted to be in contact with the printed circuit board. A lower surface of the radial section is raised with respect to the lower face of the extension section such that there has no material other than air under the lower surface of the radial section. Thus, as compared with the prior art of having a dielectric material located under the lower surface of the radial section, that room defined by the lower surface of the extension section and the printed circuit board to be full of air will adjust the impedance of contact (i.e. the contact section) to a proper value because of the lowest dielectric constant of air located below the lower surface of the radial section.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following drawings and detailed description of preferred embodiments, in which:
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SUMMARY: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the art of electrical connectors, and more particularly to a coaxial electrical connector for being connected to a printed circuit board.
2. Description of the Related Art
Impedance match issue is one of the most important things for signal transmission of electrical connectors. Different kinds of ways are adopted by designers to adjust the impedance of contacts to a proper value. In order to adjust the impedance of contacts to a proper value, designers usually adopt the way of changing the dielectric constant around the contacts. As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,902,408, a coaxial electrical connector includes an outer conductor having a tubular section, a central conductor having a contact section that extends in an axial direction within the tubular section, a dielectric block molded so as to hold together the outer and central conductors as a unit, and a radial section extending outwardly from a bottom of the contact section. There has a part of the dielectric block attached around a bottom surface of the radial section, which may influence the impedance of contacts due to having the dielectric material disposed around the radial section. Due to high speed data rate was arisen, the above design of the coaxial electrical connector could not meet the electrical performance requirement because of the impedance of the contact (i.e. around the contact section). Thus, it is supposed to adjust the impedance of the contact by changing the dielectric constant around the contact.
Therefore, there is a need to provide a coaxial electrical connector to resolve the above-mentioned problem.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A coaxial electrical connector, to be connected to a printed circuit board, according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an outer conductor having a tubular section, a central conductor having a contact section that extends in an axial direction within the tubular section, and a dielectric block molded so as to hold together the outer and central conductors as a unit. A radial section extends outwardly from a bottom of the contact section. An extension section extends from the radial section in a radial direction at a connection point, with a lower face of said extension section adapted to be in contact with the printed circuit board. A lower surface of the radial section is raised with respect to the lower face of the extension section such that there has no material other than air under the lower surface of the radial section. Thus, as compared with the prior art of having a dielectric material located under the lower surface of the radial section, that room defined by the lower surface of the extension section and the printed circuit board to be full of air will adjust the impedance of contact (i.e. the contact section) to a proper value because of the lowest dielectric constant of air located below the lower surface of the radial section.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following drawings and detailed description of preferred embodiments, in which:
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7662740 | BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to catalysts which are useful in fuel cell electrodes (e.g., electrocatalysts) and other catalytic structures, and which comprise platinum, chromium and copper, nickel or a combination of copper and nickel.
2. Description of Related Technology
A fuel cell is an electrochemical device for directly converting the chemical energy generated from an oxidation-reduction reaction of a fuel such as hydrogen or hydrocarbon-based fuels and an oxidizer such as oxygen gas (in air) supplied thereto into a low-voltage direct current. Thus, fuel cells chemically combine the molecules of a fuel and an oxidizer without burning, dispensing with the inefficiencies and pollution of traditional combustion.
A fuel cell is generally comprised of a fuel electrode (anode), an oxidizer electrode (cathode), an electrolyte interposed between the electrodes (alkaline or acidic), and means for separately supplying a stream of fuel and a stream of oxidizer to the anode and the cathode, respectively. In operation, fuel supplied to the anode is oxidized, releasing electrons that are conducted via an external circuit to the cathode. At the cathode, the supplied electrons are consumed when the oxidizer is reduced. The current flowing through the external circuit can be made to do useful work.
There are several types of fuel cells, including those having electrolytes of phosphoric acid, molten carbonate, solid oxide, potassium hydroxide, or a proton exchange membrane. A phosphoric acid fuel cell operates at about 160-220° C., and preferably at about 190-200° C. This type of fuel cell is currently being used for multi-megawatt utility power generation and for co-generation systems (i.e., combined heat and power generation) in the 50 to several hundred kilowatts range. In contrast, proton exchange membrane fuel cells use a solid proton-conducting polymer membrane as the electrolyte. Typically, the polymer membrane is maintained in a hydrated form during operation in order to prevent loss of ionic conduction which limits the operation temperature typically to between about 70 and about 120° C. depending on the operating pressure, and preferably below about 100° C. Proton exchange membrane fuel cells have a much higher power density than liquid electrolyte fuel cells (e.g., phosphoric acid), and can vary output quickly to meet shifts in power demand. Thus, they are suited for applications such as in automobiles and small-scale residential power generation where quick startup is a consideration.
In some applications (e.g., automotive), pure hydrogen gas is the optimum fuel; however, in other applications where a lower operational cost is desirable, a reformed hydrogen-containing gas is an appropriate fuel. A reformed-hydrogen containing gas is produced, for example, by steam-reforming methanol and water at 200-300° C. to a hydrogen-rich fuel gas containing carbon dioxide. Theoretically, the reformate gas consists of 75 vol % hydrogen and 25 vol % carbon dioxide. In practice, however, this gas also contains nitrogen, oxygen and, depending on the degree of purity, varying amounts of carbon monoxide (up to 1 vol %). Although some electronic devices also reform liquid fuel to hydrogen, in some applications the conversion of a liquid fuel directly into electricity is desirable, as then high storage density and system simplicity are combined. In particular, methanol is an especially desirable fuel because it has a high energy density, a low cost, and is produced from renewable resources.
For the oxidation and reduction reactions in a fuel cell to proceed at useful rates, especially at operating temperatures below about 300° C., electrocatalyst materials are typically provided at the electrodes. Initially, fuel cells used electrocatalysts made of a single metal, usually platinum (Pt), palladium (Pd), rhodium (Rh), iridium (Ir), osmium (Os), silver (Ag) or gold (Au), because they are able to withstand the corrosive environment. In general, platinum is considered to be the most efficient and stable single-metal electrocatalyst for fuel cells operating below about 300° C.
While the above-noted elements were first used in fuel cells in metallic powder form, later techniques were developed to disperse these metals over the surface of electrically conductive supports (e.g., carbon black) to increase the surface area of the electrocatalyst. An increase in the surface area of the electrocatalyst in turn increased the number of reactive sites, leading to improved efficiency of the cell. Nevertheless, fuel cell performance typically declines over time because the presence of electrolyte, high temperatures and molecular oxygen dissolve the electrocatalyst and/or sinter the dispersed electrocatalyst by surface migration or dissolution/re-precipitation.
Although platinum is considered to be the most efficient and stable single-metal electrocatalyst for fuel cells, it is costly. Additionally, an increase in electrocatalyst activity over platinum is desirable, if not necessary, for wide-scale commercialization of fuel cell technology. However, the development of cathode fuel cell electrocatalyst materials faces longstanding challenges. The greatest challenge is the improvement of the electrode kinetics of the oxygen reduction reaction. In fact, sluggish electrochemical reaction kinetics have prevented attaining the thermodynamic reversible electrode potential for oxygen reduction. This is reflected in exchange current densities of around 10−10to 10−12A/cm2for oxygen reduction on, for example, Pt at low and medium temperatures. A factor contributing to this phenomenon includes the fact that the desired reduction of oxygen to water is a four-electron transfer reaction and typically involves breaking a strong O—O bond early in the reaction. In addition, the open circuit voltage is lowered from the thermodynamic potential for oxygen reduction due to the formation of peroxide and possible platinum oxides that inhibit the reaction. A second challenge is the stability of the oxygen electrode (cathode) during long-term operation. Specifically, a fuel cell cathode operates in a regime in which even the most unreactive metals are not completely stable. Thus, alloy compositions that contain non-noble metal elements may have a rate of corrosion that would negatively impact the projected lifetime of a fuel cell. The corrosion may be more severe when the cell is operating near open circuit conditions (which is the most desirable potential for thermodynamic efficiency).
Electrocatalyst materials at the anode also face challenges during fuel cell operation. Specifically, as the concentration of carbon monoxide (CO) rises above about 10 ppm in the fuel the surface of the electrocatalyst can be rapidly poisoned. As a result, platinum (by itself) is a poor electrocatalyst if the fuel stream contains carbon monoxide (e.g., reformed-hydrogen gas typically exceeds 100 ppm). Liquid hydrocarbon-based fuels (e.g., methanol) present an even greater poisoning problem. Specifically, the surface of the platinum becomes blocked with the adsorbed intermediate, carbon monoxide (CO). It has been reported that H2O plays a key role in the removal of such poisoning species in accordance with the following reactions:
Pt+CH3OH→Pt—CO+4H++4e−(1);
Pt+H2O→Pt—OH+H++e−(2); and
Pt—CO+Pt—OH→2Pt+CO2+H++e−(3).
As indicated by the foregoing reactions, the methanol is adsorbed and partially oxidized by platinum on the surface of the electrode (1). Adsorbed OH, from the hydrolysis of water, reacts with the adsorbed CO to produce carbon dioxide and a proton (2,3). However, platinum does not form OH species well at the potentials fuel cell electrodes operate (e.g., 200 mV-1.5 V). As a result, step (3) is the slowest step in the sequence, limiting the rate of CO removal, thereby allowing poisoning of the electrocatalyst to occur. This applies in particular to a proton exchange membrane fuel cell which is especially sensitive to CO poisoning because of its low operating temperatures.
One technique for increasing electrocatalytic cathodic activity during the reduction of oxygen and electrocatalytic anodic activity during the oxidation of hydrogen is to employ an electrocatalyst which is more active, corrosion resistant, and/or more poison tolerant. For example, increased tolerance to CO has been reported by alloying platinum and ruthenium at a 50:50 atomic ratio (see, D. Chu and S. Gillman, J. Electrochem. Soc. 1996, 143, 1685). The electrocatalysts proposed to date, however, leave room for further improvement.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Briefly, therefore, the present invention is directed to a catalyst for use in oxidation or reduction reactions, the catalyst comprising platinum, chromium at a concentration that is no greater than 30 atomic percent, and copper, nickel, or a combination thereof at a concentration that is at least 35 atomic percent.
The present invention is also directed to a catalyst for use in oxidation or reduction reactions, the catalyst comprising platinum, chromium, and copper, nickel, or a combination thereof, wherein the concentration of copper, nickel, or a combination thereof is at least 45 atomic percent.
The present invention is also directed to a catalyst for use in oxidation or reduction reactions, the catalyst comprising platinum, chromium, copper and nickel.
The present invention is also directed to a catalyst for use in oxidation or reduction reactions, the catalyst comprising platinum, chromium, and copper, wherein the concentration of chromium is no greater than 30 atomic percent.
The present invention is also directed to a catalyst for use in oxidation or reduction reactions, the catalyst comprising platinum, chromium, and nickel, wherein the concentration of nickel is at least 35 atomic percent.
The present invention is also directed to a catalyst for use in oxidation or reduction reactions, the catalyst comprising platinum, chromium, and nickel, wherein the concentration of platinum is less than 40 atomic percent.
The present invention is also directed to a catalyst for use in oxidation or reduction reactions, the catalyst comprising platinum at a concentration that is between about 15 and about 50 atomic percent, chromium at a concentration that is between about 5 and about 45 atomic percent, and copper at a concentration that is between about 15 and about 50 atomic percent.
The present invention is also directed to one or more of the foregoing catalysts wherein said catalyst comprises an alloy of the recited metals, or alternatively wherein said catalyst consists essentially of an alloy of the recited metals.
The present invention is also directed to a supported electrocatalyst powder for use in electrochemical reactor devices, the supported electrocatalyst powder comprising one of the foregoing catalysts and electrically conductive support particles upon which the catalyst is dispersed.
The present invention is also directed to a fuel cell electrode, the fuel cell electrode comprising electrocatalyst particles and an electrode substrate upon which the electrocatalyst particles are deposited, the electrocatalyst particles comprising one of the foregoing catalysts.
The present invention is also directed to a fuel cell comprising an anode, a cathode, a proton exchange membrane between the anode and the cathode, and one of the foregoing catalysts for the catalytic oxidation of a hydrogen-containing fuel or the catalytic reduction of oxygen.
The present invention is also directed to a method for the electrochemical conversion of a hydrogen-containing fuel and oxygen to reaction products and electricity in a fuel cell comprising an anode, a cathode, a proton exchange membrane therebetween, one of the foregoing catalysts, and an electrically conductive external circuit connecting the anode and cathode, the method comprising contacting the hydrogen-containing fuel or the oxygen and the catalyst to catalytically oxidize the hydrogen-containing fuel or catalytically reduce the oxygen.
The present invention is also directed to a fuel cell electrolyte membrane, or a fuel cell electrode, having an unsupported catalyst layer on a surface thereof, said unsupported catalyst layer comprising a catalyst having any one of the foregoing compositions.
The foregoing and other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description and accompanying drawing.
| 1 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to catalysts which are useful in fuel cell electrodes (e.g., electrocatalysts) and other catalytic structures, and which comprise platinum, chromium and copper, nickel or a combination of copper and nickel.
2. Description of Related Technology
A fuel cell is an electrochemical device for directly converting the chemical energy generated from an oxidation-reduction reaction of a fuel such as hydrogen or hydrocarbon-based fuels and an oxidizer such as oxygen gas (in air) supplied thereto into a low-voltage direct current. Thus, fuel cells chemically combine the molecules of a fuel and an oxidizer without burning, dispensing with the inefficiencies and pollution of traditional combustion.
A fuel cell is generally comprised of a fuel electrode (anode), an oxidizer electrode (cathode), an electrolyte interposed between the electrodes (alkaline or acidic), and means for separately supplying a stream of fuel and a stream of oxidizer to the anode and the cathode, respectively. In operation, fuel supplied to the anode is oxidized, releasing electrons that are conducted via an external circuit to the cathode. At the cathode, the supplied electrons are consumed when the oxidizer is reduced. The current flowing through the external circuit can be made to do useful work.
There are several types of fuel cells, including those having electrolytes of phosphoric acid, molten carbonate, solid oxide, potassium hydroxide, or a proton exchange membrane. A phosphoric acid fuel cell operates at about 160-220° C., and preferably at about 190-200° C. This type of fuel cell is currently being used for multi-megawatt utility power generation and for co-generation systems (i.e., combined heat and power generation) in the 50 to several hundred kilowatts range. In contrast, proton exchange membrane fuel cells use a solid proton-conducting polymer membrane as the electrolyte. Typically, the polymer membrane is maintained in a hydrated form during operation in order to prevent loss of ionic conduction which limits the operation temperature typically to between about 70 and about 120° C. depending on the operating pressure, and preferably below about 100° C. Proton exchange membrane fuel cells have a much higher power density than liquid electrolyte fuel cells (e.g., phosphoric acid), and can vary output quickly to meet shifts in power demand. Thus, they are suited for applications such as in automobiles and small-scale residential power generation where quick startup is a consideration.
In some applications (e.g., automotive), pure hydrogen gas is the optimum fuel; however, in other applications where a lower operational cost is desirable, a reformed hydrogen-containing gas is an appropriate fuel. A reformed-hydrogen containing gas is produced, for example, by steam-reforming methanol and water at 200-300° C. to a hydrogen-rich fuel gas containing carbon dioxide. Theoretically, the reformate gas consists of 75 vol % hydrogen and 25 vol % carbon dioxide. In practice, however, this gas also contains nitrogen, oxygen and, depending on the degree of purity, varying amounts of carbon monoxide (up to 1 vol %). Although some electronic devices also reform liquid fuel to hydrogen, in some applications the conversion of a liquid fuel directly into electricity is desirable, as then high storage density and system simplicity are combined. In particular, methanol is an especially desirable fuel because it has a high energy density, a low cost, and is produced from renewable resources.
For the oxidation and reduction reactions in a fuel cell to proceed at useful rates, especially at operating temperatures below about 300° C., electrocatalyst materials are typically provided at the electrodes. Initially, fuel cells used electrocatalysts made of a single metal, usually platinum (Pt), palladium (Pd), rhodium (Rh), iridium (Ir), osmium (Os), silver (Ag) or gold (Au), because they are able to withstand the corrosive environment. In general, platinum is considered to be the most efficient and stable single-metal electrocatalyst for fuel cells operating below about 300° C.
While the above-noted elements were first used in fuel cells in metallic powder form, later techniques were developed to disperse these metals over the surface of electrically conductive supports (e.g., carbon black) to increase the surface area of the electrocatalyst. An increase in the surface area of the electrocatalyst in turn increased the number of reactive sites, leading to improved efficiency of the cell. Nevertheless, fuel cell performance typically declines over time because the presence of electrolyte, high temperatures and molecular oxygen dissolve the electrocatalyst and/or sinter the dispersed electrocatalyst by surface migration or dissolution/re-precipitation.
Although platinum is considered to be the most efficient and stable single-metal electrocatalyst for fuel cells, it is costly. Additionally, an increase in electrocatalyst activity over platinum is desirable, if not necessary, for wide-scale commercialization of fuel cell technology. However, the development of cathode fuel cell electrocatalyst materials faces longstanding challenges. The greatest challenge is the improvement of the electrode kinetics of the oxygen reduction reaction. In fact, sluggish electrochemical reaction kinetics have prevented attaining the thermodynamic reversible electrode potential for oxygen reduction. This is reflected in exchange current densities of around 10−10to 10−12A/cm2for oxygen reduction on, for example, Pt at low and medium temperatures. A factor contributing to this phenomenon includes the fact that the desired reduction of oxygen to water is a four-electron transfer reaction and typically involves breaking a strong O—O bond early in the reaction. In addition, the open circuit voltage is lowered from the thermodynamic potential for oxygen reduction due to the formation of peroxide and possible platinum oxides that inhibit the reaction. A second challenge is the stability of the oxygen electrode (cathode) during long-term operation. Specifically, a fuel cell cathode operates in a regime in which even the most unreactive metals are not completely stable. Thus, alloy compositions that contain non-noble metal elements may have a rate of corrosion that would negatively impact the projected lifetime of a fuel cell. The corrosion may be more severe when the cell is operating near open circuit conditions (which is the most desirable potential for thermodynamic efficiency).
Electrocatalyst materials at the anode also face challenges during fuel cell operation. Specifically, as the concentration of carbon monoxide (CO) rises above about 10 ppm in the fuel the surface of the electrocatalyst can be rapidly poisoned. As a result, platinum (by itself) is a poor electrocatalyst if the fuel stream contains carbon monoxide (e.g., reformed-hydrogen gas typically exceeds 100 ppm). Liquid hydrocarbon-based fuels (e.g., methanol) present an even greater poisoning problem. Specifically, the surface of the platinum becomes blocked with the adsorbed intermediate, carbon monoxide (CO). It has been reported that H2O plays a key role in the removal of such poisoning species in accordance with the following reactions:
Pt+CH3OH→Pt—CO+4H++4e−(1);
Pt+H2O→Pt—OH+H++e−(2); and
Pt—CO+Pt—OH→2Pt+CO2+H++e−(3).
As indicated by the foregoing reactions, the methanol is adsorbed and partially oxidized by platinum on the surface of the electrode (1). Adsorbed OH, from the hydrolysis of water, reacts with the adsorbed CO to produce carbon dioxide and a proton (2,3). However, platinum does not form OH species well at the potentials fuel cell electrodes operate (e.g., 200 mV-1.5 V). As a result, step (3) is the slowest step in the sequence, limiting the rate of CO removal, thereby allowing poisoning of the electrocatalyst to occur. This applies in particular to a proton exchange membrane fuel cell which is especially sensitive to CO poisoning because of its low operating temperatures.
One technique for increasing electrocatalytic cathodic activity during the reduction of oxygen and electrocatalytic anodic activity during the oxidation of hydrogen is to employ an electrocatalyst which is more active, corrosion resistant, and/or more poison tolerant. For example, increased tolerance to CO has been reported by alloying platinum and ruthenium at a 50:50 atomic ratio (see, D. Chu and S. Gillman, J. Electrochem. Soc. 1996, 143, 1685). The electrocatalysts proposed to date, however, leave room for further improvement.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Briefly, therefore, the present invention is directed to a catalyst for use in oxidation or reduction reactions, the catalyst comprising platinum, chromium at a concentration that is no greater than 30 atomic percent, and copper, nickel, or a combination thereof at a concentration that is at least 35 atomic percent.
The present invention is also directed to a catalyst for use in oxidation or reduction reactions, the catalyst comprising platinum, chromium, and copper, nickel, or a combination thereof, wherein the concentration of copper, nickel, or a combination thereof is at least 45 atomic percent.
The present invention is also directed to a catalyst for use in oxidation or reduction reactions, the catalyst comprising platinum, chromium, copper and nickel.
The present invention is also directed to a catalyst for use in oxidation or reduction reactions, the catalyst comprising platinum, chromium, and copper, wherein the concentration of chromium is no greater than 30 atomic percent.
The present invention is also directed to a catalyst for use in oxidation or reduction reactions, the catalyst comprising platinum, chromium, and nickel, wherein the concentration of nickel is at least 35 atomic percent.
The present invention is also directed to a catalyst for use in oxidation or reduction reactions, the catalyst comprising platinum, chromium, and nickel, wherein the concentration of platinum is less than 40 atomic percent.
The present invention is also directed to a catalyst for use in oxidation or reduction reactions, the catalyst comprising platinum at a concentration that is between about 15 and about 50 atomic percent, chromium at a concentration that is between about 5 and about 45 atomic percent, and copper at a concentration that is between about 15 and about 50 atomic percent.
The present invention is also directed to one or more of the foregoing catalysts wherein said catalyst comprises an alloy of the recited metals, or alternatively wherein said catalyst consists essentially of an alloy of the recited metals.
The present invention is also directed to a supported electrocatalyst powder for use in electrochemical reactor devices, the supported electrocatalyst powder comprising one of the foregoing catalysts and electrically conductive support particles upon which the catalyst is dispersed.
The present invention is also directed to a fuel cell electrode, the fuel cell electrode comprising electrocatalyst particles and an electrode substrate upon which the electrocatalyst particles are deposited, the electrocatalyst particles comprising one of the foregoing catalysts.
The present invention is also directed to a fuel cell comprising an anode, a cathode, a proton exchange membrane between the anode and the cathode, and one of the foregoing catalysts for the catalytic oxidation of a hydrogen-containing fuel or the catalytic reduction of oxygen.
The present invention is also directed to a method for the electrochemical conversion of a hydrogen-containing fuel and oxygen to reaction products and electricity in a fuel cell comprising an anode, a cathode, a proton exchange membrane therebetween, one of the foregoing catalysts, and an electrically conductive external circuit connecting the anode and cathode, the method comprising contacting the hydrogen-containing fuel or the oxygen and the catalyst to catalytically oxidize the hydrogen-containing fuel or catalytically reduce the oxygen.
The present invention is also directed to a fuel cell electrolyte membrane, or a fuel cell electrode, having an unsupported catalyst layer on a surface thereof, said unsupported catalyst layer comprising a catalyst having any one of the foregoing compositions.
The foregoing and other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description and accompanying drawing.
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7654638 | BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The following invention relates to an array of abutting printhead integrated circuits (or print ‘chips’ as they are commonly known) or printhead modules in a pagewidth printhead. More particularly, though not exclusively, the invention relates to an array of such abutting print chips for an A4 pagewidth ink jet drop on demand printhead capable of printing up to 160 dpi color photographic quality at up to 160 pages per minute.
The array of print chips in such a printhead would be approximately 8 inches (20 cm) long. An advantage of such a system is the ability to easily remove and replace any defective chips in the printhead array. This would eliminate having to scrap an entire printhead if only one chip is defective.
Our co-pending applications U.S. Ser. No. 09/575,115, U.S. Ser. No. 09/575,114, U.S. Ser. No. 09/575,113, U.S. Ser. No. 09/575,112 and U.S. Ser. No. 09/575,111, show a printhead module comprised of a “Memjet” chip, being a chip having mounted thereon a vast number of thermo-actuators in micro-mechanics and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS). The present invention is a development of the arrangement of printhead modules as shown in the cross-referenced applications.
The printhead, which includes the array of printhead modules of the present invention might typically have six ink chambers and be capable of printing four color process (CMYK) as well as infra-red ink and fixative. An air pump would supply filtered air to the printhead, which could be used to keep foreign particles away from its ink nozzles. The printhead module is typically to be connected to a replaceable cassette which contains the ink supply and an air filter.
Each printhead module receives ink via a distribution molding that transfers the ink. Typically, ten modules butt together to form a complete eight inch printhead assembly suitable for printing A4 paper without the need for scanning movement of the printhead across the paper width.
The printheads themselves are modular, so complete eight inch printhead arrays can be configured to form printheads of arbitrary width.
Additionally, a second printhead assembly can be mounted on the opposite side of a paper feed path to enable double-sided high speed printing.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide an array of abutting printhead modules in a pagewidth printer.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an array of abutting printhead modules suitable for the pagewidth printhead as broadly described herein.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an array of abutting printhead modules each comprising print chips having a plurality of MEMS printing devices thereon.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
There is disclosed herein a print chip for assembly into an array of abutting integrated circuits in a printhead of an ink jet printer, the integrated circuit including rows of unit cells, each unit cell having an ink ejection nozzle, said integrated circuit having an end surface for abutting with another integrated circuit of the array, said end surface including features of shape to cooperate with corresponding features of shape of an end surface of said another integrated circuit to ensure that a desired positional relationship between the ink ejection nozzles of said integrated circuit and said another integrated circuit is maintained in use.
Preferably the unit cells of each row are positioned such that the ink ejection nozzles is equally spaced along the row.
Preferably the features of shape of the end surfaces include a zig-zag formation.
Preferably the integrated circuit includes twelve rows of unit cells.
Preferably the twelve rows of unit cells are made up of six pairs of rows, each pair printing ink of one color.
There is further disclosed herein an array of abutting integrated circuits in a printhead of an ink jet printer, each integrated circuit being as disclosed above.
Preferably the pair of unit cells rows dedicated to one color in one integrated circuit is longitudinally aligned with a pair of unit cell rows of an adjoining integrated circuit printing a different color.
Preferably there is a dimension between end-most nozzles across the abutting end surfaces that is equivalent to double a dimension between the nozzles along any row of one of the integrated circuit.
Preferably the zigzag formation includes a sequence of angled portions and a sequence of aligned longitudinal portions interspersed therewith.
As used herein, the term “ink” is intended to mean any fluid which flows through the printhead to be delivered to a sheet. The fluid may be one of many different colored inks, infrared ink, a fixative or the like.
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The following invention relates to an array of abutting printhead integrated circuits (or print ‘chips’ as they are commonly known) or printhead modules in a pagewidth printhead. More particularly, though not exclusively, the invention relates to an array of such abutting print chips for an A4 pagewidth ink jet drop on demand printhead capable of printing up to 160 dpi color photographic quality at up to 160 pages per minute.
The array of print chips in such a printhead would be approximately 8 inches (20 cm) long. An advantage of such a system is the ability to easily remove and replace any defective chips in the printhead array. This would eliminate having to scrap an entire printhead if only one chip is defective.
Our co-pending applications U.S. Ser. No. 09/575,115, U.S. Ser. No. 09/575,114, U.S. Ser. No. 09/575,113, U.S. Ser. No. 09/575,112 and U.S. Ser. No. 09/575,111, show a printhead module comprised of a “Memjet” chip, being a chip having mounted thereon a vast number of thermo-actuators in micro-mechanics and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS). The present invention is a development of the arrangement of printhead modules as shown in the cross-referenced applications.
The printhead, which includes the array of printhead modules of the present invention might typically have six ink chambers and be capable of printing four color process (CMYK) as well as infra-red ink and fixative. An air pump would supply filtered air to the printhead, which could be used to keep foreign particles away from its ink nozzles. The printhead module is typically to be connected to a replaceable cassette which contains the ink supply and an air filter.
Each printhead module receives ink via a distribution molding that transfers the ink. Typically, ten modules butt together to form a complete eight inch printhead assembly suitable for printing A4 paper without the need for scanning movement of the printhead across the paper width.
The printheads themselves are modular, so complete eight inch printhead arrays can be configured to form printheads of arbitrary width.
Additionally, a second printhead assembly can be mounted on the opposite side of a paper feed path to enable double-sided high speed printing.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide an array of abutting printhead modules in a pagewidth printer.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an array of abutting printhead modules suitable for the pagewidth printhead as broadly described herein.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an array of abutting printhead modules each comprising print chips having a plurality of MEMS printing devices thereon.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
There is disclosed herein a print chip for assembly into an array of abutting integrated circuits in a printhead of an ink jet printer, the integrated circuit including rows of unit cells, each unit cell having an ink ejection nozzle, said integrated circuit having an end surface for abutting with another integrated circuit of the array, said end surface including features of shape to cooperate with corresponding features of shape of an end surface of said another integrated circuit to ensure that a desired positional relationship between the ink ejection nozzles of said integrated circuit and said another integrated circuit is maintained in use.
Preferably the unit cells of each row are positioned such that the ink ejection nozzles is equally spaced along the row.
Preferably the features of shape of the end surfaces include a zig-zag formation.
Preferably the integrated circuit includes twelve rows of unit cells.
Preferably the twelve rows of unit cells are made up of six pairs of rows, each pair printing ink of one color.
There is further disclosed herein an array of abutting integrated circuits in a printhead of an ink jet printer, each integrated circuit being as disclosed above.
Preferably the pair of unit cells rows dedicated to one color in one integrated circuit is longitudinally aligned with a pair of unit cell rows of an adjoining integrated circuit printing a different color.
Preferably there is a dimension between end-most nozzles across the abutting end surfaces that is equivalent to double a dimension between the nozzles along any row of one of the integrated circuit.
Preferably the zigzag formation includes a sequence of angled portions and a sequence of aligned longitudinal portions interspersed therewith.
As used herein, the term “ink” is intended to mean any fluid which flows through the printhead to be delivered to a sheet. The fluid may be one of many different colored inks, infrared ink, a fixative or the like.
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7797184 | BACKGROUND
Commercial enterprises compete for customers by promising, among other things, low prices and fast delivery. Successful competition often requires careful monitoring of profit margins and deadlines. One key to success in this environment is a system that provides accurate and timely business information. Financial data and other information that indicates the state of the corporation can no longer be examined only on a periodic basis, but rather must be continually monitored. Businesses rely on their latest performance information to support strategic planning and decision making, so any businesses without a system for providing accurate and timely business information would be at a huge disadvantage relative to their competitors.
Accordingly, most businesses track at least their financial data in a computerized financial reporting system that can generate reports on demand. Many large entities have reporting systems that process large numbers of complex transactions which may be occurring at many locations around the world.
Businesses often wish to use such computerized data to forecast some outcome (e.g., end-of-quarter revenue, end-of-month inventory, or end-of-year overhead costs) or to monitor the probability of achieving some goal to support current business decisions. This task may be quite challenging. A large enterprise's ongoing transactions are complex and difficult to model. One alternative to constructing transaction-based models is to employ stochastic modeling techniques for forecasting. Many stochastic modeling approaches are based on time-series models. Autoregressive (AR), moving average (MA), and autoregressive moving average (ARMA) models inherently assume that the data is stationary (in the statistical sense of having a fixed average and standard deviation), which makes them unsuitable for many real world applications. The autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model weakens the requirement for stationarity, requiring only that the data have a stationary derivative (i.e., a differenced time series that can be integrated to recover the original time series). However, the ARIMA model (and its seasonal variant, SARIMA) has also proven unsatisfactory for many real world applications.
Real world data rarely follows any neat or closed-form stochastic models such as those given by the foregoing time-series models. Though a good correspondence can often be achieved with existing data that is used for training the model, the future predictions made by such models are inadequate for many applications, and degrade when model complexity is increased. An alternative approach to closed-form stochastic models would be desirable for forecasting in the business environment.
SUMMARY
Accordingly, there is disclosed herein systems and methods for cumulative attribute forecasting using a probability density function of a current-to-future value ratio. Some method embodiments may comprise determining an unconditional probability density function for a ratio of a cumulative attribute's current value to an associated future value for the cumulative attribute, and determining an unconditional PDF for a future value of the cumulative attribute. The unconditional probability functions are combined with a current value of the cumulative attribute in a manner that yields a conditional probability density function for the future value. The conditional probability density function may then be used to determine forecasts such as a most likely future value, a confidence interval for the future value, and a probability of achieving a future value within some specified range.
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: BACKGROUND
Commercial enterprises compete for customers by promising, among other things, low prices and fast delivery. Successful competition often requires careful monitoring of profit margins and deadlines. One key to success in this environment is a system that provides accurate and timely business information. Financial data and other information that indicates the state of the corporation can no longer be examined only on a periodic basis, but rather must be continually monitored. Businesses rely on their latest performance information to support strategic planning and decision making, so any businesses without a system for providing accurate and timely business information would be at a huge disadvantage relative to their competitors.
Accordingly, most businesses track at least their financial data in a computerized financial reporting system that can generate reports on demand. Many large entities have reporting systems that process large numbers of complex transactions which may be occurring at many locations around the world.
Businesses often wish to use such computerized data to forecast some outcome (e.g., end-of-quarter revenue, end-of-month inventory, or end-of-year overhead costs) or to monitor the probability of achieving some goal to support current business decisions. This task may be quite challenging. A large enterprise's ongoing transactions are complex and difficult to model. One alternative to constructing transaction-based models is to employ stochastic modeling techniques for forecasting. Many stochastic modeling approaches are based on time-series models. Autoregressive (AR), moving average (MA), and autoregressive moving average (ARMA) models inherently assume that the data is stationary (in the statistical sense of having a fixed average and standard deviation), which makes them unsuitable for many real world applications. The autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model weakens the requirement for stationarity, requiring only that the data have a stationary derivative (i.e., a differenced time series that can be integrated to recover the original time series). However, the ARIMA model (and its seasonal variant, SARIMA) has also proven unsatisfactory for many real world applications.
Real world data rarely follows any neat or closed-form stochastic models such as those given by the foregoing time-series models. Though a good correspondence can often be achieved with existing data that is used for training the model, the future predictions made by such models are inadequate for many applications, and degrade when model complexity is increased. An alternative approach to closed-form stochastic models would be desirable for forecasting in the business environment.
SUMMARY
Accordingly, there is disclosed herein systems and methods for cumulative attribute forecasting using a probability density function of a current-to-future value ratio. Some method embodiments may comprise determining an unconditional probability density function for a ratio of a cumulative attribute's current value to an associated future value for the cumulative attribute, and determining an unconditional PDF for a future value of the cumulative attribute. The unconditional probability functions are combined with a current value of the cumulative attribute in a manner that yields a conditional probability density function for the future value. The conditional probability density function may then be used to determine forecasts such as a most likely future value, a confidence interval for the future value, and a probability of achieving a future value within some specified range.
Is this patent green technology? Respond with 'yes' or 'no'. |
7677988 | TECHNICAL AREA
The invention relates to the area of training devices for various sports and in particular to a device for training golfers, providing a means by which golfers are able to stabilise the lower half of their body giving a firm, secure stance for the swing to be carried out.
While the invention relates to a training device which is suitable for use in any sport requiring hitting or pitching of the ball, for convenience sake it will be discussed herein in terms of training for golfers.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Over the years there have been many inventions which have been devised to teach or correct a golfer's swing. The golf swing can be broken down into three basic phases: take-away, impact and follow through. Balance is essential in the follow through of a golf swing and is generally achieved with proper swing mechanics which occurs in the first two phases of the golf swing. For this to occur it is imperative that the lower part of the body be stabilised to prevent any unwanted vertical motion.
Erroneous swing mechanics can lead to an increase incidence of injury that is resultant from uncontrolled and misdirected shots. An incorrect balance of weight in the lower part of the body can cause a variety of errant shots including fat (striking ground first) and thin (striking only ball and no turf) shots. Other common swing faults pertinent to golfers, include right knee lateral sway, vertical motion, excessive lower body motion in the short game ie. Chipping and putting, and extra long swings.
Current devices that attempt to control the movement of the player's body are generally overly restrictive, complicated and inaccurate in the movement defined. The devices are designed to restrict the body movement of the player by securing or immobilising various parts of the body such as the head, waist, shoulders, arms or legs. However, often the devices are cumbersome and awkward including multi-strap hand or leg braces that are uncomfortable and require a fair amount of time to adjust their position. In addition, whilst these may support the players and guide their movement, the devices hinder the development and movement of supporting muscles which would otherwise occur if the player were self supported.
The previous devices fail to provide a method whereby the swing of a golfer can be easily and conveniently controlled in a round of golf, such that the golfer can adjust the stance throughout a round of golf depending on the characteristics of a particular golfer and environmental conditions such as variations in the inclination of a course, without the need to readjust settings or positioning of the device.
OUTLINE OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to overcome or substantially ameliorate the disadvantages of the prior art by providing a device for controlling and stabilising the body movement of a golfer in order to ensure a controlled and consistent golf swing.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a means whereby the device provides a constant reference to which the player may return in order to repeat the same motion.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a means for exercising to strengthen the necessary muscles which enables a player to approximate the desired motion without the direct pressure of the device.
The invention provides, for use in the training of golf players, a device having a platform and two coplanar members situated thereon, wherein the first member is fixed, and the second member may move relative to the first member, the device having a bias means which, in the absence of an externally applied force, causes the two members to be adjacent.
It is preferred that the second member is arranged in a manner where it is able to slide relative to the first member.
It is further preferred that the bias means which causes the members to be adjacent in the absence of an external force is at least one spring means.
It is further preferred that the bias means may be at least one elasticised member.
It may be preferred that there is a third member which can be located transversely of the first and second members which can receive a golf ball.
In order that the invention be more readily understood we will describe by way of non limiting example a specific embodiment thereof.
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: TECHNICAL AREA
The invention relates to the area of training devices for various sports and in particular to a device for training golfers, providing a means by which golfers are able to stabilise the lower half of their body giving a firm, secure stance for the swing to be carried out.
While the invention relates to a training device which is suitable for use in any sport requiring hitting or pitching of the ball, for convenience sake it will be discussed herein in terms of training for golfers.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Over the years there have been many inventions which have been devised to teach or correct a golfer's swing. The golf swing can be broken down into three basic phases: take-away, impact and follow through. Balance is essential in the follow through of a golf swing and is generally achieved with proper swing mechanics which occurs in the first two phases of the golf swing. For this to occur it is imperative that the lower part of the body be stabilised to prevent any unwanted vertical motion.
Erroneous swing mechanics can lead to an increase incidence of injury that is resultant from uncontrolled and misdirected shots. An incorrect balance of weight in the lower part of the body can cause a variety of errant shots including fat (striking ground first) and thin (striking only ball and no turf) shots. Other common swing faults pertinent to golfers, include right knee lateral sway, vertical motion, excessive lower body motion in the short game ie. Chipping and putting, and extra long swings.
Current devices that attempt to control the movement of the player's body are generally overly restrictive, complicated and inaccurate in the movement defined. The devices are designed to restrict the body movement of the player by securing or immobilising various parts of the body such as the head, waist, shoulders, arms or legs. However, often the devices are cumbersome and awkward including multi-strap hand or leg braces that are uncomfortable and require a fair amount of time to adjust their position. In addition, whilst these may support the players and guide their movement, the devices hinder the development and movement of supporting muscles which would otherwise occur if the player were self supported.
The previous devices fail to provide a method whereby the swing of a golfer can be easily and conveniently controlled in a round of golf, such that the golfer can adjust the stance throughout a round of golf depending on the characteristics of a particular golfer and environmental conditions such as variations in the inclination of a course, without the need to readjust settings or positioning of the device.
OUTLINE OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to overcome or substantially ameliorate the disadvantages of the prior art by providing a device for controlling and stabilising the body movement of a golfer in order to ensure a controlled and consistent golf swing.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a means whereby the device provides a constant reference to which the player may return in order to repeat the same motion.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a means for exercising to strengthen the necessary muscles which enables a player to approximate the desired motion without the direct pressure of the device.
The invention provides, for use in the training of golf players, a device having a platform and two coplanar members situated thereon, wherein the first member is fixed, and the second member may move relative to the first member, the device having a bias means which, in the absence of an externally applied force, causes the two members to be adjacent.
It is preferred that the second member is arranged in a manner where it is able to slide relative to the first member.
It is further preferred that the bias means which causes the members to be adjacent in the absence of an external force is at least one spring means.
It is further preferred that the bias means may be at least one elasticised member.
It may be preferred that there is a third member which can be located transversely of the first and second members which can receive a golf ball.
In order that the invention be more readily understood we will describe by way of non limiting example a specific embodiment thereof.
Is this patent green technology? Respond with 'yes' or 'no'. |
7770532 | BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Hydrocarbons in an undersea reservoir lying at the bottom of a deep sea (over 500 meters) are commonly produced by an installation that includes risers for carrying the hydrocarbons up from the sea floor to a production vessel that stores the hydrocarbons. The connections to the sea floor can also include flowlines for water injection, gas lift, gas export, and umbilicals, and also mooring lines that moor the vessel. At times the vessel must sail away from a location over the region of the reservoir where the risers and mooring lines are located, as when a storm is approaching, or to carry the stored hydrocarbons to another station, or for another purpose. For this reason, the installation commonly includes a connection buoy, or buoyant connector that is connected to the upper ends of the risers and the upper ends of the mooring lines, and that is in turn, connected to the vessel in a manner that allows the connector to be disconnected and reconnected. When the connector is disconnected from the vessel, the connector sinks to a position that is at least 25 meters under the sea surface so the connector lies under most or all of the wave action zone.
When the vessel returns to the production installation, the connector must be raised and connected to the vessel by personnel on the vessel and/or divers. The less massive the connector, the easier it is to manipulate and move during disconnection and reconnection. The present invention is directed largely to making such installations so the connector is of minimum mass and volume and therefore easier to move, and so the connector is moved a minimum distance. The installations are used primarily for the production of hydrocarbons, but are useful wherever large quantities of hydrocarbons are to be transferred.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, an installation is provided for mooring a hydrocarbon transfer vessel that includes a buoyant connector that connects risers and mooring lines to a vessel, wherein the connector can be disconnected from the vessel to sink under much of the wave action zone, wherein the connector can be moved with minimum effort. The mooring lines have primarily vertical lower portions that extend up to mooring buoys and have upper portions that extend primarily horizontally from the mooring buoys to the connector. The risers have lower portions that extend from the sea floor up to riser buoy means, and the risers have upper portions in the form of jumper hoses that extend from the riser buoy means to the connector. In most cases, the riser buoy means are buoys that are separate from the mooring buoys, but in some cases the riser buoys are formed by the mooring buoys that also support the lower portions of the risers. According to the invention, the riser buoy means is not directly moored to the seabed, but is coupled to the mooring buoys. It should be noted that in this text, “coupled to the mooring buoys” includes attached to the mooring system in the vicinity of the buoy or to a junction element linked to the buoy.
There is no primarily vertical line or other weight-supporting connection between any riser buoy (or riser buoy means) and the buoyant connector. Flexible jumper hoses extend from the riser buoy to the connector, but the jumper hoses are buoyant in water and are too long and flexible to transfer weight from the riser buoy to the connector. As a result, the connector supports substantially only its own weight, and half of the weight of the jumper hoses. As a result, when the connector must be lifted from deep (e.g. 50 meters) under water to the vessel, the personnel must lift only the weight of the buoyant connector (minus its buoyancy), one end of each mooring line horizontal upper portion, and a portion of the jumper hoses of the risers.
The novel features of the invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. It should be understood that when referring to risers, applicant refers to risers carrying the hydrocarbons up from the sea floor to a production vessel that stores the hydrocarbons, as well as flowlines for water injection, for gas lift, for gas export (when needed) and umbilicals. The invention will be best understood from the following description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Hydrocarbons in an undersea reservoir lying at the bottom of a deep sea (over 500 meters) are commonly produced by an installation that includes risers for carrying the hydrocarbons up from the sea floor to a production vessel that stores the hydrocarbons. The connections to the sea floor can also include flowlines for water injection, gas lift, gas export, and umbilicals, and also mooring lines that moor the vessel. At times the vessel must sail away from a location over the region of the reservoir where the risers and mooring lines are located, as when a storm is approaching, or to carry the stored hydrocarbons to another station, or for another purpose. For this reason, the installation commonly includes a connection buoy, or buoyant connector that is connected to the upper ends of the risers and the upper ends of the mooring lines, and that is in turn, connected to the vessel in a manner that allows the connector to be disconnected and reconnected. When the connector is disconnected from the vessel, the connector sinks to a position that is at least 25 meters under the sea surface so the connector lies under most or all of the wave action zone.
When the vessel returns to the production installation, the connector must be raised and connected to the vessel by personnel on the vessel and/or divers. The less massive the connector, the easier it is to manipulate and move during disconnection and reconnection. The present invention is directed largely to making such installations so the connector is of minimum mass and volume and therefore easier to move, and so the connector is moved a minimum distance. The installations are used primarily for the production of hydrocarbons, but are useful wherever large quantities of hydrocarbons are to be transferred.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, an installation is provided for mooring a hydrocarbon transfer vessel that includes a buoyant connector that connects risers and mooring lines to a vessel, wherein the connector can be disconnected from the vessel to sink under much of the wave action zone, wherein the connector can be moved with minimum effort. The mooring lines have primarily vertical lower portions that extend up to mooring buoys and have upper portions that extend primarily horizontally from the mooring buoys to the connector. The risers have lower portions that extend from the sea floor up to riser buoy means, and the risers have upper portions in the form of jumper hoses that extend from the riser buoy means to the connector. In most cases, the riser buoy means are buoys that are separate from the mooring buoys, but in some cases the riser buoys are formed by the mooring buoys that also support the lower portions of the risers. According to the invention, the riser buoy means is not directly moored to the seabed, but is coupled to the mooring buoys. It should be noted that in this text, “coupled to the mooring buoys” includes attached to the mooring system in the vicinity of the buoy or to a junction element linked to the buoy.
There is no primarily vertical line or other weight-supporting connection between any riser buoy (or riser buoy means) and the buoyant connector. Flexible jumper hoses extend from the riser buoy to the connector, but the jumper hoses are buoyant in water and are too long and flexible to transfer weight from the riser buoy to the connector. As a result, the connector supports substantially only its own weight, and half of the weight of the jumper hoses. As a result, when the connector must be lifted from deep (e.g. 50 meters) under water to the vessel, the personnel must lift only the weight of the buoyant connector (minus its buoyancy), one end of each mooring line horizontal upper portion, and a portion of the jumper hoses of the risers.
The novel features of the invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. It should be understood that when referring to risers, applicant refers to risers carrying the hydrocarbons up from the sea floor to a production vessel that stores the hydrocarbons, as well as flowlines for water injection, for gas lift, for gas export (when needed) and umbilicals. The invention will be best understood from the following description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
Is this patent green technology? Respond with 'yes' or 'no'. |
7804229 | BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In the manufacture and use of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) the technology is divided into two major groups; Passive Tags that gather their power from close coupling to a reader thus enabling them to transmit or reflect information back to the reader. The second group is Active Tags which have their own power storage capability like a battery, capacitor or other devices. The tag is queried with a RF signal generated by the reader requesting the tag to transmit the data, which is received by the reader. This Active tag has a limited life due to the storage device's limited shelf life. The magnetostrictive/piezo device of the present invention provides power to operate an attached electrical device or to charge an electrical storage device that could be used by a multitude of sensors, receivers, transmitter or other electrical or electronic device. The new type of RFID using this power generating technology is hereinafter referred to as Network Powered Tag or NPRFID.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a power generating device which is controlled from a natural or man-made pulsed or constant remotely operated magnetic or electromagnetic field, to a battery charged thereby and to a method for forming said battery. Magnetically affecting the magnetostrictive or similar material, causes a stretching, bending or displacement of a power producing crystal or material such as piezo which produces power each time a pulse of magnetism is sensed. The new power generating device produces power from a PME (Passive Magnetostrictive Electro-Active) device or similar devices. A passive magnetic field sensor made of layers of Terfenol-D {Fe2(Dy0.7Tb0.3)} magnetostrictive material and ceramic PZT-5 will act as a generator to power electrical and electronic devices when in range of the querying transceiver magnetic field of (0.3 Oersted or larger). The magnetostrictive material or other material stretches, flexes or is physically distorted when in the presence of a magnetic field or pulsed magnetic field displaces the piezo type device attached thereto thereby, generating power for any electric or electronic device.
Under a preferred embodiment, when the power is generated, it will be stored in a bank of ferroelectric capacitors, capacitors or a rechargeable battery type device. The battery could be a rolled-up sheet of up to a few thousand of ferroelectric capacitors, all hooked together in parallel. Building ferroelectric capacitors larger than a certain size has not heretofore been successful. Therefore, in order to create a large ferroelectric capacitor, large numbers of smaller capacitors are built and wired in parallel to equal one large capacitor. The process is similar to the manufacture of integrated circuits where layers of material are deposited on top of other material and then etch away that material that is not needed. By doing this, it is possible to make large capacitors on a sheet of polyester such as Mylar® or polyimide such as Kapton® which is then rolled up to make a package that can fit easily into a cylinder as used in normal battery packaging.
The PME power generator/battery will generate power with each pulse of a magnetic or electromagnetic field. Pulsing of the magnetic source will allow the device to charge up a battery or capacitor to a usable level of voltage or current. In order to obtain optimum power, the magnetic field should be generated at a frequency that matches the natural frequency of the magnetostrictive/piezo composite. Power close to optimum power can be obtained if the magnetic field is generated at a frequency in the range of 90% to 110% of the natural resonant frequency of such composite. Additionally, the new magnetostrictive/piezo device providing power to a battery, capacitor or other storage device could be used in conjunction with a voltage regulator to provide a specific electrical voltage. The device could also function without the use of a regulator in some applications. This power generated would be encased in a typical or non-typical battery enclosure that could be used by all devices that utilize AAA, AA, C, D or other common battery forms. This new power generating battery would be called a NPB (Network Powered Battery). The battery could be powered by single or multiple magnetic generating devices. Additionally, a single magnetic generating device could power multiple NPBs. This new device could be configured to supply power to any number of battery powered devices and could also power and query a RFID tag at long distances.
The magnetic pulsed field could also be coded to provide instructions to the receiving device to turn-on, turn-off, or other specific task or operation such as store new data in memory, erase memory or go to sleep.
One preferred embodiment of the present invention can increase the capability over current battery technology by maintaining an ongoing charge to power the utilizing equipment, thereby providing a potentially infinite shelf life. This will have significant advantages in reliability of the utilizing equipment. The present invention could also provide a power source for medical, biomedical, night vision, GPS, radios, sensors, actuators and intelligence gathering technologies. The ability to transmit data to the battery can provide additional benefits such as power conservation, mode changes, data refresh and others.
Magnetostrictive Materials were discovered in the 1840s by James Prescott Joule, when he noticed that iron changed length in response to changes in magnetism and named the phenomenon the Joule Effect.
How It Works:
Magnetostrictive materials expand when exposed to a magnetic field, exhibiting the Joule Effect or Magnetostriction. This occurs because magnetic domains in the material align with the magnetic field. Similarly, when the material is strained (stretched or compressed), its magnetic energy changes. This phenomenon is called magnetomechanical effect or Villari Effect.
Some examples of magnetostrictive materials:
cobaltironnickelferriteterbium Alloys (Terfenol-D)MetglassGalfenol (Gallium and Iron)
Since magnetostriction involves a bidirectional energy exchange between magnetic and elastic states, magnetostrictive materials when put together with a piezo material, provide a mechanism to produce an AC voltage from an alternating electromagnetic field.
| 1 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In the manufacture and use of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) the technology is divided into two major groups; Passive Tags that gather their power from close coupling to a reader thus enabling them to transmit or reflect information back to the reader. The second group is Active Tags which have their own power storage capability like a battery, capacitor or other devices. The tag is queried with a RF signal generated by the reader requesting the tag to transmit the data, which is received by the reader. This Active tag has a limited life due to the storage device's limited shelf life. The magnetostrictive/piezo device of the present invention provides power to operate an attached electrical device or to charge an electrical storage device that could be used by a multitude of sensors, receivers, transmitter or other electrical or electronic device. The new type of RFID using this power generating technology is hereinafter referred to as Network Powered Tag or NPRFID.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a power generating device which is controlled from a natural or man-made pulsed or constant remotely operated magnetic or electromagnetic field, to a battery charged thereby and to a method for forming said battery. Magnetically affecting the magnetostrictive or similar material, causes a stretching, bending or displacement of a power producing crystal or material such as piezo which produces power each time a pulse of magnetism is sensed. The new power generating device produces power from a PME (Passive Magnetostrictive Electro-Active) device or similar devices. A passive magnetic field sensor made of layers of Terfenol-D {Fe2(Dy0.7Tb0.3)} magnetostrictive material and ceramic PZT-5 will act as a generator to power electrical and electronic devices when in range of the querying transceiver magnetic field of (0.3 Oersted or larger). The magnetostrictive material or other material stretches, flexes or is physically distorted when in the presence of a magnetic field or pulsed magnetic field displaces the piezo type device attached thereto thereby, generating power for any electric or electronic device.
Under a preferred embodiment, when the power is generated, it will be stored in a bank of ferroelectric capacitors, capacitors or a rechargeable battery type device. The battery could be a rolled-up sheet of up to a few thousand of ferroelectric capacitors, all hooked together in parallel. Building ferroelectric capacitors larger than a certain size has not heretofore been successful. Therefore, in order to create a large ferroelectric capacitor, large numbers of smaller capacitors are built and wired in parallel to equal one large capacitor. The process is similar to the manufacture of integrated circuits where layers of material are deposited on top of other material and then etch away that material that is not needed. By doing this, it is possible to make large capacitors on a sheet of polyester such as Mylar® or polyimide such as Kapton® which is then rolled up to make a package that can fit easily into a cylinder as used in normal battery packaging.
The PME power generator/battery will generate power with each pulse of a magnetic or electromagnetic field. Pulsing of the magnetic source will allow the device to charge up a battery or capacitor to a usable level of voltage or current. In order to obtain optimum power, the magnetic field should be generated at a frequency that matches the natural frequency of the magnetostrictive/piezo composite. Power close to optimum power can be obtained if the magnetic field is generated at a frequency in the range of 90% to 110% of the natural resonant frequency of such composite. Additionally, the new magnetostrictive/piezo device providing power to a battery, capacitor or other storage device could be used in conjunction with a voltage regulator to provide a specific electrical voltage. The device could also function without the use of a regulator in some applications. This power generated would be encased in a typical or non-typical battery enclosure that could be used by all devices that utilize AAA, AA, C, D or other common battery forms. This new power generating battery would be called a NPB (Network Powered Battery). The battery could be powered by single or multiple magnetic generating devices. Additionally, a single magnetic generating device could power multiple NPBs. This new device could be configured to supply power to any number of battery powered devices and could also power and query a RFID tag at long distances.
The magnetic pulsed field could also be coded to provide instructions to the receiving device to turn-on, turn-off, or other specific task or operation such as store new data in memory, erase memory or go to sleep.
One preferred embodiment of the present invention can increase the capability over current battery technology by maintaining an ongoing charge to power the utilizing equipment, thereby providing a potentially infinite shelf life. This will have significant advantages in reliability of the utilizing equipment. The present invention could also provide a power source for medical, biomedical, night vision, GPS, radios, sensors, actuators and intelligence gathering technologies. The ability to transmit data to the battery can provide additional benefits such as power conservation, mode changes, data refresh and others.
Magnetostrictive Materials were discovered in the 1840s by James Prescott Joule, when he noticed that iron changed length in response to changes in magnetism and named the phenomenon the Joule Effect.
How It Works:
Magnetostrictive materials expand when exposed to a magnetic field, exhibiting the Joule Effect or Magnetostriction. This occurs because magnetic domains in the material align with the magnetic field. Similarly, when the material is strained (stretched or compressed), its magnetic energy changes. This phenomenon is called magnetomechanical effect or Villari Effect.
Some examples of magnetostrictive materials:
cobaltironnickelferriteterbium Alloys (Terfenol-D)MetglassGalfenol (Gallium and Iron)
Since magnetostriction involves a bidirectional energy exchange between magnetic and elastic states, magnetostrictive materials when put together with a piezo material, provide a mechanism to produce an AC voltage from an alternating electromagnetic field.
Is this patent green technology? Respond with 'yes' or 'no'. |
7771568 | FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a wind and solar powered desalination system and more particularly to a self-sustaining wind and solar powered desalination system for producing electricity, drinking water and water for irrigation. The invention also relates to an environmentally friendly self-sustaining wind/solar desalination farm and park for providing electricity, drinking water, water for irrigation and the recreational needs for a small community located near a body of saline water.
BACKGROUND FOR THE INVENTION
The use of wind energy for generating electricity and solar energy for desalination and combinations thereof are well known. For example a U.S. Pat. No. 4,504,362 of Kruse discloses a solar desalination system and method. As disclosed therein, a system produces fresh water from seawater by focusing solar ray energy from a collecting reflector onto an evaporated tube located at substantially the focal apex of the reflector. The reflector/evaporator tube assembly is mounted on a horizontal open grid platform which may support a plurality of parallel reflectors/evaporator tube assemblies. The reflectors may serve as pontoons to support the desalination system unit on a body of seawater. The solar heat generated vapor is condensed in condenser tubes immersed in the seawater. Intermittently seawater concentrate is withdrawn from the evaporator tubes. Velocity of a vapor passing from the evaporator tubes to the condensers may be utilized for generating power.
A more recent patent of Perry Jr. et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,883,823 discloses a self-contained renewable energy system. As disclosed therein, an integrated power system is located adjacent a body of saline water. The power system includes a solar powered and a wind driven engine. Desalination and electrolysis of the water is provided. The system produces carbon dioxide and hydrogen which are used to generate methanol. The methanol can be used as a fuel to drive a combustion engine.
In addition to the above, a U.S. Patent Application Publication No. U.S. 2005/0067271A1 of Ciudaj discloses a processing structure for super accelerating nature, producing a continuous supply of fresh water from salt water by using solar, wind and wave energy. The Ciudaj Publication discloses a continuous supply of fresh water achieved through desalination by a system of Venturi shafts to increase the velocity and pressure of air flow allowing for increased condensation and processing of evaporated water to a structure that incorporates a “black” evaporation surface, concave Venturi wind walls, a vertical Vernturi wind shaft, condensation chambers connected by horizontally stacked hollow cylinders, heat transfer duct that draws cool air from a water body, vents hot air through an air exhaust port and a water drainage port that flows water to a reservoir.
Notwithstanding the above, it is presently believed that there is a need and a commercial market for an improved solar desalination system in accordance with the present invention. There should be a market for such systems that use a combination of wind, solar energy and water vapor power to provide increased efficiencies and effectiveness in an environmentally friendly manner. Such systems can also provide fresh water in areas where there is a shortage of potable water and do so without using petroleum products which can reduce the consumption of such products and a dependence on costly oil. Therefore, it is believed that the cost for such potable water may be reduced.
As contemplated by the present invention, a plurality of wind and solar powered desalination units are combined in a park like setting to provide an environmentally friendly self-sustaining wind-solar-desalination farm and park system for providing electricity, drinking water and irrigation water for a small community near a body of saline water.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In essence the present invention contemplates an improved solar desalination system that includes a chamber having a transparent inclined cover and a transparent bottom for receiving a mass of saline water. The system also includes means including a channel for conveying a mass of relatively cold seawater to the chamber and a receptacle for receiving distilled water disposed at a base or bottom of the inclined cover. The receptacle is adapted to receive condensed water that flows down the inside of the inclined cover. A heat exchanger such as a tubular conduit is disposed in the channel below the level of the relatively cold seawater. Means for heating seawater in the chamber includes positioning the chamber to receive solar energy through the inclined transparent cover and means for reflecting solar energy through the transparent bottom of the chamber to evaporate water in the chamber. The heating of the water in the chamber vaporizes water which is then condensed on the inner surface of the inclined cover. The condensed water runs down the inclined surface and into the receptacle for pure water. The system also includes means for directing a portion of the water vapor into the heat exchanger which condenses the vapor and adds the condensed water to that in or from the receptacle.
A preferred embodiment of the invention contemplates a wind-solar-desalination system for producing electricity and potable water. The system includes a plurality of basic units that each includes a wind turbine and an array of solar panels for generating electricity. The system also includes a plurality of solar wind powered fan cooled desalination subsystems. Such subsystems include a heat exchanger, a distillation portion with an inclined cover and means for heating a mass of seawater to produce water vapor. The system also includes means for dividing the water vapor so that a portion is condensed on the inner surface of the inclined cover and a second portion is diverted into the heat exchanger. The inclined cover is cooled preferably by a solar and/or wind powered fan so that a portion of the water vapor is condensed on the inclined cover and flows down the inclined cover and into a receptacle for distilled water. The vaporized water diverted into the heat exchanger is condensed therein to provide additional distillate.
The invention will now be described in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein like reference numerals have been used to identify like parts.
| 1 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a wind and solar powered desalination system and more particularly to a self-sustaining wind and solar powered desalination system for producing electricity, drinking water and water for irrigation. The invention also relates to an environmentally friendly self-sustaining wind/solar desalination farm and park for providing electricity, drinking water, water for irrigation and the recreational needs for a small community located near a body of saline water.
BACKGROUND FOR THE INVENTION
The use of wind energy for generating electricity and solar energy for desalination and combinations thereof are well known. For example a U.S. Pat. No. 4,504,362 of Kruse discloses a solar desalination system and method. As disclosed therein, a system produces fresh water from seawater by focusing solar ray energy from a collecting reflector onto an evaporated tube located at substantially the focal apex of the reflector. The reflector/evaporator tube assembly is mounted on a horizontal open grid platform which may support a plurality of parallel reflectors/evaporator tube assemblies. The reflectors may serve as pontoons to support the desalination system unit on a body of seawater. The solar heat generated vapor is condensed in condenser tubes immersed in the seawater. Intermittently seawater concentrate is withdrawn from the evaporator tubes. Velocity of a vapor passing from the evaporator tubes to the condensers may be utilized for generating power.
A more recent patent of Perry Jr. et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,883,823 discloses a self-contained renewable energy system. As disclosed therein, an integrated power system is located adjacent a body of saline water. The power system includes a solar powered and a wind driven engine. Desalination and electrolysis of the water is provided. The system produces carbon dioxide and hydrogen which are used to generate methanol. The methanol can be used as a fuel to drive a combustion engine.
In addition to the above, a U.S. Patent Application Publication No. U.S. 2005/0067271A1 of Ciudaj discloses a processing structure for super accelerating nature, producing a continuous supply of fresh water from salt water by using solar, wind and wave energy. The Ciudaj Publication discloses a continuous supply of fresh water achieved through desalination by a system of Venturi shafts to increase the velocity and pressure of air flow allowing for increased condensation and processing of evaporated water to a structure that incorporates a “black” evaporation surface, concave Venturi wind walls, a vertical Vernturi wind shaft, condensation chambers connected by horizontally stacked hollow cylinders, heat transfer duct that draws cool air from a water body, vents hot air through an air exhaust port and a water drainage port that flows water to a reservoir.
Notwithstanding the above, it is presently believed that there is a need and a commercial market for an improved solar desalination system in accordance with the present invention. There should be a market for such systems that use a combination of wind, solar energy and water vapor power to provide increased efficiencies and effectiveness in an environmentally friendly manner. Such systems can also provide fresh water in areas where there is a shortage of potable water and do so without using petroleum products which can reduce the consumption of such products and a dependence on costly oil. Therefore, it is believed that the cost for such potable water may be reduced.
As contemplated by the present invention, a plurality of wind and solar powered desalination units are combined in a park like setting to provide an environmentally friendly self-sustaining wind-solar-desalination farm and park system for providing electricity, drinking water and irrigation water for a small community near a body of saline water.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In essence the present invention contemplates an improved solar desalination system that includes a chamber having a transparent inclined cover and a transparent bottom for receiving a mass of saline water. The system also includes means including a channel for conveying a mass of relatively cold seawater to the chamber and a receptacle for receiving distilled water disposed at a base or bottom of the inclined cover. The receptacle is adapted to receive condensed water that flows down the inside of the inclined cover. A heat exchanger such as a tubular conduit is disposed in the channel below the level of the relatively cold seawater. Means for heating seawater in the chamber includes positioning the chamber to receive solar energy through the inclined transparent cover and means for reflecting solar energy through the transparent bottom of the chamber to evaporate water in the chamber. The heating of the water in the chamber vaporizes water which is then condensed on the inner surface of the inclined cover. The condensed water runs down the inclined surface and into the receptacle for pure water. The system also includes means for directing a portion of the water vapor into the heat exchanger which condenses the vapor and adds the condensed water to that in or from the receptacle.
A preferred embodiment of the invention contemplates a wind-solar-desalination system for producing electricity and potable water. The system includes a plurality of basic units that each includes a wind turbine and an array of solar panels for generating electricity. The system also includes a plurality of solar wind powered fan cooled desalination subsystems. Such subsystems include a heat exchanger, a distillation portion with an inclined cover and means for heating a mass of seawater to produce water vapor. The system also includes means for dividing the water vapor so that a portion is condensed on the inner surface of the inclined cover and a second portion is diverted into the heat exchanger. The inclined cover is cooled preferably by a solar and/or wind powered fan so that a portion of the water vapor is condensed on the inclined cover and flows down the inclined cover and into a receptacle for distilled water. The vaporized water diverted into the heat exchanger is condensed therein to provide additional distillate.
The invention will now be described in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein like reference numerals have been used to identify like parts.
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7710493 | BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to an image-pickup apparatus, such as a video camera and a digital still camera, and more particularly to focus control in the image-pickup apparatus.
In the autofocus (“AF”) control in a video camera and the like, a TV-AF method is mainstream, which generates an AF evaluation value signal indicative of sharpness or a contrast state of an image signal generated by using an image-pickup element, and searches for a focus lens position that maximizes the AF evaluation value signal level.
One AF method is an external ranging method or external ranging (or distance-measuring) phase (difference) detection method that provides a ranging sensor independent of an image-pickup lens, operates an in-focus position of a focus lens from a distance to the object detected by the ranging sensor, and moves the focus lens to the in-focus position.
The external phase difference detection method divides a luminous flux from the object into two luminous fluxes, receives a pair of divided rays through a pair of light-receiving element arrays (line sensors), and detects a shift amount between the images formed on the pair of line sensors or a phase difference. Then, this method calculates an object distance based on the phase difference by using the triangulation, and moves a focus lens to an in-focus position corresponding to the object distance.
An internal phase detection method is also known, which divides into two the luminous flux that has passed an exit pupil of an image-pickup lens, and receives the two divided rays through a pair of line sensor. Then, this method detects a phase difference between the two images on the pair of line sensors, calculates a defocus amount of the image-pickup lens from the phase difference, and moves the focus lens by an amount corresponding to the defocus amount.
In order to utilize the high focusing precision of the TV-AF method and the focusing speed of the phase difference detection method, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-84426 proposes a hybrid AF method that combines these AF methods. The hybrid AF method proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-84426 obtains an in-focus state by using the phase difference detection method, when the TV-AF system does not provide the in-focus state due to low brightness or low contrast of the object.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 05-346536 proposes an image-pickup apparatus that utilizes the phase difference detection method to find a coincidence between image patterns, i.e., the similarity between the two images on the line sensors, and to thereby determine the reliability of the distance measurement result.
However, the conventional hybrid AF method initially provides TV-AF focus control, and then determines whether phase detection focus control is necessary, depending upon a condition of the TV-AF focus control. Therefore, an advantage of the phase difference detection system, i.e., responsive and fast focus control, is unavailable, when a photographer desires.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to an image-pickup apparatus and a focus control method which can provide focus control of the AF method fit for a user's (or photographer's) intension.
An image-pickup apparatus according to one aspect of the present invention includes a first detector configured to generate first information corresponding to a contrast state of a picked-up image, a second detector configured to detect second information that is used for focus control and different from the first information, a controller configured to provide the focus control, and a first operating member operable by a user, wherein the controller provides the focus control that uses the first information but does not use the second information when the first operating member is not operated, and provides the focus control that uses at least the second information when the operating member is operated.
A focus control method according to another aspect of the present invention includes the steps of obtaining first information relating to a contrast state of an picked-up image, obtaining second information that is used for focus control and different from the first information, detecting an operation of an first operating member operable by a user, and providing the focus control that uses the first information but does not use the second information when an operation of the first operating member is not detected, and providing the focus control that uses at least the second information when the operation of the first operating member is detected.
Other objects and further features of the present invention will become readily apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments with reference to accompanying drawings.
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to an image-pickup apparatus, such as a video camera and a digital still camera, and more particularly to focus control in the image-pickup apparatus.
In the autofocus (“AF”) control in a video camera and the like, a TV-AF method is mainstream, which generates an AF evaluation value signal indicative of sharpness or a contrast state of an image signal generated by using an image-pickup element, and searches for a focus lens position that maximizes the AF evaluation value signal level.
One AF method is an external ranging method or external ranging (or distance-measuring) phase (difference) detection method that provides a ranging sensor independent of an image-pickup lens, operates an in-focus position of a focus lens from a distance to the object detected by the ranging sensor, and moves the focus lens to the in-focus position.
The external phase difference detection method divides a luminous flux from the object into two luminous fluxes, receives a pair of divided rays through a pair of light-receiving element arrays (line sensors), and detects a shift amount between the images formed on the pair of line sensors or a phase difference. Then, this method calculates an object distance based on the phase difference by using the triangulation, and moves a focus lens to an in-focus position corresponding to the object distance.
An internal phase detection method is also known, which divides into two the luminous flux that has passed an exit pupil of an image-pickup lens, and receives the two divided rays through a pair of line sensor. Then, this method detects a phase difference between the two images on the pair of line sensors, calculates a defocus amount of the image-pickup lens from the phase difference, and moves the focus lens by an amount corresponding to the defocus amount.
In order to utilize the high focusing precision of the TV-AF method and the focusing speed of the phase difference detection method, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-84426 proposes a hybrid AF method that combines these AF methods. The hybrid AF method proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-84426 obtains an in-focus state by using the phase difference detection method, when the TV-AF system does not provide the in-focus state due to low brightness or low contrast of the object.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 05-346536 proposes an image-pickup apparatus that utilizes the phase difference detection method to find a coincidence between image patterns, i.e., the similarity between the two images on the line sensors, and to thereby determine the reliability of the distance measurement result.
However, the conventional hybrid AF method initially provides TV-AF focus control, and then determines whether phase detection focus control is necessary, depending upon a condition of the TV-AF focus control. Therefore, an advantage of the phase difference detection system, i.e., responsive and fast focus control, is unavailable, when a photographer desires.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to an image-pickup apparatus and a focus control method which can provide focus control of the AF method fit for a user's (or photographer's) intension.
An image-pickup apparatus according to one aspect of the present invention includes a first detector configured to generate first information corresponding to a contrast state of a picked-up image, a second detector configured to detect second information that is used for focus control and different from the first information, a controller configured to provide the focus control, and a first operating member operable by a user, wherein the controller provides the focus control that uses the first information but does not use the second information when the first operating member is not operated, and provides the focus control that uses at least the second information when the operating member is operated.
A focus control method according to another aspect of the present invention includes the steps of obtaining first information relating to a contrast state of an picked-up image, obtaining second information that is used for focus control and different from the first information, detecting an operation of an first operating member operable by a user, and providing the focus control that uses the first information but does not use the second information when an operation of the first operating member is not detected, and providing the focus control that uses at least the second information when the operation of the first operating member is detected.
Other objects and further features of the present invention will become readily apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments with reference to accompanying drawings.
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7783074 | BACKGROUND
This application is related to hiding information in content, such as images, video, audio, etc.
In recent years, digital watermarking has emerged as an increasingly active research area. Information may be hidden in images, videos, and audios in a manner imperceptible to human beings. It provides vast opportunities for covert communications. Consequently, methods to detect covert communication are desired. This task is desired, for example, for law enforcement to deter the distribution of child pornography and for intelligence agencies to intercept communications between terrorists. Steganalysis, in this context, refers to detecting whether given set of content, such as an image, has data hidden in the content. On the other hand, steganalysis can serve as an effective way to judge the security performance of steganographic techniques. In other words, a steganographic method should be imperceptible not only to human vision systems, but also to computer analysis.
Images are a common form of content in which data may be hidden. The diverse nature of natural images and the variation of data embedding approaches make steganalysis difficult. However, a cover medium and an associated stego-version, referring here to the cover medium with data hidden therein, generally differ in some respect since the cover medium is generally modified by data embedding Some data hiding methods may introduce a certain pattern in stego-images. For example, in J. Fridrich, M. Goljan and D. Hogea, “Steganalysis of JPEG Images: Breaking the F5 Algorithm”, 5th Information Hiding Workshop, 2002, pp. 310-323, (hereinafter, Fridrich et al.), Fridrich et al. have discovered that the number of zeros in the block DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform) domain of a stego-image can decrease if the F5 embedding method is applied to the stego-image. This feature may therefore be used to determine whether hidden messages are embedded using F5 embedding. There are other findings involving steganalysis which are directed to particular data hiding methods. See, for example, J. Fridrich, M. Goljan and R. Du, “Detecting LSB Steganography in Color and Gray-Scale Images”, Magazine of IEEE Multimedia Special Issue on Security, October-November 2001, pp. 22-28; R. Chandramouli and N. Memon, “Analysis of LSB Based Image Steganography Techniques”, Proc. of ICIP 2001, Thessaloniki, Greece, Oct. 7-10, 2001. However, the particular data embedding method is often not known before conducting steganalysis. A method designed to blindly (without knowing which data hiding method was employed) detect stego-images is referred to as a general steganalysis method. From this point of view, general steganalysis methods have value for deterring covert communications.
In H. Farid, “Detecting hidden messages using higher-order statistical models,” Proceedings of the IEEE Int'l. Conf. on Image Processing 02, vol. 2, pp. 905-908, (hereinafter, Farid), Farid proposed a general steganalysis method based on image high order-statistics. The statistics are based on decomposition of an image with separable quadrature mirror filters, or wavelet filters. The sub-bands' high order statistics are obtained as features for steganalysis. This method was shown to differentiate stego-images from cover media with a certain success rate. In J. Harmsen, W. Pearlman, “Steganalysis of Additive Noise Modelable Information Hiding”, SPIE Electronic Imaging, Santa Clara, January 2003, pp. 20-24, (hereinafter, Harmsen), a steganalysis method based on the mass center (the first order moment) of a histogram characteristic function is proposed. The second, third, and fourth order moments are also considered for steganalysis.
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: BACKGROUND
This application is related to hiding information in content, such as images, video, audio, etc.
In recent years, digital watermarking has emerged as an increasingly active research area. Information may be hidden in images, videos, and audios in a manner imperceptible to human beings. It provides vast opportunities for covert communications. Consequently, methods to detect covert communication are desired. This task is desired, for example, for law enforcement to deter the distribution of child pornography and for intelligence agencies to intercept communications between terrorists. Steganalysis, in this context, refers to detecting whether given set of content, such as an image, has data hidden in the content. On the other hand, steganalysis can serve as an effective way to judge the security performance of steganographic techniques. In other words, a steganographic method should be imperceptible not only to human vision systems, but also to computer analysis.
Images are a common form of content in which data may be hidden. The diverse nature of natural images and the variation of data embedding approaches make steganalysis difficult. However, a cover medium and an associated stego-version, referring here to the cover medium with data hidden therein, generally differ in some respect since the cover medium is generally modified by data embedding Some data hiding methods may introduce a certain pattern in stego-images. For example, in J. Fridrich, M. Goljan and D. Hogea, “Steganalysis of JPEG Images: Breaking the F5 Algorithm”, 5th Information Hiding Workshop, 2002, pp. 310-323, (hereinafter, Fridrich et al.), Fridrich et al. have discovered that the number of zeros in the block DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform) domain of a stego-image can decrease if the F5 embedding method is applied to the stego-image. This feature may therefore be used to determine whether hidden messages are embedded using F5 embedding. There are other findings involving steganalysis which are directed to particular data hiding methods. See, for example, J. Fridrich, M. Goljan and R. Du, “Detecting LSB Steganography in Color and Gray-Scale Images”, Magazine of IEEE Multimedia Special Issue on Security, October-November 2001, pp. 22-28; R. Chandramouli and N. Memon, “Analysis of LSB Based Image Steganography Techniques”, Proc. of ICIP 2001, Thessaloniki, Greece, Oct. 7-10, 2001. However, the particular data embedding method is often not known before conducting steganalysis. A method designed to blindly (without knowing which data hiding method was employed) detect stego-images is referred to as a general steganalysis method. From this point of view, general steganalysis methods have value for deterring covert communications.
In H. Farid, “Detecting hidden messages using higher-order statistical models,” Proceedings of the IEEE Int'l. Conf. on Image Processing 02, vol. 2, pp. 905-908, (hereinafter, Farid), Farid proposed a general steganalysis method based on image high order-statistics. The statistics are based on decomposition of an image with separable quadrature mirror filters, or wavelet filters. The sub-bands' high order statistics are obtained as features for steganalysis. This method was shown to differentiate stego-images from cover media with a certain success rate. In J. Harmsen, W. Pearlman, “Steganalysis of Additive Noise Modelable Information Hiding”, SPIE Electronic Imaging, Santa Clara, January 2003, pp. 20-24, (hereinafter, Harmsen), a steganalysis method based on the mass center (the first order moment) of a histogram characteristic function is proposed. The second, third, and fourth order moments are also considered for steganalysis.
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7646572 | BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to aircraft systems and, more particularly, to aircraft systems including arc fault protection. The invention also pertains to a method of arc fault protection for an aircraft system.
2. Background Information
It is known to employ thermal fuses between an avionics power source and the seat electronics boxes of an aircraft entertainment system, with one thermal fuse per corresponding seat electronics box. While this thermal fuse arrangement can deal with overcurrent conditions, it cannot respond to arc faults (e.g., line-to-line; line-to-frame).
During sporadic arc fault conditions, the overload capability of a circuit breaker will not function since the root-mean-squared (RMS) value of the fault current is too small to actuate the automatic trip circuit. The addition of electronic arc fault sensing to a circuit breaker can add one of the elements required for sputtering arc fault protection—ideally, the output of an electronic arc fault sensing circuit directly trips and, thus, opens the circuit breaker. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,710,688; 6,542,056; 6,522,509; 6,522,228; 5,691,869; and 5,224,006.
Aircraft circuit breakers have employed various mechanisms to indicate arc fault events. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,542,056 discloses a movable and illuminable arc fault indicator having a ring portion and two leg portions internal to a housing. When energized by an arc fault current assembly in response to an arc fault trip condition, an arc fault actuator moves one of the leg portions internal to the housing, which, in turn, moves the ring portion external to the housing. The arc fault current assembly includes a light emitting diode (LED) for illuminating the ring portion through the other one of the leg portions when the arc fault current assembly is properly powered and in the absence of an arc fault trip condition.
Application Ser. No. 11/129,909 discloses an arc fault circuit breaker including a first LED for a first status (e.g., an arc fault trip status) and a second LED for a second status (e.g., a health status). The first LED illuminates a transparent operating handle. The second LED protrudes through the circuit breaker housing and through a device key-hole in a panel.
There is room for improvement in aircraft systems.
There is also room for improvement in methods of arc fault protection for an aircraft system.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
These needs and others are met by embodiments of the invention, which power a system for an aircraft employing a number of plural-pole arc fault circuit interrupters and a plurality of electronic enclosures. Each of the electronic enclosures is capable of being energized from a corresponding load terminal of a corresponding one of the poles of a corresponding one of the number of arc fault circuit interrupters. The line terminals of the poles of the number of arc fault circuit interrupters are powered from a single-phase power source. Each of the poles is associated with a number of the rows of the aircraft. Each of the electronic enclosures is associated with one of a plurality of zones. A plurality of rows of the aircraft are disposed in each of the zones. One of the number of arc fault circuit interrupters is associated with a corresponding one of the zones.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a system for an aircraft including a plurality of rows of seats comprises: a plurality of loads; a number of arc fault circuit interrupters, each of the number of arc fault circuit interrupters comprising a plurality of poles, each of the poles comprising a line terminal and a load terminal; a plurality of electronic enclosures, each of the electronic enclosures being capable of being energized from a corresponding one of the load terminals of a corresponding one of the poles of a corresponding one of the number of arc fault circuit interrupters; a panel holding the number of arc fault circuit interrupters; and a single-phase power source powering the line terminals of the poles of the number of arc fault circuit interrupters, wherein each of the poles corresponds to a number of the rows of the aircraft, wherein each of the electronic enclosures corresponds to one of a plurality of zones, wherein a plurality of the rows are disposed in each of the zones, and wherein one of the number of arc fault circuit interrupters is associated with a corresponding one of the zones.
Each of the electronic enclosures may receive a single-phase alternating current voltage from a corresponding one of the poles of a corresponding one of the arc fault circuit interrupters and output a direct current voltage to a corresponding plurality of the loads.
The aircraft may include an aft cargo bay, the single-phase power source may be an avionics power source, and the panel may be positioned in the aft cargo bay and the line terminals of the poles of the number of arc fault circuit interrupters are powered from the avionics power source. Each of the electronic enclosures may be energized through a conductor from a corresponding one of the load terminals of a corresponding one of the poles of a corresponding one of the number of arc fault circuit interrupters, and the panel may be proximate the avionics power source, in order to protect all of the conductors from the aft cargo bay to the electronic enclosures.
The number of arc fault circuit interrupters may be structured to protect all of the conductors from phase-to-phase arc faults and phase-to-frame arc faults within each of the zones.
The panel may include a ground and the avionics power source may include the same ground.
The arc fault circuit interrupters may be structured to permit a corresponding one of the electronic enclosures to be hot-swapped when a corresponding one of the electronic enclosures is energized from a corresponding one of the load terminals of a corresponding one of the poles of a corresponding one of the number of arc fault circuit interrupters.
The arc fault circuit interrupters may comprise an arc fault detection circuit structured to permit the corresponding one of the electronic enclosures to be hot-swapped.
Each of the arc fault circuit interrupters may comprise a frame terminal and an indicator for each of the poles thereof. The indicator may be structured to indicate when the corresponding one of the arc fault circuit interrupters is properly installed and properly powered from the line terminals and the frame terminal thereof.
Each of the arc fault circuit interrupters may comprise three poles and three indicators for the poles thereof. The three indicators may provide functionality verification for three of the rows of a corresponding one of the zones.
As another aspect of the invention, a method of powering a system for an aircraft including a plurality of rows of seats comprises: employing a plurality of loads; employing a number of arc fault circuit interrupters, each of the number of arc fault circuit interrupters comprising a plurality of poles, each of the poles comprising a line terminal and a load terminal; employing a plurality of electronic enclosures, each of the electronic enclosures being capable of being energized from a corresponding one of the load terminals of a corresponding one of the poles of a corresponding one of the number of arc fault circuit interrupters; powering the line terminals of the poles of the number of arc fault circuit interrupters from a single-phase power source; associating each of the poles with a number of the rows of the aircraft; associating each of the electronic enclosures with one of a plurality of zones; disposing a plurality of the rows in each of the zones, and associating one of the number of arc fault circuit interrupters with a corresponding one of the zones.
The method may energize one of the electronic enclosures from a corresponding one of the load terminals of a corresponding one of the poles of a corresponding one of the number of arc fault circuit interrupters; and may permit the one of the electronic enclosures to be hot-swapped without tripping the corresponding one of the number of arc fault circuit interrupters.
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to aircraft systems and, more particularly, to aircraft systems including arc fault protection. The invention also pertains to a method of arc fault protection for an aircraft system.
2. Background Information
It is known to employ thermal fuses between an avionics power source and the seat electronics boxes of an aircraft entertainment system, with one thermal fuse per corresponding seat electronics box. While this thermal fuse arrangement can deal with overcurrent conditions, it cannot respond to arc faults (e.g., line-to-line; line-to-frame).
During sporadic arc fault conditions, the overload capability of a circuit breaker will not function since the root-mean-squared (RMS) value of the fault current is too small to actuate the automatic trip circuit. The addition of electronic arc fault sensing to a circuit breaker can add one of the elements required for sputtering arc fault protection—ideally, the output of an electronic arc fault sensing circuit directly trips and, thus, opens the circuit breaker. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,710,688; 6,542,056; 6,522,509; 6,522,228; 5,691,869; and 5,224,006.
Aircraft circuit breakers have employed various mechanisms to indicate arc fault events. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,542,056 discloses a movable and illuminable arc fault indicator having a ring portion and two leg portions internal to a housing. When energized by an arc fault current assembly in response to an arc fault trip condition, an arc fault actuator moves one of the leg portions internal to the housing, which, in turn, moves the ring portion external to the housing. The arc fault current assembly includes a light emitting diode (LED) for illuminating the ring portion through the other one of the leg portions when the arc fault current assembly is properly powered and in the absence of an arc fault trip condition.
Application Ser. No. 11/129,909 discloses an arc fault circuit breaker including a first LED for a first status (e.g., an arc fault trip status) and a second LED for a second status (e.g., a health status). The first LED illuminates a transparent operating handle. The second LED protrudes through the circuit breaker housing and through a device key-hole in a panel.
There is room for improvement in aircraft systems.
There is also room for improvement in methods of arc fault protection for an aircraft system.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
These needs and others are met by embodiments of the invention, which power a system for an aircraft employing a number of plural-pole arc fault circuit interrupters and a plurality of electronic enclosures. Each of the electronic enclosures is capable of being energized from a corresponding load terminal of a corresponding one of the poles of a corresponding one of the number of arc fault circuit interrupters. The line terminals of the poles of the number of arc fault circuit interrupters are powered from a single-phase power source. Each of the poles is associated with a number of the rows of the aircraft. Each of the electronic enclosures is associated with one of a plurality of zones. A plurality of rows of the aircraft are disposed in each of the zones. One of the number of arc fault circuit interrupters is associated with a corresponding one of the zones.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a system for an aircraft including a plurality of rows of seats comprises: a plurality of loads; a number of arc fault circuit interrupters, each of the number of arc fault circuit interrupters comprising a plurality of poles, each of the poles comprising a line terminal and a load terminal; a plurality of electronic enclosures, each of the electronic enclosures being capable of being energized from a corresponding one of the load terminals of a corresponding one of the poles of a corresponding one of the number of arc fault circuit interrupters; a panel holding the number of arc fault circuit interrupters; and a single-phase power source powering the line terminals of the poles of the number of arc fault circuit interrupters, wherein each of the poles corresponds to a number of the rows of the aircraft, wherein each of the electronic enclosures corresponds to one of a plurality of zones, wherein a plurality of the rows are disposed in each of the zones, and wherein one of the number of arc fault circuit interrupters is associated with a corresponding one of the zones.
Each of the electronic enclosures may receive a single-phase alternating current voltage from a corresponding one of the poles of a corresponding one of the arc fault circuit interrupters and output a direct current voltage to a corresponding plurality of the loads.
The aircraft may include an aft cargo bay, the single-phase power source may be an avionics power source, and the panel may be positioned in the aft cargo bay and the line terminals of the poles of the number of arc fault circuit interrupters are powered from the avionics power source. Each of the electronic enclosures may be energized through a conductor from a corresponding one of the load terminals of a corresponding one of the poles of a corresponding one of the number of arc fault circuit interrupters, and the panel may be proximate the avionics power source, in order to protect all of the conductors from the aft cargo bay to the electronic enclosures.
The number of arc fault circuit interrupters may be structured to protect all of the conductors from phase-to-phase arc faults and phase-to-frame arc faults within each of the zones.
The panel may include a ground and the avionics power source may include the same ground.
The arc fault circuit interrupters may be structured to permit a corresponding one of the electronic enclosures to be hot-swapped when a corresponding one of the electronic enclosures is energized from a corresponding one of the load terminals of a corresponding one of the poles of a corresponding one of the number of arc fault circuit interrupters.
The arc fault circuit interrupters may comprise an arc fault detection circuit structured to permit the corresponding one of the electronic enclosures to be hot-swapped.
Each of the arc fault circuit interrupters may comprise a frame terminal and an indicator for each of the poles thereof. The indicator may be structured to indicate when the corresponding one of the arc fault circuit interrupters is properly installed and properly powered from the line terminals and the frame terminal thereof.
Each of the arc fault circuit interrupters may comprise three poles and three indicators for the poles thereof. The three indicators may provide functionality verification for three of the rows of a corresponding one of the zones.
As another aspect of the invention, a method of powering a system for an aircraft including a plurality of rows of seats comprises: employing a plurality of loads; employing a number of arc fault circuit interrupters, each of the number of arc fault circuit interrupters comprising a plurality of poles, each of the poles comprising a line terminal and a load terminal; employing a plurality of electronic enclosures, each of the electronic enclosures being capable of being energized from a corresponding one of the load terminals of a corresponding one of the poles of a corresponding one of the number of arc fault circuit interrupters; powering the line terminals of the poles of the number of arc fault circuit interrupters from a single-phase power source; associating each of the poles with a number of the rows of the aircraft; associating each of the electronic enclosures with one of a plurality of zones; disposing a plurality of the rows in each of the zones, and associating one of the number of arc fault circuit interrupters with a corresponding one of the zones.
The method may energize one of the electronic enclosures from a corresponding one of the load terminals of a corresponding one of the poles of a corresponding one of the number of arc fault circuit interrupters; and may permit the one of the electronic enclosures to be hot-swapped without tripping the corresponding one of the number of arc fault circuit interrupters.
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7740749 | FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an electrolytic cell producing oxidants that operates in batch mode and utilizes gas pressure generated within the cell to transfer the contents from the electrolytic cell.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Electrolytic technology utilizing dimensionally stable anodes (DSA) has been used for years for the production of chlorine and other mixed-oxidant solutions. Dimensionally stable anodes are described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,234,110 to Beer, entitled “Electrode and Method of Making Same,” whereby a noble metal coating is applied over a titanium substrate.
An example of an electrolytic cell with membranes is described in U.S. Pat. No. RE 32,077 to deNora, et al., entitled “Electrode Cell with Membrane and Method for Making Same,” whereby a circular dimensionally stable anode is utilized with a membrane wrapped around the anode, and a cathode concentrically located around the anode/membrane assembly.
An electrolytic cell with dimensionally stable anodes without membranes is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,761,208 to Gram, et al., entitled “Electrolytic Method and Cell for Sterilizing Water.”
Commercial electrolytic cells have been used routinely for oxidant production that utilizes a flow-through configuration that may or may not be under pressure that is adequate to create flow through the electrolytic device. Examples of cells of this configuration are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,309,523 to Prasnikar, et al., entitled “Electrode and Electrolytic Cell Containing Same,” and U.S. Pat. No. 5,385,711 to Baker, et al., entitled “Electrolytic Cell for Generating Sterilization Solutions Having Increased Ozone Content,” and many other membrane-type cells.
In other configurations, the oxidant is produced in an open-type cell or drawn into the cell with a syringe or pump-type device, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,524,475 to Herrington, et al., entitled “Portable Water Disinfection System.”
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/907,092 to Herrington, et al., entitled “Portable Water Disinfection System,” the specification of which is incorporated herein by reference, describes disinfection devices that utilize, in one instance, a cell chamber whereby hydrogen gas is generated during electrolysis of an electrolyte, and provides the driving force to expel oxidant from the cell chamber through restrictive check valve type devices. In this configuration, unconverted electrolyte is also expelled from the body of the cell as hydrogen gas is generated. In an alternate configuration in the same application, hydrogen gas pressure is contained in a cell chamber during electrolysis, but the pressure within the cell chamber is limited by the action of a spring loaded piston that continues to increase the volume of the cell chamber as gas volume increases. Ultimately, a valve mechanism opens, and the spring-loaded piston fills the complete volume of the cell chamber forcing the oxidant out of the cell chamber.
In the current embodiment of the present invention, the cell chamber incorporates an inactive gas chamber at the top of the cell that allows the accumulation of gas (e.g. hydrogen gas). The gas pressure is generated, and this pressure is ultimately utilized as the sole driving force to expel the oxidant from the bottom of the cell through a valve mechanism. Utilizing this mechanism, complete electrolytic conversion of the electrolyte in the cell chamber is achieved allowing optimal operational efficiency.
Other inventions that utilize gas pressure generated from electrolysis are also described in the literature. U.S. Pat. No. 4,138,210, to Avedissian, entitled “Controlling the Pressure of a Gas Generator,” describes a gas torch that utilizes an electrolytic mechanism for generating and controlling pressure of hydrogen gas that is used as the feed gas for the torch. U.S. Pat. No. 5,221,451 to Seneff, et al., entitled “Automatic Chlorinating Apparatus,” describes a chlorine gas generating cell that operates at the same pressure as the treated water flow stream. Water under pressure flows through the closed cell and replenishes the electrolyte level in the cell. Partitions within the electrolytic cell maintain separation of the chlorine gas that is aspirated in the water stream. Chlorine and hydrogen gas generated within the cell maintain a pressure balance between the chlorine gas phase and the pressure of the liquid water flowing through the cell so that unconverted electrolyte is not drawn into the flowing water stream. U.S. Pat. No. 5,354,264 to Bae, et al., entitled “Gas Pressure Driven Infusion System by Hydrogel Electrolysis,” describes a system that generates and controls the production of oxygen and hydrogen gas in an electrolytic hydrogel process for the purpose of closely regulating the amount of liquid drugs that are delivered under gas pressure to the human body.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The preferred embodiment of the present invention is an apparatus to produce a disinfecting solution to treat a fluid. The apparatus comprises at least one cell. The cell comprises at least two electrodes wherein at least one electrode comprises at least one cathode and at least one electrode comprises at least one anode. The apparatus comprises a control circuit for providing an electrical potential between at least one cathode and at least one anode, wherein the control circuit is in electrical contact with at least one cathode and at least one anode.
During generation of oxidants, electrolyte is located within the cell housing between the anode and cathode, and a controlled electrical charge passes through the electrolytic solution from at least one cathode and at least one anode, thereby generating at least one oxidant in the electrolyte. An energy source in electrical contact with the control circuit delivers a controlled electrical charge having a predetermined charge value.
A headspace in the electrolytic cell accumulates generated gas under pressure for the purpose of utilizing the generated gas pressure to expel the contents of the cell on completion of electrolysis.
Prior to electrolysis, electrolyte is introduced into the cell via an inlet port. The inlet port comprises an inlet port mechanism such as a valve to seal the inlet port after the electrolyte has entered the cell. The cell further comprises an outlet port and outlet port mechanism such as a valve to seal the outlet port during electrolysis. After electrolysis, the outlet port mechanism opens and allows discharge of electrolyzed oxidant through the outlet port.
In the preferred embodiment, the apparatus comprises a positive displacement pump for transfer of the electrolyte to an interior of the cell. In an alternative embodiment, the inlet port mechanism comprises a control valve to allow transfer of electrolyte to the interior of the cell. In another embodiment of the present invention, the inlet port mechanism comprises a dual control valve to allow transfer of electrolyte to the interior of the cell while simultaneously allowing gas to vent out of the cell. Prior to electrolysis during the fill operation, gas venting, depending on system design, may be required in order to allow electrolyte to flow to the interior of the cell without restriction from gas pressure buildup in the confined space within the cell.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the inlet port mechanism comprises a check valve to allow transfer of electrolyte to the interior of the cell. During electrolysis the check valve restricts flow of gas and fluids out of the cell.
The apparatus of the present invention comprises an electrolyte storage container. The electrolyte storage container may be a permanent part of the apparatus, or it may be a replaceable electrolyte storage container. To allow free flow of electrolyte solution from the electrolyte storage container, the container comprises a vent valve to release negative pressure from within the electrolyte storage container to allow free flow of electrolyte from the container. In the preferred embodiment, the electrolyte storage container comprises a quick disconnect valve on the container discharge port to allow removal of the container from the system without loss of electrolyte from the container. In an alternative embodiment, the electrolyte storage container is collapsible.
In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, the apparatus comprises a microprocessor circuit that identifies the electrolyte storage container with system. The remaining contents of the electrolyte storage container can be determined by virtue of the microprocessor by keeping track of the number of operations of the apparatus, and knowing the volume of electrolyte used during each operational cycle.
The apparatus further comprises a fluid storage container for storage of a fluid to be treated by the oxidant solution. In the preferred embodiment, the fluid storage container comprises an oxidant measuring device. In the preferred embodiment, the oxidant measuring device is a chlorine measuring device. In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, the chlorine measuring device is a solid-state semiconductor commonly referred to as a “sensor-on-a-chip”. In a further embodiment of the present invention, the oxidant measuring device comprises an oxidation reduction potential (ORP) measuring device. To ensure accuracy of the ORP measuring device, the oxidant sensor may also comprise a device for measuring temperature and pH and adjusting the ORP value for variations in temperature and pH.
In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, the apparatus comprises an oxidant storage container in lieu of a fluid storage container. Alternately, the apparatus comprises a port for injection of oxidants directly into a selected source to be treated. The source to be treated my be a closed fluid body such as a water tank, open fluid body such as a swimming pool, a pipe with fluid flowing therein, a sump such as in a cooling tower, a basin, trough, and/or a plenum for spraying oxidant into a gas stream such as an air duct or other gas stream for oxidizing constituents in the gas stream.
The apparatus of the present invention further preferably comprises a microprocessor control system. The control system measures and controls power to the anode and cathode, controls activation of the inlet port feed mechanism, the outlet port mechanism, and the oxidant measuring device. Further, the apparatus comprises an electrolyte storage container microprocessor for identifying the electrolyte storage container with the system. The electrolyte storage container microprocessor maintains a record of a number of electrolytic cycles associated with the electrolyte storage container for the purpose of determining the remaining volume and remaining number of cycles available in the electrolyte storage container. By this means, the electrolyte storage container can be removed from the system and replaced by an alternate electrolyte storage container. Data recorded in the microprocessor allows the control system of the apparatus to keep track of the remaining electrolyte in each unique electrolyte storage container.
Broadly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a batch mode electrolytic cell that utilizes a gas chamber space above the electrodes within a confined cell. During electrolysis, gases, primarily hydrogen gas, are utilized to expel the generated oxidant from the electrolytic cell via a cell discharge valve to a fluid to be treated, or an oxidant storage container.
A primary advantage of the present invention is that a simple gas chamber space above the electrodes within an electrolytic cell is utilized to provide the driving force to expel oxidant from the electrolytic cell to a fluid to be treated. This configuration allows complete electrolysis of the electrolyte for efficient operation, and does not rely on a flow-through cell or separate pumping devices to transfer the oxidant to the fluid to be treated. Gas pressure generated in the electrolysis process is utilized to provide the force to transfer oxidant from the cell. This configuration allows for very low cost manufacturing for applications in consumer devices, or other low fluid volume systems.
Other objects, advantages and novel features, and further scope of applicability of the present invention will be set forth in part in the detailed description to follow, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
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SUMMARY: FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an electrolytic cell producing oxidants that operates in batch mode and utilizes gas pressure generated within the cell to transfer the contents from the electrolytic cell.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Electrolytic technology utilizing dimensionally stable anodes (DSA) has been used for years for the production of chlorine and other mixed-oxidant solutions. Dimensionally stable anodes are described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,234,110 to Beer, entitled “Electrode and Method of Making Same,” whereby a noble metal coating is applied over a titanium substrate.
An example of an electrolytic cell with membranes is described in U.S. Pat. No. RE 32,077 to deNora, et al., entitled “Electrode Cell with Membrane and Method for Making Same,” whereby a circular dimensionally stable anode is utilized with a membrane wrapped around the anode, and a cathode concentrically located around the anode/membrane assembly.
An electrolytic cell with dimensionally stable anodes without membranes is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,761,208 to Gram, et al., entitled “Electrolytic Method and Cell for Sterilizing Water.”
Commercial electrolytic cells have been used routinely for oxidant production that utilizes a flow-through configuration that may or may not be under pressure that is adequate to create flow through the electrolytic device. Examples of cells of this configuration are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,309,523 to Prasnikar, et al., entitled “Electrode and Electrolytic Cell Containing Same,” and U.S. Pat. No. 5,385,711 to Baker, et al., entitled “Electrolytic Cell for Generating Sterilization Solutions Having Increased Ozone Content,” and many other membrane-type cells.
In other configurations, the oxidant is produced in an open-type cell or drawn into the cell with a syringe or pump-type device, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,524,475 to Herrington, et al., entitled “Portable Water Disinfection System.”
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/907,092 to Herrington, et al., entitled “Portable Water Disinfection System,” the specification of which is incorporated herein by reference, describes disinfection devices that utilize, in one instance, a cell chamber whereby hydrogen gas is generated during electrolysis of an electrolyte, and provides the driving force to expel oxidant from the cell chamber through restrictive check valve type devices. In this configuration, unconverted electrolyte is also expelled from the body of the cell as hydrogen gas is generated. In an alternate configuration in the same application, hydrogen gas pressure is contained in a cell chamber during electrolysis, but the pressure within the cell chamber is limited by the action of a spring loaded piston that continues to increase the volume of the cell chamber as gas volume increases. Ultimately, a valve mechanism opens, and the spring-loaded piston fills the complete volume of the cell chamber forcing the oxidant out of the cell chamber.
In the current embodiment of the present invention, the cell chamber incorporates an inactive gas chamber at the top of the cell that allows the accumulation of gas (e.g. hydrogen gas). The gas pressure is generated, and this pressure is ultimately utilized as the sole driving force to expel the oxidant from the bottom of the cell through a valve mechanism. Utilizing this mechanism, complete electrolytic conversion of the electrolyte in the cell chamber is achieved allowing optimal operational efficiency.
Other inventions that utilize gas pressure generated from electrolysis are also described in the literature. U.S. Pat. No. 4,138,210, to Avedissian, entitled “Controlling the Pressure of a Gas Generator,” describes a gas torch that utilizes an electrolytic mechanism for generating and controlling pressure of hydrogen gas that is used as the feed gas for the torch. U.S. Pat. No. 5,221,451 to Seneff, et al., entitled “Automatic Chlorinating Apparatus,” describes a chlorine gas generating cell that operates at the same pressure as the treated water flow stream. Water under pressure flows through the closed cell and replenishes the electrolyte level in the cell. Partitions within the electrolytic cell maintain separation of the chlorine gas that is aspirated in the water stream. Chlorine and hydrogen gas generated within the cell maintain a pressure balance between the chlorine gas phase and the pressure of the liquid water flowing through the cell so that unconverted electrolyte is not drawn into the flowing water stream. U.S. Pat. No. 5,354,264 to Bae, et al., entitled “Gas Pressure Driven Infusion System by Hydrogel Electrolysis,” describes a system that generates and controls the production of oxygen and hydrogen gas in an electrolytic hydrogel process for the purpose of closely regulating the amount of liquid drugs that are delivered under gas pressure to the human body.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The preferred embodiment of the present invention is an apparatus to produce a disinfecting solution to treat a fluid. The apparatus comprises at least one cell. The cell comprises at least two electrodes wherein at least one electrode comprises at least one cathode and at least one electrode comprises at least one anode. The apparatus comprises a control circuit for providing an electrical potential between at least one cathode and at least one anode, wherein the control circuit is in electrical contact with at least one cathode and at least one anode.
During generation of oxidants, electrolyte is located within the cell housing between the anode and cathode, and a controlled electrical charge passes through the electrolytic solution from at least one cathode and at least one anode, thereby generating at least one oxidant in the electrolyte. An energy source in electrical contact with the control circuit delivers a controlled electrical charge having a predetermined charge value.
A headspace in the electrolytic cell accumulates generated gas under pressure for the purpose of utilizing the generated gas pressure to expel the contents of the cell on completion of electrolysis.
Prior to electrolysis, electrolyte is introduced into the cell via an inlet port. The inlet port comprises an inlet port mechanism such as a valve to seal the inlet port after the electrolyte has entered the cell. The cell further comprises an outlet port and outlet port mechanism such as a valve to seal the outlet port during electrolysis. After electrolysis, the outlet port mechanism opens and allows discharge of electrolyzed oxidant through the outlet port.
In the preferred embodiment, the apparatus comprises a positive displacement pump for transfer of the electrolyte to an interior of the cell. In an alternative embodiment, the inlet port mechanism comprises a control valve to allow transfer of electrolyte to the interior of the cell. In another embodiment of the present invention, the inlet port mechanism comprises a dual control valve to allow transfer of electrolyte to the interior of the cell while simultaneously allowing gas to vent out of the cell. Prior to electrolysis during the fill operation, gas venting, depending on system design, may be required in order to allow electrolyte to flow to the interior of the cell without restriction from gas pressure buildup in the confined space within the cell.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the inlet port mechanism comprises a check valve to allow transfer of electrolyte to the interior of the cell. During electrolysis the check valve restricts flow of gas and fluids out of the cell.
The apparatus of the present invention comprises an electrolyte storage container. The electrolyte storage container may be a permanent part of the apparatus, or it may be a replaceable electrolyte storage container. To allow free flow of electrolyte solution from the electrolyte storage container, the container comprises a vent valve to release negative pressure from within the electrolyte storage container to allow free flow of electrolyte from the container. In the preferred embodiment, the electrolyte storage container comprises a quick disconnect valve on the container discharge port to allow removal of the container from the system without loss of electrolyte from the container. In an alternative embodiment, the electrolyte storage container is collapsible.
In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, the apparatus comprises a microprocessor circuit that identifies the electrolyte storage container with system. The remaining contents of the electrolyte storage container can be determined by virtue of the microprocessor by keeping track of the number of operations of the apparatus, and knowing the volume of electrolyte used during each operational cycle.
The apparatus further comprises a fluid storage container for storage of a fluid to be treated by the oxidant solution. In the preferred embodiment, the fluid storage container comprises an oxidant measuring device. In the preferred embodiment, the oxidant measuring device is a chlorine measuring device. In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, the chlorine measuring device is a solid-state semiconductor commonly referred to as a “sensor-on-a-chip”. In a further embodiment of the present invention, the oxidant measuring device comprises an oxidation reduction potential (ORP) measuring device. To ensure accuracy of the ORP measuring device, the oxidant sensor may also comprise a device for measuring temperature and pH and adjusting the ORP value for variations in temperature and pH.
In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, the apparatus comprises an oxidant storage container in lieu of a fluid storage container. Alternately, the apparatus comprises a port for injection of oxidants directly into a selected source to be treated. The source to be treated my be a closed fluid body such as a water tank, open fluid body such as a swimming pool, a pipe with fluid flowing therein, a sump such as in a cooling tower, a basin, trough, and/or a plenum for spraying oxidant into a gas stream such as an air duct or other gas stream for oxidizing constituents in the gas stream.
The apparatus of the present invention further preferably comprises a microprocessor control system. The control system measures and controls power to the anode and cathode, controls activation of the inlet port feed mechanism, the outlet port mechanism, and the oxidant measuring device. Further, the apparatus comprises an electrolyte storage container microprocessor for identifying the electrolyte storage container with the system. The electrolyte storage container microprocessor maintains a record of a number of electrolytic cycles associated with the electrolyte storage container for the purpose of determining the remaining volume and remaining number of cycles available in the electrolyte storage container. By this means, the electrolyte storage container can be removed from the system and replaced by an alternate electrolyte storage container. Data recorded in the microprocessor allows the control system of the apparatus to keep track of the remaining electrolyte in each unique electrolyte storage container.
Broadly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a batch mode electrolytic cell that utilizes a gas chamber space above the electrodes within a confined cell. During electrolysis, gases, primarily hydrogen gas, are utilized to expel the generated oxidant from the electrolytic cell via a cell discharge valve to a fluid to be treated, or an oxidant storage container.
A primary advantage of the present invention is that a simple gas chamber space above the electrodes within an electrolytic cell is utilized to provide the driving force to expel oxidant from the electrolytic cell to a fluid to be treated. This configuration allows complete electrolysis of the electrolyte for efficient operation, and does not rely on a flow-through cell or separate pumping devices to transfer the oxidant to the fluid to be treated. Gas pressure generated in the electrolysis process is utilized to provide the force to transfer oxidant from the cell. This configuration allows for very low cost manufacturing for applications in consumer devices, or other low fluid volume systems.
Other objects, advantages and novel features, and further scope of applicability of the present invention will be set forth in part in the detailed description to follow, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
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7833395 | This application is a national stage filing under 35 U.S.C. §371 of International Application No. PCT/CH2005/000019, filed on Jan. 17, 2005.
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention generally relates to electrochemical sensors intended for measuring the concentration of a chemical substance in a liquid, for example. Such devices find a particularly advantageous, but not exclusive, application in the detection of chlorine levels in drinking water or the water in swimming pools.
The invention relates more particularly to an electrode system for an electrochemical cell and to its manufacturing process.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Electrochemical sensors of the above-noted type necessarily comprise a measurement electrode, a reference electrode and a counterelectrode. Another type of such sensors is also known, which further includes what is called a generator electrode and its counterelectrode. The addition of these two latter electrodes, the effect of which is to modify the concentration of species present in solution, allows the environment of the measurement electrode to be locally controlled.
For example, the pH of the solution may be locally modified by applying a current to the generator electrode. A cathode current will result in the production of OH−ions (the pH then becoming more basic) and, conversely, an anode current will result in the production of H+ions (the pH then becoming more acid). A counterelectrode associated with the generator electrode, a counterelectrode associated with the measurement electrode (or working electrode) and a reference electrode are necessary in order to produce a complete sensor.
The latter electrodes, the dimensions of which need not be microscopic, are well known in the field in question and may be mounted separately. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,597,463 describes a sensor of this second type, which is intended to perform a titration and with which the measurement made is of the potentiostatic type.
It will be readily understood that it is particularly advantageous to use, as measurement electrode, electrodes of very small dimensions, not only because this allows the space between the measurement electrode and the generator electrode to be reduced, but also because the effects of the turbulence of the liquid in the cell are thereby minimized. Such electrodes of small dimensions are referred to without distinction in the rest of the description as either “microelectrodes” or “microdisks,” the latter term being due to the fact that the microelectrodes are usually of circular shape.
Document WO 02/095387 describes a structure, shown inFIG. 1, using an electrically conducting substrate10, advantageously made of doped silicon, the lower face of said substrate being covered with a metallization layer11. Its upper face is covered with a passivation layer12formed from a multilayer comprising two sublayers, one of SiO2and the other of Si3N4, which multilayer is known to exhibit excellent stability in an aqueous medium.
The passivation layer12is pierced by a regular array of circular through-apertures housing a conducting microdisk13substantially thicker than the layer and extending slightly therebeyond so as to avoid any contact of the solution to be measured with the substrate.
The microdisks are formed from the desired electrode material(s), for example by a multilayer comprising titanium, platinum and gold layers. These layers together constitute the measurement electrode of the system.
Document WO 90/12314 proposes an arrangement of the same type, but in which the substrate is made of an inert material and the microelectrodes are constructed on the material by the deposition of successive layers. The contacts to these electrodes are produced through apertures made in the substrate.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved measurement electrode structure, not only from the standpoint of its durability and its effectiveness, but also that of its production cost.
More precisely, embodiments of the invention relate to an electrode system intended for an electrochemical cell, the cell being of the type which comprises a substrate and, associated with it and close together, on the one hand, a measurement electrode formed from a plurality of electrically conducting microdisks connected together and, on the other hand, a generator electrode formed from an electrically conducting plate pierced by circular apertures larger in diameter than the microdisks and placed so that each aperture is concentric with a microdisk. In one embodiment, the system is characterized in that:the substrate is made of an electrically conducting material and is pierced on its upper face, by a regular array of cavities of substantially cylindrical shape; andthe microdisks forming the measurement electrode are contained within these cavities.
Electrode systems consistent with embodiments of the invention may also have one or more of the following features:it may include an electrically insulating layer deposited on the substrate and pierced by a plurality of circular apertures that are centered on the cavities and have a smaller diameter than said cavities;the microdisks may comprise a thin metallization, which is deposited on the bottom of each cavity and has substantially the same or smaller diameter as the apertures of the insulating layer, and, optionally, a thick metallization at least partly filling the rest of the cavity;the thin metallization may comprise a multilayer formed from an adhesion layer and a diffusion barrier layer, which may be made of titanium and platinum respectively;the thick metallization may be formed from the desired electrode material, which may be gold;the thick metallization may either be flush with the upper face of the substrate or it may be covered with an active layer that is flush with the upper face of the substrate;the generator electrode may either be a thin layer of conducting diamond or a thick conducting layer which forms, around the microelectrodes, a funnel-shaped rounded wall defining a confinement volume protecting them from the hydrodynamic flow of the solution to be treated; and/orthe substrate may be made of silicon rendered conducting by doping.
Embodiments of the present invention also relate to a process for producing the measurement electrode of an electrode system as defined above. In accordance with one embodiment, the process comprises the following operations in succession:a conducting substrate is provided;the insulating layer is deposited on its upper face;a mask provided with an array of circular apertures is formed on the insulating layer, the arrangement and the diameter of which apertures correspond to the array of microdisks to be produced;the insulating layer is etched through the mask so as to obtain the circular apertures;the substrate is deeply etched through these apertures so as to obtain the cavities;the thin metallizations are deposited on the bottom of each cavity; andsaid thick metallizations are deposited on the thin metallizations.
Processes consistent with embodiments of the invention may also have one or more of the following features:the insulating layer and the substrate may be etched by plasma etching or by wet chemical etching;the thin metallizations may be deposited by vacuum evaporation; and/orthe thick metallizations may be deposited by galvanic growth or by catalytic precipitation.
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SUMMARY: This application is a national stage filing under 35 U.S.C. §371 of International Application No. PCT/CH2005/000019, filed on Jan. 17, 2005.
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention generally relates to electrochemical sensors intended for measuring the concentration of a chemical substance in a liquid, for example. Such devices find a particularly advantageous, but not exclusive, application in the detection of chlorine levels in drinking water or the water in swimming pools.
The invention relates more particularly to an electrode system for an electrochemical cell and to its manufacturing process.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Electrochemical sensors of the above-noted type necessarily comprise a measurement electrode, a reference electrode and a counterelectrode. Another type of such sensors is also known, which further includes what is called a generator electrode and its counterelectrode. The addition of these two latter electrodes, the effect of which is to modify the concentration of species present in solution, allows the environment of the measurement electrode to be locally controlled.
For example, the pH of the solution may be locally modified by applying a current to the generator electrode. A cathode current will result in the production of OH−ions (the pH then becoming more basic) and, conversely, an anode current will result in the production of H+ions (the pH then becoming more acid). A counterelectrode associated with the generator electrode, a counterelectrode associated with the measurement electrode (or working electrode) and a reference electrode are necessary in order to produce a complete sensor.
The latter electrodes, the dimensions of which need not be microscopic, are well known in the field in question and may be mounted separately. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,597,463 describes a sensor of this second type, which is intended to perform a titration and with which the measurement made is of the potentiostatic type.
It will be readily understood that it is particularly advantageous to use, as measurement electrode, electrodes of very small dimensions, not only because this allows the space between the measurement electrode and the generator electrode to be reduced, but also because the effects of the turbulence of the liquid in the cell are thereby minimized. Such electrodes of small dimensions are referred to without distinction in the rest of the description as either “microelectrodes” or “microdisks,” the latter term being due to the fact that the microelectrodes are usually of circular shape.
Document WO 02/095387 describes a structure, shown inFIG. 1, using an electrically conducting substrate10, advantageously made of doped silicon, the lower face of said substrate being covered with a metallization layer11. Its upper face is covered with a passivation layer12formed from a multilayer comprising two sublayers, one of SiO2and the other of Si3N4, which multilayer is known to exhibit excellent stability in an aqueous medium.
The passivation layer12is pierced by a regular array of circular through-apertures housing a conducting microdisk13substantially thicker than the layer and extending slightly therebeyond so as to avoid any contact of the solution to be measured with the substrate.
The microdisks are formed from the desired electrode material(s), for example by a multilayer comprising titanium, platinum and gold layers. These layers together constitute the measurement electrode of the system.
Document WO 90/12314 proposes an arrangement of the same type, but in which the substrate is made of an inert material and the microelectrodes are constructed on the material by the deposition of successive layers. The contacts to these electrodes are produced through apertures made in the substrate.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved measurement electrode structure, not only from the standpoint of its durability and its effectiveness, but also that of its production cost.
More precisely, embodiments of the invention relate to an electrode system intended for an electrochemical cell, the cell being of the type which comprises a substrate and, associated with it and close together, on the one hand, a measurement electrode formed from a plurality of electrically conducting microdisks connected together and, on the other hand, a generator electrode formed from an electrically conducting plate pierced by circular apertures larger in diameter than the microdisks and placed so that each aperture is concentric with a microdisk. In one embodiment, the system is characterized in that:the substrate is made of an electrically conducting material and is pierced on its upper face, by a regular array of cavities of substantially cylindrical shape; andthe microdisks forming the measurement electrode are contained within these cavities.
Electrode systems consistent with embodiments of the invention may also have one or more of the following features:it may include an electrically insulating layer deposited on the substrate and pierced by a plurality of circular apertures that are centered on the cavities and have a smaller diameter than said cavities;the microdisks may comprise a thin metallization, which is deposited on the bottom of each cavity and has substantially the same or smaller diameter as the apertures of the insulating layer, and, optionally, a thick metallization at least partly filling the rest of the cavity;the thin metallization may comprise a multilayer formed from an adhesion layer and a diffusion barrier layer, which may be made of titanium and platinum respectively;the thick metallization may be formed from the desired electrode material, which may be gold;the thick metallization may either be flush with the upper face of the substrate or it may be covered with an active layer that is flush with the upper face of the substrate;the generator electrode may either be a thin layer of conducting diamond or a thick conducting layer which forms, around the microelectrodes, a funnel-shaped rounded wall defining a confinement volume protecting them from the hydrodynamic flow of the solution to be treated; and/orthe substrate may be made of silicon rendered conducting by doping.
Embodiments of the present invention also relate to a process for producing the measurement electrode of an electrode system as defined above. In accordance with one embodiment, the process comprises the following operations in succession:a conducting substrate is provided;the insulating layer is deposited on its upper face;a mask provided with an array of circular apertures is formed on the insulating layer, the arrangement and the diameter of which apertures correspond to the array of microdisks to be produced;the insulating layer is etched through the mask so as to obtain the circular apertures;the substrate is deeply etched through these apertures so as to obtain the cavities;the thin metallizations are deposited on the bottom of each cavity; andsaid thick metallizations are deposited on the thin metallizations.
Processes consistent with embodiments of the invention may also have one or more of the following features:the insulating layer and the substrate may be etched by plasma etching or by wet chemical etching;the thin metallizations may be deposited by vacuum evaporation; and/orthe thick metallizations may be deposited by galvanic growth or by catalytic precipitation.
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7732254 | BACKGROUND
This invention relates to semiconductor packaging.
Portable electronic products such as mobile phones, mobile computing, and various consumer products require higher semiconductor functionality and performance in a limited footprint and minimal thickness and weight at the lowest cost. This has driven the industry to increase integration on the individual semiconductor chips.
More recently the industry has begun implementing integration on the “z-axis,” that is, by stacking chips, and stacks of up to five chips in one package have been used. This provides a dense chip structure having the footprint of a one-chip package, in the range of 5×5 mm to 40×40 mm, and obtaining thicknesses that have been continuously decreasing from 2.3 mm to 0.5 mm. The cost of a stacked die package is only incrementally higher than the cost of a single die package and the assembly yields are high enough to assure a competitive final cost as compared to packaging the die in individual packages.
The primary practical limitation to the number of chips that can be stacked in a stacked die package is the low final test yield of the stacked-die package. It is inevitable that some of the die in the package will be defective to some extent, and therefore the final package test yield will be the product of the individual die test yields, each of which is always less than 100%. This can be particularly a problem even if only two die are stacked in a package but one of them has low yield because of design complexity or technology.
Another limitation is the low power dissipation of the package. The heat is transmitted from one die to the other and there is no significant dissipation path other than through the solder ball to the motherboard.
A further limitation is electromagnetic interference between the stacked die, particularly between RF and digital die, because there is no electrical shielding of either die.
Another approach to integrating on the “z-axis” is to stack die packages to form a multi-package module. Stacked packages can provide numerous advantages as compared to stacked-die packages.
For instance, each package with its die can be electrically tested, and rejected unless it shows satisfactory performance, before the packages are stacked. As a result the final stacked multi-package module yields are maximized.
More efficient cooling can be provided in stacked packages, by inserting a heat spreader between the packages in the stack as well as at the top of the module.
Package stacking allows electromagnetic shielding of the RF die and avoids interference with other die in the module.
Each die or more than one die can be packaged in a respective package in the stack using the most efficient first level interconnect technology for the chip type and configuration, such as wire bonding or flip chip, to maximize performance and minimize cost.
The z-interconnect between packages in a stacked multi-package module is a critical technology from the standpoint of manufacturability, design flexibility and cost. Z-interconnects that have been proposed include peripheral solder ball connection, and flexible substrate folded over the top of the bottom package. The use of peripheral solder balls for z-interconnects in stacked multi-package modules limits the number of connections that can be made and limits design flexibility, and results in a thicker and higher cost package. Although the use of a flexible folding substrate provides in principle for design flexibility, there is no established manufacturing infrastructure for the folding process. Moreover, the use of a flexible folding substrate requires a two metal layer flex substrate, and these are expensive. Furthermore the folded flexible substrate approach is restricted to low pincount applications because of limits in routing the circuitry in two metal layer substrates.
The various z-interconnect structures are described in further detail with reference toFIGS. 1-4.
FIG. 1is a diagrammatic sketch in a sectional view illustrating the structure of a standard Ball Grid Array (“BGA”) package, well established in the industry, that can be used as a bottom package in a stacked multi-package module (“MPM”). The BGA, shown generally at10, includes a die14attached onto a substrate12having at least one metal layer. Any of various substrate types may be used, including for example: a laminate with 2-6 metal layers, or a build up substrate with 4-8 metal layers, or a flexible polyimide tape with 1-2 metal layers, or a ceramic multilayer substrate. The substrate12shown by way of example inFIG. 1has two metal layers121,123, each patterned to provide appropriate circuitry and connected by way of vias122. The die is conventionally attached to a surface of the substrate using an adhesive, typically referred to as the die attach epoxy, shown at13inFIG. 1and, in the configuration inFIG. 1, the surface of the substrate onto which the die is attached may be referred to as the “upper” surface, and the metal layer on that surface may be referred to as the “upper” metal layer, although the die attach surface need not have any particular orientation in use.
In the BGA ofFIG. 1the die is wire bonded onto wire bond sites on the upper metal layer of the substrate to establish electrical connections. The die14and the wire bonds16are encapsulated with a molding compound17that provides protection from ambient and from mechanical stress to facilitate handling operations, and provides a surface for marking for identification. Solder balls18are reflowed onto bonding pads on the lower metal layer of the substrate to provide interconnection to the motherboard (not shown in the FIGS.) of a final product, such as a computer. Solder masks125,127are patterned over the metal layers121,123to expose the underlying metal at bonding sites for electrical connection, for example the wire bond sites and bonding pads for bonding the wire bonds16and solder balls18.
FIG. 2is a diagrammatic sketch in a sectional view illustrating the structure of an example of a 2-stack MPM, generally at20, in which the z-interconnect between the packages in the stack is made by way of solder balls. In this MPM a first package (which may be referred to as the “bottom” package) is similar to a standard BGA as shown inFIG. 1(and similar reference numerals are employed to point to similar features of the bottom package inFIGS. 1 and 2). A second package (which may be referred to as the “top” package) is stacked on the bottom package and is similar in structure to the bottom package, except that the solder balls in the top package are arranged at the periphery of the top package substrate, so that they effect the z-interconnect without interference with the encapsulation of the bottom BGA. Particularly, the top package inFIG. 2includes a die24attached onto a substrate22having at least one metal layer. The top package substrate22shown by way of example inFIG. 2has two metal layers221,223, each patterned to provide appropriate circuitry and connected by way of vias222. The die is conventionally attached to a surface of the substrate (the “upper” surface) using an adhesive, typically referred to as the die attach epoxy, shown at23inFIG. 2.
In the top package in the MPM ofFIG. 2, as in the bottom package, the die is wire bonded onto wire bond sites on the upper metal layer of the substrate to establish electrical connections. The top package die24and wire bonds26are encapsulated with a top package molding compound27. Solder balls28are reflowed onto bonding pads located on the peripheral margin of the lower metal layer of the top package substrate to provide z-interconnection to the bottom package. Solder masks225,227are patterned over the metal layers221,223to expose the underlying metal at bonding sites for electrical connection, for example the wire bond sites and bonding pads for bonding the wire bonds26and solder balls28.
The z-interconnection in the MPM ofFIG. 2is achieved by reflowing the solder balls28attached to peripheral bonding pads on the lower metal layer of the top package substrate onto peripheral bonding pads on the upper metal layer of the bottom BGA. In this configuration the distance h between the top and bottom packages must be at least as great as the encapsulation height of the bottom package, which may be 0.3 mm or more, and typically is in a range between 0.5 mm and 1.5 mm. The solder balls28must accordingly be of a sufficiently large diameter that when they are reflowed they make good contact with the bonding pads of the bottom BGA; that is, the solder ball28diameter must be greater than the encapsulation height. A larger ball diameter dictates a larger ball pitch that in turn limits the number of balls that can be fitted in the available space. Furthermore the peripheral arrangement of the solder balls forces the bottom BGA to be significantly larger than the mold cap of a standard BGA. In small BGAs, usually referred to as Chip Scale Packages (“CSP”), the package body size is 1.7 mm larger than the die. In standard BGAs the body size is about 2 mm larger than the mold cap. In this configuration the top package substrate must have at least 2 metal layers to facilitate the electrical connections.
FIG. 3is a diagrammatic sketch in a sectional view illustrating the structure of an example of a known 2-stack flip chip MPM, shown generally at30. In this configuration the bottom BGA flip chip package includes a substrate32having a patterned metal layer31onto which the die34is connected by flip chip bumps36, such as solder bumps, gold stud bumps or anisotropically conducting film or paste. The flip chip bumps are affixed to a patterned array of bump pads on the active surface of the die and, as the active surface of the die faces downward in relation to an upward-facing patterned metal layer of the substrate, such an arrangement may be referred to as a “die down” flip chip package. A polymer underfill33between die and substrate provides protection from ambient and adds mechanical integrity to the structure. Such a flip chip package, in which the substrate has a metal layer on only the upper surface, is connected to the underlying circuitry (such as a motherboard, not shown in the FIG.) by solder balls38connected to the metal layer through solder vias35.
The top BGA in this configuration is similar to the bottom BGA, except that the top BGA has z-interconnect solder balls338connected (through solder vias335in the top substrate) to a metal layer331only at the periphery of the top substrate. Solder balls338are reflowed onto the metal layer31of the bottom substrate to provide the z-interconnect. Particularly, the top BGA in this configuration includes a substrate332having the patterned metal layer331onto which the top BGA die334is connected by flip chip bumps336. Between the top BGA die and substrate is a polymer underfill333. A structure as inFIG. 3is more appropriate for high electrical performance applications, but it has similar limitations to configurations of the type shown in ofFIG. 2. It presents an improvement over theFIG. 2configuration in that the bottom BGA has no molding, allowing for use of smaller diameter (h) solder balls at the periphery of the top BGA for connection between the packages.
FIG. 4is a diagrammatic sketch in a sectional view illustrating the structure of an example of a known 2-stack folded flexible substrate MPM, shown generally at40. The bottom package in the configuration ofFIG. 4has a 2-metal layer flexible substrate onto which the die is bonded via small beams to the first metal layer of the substrate. The second metal layer of the bottom package substrate carries the solder balls for connection to the underlying circuitry, such as a motherboard (not shown). The substrate is large enough to be folded over the top of the package, thus bringing the electrical interconnect lines upward where they are available for connection to the top package (an example of which is described below) by way of an array of solder balls on the top package. The space around the die and between the die and folded-over substrate is encapsulated to provide protection and rigidity.
Referring toFIG. 4, the two-metal layer bottom package substrate42includes a first metal layer141and a second metal layer143, each patterned to provide appropriate circuitry and connected by way of vias142. A part of the first metal layer, over a part of the bottom substrate, is processed (for example, using an array of punches) to present an array of cantilever beams or tabs46arranged to correspond to an array of interconnect pads on the active surface of the bottom package die44. Over this part of the substrate42, which may be referred to as the “die attach part”, the first metal layer141faces upwardly. The die is aligned, active surface downward, over the die attach part of the substrate, and the cantilevers and the corresponding interconnect pads are joined, typically for example by a “thermosonic” process employing a combination of pressure, heat, and ultrasonic energy to complete the electrical connections. The die44is affixed using an adhesive43, typically a die attach epoxy, onto the die attach part of the flexible substrate42. A second metal layer143of the bottom package substrate42faces downwardly in the die attach part of the substrate. Solder balls48are reflowed onto bonding pads located on an array on the downward-facing part of the second metal layer143to provide for interconnection of the MPM to underlying circuitry (not shown). A solder mask147is patterned over the second metal layer143to expose the underlying metal as bonding sites for electrical connection, including the bond pads for connection with the underlying circuitry by way of solder balls48, and the bond pads for connection with the top package by way of solder balls18, as described below.
Another part of the bottom package substrate42, extending adjacent the die-attach portion, is folded up and over the bottom package die44. On this folded-over portion of the flexible substrate42the first metal layer143faces upwardly. In the configuration ofFIG. 4the top package is generally similar to the BGA ofFIG. 1, in which the die is wire bonded onto wire bond sites on the upper metal layer of the substrate to establish electrical connections. Particularly, the top package die14is attached onto a substrate12having (in this example) two metal layers121,123, each patterned to provide appropriate circuitry and connected by way of vias122. The die is conventionally attached to the upper surface of the top package substrate using an adhesive13, typically a die attach epoxy. The die14and the wire bonds16are encapsulated with a molding compound17that provides protection from ambient and from mechanical stress to facilitate handling operations, and provides a surface for marking for identification. Solder balls18are reflowed onto bonding pads143on the upward-facing metal layer of the folded-over bottom package substrate to provide z-interconnection between the top and the bottom packages.
An advantage of a structure as inFIG. 4is that the folded-over substrate provides sufficient area on the upward-facing surface of the folded-over bottom package substrate to accommodate a full array of solder balls in the top package and to accommodate more complex interconnect between the two packages. It also provides for a small package footprint. A primary disadvantage of this configuration is the high cost of the substrate and the unavailability of folding technology and equipment.
A common feature of all these stacked package configurations is that they enable pretesting of each package, and provide for production MPMs with higher final test yields.
SUMMARY
This invention is directed to multi-package modules having stacked packages. According to the invention, z-interconnection between the stacked packages in the MPM is wire bond based. Generally, the invention features various configurations of various stacked packages, and methods for stacking and interconnecting the various packages by wire-bonding based z-interconnection. In the multi-package module according to the invention the package stack can include any of a variety of BGA packages and/or any of a variety of Land Grid Array (“LGA”) packages; the package stack can include wire bonded and/or flip chip packages; the package stack can include a thermal enhancement feature enabled by one or more heat spreaders in or on the stack; the package stack can include one or more packages having a flip chip die bonded either to the top or to the bottom of the BGA or LGA; the package stack can include one or more BGA and/or LGA packages having more than one die in the package stacked or side by side; the stack can include electromagnetic shield for one or more of the packages; and the stack can include any substrate, laminate or build-up or flexible or ceramic, provided that the z-interconnect pads are made available for bonding on the periphery of the packages.
In one general aspect the invention features a multi-package module having stacked lower and upper packages, each package including a die attached to a substrate, in which the upper and lower substrates are interconnected by wire bonding, and in which the lower package is a die-up flip chip ball grid array package.
The invention provides for excellent manufacturability, high design flexibility, and low cost to produce a stacked package module having a low profile and a small footprint. The wire bond z-interconnect is well established in the industry; it is the lowest cost interconnect technique and it is directly applicable, without significant modification, to the stacked multi-package modules of the invention. It provides design flexibility to the relative size of the BGA to LGA that can be bridged by wire length. Using available techniques and equipment the wire in a wire bond can be as short as 0.5 mm or as long as 5 mm. The arrangement of the z-interconnect pads can be implemented through either or both BGA and LGA substrate designs. Moreover, using wire bonds according to the invention z-interconnect can be formed between pads that are not precisely aligned over one another, by employing so-called “out of sequence bonding” that is in current use in the industry. The wire bonding pitch is the finest available technology in the industry at 50 microns currently, and projected to go to 25 microns. This enables a high number of z-interconnects. Both manufacturability and design flexibility contribute to the low cost of the MPM.
A minimum footprint for a typical BGA or LGA is 1.7 mm larger than the die size. The addition of the z-interconnect bond pads according to the invention will increase the BGA size minimally, by 0.8 mm. A typical BGA thickness is 1.0 mm and LGA thickness is 0.8 mm. A typical adhesive thickness can be in the range 0.025 mm to 0.100 mm. Both the footprint and the thickness of the stacked package MPM according to the invention fall within accepted ranges for most applications.
In some embodiments the multi-package module includes three or more packages, affixed serially to form a stack.
In one aspect the invention features a multi-package module having stacked first (“bottom”) and second (“top”) packages, each package including a die attached to a substrate and connected to the substrate by wire bonding, in which the top package substrate and the bottom package substrate are interconnected by wire bonding, and in which the bottom package is a flip chip package in a die-up configuration. In some embodiments each package is fully encapsulated with a molding material; in other embodiments at least one of the packages is encapsulated only to an extent sufficient to protect the wire bonds between the die and the substrate during subsequent handling and testing. In some embodiments the second package is an LGA package, and in some such embodiments the LGA package substrate is a single-metal layer substrate.
In another aspect the invention features a multi-package module having stacked packages including a flip chip package in which the flip chip package is provided with an electrical shield. In some such configurations the electrical shield may additionally be configured to serve as a heat spreader. In some embodiments the flip chip package that is provided with an electrical shield includes an RF die, and the shield serves to limit electromagnetic interference between the RF die and other die in the multi-package module. In some embodiments the bottom package is provided with an electrical shield.
In another aspect the invention features a multi-package module having stacked first (“bottom”) and second (“top”) packages, the bottom package being a flip-chip BGA package having a flip-chip in a die-up configuration, in which the top substrate and the bottom package are interconnected by wire bonding. In some embodiments the top package is a stacked die package; in some embodiments the adjacent stacked die in the stacked die package can be separated by spacers. In some embodiments the flip-chip die on the bottom package is provided with an electrical shield. In some embodiments the bottom package substrate includes an embedded ground plane, the ground plane being configured to serve also for heat dissipation and as an electrical shield.
In another aspect the invention features a multi-package module having stacked first (“bottom”) and second (“top”) packages, each package including a die attached to a substrate and connected to the substrate by wire bonding, in which the top package substrate and the bottom package substrate are interconnected by wire bonding, and in which at least one of the bottom package and the top package is a stacked-die package. In some embodiments both the top package and the bottom package is a stacked-die package.
In another general aspect the invention features methods for making multi-package modules, by providing a first (bottom) package including at least one die on a first (bottom) package substrate, placing over the first package a second (top) package including at least one die on a second (top) package substrate, and forming wire bond z-interconnects between the first and second (top and bottom) substrates. Advantageously, the packages can be tested prior to assembly, and packages not meeting requirements for performance or reliability can be discarded, so that preferably only first packages and second packages tested as “good” are used in the assembled module.
In one aspect the invention features a method for making a multi-package module including a LGA package stacked over a flip chip BGA package, in which the top and bottom packages are electrically interconnected by wire bonding. According to this aspect, a flip chip BGA package is provided, usually in an unsingulated strip of molded flip chip BGA packages; preferably the BGA packages in the strip are tested for performance and reliability and packages identified as “good” are subjected to subsequent treatment; adhesive is dispensed over the upper surface of the molding on “good” BGA packages; a singulated molded land grid array package is provided; preferably the LGA package is tested and identified as “good”; the “good” LGA package is placed onto the adhesive over the molding on the “good” BGA package, and the adhesive is cured; optionally and preferably a plasma clean operation is performed followed by formation of wire bond z-interconnections between the stacked top LGA and bottom BGA package; optionally and preferably an additional plasma clean may be performed, followed by the formation of the MPM molding. Further steps include attachment of second-level interconnect solder balls to the underside of the module; testing and singulation of the completed module from the strip, for example by saw singulation or by punch singulation; and packaging for further use.
In some embodiments the LGA (top) package is fully molded, providing a generally planar upper surface of the LGA package; in other embodiments the wire bonds but not the entire upper die surface of the LGA package is molded, molding of the LGA being carried out by dispensing the molding compound only around the periphery of the die and the margin of the LGA package substrate
In another aspect the invention features a method for making a multi-package module including a LGA package stacked over a flip chip BGA package, in which the top and bottom packages are electrically interconnected by wire bonding, and in which the bottom package is provided with an electromagnetic shield. According to this aspect, a ball grid array package is provided, usually in an unsingulated strip of flip chip BGA packages; the BGA packages are provided with shields affixed over the die; preferably the BGA packages in the strip are tested for performance and reliability and packages identified as “good” are subjected to subsequent treatment; adhesive is dispensed over the upper surface of the shields on “good” BGA packages; a singulated molded land grid array package is provided; preferably the LGA package is tested and identified as “good”; the “good” LGA package is placed onto the adhesive over the shield, and the adhesive is cured; optionally and preferably a plasma clean operation is performed followed by formation of wire bond z-interconnections between the stacked top LGA and bottom BGA package; optionally and preferably an additional plasma clean may be performed, followed by the formation of the MPM molding. Further steps include attachment of second-level interconnect solder balls to the underside of the module; testing and singulation of the completed module from the strip, for example by saw singulation or by punch singulation; and packaging for further use.
In some embodiments the method includes steps for providing the multi-package module with a heat spreader. In this aspect of the invention a similar process is performed, with additional steps interposed installation of supported heat spreader by a “drop-in” mold operation, or for installation of a simple planar heat spreader by a drop-in mold operation; or by applying adhesive onto an upper surface of the top package molding or onto an upper surface of a spacer upon the top package, and affixing the planar heat spreader onto the adhesive.
In another aspect the invention features a method for making a multi-package module including a top package stacked over a die-up flip chip BGA bottom package, in which the top and bottom packages are electrically interconnected by wire bonding. According to this aspect, a die-up flip chip ball grid array package, usually not molded, is provided, usually as an unsingulated strip of die-up flip chip ball grid array packages; preferably the BGA packages in the strip are tested for performance and reliability and packages identified as “good” are subjected to subsequent treatment; adhesive is dispensed over the upper surface of the substrate on “good” BGA packages; a second package is provided, which may in some embodiments be a stacked die package, optionally and usually molded; preferably the LGA package is tested and identified as “good”; the “good” LGA package is placed onto the adhesive over the BGA substrate, and the adhesive is cured; optionally and preferably a plasma clean operation is performed followed by formation of wire bond z-interconnections between the stacked top LGA and bottom BGA package; optionally and preferably an additional plasma clean may be performed, followed by the formation of the MPM molding. Further steps include attachment of second-level interconnect solder balls to the underside of the module; testing and singulation of the completed module from the strip, for example by saw singulation or by punch singulation; and packaging for further use.
In some embodiments of the method two or more first molded packages are provided in an unsingulated strip, and assembly of the two or more modules proceeds on the strip, and singulation of the two or more modules is carried out after assembly has been completed.
In methods according to the invention for making multi-package modules the electrical connections between the stacked packages employs conventional wire bonding to form the z-interconnect between upper and lower package substrates in the stack. Particular advantages include the use of established manufacturing infrastructure, low production cost, design flexibility, and a thin package product. The z-interconnect wire bonding can be carried out, in the various package and module configurations, by drawing the wire to a conductive pad on the first package substrate from a bump formed on a conductive pad on the second package substrate; or, by drawing the wire to a conductive pad on the second package substrate from a bump formed on a conductive pad on the first package substrate.
The invention provides for assembly of more than one semiconductor in a thin and minimal footprint package at the lowest cost and highest final test yield. Furthermore some stack configurations according to the invention allow for high thermal performance, high electrical performance or electrical isolation of an RF component from a digital one. Other stack configurations provide a very thin structure appropriate for handheld or consumer products. All provide for a method for assembly that allows individual testing of the stacked packages to maximize the final yield of the module.
Additional process steps will be employed to complete the multi-package module according to the invention. For example, it may be preferred not to attach solder balls for connection of the lowermost package in the stack to the motherboard until the final step before singulation of the MPMs. And, for example, a plasma clean may be performed at any of a variety of points in the process, such as following adhesive cure and prior to encapsulation, and such as prior to and/or following z-interconnect wire bonding.
Advantageously, the individual packages can be provided as strips of several packages, connected in a row for ease of handling during manufacture, and the multi-package modules are singulated following completion of process steps. In methods according to the invention, the package stacks can be formed on a strip of nonsingulated first packages of a selected type by affixing singulated second packages and forming the wire bonded z-interconnects until the process of forming the modules is complete, and then singulating the modules.
MPM according to the invention can be used for building computers, telecommunications equipment, and consumer and industrial electronics devices.
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: BACKGROUND
This invention relates to semiconductor packaging.
Portable electronic products such as mobile phones, mobile computing, and various consumer products require higher semiconductor functionality and performance in a limited footprint and minimal thickness and weight at the lowest cost. This has driven the industry to increase integration on the individual semiconductor chips.
More recently the industry has begun implementing integration on the “z-axis,” that is, by stacking chips, and stacks of up to five chips in one package have been used. This provides a dense chip structure having the footprint of a one-chip package, in the range of 5×5 mm to 40×40 mm, and obtaining thicknesses that have been continuously decreasing from 2.3 mm to 0.5 mm. The cost of a stacked die package is only incrementally higher than the cost of a single die package and the assembly yields are high enough to assure a competitive final cost as compared to packaging the die in individual packages.
The primary practical limitation to the number of chips that can be stacked in a stacked die package is the low final test yield of the stacked-die package. It is inevitable that some of the die in the package will be defective to some extent, and therefore the final package test yield will be the product of the individual die test yields, each of which is always less than 100%. This can be particularly a problem even if only two die are stacked in a package but one of them has low yield because of design complexity or technology.
Another limitation is the low power dissipation of the package. The heat is transmitted from one die to the other and there is no significant dissipation path other than through the solder ball to the motherboard.
A further limitation is electromagnetic interference between the stacked die, particularly between RF and digital die, because there is no electrical shielding of either die.
Another approach to integrating on the “z-axis” is to stack die packages to form a multi-package module. Stacked packages can provide numerous advantages as compared to stacked-die packages.
For instance, each package with its die can be electrically tested, and rejected unless it shows satisfactory performance, before the packages are stacked. As a result the final stacked multi-package module yields are maximized.
More efficient cooling can be provided in stacked packages, by inserting a heat spreader between the packages in the stack as well as at the top of the module.
Package stacking allows electromagnetic shielding of the RF die and avoids interference with other die in the module.
Each die or more than one die can be packaged in a respective package in the stack using the most efficient first level interconnect technology for the chip type and configuration, such as wire bonding or flip chip, to maximize performance and minimize cost.
The z-interconnect between packages in a stacked multi-package module is a critical technology from the standpoint of manufacturability, design flexibility and cost. Z-interconnects that have been proposed include peripheral solder ball connection, and flexible substrate folded over the top of the bottom package. The use of peripheral solder balls for z-interconnects in stacked multi-package modules limits the number of connections that can be made and limits design flexibility, and results in a thicker and higher cost package. Although the use of a flexible folding substrate provides in principle for design flexibility, there is no established manufacturing infrastructure for the folding process. Moreover, the use of a flexible folding substrate requires a two metal layer flex substrate, and these are expensive. Furthermore the folded flexible substrate approach is restricted to low pincount applications because of limits in routing the circuitry in two metal layer substrates.
The various z-interconnect structures are described in further detail with reference toFIGS. 1-4.
FIG. 1is a diagrammatic sketch in a sectional view illustrating the structure of a standard Ball Grid Array (“BGA”) package, well established in the industry, that can be used as a bottom package in a stacked multi-package module (“MPM”). The BGA, shown generally at10, includes a die14attached onto a substrate12having at least one metal layer. Any of various substrate types may be used, including for example: a laminate with 2-6 metal layers, or a build up substrate with 4-8 metal layers, or a flexible polyimide tape with 1-2 metal layers, or a ceramic multilayer substrate. The substrate12shown by way of example inFIG. 1has two metal layers121,123, each patterned to provide appropriate circuitry and connected by way of vias122. The die is conventionally attached to a surface of the substrate using an adhesive, typically referred to as the die attach epoxy, shown at13inFIG. 1and, in the configuration inFIG. 1, the surface of the substrate onto which the die is attached may be referred to as the “upper” surface, and the metal layer on that surface may be referred to as the “upper” metal layer, although the die attach surface need not have any particular orientation in use.
In the BGA ofFIG. 1the die is wire bonded onto wire bond sites on the upper metal layer of the substrate to establish electrical connections. The die14and the wire bonds16are encapsulated with a molding compound17that provides protection from ambient and from mechanical stress to facilitate handling operations, and provides a surface for marking for identification. Solder balls18are reflowed onto bonding pads on the lower metal layer of the substrate to provide interconnection to the motherboard (not shown in the FIGS.) of a final product, such as a computer. Solder masks125,127are patterned over the metal layers121,123to expose the underlying metal at bonding sites for electrical connection, for example the wire bond sites and bonding pads for bonding the wire bonds16and solder balls18.
FIG. 2is a diagrammatic sketch in a sectional view illustrating the structure of an example of a 2-stack MPM, generally at20, in which the z-interconnect between the packages in the stack is made by way of solder balls. In this MPM a first package (which may be referred to as the “bottom” package) is similar to a standard BGA as shown inFIG. 1(and similar reference numerals are employed to point to similar features of the bottom package inFIGS. 1 and 2). A second package (which may be referred to as the “top” package) is stacked on the bottom package and is similar in structure to the bottom package, except that the solder balls in the top package are arranged at the periphery of the top package substrate, so that they effect the z-interconnect without interference with the encapsulation of the bottom BGA. Particularly, the top package inFIG. 2includes a die24attached onto a substrate22having at least one metal layer. The top package substrate22shown by way of example inFIG. 2has two metal layers221,223, each patterned to provide appropriate circuitry and connected by way of vias222. The die is conventionally attached to a surface of the substrate (the “upper” surface) using an adhesive, typically referred to as the die attach epoxy, shown at23inFIG. 2.
In the top package in the MPM ofFIG. 2, as in the bottom package, the die is wire bonded onto wire bond sites on the upper metal layer of the substrate to establish electrical connections. The top package die24and wire bonds26are encapsulated with a top package molding compound27. Solder balls28are reflowed onto bonding pads located on the peripheral margin of the lower metal layer of the top package substrate to provide z-interconnection to the bottom package. Solder masks225,227are patterned over the metal layers221,223to expose the underlying metal at bonding sites for electrical connection, for example the wire bond sites and bonding pads for bonding the wire bonds26and solder balls28.
The z-interconnection in the MPM ofFIG. 2is achieved by reflowing the solder balls28attached to peripheral bonding pads on the lower metal layer of the top package substrate onto peripheral bonding pads on the upper metal layer of the bottom BGA. In this configuration the distance h between the top and bottom packages must be at least as great as the encapsulation height of the bottom package, which may be 0.3 mm or more, and typically is in a range between 0.5 mm and 1.5 mm. The solder balls28must accordingly be of a sufficiently large diameter that when they are reflowed they make good contact with the bonding pads of the bottom BGA; that is, the solder ball28diameter must be greater than the encapsulation height. A larger ball diameter dictates a larger ball pitch that in turn limits the number of balls that can be fitted in the available space. Furthermore the peripheral arrangement of the solder balls forces the bottom BGA to be significantly larger than the mold cap of a standard BGA. In small BGAs, usually referred to as Chip Scale Packages (“CSP”), the package body size is 1.7 mm larger than the die. In standard BGAs the body size is about 2 mm larger than the mold cap. In this configuration the top package substrate must have at least 2 metal layers to facilitate the electrical connections.
FIG. 3is a diagrammatic sketch in a sectional view illustrating the structure of an example of a known 2-stack flip chip MPM, shown generally at30. In this configuration the bottom BGA flip chip package includes a substrate32having a patterned metal layer31onto which the die34is connected by flip chip bumps36, such as solder bumps, gold stud bumps or anisotropically conducting film or paste. The flip chip bumps are affixed to a patterned array of bump pads on the active surface of the die and, as the active surface of the die faces downward in relation to an upward-facing patterned metal layer of the substrate, such an arrangement may be referred to as a “die down” flip chip package. A polymer underfill33between die and substrate provides protection from ambient and adds mechanical integrity to the structure. Such a flip chip package, in which the substrate has a metal layer on only the upper surface, is connected to the underlying circuitry (such as a motherboard, not shown in the FIG.) by solder balls38connected to the metal layer through solder vias35.
The top BGA in this configuration is similar to the bottom BGA, except that the top BGA has z-interconnect solder balls338connected (through solder vias335in the top substrate) to a metal layer331only at the periphery of the top substrate. Solder balls338are reflowed onto the metal layer31of the bottom substrate to provide the z-interconnect. Particularly, the top BGA in this configuration includes a substrate332having the patterned metal layer331onto which the top BGA die334is connected by flip chip bumps336. Between the top BGA die and substrate is a polymer underfill333. A structure as inFIG. 3is more appropriate for high electrical performance applications, but it has similar limitations to configurations of the type shown in ofFIG. 2. It presents an improvement over theFIG. 2configuration in that the bottom BGA has no molding, allowing for use of smaller diameter (h) solder balls at the periphery of the top BGA for connection between the packages.
FIG. 4is a diagrammatic sketch in a sectional view illustrating the structure of an example of a known 2-stack folded flexible substrate MPM, shown generally at40. The bottom package in the configuration ofFIG. 4has a 2-metal layer flexible substrate onto which the die is bonded via small beams to the first metal layer of the substrate. The second metal layer of the bottom package substrate carries the solder balls for connection to the underlying circuitry, such as a motherboard (not shown). The substrate is large enough to be folded over the top of the package, thus bringing the electrical interconnect lines upward where they are available for connection to the top package (an example of which is described below) by way of an array of solder balls on the top package. The space around the die and between the die and folded-over substrate is encapsulated to provide protection and rigidity.
Referring toFIG. 4, the two-metal layer bottom package substrate42includes a first metal layer141and a second metal layer143, each patterned to provide appropriate circuitry and connected by way of vias142. A part of the first metal layer, over a part of the bottom substrate, is processed (for example, using an array of punches) to present an array of cantilever beams or tabs46arranged to correspond to an array of interconnect pads on the active surface of the bottom package die44. Over this part of the substrate42, which may be referred to as the “die attach part”, the first metal layer141faces upwardly. The die is aligned, active surface downward, over the die attach part of the substrate, and the cantilevers and the corresponding interconnect pads are joined, typically for example by a “thermosonic” process employing a combination of pressure, heat, and ultrasonic energy to complete the electrical connections. The die44is affixed using an adhesive43, typically a die attach epoxy, onto the die attach part of the flexible substrate42. A second metal layer143of the bottom package substrate42faces downwardly in the die attach part of the substrate. Solder balls48are reflowed onto bonding pads located on an array on the downward-facing part of the second metal layer143to provide for interconnection of the MPM to underlying circuitry (not shown). A solder mask147is patterned over the second metal layer143to expose the underlying metal as bonding sites for electrical connection, including the bond pads for connection with the underlying circuitry by way of solder balls48, and the bond pads for connection with the top package by way of solder balls18, as described below.
Another part of the bottom package substrate42, extending adjacent the die-attach portion, is folded up and over the bottom package die44. On this folded-over portion of the flexible substrate42the first metal layer143faces upwardly. In the configuration ofFIG. 4the top package is generally similar to the BGA ofFIG. 1, in which the die is wire bonded onto wire bond sites on the upper metal layer of the substrate to establish electrical connections. Particularly, the top package die14is attached onto a substrate12having (in this example) two metal layers121,123, each patterned to provide appropriate circuitry and connected by way of vias122. The die is conventionally attached to the upper surface of the top package substrate using an adhesive13, typically a die attach epoxy. The die14and the wire bonds16are encapsulated with a molding compound17that provides protection from ambient and from mechanical stress to facilitate handling operations, and provides a surface for marking for identification. Solder balls18are reflowed onto bonding pads143on the upward-facing metal layer of the folded-over bottom package substrate to provide z-interconnection between the top and the bottom packages.
An advantage of a structure as inFIG. 4is that the folded-over substrate provides sufficient area on the upward-facing surface of the folded-over bottom package substrate to accommodate a full array of solder balls in the top package and to accommodate more complex interconnect between the two packages. It also provides for a small package footprint. A primary disadvantage of this configuration is the high cost of the substrate and the unavailability of folding technology and equipment.
A common feature of all these stacked package configurations is that they enable pretesting of each package, and provide for production MPMs with higher final test yields.
SUMMARY
This invention is directed to multi-package modules having stacked packages. According to the invention, z-interconnection between the stacked packages in the MPM is wire bond based. Generally, the invention features various configurations of various stacked packages, and methods for stacking and interconnecting the various packages by wire-bonding based z-interconnection. In the multi-package module according to the invention the package stack can include any of a variety of BGA packages and/or any of a variety of Land Grid Array (“LGA”) packages; the package stack can include wire bonded and/or flip chip packages; the package stack can include a thermal enhancement feature enabled by one or more heat spreaders in or on the stack; the package stack can include one or more packages having a flip chip die bonded either to the top or to the bottom of the BGA or LGA; the package stack can include one or more BGA and/or LGA packages having more than one die in the package stacked or side by side; the stack can include electromagnetic shield for one or more of the packages; and the stack can include any substrate, laminate or build-up or flexible or ceramic, provided that the z-interconnect pads are made available for bonding on the periphery of the packages.
In one general aspect the invention features a multi-package module having stacked lower and upper packages, each package including a die attached to a substrate, in which the upper and lower substrates are interconnected by wire bonding, and in which the lower package is a die-up flip chip ball grid array package.
The invention provides for excellent manufacturability, high design flexibility, and low cost to produce a stacked package module having a low profile and a small footprint. The wire bond z-interconnect is well established in the industry; it is the lowest cost interconnect technique and it is directly applicable, without significant modification, to the stacked multi-package modules of the invention. It provides design flexibility to the relative size of the BGA to LGA that can be bridged by wire length. Using available techniques and equipment the wire in a wire bond can be as short as 0.5 mm or as long as 5 mm. The arrangement of the z-interconnect pads can be implemented through either or both BGA and LGA substrate designs. Moreover, using wire bonds according to the invention z-interconnect can be formed between pads that are not precisely aligned over one another, by employing so-called “out of sequence bonding” that is in current use in the industry. The wire bonding pitch is the finest available technology in the industry at 50 microns currently, and projected to go to 25 microns. This enables a high number of z-interconnects. Both manufacturability and design flexibility contribute to the low cost of the MPM.
A minimum footprint for a typical BGA or LGA is 1.7 mm larger than the die size. The addition of the z-interconnect bond pads according to the invention will increase the BGA size minimally, by 0.8 mm. A typical BGA thickness is 1.0 mm and LGA thickness is 0.8 mm. A typical adhesive thickness can be in the range 0.025 mm to 0.100 mm. Both the footprint and the thickness of the stacked package MPM according to the invention fall within accepted ranges for most applications.
In some embodiments the multi-package module includes three or more packages, affixed serially to form a stack.
In one aspect the invention features a multi-package module having stacked first (“bottom”) and second (“top”) packages, each package including a die attached to a substrate and connected to the substrate by wire bonding, in which the top package substrate and the bottom package substrate are interconnected by wire bonding, and in which the bottom package is a flip chip package in a die-up configuration. In some embodiments each package is fully encapsulated with a molding material; in other embodiments at least one of the packages is encapsulated only to an extent sufficient to protect the wire bonds between the die and the substrate during subsequent handling and testing. In some embodiments the second package is an LGA package, and in some such embodiments the LGA package substrate is a single-metal layer substrate.
In another aspect the invention features a multi-package module having stacked packages including a flip chip package in which the flip chip package is provided with an electrical shield. In some such configurations the electrical shield may additionally be configured to serve as a heat spreader. In some embodiments the flip chip package that is provided with an electrical shield includes an RF die, and the shield serves to limit electromagnetic interference between the RF die and other die in the multi-package module. In some embodiments the bottom package is provided with an electrical shield.
In another aspect the invention features a multi-package module having stacked first (“bottom”) and second (“top”) packages, the bottom package being a flip-chip BGA package having a flip-chip in a die-up configuration, in which the top substrate and the bottom package are interconnected by wire bonding. In some embodiments the top package is a stacked die package; in some embodiments the adjacent stacked die in the stacked die package can be separated by spacers. In some embodiments the flip-chip die on the bottom package is provided with an electrical shield. In some embodiments the bottom package substrate includes an embedded ground plane, the ground plane being configured to serve also for heat dissipation and as an electrical shield.
In another aspect the invention features a multi-package module having stacked first (“bottom”) and second (“top”) packages, each package including a die attached to a substrate and connected to the substrate by wire bonding, in which the top package substrate and the bottom package substrate are interconnected by wire bonding, and in which at least one of the bottom package and the top package is a stacked-die package. In some embodiments both the top package and the bottom package is a stacked-die package.
In another general aspect the invention features methods for making multi-package modules, by providing a first (bottom) package including at least one die on a first (bottom) package substrate, placing over the first package a second (top) package including at least one die on a second (top) package substrate, and forming wire bond z-interconnects between the first and second (top and bottom) substrates. Advantageously, the packages can be tested prior to assembly, and packages not meeting requirements for performance or reliability can be discarded, so that preferably only first packages and second packages tested as “good” are used in the assembled module.
In one aspect the invention features a method for making a multi-package module including a LGA package stacked over a flip chip BGA package, in which the top and bottom packages are electrically interconnected by wire bonding. According to this aspect, a flip chip BGA package is provided, usually in an unsingulated strip of molded flip chip BGA packages; preferably the BGA packages in the strip are tested for performance and reliability and packages identified as “good” are subjected to subsequent treatment; adhesive is dispensed over the upper surface of the molding on “good” BGA packages; a singulated molded land grid array package is provided; preferably the LGA package is tested and identified as “good”; the “good” LGA package is placed onto the adhesive over the molding on the “good” BGA package, and the adhesive is cured; optionally and preferably a plasma clean operation is performed followed by formation of wire bond z-interconnections between the stacked top LGA and bottom BGA package; optionally and preferably an additional plasma clean may be performed, followed by the formation of the MPM molding. Further steps include attachment of second-level interconnect solder balls to the underside of the module; testing and singulation of the completed module from the strip, for example by saw singulation or by punch singulation; and packaging for further use.
In some embodiments the LGA (top) package is fully molded, providing a generally planar upper surface of the LGA package; in other embodiments the wire bonds but not the entire upper die surface of the LGA package is molded, molding of the LGA being carried out by dispensing the molding compound only around the periphery of the die and the margin of the LGA package substrate
In another aspect the invention features a method for making a multi-package module including a LGA package stacked over a flip chip BGA package, in which the top and bottom packages are electrically interconnected by wire bonding, and in which the bottom package is provided with an electromagnetic shield. According to this aspect, a ball grid array package is provided, usually in an unsingulated strip of flip chip BGA packages; the BGA packages are provided with shields affixed over the die; preferably the BGA packages in the strip are tested for performance and reliability and packages identified as “good” are subjected to subsequent treatment; adhesive is dispensed over the upper surface of the shields on “good” BGA packages; a singulated molded land grid array package is provided; preferably the LGA package is tested and identified as “good”; the “good” LGA package is placed onto the adhesive over the shield, and the adhesive is cured; optionally and preferably a plasma clean operation is performed followed by formation of wire bond z-interconnections between the stacked top LGA and bottom BGA package; optionally and preferably an additional plasma clean may be performed, followed by the formation of the MPM molding. Further steps include attachment of second-level interconnect solder balls to the underside of the module; testing and singulation of the completed module from the strip, for example by saw singulation or by punch singulation; and packaging for further use.
In some embodiments the method includes steps for providing the multi-package module with a heat spreader. In this aspect of the invention a similar process is performed, with additional steps interposed installation of supported heat spreader by a “drop-in” mold operation, or for installation of a simple planar heat spreader by a drop-in mold operation; or by applying adhesive onto an upper surface of the top package molding or onto an upper surface of a spacer upon the top package, and affixing the planar heat spreader onto the adhesive.
In another aspect the invention features a method for making a multi-package module including a top package stacked over a die-up flip chip BGA bottom package, in which the top and bottom packages are electrically interconnected by wire bonding. According to this aspect, a die-up flip chip ball grid array package, usually not molded, is provided, usually as an unsingulated strip of die-up flip chip ball grid array packages; preferably the BGA packages in the strip are tested for performance and reliability and packages identified as “good” are subjected to subsequent treatment; adhesive is dispensed over the upper surface of the substrate on “good” BGA packages; a second package is provided, which may in some embodiments be a stacked die package, optionally and usually molded; preferably the LGA package is tested and identified as “good”; the “good” LGA package is placed onto the adhesive over the BGA substrate, and the adhesive is cured; optionally and preferably a plasma clean operation is performed followed by formation of wire bond z-interconnections between the stacked top LGA and bottom BGA package; optionally and preferably an additional plasma clean may be performed, followed by the formation of the MPM molding. Further steps include attachment of second-level interconnect solder balls to the underside of the module; testing and singulation of the completed module from the strip, for example by saw singulation or by punch singulation; and packaging for further use.
In some embodiments of the method two or more first molded packages are provided in an unsingulated strip, and assembly of the two or more modules proceeds on the strip, and singulation of the two or more modules is carried out after assembly has been completed.
In methods according to the invention for making multi-package modules the electrical connections between the stacked packages employs conventional wire bonding to form the z-interconnect between upper and lower package substrates in the stack. Particular advantages include the use of established manufacturing infrastructure, low production cost, design flexibility, and a thin package product. The z-interconnect wire bonding can be carried out, in the various package and module configurations, by drawing the wire to a conductive pad on the first package substrate from a bump formed on a conductive pad on the second package substrate; or, by drawing the wire to a conductive pad on the second package substrate from a bump formed on a conductive pad on the first package substrate.
The invention provides for assembly of more than one semiconductor in a thin and minimal footprint package at the lowest cost and highest final test yield. Furthermore some stack configurations according to the invention allow for high thermal performance, high electrical performance or electrical isolation of an RF component from a digital one. Other stack configurations provide a very thin structure appropriate for handheld or consumer products. All provide for a method for assembly that allows individual testing of the stacked packages to maximize the final yield of the module.
Additional process steps will be employed to complete the multi-package module according to the invention. For example, it may be preferred not to attach solder balls for connection of the lowermost package in the stack to the motherboard until the final step before singulation of the MPMs. And, for example, a plasma clean may be performed at any of a variety of points in the process, such as following adhesive cure and prior to encapsulation, and such as prior to and/or following z-interconnect wire bonding.
Advantageously, the individual packages can be provided as strips of several packages, connected in a row for ease of handling during manufacture, and the multi-package modules are singulated following completion of process steps. In methods according to the invention, the package stacks can be formed on a strip of nonsingulated first packages of a selected type by affixing singulated second packages and forming the wire bonded z-interconnects until the process of forming the modules is complete, and then singulating the modules.
MPM according to the invention can be used for building computers, telecommunications equipment, and consumer and industrial electronics devices.
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7745800 | BACKGROUND
Commonly used thermal neutron detectors, such as gas proportional counters and scintillation counters, have the drawback of being bulky (not very portable) and are not capable of, or readily configured for, determination of the neutron flux direction (or the direction of a neutron source, which is opposite to neutron flux direction). Gas proportional counters also require high voltages, on the order of kilovolts, which can be electronically noisy and susceptible to arcing due to environmental conditions. Solid state neutron detectors based on silicon or germanium photodiodes and phototransistors exist also, but they are quite small in size, and typically require a neutron converter foil, such as gadolinium, in front of the semiconductor device.
It is thus desirable to have a thermal neutron detector that overcomes the above-described deficiencies and that is capable of readily determining the direction of neutrons arriving from any direction.
SUMMARY
A directional neutron detecting apparatus includes first and second neutron detectors. Each neutron detector includes a thin planar sheet of neutron-reactive material; a first ohmic electrode operably coupled to one side of the planar sheet of neutron-reactive material; a second ohmic electrode operably coupled to a second side of the planar sheet of neutron-reactive material; a voltage source operably coupled to the first and second ohmic electrodes; and an electrical current detector operably coupled in series between the first ohmic electrode and the voltage source. The first and second neutron detectors are arranged so that their planar neutron-reactive sheets are substantially parallel, opposing and are spaced from each other. Multiple directional neutron detecting apparatuses may be arranged mutually orthogonally to thereby provide omni-directional neutron detection.
Other objects, advantages and new features will become apparent from the following detailed description when considered in conjunction with the accompanied drawings.
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SUMMARY: BACKGROUND
Commonly used thermal neutron detectors, such as gas proportional counters and scintillation counters, have the drawback of being bulky (not very portable) and are not capable of, or readily configured for, determination of the neutron flux direction (or the direction of a neutron source, which is opposite to neutron flux direction). Gas proportional counters also require high voltages, on the order of kilovolts, which can be electronically noisy and susceptible to arcing due to environmental conditions. Solid state neutron detectors based on silicon or germanium photodiodes and phototransistors exist also, but they are quite small in size, and typically require a neutron converter foil, such as gadolinium, in front of the semiconductor device.
It is thus desirable to have a thermal neutron detector that overcomes the above-described deficiencies and that is capable of readily determining the direction of neutrons arriving from any direction.
SUMMARY
A directional neutron detecting apparatus includes first and second neutron detectors. Each neutron detector includes a thin planar sheet of neutron-reactive material; a first ohmic electrode operably coupled to one side of the planar sheet of neutron-reactive material; a second ohmic electrode operably coupled to a second side of the planar sheet of neutron-reactive material; a voltage source operably coupled to the first and second ohmic electrodes; and an electrical current detector operably coupled in series between the first ohmic electrode and the voltage source. The first and second neutron detectors are arranged so that their planar neutron-reactive sheets are substantially parallel, opposing and are spaced from each other. Multiple directional neutron detecting apparatuses may be arranged mutually orthogonally to thereby provide omni-directional neutron detection.
Other objects, advantages and new features will become apparent from the following detailed description when considered in conjunction with the accompanied drawings.
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7839590 | BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetic recording system comprising perpendicular magnetic recording media.
2. Description of the Related Art
The magnetic recording system is such that the head is moved radially of a rotating disk and accurately set in position on an intended data track to write and read information magnetically. A top plane view of the interior of a housing (enclosure) of a typical magnetic recording system is shown inFIG. 10, and a sectional view of the magnetic recording system is shown inFIG. 11. These diagrams illustrate a magnetic recording system configured of six heads, three disks, a rotary actuator, a voice coil motor, a head amplifier and a package board.
The three disks are fixed on a single rotary shaft and driven at the rotation speed of 3000 to 15000 rpm around a point A by a spindle motor. The six heads are fixed on a single comb-shaped arm and rotationally driven around a point B by a rotary actuator. This mechanism permits the heads to move freely radially of the disk. The rotary actuator is suitable for reducing the size of the mechanism, and therefore is employed by all the magnetic recording systems recently made available on the market. Also, for detecting the radial position of the heads, servo areas are formed at substantially regular intervals of rotation angle on the disk. A detailed explanation will be given later of the arrangement of the servo areas and the data areas and means for detecting the radial position of the heads based on the servo areas. A package board has mounted thereon a hard disk controller (HDC), an interface circuit, a signal processor, etc. The head amplifier is often mounted in the enclosure in the neighborhood of the heads in order to improve the SN ratio and the transfer rate.
A plane view with the disk partially enlarged is shown inFIG. 12. The head can be moved to an arbitrary radial position on the disk by the rotary actuator, but when writing. or reading data, is fixed at a specific radial position. As shown inFIG. 12, concentric tracks are formed substantially equidistantly. By way of explanation, only five tracks are shown in solid lines. Actually, however, the tracks, which are magnetically formed, cannot be optically viewed directly. Although the track width is shown in enlarged form, an actual magnetic recording system has tracks in the number of several tens of thousands formed at intervals narrower than 1 .mu.m from the inner to outer peripheries of the disk.
For performing the operation of following a specific track, a technique is widely used in which a special pattern called the servo pattern is recorded before product shipment and a head position signal is obtained from this pattern. This technique is disclosed in JP-A-58-222468. The servo pattern is formed in the portions designated as servo areas inFIGS. 10 and 13. Each servo area and each data area are spaced from each other through a gap for absorbing the variations of the rotation speed. Further, each data area is divided into sector blocks of about 600 bytes including the user data of 512 bytes and management information. The main difference between the servo data and the data area is that the data area is rewritten frequently in response to a user instruction whereas the servo area is not rewritten after product shipment.
About 50 to 100 servo areas are formed at substantially equal angular intervals on the disk. The number of the data areas is greater than that of the servo areas, and therefore several data areas exist between given two servo areas.FIG. 13shows an example in which a data area #1is arranged between servo areas #1and #2, and the data area #1has three sector blocks #1to #3for each of four tracks #1to #4. An actual magnetic recording system has ten thousand or more tracks, and a portion of the tracks is shown in perpendicularly enlarged form inFIG. 13.
A pattern having a bit-direction timing synchronized between radially adjacent tracks is recorded in each servo area. For forming such a special pattern, a clock synchronized with disk rotation is required. A servo pattern is normally formed with a device called the servo track writer having the aforementioned function. A method of forming servo areas in this way is disclosed, for example, in JP-A-64-48276.
A general structure of a pattern formed in the servo areas and a method of producing the head position signal called the servo information from the servo pattern are shown inFIG. 14. In the pattern shown inFIG. 14, an ISG (Initial Signal Gain) area is a continuous pattern formed to reduce the effect of variations in the flying height and the magnetic characteristics of the recording film of each disk. A servo decoder reproduces the ISG area by turning on an automatic gain control (AGC). At the time point when a SVAM (SerVo Address Mark) area is detected, the AGC is turned off thereby to realize the function of standardizing the reproduction amplitude of the subsequent burst areas using the amplitude of the ISG area. A gray code area is for describing the track number information of each track by the gray code. The sector number information may also be described in this area. A burst area has a hound's tooth check pattern for producing accurate radial position information and is required for the head to follow each track accurately. This pattern is configured of a combination of A and B bursts formed between the center lines of adjacent servo tracks over the boundary of the particular tracks on the one hand and a combination of C and D bursts formed about the center lines of the servo tracks on the other hand. A pad area is a pattern formed for absorbing the delay of the servo decoder and peripheral circuits so that the servo decoder can maintain the clock generation during the reproduction of the servo area.
The head reproduces the servo area while running along the position curve C indicated by arrow from left to right inFIG. 14. A part of the waveform reproduced by this operation is shown inFIG. 15. For facilitating the understanding, the reproduced waveforms of the SVAM area, the gray code area and the pad area are not shown. The servo decoder detects the amplitude of the four burst areas A to D. The reproduction signal of each burst area is converted into a digital value by an A/D converter, and the amplitude is detected by integration or Fourier computation. The amplitude difference between the A burst area and the B burst area makes up an N position signal.FIG. 15includes an equation for standardizing the amplitude difference with the ISG amplitude. This function is implemented by the servo decoder controlling the AGC in such a manner as to secure a constant amplitude of the ISG area. In similar fashion, the amplitude difference between the C burst area and the D burst area constitutes a Q position signal. The head position signals produced in the manner described above are shown inFIG. 16. The N position signal assumes 0 at position B where the head center covers the A burst area and the B burst area equally, and changes between positive and negative values substantially in proportion to the amount of displacement from the center position. From the reproduced waveform (reproduced waveform at position C inFIG. 14) shown inFIG. 15, for example, the N position signal for position C inFIG. 16can be obtained.
A controller for controlling the position of the magnetic head produces a continuous position signal by comparing the absolute values of the N and Q position signals and connecting them by reversing the positive and negative values. In many servo patterns, a voice coil motor is controlled by setting the position associated with the N position signal of 0 as a target of following. Based on the difference between the position signal and the target position, the optimum current value charged to the voice coil motor is calculated. Then, predetermined operations such as the following and seek operations are performed.
The steps of forming the burst area will be explained briefly with reference toFIGS. 17(a) to17(e) and18(f) to18(i). The portions defined by thick lines are patterns recorded in each step, and the width along the transverse direction of the pattern corresponds to the width of the recording track. A recording current pattern corresponding to each recorded pattern is shown under the portion defined by each thick line. As shown inFIGS. 14 and 15, the heads are moved at intervals of the data track, i.e. one half of the track pitch, while recording different patterns in phase. Some portions are written additionally, while other portions are erased by DC field. As a result, the burst area in the shape of hound's tooth check is recorded.
FIGS. 19(a) to19(d) show the relation between a recorded magnetization pattern and a reproduced wave for both the longitudinal magnetic recording system and the perpendicular magnetic recording system in comparison. The longitudinal magnetic recording system has no response to the DC magnetization, and a single-peaked output is produced only at the transition. The reproduction of the recorded magnetization pattern shown inFIG. 19(a) assumes a waveform as shown inFIG. 19(b). As a result, a reproduced waveform as shown inFIG. 20(a) is obtained for the servo pattern described above, and the integrated signal of absolute value of waveform for producing the position signal information assumes a form as shown inFIG. 20(b). This indicates that the amplitude of each burst and that of a corresponding integrated signal coincide well in magnitude with each other.
However, a double-layer perpendicular recording medium having a soft magnetic under layer has a response to DC magnetization, and the reproduction for the recorded magnetization shown inFIG. 19(c) assumes a reproduced waveform as shown inFIG. 19(d). Thus, the reproduction for a servo pattern similar to that for longitudinal recording assumes a waveform which undesirably has a DC offset as shown inFIG. 21(a). The integrated signal of absolute value of waveform for producing the position signal information assumes a form as shown inFIG. 21(b), which fails to correctly represent the amplitude level of the burst signal. The actual circuits of the reproduction system such as the AGC and the read amplifier have a characteristic of lowering the DC component. Therefore, the reproduced waveform is distorted as shown inFIG. 22, and when integrated, a correct position signal cannot be produced due to the effect of the DC offset.
The burst signal portion of the burst area is arranged as described above in such a manner as to be surrounded by a large DC erased area as shown inFIG. 2. The feature of the double-layer perpendicular recording is that the shorter the wavelength, the smaller the demagnetization field in the recording bits, and hence the longer the wavelength, the larger the thermal demagnetization.FIG. 23shows an example of the simulation result of the secular variations of the reproduced output for the recording densities of 20 KFCI, 100 KFCI and 300 KFCI, respectively. It is seen that the lower the recording density, i.e. the longer the wavelength for bits, the larger the output reduction. Due to a similar effect, the magnetic field generated by magnetization of the DC erased area described above affects the adjacent servo signal area and promotes the thermal demagnetization of the servo signal area.
In the case where the DC magnetization is recorded as a base for recording bits, a phenomenon is reported in which the track edge of the recorded bits shifts along the track width according to whether the particular track end coincides with the polarity of the base DC magnetization. The end of the burst signal area also shifts due to a similar phenomenon, thereby deteriorating the position signal quality.
Another problem of the prior art is that the maximum bit length of the signal recorded in the servo area is longer than the maximum bit length of the data area, and under this condition, the anti-signal decay performance of the servo area is weakest from design aspect, thereby making it impossible to secure reliability.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to solve the problem described above and to provide a longitudinal magnetic recording system wherein a signal with a shorter bit length than the burst signal, i.e. a signal of a shorter wavelength than the burst signal is recorded in what conventionally has been the DC erased area of the servo area or an area having a very long wavelength recorded therein. In this way, the demagnetization field in the servo area is reduced, and the anti-signal decay performance is improved while at the same time suppressing the shift of the end of the burst signal area for an improved servo signal quality. In this invention, the DC erased area of the servo area where a signal of a shorter wavelength than the burst signal is called a dummy area.
Generally, the sensitivity of the reproduction head decreases for a recording signal of a shorter wavelength. Once the wavelength of the signal recorded in the dummy area is sufficiently shortened, therefore, the reproduction amplitude from the signal recorded in the dummy area is substantially zero and has no effect on the detection of the position signal. In some cases, the wavelength of the recorded signal recorded in the dummy area cannot be shortened sufficiently due to the performance of the servo track writer, and the reproduced output of the signal recorded in the dummy area is sometimes large to a not negligible degree. In such a case, the effect of the recorded signal in the dummy area can be removed by using a LPF (Low Pass Filter) for lowering the signal of shorter wavelength than the signal recorded in the dummy area.
The servo track writer can be controlled more easily when the signal frequency recorded in the dummy area is set to an integer multiple of the signal frequency of the servo pattern. Then, the throughput of the system production can be increased for a higher cost effectiveness.
Another object of the invention is to provide a magnetic recording system, wherein the maximum bit length of the servo area is limited and shortened to the maximum bit length of the data area or less. In perpendicular recording, the thermal demagnetization of the low density signal is so large that the thermal fluctuation occurs most conspicuously in the portion of the recorded data on the media where the recording density is lowest. The servo pattern is indispensable data for positioning the head, and the need of preventing the disappearance thereof due to the thermal fluctuation is higher than that of the user data. For this purpose, the system is designed in such a manner that the recorded bit length of the burst signal area of the servo area is set to a length at least equal to the maximum bit length of the signal recorded in the disk, and under this condition, the anti-signal decay performance is secured. By designing the servo pattern in this way, the anti-signal decay performance of the servo pattern can be secured.
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SUMMARY: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetic recording system comprising perpendicular magnetic recording media.
2. Description of the Related Art
The magnetic recording system is such that the head is moved radially of a rotating disk and accurately set in position on an intended data track to write and read information magnetically. A top plane view of the interior of a housing (enclosure) of a typical magnetic recording system is shown inFIG. 10, and a sectional view of the magnetic recording system is shown inFIG. 11. These diagrams illustrate a magnetic recording system configured of six heads, three disks, a rotary actuator, a voice coil motor, a head amplifier and a package board.
The three disks are fixed on a single rotary shaft and driven at the rotation speed of 3000 to 15000 rpm around a point A by a spindle motor. The six heads are fixed on a single comb-shaped arm and rotationally driven around a point B by a rotary actuator. This mechanism permits the heads to move freely radially of the disk. The rotary actuator is suitable for reducing the size of the mechanism, and therefore is employed by all the magnetic recording systems recently made available on the market. Also, for detecting the radial position of the heads, servo areas are formed at substantially regular intervals of rotation angle on the disk. A detailed explanation will be given later of the arrangement of the servo areas and the data areas and means for detecting the radial position of the heads based on the servo areas. A package board has mounted thereon a hard disk controller (HDC), an interface circuit, a signal processor, etc. The head amplifier is often mounted in the enclosure in the neighborhood of the heads in order to improve the SN ratio and the transfer rate.
A plane view with the disk partially enlarged is shown inFIG. 12. The head can be moved to an arbitrary radial position on the disk by the rotary actuator, but when writing. or reading data, is fixed at a specific radial position. As shown inFIG. 12, concentric tracks are formed substantially equidistantly. By way of explanation, only five tracks are shown in solid lines. Actually, however, the tracks, which are magnetically formed, cannot be optically viewed directly. Although the track width is shown in enlarged form, an actual magnetic recording system has tracks in the number of several tens of thousands formed at intervals narrower than 1 .mu.m from the inner to outer peripheries of the disk.
For performing the operation of following a specific track, a technique is widely used in which a special pattern called the servo pattern is recorded before product shipment and a head position signal is obtained from this pattern. This technique is disclosed in JP-A-58-222468. The servo pattern is formed in the portions designated as servo areas inFIGS. 10 and 13. Each servo area and each data area are spaced from each other through a gap for absorbing the variations of the rotation speed. Further, each data area is divided into sector blocks of about 600 bytes including the user data of 512 bytes and management information. The main difference between the servo data and the data area is that the data area is rewritten frequently in response to a user instruction whereas the servo area is not rewritten after product shipment.
About 50 to 100 servo areas are formed at substantially equal angular intervals on the disk. The number of the data areas is greater than that of the servo areas, and therefore several data areas exist between given two servo areas.FIG. 13shows an example in which a data area #1is arranged between servo areas #1and #2, and the data area #1has three sector blocks #1to #3for each of four tracks #1to #4. An actual magnetic recording system has ten thousand or more tracks, and a portion of the tracks is shown in perpendicularly enlarged form inFIG. 13.
A pattern having a bit-direction timing synchronized between radially adjacent tracks is recorded in each servo area. For forming such a special pattern, a clock synchronized with disk rotation is required. A servo pattern is normally formed with a device called the servo track writer having the aforementioned function. A method of forming servo areas in this way is disclosed, for example, in JP-A-64-48276.
A general structure of a pattern formed in the servo areas and a method of producing the head position signal called the servo information from the servo pattern are shown inFIG. 14. In the pattern shown inFIG. 14, an ISG (Initial Signal Gain) area is a continuous pattern formed to reduce the effect of variations in the flying height and the magnetic characteristics of the recording film of each disk. A servo decoder reproduces the ISG area by turning on an automatic gain control (AGC). At the time point when a SVAM (SerVo Address Mark) area is detected, the AGC is turned off thereby to realize the function of standardizing the reproduction amplitude of the subsequent burst areas using the amplitude of the ISG area. A gray code area is for describing the track number information of each track by the gray code. The sector number information may also be described in this area. A burst area has a hound's tooth check pattern for producing accurate radial position information and is required for the head to follow each track accurately. This pattern is configured of a combination of A and B bursts formed between the center lines of adjacent servo tracks over the boundary of the particular tracks on the one hand and a combination of C and D bursts formed about the center lines of the servo tracks on the other hand. A pad area is a pattern formed for absorbing the delay of the servo decoder and peripheral circuits so that the servo decoder can maintain the clock generation during the reproduction of the servo area.
The head reproduces the servo area while running along the position curve C indicated by arrow from left to right inFIG. 14. A part of the waveform reproduced by this operation is shown inFIG. 15. For facilitating the understanding, the reproduced waveforms of the SVAM area, the gray code area and the pad area are not shown. The servo decoder detects the amplitude of the four burst areas A to D. The reproduction signal of each burst area is converted into a digital value by an A/D converter, and the amplitude is detected by integration or Fourier computation. The amplitude difference between the A burst area and the B burst area makes up an N position signal.FIG. 15includes an equation for standardizing the amplitude difference with the ISG amplitude. This function is implemented by the servo decoder controlling the AGC in such a manner as to secure a constant amplitude of the ISG area. In similar fashion, the amplitude difference between the C burst area and the D burst area constitutes a Q position signal. The head position signals produced in the manner described above are shown inFIG. 16. The N position signal assumes 0 at position B where the head center covers the A burst area and the B burst area equally, and changes between positive and negative values substantially in proportion to the amount of displacement from the center position. From the reproduced waveform (reproduced waveform at position C inFIG. 14) shown inFIG. 15, for example, the N position signal for position C inFIG. 16can be obtained.
A controller for controlling the position of the magnetic head produces a continuous position signal by comparing the absolute values of the N and Q position signals and connecting them by reversing the positive and negative values. In many servo patterns, a voice coil motor is controlled by setting the position associated with the N position signal of 0 as a target of following. Based on the difference between the position signal and the target position, the optimum current value charged to the voice coil motor is calculated. Then, predetermined operations such as the following and seek operations are performed.
The steps of forming the burst area will be explained briefly with reference toFIGS. 17(a) to17(e) and18(f) to18(i). The portions defined by thick lines are patterns recorded in each step, and the width along the transverse direction of the pattern corresponds to the width of the recording track. A recording current pattern corresponding to each recorded pattern is shown under the portion defined by each thick line. As shown inFIGS. 14 and 15, the heads are moved at intervals of the data track, i.e. one half of the track pitch, while recording different patterns in phase. Some portions are written additionally, while other portions are erased by DC field. As a result, the burst area in the shape of hound's tooth check is recorded.
FIGS. 19(a) to19(d) show the relation between a recorded magnetization pattern and a reproduced wave for both the longitudinal magnetic recording system and the perpendicular magnetic recording system in comparison. The longitudinal magnetic recording system has no response to the DC magnetization, and a single-peaked output is produced only at the transition. The reproduction of the recorded magnetization pattern shown inFIG. 19(a) assumes a waveform as shown inFIG. 19(b). As a result, a reproduced waveform as shown inFIG. 20(a) is obtained for the servo pattern described above, and the integrated signal of absolute value of waveform for producing the position signal information assumes a form as shown inFIG. 20(b). This indicates that the amplitude of each burst and that of a corresponding integrated signal coincide well in magnitude with each other.
However, a double-layer perpendicular recording medium having a soft magnetic under layer has a response to DC magnetization, and the reproduction for the recorded magnetization shown inFIG. 19(c) assumes a reproduced waveform as shown inFIG. 19(d). Thus, the reproduction for a servo pattern similar to that for longitudinal recording assumes a waveform which undesirably has a DC offset as shown inFIG. 21(a). The integrated signal of absolute value of waveform for producing the position signal information assumes a form as shown inFIG. 21(b), which fails to correctly represent the amplitude level of the burst signal. The actual circuits of the reproduction system such as the AGC and the read amplifier have a characteristic of lowering the DC component. Therefore, the reproduced waveform is distorted as shown inFIG. 22, and when integrated, a correct position signal cannot be produced due to the effect of the DC offset.
The burst signal portion of the burst area is arranged as described above in such a manner as to be surrounded by a large DC erased area as shown inFIG. 2. The feature of the double-layer perpendicular recording is that the shorter the wavelength, the smaller the demagnetization field in the recording bits, and hence the longer the wavelength, the larger the thermal demagnetization.FIG. 23shows an example of the simulation result of the secular variations of the reproduced output for the recording densities of 20 KFCI, 100 KFCI and 300 KFCI, respectively. It is seen that the lower the recording density, i.e. the longer the wavelength for bits, the larger the output reduction. Due to a similar effect, the magnetic field generated by magnetization of the DC erased area described above affects the adjacent servo signal area and promotes the thermal demagnetization of the servo signal area.
In the case where the DC magnetization is recorded as a base for recording bits, a phenomenon is reported in which the track edge of the recorded bits shifts along the track width according to whether the particular track end coincides with the polarity of the base DC magnetization. The end of the burst signal area also shifts due to a similar phenomenon, thereby deteriorating the position signal quality.
Another problem of the prior art is that the maximum bit length of the signal recorded in the servo area is longer than the maximum bit length of the data area, and under this condition, the anti-signal decay performance of the servo area is weakest from design aspect, thereby making it impossible to secure reliability.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to solve the problem described above and to provide a longitudinal magnetic recording system wherein a signal with a shorter bit length than the burst signal, i.e. a signal of a shorter wavelength than the burst signal is recorded in what conventionally has been the DC erased area of the servo area or an area having a very long wavelength recorded therein. In this way, the demagnetization field in the servo area is reduced, and the anti-signal decay performance is improved while at the same time suppressing the shift of the end of the burst signal area for an improved servo signal quality. In this invention, the DC erased area of the servo area where a signal of a shorter wavelength than the burst signal is called a dummy area.
Generally, the sensitivity of the reproduction head decreases for a recording signal of a shorter wavelength. Once the wavelength of the signal recorded in the dummy area is sufficiently shortened, therefore, the reproduction amplitude from the signal recorded in the dummy area is substantially zero and has no effect on the detection of the position signal. In some cases, the wavelength of the recorded signal recorded in the dummy area cannot be shortened sufficiently due to the performance of the servo track writer, and the reproduced output of the signal recorded in the dummy area is sometimes large to a not negligible degree. In such a case, the effect of the recorded signal in the dummy area can be removed by using a LPF (Low Pass Filter) for lowering the signal of shorter wavelength than the signal recorded in the dummy area.
The servo track writer can be controlled more easily when the signal frequency recorded in the dummy area is set to an integer multiple of the signal frequency of the servo pattern. Then, the throughput of the system production can be increased for a higher cost effectiveness.
Another object of the invention is to provide a magnetic recording system, wherein the maximum bit length of the servo area is limited and shortened to the maximum bit length of the data area or less. In perpendicular recording, the thermal demagnetization of the low density signal is so large that the thermal fluctuation occurs most conspicuously in the portion of the recorded data on the media where the recording density is lowest. The servo pattern is indispensable data for positioning the head, and the need of preventing the disappearance thereof due to the thermal fluctuation is higher than that of the user data. For this purpose, the system is designed in such a manner that the recorded bit length of the burst signal area of the servo area is set to a length at least equal to the maximum bit length of the signal recorded in the disk, and under this condition, the anti-signal decay performance is secured. By designing the servo pattern in this way, the anti-signal decay performance of the servo pattern can be secured.
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7717133 | RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application relates to co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/700,801, filed Jan. 31, 2007, titled “OVERMOLD INTERFACE FOR FLUID CARRYING SYSTEM”, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates interfaces of fluid conduits and in particular to interfaces provided as apart of an overmold of a portion of a fluid conduit.
Water delivery devices, such as faucets, are known which include a valve which may be controlled to regulate the flow of water.
In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, a water delivery system in fluid communication with at least one valve is provided. The water delivery system comprises a spout member having a discharge end, an aerator for positioning adjacent the discharge end of the spout member, a fluid transport member, a first component coupled to the fluid transport member, and a second component coupled to the aerator. The fluid transport member has a fluid conduit with a first end in fluid communication with the at least one valve and a second end positioned proximate the discharge end of the spout member. The first component includes a fluid conduit in fluid communication with the fluid conduit of the fluid transport member and including an interface. The second component positioning the first component relative to the aerator. The aerator and the interface of the first component cooperating to form a water tight seal there between.
In another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, a water delivery system in fluid communication with at least one valve is provided. The water delivery system comprises a body and a fluid transport member positioned within the body and adapted to be in fluid communication with the at least one valve. The fluid transport member has a first end through which water exits. The water delivery device further comprises a holder supported by the body and includes a fluid conduit having a first end and a second end. The first end of the fluid transport member is received in the first end of the holder. The first end of the fluid transport member is held within the fluid conduit of the holder by translating the holder to a first position in a first direction and the first end of the fluid transport member is removable from within the fluid conduit of the holder by translating the holder to a second position in a second direction.
In a further exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, a water delivery system in fluid communication with at least one valve is provided. The water delivery system comprises a spout including a body having a base portion and a spout portion. The spout is made of a non-metallic material. The spout portion includes a channel extending from the base portion to a location proximate a discharge end of the spout portion. The water delivery system further comprises a fluid transport member having a fluid conduit with a first end in fluid communication with the at least one valve and a second end positioned proximate the discharge end of the spout portion of the body of the spout. A portion of the fluid transport member is received in the channel.
Additional features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of the illustrative embodiment exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the invention as presently perceived.
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SUMMARY: RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application relates to co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/700,801, filed Jan. 31, 2007, titled “OVERMOLD INTERFACE FOR FLUID CARRYING SYSTEM”, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates interfaces of fluid conduits and in particular to interfaces provided as apart of an overmold of a portion of a fluid conduit.
Water delivery devices, such as faucets, are known which include a valve which may be controlled to regulate the flow of water.
In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, a water delivery system in fluid communication with at least one valve is provided. The water delivery system comprises a spout member having a discharge end, an aerator for positioning adjacent the discharge end of the spout member, a fluid transport member, a first component coupled to the fluid transport member, and a second component coupled to the aerator. The fluid transport member has a fluid conduit with a first end in fluid communication with the at least one valve and a second end positioned proximate the discharge end of the spout member. The first component includes a fluid conduit in fluid communication with the fluid conduit of the fluid transport member and including an interface. The second component positioning the first component relative to the aerator. The aerator and the interface of the first component cooperating to form a water tight seal there between.
In another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, a water delivery system in fluid communication with at least one valve is provided. The water delivery system comprises a body and a fluid transport member positioned within the body and adapted to be in fluid communication with the at least one valve. The fluid transport member has a first end through which water exits. The water delivery device further comprises a holder supported by the body and includes a fluid conduit having a first end and a second end. The first end of the fluid transport member is received in the first end of the holder. The first end of the fluid transport member is held within the fluid conduit of the holder by translating the holder to a first position in a first direction and the first end of the fluid transport member is removable from within the fluid conduit of the holder by translating the holder to a second position in a second direction.
In a further exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, a water delivery system in fluid communication with at least one valve is provided. The water delivery system comprises a spout including a body having a base portion and a spout portion. The spout is made of a non-metallic material. The spout portion includes a channel extending from the base portion to a location proximate a discharge end of the spout portion. The water delivery system further comprises a fluid transport member having a fluid conduit with a first end in fluid communication with the at least one valve and a second end positioned proximate the discharge end of the spout portion of the body of the spout. A portion of the fluid transport member is received in the channel.
Additional features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of the illustrative embodiment exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the invention as presently perceived.
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7800621 | TECHNICAL FIELD
The present application relates to apparatus and methods for control of a memory controller and, more particularly, for controlling a memory controller when a static screen condition of display data is detected.
BACKGROUND
In mobile electronic devices, namely devices such as laptop computers having a limited power supply (e.g., battery-powered), personal data assistants (PDAs) and cell phones, reducing the power consumption of such devices is important in order to extend the amount of time the devices may be operated on a limited amount of energy. Typically, these types of devices include a display screen for displaying image data. In some particular applications run on these devices, the applications generating image data, the image data displayed is static; that is, the same image is constantly displayed. Examples of such applications may include Windows® desktop for a computer or applications such as word processing programs, e-mail programs, and other similar applications where the displayed image data may often times be constant or static.
During display of the static data discussed above, no processing of image data is performed by processing devices, such as a central processing unit or a graphic processing unit, and, consequently, no image data is written to memory locations storing the display image data. Nonetheless, in computing systems, such as the devices enumerated above, display image data is typically read by a display controller from the memory locations under the direction of a memory controller controlling read and write accesses of the memory locations. That is, the display controller is a real time client in that the image data is continuously fetched from memory for displaying images on a display medium. In particular, the image data is typically fetched from the memory in advance of display and temporarily buffered or stored in a line buffer contained within the display controller prior to display in order to ensure the data will be displayed on time. The line buffer is configured to store a number of entries or lines of image data.
Although display image data may be static, because the memory controller continues to access memory at the request of the display controller, power consumption is still relatively high, despite the lack of processing of data and memory writes. In light of the amounts of power consumed during display of static screen images, it is known in the art to employ various schemes in order to attempt to reduce the power consumption when static images are being displayed on a screen, taking advantage of the constancy of the data in memory. Such schemes include, for example, lowering the clock frequency of the processor (i.e., the memory client) during periods of a static condition of image data stored in the memory. Another approach includes lowering the core power rail voltage (i.e., the voltage of the processor or memory client). Further schemes known in the art include dynamic clock branches in the memory controller, which involves shutting off different clocking branches to reduce the amount of switching or clock gating, thereby lowering power. In particular, CMOS circuits, whose power consumption is directly proportional to the amount of switching, are typically utilized in memory controllers and, thus, reducing the amount of switching of these CMOS circuits helps to reduce the power consumption.
Moreover, in particular memories, such as double data rate (DDR) synchronous dynamic RAM memories (DDR SDRAM), industry standards governing the construction of such devices provide power saving functionalities within the memory devices. In particular, the JEDEC Solid State Technology Association has developed specifications such as the DDR2 SDRAM specification (JESD 79-2A, January 2004) providing at least three different functionalities for power reduction. These three functionalities are active power down, pre-charged power down, and self-refresh. The active power down operation, in particular, affects a lower power state for the memory device while pages are open and being accessed from banks within the memory device. The pre-charge power down operation affects a low power state of the memory when particular pages are closed. Particularly in instances where image data is static, pre-charge power down operation has typically been used to reduce power consumption. Although the active power down and pre-charge power down operations provided by the JEDEC standard serve to reduce power, these modes of operation still require that a memory controller drive clock signals to the memory device, the signals communicated over the memory interface. Since these clock signals are typically implemented with CMOS circuitry, the switching required to drive the clock signals consumes high amounts of power.
The third power saving operation provided by the JEDEC standard mentioned above is self-refresh operation. In this mode, the memory device itself serves to refresh the dynamic RAM circuits within the memory device. When a memory device is in this mode, the memory controller no longer needs to drive clock signals to the memory. A disadvantage with self-refresh mode, however, is the high latency when bringing the memory device out of the self-refresh mode. Thus, this mode is typically not used to save power when the display device is active, especially for memories used to store image data to be displayed by a display controller because of the high latency to bring back the memory out of self-refresh.
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SUMMARY: TECHNICAL FIELD
The present application relates to apparatus and methods for control of a memory controller and, more particularly, for controlling a memory controller when a static screen condition of display data is detected.
BACKGROUND
In mobile electronic devices, namely devices such as laptop computers having a limited power supply (e.g., battery-powered), personal data assistants (PDAs) and cell phones, reducing the power consumption of such devices is important in order to extend the amount of time the devices may be operated on a limited amount of energy. Typically, these types of devices include a display screen for displaying image data. In some particular applications run on these devices, the applications generating image data, the image data displayed is static; that is, the same image is constantly displayed. Examples of such applications may include Windows® desktop for a computer or applications such as word processing programs, e-mail programs, and other similar applications where the displayed image data may often times be constant or static.
During display of the static data discussed above, no processing of image data is performed by processing devices, such as a central processing unit or a graphic processing unit, and, consequently, no image data is written to memory locations storing the display image data. Nonetheless, in computing systems, such as the devices enumerated above, display image data is typically read by a display controller from the memory locations under the direction of a memory controller controlling read and write accesses of the memory locations. That is, the display controller is a real time client in that the image data is continuously fetched from memory for displaying images on a display medium. In particular, the image data is typically fetched from the memory in advance of display and temporarily buffered or stored in a line buffer contained within the display controller prior to display in order to ensure the data will be displayed on time. The line buffer is configured to store a number of entries or lines of image data.
Although display image data may be static, because the memory controller continues to access memory at the request of the display controller, power consumption is still relatively high, despite the lack of processing of data and memory writes. In light of the amounts of power consumed during display of static screen images, it is known in the art to employ various schemes in order to attempt to reduce the power consumption when static images are being displayed on a screen, taking advantage of the constancy of the data in memory. Such schemes include, for example, lowering the clock frequency of the processor (i.e., the memory client) during periods of a static condition of image data stored in the memory. Another approach includes lowering the core power rail voltage (i.e., the voltage of the processor or memory client). Further schemes known in the art include dynamic clock branches in the memory controller, which involves shutting off different clocking branches to reduce the amount of switching or clock gating, thereby lowering power. In particular, CMOS circuits, whose power consumption is directly proportional to the amount of switching, are typically utilized in memory controllers and, thus, reducing the amount of switching of these CMOS circuits helps to reduce the power consumption.
Moreover, in particular memories, such as double data rate (DDR) synchronous dynamic RAM memories (DDR SDRAM), industry standards governing the construction of such devices provide power saving functionalities within the memory devices. In particular, the JEDEC Solid State Technology Association has developed specifications such as the DDR2 SDRAM specification (JESD 79-2A, January 2004) providing at least three different functionalities for power reduction. These three functionalities are active power down, pre-charged power down, and self-refresh. The active power down operation, in particular, affects a lower power state for the memory device while pages are open and being accessed from banks within the memory device. The pre-charge power down operation affects a low power state of the memory when particular pages are closed. Particularly in instances where image data is static, pre-charge power down operation has typically been used to reduce power consumption. Although the active power down and pre-charge power down operations provided by the JEDEC standard serve to reduce power, these modes of operation still require that a memory controller drive clock signals to the memory device, the signals communicated over the memory interface. Since these clock signals are typically implemented with CMOS circuitry, the switching required to drive the clock signals consumes high amounts of power.
The third power saving operation provided by the JEDEC standard mentioned above is self-refresh operation. In this mode, the memory device itself serves to refresh the dynamic RAM circuits within the memory device. When a memory device is in this mode, the memory controller no longer needs to drive clock signals to the memory. A disadvantage with self-refresh mode, however, is the high latency when bringing the memory device out of the self-refresh mode. Thus, this mode is typically not used to save power when the display device is active, especially for memories used to store image data to be displayed by a display controller because of the high latency to bring back the memory out of self-refresh.
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7793517 | BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field of Invention
The present invention relates to the recovery of ethane and heavier components from hydrocarbon gas streams. More particularly, the present invention relates to recovery of ethane and heavier components from hydrocarbon streams utilizing multiple reflux streams.
2. Description of Prior Art
Valuable hydrocarbon components, such as ethane, ethylene, propane, propylene and heavier hydrocarbon components, are present in a variety of gas streams. Some of the gas streams are natural gas streams, refinery off gas streams, coal seam gas streams, and the like. In addition these components may also be present in other sources of hydrocarbons such as coal, tar sands, and crude oil to name a few. The amount of valuable hydrocarbons varies with the feed source. The present invention is concerned with the recovery of valuable hydrocarbon from a gas stream containing more than 50% methane and lighter components [i.e., nitrogen, carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen, etc.], ethane, and carbon dioxide (CO2). Propane, propylene and heavier hydrocarbon components generally make up a small amount of the overall feed. Due to the cost of natural gas, there is a need for processes that are capable of achieving high recovery rates of ethane, ethylene, and heavier components, while lowering operating and capital costs associated with such processes. Additionally, these processes need to be easy to operate and be efficient in order to maximize the revenue generated form the sale of NGL.
Several processes are available to recover hydrocarbon components from natural gas. These processes include refrigeration processes, lean oil processes, refrigerated lean oil processes, and cryogenic processes. Of late, cryogenic processes have largely been preferred over other processes due to better reliability, efficiency, and ease of operation. Depending of the hydrocarbon components to be recovered, i.e. ethane and heavier components or propane and heavier components, the cryogenic processes are different. Typically, ethane recovery processes employ a single tower with a reflux stream to increase recovery and make the process efficient such as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,519,824 issued to Huebel (hereinafter referred to as “the '824 patent”); U.S. Pat. No. 4,278,457 issued to Campbell et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,157,904 issued to Campbell et al. Depending on the source of reflux, the maximum recovery possible from the scheme may be limited. For example, if the reflux stream is taken from the hydrocarbon gas feed stream or from the cold separator vapor stream, or first vapor stream, as in the '824 patent, the maximum recovery possible by the scheme is limited because the reflux stream contains ethane. If the reflux stream is taken from lean residue gas stream, then 99% ethane recovery is possible due to the lean composition of the reflux stream. However, this scheme is not very efficient due to the need to compress residue gas for reflux purposes.
A need exists for a process that is capable of achieving high ethane recovery, while maintaining its efficiency. It would be advantageous if the process could be simplified so as to minimize capital costs associated with additional equipment.
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
The present invention advantageously includes a process and apparatus to decrease the compression requirements for residue gas while maintaining a high recovery yield of ethane (“C2+”) components from a hydrocarbon gas stream by using multiple reflux streams.
First, a hydrocarbon feed stream is split into two streams, a first inlet stream and a second inlet stream. First inlet stream is cooled in an inlet gas exchanger, and second inlet stream is cooled in one or more demethanizer reboilers of a demethanizer tower. The two streams are then directed into a cold separator. When the hydrocarbon feed stream has an ethane content above 5%, a cold absorber can be used to recover more ethane. If a cold absorber is used, the colder stream of two streams is introduced at a top of the cold absorber and the warmer stream is sent to a bottom of the cold absorber. The cold absorber preferably includes at least one mass transfer zone.
Cold separator produces a separator overhead stream and a separator bottoms stream. Cold separator bottoms stream is directed to methanizer as a first demethanizer feed stream while cold separator overhead stream is split into two streams, a first cold separator overhead stream and a second cold separator overhead stream. First cold separator overhead stream is sent to an expander and then to demethanizer as a second demethanizer feed stream. Second cold separator overhead stream is cooled and then sent to a reflux separator.
In an alternate embodiment, inlet gas stream is split into three streams, wherein first and second streams continue to be directed to front end exchanger and demethanizer reboilers, respectively. A third stream is cooled in the inlet gas exchange and a reflux subcooler before being sent to reflux separator. Furthermore, in this embodiment, cold separator overhead stream is not split into two streams, but, instead, is maintained as a single stream. Cold separator overhead stream is expanded and then fed into demethanizer as a second demethanizer feed stream.
Similar to cold separator, reflux separator also produces a reflux separator overhead stream and a reflux separator bottoms stream. Reflux separator bottoms stream is directed to demethanizer as third demethanizer feed stream. After exiting reflux separator, reflux separator overhead stream is cooled, condensed, and sent to demethanizer as a fourth demethanizer feed stream.
The demethanizer tower is preferably a reboiled absorber that produces an NGL product containing a large portion of ethane, ethylene, propane, propylene and heavier components at the bottom and a demethanizer overhead stream, or cold residue gas stream, containing a substantial amount methane and lighter components at the top. Demethanizer overhead stream is warmed in the reflux exchanger and then in the inlet gas exchanger. This warmed residue gas stream is then boosted in pressure across the booster compressor, and then compressed to pipeline pressure to produce a residue gas stream. A portion of the high pressure residue gas stream is cooled, condensed, and sent to the demethanizer tower as a top feed stream, or a demethanizer reflux stream. Alternatively, demethanizer reflux stream is cooled in the inlet gas exchanger, combined with a portion of second cold separator overhead stream, partially condensed in reflux exchanger, and then fed into reflux separator.
In an additional alternate embodiment, wherein inlet gas stream is split into three streams, third inlet gas stream is combined with residue gas reflux stream. This combined inlet/recycle stream is cooled in both inlet gas exchanger and reflux subcooler. In this embodiment, cold separator overhead stream is not split into two streams, but instead is expanded and then fed into demethanizer as second demethanizer feed stream.
Demethanizer produces at least one reboiler stream that is warmed in demethanizer reboiler and redirected back to demethanizer as return streams to supply heat and recover refrigeration effects from demethanizer. In addition, demethanizer also produces a demethanizer overhead stream and a demethanizer bottoms stream wherein demethanizer bottoms stream contains major portion of recovered C2+ components. While the recovery of C2+ components is comparable to other C2+ recovery processes, the compression requirements are much lower.
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field of Invention
The present invention relates to the recovery of ethane and heavier components from hydrocarbon gas streams. More particularly, the present invention relates to recovery of ethane and heavier components from hydrocarbon streams utilizing multiple reflux streams.
2. Description of Prior Art
Valuable hydrocarbon components, such as ethane, ethylene, propane, propylene and heavier hydrocarbon components, are present in a variety of gas streams. Some of the gas streams are natural gas streams, refinery off gas streams, coal seam gas streams, and the like. In addition these components may also be present in other sources of hydrocarbons such as coal, tar sands, and crude oil to name a few. The amount of valuable hydrocarbons varies with the feed source. The present invention is concerned with the recovery of valuable hydrocarbon from a gas stream containing more than 50% methane and lighter components [i.e., nitrogen, carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen, etc.], ethane, and carbon dioxide (CO2). Propane, propylene and heavier hydrocarbon components generally make up a small amount of the overall feed. Due to the cost of natural gas, there is a need for processes that are capable of achieving high recovery rates of ethane, ethylene, and heavier components, while lowering operating and capital costs associated with such processes. Additionally, these processes need to be easy to operate and be efficient in order to maximize the revenue generated form the sale of NGL.
Several processes are available to recover hydrocarbon components from natural gas. These processes include refrigeration processes, lean oil processes, refrigerated lean oil processes, and cryogenic processes. Of late, cryogenic processes have largely been preferred over other processes due to better reliability, efficiency, and ease of operation. Depending of the hydrocarbon components to be recovered, i.e. ethane and heavier components or propane and heavier components, the cryogenic processes are different. Typically, ethane recovery processes employ a single tower with a reflux stream to increase recovery and make the process efficient such as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,519,824 issued to Huebel (hereinafter referred to as “the '824 patent”); U.S. Pat. No. 4,278,457 issued to Campbell et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,157,904 issued to Campbell et al. Depending on the source of reflux, the maximum recovery possible from the scheme may be limited. For example, if the reflux stream is taken from the hydrocarbon gas feed stream or from the cold separator vapor stream, or first vapor stream, as in the '824 patent, the maximum recovery possible by the scheme is limited because the reflux stream contains ethane. If the reflux stream is taken from lean residue gas stream, then 99% ethane recovery is possible due to the lean composition of the reflux stream. However, this scheme is not very efficient due to the need to compress residue gas for reflux purposes.
A need exists for a process that is capable of achieving high ethane recovery, while maintaining its efficiency. It would be advantageous if the process could be simplified so as to minimize capital costs associated with additional equipment.
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
The present invention advantageously includes a process and apparatus to decrease the compression requirements for residue gas while maintaining a high recovery yield of ethane (“C2+”) components from a hydrocarbon gas stream by using multiple reflux streams.
First, a hydrocarbon feed stream is split into two streams, a first inlet stream and a second inlet stream. First inlet stream is cooled in an inlet gas exchanger, and second inlet stream is cooled in one or more demethanizer reboilers of a demethanizer tower. The two streams are then directed into a cold separator. When the hydrocarbon feed stream has an ethane content above 5%, a cold absorber can be used to recover more ethane. If a cold absorber is used, the colder stream of two streams is introduced at a top of the cold absorber and the warmer stream is sent to a bottom of the cold absorber. The cold absorber preferably includes at least one mass transfer zone.
Cold separator produces a separator overhead stream and a separator bottoms stream. Cold separator bottoms stream is directed to methanizer as a first demethanizer feed stream while cold separator overhead stream is split into two streams, a first cold separator overhead stream and a second cold separator overhead stream. First cold separator overhead stream is sent to an expander and then to demethanizer as a second demethanizer feed stream. Second cold separator overhead stream is cooled and then sent to a reflux separator.
In an alternate embodiment, inlet gas stream is split into three streams, wherein first and second streams continue to be directed to front end exchanger and demethanizer reboilers, respectively. A third stream is cooled in the inlet gas exchange and a reflux subcooler before being sent to reflux separator. Furthermore, in this embodiment, cold separator overhead stream is not split into two streams, but, instead, is maintained as a single stream. Cold separator overhead stream is expanded and then fed into demethanizer as a second demethanizer feed stream.
Similar to cold separator, reflux separator also produces a reflux separator overhead stream and a reflux separator bottoms stream. Reflux separator bottoms stream is directed to demethanizer as third demethanizer feed stream. After exiting reflux separator, reflux separator overhead stream is cooled, condensed, and sent to demethanizer as a fourth demethanizer feed stream.
The demethanizer tower is preferably a reboiled absorber that produces an NGL product containing a large portion of ethane, ethylene, propane, propylene and heavier components at the bottom and a demethanizer overhead stream, or cold residue gas stream, containing a substantial amount methane and lighter components at the top. Demethanizer overhead stream is warmed in the reflux exchanger and then in the inlet gas exchanger. This warmed residue gas stream is then boosted in pressure across the booster compressor, and then compressed to pipeline pressure to produce a residue gas stream. A portion of the high pressure residue gas stream is cooled, condensed, and sent to the demethanizer tower as a top feed stream, or a demethanizer reflux stream. Alternatively, demethanizer reflux stream is cooled in the inlet gas exchanger, combined with a portion of second cold separator overhead stream, partially condensed in reflux exchanger, and then fed into reflux separator.
In an additional alternate embodiment, wherein inlet gas stream is split into three streams, third inlet gas stream is combined with residue gas reflux stream. This combined inlet/recycle stream is cooled in both inlet gas exchanger and reflux subcooler. In this embodiment, cold separator overhead stream is not split into two streams, but instead is expanded and then fed into demethanizer as second demethanizer feed stream.
Demethanizer produces at least one reboiler stream that is warmed in demethanizer reboiler and redirected back to demethanizer as return streams to supply heat and recover refrigeration effects from demethanizer. In addition, demethanizer also produces a demethanizer overhead stream and a demethanizer bottoms stream wherein demethanizer bottoms stream contains major portion of recovered C2+ components. While the recovery of C2+ components is comparable to other C2+ recovery processes, the compression requirements are much lower.
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7799140 | CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
Reference is made to co-pending, U.S. patent application to Altavela et al., filed the same day as the present application, entitled, “Photoreceptor with Release Layer” Ser. No. 12/486,668, the entire disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
BACKGROUND
This disclosure relates generally to processes for removing photoreceptor coatings from a substrate, wherein the photoreceptor coatings disposed over a substrate of an electrophotographic photoreceptor. More specifically, the invention discloses a photoreceptor coatings removal process comprises subjecting an electrophotographic photoreceptor to a stripping solution that separates the coatings from the substrate.
According to one aspect of the disclosed invention, there is provided methods for recycling or remanufacturing electrophotographic photoreceptors.
In electrophotography, the substrate for photoreceptors in a rigid drum format is required to be manufactured with high dimensional accuracy in terms of straightness and roundness, optimum surface reflectance and roughness, and desired thickness. In order to obtain such a dimensional accuracy, the substrate surface is polished at a high accuracy by using sand blustering, glass bean honing, or a diamond tool and/or the like. Once the substrate surface is formed, at least one coating of photosensitive material is applied to the substrate, which may comprise a charge generation layer and a charge transport layer, or their blended in a single layer, to form a full photoreceptor device.
The fabricated photoreceptor devices are expected to have good electrical and mechanical performance in a copier or printer. But, due to complexity of the manufacturing process, it is unavoidable to have varieties of defects in some photoreceptor devices which may meet the quality requirements for the copier or printer. The defective devices have to be rejected. In another aspect, each photoreceptive device has limited application life. Once the photoreceptor device cannot function well in the machine, it is also the end of the application life of the device. These used photoreceptor devices were usually disposed in the same way as the defective devices were treated. Disposal of the device could be very costly and could cause lots of environmental issues.
Thus, there exists a need to reduce the cost of remanufacturing electrophotographic photoreceptors, for example, by recycling the non-usable photoreceptor devices, through removing the photosensitive or coating layers without damaging the substrate formation. This not only reduces the cost of producing the photoreceptor, but also decreases the cost for disposing all related materials in the devices.
Conventional photoreceptors and their materials are disclosed in Katayama et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,489,496; Yashiki, U.S. Pat. No. 4,579,801; Yashiki, U.S. Pat. No. 4,518,669; Seki et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,775,605; Kawahara, U.S. Pat. No. 5,656,407; Markovics et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,641,599; Monbaliu et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,344,734; Terrell et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,721,080; and Yoshihara, U.S. Pat. No. 5,017,449, which are herein all incorporated by reference.
More recent photoreceptors are disclosed in Fuller et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,200,716; Maty et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,180,309; and Dinh et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,207,334, which are all herein incorporated by reference.
Conventional undercoat or charge blocking layers are also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,464,450; U.S. Pat. No. 5,449,573; U.S. Pat. No. 5,385,796; and Obinata et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,928,824, which are all herein incorporated by reference.
The terms used to describe the imaging members, their layers and respective compositions, may each be used interchangeably with alternative phrases known to those of skill in the art. The terms used herein are intended to cover all such alternative phrases.
SUMMARY
According to aspects illustrated herein, there is provided methods of separating a plurality of coating layers from a substrate of an electrophotographic photoreceptor, wherein the plurality of coating layers are disposed over the substrate, the method comprising subjecting the electrophotographic photoreceptor to a stripping solution, wherein the stripping solution comprises nitric acid, hydrofluoric acid, hydrochloric acid, phosphoric acid, sulfuric acid, oxalic acid, acetic acid, carbonic acid, lactic acid, formic acid, malic acid, phthalic acid, or mixtures thereof; and separating the plurality of coating layers from the substrate.
In one embodiment, the electrophotographic photoreceptor further comprises a flange adhesively fixed to at least one end of the substrate and the method further includes separating the flange from the substrate.
In certain embodiments, the subjecting step comprises soaking the electrophotographic photoreceptor in the stripping solution. In one embodiment, the stripping solution comprises nitric acid. The nitric acid may have a concentration of from about 5% by weight to about 90% by weight, or from about 35% by weight to about 80% by weight. The stripping solution may further comprise an ammonium sulfamate. The ammonium sulfamate may have a concentration of less than 5% by weight. The stripping solution may further comprise an oxidizing agent. The oxidizing agent may have a concentration of less than 20% by weight. The oxidizing agent may be hydrogen peroxide.
In one embodiment, a cathodic current is applied to the substrate during the subjecting step. In another embodiment, the cathodic current is of a density between 10 to 100 ampere per square. In yet another embodiment, the electrophotographic photoreceptor is soaked in the stripping solution for a period of between about 1 minute and about 10 hours. In one embodiment, the stripping solution may be maintained at a temperature in a range of 20° C. to 98° C. In one embodiment, the thickness of the substrate is from about 0.25 to about 5 mm. In one embodiment, the substrate is made from aluminum, an aluminum alloy, nickel, steel, or copper.
In embodiments, the plurality of coating layers comprises one or more of the following layers: an undercoat layer, a charge generation layer, a charge transport layer, an overcoat layer, and a single imaging layer comprising a combination of a charge transport layer and a charge generation layer. The plurality of coating layers may further comprises an adhesive layer disposed over the substrate.
Embodiments herein also provide methods of separating a plurality of coating layers from a substrate of an electrophotographic photoreceptor, wherein the plurality of coating layers are disposed over the substrate, the method comprising soaking the electrophotographic photoreceptor in a stripping solution, wherein the stripping solution comprises nitric acid, hydrofluoric acid, hydrochloric acid, phosphoric acid, sulfuric acid, oxalic acid, acetic acid, carbonic acid, lactic acid, formic acid, malic acid, phthalic acid, or mixtures thereof; degrading the plurality of coating layers with the stripping solution; and separating the plurality of coating layers from the substrate.
Embodiments herein further provide methods of separating a plurality of coating layers from a substrate of an electrophotographic photoreceptor, wherein the plurality of coating layers are disposed over the substrate, the method comprising soaking the electrophotographic photoreceptor in a stripping solution, wherein the stripping solution comprises nitric acid; degrading the plurality of coating layers with the stripping solution; and separating the plurality of coating layers in its entirety from the substrate without degrading or attacking any portion of the substrate.
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
Reference is made to co-pending, U.S. patent application to Altavela et al., filed the same day as the present application, entitled, “Photoreceptor with Release Layer” Ser. No. 12/486,668, the entire disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
BACKGROUND
This disclosure relates generally to processes for removing photoreceptor coatings from a substrate, wherein the photoreceptor coatings disposed over a substrate of an electrophotographic photoreceptor. More specifically, the invention discloses a photoreceptor coatings removal process comprises subjecting an electrophotographic photoreceptor to a stripping solution that separates the coatings from the substrate.
According to one aspect of the disclosed invention, there is provided methods for recycling or remanufacturing electrophotographic photoreceptors.
In electrophotography, the substrate for photoreceptors in a rigid drum format is required to be manufactured with high dimensional accuracy in terms of straightness and roundness, optimum surface reflectance and roughness, and desired thickness. In order to obtain such a dimensional accuracy, the substrate surface is polished at a high accuracy by using sand blustering, glass bean honing, or a diamond tool and/or the like. Once the substrate surface is formed, at least one coating of photosensitive material is applied to the substrate, which may comprise a charge generation layer and a charge transport layer, or their blended in a single layer, to form a full photoreceptor device.
The fabricated photoreceptor devices are expected to have good electrical and mechanical performance in a copier or printer. But, due to complexity of the manufacturing process, it is unavoidable to have varieties of defects in some photoreceptor devices which may meet the quality requirements for the copier or printer. The defective devices have to be rejected. In another aspect, each photoreceptive device has limited application life. Once the photoreceptor device cannot function well in the machine, it is also the end of the application life of the device. These used photoreceptor devices were usually disposed in the same way as the defective devices were treated. Disposal of the device could be very costly and could cause lots of environmental issues.
Thus, there exists a need to reduce the cost of remanufacturing electrophotographic photoreceptors, for example, by recycling the non-usable photoreceptor devices, through removing the photosensitive or coating layers without damaging the substrate formation. This not only reduces the cost of producing the photoreceptor, but also decreases the cost for disposing all related materials in the devices.
Conventional photoreceptors and their materials are disclosed in Katayama et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,489,496; Yashiki, U.S. Pat. No. 4,579,801; Yashiki, U.S. Pat. No. 4,518,669; Seki et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,775,605; Kawahara, U.S. Pat. No. 5,656,407; Markovics et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,641,599; Monbaliu et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,344,734; Terrell et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,721,080; and Yoshihara, U.S. Pat. No. 5,017,449, which are herein all incorporated by reference.
More recent photoreceptors are disclosed in Fuller et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,200,716; Maty et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,180,309; and Dinh et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,207,334, which are all herein incorporated by reference.
Conventional undercoat or charge blocking layers are also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,464,450; U.S. Pat. No. 5,449,573; U.S. Pat. No. 5,385,796; and Obinata et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,928,824, which are all herein incorporated by reference.
The terms used to describe the imaging members, their layers and respective compositions, may each be used interchangeably with alternative phrases known to those of skill in the art. The terms used herein are intended to cover all such alternative phrases.
SUMMARY
According to aspects illustrated herein, there is provided methods of separating a plurality of coating layers from a substrate of an electrophotographic photoreceptor, wherein the plurality of coating layers are disposed over the substrate, the method comprising subjecting the electrophotographic photoreceptor to a stripping solution, wherein the stripping solution comprises nitric acid, hydrofluoric acid, hydrochloric acid, phosphoric acid, sulfuric acid, oxalic acid, acetic acid, carbonic acid, lactic acid, formic acid, malic acid, phthalic acid, or mixtures thereof; and separating the plurality of coating layers from the substrate.
In one embodiment, the electrophotographic photoreceptor further comprises a flange adhesively fixed to at least one end of the substrate and the method further includes separating the flange from the substrate.
In certain embodiments, the subjecting step comprises soaking the electrophotographic photoreceptor in the stripping solution. In one embodiment, the stripping solution comprises nitric acid. The nitric acid may have a concentration of from about 5% by weight to about 90% by weight, or from about 35% by weight to about 80% by weight. The stripping solution may further comprise an ammonium sulfamate. The ammonium sulfamate may have a concentration of less than 5% by weight. The stripping solution may further comprise an oxidizing agent. The oxidizing agent may have a concentration of less than 20% by weight. The oxidizing agent may be hydrogen peroxide.
In one embodiment, a cathodic current is applied to the substrate during the subjecting step. In another embodiment, the cathodic current is of a density between 10 to 100 ampere per square. In yet another embodiment, the electrophotographic photoreceptor is soaked in the stripping solution for a period of between about 1 minute and about 10 hours. In one embodiment, the stripping solution may be maintained at a temperature in a range of 20° C. to 98° C. In one embodiment, the thickness of the substrate is from about 0.25 to about 5 mm. In one embodiment, the substrate is made from aluminum, an aluminum alloy, nickel, steel, or copper.
In embodiments, the plurality of coating layers comprises one or more of the following layers: an undercoat layer, a charge generation layer, a charge transport layer, an overcoat layer, and a single imaging layer comprising a combination of a charge transport layer and a charge generation layer. The plurality of coating layers may further comprises an adhesive layer disposed over the substrate.
Embodiments herein also provide methods of separating a plurality of coating layers from a substrate of an electrophotographic photoreceptor, wherein the plurality of coating layers are disposed over the substrate, the method comprising soaking the electrophotographic photoreceptor in a stripping solution, wherein the stripping solution comprises nitric acid, hydrofluoric acid, hydrochloric acid, phosphoric acid, sulfuric acid, oxalic acid, acetic acid, carbonic acid, lactic acid, formic acid, malic acid, phthalic acid, or mixtures thereof; degrading the plurality of coating layers with the stripping solution; and separating the plurality of coating layers from the substrate.
Embodiments herein further provide methods of separating a plurality of coating layers from a substrate of an electrophotographic photoreceptor, wherein the plurality of coating layers are disposed over the substrate, the method comprising soaking the electrophotographic photoreceptor in a stripping solution, wherein the stripping solution comprises nitric acid; degrading the plurality of coating layers with the stripping solution; and separating the plurality of coating layers in its entirety from the substrate without degrading or attacking any portion of the substrate.
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7719489 | BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a driving waveform and circuit, and more particular, to a driving waveform and circuit for a plasma display panel (PDP).
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 1is a prior art driving circuit100of a PDP. An equivalent capacitor of the plasma display panel is marked as Cpanel. The X-side of the PDP is electrically connected to a switch Sw1that is connected to voltage Va, a switch Sw3that is electrically connected to ground, and to an energy recovery circuit110. The energy recovery circuit110comprises inductor L1, which is electrically connected in parallel to diodes D5and D6as shown. Diodes D5and D6are respectively electrically connected to switches Sw5and Sw6, both of which are electrically connected to ground via a capacitor C1.
Similarly, the Y-side of the PDP is electrically connected to a switch Sw2that is connected to voltage Vb, a switch Sw4that is electrically connected to ground, and to an energy recovery circuit120. The energy recovery circuit120comprises inductor L2, which is electrically connected in parallel to diodes D7and D8as shown. Diodes D7and D8are respectively electrically connected to switches Sw7and Sw8, both of which are electrically connected to ground via a capacitor C2.
The X-side circuit and the Y-side circuit together form the panel equivalent capacitor Cpanel. Details of exact functioning of the driving circuit100are well known in the art and will be omitted here for brevity. However, it is important to notice that the driving circuit100requires quite a few components making it expensive to make. Cost conscious consumers desiring a PDP demand lower prices and thus make PDPs comprising similar circuits uncompetitive in today's market.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an objective of the claimed invention to provide a driving waveform and circuit for a PDP at a lower cost by reducing the number of components in the driving circuit.
A driving circuit for a PDP according to the claimed invention includes an equivalent capacitor having X and Y terminals with the X terminal coupled directly to ground. A first switch is coupled between a first voltage source and a first terminal of a Scan IC, a second switch is coupled between a second voltage source and the first terminal of the Scan IC, an inductor is coupled between a bi-directional third switch and the first terminal of the Scan IC with the third switch coupled to ground, a fourth switch is coupled between a positive terminal of a third voltage source and the Y terminal, a negative terminal of the third voltage source is coupled to the first terminal of the Scan IC, and a fifth switch is coupled between the first terminal of the Scan IC and the Y terminal.
The driving circuit of the claimed invention can make the waveforms for a PDP display in each period, not just focusing on a sustain period. The advantages of the claimed invention are that the fewer components can accomplish the driving waveforms, reducing the cost.
These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.
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SUMMARY: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a driving waveform and circuit, and more particular, to a driving waveform and circuit for a plasma display panel (PDP).
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 1is a prior art driving circuit100of a PDP. An equivalent capacitor of the plasma display panel is marked as Cpanel. The X-side of the PDP is electrically connected to a switch Sw1that is connected to voltage Va, a switch Sw3that is electrically connected to ground, and to an energy recovery circuit110. The energy recovery circuit110comprises inductor L1, which is electrically connected in parallel to diodes D5and D6as shown. Diodes D5and D6are respectively electrically connected to switches Sw5and Sw6, both of which are electrically connected to ground via a capacitor C1.
Similarly, the Y-side of the PDP is electrically connected to a switch Sw2that is connected to voltage Vb, a switch Sw4that is electrically connected to ground, and to an energy recovery circuit120. The energy recovery circuit120comprises inductor L2, which is electrically connected in parallel to diodes D7and D8as shown. Diodes D7and D8are respectively electrically connected to switches Sw7and Sw8, both of which are electrically connected to ground via a capacitor C2.
The X-side circuit and the Y-side circuit together form the panel equivalent capacitor Cpanel. Details of exact functioning of the driving circuit100are well known in the art and will be omitted here for brevity. However, it is important to notice that the driving circuit100requires quite a few components making it expensive to make. Cost conscious consumers desiring a PDP demand lower prices and thus make PDPs comprising similar circuits uncompetitive in today's market.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an objective of the claimed invention to provide a driving waveform and circuit for a PDP at a lower cost by reducing the number of components in the driving circuit.
A driving circuit for a PDP according to the claimed invention includes an equivalent capacitor having X and Y terminals with the X terminal coupled directly to ground. A first switch is coupled between a first voltage source and a first terminal of a Scan IC, a second switch is coupled between a second voltage source and the first terminal of the Scan IC, an inductor is coupled between a bi-directional third switch and the first terminal of the Scan IC with the third switch coupled to ground, a fourth switch is coupled between a positive terminal of a third voltage source and the Y terminal, a negative terminal of the third voltage source is coupled to the first terminal of the Scan IC, and a fifth switch is coupled between the first terminal of the Scan IC and the Y terminal.
The driving circuit of the claimed invention can make the waveforms for a PDP display in each period, not just focusing on a sustain period. The advantages of the claimed invention are that the fewer components can accomplish the driving waveforms, reducing the cost.
These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.
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7690453 | CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application claims the foreign priority benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119 of Japanese Patent Application No. 2006-078024 filed on Mar. 22, 2006, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric vehicle provided with a high-voltage power source and a low-voltage battery.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, an electric vehicle such as an EV (Electric Vehicle), a HEV (Hybrid Electric Vehicle) and an FCV (Fuel Cell Vehicle) is provided with a high-voltage battery for driving the vehicle and an assistant low-voltage battery (of 12V or so), as disclosed in JP2001-202980A, for example.
In a gasoline engine vehicle, an alternator supplies electric power to a low-voltage battery. On the other hand, in an electric vehicle, it is common that electric power is supplied from a high-voltage battery (high-voltage power source) to a low-voltage battery through a DC/DC converter. In such a power supply system, even if electric power supply from the low-voltage battery runs down or is shutdown, electric power supply from the high-voltage battery through the DC/DC converter is maintained, so that an electric control unit (ECU) and a system including a high-voltage system can be kept operating. Accordingly, the vehicle can be kept driving even though output from the low-voltage battery runs down or is shutdown during driving.
To the contrary, in a case in which the vehicle is in a still state with an ignition switch thereof “ON”, in order to stop the electric power supply from the high-voltage power source by setting to be opened a contactor for a high-voltage system, which is controlled with the electric power supply from the low-voltage battery, it is required to stop both the electric power supplies from the high-voltage battery and the low-voltage battery.
In a conventional electric vehicle, in light of failing to switch off the ignition switch when disassembling the body or during a maintenance operation, it is required to shut down the electric power supplies both from the low-voltage battery and the high-voltage battery, along with an operation to confirm that both the electric power supplies are shutdown, which makes the operations more tedious.
Therefore, to solve the above difficulties, it would be desirable to provide an electric vehicle which facilitates operations of ensuring shutdown of electric power supplies both from a low-voltage power source and high-voltage battery and confirming the shutdown.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An aspect of the present invention provides an electric vehicle including a high-voltage power source at least including a first power source; a low-voltage battery that is supplied with electric power from the high-voltage power source through a converter; an auxiliary vehicle controller for controlling a high-voltage contactor with electric power supplied from the high-voltage power source through the converter and/or with electric power supplied from the low-voltage; and an electric motor driving with electric power supplied from the high-voltage power source. The high-voltage contactor is connectedly provided between the high-voltage power source and the auxiliary vehicle controller, and the auxiliary vehicle controller controls the high-voltage contactor in such a manner that the electric power supply from the high-voltage power source is shut off if the electric power supply from the low-voltage battery to the auxiliary vehicle controller is cut off.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying exemplary drawings.
| 1 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application claims the foreign priority benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119 of Japanese Patent Application No. 2006-078024 filed on Mar. 22, 2006, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric vehicle provided with a high-voltage power source and a low-voltage battery.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, an electric vehicle such as an EV (Electric Vehicle), a HEV (Hybrid Electric Vehicle) and an FCV (Fuel Cell Vehicle) is provided with a high-voltage battery for driving the vehicle and an assistant low-voltage battery (of 12V or so), as disclosed in JP2001-202980A, for example.
In a gasoline engine vehicle, an alternator supplies electric power to a low-voltage battery. On the other hand, in an electric vehicle, it is common that electric power is supplied from a high-voltage battery (high-voltage power source) to a low-voltage battery through a DC/DC converter. In such a power supply system, even if electric power supply from the low-voltage battery runs down or is shutdown, electric power supply from the high-voltage battery through the DC/DC converter is maintained, so that an electric control unit (ECU) and a system including a high-voltage system can be kept operating. Accordingly, the vehicle can be kept driving even though output from the low-voltage battery runs down or is shutdown during driving.
To the contrary, in a case in which the vehicle is in a still state with an ignition switch thereof “ON”, in order to stop the electric power supply from the high-voltage power source by setting to be opened a contactor for a high-voltage system, which is controlled with the electric power supply from the low-voltage battery, it is required to stop both the electric power supplies from the high-voltage battery and the low-voltage battery.
In a conventional electric vehicle, in light of failing to switch off the ignition switch when disassembling the body or during a maintenance operation, it is required to shut down the electric power supplies both from the low-voltage battery and the high-voltage battery, along with an operation to confirm that both the electric power supplies are shutdown, which makes the operations more tedious.
Therefore, to solve the above difficulties, it would be desirable to provide an electric vehicle which facilitates operations of ensuring shutdown of electric power supplies both from a low-voltage power source and high-voltage battery and confirming the shutdown.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An aspect of the present invention provides an electric vehicle including a high-voltage power source at least including a first power source; a low-voltage battery that is supplied with electric power from the high-voltage power source through a converter; an auxiliary vehicle controller for controlling a high-voltage contactor with electric power supplied from the high-voltage power source through the converter and/or with electric power supplied from the low-voltage; and an electric motor driving with electric power supplied from the high-voltage power source. The high-voltage contactor is connectedly provided between the high-voltage power source and the auxiliary vehicle controller, and the auxiliary vehicle controller controls the high-voltage contactor in such a manner that the electric power supply from the high-voltage power source is shut off if the electric power supply from the low-voltage battery to the auxiliary vehicle controller is cut off.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying exemplary drawings.
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7713966 | FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to amide containing azabicyclic metalloprotease inhibiting compounds, and more particularly to azabicyclic amide MMP-13, MMP-8, MMP-3 and MMP-2 inhibiting compounds.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and aggrecanases (ADAMTS=a disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motif) are a family of structurally related zinc-containing enzymes that have been reported to mediate the breakdown of connective tissue in normal physiological processes such as embryonic development, reproduction, and tissue remodelling. Over-expression of MMPs and aggrecanases or an imbalance between extracellular matrix synthesis and degradation has been suggested as factors in inflammatory, malignant and degenerative disease processes. MMPs and aggrecanases are, therefore, targets for therapeutic inhibitors in several inflammatory, malignant and degenerative diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, periodontitis, multiple sclerosis, gingivitis, corneal epidermal and gastric ulceration, atherosclerosis, neointimal proliferation (which leads to restenosis and ischemic heart failure) and tumor metastasis.
The ADAMTSs are a group of proteases that are encoded in 19 ADAMTS genes in humans. The ADAMTSs are extracellular, multidomain enzymes whose functions include collagen processing, cleavage of the matrix proteoglycans, inhibition of angiogenesis and blood coagulation homoeostasis (Biochem. J.2005, 386, 15-27;Arthritis Res. Ther.2005, 7, 160-169;Curr. Med. Chem. Anti-Inflammatory Anti-Allergy Agents2005, 4, 251-264).
The mammalian MMP family has been reported to include at least 20 enzymes (Chem. Rev.1999, 99, 2735-2776). Collagenase-3 (MMP-13) is among three collagenases that have been identified. Based on identification of domain structures for individual members of the MMP family, it has been determined that the catalytic domain of the MMPs contains two zinc atoms; one of these zinc atoms performs a catalytic function and is coordinated with three histidines contained within the conserved amino acid sequence of the catalytic domain. MMP-13 is over-expressed in rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, abdominal aortic aneurysm, breast carcinoma, squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck, and vulvar squamous cell carcinoma. The principal substrates of MMP-13 are fibrillar collagens (types I, II, III) and gelatins, proteoglycans, cytokines and other components of ECM (extracellular matrix).
The activation of the MMPs involves the removal of a propeptide, which features an unpaired cysteine residue complexed with the catalytic zinc (II) ion. X-ray crystal structures of the complex between MMP-3 catalytic domain and TIMP-1 and MMP-14 catalytic domain and TIMP-2 also reveal ligation of the catalytic zinc (II) ion by the thiol of a cysteine residue. The difficulty in developing effective MMP inhibiting compounds comprises several factors, including choice of selective versus broad-spectrum MMP inhibitors and rendering such compounds bioavailable via an oral route of administration.
MMP-3 (stromelysin-1; transin-1) is another member of the MMP family (FASEB J.1991, 5, 2145-2154). Human MMP-3 was initially isolated from cultured human synoviocytes. It is also expressed by chondrocytes and has been localized in OA cartilage and synovial tissues (Am. J. Pathol.1989, 135, 1055-64).
MMP-3 is produced by basal keratinocytes in a variety of chronic ulcers. MMP-3 mRNA and Protein were detected in basal keratinocytes adjacent to but distal from the wound edge in what probably represents the sites of proliferating epidermis. MMP-3 may thus prevent the epidermis from healing (J. Clin. Invest.1994, 94, 79-88).
MMP-3 serum protein levels are significantly elevated in patients with early and long-term rheumatoid arthritis (Arthritis Rheum.2000, 43, 852-8) and in osteoarthritis patients (Clin. Orthop. Relat. Res.2004, 428, 272-85) as well as in other inflammatory diseases like systemic lupus erythematosis and ankylosing spondylitis (Rheumatology2006, 45, 414-20).
MMP-3 acts on components of the ECM as aggrecan, fibronectin, gelatin, laminin, elastin, fibrillin and others and on collagens of type III, IV, V, VII, IX, X (Clin. Orthop. Relat. Res.2004, 428, 272-85). On collagens of type II and IX, MMP-3 exhibits telopeptidase activity (Arthritis Res.2001, 3, 107-13;Clin. Orthop. Relat. Res.2004, 427, S118-22). MMP-3 can activate other MMP family members such as MMP-1, MMP-7, MMP-8, MMP-9 and MMP-13 (Ann. Rheum. Dis.2001, 60 Suppl 3:iii62-7).
MMP-3 is involved in the regulation of cytokines and chemokines by releasing TGFβ1 from the ECM, activating TNFα, inactivating IL-1β and releasing IGF (Nat. Rev. Immunol.2004, 4, 617-29). A potential role for MMP-3 in the regulation of macrophage infiltration is based on the ability of the enzyme to convert active MCP species into antagonistic peptides (Blood2002, 100, 1160-7).
MMP-8 (collagenase-2; neutrophil collagenase; EC 3.4.24.34) is another member of the MMP family (Biochemistry1990, 29, 10628-34). Human MMP-8 was initially located in human neutrophils (Biochemistry1990, 29, 10620-7). It is also expressed by macrophages, human mucosal keratinocytes, bronchial epithelial cells, ginigival fibroblasts, resident synovial and articular chondrodrocytes mainly in the course of inflammatory conditions (Cytokine&Growth Factor Rev.2006, 17, 217-23).
The activity of MMP-8 is tightly regulated and mostly limited to the sites of inflammation. MMP-8 is expressed and stored as an inactive pro-enzyme in the granules of the neutrophils. Only after the activation of the neutrophils by proinflammatory mediators, MMP-8 is released and activated to exert its function.
MMP-8 plays a key role in the migration of immune cells to the sites of inflammation. MMP-8 degrades components of the extracellular matrix (ECM) such as collagen type I, II, III, VII, X, cartilage aggrecan, laminin-5, nidogen, fibronectin, proteoglycans and tenascin, thereby facilitating the cells migration through the ECM barrier. MMP-8 also influences the biological activity of its substrates. Through proteolytic processing of the chemokines IL-8, GCP-2, ENA-78, MMP-8 increases the chemokines ability to activate the infiltrating immune cells. While MMP-8 inactivates the serine protease inhibitor alpha-1 antitrypsin through its cleavage (Eur. J. Biochem.2003, 270, 3739-49;PloS One2007, 3, 1-10;Cytokine&Growth Factor Rev.2006, 17, 217-23).
MMP-8 has been implicated in the pathogenesis of several chronic inflammatory diseases characterized by the excessive influx and activation of neutrophils, including cystic fibrosis (Am. J. Resprir. Critic. Care Med.1994, 150, 818-22), rheumatoid arthritis (Clin. Chim. Acta1996, 129-43), chronic periodontal disease (Annals Med.2006, 38, 306-321) and chronic wounds (J. Surg. Res.1999, 81, 189-195).
In osteoarthritis patients, MMP-8 protein expression is significantly elevated in inflamed human articular cartilage in the knee and ankle joints (Lab Invest.1996, 74, 232-40;J. Biol. Chem.1996, 271, 11023-6).
The levels of activated MMP-8 in BALF is an indicator of the disease severity and correlates with the airway obstruction in patients with asthma, COPD, pulmonary emphysema and bronchiectasis (Lab Invest.2002, 82, 1535-45;Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med.1999, 159, 1985-91;Respir. Med.2005, 99, 703-10;J. Pathol.2001, 194, 232-38).
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a new class of azabicyclic amide containing pharmaceutical agents which inhibits metalloproteases. In particular, the present invention provides a new class of metalloprotease inhibiting compounds that exhibit potent MMP-13 inhibiting activity and/or activity towards MMP-8, MMP-3 and MMP-2.
The present invention provides several new classes of amide containing azabicyclic metalloprotease compounds, which are represented by the following general formulas:
wherein all variables in the preceding Formula (I) are as defined hereinbelow.
The azabicyclic metalloprotease inhibiting compounds of the present invention may be used in the treatment of metalloprotease mediated diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, abdominal aortic aneurysm, cancer (e.g. but not limited to melanoma, gastric carcinoma or non-small cell lung carcinoma), inflammation, atherosclerosis, multiple sclerosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, ocular diseases (e.g. but not limited to ocular inflammation, retinopathy of prematurity, macular degeneration with the wet type preferred and corneal neovascularization), neurologic diseases, psychiatric diseases, thrombosis, bacterial infection, Parkinson's disease, fatigue, tremor, diabetic retinopathy, vascular diseases of the retina, aging, dementia, cardiomyopathy, renal tubular impairment, diabetes, psychosis, dyskinesia, pigmentary abnormalities, deafness, inflammatory and fibrotic syndromes, intestinal bowel syndrome, allergies, Alzheimers disease, arterial plaque formation, oncology, periodontal, viral infection, stroke, atherosclerosis, cardiovascular disease, reperfusion injury, trauma, chemical exposure or oxidative damage to tissues, chronic wound healing, wound healing, hemorroid, skin beautifying, pain, inflammatory pain, bone pain and joint pain, acne, acute alcoholic hepatitis, acute inflammation, acute pancreatitis, acute respiratory distress syndrome, adult respiratory disease, airflow obstruction, airway hyperresponsiveness, alcoholic liver disease, allograft rejections, angiogenesis, angiogenic ocular disease, arthritis, asthma, atopic dermatitis, bronchiectasis, bronchiolitis, bronchiolitis obliterans, burn therapy, cardiac and renal reperfusion injury, celiac disease, cerebral and cardiac ischemia, CNS tumors, CNS vasculitis, colds, contusions, cor pulmonae, cough, Crohn's disease, chronic bronchitis, chronic inflammation, chronic pancreatitis, chronic sinusitis, crystal induced arthritis, cystic fibrosis, delayted type hypersensitivity reaction, duodenal ulcers, dyspnea, early transplantation rejection, emphysema, encephalitis, endotoxic shock, esophagitis, gastric ulcers, gingivitis, glomerulonephritis, glossitis, gout, graft vs. host reaction, gram negative sepsis, granulocytic ehrlichiosis, hepatitis viruses, herpes, herpes viruses, HIV, hypercapnea, hyperinflation, hyperoxia-induced inflammation, hypoxia, hypersensitivity, hypoxemia, inflammatory bowel disease, interstitial pneumonitis, ischemia reperfusion injury, kaposi's sarcoma associated virus, liver fibrosis, lupus, malaria, meningitis, multi-organ dysfunction, necrotizing enterocolitis, osteoporosis, chronic periodontitis, periodontitis, peritonitis associated with continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD), pre-term labor, polymyositis, post surgical trauma, pruritis, psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, pulmatory fibrosis, pulmatory hypertension, renal reperfusion injury, respiratory viruses, restinosis, right ventricular hypertrophy, sarcoidosis, septic shock, small airway disease, sprains, strains, subarachnoid hemorrhage, surgical lung volume reduction, thrombosis, toxic shock syndrome, transplant reperfusion injury, traumatic brain injury, ulcerative colitis, vasculitis, ventilation-perfusion mismatching, and wheeze.
In particular, the azabicyclic metalloprotease inhibiting compounds of the present invention may be used in the treatment of MMP-13, MMP-8, MMP-3 and MMP-2 mediated osteoarthritis and may be used for other MMP-13, MMP-8, MMP-3 and MMP-2 mediated symptoms, inflammatory, malignant and degenerative diseases characterized by excessive extracellular matrix degradation and/or remodelling, such as cancer, and chronic inflammatory diseases such as arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, atherosclerosis, abdominal aortic aneurysm, inflammation, multiple sclerosis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and pain, such as inflammatory pain, bone pain and joint pain.
The present invention also provides azabicyclic metalloprotease inhibiting compounds that are useful as active ingredients in pharmaceutical compositions for treatment or prevention of metalloprotease—especially MMP-13, MMP-8, MMP-3 and MMP-2—mediated diseases. The present invention also contemplates use of such compounds in pharmaceutical compositions for oral or parenteral administration, comprising one or more of the azabicyclic metalloprotease inhibiting compounds disclosed herein.
The present invention further provides methods of inhibiting metalloproteases, by administering formulations, including, but not limited to, oral, rectal, topical, intravenous, parenteral (including, but not limited to, intramuscular, intravenous), ocular (ophthalmic), transdermal, inhalative (including, but not limited to, pulmonary, aerosol inhalation), nasal, sublingual, subcutaneous or intraarticular formulations, comprising the azabicyclic metalloprotease inhibiting compounds by standard methods known in medical practice, for the treatment of diseases or symptoms arising from or associated with metalloprotease, especially MMP-13, MMP-8, MMP-3 and MMP-2, including prophylactic and therapeutic treatment. Although the most suitable route in any given case will depend on the nature and severity of the conditions being treated and on the nature of the active ingredient. The compounds from this invention are conveniently presented in unit dosage form and prepared by any of the methods well-known in the art of pharmacy.
The azabicyclic metalloprotease inhibiting compounds of the present invention may be used in combination with a disease modifying antirheumatic drug, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, a COX-2 selective inhibitor, a COX-1 inhibitor, an immunosuppressive, a steroid, a biological response modifier or other anti-inflammatory agents or therapeutics useful for the treatment of chemokines mediated diseases.
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to amide containing azabicyclic metalloprotease inhibiting compounds, and more particularly to azabicyclic amide MMP-13, MMP-8, MMP-3 and MMP-2 inhibiting compounds.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and aggrecanases (ADAMTS=a disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motif) are a family of structurally related zinc-containing enzymes that have been reported to mediate the breakdown of connective tissue in normal physiological processes such as embryonic development, reproduction, and tissue remodelling. Over-expression of MMPs and aggrecanases or an imbalance between extracellular matrix synthesis and degradation has been suggested as factors in inflammatory, malignant and degenerative disease processes. MMPs and aggrecanases are, therefore, targets for therapeutic inhibitors in several inflammatory, malignant and degenerative diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, periodontitis, multiple sclerosis, gingivitis, corneal epidermal and gastric ulceration, atherosclerosis, neointimal proliferation (which leads to restenosis and ischemic heart failure) and tumor metastasis.
The ADAMTSs are a group of proteases that are encoded in 19 ADAMTS genes in humans. The ADAMTSs are extracellular, multidomain enzymes whose functions include collagen processing, cleavage of the matrix proteoglycans, inhibition of angiogenesis and blood coagulation homoeostasis (Biochem. J.2005, 386, 15-27;Arthritis Res. Ther.2005, 7, 160-169;Curr. Med. Chem. Anti-Inflammatory Anti-Allergy Agents2005, 4, 251-264).
The mammalian MMP family has been reported to include at least 20 enzymes (Chem. Rev.1999, 99, 2735-2776). Collagenase-3 (MMP-13) is among three collagenases that have been identified. Based on identification of domain structures for individual members of the MMP family, it has been determined that the catalytic domain of the MMPs contains two zinc atoms; one of these zinc atoms performs a catalytic function and is coordinated with three histidines contained within the conserved amino acid sequence of the catalytic domain. MMP-13 is over-expressed in rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, abdominal aortic aneurysm, breast carcinoma, squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck, and vulvar squamous cell carcinoma. The principal substrates of MMP-13 are fibrillar collagens (types I, II, III) and gelatins, proteoglycans, cytokines and other components of ECM (extracellular matrix).
The activation of the MMPs involves the removal of a propeptide, which features an unpaired cysteine residue complexed with the catalytic zinc (II) ion. X-ray crystal structures of the complex between MMP-3 catalytic domain and TIMP-1 and MMP-14 catalytic domain and TIMP-2 also reveal ligation of the catalytic zinc (II) ion by the thiol of a cysteine residue. The difficulty in developing effective MMP inhibiting compounds comprises several factors, including choice of selective versus broad-spectrum MMP inhibitors and rendering such compounds bioavailable via an oral route of administration.
MMP-3 (stromelysin-1; transin-1) is another member of the MMP family (FASEB J.1991, 5, 2145-2154). Human MMP-3 was initially isolated from cultured human synoviocytes. It is also expressed by chondrocytes and has been localized in OA cartilage and synovial tissues (Am. J. Pathol.1989, 135, 1055-64).
MMP-3 is produced by basal keratinocytes in a variety of chronic ulcers. MMP-3 mRNA and Protein were detected in basal keratinocytes adjacent to but distal from the wound edge in what probably represents the sites of proliferating epidermis. MMP-3 may thus prevent the epidermis from healing (J. Clin. Invest.1994, 94, 79-88).
MMP-3 serum protein levels are significantly elevated in patients with early and long-term rheumatoid arthritis (Arthritis Rheum.2000, 43, 852-8) and in osteoarthritis patients (Clin. Orthop. Relat. Res.2004, 428, 272-85) as well as in other inflammatory diseases like systemic lupus erythematosis and ankylosing spondylitis (Rheumatology2006, 45, 414-20).
MMP-3 acts on components of the ECM as aggrecan, fibronectin, gelatin, laminin, elastin, fibrillin and others and on collagens of type III, IV, V, VII, IX, X (Clin. Orthop. Relat. Res.2004, 428, 272-85). On collagens of type II and IX, MMP-3 exhibits telopeptidase activity (Arthritis Res.2001, 3, 107-13;Clin. Orthop. Relat. Res.2004, 427, S118-22). MMP-3 can activate other MMP family members such as MMP-1, MMP-7, MMP-8, MMP-9 and MMP-13 (Ann. Rheum. Dis.2001, 60 Suppl 3:iii62-7).
MMP-3 is involved in the regulation of cytokines and chemokines by releasing TGFβ1 from the ECM, activating TNFα, inactivating IL-1β and releasing IGF (Nat. Rev. Immunol.2004, 4, 617-29). A potential role for MMP-3 in the regulation of macrophage infiltration is based on the ability of the enzyme to convert active MCP species into antagonistic peptides (Blood2002, 100, 1160-7).
MMP-8 (collagenase-2; neutrophil collagenase; EC 3.4.24.34) is another member of the MMP family (Biochemistry1990, 29, 10628-34). Human MMP-8 was initially located in human neutrophils (Biochemistry1990, 29, 10620-7). It is also expressed by macrophages, human mucosal keratinocytes, bronchial epithelial cells, ginigival fibroblasts, resident synovial and articular chondrodrocytes mainly in the course of inflammatory conditions (Cytokine&Growth Factor Rev.2006, 17, 217-23).
The activity of MMP-8 is tightly regulated and mostly limited to the sites of inflammation. MMP-8 is expressed and stored as an inactive pro-enzyme in the granules of the neutrophils. Only after the activation of the neutrophils by proinflammatory mediators, MMP-8 is released and activated to exert its function.
MMP-8 plays a key role in the migration of immune cells to the sites of inflammation. MMP-8 degrades components of the extracellular matrix (ECM) such as collagen type I, II, III, VII, X, cartilage aggrecan, laminin-5, nidogen, fibronectin, proteoglycans and tenascin, thereby facilitating the cells migration through the ECM barrier. MMP-8 also influences the biological activity of its substrates. Through proteolytic processing of the chemokines IL-8, GCP-2, ENA-78, MMP-8 increases the chemokines ability to activate the infiltrating immune cells. While MMP-8 inactivates the serine protease inhibitor alpha-1 antitrypsin through its cleavage (Eur. J. Biochem.2003, 270, 3739-49;PloS One2007, 3, 1-10;Cytokine&Growth Factor Rev.2006, 17, 217-23).
MMP-8 has been implicated in the pathogenesis of several chronic inflammatory diseases characterized by the excessive influx and activation of neutrophils, including cystic fibrosis (Am. J. Resprir. Critic. Care Med.1994, 150, 818-22), rheumatoid arthritis (Clin. Chim. Acta1996, 129-43), chronic periodontal disease (Annals Med.2006, 38, 306-321) and chronic wounds (J. Surg. Res.1999, 81, 189-195).
In osteoarthritis patients, MMP-8 protein expression is significantly elevated in inflamed human articular cartilage in the knee and ankle joints (Lab Invest.1996, 74, 232-40;J. Biol. Chem.1996, 271, 11023-6).
The levels of activated MMP-8 in BALF is an indicator of the disease severity and correlates with the airway obstruction in patients with asthma, COPD, pulmonary emphysema and bronchiectasis (Lab Invest.2002, 82, 1535-45;Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med.1999, 159, 1985-91;Respir. Med.2005, 99, 703-10;J. Pathol.2001, 194, 232-38).
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a new class of azabicyclic amide containing pharmaceutical agents which inhibits metalloproteases. In particular, the present invention provides a new class of metalloprotease inhibiting compounds that exhibit potent MMP-13 inhibiting activity and/or activity towards MMP-8, MMP-3 and MMP-2.
The present invention provides several new classes of amide containing azabicyclic metalloprotease compounds, which are represented by the following general formulas:
wherein all variables in the preceding Formula (I) are as defined hereinbelow.
The azabicyclic metalloprotease inhibiting compounds of the present invention may be used in the treatment of metalloprotease mediated diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, abdominal aortic aneurysm, cancer (e.g. but not limited to melanoma, gastric carcinoma or non-small cell lung carcinoma), inflammation, atherosclerosis, multiple sclerosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, ocular diseases (e.g. but not limited to ocular inflammation, retinopathy of prematurity, macular degeneration with the wet type preferred and corneal neovascularization), neurologic diseases, psychiatric diseases, thrombosis, bacterial infection, Parkinson's disease, fatigue, tremor, diabetic retinopathy, vascular diseases of the retina, aging, dementia, cardiomyopathy, renal tubular impairment, diabetes, psychosis, dyskinesia, pigmentary abnormalities, deafness, inflammatory and fibrotic syndromes, intestinal bowel syndrome, allergies, Alzheimers disease, arterial plaque formation, oncology, periodontal, viral infection, stroke, atherosclerosis, cardiovascular disease, reperfusion injury, trauma, chemical exposure or oxidative damage to tissues, chronic wound healing, wound healing, hemorroid, skin beautifying, pain, inflammatory pain, bone pain and joint pain, acne, acute alcoholic hepatitis, acute inflammation, acute pancreatitis, acute respiratory distress syndrome, adult respiratory disease, airflow obstruction, airway hyperresponsiveness, alcoholic liver disease, allograft rejections, angiogenesis, angiogenic ocular disease, arthritis, asthma, atopic dermatitis, bronchiectasis, bronchiolitis, bronchiolitis obliterans, burn therapy, cardiac and renal reperfusion injury, celiac disease, cerebral and cardiac ischemia, CNS tumors, CNS vasculitis, colds, contusions, cor pulmonae, cough, Crohn's disease, chronic bronchitis, chronic inflammation, chronic pancreatitis, chronic sinusitis, crystal induced arthritis, cystic fibrosis, delayted type hypersensitivity reaction, duodenal ulcers, dyspnea, early transplantation rejection, emphysema, encephalitis, endotoxic shock, esophagitis, gastric ulcers, gingivitis, glomerulonephritis, glossitis, gout, graft vs. host reaction, gram negative sepsis, granulocytic ehrlichiosis, hepatitis viruses, herpes, herpes viruses, HIV, hypercapnea, hyperinflation, hyperoxia-induced inflammation, hypoxia, hypersensitivity, hypoxemia, inflammatory bowel disease, interstitial pneumonitis, ischemia reperfusion injury, kaposi's sarcoma associated virus, liver fibrosis, lupus, malaria, meningitis, multi-organ dysfunction, necrotizing enterocolitis, osteoporosis, chronic periodontitis, periodontitis, peritonitis associated with continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD), pre-term labor, polymyositis, post surgical trauma, pruritis, psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, pulmatory fibrosis, pulmatory hypertension, renal reperfusion injury, respiratory viruses, restinosis, right ventricular hypertrophy, sarcoidosis, septic shock, small airway disease, sprains, strains, subarachnoid hemorrhage, surgical lung volume reduction, thrombosis, toxic shock syndrome, transplant reperfusion injury, traumatic brain injury, ulcerative colitis, vasculitis, ventilation-perfusion mismatching, and wheeze.
In particular, the azabicyclic metalloprotease inhibiting compounds of the present invention may be used in the treatment of MMP-13, MMP-8, MMP-3 and MMP-2 mediated osteoarthritis and may be used for other MMP-13, MMP-8, MMP-3 and MMP-2 mediated symptoms, inflammatory, malignant and degenerative diseases characterized by excessive extracellular matrix degradation and/or remodelling, such as cancer, and chronic inflammatory diseases such as arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, atherosclerosis, abdominal aortic aneurysm, inflammation, multiple sclerosis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and pain, such as inflammatory pain, bone pain and joint pain.
The present invention also provides azabicyclic metalloprotease inhibiting compounds that are useful as active ingredients in pharmaceutical compositions for treatment or prevention of metalloprotease—especially MMP-13, MMP-8, MMP-3 and MMP-2—mediated diseases. The present invention also contemplates use of such compounds in pharmaceutical compositions for oral or parenteral administration, comprising one or more of the azabicyclic metalloprotease inhibiting compounds disclosed herein.
The present invention further provides methods of inhibiting metalloproteases, by administering formulations, including, but not limited to, oral, rectal, topical, intravenous, parenteral (including, but not limited to, intramuscular, intravenous), ocular (ophthalmic), transdermal, inhalative (including, but not limited to, pulmonary, aerosol inhalation), nasal, sublingual, subcutaneous or intraarticular formulations, comprising the azabicyclic metalloprotease inhibiting compounds by standard methods known in medical practice, for the treatment of diseases or symptoms arising from or associated with metalloprotease, especially MMP-13, MMP-8, MMP-3 and MMP-2, including prophylactic and therapeutic treatment. Although the most suitable route in any given case will depend on the nature and severity of the conditions being treated and on the nature of the active ingredient. The compounds from this invention are conveniently presented in unit dosage form and prepared by any of the methods well-known in the art of pharmacy.
The azabicyclic metalloprotease inhibiting compounds of the present invention may be used in combination with a disease modifying antirheumatic drug, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, a COX-2 selective inhibitor, a COX-1 inhibitor, an immunosuppressive, a steroid, a biological response modifier or other anti-inflammatory agents or therapeutics useful for the treatment of chemokines mediated diseases.
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7756966 | TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates generally to industrial automation, and more particularly toward a system and method for communicating with automation devices utilizing an animated and interactive human/machine interface (HMI).
BACKGROUND
Human/machine interfaces (HMIs) or simply user interfaces are important to the successful operation and maintenance of industrial automation devices and equipment. User interfaces provide the essential communication link between operators and automation devices. This link allows operators to, among other things, setup devices, monitor device status during operation, as well as analyze device health. Without such user interfaces, high level industrial automation would be difficult if not impossible to achieve.
Over the years, user interfaces have gone through several changes. At first, user interfaces were simply dumb terminals, which merely displayed text messages to end-users indicative of some process performed by a server or processor associated with an automated device. For instance, a failed device would generate an internal error code representing a determined error which could then be matched to a particular error message and displayed to a user or operator on a display device. Over time, client side processing developed so as to enable a move from a text based interface to a graphical user interface (GUI). This transition shifted some of the processing burden away from the automated device or associated processor toward the client side GUI. These new GUIs vastly improved the ability of users to access information quickly and easily. Unfortunately, these GUIs were not portable in part because of there size and machine dependencies and therefore not a viable option for managing and controlling a plurality of network connected devices. Shortly thereafter, the processing burden shifted back toward devices and away from interfaces with the advent the Internet and web browsers. As a result, developers sought to use web browsers as an interface mechanism. However, browsers merely employ a mark up language that is useful for displaying text and static images over a network (as was the purpose of browsers when they were conceived), but not for dynamic user interfaces. Accordingly there is a need in the art for a browser-based interface that provides users with a rich interactive experience that allows users to quickly and easily access and transfer information to and from automation devices in real-time.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The following presents a simplified summary of the invention in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is not an extensive overview of the invention. It is not intended to identify key/critical elements of the invention or to delineate the scope of the invention. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.
Disclosed herein is a system and method for interacting with automation devices or machines. Automation devices are communicatively coupled with other components and devices such as a data store for centrally storing device data via a network. A user can then communicate proximately or remotely with the automation devices and other associated networked components and devices via a rich, responsive and engaging browser-based interface in order to easily monitor, extract, and/or transmit data to and from automation devices in real time. Such an interface is made possible by extending browser functionality by embedding or incorporating an interactive program and an associated execution engine. The interactive program can comprise, among other things, bindings and a presentation component. Bindings can be specified which bind interactive program variables to automation device data such that the displayed data can be updated in real time and therefore always remain current. The presentation component can then be employed to specify an interactive multimedia context to display and interact with device data. Accordingly, the present invention provides for sophisticated and real time interaction with device data by employing a rich and easy to use browser-based interface.
To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, certain illustrative aspects of the invention are described herein in connection with the following description and the annexed drawings. These aspects are indicative of various ways in which the invention may be practiced, all of which are intended to be covered by the present invention. Other advantages and novel features of the invention may become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the drawings.
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SUMMARY: TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates generally to industrial automation, and more particularly toward a system and method for communicating with automation devices utilizing an animated and interactive human/machine interface (HMI).
BACKGROUND
Human/machine interfaces (HMIs) or simply user interfaces are important to the successful operation and maintenance of industrial automation devices and equipment. User interfaces provide the essential communication link between operators and automation devices. This link allows operators to, among other things, setup devices, monitor device status during operation, as well as analyze device health. Without such user interfaces, high level industrial automation would be difficult if not impossible to achieve.
Over the years, user interfaces have gone through several changes. At first, user interfaces were simply dumb terminals, which merely displayed text messages to end-users indicative of some process performed by a server or processor associated with an automated device. For instance, a failed device would generate an internal error code representing a determined error which could then be matched to a particular error message and displayed to a user or operator on a display device. Over time, client side processing developed so as to enable a move from a text based interface to a graphical user interface (GUI). This transition shifted some of the processing burden away from the automated device or associated processor toward the client side GUI. These new GUIs vastly improved the ability of users to access information quickly and easily. Unfortunately, these GUIs were not portable in part because of there size and machine dependencies and therefore not a viable option for managing and controlling a plurality of network connected devices. Shortly thereafter, the processing burden shifted back toward devices and away from interfaces with the advent the Internet and web browsers. As a result, developers sought to use web browsers as an interface mechanism. However, browsers merely employ a mark up language that is useful for displaying text and static images over a network (as was the purpose of browsers when they were conceived), but not for dynamic user interfaces. Accordingly there is a need in the art for a browser-based interface that provides users with a rich interactive experience that allows users to quickly and easily access and transfer information to and from automation devices in real-time.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The following presents a simplified summary of the invention in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is not an extensive overview of the invention. It is not intended to identify key/critical elements of the invention or to delineate the scope of the invention. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.
Disclosed herein is a system and method for interacting with automation devices or machines. Automation devices are communicatively coupled with other components and devices such as a data store for centrally storing device data via a network. A user can then communicate proximately or remotely with the automation devices and other associated networked components and devices via a rich, responsive and engaging browser-based interface in order to easily monitor, extract, and/or transmit data to and from automation devices in real time. Such an interface is made possible by extending browser functionality by embedding or incorporating an interactive program and an associated execution engine. The interactive program can comprise, among other things, bindings and a presentation component. Bindings can be specified which bind interactive program variables to automation device data such that the displayed data can be updated in real time and therefore always remain current. The presentation component can then be employed to specify an interactive multimedia context to display and interact with device data. Accordingly, the present invention provides for sophisticated and real time interaction with device data by employing a rich and easy to use browser-based interface.
To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, certain illustrative aspects of the invention are described herein in connection with the following description and the annexed drawings. These aspects are indicative of various ways in which the invention may be practiced, all of which are intended to be covered by the present invention. Other advantages and novel features of the invention may become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the drawings.
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7723634 | BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to electrical contactors and, more particularly, to an arc steering system for such contactors.
A contactor or circuit breaker is a type of current interrupting switch or severable electrical connection that is capable of substantially limiting the duration and the intensity of current flowing in a circuit experiencing a short circuit fault. Other severable electrical connections are commonly referred to as relays, disconnects, circuit breakers, switches, safety switches, enclosed circuit breakers, power circuit breakers, current-limiting circuit breakers, ground fault circuit breakers (GFCI's), and arc fault circuit interrupters (AFCI's). Understandably, these are but a few of the devices commonly referred to as switches or current switches or breakers. It is further appreciated that a severable electrical connection according to the present invention be provided as a manual or automatically operable switch. The switches defined by the present claims include all such switching configurations.
As one example of an implementation of the present invention, to limit the duration and the intensity of short-circuit currents, a circuit breaker quickly separates the contacts of the circuit breaker. The separation of the contacts while electrical current is flowing through the contactor results in an arc being formed between the contacts of the contactor. Prolonged arcing between the contacts can damage the mating surfaces of the contacts, can damage structures adjacent the contactor, and/or can result in the welding together of the contacts.
Arc damage to the mating surfaces of the contacts detrimentally affects the life of the contactor as well as the continued operability of the contactor. Irregularities in the surface of the contacts caused by arc damage results in contacts that do not fully close in a coplanar manner and in separations between the current carrying surfaces of the contacts when the contacts are closed. These irregularities mean that current that is communicated through the contactor is carried over a smaller surface area thereby generating localized current concentrations and thermal gradients in the contacts of the contactor assembly. Arcing can also cause irregularities that protrude above the preferably planar mating surfaces of the contacts. These irregularities tend to attract subsequent circuit termination arcs that further degrade the mating surface of the contact. Accordingly, during a short circuit condition, it is desirable to not only quickly separate the contacts but also to quickly transfer any resultant arc away from the contacts.
Among the devices for achieving desired quenching of the arc, the most typical is an arc arrestor which has an arc chute generally aligned along a given number of superimposed ferromagnetic plates. The plates are generally separated from one another and provided with projections or horns that extend toward the path of the arc drawn between the contacts. The plate configuration draws the arc into the arc chute where it is cooled and split up into a plurality of individual smaller arcs, or arclets. However, such a configuration allows the arc to maintain engagement with the contacts until the contacts are sufficiently separated that the resistance between the contacts is greater than the resistance between one contact and a plate of the arc arrestor. Accordingly, although such an arc arrestor aims to quickly quench a circuit termination arc, such arc arrestors inadequately address expedient transfer of the arc away from the contacts.
Still others have attempted to improve the transfer of the arc from the contacts to the arc arrestor through implementation of a slot motor magnet or a magnetic intensifier positioned proximate one of the contacts of the contactor assembly. As current flows through the contacts, a slot motor magnet generates a magnetic force on the arc that is directed toward the arc arrestor. Thus, during separation of the contacts, the magnetic field generated by the slot motor magnet directs the resultant arc toward the arc arrestor.
Such magnetic intensifiers occasionally result in the arc being attracted to the conductive material of the slot motor magnet damaging the slot motor assembly and possibly delaying movement of the arc away from the contacts. Others have attempted to prevent arcing to the slot motor magnet by encasing the magnet material of the slot motor magnet in a non-conductive material. Unfortunately, such modification increases the distance between the slot motor magnetic material and the contactor thereby reducing the magnitude of the magnetic force associated with the slot motor magnet. Accordingly, although such a modification minimizes the potential of arc attraction with the conductive material of the slot motor magnet, such modification also detrimentally affects the desired magnetic effect of the slot motor magnet.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a contactor having a magnetic field intensifier that, rather that encasing the slot motor magnet in an insulator and moving it away from the arc, moves the magnetic field intensifying structure closer to the arc by extending a magnetically reactive arm along a side of the contact. The arm is designed to attract the arc and to promote movement of the arc toward the suppressor. A combination of the shape of the arm to promote arc movement and the increased strength of the magnetic field provided by the arm, serves to minimize arc damage to the contact.
Specifically then, the present invention provides a switch assembly that includes a stationary contact, an arc contact, an arc arrestor, and a magnetic intensifier. The magnetic intensifier is constructed to be positioned in generally close proximity to one of the contacts of the switch assembly. During communication of power through the contactor assembly, the magnetic intensifier accentuates a magnetic field generated by a current passed through a turnback of one of the contacts and increases the magnitude of a magnetic force directed toward the arc arrestor. In one embodiment, the magnetic intensifier is formed as a pair of arms that extend from the turnback in close proximity to contact. Preferably, the intensifier and turnback are formed from a continuous piece of copper clad steel.
Therefore, in accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a magnetic intensifier for use in a switch for severing an electrical circuit is disclosed. The switch includes a pair of electrical contacts that separate along an axis and produce an arc along the axis between front surfaces of the contacts. At least one of the contacts provides a turnback wherein current to the contact passes along at least a partial loop passing in part behind the contact. The magnetic intensifier includes a magnetically responsive body that forms at least a portion of the turnback proximate the one contact. An arm extends from the magnetically responsive body beyond a side of one contact and proximate the one contact to manipulate magnetic flux formed by the current passing through the partial loop. Such a construction provides an intensifier assembly that can be formed integrally with the electrical components of the switch.
Another aspect of the invention disclosed a circuit interrupter assembly that has a first contact and a second contact that is movable between a first position and a second position. The first contact and second contact are electrically connected when the second contact is located in the first position and the first contact and the second contact are electrically separated when the second contact is located in the second position. A turnback is constructed to support one of the first contact or the second contact. An intensifier extends beyond a side of the turnback proximate the one contact and is configured to concentrate magnetic flux generated by current passing through the turnback.
A further aspect of the invention discloses a method of manufacturing a switch assembly. The method includes cutting a body from a metallic material. A turnback is formed by folding the body along a first fold line such that a first portion of the body overlies a second portion of the body. The body is folded along second and third fold lines that are oriented in crossing directions with the first fold line such that the turnback is flanked by a pair of arc rails which extend in a direction away from an area bound by the first and second portions of the body. The arc rails intensify the magnetic field associated with a current passing through the turnback. Such a construction simplifies the construction and assembly of the switch.
These and various other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will be made apparent from the following description and drawings.
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SUMMARY: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to electrical contactors and, more particularly, to an arc steering system for such contactors.
A contactor or circuit breaker is a type of current interrupting switch or severable electrical connection that is capable of substantially limiting the duration and the intensity of current flowing in a circuit experiencing a short circuit fault. Other severable electrical connections are commonly referred to as relays, disconnects, circuit breakers, switches, safety switches, enclosed circuit breakers, power circuit breakers, current-limiting circuit breakers, ground fault circuit breakers (GFCI's), and arc fault circuit interrupters (AFCI's). Understandably, these are but a few of the devices commonly referred to as switches or current switches or breakers. It is further appreciated that a severable electrical connection according to the present invention be provided as a manual or automatically operable switch. The switches defined by the present claims include all such switching configurations.
As one example of an implementation of the present invention, to limit the duration and the intensity of short-circuit currents, a circuit breaker quickly separates the contacts of the circuit breaker. The separation of the contacts while electrical current is flowing through the contactor results in an arc being formed between the contacts of the contactor. Prolonged arcing between the contacts can damage the mating surfaces of the contacts, can damage structures adjacent the contactor, and/or can result in the welding together of the contacts.
Arc damage to the mating surfaces of the contacts detrimentally affects the life of the contactor as well as the continued operability of the contactor. Irregularities in the surface of the contacts caused by arc damage results in contacts that do not fully close in a coplanar manner and in separations between the current carrying surfaces of the contacts when the contacts are closed. These irregularities mean that current that is communicated through the contactor is carried over a smaller surface area thereby generating localized current concentrations and thermal gradients in the contacts of the contactor assembly. Arcing can also cause irregularities that protrude above the preferably planar mating surfaces of the contacts. These irregularities tend to attract subsequent circuit termination arcs that further degrade the mating surface of the contact. Accordingly, during a short circuit condition, it is desirable to not only quickly separate the contacts but also to quickly transfer any resultant arc away from the contacts.
Among the devices for achieving desired quenching of the arc, the most typical is an arc arrestor which has an arc chute generally aligned along a given number of superimposed ferromagnetic plates. The plates are generally separated from one another and provided with projections or horns that extend toward the path of the arc drawn between the contacts. The plate configuration draws the arc into the arc chute where it is cooled and split up into a plurality of individual smaller arcs, or arclets. However, such a configuration allows the arc to maintain engagement with the contacts until the contacts are sufficiently separated that the resistance between the contacts is greater than the resistance between one contact and a plate of the arc arrestor. Accordingly, although such an arc arrestor aims to quickly quench a circuit termination arc, such arc arrestors inadequately address expedient transfer of the arc away from the contacts.
Still others have attempted to improve the transfer of the arc from the contacts to the arc arrestor through implementation of a slot motor magnet or a magnetic intensifier positioned proximate one of the contacts of the contactor assembly. As current flows through the contacts, a slot motor magnet generates a magnetic force on the arc that is directed toward the arc arrestor. Thus, during separation of the contacts, the magnetic field generated by the slot motor magnet directs the resultant arc toward the arc arrestor.
Such magnetic intensifiers occasionally result in the arc being attracted to the conductive material of the slot motor magnet damaging the slot motor assembly and possibly delaying movement of the arc away from the contacts. Others have attempted to prevent arcing to the slot motor magnet by encasing the magnet material of the slot motor magnet in a non-conductive material. Unfortunately, such modification increases the distance between the slot motor magnetic material and the contactor thereby reducing the magnitude of the magnetic force associated with the slot motor magnet. Accordingly, although such a modification minimizes the potential of arc attraction with the conductive material of the slot motor magnet, such modification also detrimentally affects the desired magnetic effect of the slot motor magnet.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a contactor having a magnetic field intensifier that, rather that encasing the slot motor magnet in an insulator and moving it away from the arc, moves the magnetic field intensifying structure closer to the arc by extending a magnetically reactive arm along a side of the contact. The arm is designed to attract the arc and to promote movement of the arc toward the suppressor. A combination of the shape of the arm to promote arc movement and the increased strength of the magnetic field provided by the arm, serves to minimize arc damage to the contact.
Specifically then, the present invention provides a switch assembly that includes a stationary contact, an arc contact, an arc arrestor, and a magnetic intensifier. The magnetic intensifier is constructed to be positioned in generally close proximity to one of the contacts of the switch assembly. During communication of power through the contactor assembly, the magnetic intensifier accentuates a magnetic field generated by a current passed through a turnback of one of the contacts and increases the magnitude of a magnetic force directed toward the arc arrestor. In one embodiment, the magnetic intensifier is formed as a pair of arms that extend from the turnback in close proximity to contact. Preferably, the intensifier and turnback are formed from a continuous piece of copper clad steel.
Therefore, in accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a magnetic intensifier for use in a switch for severing an electrical circuit is disclosed. The switch includes a pair of electrical contacts that separate along an axis and produce an arc along the axis between front surfaces of the contacts. At least one of the contacts provides a turnback wherein current to the contact passes along at least a partial loop passing in part behind the contact. The magnetic intensifier includes a magnetically responsive body that forms at least a portion of the turnback proximate the one contact. An arm extends from the magnetically responsive body beyond a side of one contact and proximate the one contact to manipulate magnetic flux formed by the current passing through the partial loop. Such a construction provides an intensifier assembly that can be formed integrally with the electrical components of the switch.
Another aspect of the invention disclosed a circuit interrupter assembly that has a first contact and a second contact that is movable between a first position and a second position. The first contact and second contact are electrically connected when the second contact is located in the first position and the first contact and the second contact are electrically separated when the second contact is located in the second position. A turnback is constructed to support one of the first contact or the second contact. An intensifier extends beyond a side of the turnback proximate the one contact and is configured to concentrate magnetic flux generated by current passing through the turnback.
A further aspect of the invention discloses a method of manufacturing a switch assembly. The method includes cutting a body from a metallic material. A turnback is formed by folding the body along a first fold line such that a first portion of the body overlies a second portion of the body. The body is folded along second and third fold lines that are oriented in crossing directions with the first fold line such that the turnback is flanked by a pair of arc rails which extend in a direction away from an area bound by the first and second portions of the body. The arc rails intensify the magnetic field associated with a current passing through the turnback. Such a construction simplifies the construction and assembly of the switch.
These and various other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will be made apparent from the following description and drawings.
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7798033 | BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to the field of steering mechanisms, and in particular to a power-assisted steering system having a gear mechanism with a gear and a mating gear.
Power-assisted steering is regularly used in motor vehicles to assist with manual steering movements that a driver performs on the steering wheel. Power-assisted steering systems include hydraulics to minimize the steering forces and reduce steering, especially at low speeds or when the vehicle is stationary. Power-assisted steering improves driver comfort, especially in parking and maneuvering, and in city traffic. In addition, steering systems are being developed that are electrical rather than hydraulic systems.
FIG. 1is a pictorial illustration of a power-assisted steering system100with electromechanical steering assistance.FIG. 1depicts a steering wheel102connected via a steering column104to a gear mechanism that has a worm gear106and a worm108. In addition, a worm-drive electric motor110is coupled to the gear mechanism. This gear mechanism is connected via a drag link112to a steering rack114of the motor vehicle. A tie rod116is coaxial with the steering rack114.
Gear mechanisms generally transmit a rotary movement of one shaft to another, which frequently occurs with conversion of a torque. Through teeth meshing with one another, positive connection between the shafts is provided and gear mechanisms ensure compulsory, non-slip transmission of the rotary movement, or torque.
Gears with involute tooth design are in almost exclusive use in mechanical engineering. In an involute tooth design, the effective profiles of the tooth faces (i.e., the tooth face profiles that come into contact with one another when the teeth mesh and through which force is transmitted) are involutes of a circle. That is, they describe a curve obtained by constructing a tangent at points of a circle and deducting on the tangents the length of the arc from the point of contact of the tangent with the circle up to a certain fixed point of the circle. In the case of externally toothed gears, the effective profiles of an involute tooth design are convex.
Gears with involute tooth design can be made in a relatively simple and precise manner. An advantage of this tooth geometry is that various tooth shapes and axis spacings can be made with the same tool by shifting the profile. In operation, gears with involute tooth design are distinguished by the fact that the direction and the magnitude of the tooth normal force is constant during the engagement of the teeth, resulting in uniform loading of the entire mechanism, in particular of the bearings of the mechanism.
Gear mechanisms have a variety of uses. They are used both in precision technology and in vehicle construction, for example in steering assistance systems.
FIG. 2depicts a worm drive200with a spur-gear-shaped worm gear202and a worm204engaging with the worm gear202, each with involute tooth design. In operation (i.e., when the teeth of the worm204and the worm gear202mesh with one another) the teeth of the worm gear202make contact with the teeth of the worm204at a point206. This contact leads to a high loading of the teeth at this point206, which, depending on the material pairing, can lead to severe wear and, in the extreme case, overloading of the teeth. The load-bearing capacity of gears with a point contact is thus limited.
FIG. 3depicts a worm gear mechanism300having a worm gear302and a worm304that engages the worm gear302. In contrast to the worm gear mechanism depicted inFIG. 2, the worm gear302is globoidal rather than cylindrical in shape. As a result, the worm gear302contact with the worm304is along a line306over the width of the teeth, so that the load transmitted by the teeth is distributed over a larger area. This reduces the loading per unit area of the individual teeth, so that the load-bearing capacity of the gears is increased. As a consequence, both wear and the danger of overloading of the teeth are decreased.
Machining is required to make a globoidal worm gear, since globoidal worm gears have undercut regions. However, machining increases the cost of manufacturing in comparison to other techniques for making gears, such as for example injection molding. In addition, the assembly of worm gear mechanisms with globoidal worm gears is more expensive because the worm gear can only be mounted in the radial direction, and not in the axial direction. Radial insertion of the worm gear requires more space than axial insertion, and may damage the worm gear if the worm gear is not moved toward the worm in the correct angular position. This is particularly true when the worm gear is made of a material with lower strength than the material of the worm. In addition, the worm and the worm gear must be positioned precisely relative to each other so that the teeth mesh properly. Another drawback is that if the angle between the axes of the worm and the worm gear is not equal to 90°, the worm gear must be made less globoidal. As a result, the linear contact area306becomes smaller, which in turn has a negative effect on the load-bearing capacity.
German Patent DE4107659A1 discloses a worm gear mechanism in which the worm and the worm gear have their force-transmitting contact surfaces shaped to provide low-noise operation. The tooth bases are each concave in shape and the tooth tips are convex in shape. An involute middle tooth part is provided in each case between these concave and convex portions. However, the use of the involute middle tooth part leads to the situation that only a point contact is provided between the meshing teeth in the involute region. As a result, this known worm gear mechanism does not have adequate bearing capacity for high loads throughout their meshing region.
Therefore, there is a need for a power-assisted steering system that includes gears with improved coupling.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A power-assisted steering system includes a gear mechanism with a gear and a mating gear that engage with each other via teeth. The teeth have effective profiles that are matched to each other such that the contact is relatively linear over the height of the teeth. That is, the face shape is adapted over the height of a tooth to the face shape of the tooth meshing with this tooth in such a way that the curvatures of the face shapes over the height of the teeth are selected such that a concavity is assigned a corresponding convexity on the other tooth, and vice versa. In relation to point contacts as common in the prior art, a linear contact has an advantage that the load to be transmitted by one gear to the other gear is distributed over a larger area, so that the load per unit area of the teeth is decreased.
In this way, both the wear of the gears and the danger of overloading are reduced. Overall, the load-bearing capacity of the gears is thus increased. The high load-bearing and loading capacity of the mechanism is achieved through the practice of providing no involute region at all for engagement of the teeth.
A linear contact over the height of the teeth can be achieved for example by assigning to a concave region of one tooth a convex region of the tooth in engagement with this tooth, the concave region and the convex region having the same curvature. The tooth base is made concave in shape and the tooth tip is made convex in shape, the convex region making a transition to the concave region without the interposition of a further region such as, for example, an involute region.
The worm gear may be made of a material with a lower strength than the material of the worm. For example, the worm may be made of steel and the worm gear of plastic. The use of a worm gear made of plastic brings about advantages that relate to fabrication. Plastic gears can be made by the economical injection molding process without the need for subsequent machining.
The tooth thicknesses of the wheels can be optimized because of the reduction of a real load per tooth. Especially good optimization results from utilizing the material properties of the material pairings. The tooth thicknesses of the worm gear are preferably greater than the tooth thicknesses of the worm. A reduction in the tooth thicknesses in turn yields cost advantages because material can be saved in this way.
The worm gear may be cylindrical in shape. In contrast to globoidal worm gears, a cylindrical worm gear has no undercuts. This form of worm gear favors the making of the worm gears by injection molding, which in turn has a positive impact on costs. In addition, the assembly of worm gear mechanisms with cylindrical worm gears is simpler because the worm gear can also be mounted in the axial direction. No additional space is required for axial insertion. The danger of damage to the worm gear is greatly reduced with axial insertion as compared to radial insertion. Further, exact axial positioning of the worm gear relative to the worm is not required, so that the cost of assembly is further reduced. What is more, axis angles different from 90° can be set with a cylindrical worm gear without any change in the load-bearing capacity of the gears, because the size of the contact area remains constant.
If the worm is made globoidal in shape, the contact over the width of the teeth is enlarged. A larger contact additionally reduces the load per unit area, so that the load-bearing capacity of the gears is further increased.
Although the invention is intended and suitable principally for use in power-assisted steerings of motor vehicles, the invention is not limited hereto. Instead, the gear mechanism of the present invention can also be used in window-opening drives, seat adjustments, mass compensation mechanisms, or other adjustment drives.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent in light of the following detailed description of preferred embodiments thereof, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to the field of steering mechanisms, and in particular to a power-assisted steering system having a gear mechanism with a gear and a mating gear.
Power-assisted steering is regularly used in motor vehicles to assist with manual steering movements that a driver performs on the steering wheel. Power-assisted steering systems include hydraulics to minimize the steering forces and reduce steering, especially at low speeds or when the vehicle is stationary. Power-assisted steering improves driver comfort, especially in parking and maneuvering, and in city traffic. In addition, steering systems are being developed that are electrical rather than hydraulic systems.
FIG. 1is a pictorial illustration of a power-assisted steering system100with electromechanical steering assistance.FIG. 1depicts a steering wheel102connected via a steering column104to a gear mechanism that has a worm gear106and a worm108. In addition, a worm-drive electric motor110is coupled to the gear mechanism. This gear mechanism is connected via a drag link112to a steering rack114of the motor vehicle. A tie rod116is coaxial with the steering rack114.
Gear mechanisms generally transmit a rotary movement of one shaft to another, which frequently occurs with conversion of a torque. Through teeth meshing with one another, positive connection between the shafts is provided and gear mechanisms ensure compulsory, non-slip transmission of the rotary movement, or torque.
Gears with involute tooth design are in almost exclusive use in mechanical engineering. In an involute tooth design, the effective profiles of the tooth faces (i.e., the tooth face profiles that come into contact with one another when the teeth mesh and through which force is transmitted) are involutes of a circle. That is, they describe a curve obtained by constructing a tangent at points of a circle and deducting on the tangents the length of the arc from the point of contact of the tangent with the circle up to a certain fixed point of the circle. In the case of externally toothed gears, the effective profiles of an involute tooth design are convex.
Gears with involute tooth design can be made in a relatively simple and precise manner. An advantage of this tooth geometry is that various tooth shapes and axis spacings can be made with the same tool by shifting the profile. In operation, gears with involute tooth design are distinguished by the fact that the direction and the magnitude of the tooth normal force is constant during the engagement of the teeth, resulting in uniform loading of the entire mechanism, in particular of the bearings of the mechanism.
Gear mechanisms have a variety of uses. They are used both in precision technology and in vehicle construction, for example in steering assistance systems.
FIG. 2depicts a worm drive200with a spur-gear-shaped worm gear202and a worm204engaging with the worm gear202, each with involute tooth design. In operation (i.e., when the teeth of the worm204and the worm gear202mesh with one another) the teeth of the worm gear202make contact with the teeth of the worm204at a point206. This contact leads to a high loading of the teeth at this point206, which, depending on the material pairing, can lead to severe wear and, in the extreme case, overloading of the teeth. The load-bearing capacity of gears with a point contact is thus limited.
FIG. 3depicts a worm gear mechanism300having a worm gear302and a worm304that engages the worm gear302. In contrast to the worm gear mechanism depicted inFIG. 2, the worm gear302is globoidal rather than cylindrical in shape. As a result, the worm gear302contact with the worm304is along a line306over the width of the teeth, so that the load transmitted by the teeth is distributed over a larger area. This reduces the loading per unit area of the individual teeth, so that the load-bearing capacity of the gears is increased. As a consequence, both wear and the danger of overloading of the teeth are decreased.
Machining is required to make a globoidal worm gear, since globoidal worm gears have undercut regions. However, machining increases the cost of manufacturing in comparison to other techniques for making gears, such as for example injection molding. In addition, the assembly of worm gear mechanisms with globoidal worm gears is more expensive because the worm gear can only be mounted in the radial direction, and not in the axial direction. Radial insertion of the worm gear requires more space than axial insertion, and may damage the worm gear if the worm gear is not moved toward the worm in the correct angular position. This is particularly true when the worm gear is made of a material with lower strength than the material of the worm. In addition, the worm and the worm gear must be positioned precisely relative to each other so that the teeth mesh properly. Another drawback is that if the angle between the axes of the worm and the worm gear is not equal to 90°, the worm gear must be made less globoidal. As a result, the linear contact area306becomes smaller, which in turn has a negative effect on the load-bearing capacity.
German Patent DE4107659A1 discloses a worm gear mechanism in which the worm and the worm gear have their force-transmitting contact surfaces shaped to provide low-noise operation. The tooth bases are each concave in shape and the tooth tips are convex in shape. An involute middle tooth part is provided in each case between these concave and convex portions. However, the use of the involute middle tooth part leads to the situation that only a point contact is provided between the meshing teeth in the involute region. As a result, this known worm gear mechanism does not have adequate bearing capacity for high loads throughout their meshing region.
Therefore, there is a need for a power-assisted steering system that includes gears with improved coupling.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A power-assisted steering system includes a gear mechanism with a gear and a mating gear that engage with each other via teeth. The teeth have effective profiles that are matched to each other such that the contact is relatively linear over the height of the teeth. That is, the face shape is adapted over the height of a tooth to the face shape of the tooth meshing with this tooth in such a way that the curvatures of the face shapes over the height of the teeth are selected such that a concavity is assigned a corresponding convexity on the other tooth, and vice versa. In relation to point contacts as common in the prior art, a linear contact has an advantage that the load to be transmitted by one gear to the other gear is distributed over a larger area, so that the load per unit area of the teeth is decreased.
In this way, both the wear of the gears and the danger of overloading are reduced. Overall, the load-bearing capacity of the gears is thus increased. The high load-bearing and loading capacity of the mechanism is achieved through the practice of providing no involute region at all for engagement of the teeth.
A linear contact over the height of the teeth can be achieved for example by assigning to a concave region of one tooth a convex region of the tooth in engagement with this tooth, the concave region and the convex region having the same curvature. The tooth base is made concave in shape and the tooth tip is made convex in shape, the convex region making a transition to the concave region without the interposition of a further region such as, for example, an involute region.
The worm gear may be made of a material with a lower strength than the material of the worm. For example, the worm may be made of steel and the worm gear of plastic. The use of a worm gear made of plastic brings about advantages that relate to fabrication. Plastic gears can be made by the economical injection molding process without the need for subsequent machining.
The tooth thicknesses of the wheels can be optimized because of the reduction of a real load per tooth. Especially good optimization results from utilizing the material properties of the material pairings. The tooth thicknesses of the worm gear are preferably greater than the tooth thicknesses of the worm. A reduction in the tooth thicknesses in turn yields cost advantages because material can be saved in this way.
The worm gear may be cylindrical in shape. In contrast to globoidal worm gears, a cylindrical worm gear has no undercuts. This form of worm gear favors the making of the worm gears by injection molding, which in turn has a positive impact on costs. In addition, the assembly of worm gear mechanisms with cylindrical worm gears is simpler because the worm gear can also be mounted in the axial direction. No additional space is required for axial insertion. The danger of damage to the worm gear is greatly reduced with axial insertion as compared to radial insertion. Further, exact axial positioning of the worm gear relative to the worm is not required, so that the cost of assembly is further reduced. What is more, axis angles different from 90° can be set with a cylindrical worm gear without any change in the load-bearing capacity of the gears, because the size of the contact area remains constant.
If the worm is made globoidal in shape, the contact over the width of the teeth is enlarged. A larger contact additionally reduces the load per unit area, so that the load-bearing capacity of the gears is further increased.
Although the invention is intended and suitable principally for use in power-assisted steerings of motor vehicles, the invention is not limited hereto. Instead, the gear mechanism of the present invention can also be used in window-opening drives, seat adjustments, mass compensation mechanisms, or other adjustment drives.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent in light of the following detailed description of preferred embodiments thereof, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
Is this patent green technology? Respond with 'yes' or 'no'. |
7850776 | FIELD
The present invention concerns a belite-rich sulphoaluminous clinker, a method for producing such a clinker and its use for preparing hydraulic binders.
BACKGROUND
Most modern concretes are made with hydraulic cements generally obtained from Portland cement clinkers.
Portland cement is produced by heating a fine, intimate mixture of limestone, clay, silica and iron ore, to a temperature of over 1400° C. in a rotary oven. The calcined mixture, the clinker, takes the form of hard nodules which, after cooling, are ground with calcium sulphates and other added minerals to form the Portland cement.
The mixture of raw materials put into the oven needs to be very rich in limestone in order to obtain a clinker for which the main mineral phase is alite.
Alite is an impure form of calcium trisilicate, Ca3SiO5, for which the conventional notation is C3S.
A high percentage of alite, generally over 50%, is indispensable in the mineralogical composition of modern cements, because this is what allows the strength properties to develop rapidly just after setting, and allows the strength properties at 28 days and over to develop sufficiently, in order to meet the specifications, in this area, of most cement standards.
For the remaining of the description of the invention, the following abbreviated notations will be used, unless explicitly stated otherwise, to designate the mineral components of the cement.C represents CaO,A represents Al2O3,F represents Fe2O3,S represents SiO2,$ represents SO3.
Over the last decades, the level of carbon dioxide, CO2, in the atmosphere has increased considerably and continues to grow increasingly rapidly. This is linked to human activity, and scientists are unanimous in recognizing that this increase will have important effects on climatic conditions in the future.
Many governments today are taking steps to reverse the trend and are studying how to reduce CO2emissions, particularly industrial emissions. The cement industry contributes greatly to these emissions, being responsible for 5% of all industrial emissions of CO2.
CO2emissions in Portland cement clinker production can be reduced by about 10% if the alite is almost totally eliminated. This can be done if the quantity of limestone introduced into the oven is reduced by 10%; the quantity of CO2linked to the decarbonatation of limestone during calcination is reduced, as is the amount of fuel necessary for supplying the energy to decarbonate the limestone.
This is accompanied by a reduced oven temperature, which has advantages, as described by E. Gartner, Cement and Concrete Research, “Industrially interesting approaches to low CO2cements”, 2004, article in press CEMCON-02838.
Portland cement clinkers with a low alite content are always rich in belite, an impure form of calcium disilicate, Ca2SiO4, for which the conventional notation is C2S. But the belite-rich Portland cements obtained do not make it possible to obtain sufficient mechanical strength properties in the short term to meet standard requirements, nor to obtain the performance required at present from modern concrete applications.
For these reasons the production of belite-rich Portland cement clinkers are not a satisfactory solution for reducing industrial CO2emissions by 10% or less.
In order to develop commercially useable cements, the production of which is associated with low industrial emissions of CO2, it is necessary to examine other types of hydraulic cement clinkers among these, systems based on calcium aluminates and/or calcium sulphates.
Alumina-rich cements, such as “Fondu Cement” by LAFARGE, are known for their property of acquiring high resistance in the short term; but they sometimes present the well-known problem of “conversion”, which is accompanied by a drop in the mechanical strength properties, and moreover highly specialised equipment is needed for their production, and a high fuel consumption, in spite of the low limestone content in the raw materials, and relatively expensive raw materials such as bauxite.
Besides, sulphate-based cements, such as gypsum and anhydrites, are inexpensive and generate little CO2during their production, but cannot be used in most concrete applications, due to their low mechanical strength properties and their poor resistance to water.
However, certain types of cements based on calcium sulphoaluminates, written as CSA, are very important because they have simultaneously the positive effects of calcium aluminates and of calcium sulphates in terms of low industrial CO2emission without having to use expensive raw materials, to the extent that the use of high quality bauxites could be minimised or be substituted by other materials.
Over the last 30 years, the Chinese cement industry has developed technology and set up a series of national standards concerning sulphoaluminous cements known as the “TCS series”, described by Zang L., Su M. Z., and WONG Y. M., in the journal “Advances in Cement Research”, Volume 11, no 1, 1999.
However, these cements have not been developed with the intention of reducing industrial emissions of CO2; they have mainly been developed for application in which high strength had to be obtained in the short term, as for prefabrication.
These “TCS series” sulphoaluminate cements are very rich in the calcium sulphoaluminate C4A3$ phase, known as “Klein salt” or “yee' limit”, which makes it possible to obtain high resistance in the short term, but in order to be formed during production, they necessitate introducing into the oven large quantities of high quality bauxite as a raw material. The cost of these cements is prohibitive for them to be used in many applications. Nevertheless, they can be produced with conventional rotary ovens.
The typical formulations of CSA aluminate cements are given in Table 1 below.
PhasesC4A3$ (%)C2S (%)C4AF (%)CSA (low ferrite55 to 7515 to 303 to 6content)CSA (high ferrite35 to 5515 to 3515 to 30content)CSA: Sulphoaluminous cement.
At the same time, P. K. Mehta in the USA developed other clinkers, the composition of which is based on the calcium sulphoaluminate phase C4A3$ “yee' limit”, and described in the journal “World Cement Technology” of May 1980, pp 166-177, and the journal “World Cement Technology” of July/August 1978, pp 144-160.
The clinkers described by Mehta differ from the “TCS series” mainly by their very high free calcium sulphate content in the form of anhydrite.
Although the clinkers described by Mehta have never been marketed, the clinker #5 reference quoted seems to correspond to the requirements of low industrial emission of CO2and have performances that are roughly those of modern Portland cements.
This clinker contains 20% of C4A3$ “yee' limit”, 20% anhydrite C$, 45% belite C2S and 15% tetracalcium aluminoferrite C4AF.
However, in spite of the good performances obtained in the laboratory, this clinker and the others quoted by Mehta in his publications, have the disadvantage linked to their high calcium sulphate content; indeed, it is well known that calcium sulphate is unstable at high temperatures at which it dissociates, generating a gas, sulphur dioxide SO2, particularly in a reducing atmosphere or when the oxygen pressure is low, as is the case in rotary ovens. Therefore the clinkers proposed by Mehta would be difficult to produce in conventional rotary ovens without creating serious environmental problems related to the emission of sulphur dioxide SO2.
The clinker #5 quoted by Mehta in the journal “World Cement Technology” of May 1980, pp 166-177 has the following mineralogical composition, by weight compared with the total weight of clinker:C2S: 45% C4A3$: 20% C4AF: 15% C$: 20%with C$: calcium sulphate (anhydrite).
SUMMARY
It would nonetheless be desirable to have clinkers leading to reduced industrial CO2emissions during their productions, also requiring reduced energy consumption that would make it possible to give added value to industrial by-products which are not usually used as raw materials that enter into their formulation, and which at the same time would make it possible to obtain hydraulic binders with rheological and mechanical strength properties at least equal to those of conventional Portland cements, particularly as to the mechanical performance when young and the development of resistances in the medium and long term.
| 1 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: FIELD
The present invention concerns a belite-rich sulphoaluminous clinker, a method for producing such a clinker and its use for preparing hydraulic binders.
BACKGROUND
Most modern concretes are made with hydraulic cements generally obtained from Portland cement clinkers.
Portland cement is produced by heating a fine, intimate mixture of limestone, clay, silica and iron ore, to a temperature of over 1400° C. in a rotary oven. The calcined mixture, the clinker, takes the form of hard nodules which, after cooling, are ground with calcium sulphates and other added minerals to form the Portland cement.
The mixture of raw materials put into the oven needs to be very rich in limestone in order to obtain a clinker for which the main mineral phase is alite.
Alite is an impure form of calcium trisilicate, Ca3SiO5, for which the conventional notation is C3S.
A high percentage of alite, generally over 50%, is indispensable in the mineralogical composition of modern cements, because this is what allows the strength properties to develop rapidly just after setting, and allows the strength properties at 28 days and over to develop sufficiently, in order to meet the specifications, in this area, of most cement standards.
For the remaining of the description of the invention, the following abbreviated notations will be used, unless explicitly stated otherwise, to designate the mineral components of the cement.C represents CaO,A represents Al2O3,F represents Fe2O3,S represents SiO2,$ represents SO3.
Over the last decades, the level of carbon dioxide, CO2, in the atmosphere has increased considerably and continues to grow increasingly rapidly. This is linked to human activity, and scientists are unanimous in recognizing that this increase will have important effects on climatic conditions in the future.
Many governments today are taking steps to reverse the trend and are studying how to reduce CO2emissions, particularly industrial emissions. The cement industry contributes greatly to these emissions, being responsible for 5% of all industrial emissions of CO2.
CO2emissions in Portland cement clinker production can be reduced by about 10% if the alite is almost totally eliminated. This can be done if the quantity of limestone introduced into the oven is reduced by 10%; the quantity of CO2linked to the decarbonatation of limestone during calcination is reduced, as is the amount of fuel necessary for supplying the energy to decarbonate the limestone.
This is accompanied by a reduced oven temperature, which has advantages, as described by E. Gartner, Cement and Concrete Research, “Industrially interesting approaches to low CO2cements”, 2004, article in press CEMCON-02838.
Portland cement clinkers with a low alite content are always rich in belite, an impure form of calcium disilicate, Ca2SiO4, for which the conventional notation is C2S. But the belite-rich Portland cements obtained do not make it possible to obtain sufficient mechanical strength properties in the short term to meet standard requirements, nor to obtain the performance required at present from modern concrete applications.
For these reasons the production of belite-rich Portland cement clinkers are not a satisfactory solution for reducing industrial CO2emissions by 10% or less.
In order to develop commercially useable cements, the production of which is associated with low industrial emissions of CO2, it is necessary to examine other types of hydraulic cement clinkers among these, systems based on calcium aluminates and/or calcium sulphates.
Alumina-rich cements, such as “Fondu Cement” by LAFARGE, are known for their property of acquiring high resistance in the short term; but they sometimes present the well-known problem of “conversion”, which is accompanied by a drop in the mechanical strength properties, and moreover highly specialised equipment is needed for their production, and a high fuel consumption, in spite of the low limestone content in the raw materials, and relatively expensive raw materials such as bauxite.
Besides, sulphate-based cements, such as gypsum and anhydrites, are inexpensive and generate little CO2during their production, but cannot be used in most concrete applications, due to their low mechanical strength properties and their poor resistance to water.
However, certain types of cements based on calcium sulphoaluminates, written as CSA, are very important because they have simultaneously the positive effects of calcium aluminates and of calcium sulphates in terms of low industrial CO2emission without having to use expensive raw materials, to the extent that the use of high quality bauxites could be minimised or be substituted by other materials.
Over the last 30 years, the Chinese cement industry has developed technology and set up a series of national standards concerning sulphoaluminous cements known as the “TCS series”, described by Zang L., Su M. Z., and WONG Y. M., in the journal “Advances in Cement Research”, Volume 11, no 1, 1999.
However, these cements have not been developed with the intention of reducing industrial emissions of CO2; they have mainly been developed for application in which high strength had to be obtained in the short term, as for prefabrication.
These “TCS series” sulphoaluminate cements are very rich in the calcium sulphoaluminate C4A3$ phase, known as “Klein salt” or “yee' limit”, which makes it possible to obtain high resistance in the short term, but in order to be formed during production, they necessitate introducing into the oven large quantities of high quality bauxite as a raw material. The cost of these cements is prohibitive for them to be used in many applications. Nevertheless, they can be produced with conventional rotary ovens.
The typical formulations of CSA aluminate cements are given in Table 1 below.
PhasesC4A3$ (%)C2S (%)C4AF (%)CSA (low ferrite55 to 7515 to 303 to 6content)CSA (high ferrite35 to 5515 to 3515 to 30content)CSA: Sulphoaluminous cement.
At the same time, P. K. Mehta in the USA developed other clinkers, the composition of which is based on the calcium sulphoaluminate phase C4A3$ “yee' limit”, and described in the journal “World Cement Technology” of May 1980, pp 166-177, and the journal “World Cement Technology” of July/August 1978, pp 144-160.
The clinkers described by Mehta differ from the “TCS series” mainly by their very high free calcium sulphate content in the form of anhydrite.
Although the clinkers described by Mehta have never been marketed, the clinker #5 reference quoted seems to correspond to the requirements of low industrial emission of CO2and have performances that are roughly those of modern Portland cements.
This clinker contains 20% of C4A3$ “yee' limit”, 20% anhydrite C$, 45% belite C2S and 15% tetracalcium aluminoferrite C4AF.
However, in spite of the good performances obtained in the laboratory, this clinker and the others quoted by Mehta in his publications, have the disadvantage linked to their high calcium sulphate content; indeed, it is well known that calcium sulphate is unstable at high temperatures at which it dissociates, generating a gas, sulphur dioxide SO2, particularly in a reducing atmosphere or when the oxygen pressure is low, as is the case in rotary ovens. Therefore the clinkers proposed by Mehta would be difficult to produce in conventional rotary ovens without creating serious environmental problems related to the emission of sulphur dioxide SO2.
The clinker #5 quoted by Mehta in the journal “World Cement Technology” of May 1980, pp 166-177 has the following mineralogical composition, by weight compared with the total weight of clinker:C2S: 45% C4A3$: 20% C4AF: 15% C$: 20%with C$: calcium sulphate (anhydrite).
SUMMARY
It would nonetheless be desirable to have clinkers leading to reduced industrial CO2emissions during their productions, also requiring reduced energy consumption that would make it possible to give added value to industrial by-products which are not usually used as raw materials that enter into their formulation, and which at the same time would make it possible to obtain hydraulic binders with rheological and mechanical strength properties at least equal to those of conventional Portland cements, particularly as to the mechanical performance when young and the development of resistances in the medium and long term.
Is this patent green technology? Respond with 'yes' or 'no'. |
7689846 | BACKGROUND
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the design of electronic circuits. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for temporarily increasing the operating frequency of an electronic circuit beyond a maximum sustainable operating frequency.
2. Related Art
As computer system performance continues to increase at an exponential rate, circuitry within the computer systems must keep pace with ever-faster frequencies. These faster frequencies cause the circuitry to switch more often, which causes the circuitry to consume more power. As the circuitry consumes more power it produces more heat.
This heat must somehow be removed so that the temperature within the computer circuits does not exceed a maximum operating temperature. To this end, computer systems typically include a number of heat-dissipating components, such as heat sinks, cooling fans and heat pipes to dissipate thermal energy.
Unfortunately, providing these heat-dissipating components within a computer system can present a number of problems. First, these heat-dissipating components can significantly increase the volume and weight of a computer system, which is especially a problem for portable computer systems in which volume and weight must be minimized. Second, providing these heat-dissipating components can significantly increase the manufacturing cost of a computer system. Third, providing these heat-dissipating components can reduce reliability of a computer system, because components such as cooling fans, can fail. Furthermore, some of these components such as cooling fans, consume extra power and can thereby decrease battery life in a portable computer system.
In order to reduce the power consumption, many portable computer systems enter a power conservation mode whenever the computer system is not busy. During this power conservation mode, the computer system operates at a reduced frequency and voltage level to minimize the amount of power consumed by the computer system, and to thereby increase battery life. When the computer system becomes busy again, the frequency is increased to a maximum sustainable frequency. For many portable computer systems, this maximum sustainable frequency is determined by the capacity of the computer system to dissipate heat.
Note that this maximum sustainable frequency is determined by assuming that the computer system will operate continuously at this frequency. Most computer applications, however, do not perform computational work continuously. In fact, most applications tend to perform computational work for short, concentrated bursts between long idle periods when the computer system is waiting for user input. Hence, the maximum sustainable operating frequency is typically too conservative because it is based on the worst-case assumption that an application performs computational work continuously.
What is needed is a method and an apparatus for temporarily increasing the operating frequency of a computer system beyond the maximum sustainable operating frequency.
SUMMARY
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates temporarily increasing the operating frequency of an electronic circuit, such as a computer system, beyond a maximum sustainable operating frequency. Upon receiving a request to operate at a higher frequency, the system determines the thermal energy level of a cooling system for the circuit. If the thermal energy level is below a threshold level for the thermal capacity of the cooling system, the system increases the operating frequency of the circuit to a frequency that is greater than the maximum sustainable operating frequency for a period of limited duration. This period of limited duration is short enough to ensure that a temperature increase, caused by increasing the operating frequency, does not raise the operating temperature of the circuit above a maximum operating temperature.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the request for the higher operating frequency is received from one of: an application running on the computer system; an operating system of the computer system; or a controller that detects an increase in computational workload by monitoring a current sensor within the computer system.
In one embodiment of the present invention, determining the thermal energy level of the cooling system involves measuring a temperature of a heat sink within the cooling system.
In one embodiment of the present invention, increasing the operating frequency involves increasing the operating frequency for an allotted time.
In one embodiment of the present invention, increasing the operating frequency involves increasing the operating frequency until a command is received to reduce the operating frequency.
In one embodiment of the present invention, if the thermal energy level of the cooling system is not below the threshold value, the system increases the operating frequency to the maximum sustainable operating frequency.
In one embodiment of the present invention, increasing the operating frequency additionally involves increasing an operating voltage of the circuit for the period of limited duration.
In one embodiment of the present invention, after the period of limited duration is over, the system lowers the operating frequency of the circuit to the maximum sustainable operating frequency.
In one embodiment of the present invention, if the circuit is not busy, the system lowers the operating frequency of the circuit to a lower power-conserving frequency, whereby the lower power-conserving frequency further decreases the thermal energy of the cooling system and thereby provides a longer period of boosted frequency when needed.
| 1 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: BACKGROUND
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the design of electronic circuits. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for temporarily increasing the operating frequency of an electronic circuit beyond a maximum sustainable operating frequency.
2. Related Art
As computer system performance continues to increase at an exponential rate, circuitry within the computer systems must keep pace with ever-faster frequencies. These faster frequencies cause the circuitry to switch more often, which causes the circuitry to consume more power. As the circuitry consumes more power it produces more heat.
This heat must somehow be removed so that the temperature within the computer circuits does not exceed a maximum operating temperature. To this end, computer systems typically include a number of heat-dissipating components, such as heat sinks, cooling fans and heat pipes to dissipate thermal energy.
Unfortunately, providing these heat-dissipating components within a computer system can present a number of problems. First, these heat-dissipating components can significantly increase the volume and weight of a computer system, which is especially a problem for portable computer systems in which volume and weight must be minimized. Second, providing these heat-dissipating components can significantly increase the manufacturing cost of a computer system. Third, providing these heat-dissipating components can reduce reliability of a computer system, because components such as cooling fans, can fail. Furthermore, some of these components such as cooling fans, consume extra power and can thereby decrease battery life in a portable computer system.
In order to reduce the power consumption, many portable computer systems enter a power conservation mode whenever the computer system is not busy. During this power conservation mode, the computer system operates at a reduced frequency and voltage level to minimize the amount of power consumed by the computer system, and to thereby increase battery life. When the computer system becomes busy again, the frequency is increased to a maximum sustainable frequency. For many portable computer systems, this maximum sustainable frequency is determined by the capacity of the computer system to dissipate heat.
Note that this maximum sustainable frequency is determined by assuming that the computer system will operate continuously at this frequency. Most computer applications, however, do not perform computational work continuously. In fact, most applications tend to perform computational work for short, concentrated bursts between long idle periods when the computer system is waiting for user input. Hence, the maximum sustainable operating frequency is typically too conservative because it is based on the worst-case assumption that an application performs computational work continuously.
What is needed is a method and an apparatus for temporarily increasing the operating frequency of a computer system beyond the maximum sustainable operating frequency.
SUMMARY
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates temporarily increasing the operating frequency of an electronic circuit, such as a computer system, beyond a maximum sustainable operating frequency. Upon receiving a request to operate at a higher frequency, the system determines the thermal energy level of a cooling system for the circuit. If the thermal energy level is below a threshold level for the thermal capacity of the cooling system, the system increases the operating frequency of the circuit to a frequency that is greater than the maximum sustainable operating frequency for a period of limited duration. This period of limited duration is short enough to ensure that a temperature increase, caused by increasing the operating frequency, does not raise the operating temperature of the circuit above a maximum operating temperature.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the request for the higher operating frequency is received from one of: an application running on the computer system; an operating system of the computer system; or a controller that detects an increase in computational workload by monitoring a current sensor within the computer system.
In one embodiment of the present invention, determining the thermal energy level of the cooling system involves measuring a temperature of a heat sink within the cooling system.
In one embodiment of the present invention, increasing the operating frequency involves increasing the operating frequency for an allotted time.
In one embodiment of the present invention, increasing the operating frequency involves increasing the operating frequency until a command is received to reduce the operating frequency.
In one embodiment of the present invention, if the thermal energy level of the cooling system is not below the threshold value, the system increases the operating frequency to the maximum sustainable operating frequency.
In one embodiment of the present invention, increasing the operating frequency additionally involves increasing an operating voltage of the circuit for the period of limited duration.
In one embodiment of the present invention, after the period of limited duration is over, the system lowers the operating frequency of the circuit to the maximum sustainable operating frequency.
In one embodiment of the present invention, if the circuit is not busy, the system lowers the operating frequency of the circuit to a lower power-conserving frequency, whereby the lower power-conserving frequency further decreases the thermal energy of the cooling system and thereby provides a longer period of boosted frequency when needed.
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7846609 | CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application claims priority to and the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2006-120140, filed on Nov. 30, 2006, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND
1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a fuel cell system capable of generating electricity through an electrochemical reaction between oxygen and hydrogen, and more particularly to a module-type fuel cell system in which previously preparing modules are assembled in a housing structure.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Generally, a fuel cell system is a system for generating electricity through an electrochemical reaction between an oxidizing agent and a fuel such as hydrogen. Such a fuel cell system includes an electric generator for generating electricity; a fuel supply unit for supplying a hydrogen-containing fuel to the electric generator; and an oxidizing agent supply unit for supplying an oxidizing agent to the electric generator. The fuel supply unit and the oxidizing agent supply unit are each equipped with a suitable pump. The above-mentioned components are fluidly connected, for example, through connecting pipes and the like, which enable fluid flow therethrough.
Also, the fuel cell system may have additional components, such as an unreacted fuel recovery unit for recovering and re-using unreacted fuel and vapor-phase water discharged from the electric generator; and/or a heat exchange unit.
If the components are connected together using pipes, then the pipes take up space between the components, thereby increasing dead space inside the fuel cell system.
Also, routing interconnecting pipes without interference therebetween reduces manufacturing efficiency.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, an object is to provide a module-type fuel cell system that reduces dead space and simplifies manufacturing a finished product by preassembling a plurality of component modules, each comprising one or more fuel cell system components, and simply assembling the component modules.
Another object is to provide a module-type fuel cell system in which the fluid-flow connections are made through an assembly process of modules, instead of by connecting the components using connecting.
One embodiment provides a module-type fuel cell system including: a power module including a power module including a generator installed inside and a power housing having a plurality of connection holes formed sideward, wherein the generator generates electricity through an oxidation-reduction reaction of an oxidizing agent with a hydrogen-containing fuel and the connection holes are connected to the generator to enable fluid flow; a fuel supply module including a fuel supply unit installed inside and a power housing having a plurality of connection holes formed sideward, wherein the fuel supply unit supplies a hydrogen-containing fuel to the generator and the connection holes are connected to the fuel supply unit to enable fluid flow; an oxidizing agent supply module including an oxidizing agent supply unit installed inside and an oxidizing agent supply housing having connection holes formed sideward, wherein the oxidizing agent supply unit supplies an oxidizing agent to the generator and the connection holes are connected the oxidizing agent supply unit to enable fluid flow; and a recovery module including a storage space formed therein and a recovery housing having a plurality of connection holes formed sideward, wherein the storage space recovers an unreacted fuel generated in the generator and the connection holes are connected to the storage space to enable fluid flow, wherein the power module is closely attached and assembled in one side of the recovery module in a surface-to-surface contact manner, and the fuel supply module and the oxidizing agent supply module are closely attached and assembled in the other side of the recovery module in a surface-to-surface contact manner.
A fuel supply line for supplying the hydrogen-containing fuel from the fuel supply module to the power module is formed by assembling the fuel supply module, the recovery module and the power module.
An unreacted fuel outlet is provided in one side of the power module, and an unreacted fuel inlet corresponding to the unreacted fuel outlet is provided in one side of the recovery module.
A fuel inlet is provided in one side of the fuel supply module, a fuel outlet is provided in the other side of the fuel supply module, and a fuel pump is installed inside, the fuel pump connecting the fuel outlet with the fuel inlet to enable fluid flow.
An oxidizing agent flow tube is further provided in the recovery module, the oxidizing agent flow tube connecting the power module with the oxidizing agent supply module so that an oxidizing agent can flow through the oxidizing agent flow tube. Then, an oxidizing agent supply line for supplying the oxidizing agent from the oxidizing agent supply module to the power module is formed by assembling the oxidizing agent supply module, the recovery module and the power module.
The recovery module further includes a heat exchange module for condensing vapor discharged from the power module, and a vapor flow tube is further provided in the recovery module, the vapor flow tube connecting the heat exchange module with the power module so that the vapor can flow through the vapor flow tube. Then, a vapor supply line for supplying the vapor from the power module to the heat exchange module is formed by assembling the power module, the recovery module and the heat exchange module.
A water outlet for discharging water generated through the condensation of vapor is provided in one side of the heat exchange module, and a water inlet corresponding to the water outlet is provided in the other side of the recovery module.
A protrusion is provided in each of the connection holes of the housing constituting one module of the adjacent modules, and a groove for connecting to the protrusion is provided in each of the connection holes of the housing constituting another module of the adjacent modules.
Some embodiments provide a module-type fuel cell system comprising: a power module comprising a power housing, a generator installed therein, and a plurality of connection ports formed on a first side of the power housing and fluidly connected to the generator, wherein the generator is operable to generate electricity through an oxidation-reduction reaction between an oxidizing agent and a hydrogen-containing fuel; a fuel supply module comprising a fuel supply housing, a fuel supply unit installed therein, and a plurality of connection ports formed on a first side of the fuel supply housing and fluidly connected to the fuel supply unit, wherein the fuel supply unit is configured to supply a suitable hydrogen-containing fuel to the generator; an oxidizing agent supply module comprising an oxidizing agent supply housing, an oxidizing agent supply unit installed therein, and a connection port formed on a side of the oxidizing agent supply housing and fluidly connected to the oxidizing agent supply unit, wherein the oxidizing agent supply unit is configured to supply an oxidizing agent to the generator; and a recovery module comprising a recovery housing comprising at a first side and a second side, a storage space formed therein, and a plurality of connection ports on the first and second sides of the recovery housing and fluidly connected to the storage space, wherein the storage space is configured to recover unreacted fuel from the generator. The first side of the power housing contacts and is secured to the first side of the recovery housing, and the side of the fuel supply housing and the side of the oxidizing agent supply housing contact and are secured to the second side of the recovery module, and corresponding connection ports of adjacent modules align and form fluid connections therebetween.
Some embodiments further comprise a heat exchange module comprising a heat exchange housing, a heat exchange unit therein, and a plurality of connection ports formed on a side of the heat exchange housing and fluidly connected to the heat exchange unit, wherein the heat exchange unit is operable to condense water vapor discharged from the power module. In some embodiments, the side of the heat exchange module contacts and is secured to the second side of the recovery module.
Some embodiments further comprise a fuel storage module comprising a fuel storage housing configured for storing a hydrogen-containing fuel therein, and a connection port formed on a side of the fuel storage housing fluidly connected to a corresponding connection port on a side of the fuel supply module. In some embodiments, the side of the fuel storage housing contacts and is secured to a side of the fuel supply housing.
In some embodiments, the corresponding connection ports of adjacent modules are hermetically connected. In some embodiments, a coupling is provided on each the connection port of the housing of a first module, and a socket dimensioned for connecting to the coupling is provided in each the connection port of the housing of a second, adjacent module. In some embodiments, the couplings and the sockets are shrink fit connectors and are coupled together. In some embodiments, the couplings and the sockets are integrally formed on each of the corresponding connection ports.
In some embodiments, a shrink fit coupling is provided on the housing of a first module, and a fit socket corresponding to the shrink fit coupling is provided on the housing of a second, adjacent module. In some embodiments, the shrink fit coupling is coupled to the fit socket, thereby maintaining contact between the adjacent modules.
Some embodiments further comprise a fuel flow tube installed within and traversing the storage space of the recovery housing, the fuel flow tube fluidly connecting the fuel supply module with the power module. In some embodiments, the assembled fuel supply module, recovery module, and power module form a fuel supply line comprising the fuel flow tube, a connection port of the fuel supply module, and a connection port of the power module, wherein the fuel supply line fluidly connects the fuel supply module to the power module.
In some embodiments, a connection port on the power housing of the power module is an unreacted fuel outlet configured for discharging unreacted fuel from the generator, and a corresponding connection port on the recovery housing of the recovery module is an unreacted fuel inlet.
In some embodiments, a first connection port formed on a second side of the fuel supply housing of the fuel supply module is a fuel inlet configured for allowing inflow of a hydrogen-containing fuel, and a second connection port formed on the first side of the fuel supply housing is a fuel outlet corresponds to the fuel inlet of the recovery housing, the fuel outlet is configured for discharging a hydrogen-containing fuel, and the fuel supply housing comprises a fuel pump installed therein, fluidly connecting the fuel outlet with the fuel inlet.
Some embodiments further comprise an oxidizing agent flow tube installed within and traversing the storage space of the recovery housing, the oxidizing agent flow tube fluidly connecting the power module with the oxidizing agent supply module. In some embodiments, the assembled oxidizing agent supply module, recovery module, and power module form an oxidizing agent supply line comprising the oxidizing agent flow tube, a connection port of the oxidizing agent supply module, and a connection port of the power module, wherein the oxidizing agent supply line fluidly connects the oxidizing agent supply module to the power module.
Some embodiments further comprise a vapor flow tube installed within and traversing the storage space of the recovery module, fluidly connecting the heat exchange module with the power module. In some embodiments, the assembled power module, recovery module, and heat exchange module form a vapor supply line comprising the vapor flow tube, a connection port of the power module, and a connection port of the heat exchange module, wherein the vapor supply line fluidly connects the power module to the heat exchange module.
In some embodiments, a connection port on a side of the heat exchange housing is a water outlet for water condensed in the heat exchange unit, and corresponding connection port on the second side of the recovery housing is a water inlet.
In some embodiments, a connection port on the second side of the recovery housing is an unreacted fuel outlet for unreacted fuel, and a corresponding connection port on the first side of the fuel supply housing is an unreacted fuel inlet. In some embodiments, the fuel supply module further comprises a mixing tank fluidly connected to the unreacted fuel inlet and the fuel inlet installed therein, configured for mixing an unreacted fuel from the unreacted fuel inlet with a hydrogen-containing fuel from the fuel inlet. In some embodiments, the fuel supply unit further comprises an inlet fuel pump fluidly connected to the mixing tank and an outlet pump fluidly connected to the mixing tank.
In some embodiments, a gas-liquid separator is provided at the top of the recovery module. In some embodiments, a gas-liquid separator is provided at the top of the heat exchange module.
In some embodiments, the fuel flow tube in the recovery module fluidly connects a fuel inlet connection port and a fuel outlet connection port. In some embodiments, a connection port in the power housing is a fuel inlet corresponding to the fuel outlet of the recovery housing. In some embodiments, the fuel inlet of the power housing is fluidly connected to an anode electrode of the generator.
In some embodiments, the connection port on the fuel storage housing is a fuel outlet corresponding to the fuel inlet of the fuel supply housing.
In some embodiments, the oxidizing agent flow tube in the recovery module fluidly connects an oxidizing agent inlet connection port and an oxidizing agent outlet connection port. In some embodiments, a connection port on the power housing is an oxidizing agent inlet corresponding to the oxidizing agent outlet of the recovery housing. In some embodiments, the oxidizing agent inlet of the power housing is fluidly connected to a cathode electrode of the generator.
In some embodiments, the connection port of the oxidizing agent supply housing is an oxidizing agent outlet corresponding to the oxidizing agent inlet of the recovery housing.
In some embodiments, the vapor flow tube of the recovery module fluidly connects a vapor inlet connection port and a vapor outlet connection port. In some embodiments, a connection port on the power housing is a vapor outlet corresponding to the vapor inlet of the recovery module, and a connection port on the heat exchange housing is a vapor inlet corresponding to the vapor outlet of the recovery module.
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SUMMARY: CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application claims priority to and the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2006-120140, filed on Nov. 30, 2006, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND
1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a fuel cell system capable of generating electricity through an electrochemical reaction between oxygen and hydrogen, and more particularly to a module-type fuel cell system in which previously preparing modules are assembled in a housing structure.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Generally, a fuel cell system is a system for generating electricity through an electrochemical reaction between an oxidizing agent and a fuel such as hydrogen. Such a fuel cell system includes an electric generator for generating electricity; a fuel supply unit for supplying a hydrogen-containing fuel to the electric generator; and an oxidizing agent supply unit for supplying an oxidizing agent to the electric generator. The fuel supply unit and the oxidizing agent supply unit are each equipped with a suitable pump. The above-mentioned components are fluidly connected, for example, through connecting pipes and the like, which enable fluid flow therethrough.
Also, the fuel cell system may have additional components, such as an unreacted fuel recovery unit for recovering and re-using unreacted fuel and vapor-phase water discharged from the electric generator; and/or a heat exchange unit.
If the components are connected together using pipes, then the pipes take up space between the components, thereby increasing dead space inside the fuel cell system.
Also, routing interconnecting pipes without interference therebetween reduces manufacturing efficiency.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, an object is to provide a module-type fuel cell system that reduces dead space and simplifies manufacturing a finished product by preassembling a plurality of component modules, each comprising one or more fuel cell system components, and simply assembling the component modules.
Another object is to provide a module-type fuel cell system in which the fluid-flow connections are made through an assembly process of modules, instead of by connecting the components using connecting.
One embodiment provides a module-type fuel cell system including: a power module including a power module including a generator installed inside and a power housing having a plurality of connection holes formed sideward, wherein the generator generates electricity through an oxidation-reduction reaction of an oxidizing agent with a hydrogen-containing fuel and the connection holes are connected to the generator to enable fluid flow; a fuel supply module including a fuel supply unit installed inside and a power housing having a plurality of connection holes formed sideward, wherein the fuel supply unit supplies a hydrogen-containing fuel to the generator and the connection holes are connected to the fuel supply unit to enable fluid flow; an oxidizing agent supply module including an oxidizing agent supply unit installed inside and an oxidizing agent supply housing having connection holes formed sideward, wherein the oxidizing agent supply unit supplies an oxidizing agent to the generator and the connection holes are connected the oxidizing agent supply unit to enable fluid flow; and a recovery module including a storage space formed therein and a recovery housing having a plurality of connection holes formed sideward, wherein the storage space recovers an unreacted fuel generated in the generator and the connection holes are connected to the storage space to enable fluid flow, wherein the power module is closely attached and assembled in one side of the recovery module in a surface-to-surface contact manner, and the fuel supply module and the oxidizing agent supply module are closely attached and assembled in the other side of the recovery module in a surface-to-surface contact manner.
A fuel supply line for supplying the hydrogen-containing fuel from the fuel supply module to the power module is formed by assembling the fuel supply module, the recovery module and the power module.
An unreacted fuel outlet is provided in one side of the power module, and an unreacted fuel inlet corresponding to the unreacted fuel outlet is provided in one side of the recovery module.
A fuel inlet is provided in one side of the fuel supply module, a fuel outlet is provided in the other side of the fuel supply module, and a fuel pump is installed inside, the fuel pump connecting the fuel outlet with the fuel inlet to enable fluid flow.
An oxidizing agent flow tube is further provided in the recovery module, the oxidizing agent flow tube connecting the power module with the oxidizing agent supply module so that an oxidizing agent can flow through the oxidizing agent flow tube. Then, an oxidizing agent supply line for supplying the oxidizing agent from the oxidizing agent supply module to the power module is formed by assembling the oxidizing agent supply module, the recovery module and the power module.
The recovery module further includes a heat exchange module for condensing vapor discharged from the power module, and a vapor flow tube is further provided in the recovery module, the vapor flow tube connecting the heat exchange module with the power module so that the vapor can flow through the vapor flow tube. Then, a vapor supply line for supplying the vapor from the power module to the heat exchange module is formed by assembling the power module, the recovery module and the heat exchange module.
A water outlet for discharging water generated through the condensation of vapor is provided in one side of the heat exchange module, and a water inlet corresponding to the water outlet is provided in the other side of the recovery module.
A protrusion is provided in each of the connection holes of the housing constituting one module of the adjacent modules, and a groove for connecting to the protrusion is provided in each of the connection holes of the housing constituting another module of the adjacent modules.
Some embodiments provide a module-type fuel cell system comprising: a power module comprising a power housing, a generator installed therein, and a plurality of connection ports formed on a first side of the power housing and fluidly connected to the generator, wherein the generator is operable to generate electricity through an oxidation-reduction reaction between an oxidizing agent and a hydrogen-containing fuel; a fuel supply module comprising a fuel supply housing, a fuel supply unit installed therein, and a plurality of connection ports formed on a first side of the fuel supply housing and fluidly connected to the fuel supply unit, wherein the fuel supply unit is configured to supply a suitable hydrogen-containing fuel to the generator; an oxidizing agent supply module comprising an oxidizing agent supply housing, an oxidizing agent supply unit installed therein, and a connection port formed on a side of the oxidizing agent supply housing and fluidly connected to the oxidizing agent supply unit, wherein the oxidizing agent supply unit is configured to supply an oxidizing agent to the generator; and a recovery module comprising a recovery housing comprising at a first side and a second side, a storage space formed therein, and a plurality of connection ports on the first and second sides of the recovery housing and fluidly connected to the storage space, wherein the storage space is configured to recover unreacted fuel from the generator. The first side of the power housing contacts and is secured to the first side of the recovery housing, and the side of the fuel supply housing and the side of the oxidizing agent supply housing contact and are secured to the second side of the recovery module, and corresponding connection ports of adjacent modules align and form fluid connections therebetween.
Some embodiments further comprise a heat exchange module comprising a heat exchange housing, a heat exchange unit therein, and a plurality of connection ports formed on a side of the heat exchange housing and fluidly connected to the heat exchange unit, wherein the heat exchange unit is operable to condense water vapor discharged from the power module. In some embodiments, the side of the heat exchange module contacts and is secured to the second side of the recovery module.
Some embodiments further comprise a fuel storage module comprising a fuel storage housing configured for storing a hydrogen-containing fuel therein, and a connection port formed on a side of the fuel storage housing fluidly connected to a corresponding connection port on a side of the fuel supply module. In some embodiments, the side of the fuel storage housing contacts and is secured to a side of the fuel supply housing.
In some embodiments, the corresponding connection ports of adjacent modules are hermetically connected. In some embodiments, a coupling is provided on each the connection port of the housing of a first module, and a socket dimensioned for connecting to the coupling is provided in each the connection port of the housing of a second, adjacent module. In some embodiments, the couplings and the sockets are shrink fit connectors and are coupled together. In some embodiments, the couplings and the sockets are integrally formed on each of the corresponding connection ports.
In some embodiments, a shrink fit coupling is provided on the housing of a first module, and a fit socket corresponding to the shrink fit coupling is provided on the housing of a second, adjacent module. In some embodiments, the shrink fit coupling is coupled to the fit socket, thereby maintaining contact between the adjacent modules.
Some embodiments further comprise a fuel flow tube installed within and traversing the storage space of the recovery housing, the fuel flow tube fluidly connecting the fuel supply module with the power module. In some embodiments, the assembled fuel supply module, recovery module, and power module form a fuel supply line comprising the fuel flow tube, a connection port of the fuel supply module, and a connection port of the power module, wherein the fuel supply line fluidly connects the fuel supply module to the power module.
In some embodiments, a connection port on the power housing of the power module is an unreacted fuel outlet configured for discharging unreacted fuel from the generator, and a corresponding connection port on the recovery housing of the recovery module is an unreacted fuel inlet.
In some embodiments, a first connection port formed on a second side of the fuel supply housing of the fuel supply module is a fuel inlet configured for allowing inflow of a hydrogen-containing fuel, and a second connection port formed on the first side of the fuel supply housing is a fuel outlet corresponds to the fuel inlet of the recovery housing, the fuel outlet is configured for discharging a hydrogen-containing fuel, and the fuel supply housing comprises a fuel pump installed therein, fluidly connecting the fuel outlet with the fuel inlet.
Some embodiments further comprise an oxidizing agent flow tube installed within and traversing the storage space of the recovery housing, the oxidizing agent flow tube fluidly connecting the power module with the oxidizing agent supply module. In some embodiments, the assembled oxidizing agent supply module, recovery module, and power module form an oxidizing agent supply line comprising the oxidizing agent flow tube, a connection port of the oxidizing agent supply module, and a connection port of the power module, wherein the oxidizing agent supply line fluidly connects the oxidizing agent supply module to the power module.
Some embodiments further comprise a vapor flow tube installed within and traversing the storage space of the recovery module, fluidly connecting the heat exchange module with the power module. In some embodiments, the assembled power module, recovery module, and heat exchange module form a vapor supply line comprising the vapor flow tube, a connection port of the power module, and a connection port of the heat exchange module, wherein the vapor supply line fluidly connects the power module to the heat exchange module.
In some embodiments, a connection port on a side of the heat exchange housing is a water outlet for water condensed in the heat exchange unit, and corresponding connection port on the second side of the recovery housing is a water inlet.
In some embodiments, a connection port on the second side of the recovery housing is an unreacted fuel outlet for unreacted fuel, and a corresponding connection port on the first side of the fuel supply housing is an unreacted fuel inlet. In some embodiments, the fuel supply module further comprises a mixing tank fluidly connected to the unreacted fuel inlet and the fuel inlet installed therein, configured for mixing an unreacted fuel from the unreacted fuel inlet with a hydrogen-containing fuel from the fuel inlet. In some embodiments, the fuel supply unit further comprises an inlet fuel pump fluidly connected to the mixing tank and an outlet pump fluidly connected to the mixing tank.
In some embodiments, a gas-liquid separator is provided at the top of the recovery module. In some embodiments, a gas-liquid separator is provided at the top of the heat exchange module.
In some embodiments, the fuel flow tube in the recovery module fluidly connects a fuel inlet connection port and a fuel outlet connection port. In some embodiments, a connection port in the power housing is a fuel inlet corresponding to the fuel outlet of the recovery housing. In some embodiments, the fuel inlet of the power housing is fluidly connected to an anode electrode of the generator.
In some embodiments, the connection port on the fuel storage housing is a fuel outlet corresponding to the fuel inlet of the fuel supply housing.
In some embodiments, the oxidizing agent flow tube in the recovery module fluidly connects an oxidizing agent inlet connection port and an oxidizing agent outlet connection port. In some embodiments, a connection port on the power housing is an oxidizing agent inlet corresponding to the oxidizing agent outlet of the recovery housing. In some embodiments, the oxidizing agent inlet of the power housing is fluidly connected to a cathode electrode of the generator.
In some embodiments, the connection port of the oxidizing agent supply housing is an oxidizing agent outlet corresponding to the oxidizing agent inlet of the recovery housing.
In some embodiments, the vapor flow tube of the recovery module fluidly connects a vapor inlet connection port and a vapor outlet connection port. In some embodiments, a connection port on the power housing is a vapor outlet corresponding to the vapor inlet of the recovery module, and a connection port on the heat exchange housing is a vapor inlet corresponding to the vapor outlet of the recovery module.
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7663433 | BACKGROUND
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to audio amplifiers, and more particularly to an audio amplifier that is capable of eliminating audible noise.
2. Description of Related Art
Audio amplifiers are used in various audio players, such as moving picture experts group audio layer 3 (MP3) players, digital versatile disc (DVD) players, televisions and so on, for amplifying audio signals and transmitting amplified audio signals to external speakers. An audio amplifier includes an amplifier circuit for amplifying the audio signals and a biasing circuit for providing a bias voltage to actuate the amplifier circuit. However, in practice, static noise such as a popping sound is always generated the moment the amplifier circuit suddenly receives the bias voltage.
Therefore, an audio amplifier is needed in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiency.
SUMMARY
An audio amplifier is provided. The audio amplifier includes an amplifier, a biasing circuit, and a time-delay circuit. The amplifier circuit is for amplifying audio signals. The biasing circuit is for providing a bias voltage to the amplifier circuit to actuate the amplifier circuit. The time-delay circuit is for receiving a pulse signal and delaying the bias voltage to avoid a sudden actuation of the amplifier circuit.
Other advantages and novel features of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: BACKGROUND
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to audio amplifiers, and more particularly to an audio amplifier that is capable of eliminating audible noise.
2. Description of Related Art
Audio amplifiers are used in various audio players, such as moving picture experts group audio layer 3 (MP3) players, digital versatile disc (DVD) players, televisions and so on, for amplifying audio signals and transmitting amplified audio signals to external speakers. An audio amplifier includes an amplifier circuit for amplifying the audio signals and a biasing circuit for providing a bias voltage to actuate the amplifier circuit. However, in practice, static noise such as a popping sound is always generated the moment the amplifier circuit suddenly receives the bias voltage.
Therefore, an audio amplifier is needed in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiency.
SUMMARY
An audio amplifier is provided. The audio amplifier includes an amplifier, a biasing circuit, and a time-delay circuit. The amplifier circuit is for amplifying audio signals. The biasing circuit is for providing a bias voltage to the amplifier circuit to actuate the amplifier circuit. The time-delay circuit is for receiving a pulse signal and delaying the bias voltage to avoid a sudden actuation of the amplifier circuit.
Other advantages and novel features of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
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7691537 | CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 2005-61409, filed on Jul. 7, 2005 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
An aspect of the present invention relates to an electrolyte for a lithium secondary battery and a lithium secondary battery including the electrolyte, and more particularly, to an electrolyte for a lithium secondary battery capable of sustaining good battery performance and suppressing a swelling phenomenon affecting the thickness of the battery caused from a gas generated in the battery and a lithium secondary battery including the electrolyte.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, in the rapid development of electronic, communication, and computer industries, small-sized light-weight high-performance portable electric apparatuses such as camcorders, mobile phones, and notebook PCs have been widely used. Therefore, demand for batteries having a light weight, a long life cycle, and high reliability have increased. Particularly, in comparison with conventional lead acid batteries, nickel cadmium batteries, nickel hydride batteries, and nickel zinc batteries, a rechargeable lithium secondary battery has three times energy density per unit weight and a high charging speed. Thus, the rechargeable lithium secondary battery has been widely researched and developed.
A positive electrode activation material of the lithium secondary battery is made of a lithium metal oxide, and a negative electrode activation material of the lithium secondary battery is made of a lithium metal, a lithium alloy, a crystalline carbon, an amorphous carbon, or a carbon complex. The lithium secondary batteries may be classified into a lithium ion battery, a lithium ion polymer battery, and a lithium polymer battery according to types of separators and electrolytes. In addition, the lithium secondary batteries may be classified into a cylinder type, a polygon type, and a coin type.
Since an average discharging voltage of the lithium secondary battery ranges from about 3.6 V to about 3.7 V, the lithium secondary battery can generate a higher power than alkali batteries, Ni—MH batteries, and Ni—Cd batteries. However, in order to generate such a high driving voltage, an electrolyte composite which is electro-chemically stable in a charging discharging range from 0 to 4.2 V is needed. For the reason, a mixture of a non-aqueous carbonate-based solvent such as ethylene carbonate, dimethyl carbonate, and diethyl carbonate is used for the electrolyte. However, in comparison with an aqueous electrolyte used for the Ni—MH battery or the Ni—Cd battery, the non-aqueous electrolyte having such a composition has problems in that, since ion conductivity is too low, battery characteristics at a high charging discharging speed deteriorate
At the initial charging period of the lithium secondary battery, lithium ions extracted from the lithium metal oxide of the positive electrode move to the carbon electrode, that is, the negative electrode to be intercalated to the carbon. Since the lithium ions are a highly reactive material, the lithium ions react with the carbon electrode to form Li2CO3, Li2O, or LiOH, so that a film is formed on a surface of the negative electrode. The film is called a solid electrolyte (solid electrolyte interface; SEI) film. The SEI film formed at the initial charging period has a function of preventing the lithium ions from reacting with the negative carbon electrode or other material during the charging and discharging periods. In addition, the SEI film serves as an ion tunnel for passing only the lithium ions. In general, the lithium ions may be subject to solvation, and thus, the lithium ions together with an organic solvent having a large molecule weight are co-intercalated on the carbon electrode, so that a structure of the negative electrode may be destructed. The ion tunnel has a function of preventing destruction of the structure of the negative electrode. When the SEI film is formed, the lithium ions do not react with the negative carbon electrode or other material as an undesired reaction, so that an amount of the lithium ions can be reversibly maintained. Namely, the carbon of the negative electrode reacts with the electrolyte at the initial charging period to form a passivation layer such as the SEI film on the surface of the negative electrode. Therefore, the electrolyte is not dissolved, but the charging and discharging can be stably performed (see J. Power Sources, 51 (1994), 79-104). As a result, after the initial charging and discharging periods, in the lithium secondary battery, an irreversible forming reaction of the passivation layer does not occur, and a stable life cycle can be maintained.
However, during the forming reaction of the SEI film, there is a problem of gas generation in the inner portion of the battery caused from the dissolvation of the carbonate-based organic solvent (see J. Power Sources, 72 (1998), 66-70). Examples of the gasses generated in the inner portion of the battery, include H2, CO, CO2, CH4, C2H6, C3H8, and C3H6according to types of the non-aqueous organic solvent and the negative electrode activation material. Due to the gas generation in the inner portion of the battery, the thickness of the battery expands at the charging period. In addition, as time elapses after the charging period, electrochemical energy and thermal energy increase. Therefore, the passivation layer may be gradually destructed to expose the negative electrode. The exposed negative electrode continuously reacts with ambient electrolyte as a side reaction. At this time, the gas is continuously generated, so that an internal pressure of the battery increases. Due to the increase in the internal pressure, the polygon type lithium polymer battery swells in a specific direction, or a specific surface of the battery is deformed. Therefore, a problem with the adhesiveness between the electrode plates in the electrode assembly of the battery occurs, so that there is deterioration in performance and stability of the battery as well as difficulty in set-mounting the lithium secondary battery to portable electric apparatuses.
In order to solve the aforementioned problems, there is proposed a method of mounting a current breaker or a vent for emitting the electrolyte at the state that the internal pressure increases up to a predetermined level, thereby improving the stability of the secondary battery including the non-aqueous electrolyte. However, the method has a problem in that malfunctions or dangers may occur due to increase in the internal pressure. In addition, in order to suppress the increase in the internal pressure, there is proposed a method of injecting an additive into the electrolyte to change the SEI forming reaction. For example, in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 9-73918, there is disclosed a method of adding a diphenyl picrylhydrazyl compound of less than 1%, thereby improving a high-temperature storage property of the battery. In addition, in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 8-321312, there is disclosed a method of adding N-buthyl amine-based compound of from 1% to 20%, thereby improving life cycle and a long-time storage property of the battery. In addition, in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 8-64238, there is disclosed a method of adding a calcium salt ranging from 3×10−4mol to 3×10−2mol, thereby improving a storage property of the battery. In addition, in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 6-333596, there is disclosed a method of adding an azo-based compound for suppressing reaction between the electrolyte and the negative electrode, thereby improving a storage property of the battery. In addition, in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 7-176323, there is disclosed a method of adding CO2to the electrolyte. In addition, in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 7-320779, there is disclosed a method of adding a sulfide-based compound to the electrolyte, thereby suppressing dissolvation of the electrolyte.
Conventionally, as described above, in order to improve the storage property and stability of the battery, a small amount of an organic or inorganic material is added to form and introduce a suitable film such as the SEI film on the surface of the negative electrode. However, the additive compound reacts with the carbon of the negative electrode at the initial charging discharging period according to unique electrochemical characteristics thereof, so that the compound may be dissolved or an unstable film may be formed. Therefore, the ion mobility in the battery deteriorates, and the gas generated in the inner portion of the battery, causes the internal pressure to increase. As a result, there are problems of deterioration in storage property, stability, life cycle, and capacitance of the battery.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An aspect of the present invention provides an electrolyte for a lithium secondary battery capable of suppressing gas generation in an inner portion of the battery causing expansion in thickness.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electrolyte for a lithium secondary battery capable of maintaining good battery performance and substantially preventing swelling caused from gas generation.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electrolyte for a lithium secondary battery, including a lithium salt; a non-aqueous organic solvent including γ-butyrolactone; and a succinic anhydride.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a lithium secondary battery including the electrolyte according to the aforementioned aspect.
Additional aspects and/or advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.
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SUMMARY: CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 2005-61409, filed on Jul. 7, 2005 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
An aspect of the present invention relates to an electrolyte for a lithium secondary battery and a lithium secondary battery including the electrolyte, and more particularly, to an electrolyte for a lithium secondary battery capable of sustaining good battery performance and suppressing a swelling phenomenon affecting the thickness of the battery caused from a gas generated in the battery and a lithium secondary battery including the electrolyte.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, in the rapid development of electronic, communication, and computer industries, small-sized light-weight high-performance portable electric apparatuses such as camcorders, mobile phones, and notebook PCs have been widely used. Therefore, demand for batteries having a light weight, a long life cycle, and high reliability have increased. Particularly, in comparison with conventional lead acid batteries, nickel cadmium batteries, nickel hydride batteries, and nickel zinc batteries, a rechargeable lithium secondary battery has three times energy density per unit weight and a high charging speed. Thus, the rechargeable lithium secondary battery has been widely researched and developed.
A positive electrode activation material of the lithium secondary battery is made of a lithium metal oxide, and a negative electrode activation material of the lithium secondary battery is made of a lithium metal, a lithium alloy, a crystalline carbon, an amorphous carbon, or a carbon complex. The lithium secondary batteries may be classified into a lithium ion battery, a lithium ion polymer battery, and a lithium polymer battery according to types of separators and electrolytes. In addition, the lithium secondary batteries may be classified into a cylinder type, a polygon type, and a coin type.
Since an average discharging voltage of the lithium secondary battery ranges from about 3.6 V to about 3.7 V, the lithium secondary battery can generate a higher power than alkali batteries, Ni—MH batteries, and Ni—Cd batteries. However, in order to generate such a high driving voltage, an electrolyte composite which is electro-chemically stable in a charging discharging range from 0 to 4.2 V is needed. For the reason, a mixture of a non-aqueous carbonate-based solvent such as ethylene carbonate, dimethyl carbonate, and diethyl carbonate is used for the electrolyte. However, in comparison with an aqueous electrolyte used for the Ni—MH battery or the Ni—Cd battery, the non-aqueous electrolyte having such a composition has problems in that, since ion conductivity is too low, battery characteristics at a high charging discharging speed deteriorate
At the initial charging period of the lithium secondary battery, lithium ions extracted from the lithium metal oxide of the positive electrode move to the carbon electrode, that is, the negative electrode to be intercalated to the carbon. Since the lithium ions are a highly reactive material, the lithium ions react with the carbon electrode to form Li2CO3, Li2O, or LiOH, so that a film is formed on a surface of the negative electrode. The film is called a solid electrolyte (solid electrolyte interface; SEI) film. The SEI film formed at the initial charging period has a function of preventing the lithium ions from reacting with the negative carbon electrode or other material during the charging and discharging periods. In addition, the SEI film serves as an ion tunnel for passing only the lithium ions. In general, the lithium ions may be subject to solvation, and thus, the lithium ions together with an organic solvent having a large molecule weight are co-intercalated on the carbon electrode, so that a structure of the negative electrode may be destructed. The ion tunnel has a function of preventing destruction of the structure of the negative electrode. When the SEI film is formed, the lithium ions do not react with the negative carbon electrode or other material as an undesired reaction, so that an amount of the lithium ions can be reversibly maintained. Namely, the carbon of the negative electrode reacts with the electrolyte at the initial charging period to form a passivation layer such as the SEI film on the surface of the negative electrode. Therefore, the electrolyte is not dissolved, but the charging and discharging can be stably performed (see J. Power Sources, 51 (1994), 79-104). As a result, after the initial charging and discharging periods, in the lithium secondary battery, an irreversible forming reaction of the passivation layer does not occur, and a stable life cycle can be maintained.
However, during the forming reaction of the SEI film, there is a problem of gas generation in the inner portion of the battery caused from the dissolvation of the carbonate-based organic solvent (see J. Power Sources, 72 (1998), 66-70). Examples of the gasses generated in the inner portion of the battery, include H2, CO, CO2, CH4, C2H6, C3H8, and C3H6according to types of the non-aqueous organic solvent and the negative electrode activation material. Due to the gas generation in the inner portion of the battery, the thickness of the battery expands at the charging period. In addition, as time elapses after the charging period, electrochemical energy and thermal energy increase. Therefore, the passivation layer may be gradually destructed to expose the negative electrode. The exposed negative electrode continuously reacts with ambient electrolyte as a side reaction. At this time, the gas is continuously generated, so that an internal pressure of the battery increases. Due to the increase in the internal pressure, the polygon type lithium polymer battery swells in a specific direction, or a specific surface of the battery is deformed. Therefore, a problem with the adhesiveness between the electrode plates in the electrode assembly of the battery occurs, so that there is deterioration in performance and stability of the battery as well as difficulty in set-mounting the lithium secondary battery to portable electric apparatuses.
In order to solve the aforementioned problems, there is proposed a method of mounting a current breaker or a vent for emitting the electrolyte at the state that the internal pressure increases up to a predetermined level, thereby improving the stability of the secondary battery including the non-aqueous electrolyte. However, the method has a problem in that malfunctions or dangers may occur due to increase in the internal pressure. In addition, in order to suppress the increase in the internal pressure, there is proposed a method of injecting an additive into the electrolyte to change the SEI forming reaction. For example, in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 9-73918, there is disclosed a method of adding a diphenyl picrylhydrazyl compound of less than 1%, thereby improving a high-temperature storage property of the battery. In addition, in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 8-321312, there is disclosed a method of adding N-buthyl amine-based compound of from 1% to 20%, thereby improving life cycle and a long-time storage property of the battery. In addition, in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 8-64238, there is disclosed a method of adding a calcium salt ranging from 3×10−4mol to 3×10−2mol, thereby improving a storage property of the battery. In addition, in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 6-333596, there is disclosed a method of adding an azo-based compound for suppressing reaction between the electrolyte and the negative electrode, thereby improving a storage property of the battery. In addition, in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 7-176323, there is disclosed a method of adding CO2to the electrolyte. In addition, in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 7-320779, there is disclosed a method of adding a sulfide-based compound to the electrolyte, thereby suppressing dissolvation of the electrolyte.
Conventionally, as described above, in order to improve the storage property and stability of the battery, a small amount of an organic or inorganic material is added to form and introduce a suitable film such as the SEI film on the surface of the negative electrode. However, the additive compound reacts with the carbon of the negative electrode at the initial charging discharging period according to unique electrochemical characteristics thereof, so that the compound may be dissolved or an unstable film may be formed. Therefore, the ion mobility in the battery deteriorates, and the gas generated in the inner portion of the battery, causes the internal pressure to increase. As a result, there are problems of deterioration in storage property, stability, life cycle, and capacitance of the battery.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An aspect of the present invention provides an electrolyte for a lithium secondary battery capable of suppressing gas generation in an inner portion of the battery causing expansion in thickness.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electrolyte for a lithium secondary battery capable of maintaining good battery performance and substantially preventing swelling caused from gas generation.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electrolyte for a lithium secondary battery, including a lithium salt; a non-aqueous organic solvent including γ-butyrolactone; and a succinic anhydride.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a lithium secondary battery including the electrolyte according to the aforementioned aspect.
Additional aspects and/or advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.
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7663202 | BACKGROUND
Nanotechnology and quantum information technology involve the design of extremely small electronic and optical circuits. It would be desirable to provide nanometer-scaled, opto-electronic devices including nanowires that are suitable for nanotechnology and quantum information technology applications, where such devices offer efficient performance and can be fabricated by low-cost fabrication techniques in a manufacturing environment.
SUMMARY
An exemplary embodiment of a nanowire photodiode comprises a first optical waveguide comprising a tapered first end including a first tip; a second optical waveguide comprising a tapered second end including a second tip spaced from the first tip; and at least one nanowire comprising at least one semiconductor material, the nanowire connecting the first tip and the second tip in a bridging configuration.
Another exemplary embodiment of a nanowire photodiode comprises a substrate having a surface; a first optical waveguide fabricated integrally on or in the surface of the substrate, the first optical waveguide comprising a tapered first end including a first tip; a second optical waveguide fabricated integrally on or in the surface of the substrate, the second optical waveguide comprising a tapered second end including a second tip spaced from the first tip; wherein the first and second optical waveguides comprise the same material as the surface of the substrate; and at least one nanowire comprising at least one first semiconductor material, the nanowire connecting the first tip and the second tip in a bridging configuration.
An exemplary embodiment of a method of fabricating a nanowire photodiode comprises growing at least one nanowire comprising at least one first semiconductor material from a first tip of a tapered first end of a first optical waveguide such that the nanowire connects in a bridging configuration to a second tip of a tapered second end of a second optical waveguide spaced from the first tip.
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SUMMARY: BACKGROUND
Nanotechnology and quantum information technology involve the design of extremely small electronic and optical circuits. It would be desirable to provide nanometer-scaled, opto-electronic devices including nanowires that are suitable for nanotechnology and quantum information technology applications, where such devices offer efficient performance and can be fabricated by low-cost fabrication techniques in a manufacturing environment.
SUMMARY
An exemplary embodiment of a nanowire photodiode comprises a first optical waveguide comprising a tapered first end including a first tip; a second optical waveguide comprising a tapered second end including a second tip spaced from the first tip; and at least one nanowire comprising at least one semiconductor material, the nanowire connecting the first tip and the second tip in a bridging configuration.
Another exemplary embodiment of a nanowire photodiode comprises a substrate having a surface; a first optical waveguide fabricated integrally on or in the surface of the substrate, the first optical waveguide comprising a tapered first end including a first tip; a second optical waveguide fabricated integrally on or in the surface of the substrate, the second optical waveguide comprising a tapered second end including a second tip spaced from the first tip; wherein the first and second optical waveguides comprise the same material as the surface of the substrate; and at least one nanowire comprising at least one first semiconductor material, the nanowire connecting the first tip and the second tip in a bridging configuration.
An exemplary embodiment of a method of fabricating a nanowire photodiode comprises growing at least one nanowire comprising at least one first semiconductor material from a first tip of a tapered first end of a first optical waveguide such that the nanowire connects in a bridging configuration to a second tip of a tapered second end of a second optical waveguide spaced from the first tip.
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7734341 | CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is related to co-pending, commonly assigned, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/422,423, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LYMPHATIC SYSTEM PACING AND SENSING,” filed on Jun. 6, 2006, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/422,421, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR NEURAL STIMULATION VIA THE LYMPHATIC SYSTEM,” filed on Jun. 6, 2006, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/422,417, entitled “METHOD AND DEVICE FOR LYMPHATIC SYSTEM MONITORING,” filed on Jun. 6, 2006, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/422,414, entitled “METHOD AND DEVICE FOR ENDO-LYMPHATIC STIMULATION,” filed on Jun. 6, 2006, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
TECHNICAL FIELD
This document relates generally to medical devices and particularly to an implantable system that delivers gastrointestinal (GI) stimulation via one or more lymphatic vessels.
BACKGROUND
Electrical stimulation has been applied to treat digestive disorders and control body weight. Such electrical stimulation includes delivering stimulation pulses to the organs or nerves of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, such as the stomach or vagus nerves that regulate functions of the stomach. For example, to treat morbid obesity associated with compulsive overeating, electrical stimuli are delivered to the vagus nerves or the stomach to create a sensation of satiety (fullness). The stimulation results in loss of desire to eat in a patient with obesity associated with overeating. When the patient's natural biofeedback fails to properly regulate his or her eating behavior, the electrical stimulation may provide an effective feedback control that discourages consumption of food in excessive quantities.
Implantable medical systems have been used to deliver electrical stimulation to treat obesity. A typical implantable electrical stimulation system includes an implantable stimulator that delivers electrical stimulation pulses through a plurality of stimulation electrodes. Depending on the location of the target structure to be stimulated, the stimulation electrodes may be incorporated onto the implantable stimulator and/or connected to the implantable stimulator using one or more implantable leads. The procedure of device implantation involves a certain level of risk associated with factors including the degree of invasiveness and anatomical complexity of each desirable stimulation site. The desirable stimulation site may not be in or near a location with an anatomical structure allowing for easy implantation of the implantable stimulator and/or the lead(s). Therefore, given a desirable stimulation site for obesity control, there is a need to minimize the invasiveness of implanting a system that delivers stimuli to that stimulation site.
SUMMARY
An implantable gastrointestinal (GI) stimulation system includes an implantable medical device coupled to at least one stimulus delivery device configured to be placed in one or more lymphatic vessels of a patient, such as the patient's thoracic duct and/or vessels branching from the thoracic duct. In one embodiment, to control obesity, GI stimuli are delivered from the stimulus delivery device to organs and/or nerves of the GI tract to create a sensation of satiety and/or to expedite food movement through the GI tract.
In one embodiment, a GI system includes an electrode assembly and an implantable medical device. The electrode assembly includes an electrode base configured to be implanted into a lymphatic vessel and a stimulation electrode on the electrode base. The electrode base is configured to cause a portion of the lymphatic vessel to substantially alter its natural path to contact a target region to which GI stimuli are delivered and maintain the contact between the portion of the lymphatic vessel and the target region after the implantation of the electrode assembly. The implantable medical device includes a GI stimulation circuit and an implant control circuit. The GI stimulation circuit delivers the GI stimuli through the stimulation electrode. The implant control circuit controls the delivery of the GI stimuli using a plurality of stimulation parameters selected to stimulate one or more of the organs and/or nerves of the GI tract.
In one embodiment, a method for delivering GI stimulation is provided. GI stimuli are delivered to one or more of the organs and/or nerves of the GI tract from an implantable medical device through at least one stimulation electrode placed in a lymphatic vessel.
This Summary is an overview of some of the teachings of the present application and not intended to be an exclusive or exhaustive treatment of the present subject matter. Further details about the present subject matter are found in the detailed description and appended claims. Other aspects of the invention will be apparent to persons skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the following detailed description and viewing the drawings that form a part thereof. The scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims and their legal equivalents.
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SUMMARY: CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is related to co-pending, commonly assigned, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/422,423, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LYMPHATIC SYSTEM PACING AND SENSING,” filed on Jun. 6, 2006, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/422,421, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR NEURAL STIMULATION VIA THE LYMPHATIC SYSTEM,” filed on Jun. 6, 2006, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/422,417, entitled “METHOD AND DEVICE FOR LYMPHATIC SYSTEM MONITORING,” filed on Jun. 6, 2006, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/422,414, entitled “METHOD AND DEVICE FOR ENDO-LYMPHATIC STIMULATION,” filed on Jun. 6, 2006, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
TECHNICAL FIELD
This document relates generally to medical devices and particularly to an implantable system that delivers gastrointestinal (GI) stimulation via one or more lymphatic vessels.
BACKGROUND
Electrical stimulation has been applied to treat digestive disorders and control body weight. Such electrical stimulation includes delivering stimulation pulses to the organs or nerves of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, such as the stomach or vagus nerves that regulate functions of the stomach. For example, to treat morbid obesity associated with compulsive overeating, electrical stimuli are delivered to the vagus nerves or the stomach to create a sensation of satiety (fullness). The stimulation results in loss of desire to eat in a patient with obesity associated with overeating. When the patient's natural biofeedback fails to properly regulate his or her eating behavior, the electrical stimulation may provide an effective feedback control that discourages consumption of food in excessive quantities.
Implantable medical systems have been used to deliver electrical stimulation to treat obesity. A typical implantable electrical stimulation system includes an implantable stimulator that delivers electrical stimulation pulses through a plurality of stimulation electrodes. Depending on the location of the target structure to be stimulated, the stimulation electrodes may be incorporated onto the implantable stimulator and/or connected to the implantable stimulator using one or more implantable leads. The procedure of device implantation involves a certain level of risk associated with factors including the degree of invasiveness and anatomical complexity of each desirable stimulation site. The desirable stimulation site may not be in or near a location with an anatomical structure allowing for easy implantation of the implantable stimulator and/or the lead(s). Therefore, given a desirable stimulation site for obesity control, there is a need to minimize the invasiveness of implanting a system that delivers stimuli to that stimulation site.
SUMMARY
An implantable gastrointestinal (GI) stimulation system includes an implantable medical device coupled to at least one stimulus delivery device configured to be placed in one or more lymphatic vessels of a patient, such as the patient's thoracic duct and/or vessels branching from the thoracic duct. In one embodiment, to control obesity, GI stimuli are delivered from the stimulus delivery device to organs and/or nerves of the GI tract to create a sensation of satiety and/or to expedite food movement through the GI tract.
In one embodiment, a GI system includes an electrode assembly and an implantable medical device. The electrode assembly includes an electrode base configured to be implanted into a lymphatic vessel and a stimulation electrode on the electrode base. The electrode base is configured to cause a portion of the lymphatic vessel to substantially alter its natural path to contact a target region to which GI stimuli are delivered and maintain the contact between the portion of the lymphatic vessel and the target region after the implantation of the electrode assembly. The implantable medical device includes a GI stimulation circuit and an implant control circuit. The GI stimulation circuit delivers the GI stimuli through the stimulation electrode. The implant control circuit controls the delivery of the GI stimuli using a plurality of stimulation parameters selected to stimulate one or more of the organs and/or nerves of the GI tract.
In one embodiment, a method for delivering GI stimulation is provided. GI stimuli are delivered to one or more of the organs and/or nerves of the GI tract from an implantable medical device through at least one stimulation electrode placed in a lymphatic vessel.
This Summary is an overview of some of the teachings of the present application and not intended to be an exclusive or exhaustive treatment of the present subject matter. Further details about the present subject matter are found in the detailed description and appended claims. Other aspects of the invention will be apparent to persons skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the following detailed description and viewing the drawings that form a part thereof. The scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims and their legal equivalents.
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7734017 | The invention relates to an Anti-Scatter-Grid for a radiation detector, to a radiation detector with such an Anti-Scatter-Grid, to an examination apparatus with such a detector, and to a method for the determination of scattered radiation impinging on a radiation detector.
During the generation of images by the spatially resolved measurement of radiation intensity it is often necessary or desirable to discriminate radiation coming from a target direction from radiation coming from other directions. A typical example of this situation is the generation of medical X-ray images by a CT or some similar device. In this case the main interest is the spatially resolved measurement of primary radiation coming directly from the X-ray source. Due to scatter processes in the examined body, however, there is always secondary or scattered radiation present that impinges on the detector from directions other than the line of sight to the X-ray source, wherein such scattered radiation carries no usable image information. In order to improve image quality and the signal-to-noise ratio, it is therefore known to dispose an Anti-Scatter-Grid (ASG) in front of the detector, wherein said grid comprises radiation absorbing lamellae which define channels through which radiation from a target direction may freely pass, while scattered radiation coming from other directions will be largely absorbed. It is however impossible to remove all scattered radiation with an Anti-Scatter-Grid, and therefore the contribution of scattered radiation to a measured image signal remains a problem, particularly in image regions of weak signal intensity.
Though different approaches have been tested to deal with the aforementioned problems, no satisfying solution could yet be found.
The U.S. Pat. No. 6,618,466 B1 proposes for example a method in which the contribution of scattered radiation to an image is determined via the generation of images with and without a beam stop array and the application of interpolation techniques. Such a laborious method is however hardly to integrate into the normal medical workflow.
Based on this situation it was an object of the present invention to provide means for the reduction of negative effects of scattered radiation on image quality.
This object is achieved by an Anti-Scatter-Grid, a radiation detector, an examination apparatus and a method.
According to its first aspect, the invention relates to an Anti-Scatter-Grid for a radiation detector which comprises lamellae that strongly absorb radiation of a certain spectrum which shall be observed by the detector, for example X-radiation. The radiation may pass freely only through (void or transparent) channels which are established between the lamellae. The channels thus define lines of sight along which radiation may reach a detector at the “backside” of the Anti-Scatter-Grid. The Anti-Scatter-Grid may be one-dimensional, wherein the channels are planes between parallel lamellae, or two-dimensional, wherein two sets of parallel lamellae cross and define channels. Depending on the intended application of the Anti-Scatter-Grid, the channels/lamellae may for example be parallel to each other or focused on a certain point (typically a radiation source). Moreover, it is an important feature of the radiation absorbing lamellae that they are adapted to produce a signal that indicates the amount of radiation absorbed by said lamellae. The signal may for example be proportional to the total energy of the absorbed radiation.
An Anti-Scatter-Grid of the aforementioned kind absorbs scattered radiation coming from directions other than a target direction defined by the channels of the grid, thus shielding a detector behind the Anti-Scatter-Grid from undesired radiation. Besides this, the Anti-Scatter-Grid yields a signal that indicates the amount of absorbed radiation. Based on this signal it is possible to estimate the fraction of scattered radiation that is actually present and thus also the amount of scattered radiation that reaches the detector despite of the Anti-Scatter-Grid. This in turn allows to correct the image signals of the detector and to improve image quality.
According to a preferred embodiment, the lamellae of the Anti-Scatter-Grid comprise a semiconductor material that converts absorbed radiation into electrical signals. The electrical signals may particularly be based on the generation of free current carriers (e.g. electron-hole pairs).
In order to maximize the sensitivity of the aforementioned semiconductor lamellae, it is preferred that they comprise a material with a low intrinsic energy conversion coefficient for the conversion of photons of the absorbed radiation into electron-hole pairs, wherein said coefficient may particularly be lower than 10 eV per electron-hole pair.
According to another embodiment of the invention, the lamellae comprise a scintillator material for the conversion of incident radiation of a first energy level (e.g. X-rays) into radiation of a second energy level (e.g. visible photons). The second energy level of the radiation generated in the scintillator material is then typically such that it may more readily be detected, e.g. by the aforementioned semiconductor material. The scintillator material is preferably disposed as an outer layer on the surface of the lamellae.
Moreover, the lamellae may preferably comprise a material with a high absorption coefficient, particularly higher than 1 cm−1, for photons with energies below 150 keV. Such lamellae make the Anti-Scatter-Grid suited for use with an X-ray detector. The material with such a high absorption coefficient may particularly be a heavy metal with an atomic weight above 40.
One preferred example of a material for the lamellae is CdZnTe which has both a low intrinsic energy conversion coefficient and a high absorption coefficient for X-rays.
As was already mentioned, the lamellae may particularly generate an electrical signal that corresponds to the dose of absorbed radiation. In this case, the lamellae are preferably covered completely or partially by electrodes, said electrodes allowing to induce an electrical field inside the lamellae and to collect charge carriers generated by absorbed radiation. The electrodes may typically consist of metal, particularly of Pt. Preferably there is a plurality of separate electrodes which allow a spatially resolved measurement of absorbed radiation. In a two-dimensional Anti-Scatter-Grid, one electrode may for example be located on each wall of each channel.
In the aforementioned embodiment, at least one of the electrodes may optionally end a distance away from the edge of the corresponding lamella on which said electrode resides. Processes in the margin of said lamella are therefore not influenced by the electrode. The distance of the electrode from the edge is preferably so large that radiation will substantially (e.g. to more than 90%, preferably more than 98%) be absorbed by the material of the lamella over said distance. Therefore, (primary) radiation that is parallel to the lamellae and hits them at their edge will be absorbed in the lamella within the margin not covered by the electrode; contributions from said radiation will thus not be measured by the electrode, allowing the better separation between primary and scattered radiation. More details on this topic will be discussed in the description of preferred embodiments.
The aforementioned electrodes which end a distance away from the edge are preferably mixed in the Anti-Scatter-Grid with electrodes that extend to the edge. The long and short electrodes may for example alternate from pixel to pixel. Such an arrangement allows a spatially alternating measurement of radiation absorbed by the lamellae with and without contributions from primary radiation. Therefore, the fractions of primary radiation and scattered radiation can be discriminated in a spatially resolved way.
The invention further comprises a radiation detector with the following components:An Anti-Scatter-Grid of the aforementioned kind which comprises radiation absorbing lamellae that produce a signal related to the amount of absorbed radiation.Optionally a converter for the conversion of incident radiation of a first energy level into radiation of different energy level. In X-ray detectors, such a converter is known as scintillator which converts incident X-rays into photons of visible light.An array of radiation sensitive sensor units that can measure the radiation passing through the Anti-Scatter-Grid (directly or after conversion by the converter) in a spatially resolved way.A signal processing unit for the evaluation of signals generated by the Anti-Scatter-Grid. The signal processing unit may particularly comprise electronics for the amplification, correction and/or analogue-to-digital conversion of signals from the Anti-Scatter-Grid. Moreover, it may comprise a digital data processing device (with e.g. microprocessor, memory, I/O interfaces etc.) for the evaluation of said signals.
According to a preferred embodiment, the signal processing unit may be adapted to discriminate fractions of incident radiation with respect to their parallelism to the channels/lamellae of the Anti-Scatter-Grid. Thus, the signal processing unit may (at least approximately) determine the fraction of the incident radiation that is parallel to the channels and therefore probably primary radiation as well as the fraction of radiation that is not parallel to the channels and therefore probably scattered radiation. Preferably, the processing unit determines said fractions spatially resolved in order to allow a local correction of an image generated by the sensor units.
The invention further relates to an examination apparatus, particularly an X-ray, CT (Computed Tomography), PET (Positron Emission Tomography), SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography) or nuclear imaging device, which comprises an X-ray sensitive radiation detector of the aforementioned kind.
Finally, the invention comprises a method for the determination of scattered radiation impinging on a radiation detector with an Anti-Scatter-Grid, wherein the amount of radiation absorbed by the Anti-Scatter-Grid is directly measured. The measurement is preferably executed in a spatially resolved way.
The radiation detector, the examination apparatus and the method share the essential features of an Anti-Scatter-Grid of the kind described above. Therefore, reference is made to the preceding description for more information on the details, advantages and improvements of these objects.
These and other aspects of the invention will be apparent from and elucidated with reference to the embodiment(s) described hereinafter.
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SUMMARY: The invention relates to an Anti-Scatter-Grid for a radiation detector, to a radiation detector with such an Anti-Scatter-Grid, to an examination apparatus with such a detector, and to a method for the determination of scattered radiation impinging on a radiation detector.
During the generation of images by the spatially resolved measurement of radiation intensity it is often necessary or desirable to discriminate radiation coming from a target direction from radiation coming from other directions. A typical example of this situation is the generation of medical X-ray images by a CT or some similar device. In this case the main interest is the spatially resolved measurement of primary radiation coming directly from the X-ray source. Due to scatter processes in the examined body, however, there is always secondary or scattered radiation present that impinges on the detector from directions other than the line of sight to the X-ray source, wherein such scattered radiation carries no usable image information. In order to improve image quality and the signal-to-noise ratio, it is therefore known to dispose an Anti-Scatter-Grid (ASG) in front of the detector, wherein said grid comprises radiation absorbing lamellae which define channels through which radiation from a target direction may freely pass, while scattered radiation coming from other directions will be largely absorbed. It is however impossible to remove all scattered radiation with an Anti-Scatter-Grid, and therefore the contribution of scattered radiation to a measured image signal remains a problem, particularly in image regions of weak signal intensity.
Though different approaches have been tested to deal with the aforementioned problems, no satisfying solution could yet be found.
The U.S. Pat. No. 6,618,466 B1 proposes for example a method in which the contribution of scattered radiation to an image is determined via the generation of images with and without a beam stop array and the application of interpolation techniques. Such a laborious method is however hardly to integrate into the normal medical workflow.
Based on this situation it was an object of the present invention to provide means for the reduction of negative effects of scattered radiation on image quality.
This object is achieved by an Anti-Scatter-Grid, a radiation detector, an examination apparatus and a method.
According to its first aspect, the invention relates to an Anti-Scatter-Grid for a radiation detector which comprises lamellae that strongly absorb radiation of a certain spectrum which shall be observed by the detector, for example X-radiation. The radiation may pass freely only through (void or transparent) channels which are established between the lamellae. The channels thus define lines of sight along which radiation may reach a detector at the “backside” of the Anti-Scatter-Grid. The Anti-Scatter-Grid may be one-dimensional, wherein the channels are planes between parallel lamellae, or two-dimensional, wherein two sets of parallel lamellae cross and define channels. Depending on the intended application of the Anti-Scatter-Grid, the channels/lamellae may for example be parallel to each other or focused on a certain point (typically a radiation source). Moreover, it is an important feature of the radiation absorbing lamellae that they are adapted to produce a signal that indicates the amount of radiation absorbed by said lamellae. The signal may for example be proportional to the total energy of the absorbed radiation.
An Anti-Scatter-Grid of the aforementioned kind absorbs scattered radiation coming from directions other than a target direction defined by the channels of the grid, thus shielding a detector behind the Anti-Scatter-Grid from undesired radiation. Besides this, the Anti-Scatter-Grid yields a signal that indicates the amount of absorbed radiation. Based on this signal it is possible to estimate the fraction of scattered radiation that is actually present and thus also the amount of scattered radiation that reaches the detector despite of the Anti-Scatter-Grid. This in turn allows to correct the image signals of the detector and to improve image quality.
According to a preferred embodiment, the lamellae of the Anti-Scatter-Grid comprise a semiconductor material that converts absorbed radiation into electrical signals. The electrical signals may particularly be based on the generation of free current carriers (e.g. electron-hole pairs).
In order to maximize the sensitivity of the aforementioned semiconductor lamellae, it is preferred that they comprise a material with a low intrinsic energy conversion coefficient for the conversion of photons of the absorbed radiation into electron-hole pairs, wherein said coefficient may particularly be lower than 10 eV per electron-hole pair.
According to another embodiment of the invention, the lamellae comprise a scintillator material for the conversion of incident radiation of a first energy level (e.g. X-rays) into radiation of a second energy level (e.g. visible photons). The second energy level of the radiation generated in the scintillator material is then typically such that it may more readily be detected, e.g. by the aforementioned semiconductor material. The scintillator material is preferably disposed as an outer layer on the surface of the lamellae.
Moreover, the lamellae may preferably comprise a material with a high absorption coefficient, particularly higher than 1 cm−1, for photons with energies below 150 keV. Such lamellae make the Anti-Scatter-Grid suited for use with an X-ray detector. The material with such a high absorption coefficient may particularly be a heavy metal with an atomic weight above 40.
One preferred example of a material for the lamellae is CdZnTe which has both a low intrinsic energy conversion coefficient and a high absorption coefficient for X-rays.
As was already mentioned, the lamellae may particularly generate an electrical signal that corresponds to the dose of absorbed radiation. In this case, the lamellae are preferably covered completely or partially by electrodes, said electrodes allowing to induce an electrical field inside the lamellae and to collect charge carriers generated by absorbed radiation. The electrodes may typically consist of metal, particularly of Pt. Preferably there is a plurality of separate electrodes which allow a spatially resolved measurement of absorbed radiation. In a two-dimensional Anti-Scatter-Grid, one electrode may for example be located on each wall of each channel.
In the aforementioned embodiment, at least one of the electrodes may optionally end a distance away from the edge of the corresponding lamella on which said electrode resides. Processes in the margin of said lamella are therefore not influenced by the electrode. The distance of the electrode from the edge is preferably so large that radiation will substantially (e.g. to more than 90%, preferably more than 98%) be absorbed by the material of the lamella over said distance. Therefore, (primary) radiation that is parallel to the lamellae and hits them at their edge will be absorbed in the lamella within the margin not covered by the electrode; contributions from said radiation will thus not be measured by the electrode, allowing the better separation between primary and scattered radiation. More details on this topic will be discussed in the description of preferred embodiments.
The aforementioned electrodes which end a distance away from the edge are preferably mixed in the Anti-Scatter-Grid with electrodes that extend to the edge. The long and short electrodes may for example alternate from pixel to pixel. Such an arrangement allows a spatially alternating measurement of radiation absorbed by the lamellae with and without contributions from primary radiation. Therefore, the fractions of primary radiation and scattered radiation can be discriminated in a spatially resolved way.
The invention further comprises a radiation detector with the following components:An Anti-Scatter-Grid of the aforementioned kind which comprises radiation absorbing lamellae that produce a signal related to the amount of absorbed radiation.Optionally a converter for the conversion of incident radiation of a first energy level into radiation of different energy level. In X-ray detectors, such a converter is known as scintillator which converts incident X-rays into photons of visible light.An array of radiation sensitive sensor units that can measure the radiation passing through the Anti-Scatter-Grid (directly or after conversion by the converter) in a spatially resolved way.A signal processing unit for the evaluation of signals generated by the Anti-Scatter-Grid. The signal processing unit may particularly comprise electronics for the amplification, correction and/or analogue-to-digital conversion of signals from the Anti-Scatter-Grid. Moreover, it may comprise a digital data processing device (with e.g. microprocessor, memory, I/O interfaces etc.) for the evaluation of said signals.
According to a preferred embodiment, the signal processing unit may be adapted to discriminate fractions of incident radiation with respect to their parallelism to the channels/lamellae of the Anti-Scatter-Grid. Thus, the signal processing unit may (at least approximately) determine the fraction of the incident radiation that is parallel to the channels and therefore probably primary radiation as well as the fraction of radiation that is not parallel to the channels and therefore probably scattered radiation. Preferably, the processing unit determines said fractions spatially resolved in order to allow a local correction of an image generated by the sensor units.
The invention further relates to an examination apparatus, particularly an X-ray, CT (Computed Tomography), PET (Positron Emission Tomography), SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography) or nuclear imaging device, which comprises an X-ray sensitive radiation detector of the aforementioned kind.
Finally, the invention comprises a method for the determination of scattered radiation impinging on a radiation detector with an Anti-Scatter-Grid, wherein the amount of radiation absorbed by the Anti-Scatter-Grid is directly measured. The measurement is preferably executed in a spatially resolved way.
The radiation detector, the examination apparatus and the method share the essential features of an Anti-Scatter-Grid of the kind described above. Therefore, reference is made to the preceding description for more information on the details, advantages and improvements of these objects.
These and other aspects of the invention will be apparent from and elucidated with reference to the embodiment(s) described hereinafter.
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7833662 | CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATION
This application claims priority to and the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2007-0001658, filed on Jan. 5, 2007 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to anode active materials, methods of preparing the same, and anodes and lithium batteries containing the materials. More particularly, the invention is directed to anode active materials having particular silicon peaks as measured by X-ray photoelectron spectrometry.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an effort to achieve high voltages and energy densities, research and development has been extensively conducted into non-aqueous electrolyte secondary batteries using lithium compounds as anodes. Specifically, metallic lithium has become the subject of intense research due to its ability to impart high initial battery capacity. Accordingly, lithium has gained great attention as a prominent anode material. However, when metallic lithium is used as an anode material, large amounts of lithium are deposited on the surface of the anode in the form of dendrites, which may degrade charge and discharge efficiencies or cause internal-shorts between the anode and the cathode (positive electrode). Further, lithium is very sensitive to heat or impact and is prone to explosion due to its instability, i.e., high reactivity, which has held up commercialization. In order to eliminate these problems with the use of metallic lithium, carbonaceous materials have been proposed for use as anode materials. Carbonaceous anodes perform redox reactions such that lithium ions in the electrolytic solution intercalate/deintercalate in the carbonaceous material which has a crystal lattice structure during charge and discharge cycles. These anodes are referred to as “rocking chair type” anodes.
The carbonaceous anode has made a great contribution to the widespread use of lithium batteries by overcoming various disadvantages associated with metallic lithium. However, electronic equipment are becoming smaller and more lightweight, and the use of portable electronic instruments is becoming more widespread, making the development of lithium secondary batteries having higher capacities a major focal point. Lithium batteries using carbonaceous anodes have low battery capacity because of the porosity of the carbonaceous anode. For example, graphite (which is an ultra-high crystalline material), when used in a LiC6structure (made by reaction of graphite with lithium ions), has a theoretical capacity density of about 372 mAh/g. This is only about 10% that of metallic lithium, i.e., 3860 mAh/g. Thus, in spite of many problems with conventional metallic anodes, studies for improving battery capacity using metallic lithium as the anode material are actively being carried out.
A representative example of such studies is the use of materials that can alloy with lithium, e.g., Si, Sn, Al, or the like, as anode active materials. However, materials that can alloy with lithium, such as Si or Sn, may present several problems, including volumetric expansion during formation of the lithium alloy, creation of electrically disconnected active materials in an electrode, aggravation of electrolytic decomposition, and so on.
In order to overcome these problems with the use of such a metallic material, a technique of using a metal oxide exhibiting a relatively low volumetric expansion as an anode active material has been proposed. For example, use of an amorphous Sn-based oxide has been proposed which minimizes the Sn particle size and prevents agglomeration of Sn particles during charge and discharge cycles, thereby leading to improvement of capacity retention characteristics. However, Sn-based oxides unavoidably cause reactions between lithium and oxygen atoms, which is responsible for considerable irreversible capacities.
High capacity electrodes using silicon oxides as the anode materials for secondary lithium ion batteries have also been proposed. However, irreversible capacities are considerably large during initial charge-discharge cycling stages, giving the secondary lithium ion batteries undesirable cycling characteristics and preventing practical use.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In one embodiment of the present invention, a silicon oxide based composite anode active material has a particular silicon peak as measured by X-ray photoelectron spectrometry.
In another embodiment of the present invention, an anode contains the anode active material. In yet another embodiment, a lithium battery include the anode active material, and the battery exhibits improved charge and discharge efficiency and charge and discharge capacity.
In still another embodiment of the present invention, a method of preparing the anode active material is provided.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, a silicon oxide based composite anode active material includes an amorphous silicon oxide represented by the general formula SiOx(where 0<x<2), having a binding energy ranging from about 103 to about 106 eV and a silicon peak with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) ranging from about 1.6 to about 2.4 as measured by X-ray photoelectron spectrometry, and having an atomic % greater than or equal to about 10, as calculated from an area of the peak.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, an anode comprises the anode active material. In another embodiment, a lithium battery includes the anode active material.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, a method of preparing the anode active material includes sintering hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) in an inert atmosphere at a temperature ranging from about 900 to about 1300° C.
Unlike conventional anode active materials derived from silicon dioxide, anode active materials according to embodiments of the present invention include amorphous silicon oxide having a novel structure, thereby improving initial charge and discharge efficiency. In addition, anodes and lithium batteries including the anode active materials of the present invention exhibit excellent charge and discharge characteristics.
| 1 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATION
This application claims priority to and the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2007-0001658, filed on Jan. 5, 2007 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to anode active materials, methods of preparing the same, and anodes and lithium batteries containing the materials. More particularly, the invention is directed to anode active materials having particular silicon peaks as measured by X-ray photoelectron spectrometry.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an effort to achieve high voltages and energy densities, research and development has been extensively conducted into non-aqueous electrolyte secondary batteries using lithium compounds as anodes. Specifically, metallic lithium has become the subject of intense research due to its ability to impart high initial battery capacity. Accordingly, lithium has gained great attention as a prominent anode material. However, when metallic lithium is used as an anode material, large amounts of lithium are deposited on the surface of the anode in the form of dendrites, which may degrade charge and discharge efficiencies or cause internal-shorts between the anode and the cathode (positive electrode). Further, lithium is very sensitive to heat or impact and is prone to explosion due to its instability, i.e., high reactivity, which has held up commercialization. In order to eliminate these problems with the use of metallic lithium, carbonaceous materials have been proposed for use as anode materials. Carbonaceous anodes perform redox reactions such that lithium ions in the electrolytic solution intercalate/deintercalate in the carbonaceous material which has a crystal lattice structure during charge and discharge cycles. These anodes are referred to as “rocking chair type” anodes.
The carbonaceous anode has made a great contribution to the widespread use of lithium batteries by overcoming various disadvantages associated with metallic lithium. However, electronic equipment are becoming smaller and more lightweight, and the use of portable electronic instruments is becoming more widespread, making the development of lithium secondary batteries having higher capacities a major focal point. Lithium batteries using carbonaceous anodes have low battery capacity because of the porosity of the carbonaceous anode. For example, graphite (which is an ultra-high crystalline material), when used in a LiC6structure (made by reaction of graphite with lithium ions), has a theoretical capacity density of about 372 mAh/g. This is only about 10% that of metallic lithium, i.e., 3860 mAh/g. Thus, in spite of many problems with conventional metallic anodes, studies for improving battery capacity using metallic lithium as the anode material are actively being carried out.
A representative example of such studies is the use of materials that can alloy with lithium, e.g., Si, Sn, Al, or the like, as anode active materials. However, materials that can alloy with lithium, such as Si or Sn, may present several problems, including volumetric expansion during formation of the lithium alloy, creation of electrically disconnected active materials in an electrode, aggravation of electrolytic decomposition, and so on.
In order to overcome these problems with the use of such a metallic material, a technique of using a metal oxide exhibiting a relatively low volumetric expansion as an anode active material has been proposed. For example, use of an amorphous Sn-based oxide has been proposed which minimizes the Sn particle size and prevents agglomeration of Sn particles during charge and discharge cycles, thereby leading to improvement of capacity retention characteristics. However, Sn-based oxides unavoidably cause reactions between lithium and oxygen atoms, which is responsible for considerable irreversible capacities.
High capacity electrodes using silicon oxides as the anode materials for secondary lithium ion batteries have also been proposed. However, irreversible capacities are considerably large during initial charge-discharge cycling stages, giving the secondary lithium ion batteries undesirable cycling characteristics and preventing practical use.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In one embodiment of the present invention, a silicon oxide based composite anode active material has a particular silicon peak as measured by X-ray photoelectron spectrometry.
In another embodiment of the present invention, an anode contains the anode active material. In yet another embodiment, a lithium battery include the anode active material, and the battery exhibits improved charge and discharge efficiency and charge and discharge capacity.
In still another embodiment of the present invention, a method of preparing the anode active material is provided.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, a silicon oxide based composite anode active material includes an amorphous silicon oxide represented by the general formula SiOx(where 0<x<2), having a binding energy ranging from about 103 to about 106 eV and a silicon peak with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) ranging from about 1.6 to about 2.4 as measured by X-ray photoelectron spectrometry, and having an atomic % greater than or equal to about 10, as calculated from an area of the peak.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, an anode comprises the anode active material. In another embodiment, a lithium battery includes the anode active material.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, a method of preparing the anode active material includes sintering hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) in an inert atmosphere at a temperature ranging from about 900 to about 1300° C.
Unlike conventional anode active materials derived from silicon dioxide, anode active materials according to embodiments of the present invention include amorphous silicon oxide having a novel structure, thereby improving initial charge and discharge efficiency. In addition, anodes and lithium batteries including the anode active materials of the present invention exhibit excellent charge and discharge characteristics.
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7685806 | BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for mitigating or reducing supersonic/shock noise generated by aircraft engines, by creating flow structures that form virtual aerodynamic shapes, e.g., lobes, that reduce shock cell strength and enhance mixing.
In military and some commercial aircraft jet engines, the jet engine exhaust is supersonic and contains shock cell structures that create significant noise due to the interaction between the shock cell structures and the shear in the jet flow. These shock cells are primarily generated during the engine nozzle's off-design operation. Stated differently, significant shock cells are generated when the engine nozzle is in either an under-expanded or over-expanded state, depending on the mismatch between the driving pressure and the ideally expanded pressure ratio that would correspond to the current geometry of the engine nozzle.
Additionally, as mixing is significantly suppressed in supersonic shear flows, traditional means of reducing jet engine noise for those with subsonic exhausts are ineffective unless applied on a large scale, which can result in significant system penalties, such as increase in weight and drag, and loss of thrust and operability.
Previous attempts to address shock cell noise in jet engines have proven to be less than desirable. In some applications the use of variable iris nozzles allow for some limited control on the degree of over and under expansion of the nozzle. However, the requirements on thrust and actuation limits in the area control mechanisms limit their use to reduce shock-noise. Further, in other applications the use of passive devices, such as mechanical lobe mixers, have been explored. However, as these devices are passive and exist in the flowpath at all times, the engine system must absorb the penalties of these devices being in the flowpath at all times, even when not necessary. Even if there are no performance penalties, the immersion in a hot flowpath limits their life/reliability and has a negative impact on system cost.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In an embodiment of the present invention, an aero-lobe, or virtual surface, is created in the flowpath due to an interaction between the supersonic flow of the engine with multiple supersonic injectors. Specifically, the present invention employs at least one supersonic injector which injects a supersonic flow from a wall of engine into the primary engine flow path. The injector flow is injected at a velocity such that the injected flow penetrates into the primary flow path. This injected flow creates a virtual obstacle for the primary flow, thus creating an aero-lobe or virtual surface which, in turn, creates a shock front.
In an embodiment of the present invention, one or more supersonic injectors are positioned very close to, or at the edge, of the nozzle to achieve the desired results. The injectors may be positioned or embedded in the nozzle lip or on the pylon close to the nozzle exit.
By adjusting various parameters, such as the shape, size, and number of the injectors, and speed of the injector flow, the shape of the shock front that forms between the primary engine flow and the flow of the injectors can be controlled and configured as desired. Thus, the size and shape of the shock front can be tailored to reduce the shock cell strength, and thus noise, by controlling the effective area ratio of the nozzle at its exit. This allows for the reduction of shock-cell noise, on-demand, without permanent structures or lobes formed in the engine exhaust.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the flow for the supersonic injectors is provided by a pulse detonation device.
As used herein, a “pulse detonation (or deflagration) device” (“PDD”) is understood to mean any combustion device or system where a series of repeating detonations (or deflagrations) within the device cause a pressure rise and subsequent acceleration of the combustion products as compared to the pre-burned reactants. Typical embodiments of PDDs include a means of igniting a fuel/oxidizer mixture, for example a fuel/air mixture, and a confining chamber, in which pressure wave fronts initiated by the ignition process coalesce to produce a detonation wave. Each detonation (or deflagration) is initiated either by external ignition, such as spark discharge, laser pulse, or plasma pulse or by gas dynamic processes, such as shock focusing, autoignition or by another detonation via cross-firing. The geometry of the detonation chamber is such that the pressure rise of the detonation wave expels combustion products out the PDD exhaust to produce a high-velocity or supersonic jet stream. As known to those skilled in the art, pulse detonation may be accomplished in a number of types of detonation chambers, including detonation tubes, shock tubes, resonating detonation cavities and annular detonation chambers. Additionally, “pulse detonation device” or “PDD”, as used herein, includes devices which use deflagration or detonation to generate a sufficient pressure rise to achieve the desired performance according to the present invention. In deflagration devices detonation is not necessary, but all that is needed is a pressure rise due to deflagration, where the pressure is significant enough to allow the injector flow to penetrate the exhaust flow.
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for mitigating or reducing supersonic/shock noise generated by aircraft engines, by creating flow structures that form virtual aerodynamic shapes, e.g., lobes, that reduce shock cell strength and enhance mixing.
In military and some commercial aircraft jet engines, the jet engine exhaust is supersonic and contains shock cell structures that create significant noise due to the interaction between the shock cell structures and the shear in the jet flow. These shock cells are primarily generated during the engine nozzle's off-design operation. Stated differently, significant shock cells are generated when the engine nozzle is in either an under-expanded or over-expanded state, depending on the mismatch between the driving pressure and the ideally expanded pressure ratio that would correspond to the current geometry of the engine nozzle.
Additionally, as mixing is significantly suppressed in supersonic shear flows, traditional means of reducing jet engine noise for those with subsonic exhausts are ineffective unless applied on a large scale, which can result in significant system penalties, such as increase in weight and drag, and loss of thrust and operability.
Previous attempts to address shock cell noise in jet engines have proven to be less than desirable. In some applications the use of variable iris nozzles allow for some limited control on the degree of over and under expansion of the nozzle. However, the requirements on thrust and actuation limits in the area control mechanisms limit their use to reduce shock-noise. Further, in other applications the use of passive devices, such as mechanical lobe mixers, have been explored. However, as these devices are passive and exist in the flowpath at all times, the engine system must absorb the penalties of these devices being in the flowpath at all times, even when not necessary. Even if there are no performance penalties, the immersion in a hot flowpath limits their life/reliability and has a negative impact on system cost.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In an embodiment of the present invention, an aero-lobe, or virtual surface, is created in the flowpath due to an interaction between the supersonic flow of the engine with multiple supersonic injectors. Specifically, the present invention employs at least one supersonic injector which injects a supersonic flow from a wall of engine into the primary engine flow path. The injector flow is injected at a velocity such that the injected flow penetrates into the primary flow path. This injected flow creates a virtual obstacle for the primary flow, thus creating an aero-lobe or virtual surface which, in turn, creates a shock front.
In an embodiment of the present invention, one or more supersonic injectors are positioned very close to, or at the edge, of the nozzle to achieve the desired results. The injectors may be positioned or embedded in the nozzle lip or on the pylon close to the nozzle exit.
By adjusting various parameters, such as the shape, size, and number of the injectors, and speed of the injector flow, the shape of the shock front that forms between the primary engine flow and the flow of the injectors can be controlled and configured as desired. Thus, the size and shape of the shock front can be tailored to reduce the shock cell strength, and thus noise, by controlling the effective area ratio of the nozzle at its exit. This allows for the reduction of shock-cell noise, on-demand, without permanent structures or lobes formed in the engine exhaust.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the flow for the supersonic injectors is provided by a pulse detonation device.
As used herein, a “pulse detonation (or deflagration) device” (“PDD”) is understood to mean any combustion device or system where a series of repeating detonations (or deflagrations) within the device cause a pressure rise and subsequent acceleration of the combustion products as compared to the pre-burned reactants. Typical embodiments of PDDs include a means of igniting a fuel/oxidizer mixture, for example a fuel/air mixture, and a confining chamber, in which pressure wave fronts initiated by the ignition process coalesce to produce a detonation wave. Each detonation (or deflagration) is initiated either by external ignition, such as spark discharge, laser pulse, or plasma pulse or by gas dynamic processes, such as shock focusing, autoignition or by another detonation via cross-firing. The geometry of the detonation chamber is such that the pressure rise of the detonation wave expels combustion products out the PDD exhaust to produce a high-velocity or supersonic jet stream. As known to those skilled in the art, pulse detonation may be accomplished in a number of types of detonation chambers, including detonation tubes, shock tubes, resonating detonation cavities and annular detonation chambers. Additionally, “pulse detonation device” or “PDD”, as used herein, includes devices which use deflagration or detonation to generate a sufficient pressure rise to achieve the desired performance according to the present invention. In deflagration devices detonation is not necessary, but all that is needed is a pressure rise due to deflagration, where the pressure is significant enough to allow the injector flow to penetrate the exhaust flow.
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7809073 | TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to the communication method for wireless signal of a base station in a mobile communication system, and especially relates to the communication method based on multiple input/multiple output (MIMO) technique in the centralized base station system based on remote radio frequency units.
BACKGROUND TECHNOLOGY
1. Centralized Base Station Having the Structure Based on Remote Radio Frequency Units
In the mobile communication system, the transmission, reception and processing of the wireless signals are performed by base stations (BTS). As shown inFIG. 1, a conventional BTS10is mainly composed by a baseband processing subsystem11, a radio frequency (RF) subsystem12and antennas13, and one BTS may cover different cells (cell14) through a plurality of RF antennas.FIG. 2presents another kind of base station using distributed transmission sources, i.e., using the system architecture of a centralized base station based on radio frequency units. As compared to the conventional base station, such a centralized base station based on radio frequency units has many advantages: allowing to replace one macro cell based on the conventional base station with a plurality of micro cells, thereby best accommodating different wireless environments and increasing wireless performances such as capacity, coverage and etc. of the system; The centralized structure makes it possible to perform the soft handoff in the conventional base station by a softer handoff, thereby obtaining an additional process gain. The centralized structure also makes it possible to use costly baseband signal processing resources as a resource pool shared by a plurality of cells, thereby obtaining benefits of commonly sharing and reduced system cost. More details of this technique are disclosed in PCT patent WO9005432 “Communications system”, U.S. Pat. No. 5,657,374 “Cellular system with centralized base stations and distributed antenna units”, U.S. Pat. No. 6,324,391 “Cellular communication with centralized control and signal processing”, China patent application CN1464666 “Soft base station system based on fiber optic stretch and synchronous method thereof”, China patent application CN1471331 “Base station system for mobile communication” and United States Patent application US20030171118 “Cellular radio transmission apparatus and cellular radio transmission method”.
As shown inFIG. 2, the centralized base station system20based on remote radio frequency units is composed of a centralizedly configured central channel processing subsystem21and remote radio frequency units24which are connected through the wideband transmission link or network. The central channel processing subsystem mainly comprises functional units such as the channel processing resource pool22, the signal routing distribution unit23and etc., wherein the channel processing resource pool is formed by stacking a plurality of channel processing units, and performs tasks such as baseband signal processing, and the signal distribution unit dynamically allocates channel processing resources according to the traffic of different cells to realize effective sharing of the processing resources among multiple cells. Besides the implementation inside the centralized base station as shown inFIG. 2, the signal routing distribution unit may also be implemented as a separate device outside the centralized base station. The remote antenna element is mainly constituted by functional units such as the transmission channel's radio frequency power amplifier, the reception channel's low noise amplifier, antennas and etc. The link between the central channel processing subsystem and the remote antenna unit may adopt transmission medium such as optical fiber, coaxial cable, microwave and etc.; the signal transmission may be done by way of digital signals after sampling, or analog signals after modulating; the signals may be baseband signals, intermediate frequency signals or radio-frequency signals.
However, the micro cell structure of the centralized base station system based on remote radio frequency units may cause the problem of frequent handoff. To overcome the problem, the inventors propose an effective solution in a patent application entitled “micro cell management method in the mobile communication system using the centralized base station”, wherein dynamic cell control is performed for the cells under coverage by the base station according to the parameters such as the UE's moving speed, cell load conditions, processing resource occupation of the centralized base station. Such a dynamic cell control is to dynamically group a plurality of geographically adjacent cells with the similar parameters into one cell. For this dynamically generated cell, the downlink scramble code is the same, and the radio remote frequency units corresponding to the original micro cells forming the dynamic generated cell constitute a distributed radio frequency transceiver system of the dynamically generated cell. In addition, according to the patent application, it is also possible to employ a fixed configuration method to merge neighbouring micro cells into one cell, i.e., to fixedly configure the geographically adjacent micro cells in some areas into one cell according to a predetermined system configuration. This is mainly suitable for the case where system design capacity is small at time of initial network construction. For the convenience of explanation, such a cell formed by dynamically or fixedly merging the geographically adjacent micro cells is called a complex cell.
Although the above improvement has been proposed, the inventors keep on seeking new improvements. The inventors recognize that when several micro cells are merged into a complex cell, since the code resources (that is, channel resource) do not increase and the cell's size increases, the channel capacity is relatively insufficient as compared to the original micro cells.
The inventor further find that since a complex cell is formed by more than one micro cells, there is certainly more than one antennas, and thus it is possible to employ multiple antenna transmitting/receiving (MIMO) technique in the complex cell to increase communication capacity, thereby remitting or overcoming the adverse effect.
2. Multiple Antenna Transmitting/Receiving (MIMO) Technique
The multiple antenna transmitting/receiving (MIMO) technique is a new technique recently developed for effectively increase spectral efficiency. In the present standardization work of 3GPP (third generation cooperation project) on UMTS (universal mobile communication system), researching is also performed with respect to this technique. For MIMO technique and its application in UMTS, please refer to literatures such as “From theory to practice: an overview of MIMO space-time coded wireless systems, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, vol. 21, no. 3, April 2003”, 3GPP work document “R2-010504, Overview of Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Techniques for HSDPA” and etc. There are mainly two kinds of MIMO techniques at present, one is based on multiple antenna transmission diversity and reception diversity for maximizing the diversity gain, another is based on channel code reusing scheme for maximizing the data rate, wherein the MIMO based on channel code reusing scheme is most representative.
FIG. 3shows a structure30of a MIMO system transmitting terminal based on channel code reusing scheme in a multi-code system such as HSDPA (high speed downlink packet access) and etc. The high speed data stream after channel encoding branches into M·N substreams through a branching unit31, wherein M is the number of antennas of transmitting terminals, and N is the number of parallel downlink code channels in the multi-code system such as HSDPA and etc. Each data stream group constituted by M substreams is spread through a corresponding downlink channel code respectively in a spreading unit32. M signals are then synthesized, appended with dedicated pilot sequences orthogonal to each other and transmitted through M antennas respectively. It can be seen that since each group of M substreams reuses one downlink channel code, the data rate is increased by a factor of M.
In the prior art, the antennas of a transmitting terminal and a receiving terminal in the MIMO system are centralizedly located. As shown inFIG. 4, to reduce the correlation between antennas as far as possible, it is usually needed to guarantee that the spacing between antennas is at least above a half wavelength. Although the antennas of the transmitting and receiving terminals are apart from a certain given distance, since the distance between the base station and the mobile terminal is relatively large, the existing MIMO system is suitable for the ideal communication channels meeting the following conditions in the downlink direction:
(1) the multipath numbers and multipath delays from different transmitting antennas to any receiving antenna are equal;
(2) the average path losses from different transmitting antennas to any receiving antenna are equal;
(3) the multipath channel fading of propagation paths from different transmitting antennas to any receiving antenna are mutually independent;
(4) the interferences and the noise power spectra received by different receiving antennas are equal and independent from each other.
Under the above ideal channel condition, if it is assumed that the receiving antenna number is P (P≧M), and the multipath number of the MIMO channel is L, the multipath channel vector from the m-th transmitting antenna to the p-th receiving antenna is:
hm,p=(hm,p,1, hm,p,2, . . . hm,p,L)T(1)
The estimation of its channel parameter may be obtained by using a dedicated pilot sequence. If using the code reusing scheme, the signal vector of M substreams spread by the k-th channel code and transmitted through M transmitting antennas is:
xk=(xk,1, xk,2, . . . xk,M)T(2)
FIG. 5provides a functional block diagram of a MIMO receiver40based on V-BLAST detector according to the prior art. As shown inFIG. 5, after performing multipath tracking and despreading on all the (L) multipath components using the k-th channel code through a multipath tracking and despreading unit41, the signal vector of reception signals of the p-th receiving antenna is:
yk,p=(yk,p,1, yk,p,2, . . . yk,p,L)T(3)
Let the L×M multipath channel matrix of the p-th receiving antenna be Hp=└h1,p, h2,p, . . . hM,p┘, then
yk,p=FkHpxk+vk(4)
Wherein vkis a noise vector, Fkis a L×L code correlation matrix determined by the autocorrelation characteristic, after downlink scrambling, of channels corresponding to the k-th channel code. By using the above equation, the processing of time-space RAKE merging unit43as shown inFIG. 5can be expressed as:
zk=∑p=1PHPHyk,p=Rkxk+nk(5)
Wherein zk=(zk,1, zk,2, . . . , zk,M)Tis the time-space RAKE merging output corresponding to signals of M substreams of channels which corresponding to the k-th channel code, nkis the noise component contained in the output, and Rkis a code channel correlation matrix corresponding to the k-th channel code:
Rk=∑p=1P(HpHFkHp)(6)
In practice, in the received signals containing symbol xk,jtransmitted by transmitting antenna j, there may further possibly existed two kinds of path components: One is the path components having the same delay but received by different receiving antennas, another is the multipath components received by the same receiving antenna but having different delays. There is the spacial interference caused by channel code reusing in these path components, and the multipath interference caused by the incomplete orthogonality between the downlink scramble code and its delayed duplication. As will be readily seen, the essence of the time-space RAKE receiving process as shown in equation (5) is the max ratio merging of all of the above spatial domain and time domain path components corresponding to the symbol xk,jtransmitted by each transmitting antenna. The processing of V-BLAST detector44after time-space RAKE processing is to solve minimum mean square error (MMSE) solution vector of xkbased on equation (5). If neglecting the non-orthogonality between multipaths and approximating Fkas a identity matrix, the V-BLAST is equivalent to a multiuser detector only for canceling spacial interference. Contrarily, it is equivalent to a multiuser detector for canceling the spacial interference and multipath interference at the same time.
More details about the MIMO system based on channel code reusing technique and the receiver based on time-space RAKE receiving and V-BLAST detector can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,370,129, “High-speed data services using multiple transmit antennas”, “Performance of space-time coding for 3GPP HSDPA service under flat and frequency selective fading conditions”, International Conference on 3G Mobile Communications Technologies, 2002 and etc.
However, as detailedly described in the following, in the context of complex cell as mentioned herein, if using MIMO technique, the channel condition is different from the ideal channel condition of the MIMO system of the prior art, wherein since the different geographic positions of transmitting antennas of the transmitting terminal, the spatial distance and propagation path from each of the transmitting terminal's transmitting antenna to the mobile terminal is different, and thus the average path loss from a different transmitting antenna to the mobile terminal's receiving antenna is different. The multipath number and corresponding delay from a different transmitting antenna of the transmitting terminal to any receiving antenna of the mobile terminal are different. Therefore, it is impossible to use existing MIMO technique in the complex cell.
Therefore, it is desired to provide a centralized base station system based on remote radio frequency units and the method thereof, wherein it is able to enforce the MIMO technique matching the channel characteristic of complex cell in the complex cell.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To solve the above problem, the present invention provides a multiple input/multiple output (MIMO) communication method based on distributed transmission sources in a centralized base station system for transmitting a downlink data stream in a MIMO mode between M transmitting antennas and a mobile terminal within their coverage area, wherein said mobile terminal has P receiving antennas, M>1 and P>1, a first and second channels from at least two transmitting antennas of the M transmitting antennas to one of said P receiving antennas have different multipath distributions, said method comprising: transmitting a different sub-data stream of M sub-data streams obtained by dividing said downlink data stream from said M transmitting antennas respectively to said mobile terminal by using the same spreading code; estimating a multipath channel matrix, corresponding to P receiving antennas of the mobile terminal, of channels from said M transmitting antennas to the receiving antenna, which use the spreading code; and processing transmitted signals corresponding to said M sub-data streams received by the receiving antenna based on said multipath channel matrix of each receiving antenna, to restore said downlink data stream, wherein said step of estimating the multipath channel matrix of each receiving antenna corresponding to the spreading code comprising: measuring the total number of all the multipath received components, each having a different delay, of actually received transmitted signals corresponding to the spreading code; and constructing the multipath channel matrix by taking the number of delays as the multipath number of the MIMO system, so that if the signal transmitted by one of the transmitting antennas to the receiving antenna has no multipath component corresponding to one of the delays, the channel parameter corresponding to the transmitting antenna, the receiving antenna and the delay is set as 0, and said transmitting step comprising: adjusting the gain of said M sub-data streams based on the average signal quality measurement of uplink signals from the mobile terminal to said M transmitting antennas, so that average path losses of respective downlink channels are substantially equal.
According to the present invention, in a centralized base station system based on remote radio frequency units, in a complex cell formed by merging a plurality of neighbour cells, it is possible to constitute a distributed transmitting antenna system by using remote radio frequency units in the complex cell, thereby greatly increasing downlink rate by using MIMO technique. As compared to the existing centralized base station technique, this technique has the following advantages:Since the complex cell is formed by merging a plurality of micro cells, it certainly has a plurality of antenna, and therefore it is possible to implement the flexible configuration of single antenna systems and multiple antenna systems by using the existing antenna systems, thereby supporting advanced MIMO functions without replacing or upgrading a base station's antenna and radio frequency subsystem;By using the MIMO technique based on channel code reusing, it is possible to counteract the negative factor of a relatively reduced downlink capacity due to the enlarged cell when using the complex cell technique, thereby alleviating or counteracting negative factors such as reduced downlink capacity while obtaining the benefits of improving handoff performance, flexible allocation of resources and etc. due to the use of the complex cell technique;It is possible to provide a high speed downlink packet access for the mobile terminal supporting MIMO function by using the technique.
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SUMMARY: TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to the communication method for wireless signal of a base station in a mobile communication system, and especially relates to the communication method based on multiple input/multiple output (MIMO) technique in the centralized base station system based on remote radio frequency units.
BACKGROUND TECHNOLOGY
1. Centralized Base Station Having the Structure Based on Remote Radio Frequency Units
In the mobile communication system, the transmission, reception and processing of the wireless signals are performed by base stations (BTS). As shown inFIG. 1, a conventional BTS10is mainly composed by a baseband processing subsystem11, a radio frequency (RF) subsystem12and antennas13, and one BTS may cover different cells (cell14) through a plurality of RF antennas.FIG. 2presents another kind of base station using distributed transmission sources, i.e., using the system architecture of a centralized base station based on radio frequency units. As compared to the conventional base station, such a centralized base station based on radio frequency units has many advantages: allowing to replace one macro cell based on the conventional base station with a plurality of micro cells, thereby best accommodating different wireless environments and increasing wireless performances such as capacity, coverage and etc. of the system; The centralized structure makes it possible to perform the soft handoff in the conventional base station by a softer handoff, thereby obtaining an additional process gain. The centralized structure also makes it possible to use costly baseband signal processing resources as a resource pool shared by a plurality of cells, thereby obtaining benefits of commonly sharing and reduced system cost. More details of this technique are disclosed in PCT patent WO9005432 “Communications system”, U.S. Pat. No. 5,657,374 “Cellular system with centralized base stations and distributed antenna units”, U.S. Pat. No. 6,324,391 “Cellular communication with centralized control and signal processing”, China patent application CN1464666 “Soft base station system based on fiber optic stretch and synchronous method thereof”, China patent application CN1471331 “Base station system for mobile communication” and United States Patent application US20030171118 “Cellular radio transmission apparatus and cellular radio transmission method”.
As shown inFIG. 2, the centralized base station system20based on remote radio frequency units is composed of a centralizedly configured central channel processing subsystem21and remote radio frequency units24which are connected through the wideband transmission link or network. The central channel processing subsystem mainly comprises functional units such as the channel processing resource pool22, the signal routing distribution unit23and etc., wherein the channel processing resource pool is formed by stacking a plurality of channel processing units, and performs tasks such as baseband signal processing, and the signal distribution unit dynamically allocates channel processing resources according to the traffic of different cells to realize effective sharing of the processing resources among multiple cells. Besides the implementation inside the centralized base station as shown inFIG. 2, the signal routing distribution unit may also be implemented as a separate device outside the centralized base station. The remote antenna element is mainly constituted by functional units such as the transmission channel's radio frequency power amplifier, the reception channel's low noise amplifier, antennas and etc. The link between the central channel processing subsystem and the remote antenna unit may adopt transmission medium such as optical fiber, coaxial cable, microwave and etc.; the signal transmission may be done by way of digital signals after sampling, or analog signals after modulating; the signals may be baseband signals, intermediate frequency signals or radio-frequency signals.
However, the micro cell structure of the centralized base station system based on remote radio frequency units may cause the problem of frequent handoff. To overcome the problem, the inventors propose an effective solution in a patent application entitled “micro cell management method in the mobile communication system using the centralized base station”, wherein dynamic cell control is performed for the cells under coverage by the base station according to the parameters such as the UE's moving speed, cell load conditions, processing resource occupation of the centralized base station. Such a dynamic cell control is to dynamically group a plurality of geographically adjacent cells with the similar parameters into one cell. For this dynamically generated cell, the downlink scramble code is the same, and the radio remote frequency units corresponding to the original micro cells forming the dynamic generated cell constitute a distributed radio frequency transceiver system of the dynamically generated cell. In addition, according to the patent application, it is also possible to employ a fixed configuration method to merge neighbouring micro cells into one cell, i.e., to fixedly configure the geographically adjacent micro cells in some areas into one cell according to a predetermined system configuration. This is mainly suitable for the case where system design capacity is small at time of initial network construction. For the convenience of explanation, such a cell formed by dynamically or fixedly merging the geographically adjacent micro cells is called a complex cell.
Although the above improvement has been proposed, the inventors keep on seeking new improvements. The inventors recognize that when several micro cells are merged into a complex cell, since the code resources (that is, channel resource) do not increase and the cell's size increases, the channel capacity is relatively insufficient as compared to the original micro cells.
The inventor further find that since a complex cell is formed by more than one micro cells, there is certainly more than one antennas, and thus it is possible to employ multiple antenna transmitting/receiving (MIMO) technique in the complex cell to increase communication capacity, thereby remitting or overcoming the adverse effect.
2. Multiple Antenna Transmitting/Receiving (MIMO) Technique
The multiple antenna transmitting/receiving (MIMO) technique is a new technique recently developed for effectively increase spectral efficiency. In the present standardization work of 3GPP (third generation cooperation project) on UMTS (universal mobile communication system), researching is also performed with respect to this technique. For MIMO technique and its application in UMTS, please refer to literatures such as “From theory to practice: an overview of MIMO space-time coded wireless systems, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, vol. 21, no. 3, April 2003”, 3GPP work document “R2-010504, Overview of Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Techniques for HSDPA” and etc. There are mainly two kinds of MIMO techniques at present, one is based on multiple antenna transmission diversity and reception diversity for maximizing the diversity gain, another is based on channel code reusing scheme for maximizing the data rate, wherein the MIMO based on channel code reusing scheme is most representative.
FIG. 3shows a structure30of a MIMO system transmitting terminal based on channel code reusing scheme in a multi-code system such as HSDPA (high speed downlink packet access) and etc. The high speed data stream after channel encoding branches into M·N substreams through a branching unit31, wherein M is the number of antennas of transmitting terminals, and N is the number of parallel downlink code channels in the multi-code system such as HSDPA and etc. Each data stream group constituted by M substreams is spread through a corresponding downlink channel code respectively in a spreading unit32. M signals are then synthesized, appended with dedicated pilot sequences orthogonal to each other and transmitted through M antennas respectively. It can be seen that since each group of M substreams reuses one downlink channel code, the data rate is increased by a factor of M.
In the prior art, the antennas of a transmitting terminal and a receiving terminal in the MIMO system are centralizedly located. As shown inFIG. 4, to reduce the correlation between antennas as far as possible, it is usually needed to guarantee that the spacing between antennas is at least above a half wavelength. Although the antennas of the transmitting and receiving terminals are apart from a certain given distance, since the distance between the base station and the mobile terminal is relatively large, the existing MIMO system is suitable for the ideal communication channels meeting the following conditions in the downlink direction:
(1) the multipath numbers and multipath delays from different transmitting antennas to any receiving antenna are equal;
(2) the average path losses from different transmitting antennas to any receiving antenna are equal;
(3) the multipath channel fading of propagation paths from different transmitting antennas to any receiving antenna are mutually independent;
(4) the interferences and the noise power spectra received by different receiving antennas are equal and independent from each other.
Under the above ideal channel condition, if it is assumed that the receiving antenna number is P (P≧M), and the multipath number of the MIMO channel is L, the multipath channel vector from the m-th transmitting antenna to the p-th receiving antenna is:
hm,p=(hm,p,1, hm,p,2, . . . hm,p,L)T(1)
The estimation of its channel parameter may be obtained by using a dedicated pilot sequence. If using the code reusing scheme, the signal vector of M substreams spread by the k-th channel code and transmitted through M transmitting antennas is:
xk=(xk,1, xk,2, . . . xk,M)T(2)
FIG. 5provides a functional block diagram of a MIMO receiver40based on V-BLAST detector according to the prior art. As shown inFIG. 5, after performing multipath tracking and despreading on all the (L) multipath components using the k-th channel code through a multipath tracking and despreading unit41, the signal vector of reception signals of the p-th receiving antenna is:
yk,p=(yk,p,1, yk,p,2, . . . yk,p,L)T(3)
Let the L×M multipath channel matrix of the p-th receiving antenna be Hp=└h1,p, h2,p, . . . hM,p┘, then
yk,p=FkHpxk+vk(4)
Wherein vkis a noise vector, Fkis a L×L code correlation matrix determined by the autocorrelation characteristic, after downlink scrambling, of channels corresponding to the k-th channel code. By using the above equation, the processing of time-space RAKE merging unit43as shown inFIG. 5can be expressed as:
zk=∑p=1PHPHyk,p=Rkxk+nk(5)
Wherein zk=(zk,1, zk,2, . . . , zk,M)Tis the time-space RAKE merging output corresponding to signals of M substreams of channels which corresponding to the k-th channel code, nkis the noise component contained in the output, and Rkis a code channel correlation matrix corresponding to the k-th channel code:
Rk=∑p=1P(HpHFkHp)(6)
In practice, in the received signals containing symbol xk,jtransmitted by transmitting antenna j, there may further possibly existed two kinds of path components: One is the path components having the same delay but received by different receiving antennas, another is the multipath components received by the same receiving antenna but having different delays. There is the spacial interference caused by channel code reusing in these path components, and the multipath interference caused by the incomplete orthogonality between the downlink scramble code and its delayed duplication. As will be readily seen, the essence of the time-space RAKE receiving process as shown in equation (5) is the max ratio merging of all of the above spatial domain and time domain path components corresponding to the symbol xk,jtransmitted by each transmitting antenna. The processing of V-BLAST detector44after time-space RAKE processing is to solve minimum mean square error (MMSE) solution vector of xkbased on equation (5). If neglecting the non-orthogonality between multipaths and approximating Fkas a identity matrix, the V-BLAST is equivalent to a multiuser detector only for canceling spacial interference. Contrarily, it is equivalent to a multiuser detector for canceling the spacial interference and multipath interference at the same time.
More details about the MIMO system based on channel code reusing technique and the receiver based on time-space RAKE receiving and V-BLAST detector can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,370,129, “High-speed data services using multiple transmit antennas”, “Performance of space-time coding for 3GPP HSDPA service under flat and frequency selective fading conditions”, International Conference on 3G Mobile Communications Technologies, 2002 and etc.
However, as detailedly described in the following, in the context of complex cell as mentioned herein, if using MIMO technique, the channel condition is different from the ideal channel condition of the MIMO system of the prior art, wherein since the different geographic positions of transmitting antennas of the transmitting terminal, the spatial distance and propagation path from each of the transmitting terminal's transmitting antenna to the mobile terminal is different, and thus the average path loss from a different transmitting antenna to the mobile terminal's receiving antenna is different. The multipath number and corresponding delay from a different transmitting antenna of the transmitting terminal to any receiving antenna of the mobile terminal are different. Therefore, it is impossible to use existing MIMO technique in the complex cell.
Therefore, it is desired to provide a centralized base station system based on remote radio frequency units and the method thereof, wherein it is able to enforce the MIMO technique matching the channel characteristic of complex cell in the complex cell.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To solve the above problem, the present invention provides a multiple input/multiple output (MIMO) communication method based on distributed transmission sources in a centralized base station system for transmitting a downlink data stream in a MIMO mode between M transmitting antennas and a mobile terminal within their coverage area, wherein said mobile terminal has P receiving antennas, M>1 and P>1, a first and second channels from at least two transmitting antennas of the M transmitting antennas to one of said P receiving antennas have different multipath distributions, said method comprising: transmitting a different sub-data stream of M sub-data streams obtained by dividing said downlink data stream from said M transmitting antennas respectively to said mobile terminal by using the same spreading code; estimating a multipath channel matrix, corresponding to P receiving antennas of the mobile terminal, of channels from said M transmitting antennas to the receiving antenna, which use the spreading code; and processing transmitted signals corresponding to said M sub-data streams received by the receiving antenna based on said multipath channel matrix of each receiving antenna, to restore said downlink data stream, wherein said step of estimating the multipath channel matrix of each receiving antenna corresponding to the spreading code comprising: measuring the total number of all the multipath received components, each having a different delay, of actually received transmitted signals corresponding to the spreading code; and constructing the multipath channel matrix by taking the number of delays as the multipath number of the MIMO system, so that if the signal transmitted by one of the transmitting antennas to the receiving antenna has no multipath component corresponding to one of the delays, the channel parameter corresponding to the transmitting antenna, the receiving antenna and the delay is set as 0, and said transmitting step comprising: adjusting the gain of said M sub-data streams based on the average signal quality measurement of uplink signals from the mobile terminal to said M transmitting antennas, so that average path losses of respective downlink channels are substantially equal.
According to the present invention, in a centralized base station system based on remote radio frequency units, in a complex cell formed by merging a plurality of neighbour cells, it is possible to constitute a distributed transmitting antenna system by using remote radio frequency units in the complex cell, thereby greatly increasing downlink rate by using MIMO technique. As compared to the existing centralized base station technique, this technique has the following advantages:Since the complex cell is formed by merging a plurality of micro cells, it certainly has a plurality of antenna, and therefore it is possible to implement the flexible configuration of single antenna systems and multiple antenna systems by using the existing antenna systems, thereby supporting advanced MIMO functions without replacing or upgrading a base station's antenna and radio frequency subsystem;By using the MIMO technique based on channel code reusing, it is possible to counteract the negative factor of a relatively reduced downlink capacity due to the enlarged cell when using the complex cell technique, thereby alleviating or counteracting negative factors such as reduced downlink capacity while obtaining the benefits of improving handoff performance, flexible allocation of resources and etc. due to the use of the complex cell technique;It is possible to provide a high speed downlink packet access for the mobile terminal supporting MIMO function by using the technique.
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7669932 | FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a headrest for vehicle seats having a cushion that is pivotable about a horizontal axis from an approximately horizontal rest position of its headrest face into an approximately vertical use position in which the cushion is braced by an abutment and at least one latch element shiftable between a blocking position preventing pivoting of the cushion into the rest position and an unblocking position permitting such pivoting.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Such a headrest is known from DE 102 36 259. The headrest is pivotally attached to a support bow so that it can swivel between a substantially vertical use position and a horizontal rest position. In the use position, a locking holder that is displaceably attached to the cushion is supported by an abutment of support rods and blocks a pivoting into the rest position. By displacing the latch element, the abutments of the locking holder move away from their support points on the carrying rods. The headrest can thus be swiveled into its rest position. This prior art that otherwise is advantageous, should be improved insofar as the locking holder can move unintentionally into a position that enables pivoting of the headrest. Such case can for example be caused by inertial mass force impact that can occur during a vehicle crash.
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
The object of the invention on the basis of the last mentioned prior art consists in creating a pivotable headrest that is further improved with respect to safety.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention attains this object in that a safety device is provided that is movable between a locking position and a releasing position, the safety device holding the latch element in the blocking position in a locking position and in the unblocking position in a pivoted position that enables the headrest to rotate down into the rest position.
Thus, the principle of the invention substantially consists in the fact that in the use position of the headrest the latch element is held in the locking position firmly attached by the safety device and cannot move unintentionally into the pivoted position from this position. The locking holder can be moved into its pivoted position solely by the intentional movement of the safety device into a releasing position, so that the headrest can rotate down into the rest position.
The advantage of the invention thus substantially consists in the fact that even in the case of high mass inertia forces occurring, such as for example in a vehicle crash, the locking holder is always held firmly attached in its blocked position, so that the headrest cannot swivel unintentionally into the rest position. In particular in a crash, it is necessary that the headrest remains in the use position and does not swivel into the rest position unintentionally. Only in this manner, can it be assured that it attains its object and provides support for the head of the passenger, necessary for reasons of safety. The headrest according to the invention thus contributes to increasing the safety of the passenger.
According to a first embodiment, the safety device has a holding element that is at least indirectly fixedly attached to the cushion and an engaging element that is at least indirectly fixedly attached to the latch element. The interaction of holding and engaging element prevent the latch element from moving into its pivoted position in the rest position.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, the holding element has positive locking means that interact in the rest position of the headrest with the engaging element. By means of the positive locking means, the engaging element can be held in the rest position of the headrest in a simple and thus economic manner firmly in the blocking position. Furthermore, by means of the positive locking, a secure connection between engaging element and holding element can be created. Alternatively, also a non-positive connection between the engaging element and the holding element in the rest position of the headrest would be possible.
According to another embodiment of the invention, the positive locking means of the holding element are formed by a U-shaped part with a first abutment and a second abutment that is located at a spacing therefrom. The latch element can thus be interlocked in the rest position of the headrest between the two abutments of the U-shaped part, so that the latch element cannot move into the pivoted position. Only movement of the U-shaped part out of the path of the engaging element enables displacement of the latch element into the pivoted position and thus pivoting of the headrest.
According to another embodiment of the invention, there is some play allowing movement of the engaging element in the blocking position of the safety device between the first abutment and the second abutment of the U-shaped part. In this way, no wedging of the engaging element between the two abutments can occur, so that the safety device can always be moved operationally reliably between the blocking position and the releasing position. Furthermore, this embodiment offers the possibility of simultaneous movement of the safety device into the releasing position and of the latch element into the pivoted position. If there was no play allowing movement, the latch element could only be brought into the pivoted position after the movement of the safety device into the releasing position.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, the holding element is formed by a first spring element. The spring element can be formed by a spring steel and can thus be easily and economically fabricated. Alternatively, it would also be possible that the holding element represents a fixed part that can for example have positive locking means and that can be forced under load by a spring element into the locking position.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, the engaging element is formed by a locking slide. This locking slide can be directly formed on the latch element. The locking slide and latch element can be fabricated in an easy manner in one piece, for example by plastic injection molding. Alternatively, it would also be possible for the locking slide to be attached to the latch element.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, the latch element is movable by means of an actuator between the locking and the pivoted position. This embodiment has the advantage that actuation of the latch element is independent of where it is mounted. Furthermore, for example the additional task can be assumed of moving the safety device from the blocking position into the releasing position by means of the actuator, as already mentioned above.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, the actuator is formed by an actuating button that acts at least indirectly upon an actuating rod. By means of this design, it is easily possible to adapt the actuating button to the appearance of the headrest and to fabricate the possibly not visible actuating rod independently thereof.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, the actuator and the latch element are connected to each other at least indirectly with some lost motion. In this way, the fabrication tolerances can be compensated more easily, so that a secure function of the headrest is permanently assured. The connection can for example be achieved by means of a stud that is formed on the actuator that engages in a positive locking manner into an opening in the latch element.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, the actuator is provided with a bevel which for unlocking the latch element interacts with an angled face of the holding element, wherein by actuation of the actuator the holding element is movable out of the movement trajectory of the latch element. Thus, it is possible to separate the interaction of the holding element and engaging element by moving the holding element out of the path of the engaging element. The actuator has a double function. On the one hand, it causes the safety device to be moved from the blocking position into the release position and, on the other hand, it causes the latch element to be displaced from the locking position into the pivoted position.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, a second spring element is assigned to the latch element that forces the latch element into its locking position. In this way, the latch element is always forced under load into its locking position. Furthermore, the latch element can be moved automatically into the blocking position after pivoting of the headrest into the use position by the second spring element, so the engaging element can lock into the holding element.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, the latch element is supported by the support rods in the use position of the headrest. The existing support rods form a counter bearing that reliably avoids pivoting of the headrest in the use position. On the latch element, supports can be formed that interact with bearings that are provided on the support rods.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, the latch element in the use position of the headrest is supported by a blocking element that is attached in an nonpivotal manner to a connecting bar that bridges the support rods. In this embodiment, a blocking element is attached to a connecting bar that bridges the two support rods and that is for example provided with abutments against which the latch element engages in the use position of the headrest. When the latch element is moved into the pivoted position, the blocking element no longer is in the path of the latch element, so that the headrest is pivotable.
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SUMMARY: FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a headrest for vehicle seats having a cushion that is pivotable about a horizontal axis from an approximately horizontal rest position of its headrest face into an approximately vertical use position in which the cushion is braced by an abutment and at least one latch element shiftable between a blocking position preventing pivoting of the cushion into the rest position and an unblocking position permitting such pivoting.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Such a headrest is known from DE 102 36 259. The headrest is pivotally attached to a support bow so that it can swivel between a substantially vertical use position and a horizontal rest position. In the use position, a locking holder that is displaceably attached to the cushion is supported by an abutment of support rods and blocks a pivoting into the rest position. By displacing the latch element, the abutments of the locking holder move away from their support points on the carrying rods. The headrest can thus be swiveled into its rest position. This prior art that otherwise is advantageous, should be improved insofar as the locking holder can move unintentionally into a position that enables pivoting of the headrest. Such case can for example be caused by inertial mass force impact that can occur during a vehicle crash.
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
The object of the invention on the basis of the last mentioned prior art consists in creating a pivotable headrest that is further improved with respect to safety.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention attains this object in that a safety device is provided that is movable between a locking position and a releasing position, the safety device holding the latch element in the blocking position in a locking position and in the unblocking position in a pivoted position that enables the headrest to rotate down into the rest position.
Thus, the principle of the invention substantially consists in the fact that in the use position of the headrest the latch element is held in the locking position firmly attached by the safety device and cannot move unintentionally into the pivoted position from this position. The locking holder can be moved into its pivoted position solely by the intentional movement of the safety device into a releasing position, so that the headrest can rotate down into the rest position.
The advantage of the invention thus substantially consists in the fact that even in the case of high mass inertia forces occurring, such as for example in a vehicle crash, the locking holder is always held firmly attached in its blocked position, so that the headrest cannot swivel unintentionally into the rest position. In particular in a crash, it is necessary that the headrest remains in the use position and does not swivel into the rest position unintentionally. Only in this manner, can it be assured that it attains its object and provides support for the head of the passenger, necessary for reasons of safety. The headrest according to the invention thus contributes to increasing the safety of the passenger.
According to a first embodiment, the safety device has a holding element that is at least indirectly fixedly attached to the cushion and an engaging element that is at least indirectly fixedly attached to the latch element. The interaction of holding and engaging element prevent the latch element from moving into its pivoted position in the rest position.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, the holding element has positive locking means that interact in the rest position of the headrest with the engaging element. By means of the positive locking means, the engaging element can be held in the rest position of the headrest in a simple and thus economic manner firmly in the blocking position. Furthermore, by means of the positive locking, a secure connection between engaging element and holding element can be created. Alternatively, also a non-positive connection between the engaging element and the holding element in the rest position of the headrest would be possible.
According to another embodiment of the invention, the positive locking means of the holding element are formed by a U-shaped part with a first abutment and a second abutment that is located at a spacing therefrom. The latch element can thus be interlocked in the rest position of the headrest between the two abutments of the U-shaped part, so that the latch element cannot move into the pivoted position. Only movement of the U-shaped part out of the path of the engaging element enables displacement of the latch element into the pivoted position and thus pivoting of the headrest.
According to another embodiment of the invention, there is some play allowing movement of the engaging element in the blocking position of the safety device between the first abutment and the second abutment of the U-shaped part. In this way, no wedging of the engaging element between the two abutments can occur, so that the safety device can always be moved operationally reliably between the blocking position and the releasing position. Furthermore, this embodiment offers the possibility of simultaneous movement of the safety device into the releasing position and of the latch element into the pivoted position. If there was no play allowing movement, the latch element could only be brought into the pivoted position after the movement of the safety device into the releasing position.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, the holding element is formed by a first spring element. The spring element can be formed by a spring steel and can thus be easily and economically fabricated. Alternatively, it would also be possible that the holding element represents a fixed part that can for example have positive locking means and that can be forced under load by a spring element into the locking position.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, the engaging element is formed by a locking slide. This locking slide can be directly formed on the latch element. The locking slide and latch element can be fabricated in an easy manner in one piece, for example by plastic injection molding. Alternatively, it would also be possible for the locking slide to be attached to the latch element.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, the latch element is movable by means of an actuator between the locking and the pivoted position. This embodiment has the advantage that actuation of the latch element is independent of where it is mounted. Furthermore, for example the additional task can be assumed of moving the safety device from the blocking position into the releasing position by means of the actuator, as already mentioned above.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, the actuator is formed by an actuating button that acts at least indirectly upon an actuating rod. By means of this design, it is easily possible to adapt the actuating button to the appearance of the headrest and to fabricate the possibly not visible actuating rod independently thereof.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, the actuator and the latch element are connected to each other at least indirectly with some lost motion. In this way, the fabrication tolerances can be compensated more easily, so that a secure function of the headrest is permanently assured. The connection can for example be achieved by means of a stud that is formed on the actuator that engages in a positive locking manner into an opening in the latch element.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, the actuator is provided with a bevel which for unlocking the latch element interacts with an angled face of the holding element, wherein by actuation of the actuator the holding element is movable out of the movement trajectory of the latch element. Thus, it is possible to separate the interaction of the holding element and engaging element by moving the holding element out of the path of the engaging element. The actuator has a double function. On the one hand, it causes the safety device to be moved from the blocking position into the release position and, on the other hand, it causes the latch element to be displaced from the locking position into the pivoted position.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, a second spring element is assigned to the latch element that forces the latch element into its locking position. In this way, the latch element is always forced under load into its locking position. Furthermore, the latch element can be moved automatically into the blocking position after pivoting of the headrest into the use position by the second spring element, so the engaging element can lock into the holding element.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, the latch element is supported by the support rods in the use position of the headrest. The existing support rods form a counter bearing that reliably avoids pivoting of the headrest in the use position. On the latch element, supports can be formed that interact with bearings that are provided on the support rods.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, the latch element in the use position of the headrest is supported by a blocking element that is attached in an nonpivotal manner to a connecting bar that bridges the support rods. In this embodiment, a blocking element is attached to a connecting bar that bridges the two support rods and that is for example provided with abutments against which the latch element engages in the use position of the headrest. When the latch element is moved into the pivoted position, the blocking element no longer is in the path of the latch element, so that the headrest is pivotable.
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7656350 | BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to satellite position location systems and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for receiving a global positioning system signal using a cellular acquisition signal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers use measurements from several satellites to compute position. GPS receivers normally determine their position by computing time delays between transmission and reception of signals transmitted from satellites and received by the receiver on or near the surface of the earth. The time delays multiplied by the speed of light provide the distance from the receiver to each of the satellites that are in view of the receiver.
More specifically, each GPS signal available for commercial use utilizes a direct sequence spreading signal defined by a unique pseudo-random noise (PN) code (referred to as the coarse acquisition (C/A) code) having a 1.023 MHz spread rate. Each PN code bi-phase modulates a 1575.42 MHz carrier signal (referred to as the L1 carrier) and uniquely identifies a particular satellite. The PN code sequence length is 1023 chips, corresponding to a one millisecond time period. One cycle of 1023 chips is called a PN frame or epoch.
GPS receivers determine the time delays between transmission and reception of the signals by comparing time shifts between the received PN code signal sequence and internally generated PN signal sequences. These measured time delays are referred to as “sub-millisecond pseudoranges”, since they are known modulo the 1 millisecond PN frame boundaries. By resolving the integer number of milliseconds associated with each delay to each satellite, then one has true, unambiguous, pseudoranges. A set of four pseudoranges together with a knowledge of absolute times of transmission of the GPS signals and satellite positions in relation to these absolute times is sufficient to solve for the position of the GPS receiver. The absolute times of transmission (or reception) are needed in order to determine the positions of the GPS satellites at the times of transmission and hence to compute the position of the GPS receiver.
Accordingly, each of the GPS satellites broadcasts a model of satellite orbit and clock data known as the satellite navigation message. The satellite navigation message is a 50 bit-per-second (bps) data stream that is modulo-2 added to the PN code with bit boundaries aligned with the beginning of a PN frame. There are exactly 20 PN frames per data bit period (20 milliseconds). The satellite navigation message includes satellite-positioning data, known as “ephemeris” data, which identifies the satellites and their orbits, as well as absolute time information (also referred to herein as “GPS time” or “time-of-day”) associated with the satellite signal. The absolute time information is in the form of a second of the week signal, referred to as time-of-week (TOW). This absolute time signal allows the receiver to unambiguously determine a time tag for when each received signal was transmitted by each satellite.
GPS satellites move at approximately 3.9 km/s, and thus the range of the satellite, observed from the earth, changes at a rate of at most □800 m/s. Absolute timing errors result in range errors of up to 0.8 m for each millisecond of timing error. These range errors produce a similarly sized error in the GPS receiver position. Hence, absolute time accuracy of 10 ms is sufficient for position accuracy of approximately 10 m. Absolute timing errors of much more than 10 ms will result in large position errors, and so typical GPS receivers have required absolute time to approximately 10 milliseconds accuracy or better.
Another time parameter closely associated with GPS positioning is the sub-millisecond offset in the time reference used to measure the sub-millisecond pseudorange. This offset affects all the measurements equally, and for this reason it is known as the “common mode error”. The common mode error should not be confused with the absolute time error. As discussed above, an absolute time error of 1 millisecond leads to range errors of up to 0.8 meters while an absolute time error of 1 microsecond would cause an almost unobservable range error of less than 1 millimeter. A common mode error of 1 microsecond, however, results in a pseudorange error of 1 microsecond multiplied by the speed of light (i.e., 300 meters). Common mode errors have a large effect on pseudorange computations, and it is, in practice, very difficult to calibrate the common mode error. As such, traditional GPS receivers treat the common mode error as an unknown that must be solved for, along with position, once a sufficient number of pseudoranges have been measured at a particular receiver.
In some GPS applications, the signal strengths of the satellite signals are so low that either the received signals cannot be processed, or the time required to process the signals is excessive. As such, to improve the signal processing, a GPS receiver may receive assistance data from a network to assist in satellite signal acquisition and/or processing. For example, the GPS receiver may be integrated within a cellular telephone and may receive the assistance data from a server using a wireless communication network. This technique of providing assistance data to a remote receiver has become known as “Assisted-GPS” or A-GPS.
In some A-GPS systems, the wireless communication network that provides the assistance data is not synchronized to GPS time. Such non-synchronized networks include time division multiple access (TDMA) networks, such as GSM networks, universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) networks, North American TDMA networks (e.g., IS-136), and personal digital cellular (PDC) networks. In such systems, the GPS receiver cannot synchronize to GPS time without receiving and decoding TOW information from the satellites signals. In low signal-to-noise ratio environments, TOW information is difficult, if not impossible, to decode. Without accurate time-of-day information, the GPS receiver cannot provide an accurate time-tag for its measurements, thereby deleteriously affecting the accuracy of the position computed by the network.
Accordingly, there exists a need in the art for an A-GPS mobile receiver for non-synchronized communication networks capable of synchronizing to GPS time.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Method and apparatus for processing satellite positioning system signals is described. In one embodiment, assistance data is received at a mobile receiver from a first wireless network using a wireless transceiver. The assistance data may comprise acquisition assistance data (e.g., expected pseudorange data), satellite trajectory data (e.g., satellite ephemeris), or both. The first wireless network may be a non-synchronized cellular network. A time synchronization signal is obtained from a second wireless network at the mobile receiver using a wireless receiver. A time offset is then determined in response to the time synchronization signal. Satellite signals are processed at the mobile receiver using the assistance data and the time offset. The second wireless network may be a synchronized cellular network (e.g., a CDMA network) or may be a non-synchronized cellular network that is externally synchronized to GPS time (e.g., a GSM network having location measurement units (LMUs)). The mobile receiver is thus configured to receive the time synchronization signal without a subscription to the second wireless network, which eliminates fees for such a subscription. In addition, the circuitry required for the receive-only front end is less complex and less costly than that required for a full transceiver.
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SUMMARY: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to satellite position location systems and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for receiving a global positioning system signal using a cellular acquisition signal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers use measurements from several satellites to compute position. GPS receivers normally determine their position by computing time delays between transmission and reception of signals transmitted from satellites and received by the receiver on or near the surface of the earth. The time delays multiplied by the speed of light provide the distance from the receiver to each of the satellites that are in view of the receiver.
More specifically, each GPS signal available for commercial use utilizes a direct sequence spreading signal defined by a unique pseudo-random noise (PN) code (referred to as the coarse acquisition (C/A) code) having a 1.023 MHz spread rate. Each PN code bi-phase modulates a 1575.42 MHz carrier signal (referred to as the L1 carrier) and uniquely identifies a particular satellite. The PN code sequence length is 1023 chips, corresponding to a one millisecond time period. One cycle of 1023 chips is called a PN frame or epoch.
GPS receivers determine the time delays between transmission and reception of the signals by comparing time shifts between the received PN code signal sequence and internally generated PN signal sequences. These measured time delays are referred to as “sub-millisecond pseudoranges”, since they are known modulo the 1 millisecond PN frame boundaries. By resolving the integer number of milliseconds associated with each delay to each satellite, then one has true, unambiguous, pseudoranges. A set of four pseudoranges together with a knowledge of absolute times of transmission of the GPS signals and satellite positions in relation to these absolute times is sufficient to solve for the position of the GPS receiver. The absolute times of transmission (or reception) are needed in order to determine the positions of the GPS satellites at the times of transmission and hence to compute the position of the GPS receiver.
Accordingly, each of the GPS satellites broadcasts a model of satellite orbit and clock data known as the satellite navigation message. The satellite navigation message is a 50 bit-per-second (bps) data stream that is modulo-2 added to the PN code with bit boundaries aligned with the beginning of a PN frame. There are exactly 20 PN frames per data bit period (20 milliseconds). The satellite navigation message includes satellite-positioning data, known as “ephemeris” data, which identifies the satellites and their orbits, as well as absolute time information (also referred to herein as “GPS time” or “time-of-day”) associated with the satellite signal. The absolute time information is in the form of a second of the week signal, referred to as time-of-week (TOW). This absolute time signal allows the receiver to unambiguously determine a time tag for when each received signal was transmitted by each satellite.
GPS satellites move at approximately 3.9 km/s, and thus the range of the satellite, observed from the earth, changes at a rate of at most □800 m/s. Absolute timing errors result in range errors of up to 0.8 m for each millisecond of timing error. These range errors produce a similarly sized error in the GPS receiver position. Hence, absolute time accuracy of 10 ms is sufficient for position accuracy of approximately 10 m. Absolute timing errors of much more than 10 ms will result in large position errors, and so typical GPS receivers have required absolute time to approximately 10 milliseconds accuracy or better.
Another time parameter closely associated with GPS positioning is the sub-millisecond offset in the time reference used to measure the sub-millisecond pseudorange. This offset affects all the measurements equally, and for this reason it is known as the “common mode error”. The common mode error should not be confused with the absolute time error. As discussed above, an absolute time error of 1 millisecond leads to range errors of up to 0.8 meters while an absolute time error of 1 microsecond would cause an almost unobservable range error of less than 1 millimeter. A common mode error of 1 microsecond, however, results in a pseudorange error of 1 microsecond multiplied by the speed of light (i.e., 300 meters). Common mode errors have a large effect on pseudorange computations, and it is, in practice, very difficult to calibrate the common mode error. As such, traditional GPS receivers treat the common mode error as an unknown that must be solved for, along with position, once a sufficient number of pseudoranges have been measured at a particular receiver.
In some GPS applications, the signal strengths of the satellite signals are so low that either the received signals cannot be processed, or the time required to process the signals is excessive. As such, to improve the signal processing, a GPS receiver may receive assistance data from a network to assist in satellite signal acquisition and/or processing. For example, the GPS receiver may be integrated within a cellular telephone and may receive the assistance data from a server using a wireless communication network. This technique of providing assistance data to a remote receiver has become known as “Assisted-GPS” or A-GPS.
In some A-GPS systems, the wireless communication network that provides the assistance data is not synchronized to GPS time. Such non-synchronized networks include time division multiple access (TDMA) networks, such as GSM networks, universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) networks, North American TDMA networks (e.g., IS-136), and personal digital cellular (PDC) networks. In such systems, the GPS receiver cannot synchronize to GPS time without receiving and decoding TOW information from the satellites signals. In low signal-to-noise ratio environments, TOW information is difficult, if not impossible, to decode. Without accurate time-of-day information, the GPS receiver cannot provide an accurate time-tag for its measurements, thereby deleteriously affecting the accuracy of the position computed by the network.
Accordingly, there exists a need in the art for an A-GPS mobile receiver for non-synchronized communication networks capable of synchronizing to GPS time.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Method and apparatus for processing satellite positioning system signals is described. In one embodiment, assistance data is received at a mobile receiver from a first wireless network using a wireless transceiver. The assistance data may comprise acquisition assistance data (e.g., expected pseudorange data), satellite trajectory data (e.g., satellite ephemeris), or both. The first wireless network may be a non-synchronized cellular network. A time synchronization signal is obtained from a second wireless network at the mobile receiver using a wireless receiver. A time offset is then determined in response to the time synchronization signal. Satellite signals are processed at the mobile receiver using the assistance data and the time offset. The second wireless network may be a synchronized cellular network (e.g., a CDMA network) or may be a non-synchronized cellular network that is externally synchronized to GPS time (e.g., a GSM network having location measurement units (LMUs)). The mobile receiver is thus configured to receive the time synchronization signal without a subscription to the second wireless network, which eliminates fees for such a subscription. In addition, the circuitry required for the receive-only front end is less complex and less costly than that required for a full transceiver.
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7802742 | BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an independent universal cassette for adjusting the degree of fineness of grinding in a condiment mill or a device for breaking up foodstuff.
A nut is generally used to adjust how finely a condiment, such as pepper, is ground, or how a foodstuff is broken up into powder, flakes or shavings. This nut is mounted on an operating shaft and is screwed and unscrewed to adjust how finely a foodstuff is broken up or ground. This type of device has the major disadvantage that the setting tends to slip and requires frequent re-adjustment.
However, the grinding adjustment device described in French Patent Application No. 04 02299, which is commonly owned by the applicant, describes a grinding device in which the rotation of the operating ring drives a dish-holder in translation. The described device makes it possible to vary the relative position between the grinding block and the dish, thereby grinding the condiment. Such a system has the particular advantage of not requiring re-adjustment.
Furthermore, the adaptation of a more elaborate system has the disadvantage of requiring an arrangement of the system for each type of mill. However, the shapes and sizes of the bodies of mills vary widely, making it very expensive to adapt the grinding adjustment system to each type of mill.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention, the various drawbacks mentioned above are overcome using a universal adjustment device which is placed at the base of the mill and which is suitable for use with many mill bodies, simply by the adaptation of a decorative ferrule.
To this end, the present invention relates to a universal device for adjusting the grinding of a condiment or the breaking up of foodstuff which includes a cassette formed of an adjustment ring, a dish-holder slide and a fixing disk.
The description which follows relates, in particular, to a mechanical pepper mill. However, the universal cassette device of the present invention can be used with all types of assemblies used to break up foodstuffs into powder or flakes, such as grinders, graters or knives by way of non-limiting example, as well as electrical apparatus such as electric pepper mills, for example.
Mills designed especially for condiments, such as pepper, are generally comprised of various parts, in particular, a container for holding the condiments and a grinding mechanism. The grinding mechanism has a disk attached to the body of the mill. A dish-holder slide is mounted on the disk, and is embedded in an operating ring for adjusting the degree of grinding. The actual grinding mechanism includes a female part, hereinafter called a “dish”, which fits within a male part, hereinafter called a “grinding block”, and the grinding mechanism is placed in the dish-holder slide.
A better understanding of the apparatus of the present invention is provided in the detailed description which is provided below, with reference to the following drawings.
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SUMMARY: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an independent universal cassette for adjusting the degree of fineness of grinding in a condiment mill or a device for breaking up foodstuff.
A nut is generally used to adjust how finely a condiment, such as pepper, is ground, or how a foodstuff is broken up into powder, flakes or shavings. This nut is mounted on an operating shaft and is screwed and unscrewed to adjust how finely a foodstuff is broken up or ground. This type of device has the major disadvantage that the setting tends to slip and requires frequent re-adjustment.
However, the grinding adjustment device described in French Patent Application No. 04 02299, which is commonly owned by the applicant, describes a grinding device in which the rotation of the operating ring drives a dish-holder in translation. The described device makes it possible to vary the relative position between the grinding block and the dish, thereby grinding the condiment. Such a system has the particular advantage of not requiring re-adjustment.
Furthermore, the adaptation of a more elaborate system has the disadvantage of requiring an arrangement of the system for each type of mill. However, the shapes and sizes of the bodies of mills vary widely, making it very expensive to adapt the grinding adjustment system to each type of mill.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention, the various drawbacks mentioned above are overcome using a universal adjustment device which is placed at the base of the mill and which is suitable for use with many mill bodies, simply by the adaptation of a decorative ferrule.
To this end, the present invention relates to a universal device for adjusting the grinding of a condiment or the breaking up of foodstuff which includes a cassette formed of an adjustment ring, a dish-holder slide and a fixing disk.
The description which follows relates, in particular, to a mechanical pepper mill. However, the universal cassette device of the present invention can be used with all types of assemblies used to break up foodstuffs into powder or flakes, such as grinders, graters or knives by way of non-limiting example, as well as electrical apparatus such as electric pepper mills, for example.
Mills designed especially for condiments, such as pepper, are generally comprised of various parts, in particular, a container for holding the condiments and a grinding mechanism. The grinding mechanism has a disk attached to the body of the mill. A dish-holder slide is mounted on the disk, and is embedded in an operating ring for adjusting the degree of grinding. The actual grinding mechanism includes a female part, hereinafter called a “dish”, which fits within a male part, hereinafter called a “grinding block”, and the grinding mechanism is placed in the dish-holder slide.
A better understanding of the apparatus of the present invention is provided in the detailed description which is provided below, with reference to the following drawings.
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7687179 | CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2008-187385, filed Jul. 18, 2008, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND
1. Field
One embodiment of the invention relates to a fuel cell device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Nowadays, secondary batteries such as lithium ion batteries have been commonly used as a power supply for electronic devices such as portable notebook computers and mobile devices.
Recent improvement in the performance of such electronic devices increases their power consumption and creates the demand to prolong their use time. In view of this, fuel cells with high output that do not need recharging and are small in size are expected as a new power supply. Among the fuel cells is a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) which uses an aqueous methanol solution circulated therein. Methanol as a fuel in the DMFC is easy to handle compared to hydrogen used as a fuel for other types of fuel cells. Further, the DMFC has a simple structure, and thus has attracted attention as a power supply for electronic devices.
A conventional DMFC includes a DMFC stack having a fuel electrode, an air electrode and an electrolyte membrane, a fuel supply path for supplying an aqueous methanol solution to the fuel electrode, and an air supply path for supplying air to the air electrode. The air supply path is provided with an air inlet for drawing in air from the surrounding atmosphere.
On the fuel electrode of the DMFC stack, methanol reacts with water and is oxidized, which generates hydrogen ions, carbon dioxide, and electrons. The hydrogen ions pass through the electrolyte membrane and reach the air electrode. On the air electrode, oxygen in the air combines with the hydrogen ions and the electrons, and thus is reduced to water. At this time, current flows through an external circuit connected between the fuel electrode and the air electrode, and electricity is generated.
If the air supplied to the DMFC stack contains, for example, hydrocarbon compounds, the compounds adhere to the air electrode. This poses an obstacle to the reduction reaction on the air electrode. Since a decrease in the reduction reaction lowers the electricity generation performance of the DMFC, hydrocarbon compounds need to be removed from the air when the DMFC takes in oxygen for the reduction reaction from the air.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication (KOKAI) Nos. 2001-185193 and 2007-188640 each disclose a conventional DMFC including an air intake filter. The air intake filter is arranged on the air supply path extending from the air inlet to the air electrode, and cleans air drawn in through the air inlet. That is, the air intake filter has a function of absorbing hydrocarbon compounds.
To maintain the original electricity generation performance of the DMFC, the cleaning performance of the air intake filter needs to be maintained at a high level. Therefore, it is desirable that the air intake filter be replaced frequently to prevent its cleaning performance from degrading.
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SUMMARY: CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2008-187385, filed Jul. 18, 2008, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND
1. Field
One embodiment of the invention relates to a fuel cell device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Nowadays, secondary batteries such as lithium ion batteries have been commonly used as a power supply for electronic devices such as portable notebook computers and mobile devices.
Recent improvement in the performance of such electronic devices increases their power consumption and creates the demand to prolong their use time. In view of this, fuel cells with high output that do not need recharging and are small in size are expected as a new power supply. Among the fuel cells is a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) which uses an aqueous methanol solution circulated therein. Methanol as a fuel in the DMFC is easy to handle compared to hydrogen used as a fuel for other types of fuel cells. Further, the DMFC has a simple structure, and thus has attracted attention as a power supply for electronic devices.
A conventional DMFC includes a DMFC stack having a fuel electrode, an air electrode and an electrolyte membrane, a fuel supply path for supplying an aqueous methanol solution to the fuel electrode, and an air supply path for supplying air to the air electrode. The air supply path is provided with an air inlet for drawing in air from the surrounding atmosphere.
On the fuel electrode of the DMFC stack, methanol reacts with water and is oxidized, which generates hydrogen ions, carbon dioxide, and electrons. The hydrogen ions pass through the electrolyte membrane and reach the air electrode. On the air electrode, oxygen in the air combines with the hydrogen ions and the electrons, and thus is reduced to water. At this time, current flows through an external circuit connected between the fuel electrode and the air electrode, and electricity is generated.
If the air supplied to the DMFC stack contains, for example, hydrocarbon compounds, the compounds adhere to the air electrode. This poses an obstacle to the reduction reaction on the air electrode. Since a decrease in the reduction reaction lowers the electricity generation performance of the DMFC, hydrocarbon compounds need to be removed from the air when the DMFC takes in oxygen for the reduction reaction from the air.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication (KOKAI) Nos. 2001-185193 and 2007-188640 each disclose a conventional DMFC including an air intake filter. The air intake filter is arranged on the air supply path extending from the air inlet to the air electrode, and cleans air drawn in through the air inlet. That is, the air intake filter has a function of absorbing hydrocarbon compounds.
To maintain the original electricity generation performance of the DMFC, the cleaning performance of the air intake filter needs to be maintained at a high level. Therefore, it is desirable that the air intake filter be replaced frequently to prevent its cleaning performance from degrading.
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7655792 | FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to methods for separating nucleic acids such as genomic DNA, plasmid DNA and mRNA from contaminating cellular components such as proteins, lipids, soluble membrane components and the like. In particular, the invention relates to the improved recovery of nucleic acids from anion exchange chromatography media in either batch or packed mode by the addition of a composition that increases the pH of the elution solution.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The last three decades has seen considerable effort in the development of improved methods for the isolation and purification of nucleic acids from biological sources. This has been due mainly to the increasing applications of nucleic acids in the medical and biological sciences. Genomic DNA isolated from blood, tissue or cultured cells has several applications, which include PCR, sequencing, genotyping, hybridization and southern blotting. Plasmid DNA has been utilized in sequencing, PCR, in the development of vaccines and in gene therapy. Isolated RNA has a variety of downstream applications, including blot hybridization, in vitro translation, cDNA synthesis and RT-PCR.
The analysis and in vitro manipulation of nucleic acids is typically preceded by a nucleic acid isolation step in order to free the nucleic acid from unwanted contaminants which may interfere with subsequent processing procedures. For the vast majority of procedures in both research and diagnostic molecular biology, extracted nucleic acids are required as the first step. In a typical DNA extraction protocol, cells or homogenized tissue samples containing the nucleic acid of interest are harvested and lysed using standard methods, for example using enzymes such as Proteinase K and lysozyme; detergents, such as SDS, Brij, Triton X100, or using other chemicals such as sodium hydroxide, guanidium isothiocyanate, etc. (See for example, Sambrook et al, Molecular Cloning—A Laboratory Manual 2nd edition 9.14 (New York: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory 1989). Following removal of the cellular debris, the crude lysate is treated with organic solvents such as phenol/chloroform to extract proteins. RNA may be removed or reduced if required by treatment of the enzymes such as RNAse. However, the presence of contaminants such as salts, phenol, detergents and the like can interfere with many downstream manipulations for which the nucleic acid is intended.
Currently several procedures are available for the chromatographic purification of DNA (genomic and plasmid) and RNA, for example, by employing silica based membrane purification, size exclusion chromatography, reversed phase chromatography, gel filtration, magnetic bead based purification, or ion-exchange chromatography. Ion exchange chromatography is one of the most commonly used separation and purification methods and has been used for purification of plasmid DNA, genomic DNA and RNA.
See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,410,274 (Bhikhabhai), U.S. Pat. No. 6,310,199 (Smith et al), U.S. Pat. No. 6,090,288 (Berlund et al), U.S. Pat. No. 5,990,301 (Colpan et al), U.S. Pat. No. 5,856,192, U.S. Pat. No. 5,866,428 (Bloch), U.S. Pat. No. 5,801,237 (Johansson), EP 1125943 B1 (Macherey-Nagel GmbH & Co), EP 992583 B1, EP 616639 (Qiagen), U.S. Pat. No. 5,707,812, U.S. Pat. No. 5,561,064 (Vical Inc.).
While anion exchange chromatographic procedures for the purification of nucleic acids have been extensively referenced, one of the shortcomings of current protocols is the impaired recovery of nucleic acid during the elution step, (Endres, H. N. et al, Biotechnol. Appl. Biochem., (2003), 37(3), 259-66; Prazeres, D. M. et al, J. Chromatog. A. (1998), 806(1), 31-45; Urthaler J. et al, Acta Biochim. Pol., (2005), 52(3), 703-11; Ferreira, G. N. et al, Bioseparation, (2000), 9(1), 1-6.; Ferreira, G. N., et al, Biotechnol. Prog., (2000), 16(3), 416-24. Addition of organic agents such as polyols and alcohols during adsorption and desorption has been shown to improve selectivity and recovery during anion exchange purification of DNA (Tseng, W. C. et al, J. Chromatogr. B Analyt. Technol. Biomed. Life Sci., (2003), 791(1-2), 263-72). However, there appear to be no reports that specifically address the recovery issues often seen during DNA desorption from anion exchange resins. The present invention addresses this problem since it relates to improving recoveries of bound DNA from anion exchange resins. In particular, the invention allows improved desorption of the DNA from the solid support without further manipulation of the protocol.
Plasmid DNA, genomic DNA and RNA have similar charge properties to one another and are polyanions having high charge density. Binding to positively charged ion exchange resins is therefore possible in the presence of up to 0.7M sodium chloride, depending on the length and conformation of the nucleic acid to be adsorbed. An increase in nucleic acid length as well as double stranded conformation results in an increase in binding strength between the nucleic acid and the anion exchanger. However, this effect is only proportional to nucleic acid length up to about 2 kilobases. The very strong interaction between the negatively charged phosphate backbone of the nucleic acid and ion exchange resin hampers elution of the nucleic acid using conventional methods, where a simple increase in ionic strength of the salt eluant is sufficient for recovery of 70-100% of the bound material. However, in the case of longer chain nucleic acids, an increase in ionic strength up to 3M salt only allows recoveries of 20-50% of the bound nucleic acid. Recovery of the remaining bound material can be accomplished with a combination of high salt concentration and elevated pH using sodium hydroxide. However, sodium hydroxide is not only caustic, but may also lead to irreversible denaturation of nucleic acids and degradation over time.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Surprisingly, it has now been found that nucleic acids can be efficiently eluted from anion exchange resins under conditions of high salt concentration and the presence in the elution solution of an additive that increases the pH of the solution, the pH of the solution being suitably in the range of about pH 9 to about pH 13, and more preferably in the range of about pH 10 to about pH 12. One example of an additive is guanidine or a guanidine-like derivative. Another example is a potassium carbonate. The addition of either additive to the elution solution has been shown to improve recovery of nucleic acids from anion exchange resins from 20-50% to 70-95%.
Thus, in a first aspect the present invention provides a method for the separation and/or purification of a nucleic acid from cells, comprising:a) generating an aqueous solution containing the nucleic acid by lysing said cells with a lysis solution;b) contacting the aqueous solution containing the nucleic acid with an anion exchanger bound to a solid support matrix under conditions such that the anion exchanger binds the nucleic acid; andc) eluting said anion exchanger with an aqueous mobile phase comprising a nucleic acid elution salt solution;
characterised in that the said elution solution comprises an additive such that the pH of the aqueous mobile phase is between about pH 9 and about pH 13, wherein the presence of the additive in the elution solution provides an increase in the nucleic acid recovery from the anion exchanger, as compared with the recovery of said nucleic acid in the absence of the additive.
Thus, the present invention provides a method for the use of a compound as an additive to the elution solution to allow high recovery of nucleic acids from anion exchange resins without impairing the nucleic acid stability as compared with conventional ion exchange chromatographic procedures. Nucleic acids, consist of a chain (or a paired chain of deoxyribose phosphate monomers covalently linked via phosphodiester bonds, each sugar phosphate moiety carrying a single aromatic heterocyclic base: adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), thymine (T found solely in DNA), and uracil (U found solely in RNA). In aqueous solutions of a pH>2, the highly soluble hydrophilic sugar-phosphate polymer backbone contributes one negative charge for each phosphodiester group, with the exception of the terminal phospho-monoester, which may carry up to two negative charges. DNA is thus a polyanion, where the net negative charge of the nucleic acid molecule is related directly to chain length. Nucleic acids therefore, display strong binding affinities to anion exchange resins such that a high salt concentration in the elution solution is required to efficiently remove the nucleic acid from the resin.
The positive impact of guanidine and guanidine-like compounds particularly arginine on recovery of nucleic acids from anion exchange resins is most pronounced at alkaline pH, for example, between about pH 9 and about pH 13, more particularly at pH values between about 10 and 12. A pH range of between about 10.5 and 11.6 appears to provide optimum recovery. Recovery of nucleic acids is highest when arginine or guanidine carbonate is added to the elution solution. Without being bound by theory, one of the unique properties of the guanidinium group is its delocalized positive charge property which is due to the conjugation between the double bond and the nitrogen lone pairs. The guanidinium group is able to form multiple hydrogen-bonds preferentially with guanine bases, which may act to cause local deformation of the nucleic acid structure, which change in conformation of nucleic acids contributes to a change in desorption kinetics thereby favouring high recoveries of nucleic acids during anion exchange chromatography. Macromolecules are known to bind to adsorptive surfaces through multiple points of attachment creating microenvironments on chromatography media surfaces, which allow adsorption that can become close to irreversible with conventional desorption techniques. While traditional anion exchange chromatography allows the elution of bound molecule from the positively charged ligand through an increase in competing salt anions, it has been observed that elution of nucleic acids, especially high molecular weight (HMW) nucleic acids (above 0.1 kilobases), is not efficient with salt anions alone. It has also been observed that the cation used as a counter ion, as well as the pH of elution has an effect on recovery of HMW nucleic acids, the use of strongly alkaline (such as with sodium hydroxide) may be detrimental to recovery because of the co-elution of contaminants and detrimental effects on product stability.
In one embodiment, the additive is a compound having the formula (I)
(and more particularly the carbonate or bicarbonate salt thereof), where R is selected from H, and lower alkyl, optionally substituted by amino. Suitably, lower alkyl is a C1to C4alkyl group, for example methyl, ethyl, propyl and butyl, preferably, methyl or ethyl. Where R is an amino-substituted lower alkyl group, examples of the compounds according to formula (I) include 2-aminoethyl-guanidine, 3-aminopropyl-guanidine and 4-aminobutyl-guanidine (agmatine). In a particularly preferred embodiment, R is hydrogen, thus compound (I) is guanidine, as its carbonate or bicarbonate salt.
In a second embodiment, the additive is a compound having the formula (I):
wherein R is the group:
where n is 1, 2 or 3,
preferably 3. In this case, the additive is arginine, suitably L-arginine, D-arginine, or a mixture of both optical isomers.
In a third embodiment, the additive is an inorganic salt that provides a similar pH. An example of such a salt is potassium carbonate. Another example is sodium carbonate.
In embodiments according to the invention, it is preferred that the guanidine and guanidine-like compound or the potassium carbonate is present as an additive in the elution solution at a concentration of between 0.1 and 2 Molar, preferably between 0.25M and 0.5M. The elution solution will typically comprise a salt solution, suitably between about 0.7 M and 3 M to which the additive is added. Suitably, the pH of the aqueous mobile phase is between about pH 9 and about pH 13, the preferred range of pH being between about pH 10 and about pH 12, more preferably between about pH 10.5 and about pH 11.6.
The term “nucleic acid” as used herein refers to any DNA or RNA molecule, or a DNA/RNA hybrid, or mixtures of DNA and/or RNA. The term “nucleic acid” therefore is intended to include genomic or chromosomal DNA, plasmid DNA, amplified DNA, total RNA and mRNA. The process according to the present invention is particularly suitable for the preparation and/or purification of genomic DNA derived from complex mixtures of components derived from cellular and tissue samples from any recognised source, including normal and transformed cells, with respect to species (e.g. human, rodent, simian), tissue source (e.g. brain, liver, lung, heart, kidney skin, muscle) and cell type (e.g. epithelial, endothelial, blood).
Furthermore, the present method is suitable for the preparation and/or purification of genomic DNA having a size of from about 0.1 kilo-bases to about 200 kilo-bases, or of plasmid DNA, cosmid, BAC or YAC. The present invention is useful for purifying plasmid DNA and cosmid DNA, in particular for downstream applications in molecular biological research, such as cloning and sequencing, gene therapy and in diagnostic applications both in vivo and in vitro.
Anion exchange resins suitable for use with methods of the present invention include both strong anion exchangers and weak anion exchangers, wherein the anion exchange resin suitably comprises a support carrier to which charged or chargable groups have been attached. The ion exchange resin may take the form of a bead, a membrane or a surface. Examples of strong anion exchange resins include Q-sepharose fast flow resin, Q-sepharose XL and CaptoQ. Examples of weak ion exchange resins include ANX fast flow resin and DEAE Sephadex A25 resin. (GE Healthcare)
By employing an additive of disclosed above in the aqueous mobile phase it is possible to increase recovery of nucleic acid from the anion exchanger of at least 40% and typically between about 40% and about 400%, as compared with the recovery of said nucleic acid from the same anion exchanger and in the absence of the additive in the elution solution, all other conditions being equal.
In a second aspect, the invention provides a kit for the separation and/or purification of nucleic acid from a cellular sample, the kit comprising a lysis solution for generating an aqueous solution containing the nucleic acid from the cellular sample; an anion exchanger bound to a solid support matrix for binding the nucleic acid; an elution solution for eluting the nucleic acid from the anion exchanger; and optionally desalting means for desalting the eluted nucleic acid. Suitably there is present in the elution solution an additive such that the pH of said elution solution is between about pH 9 and about pH 13.
In one embodiment, the additive is arginine. In another embodiment the additive is guanidine present as its carbonate or bicarbonate salt. In yet another embodiment, the additive is potassium carbonate.
Preferably, the anion exchanger is ANX fast flow resin. Alternatively the anion exchanger is DEAE Sephadex A25 resin, Q-sepharose fast flow resin, Q-sepharose XL or CaptoQ resin (all from GE Healthcare).
Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments, and from the claims.
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to methods for separating nucleic acids such as genomic DNA, plasmid DNA and mRNA from contaminating cellular components such as proteins, lipids, soluble membrane components and the like. In particular, the invention relates to the improved recovery of nucleic acids from anion exchange chromatography media in either batch or packed mode by the addition of a composition that increases the pH of the elution solution.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The last three decades has seen considerable effort in the development of improved methods for the isolation and purification of nucleic acids from biological sources. This has been due mainly to the increasing applications of nucleic acids in the medical and biological sciences. Genomic DNA isolated from blood, tissue or cultured cells has several applications, which include PCR, sequencing, genotyping, hybridization and southern blotting. Plasmid DNA has been utilized in sequencing, PCR, in the development of vaccines and in gene therapy. Isolated RNA has a variety of downstream applications, including blot hybridization, in vitro translation, cDNA synthesis and RT-PCR.
The analysis and in vitro manipulation of nucleic acids is typically preceded by a nucleic acid isolation step in order to free the nucleic acid from unwanted contaminants which may interfere with subsequent processing procedures. For the vast majority of procedures in both research and diagnostic molecular biology, extracted nucleic acids are required as the first step. In a typical DNA extraction protocol, cells or homogenized tissue samples containing the nucleic acid of interest are harvested and lysed using standard methods, for example using enzymes such as Proteinase K and lysozyme; detergents, such as SDS, Brij, Triton X100, or using other chemicals such as sodium hydroxide, guanidium isothiocyanate, etc. (See for example, Sambrook et al, Molecular Cloning—A Laboratory Manual 2nd edition 9.14 (New York: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory 1989). Following removal of the cellular debris, the crude lysate is treated with organic solvents such as phenol/chloroform to extract proteins. RNA may be removed or reduced if required by treatment of the enzymes such as RNAse. However, the presence of contaminants such as salts, phenol, detergents and the like can interfere with many downstream manipulations for which the nucleic acid is intended.
Currently several procedures are available for the chromatographic purification of DNA (genomic and plasmid) and RNA, for example, by employing silica based membrane purification, size exclusion chromatography, reversed phase chromatography, gel filtration, magnetic bead based purification, or ion-exchange chromatography. Ion exchange chromatography is one of the most commonly used separation and purification methods and has been used for purification of plasmid DNA, genomic DNA and RNA.
See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,410,274 (Bhikhabhai), U.S. Pat. No. 6,310,199 (Smith et al), U.S. Pat. No. 6,090,288 (Berlund et al), U.S. Pat. No. 5,990,301 (Colpan et al), U.S. Pat. No. 5,856,192, U.S. Pat. No. 5,866,428 (Bloch), U.S. Pat. No. 5,801,237 (Johansson), EP 1125943 B1 (Macherey-Nagel GmbH & Co), EP 992583 B1, EP 616639 (Qiagen), U.S. Pat. No. 5,707,812, U.S. Pat. No. 5,561,064 (Vical Inc.).
While anion exchange chromatographic procedures for the purification of nucleic acids have been extensively referenced, one of the shortcomings of current protocols is the impaired recovery of nucleic acid during the elution step, (Endres, H. N. et al, Biotechnol. Appl. Biochem., (2003), 37(3), 259-66; Prazeres, D. M. et al, J. Chromatog. A. (1998), 806(1), 31-45; Urthaler J. et al, Acta Biochim. Pol., (2005), 52(3), 703-11; Ferreira, G. N. et al, Bioseparation, (2000), 9(1), 1-6.; Ferreira, G. N., et al, Biotechnol. Prog., (2000), 16(3), 416-24. Addition of organic agents such as polyols and alcohols during adsorption and desorption has been shown to improve selectivity and recovery during anion exchange purification of DNA (Tseng, W. C. et al, J. Chromatogr. B Analyt. Technol. Biomed. Life Sci., (2003), 791(1-2), 263-72). However, there appear to be no reports that specifically address the recovery issues often seen during DNA desorption from anion exchange resins. The present invention addresses this problem since it relates to improving recoveries of bound DNA from anion exchange resins. In particular, the invention allows improved desorption of the DNA from the solid support without further manipulation of the protocol.
Plasmid DNA, genomic DNA and RNA have similar charge properties to one another and are polyanions having high charge density. Binding to positively charged ion exchange resins is therefore possible in the presence of up to 0.7M sodium chloride, depending on the length and conformation of the nucleic acid to be adsorbed. An increase in nucleic acid length as well as double stranded conformation results in an increase in binding strength between the nucleic acid and the anion exchanger. However, this effect is only proportional to nucleic acid length up to about 2 kilobases. The very strong interaction between the negatively charged phosphate backbone of the nucleic acid and ion exchange resin hampers elution of the nucleic acid using conventional methods, where a simple increase in ionic strength of the salt eluant is sufficient for recovery of 70-100% of the bound material. However, in the case of longer chain nucleic acids, an increase in ionic strength up to 3M salt only allows recoveries of 20-50% of the bound nucleic acid. Recovery of the remaining bound material can be accomplished with a combination of high salt concentration and elevated pH using sodium hydroxide. However, sodium hydroxide is not only caustic, but may also lead to irreversible denaturation of nucleic acids and degradation over time.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Surprisingly, it has now been found that nucleic acids can be efficiently eluted from anion exchange resins under conditions of high salt concentration and the presence in the elution solution of an additive that increases the pH of the solution, the pH of the solution being suitably in the range of about pH 9 to about pH 13, and more preferably in the range of about pH 10 to about pH 12. One example of an additive is guanidine or a guanidine-like derivative. Another example is a potassium carbonate. The addition of either additive to the elution solution has been shown to improve recovery of nucleic acids from anion exchange resins from 20-50% to 70-95%.
Thus, in a first aspect the present invention provides a method for the separation and/or purification of a nucleic acid from cells, comprising:a) generating an aqueous solution containing the nucleic acid by lysing said cells with a lysis solution;b) contacting the aqueous solution containing the nucleic acid with an anion exchanger bound to a solid support matrix under conditions such that the anion exchanger binds the nucleic acid; andc) eluting said anion exchanger with an aqueous mobile phase comprising a nucleic acid elution salt solution;
characterised in that the said elution solution comprises an additive such that the pH of the aqueous mobile phase is between about pH 9 and about pH 13, wherein the presence of the additive in the elution solution provides an increase in the nucleic acid recovery from the anion exchanger, as compared with the recovery of said nucleic acid in the absence of the additive.
Thus, the present invention provides a method for the use of a compound as an additive to the elution solution to allow high recovery of nucleic acids from anion exchange resins without impairing the nucleic acid stability as compared with conventional ion exchange chromatographic procedures. Nucleic acids, consist of a chain (or a paired chain of deoxyribose phosphate monomers covalently linked via phosphodiester bonds, each sugar phosphate moiety carrying a single aromatic heterocyclic base: adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), thymine (T found solely in DNA), and uracil (U found solely in RNA). In aqueous solutions of a pH>2, the highly soluble hydrophilic sugar-phosphate polymer backbone contributes one negative charge for each phosphodiester group, with the exception of the terminal phospho-monoester, which may carry up to two negative charges. DNA is thus a polyanion, where the net negative charge of the nucleic acid molecule is related directly to chain length. Nucleic acids therefore, display strong binding affinities to anion exchange resins such that a high salt concentration in the elution solution is required to efficiently remove the nucleic acid from the resin.
The positive impact of guanidine and guanidine-like compounds particularly arginine on recovery of nucleic acids from anion exchange resins is most pronounced at alkaline pH, for example, between about pH 9 and about pH 13, more particularly at pH values between about 10 and 12. A pH range of between about 10.5 and 11.6 appears to provide optimum recovery. Recovery of nucleic acids is highest when arginine or guanidine carbonate is added to the elution solution. Without being bound by theory, one of the unique properties of the guanidinium group is its delocalized positive charge property which is due to the conjugation between the double bond and the nitrogen lone pairs. The guanidinium group is able to form multiple hydrogen-bonds preferentially with guanine bases, which may act to cause local deformation of the nucleic acid structure, which change in conformation of nucleic acids contributes to a change in desorption kinetics thereby favouring high recoveries of nucleic acids during anion exchange chromatography. Macromolecules are known to bind to adsorptive surfaces through multiple points of attachment creating microenvironments on chromatography media surfaces, which allow adsorption that can become close to irreversible with conventional desorption techniques. While traditional anion exchange chromatography allows the elution of bound molecule from the positively charged ligand through an increase in competing salt anions, it has been observed that elution of nucleic acids, especially high molecular weight (HMW) nucleic acids (above 0.1 kilobases), is not efficient with salt anions alone. It has also been observed that the cation used as a counter ion, as well as the pH of elution has an effect on recovery of HMW nucleic acids, the use of strongly alkaline (such as with sodium hydroxide) may be detrimental to recovery because of the co-elution of contaminants and detrimental effects on product stability.
In one embodiment, the additive is a compound having the formula (I)
(and more particularly the carbonate or bicarbonate salt thereof), where R is selected from H, and lower alkyl, optionally substituted by amino. Suitably, lower alkyl is a C1to C4alkyl group, for example methyl, ethyl, propyl and butyl, preferably, methyl or ethyl. Where R is an amino-substituted lower alkyl group, examples of the compounds according to formula (I) include 2-aminoethyl-guanidine, 3-aminopropyl-guanidine and 4-aminobutyl-guanidine (agmatine). In a particularly preferred embodiment, R is hydrogen, thus compound (I) is guanidine, as its carbonate or bicarbonate salt.
In a second embodiment, the additive is a compound having the formula (I):
wherein R is the group:
where n is 1, 2 or 3,
preferably 3. In this case, the additive is arginine, suitably L-arginine, D-arginine, or a mixture of both optical isomers.
In a third embodiment, the additive is an inorganic salt that provides a similar pH. An example of such a salt is potassium carbonate. Another example is sodium carbonate.
In embodiments according to the invention, it is preferred that the guanidine and guanidine-like compound or the potassium carbonate is present as an additive in the elution solution at a concentration of between 0.1 and 2 Molar, preferably between 0.25M and 0.5M. The elution solution will typically comprise a salt solution, suitably between about 0.7 M and 3 M to which the additive is added. Suitably, the pH of the aqueous mobile phase is between about pH 9 and about pH 13, the preferred range of pH being between about pH 10 and about pH 12, more preferably between about pH 10.5 and about pH 11.6.
The term “nucleic acid” as used herein refers to any DNA or RNA molecule, or a DNA/RNA hybrid, or mixtures of DNA and/or RNA. The term “nucleic acid” therefore is intended to include genomic or chromosomal DNA, plasmid DNA, amplified DNA, total RNA and mRNA. The process according to the present invention is particularly suitable for the preparation and/or purification of genomic DNA derived from complex mixtures of components derived from cellular and tissue samples from any recognised source, including normal and transformed cells, with respect to species (e.g. human, rodent, simian), tissue source (e.g. brain, liver, lung, heart, kidney skin, muscle) and cell type (e.g. epithelial, endothelial, blood).
Furthermore, the present method is suitable for the preparation and/or purification of genomic DNA having a size of from about 0.1 kilo-bases to about 200 kilo-bases, or of plasmid DNA, cosmid, BAC or YAC. The present invention is useful for purifying plasmid DNA and cosmid DNA, in particular for downstream applications in molecular biological research, such as cloning and sequencing, gene therapy and in diagnostic applications both in vivo and in vitro.
Anion exchange resins suitable for use with methods of the present invention include both strong anion exchangers and weak anion exchangers, wherein the anion exchange resin suitably comprises a support carrier to which charged or chargable groups have been attached. The ion exchange resin may take the form of a bead, a membrane or a surface. Examples of strong anion exchange resins include Q-sepharose fast flow resin, Q-sepharose XL and CaptoQ. Examples of weak ion exchange resins include ANX fast flow resin and DEAE Sephadex A25 resin. (GE Healthcare)
By employing an additive of disclosed above in the aqueous mobile phase it is possible to increase recovery of nucleic acid from the anion exchanger of at least 40% and typically between about 40% and about 400%, as compared with the recovery of said nucleic acid from the same anion exchanger and in the absence of the additive in the elution solution, all other conditions being equal.
In a second aspect, the invention provides a kit for the separation and/or purification of nucleic acid from a cellular sample, the kit comprising a lysis solution for generating an aqueous solution containing the nucleic acid from the cellular sample; an anion exchanger bound to a solid support matrix for binding the nucleic acid; an elution solution for eluting the nucleic acid from the anion exchanger; and optionally desalting means for desalting the eluted nucleic acid. Suitably there is present in the elution solution an additive such that the pH of said elution solution is between about pH 9 and about pH 13.
In one embodiment, the additive is arginine. In another embodiment the additive is guanidine present as its carbonate or bicarbonate salt. In yet another embodiment, the additive is potassium carbonate.
Preferably, the anion exchanger is ANX fast flow resin. Alternatively the anion exchanger is DEAE Sephadex A25 resin, Q-sepharose fast flow resin, Q-sepharose XL or CaptoQ resin (all from GE Healthcare).
Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments, and from the claims.
Is this patent green technology? Respond with 'yes' or 'no'. |
7678497 | BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a battery.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, with a background of increasing environmental protection activities, introduction of electric vehicles (EV), hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), and fuel cell vehicles (FCV) has been demanded. Secondary batteries for feeding electrical power to driving motors of such vehicles are required to have high-energy density which is unachievable with a single battery. The batteries in practical use for these applications are usually a plurality of unit cells connected in series and/or in parallel.
However, these batteries have a problem in that, if one of the unit cells connected in series and/or in parallel fails or becomes defective, the entire battery is no longer be unusable.
Countermeasures have been taken to avoid this situation, improving connection arrangement between unit cells.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. H8(1996)-241705 discloses a battery which consists of series-connected groups of parallel-connected unit cells. In this battery, each unit cell is connected to at least one unit cell in parallel. Therefore, even when one of the unit cells fails or becomes defective, charge/discharge can still be carried out in the other unit cell connected thereto in parallel. Hence, the entire battery remains usable.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
However, the unit cells of the above-described battery are manufactured separately and thus have different properties. This causes biased charge/discharge loads on any one of the parallel-connected unit cells, which leads to a rapid deterioration in a charge-discharge cycle life of the unit cell. In order to avoid this problem, it is required to check at assembly the properties of each unit cell before connecting them in parallel, and this increases manufacturing costs.
Although the battery remains usable even in the case that any one of the unit cells becomes nonconductive, if any one of the unit cells is short-circuited, a current flows, bypassing normal unit cells. This may results in a reduction in voltage of the entire battery.
An object of the present invention is to provide a battery containing unit cells connected to each other in parallel, which can be used continuously without causing excess loads on normally-operating unit cells and without losing capabilities of the whole battery even when any one of the unit cells becomes defective.
An aspect of the present invention is a battery comprising: a solid electrolyte film; and a plurality of unit cells formed on the solid electrolyte film and connected in parallel, each of the unit cells comprising: a positive electrode provided on one side of the solid electrolyte film; a negative electrode provided on the other side of the solid electrolyte film at a position opposite to the positive electrode; and a part of the solid electrolyte film sandwiched between the positive electrode and the negative electrode.
| 1 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a battery.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, with a background of increasing environmental protection activities, introduction of electric vehicles (EV), hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), and fuel cell vehicles (FCV) has been demanded. Secondary batteries for feeding electrical power to driving motors of such vehicles are required to have high-energy density which is unachievable with a single battery. The batteries in practical use for these applications are usually a plurality of unit cells connected in series and/or in parallel.
However, these batteries have a problem in that, if one of the unit cells connected in series and/or in parallel fails or becomes defective, the entire battery is no longer be unusable.
Countermeasures have been taken to avoid this situation, improving connection arrangement between unit cells.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. H8(1996)-241705 discloses a battery which consists of series-connected groups of parallel-connected unit cells. In this battery, each unit cell is connected to at least one unit cell in parallel. Therefore, even when one of the unit cells fails or becomes defective, charge/discharge can still be carried out in the other unit cell connected thereto in parallel. Hence, the entire battery remains usable.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
However, the unit cells of the above-described battery are manufactured separately and thus have different properties. This causes biased charge/discharge loads on any one of the parallel-connected unit cells, which leads to a rapid deterioration in a charge-discharge cycle life of the unit cell. In order to avoid this problem, it is required to check at assembly the properties of each unit cell before connecting them in parallel, and this increases manufacturing costs.
Although the battery remains usable even in the case that any one of the unit cells becomes nonconductive, if any one of the unit cells is short-circuited, a current flows, bypassing normal unit cells. This may results in a reduction in voltage of the entire battery.
An object of the present invention is to provide a battery containing unit cells connected to each other in parallel, which can be used continuously without causing excess loads on normally-operating unit cells and without losing capabilities of the whole battery even when any one of the unit cells becomes defective.
An aspect of the present invention is a battery comprising: a solid electrolyte film; and a plurality of unit cells formed on the solid electrolyte film and connected in parallel, each of the unit cells comprising: a positive electrode provided on one side of the solid electrolyte film; a negative electrode provided on the other side of the solid electrolyte film at a position opposite to the positive electrode; and a part of the solid electrolyte film sandwiched between the positive electrode and the negative electrode.
Is this patent green technology? Respond with 'yes' or 'no'. |
7707663 | CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
Not Applicable
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH
Not Applicable
REFERENCE TO APPENDIX
Not Applicable
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of shampoo basins, more specifically, a cushioning device that securely attaches along the top perimeter of the shampoo basin so as to provide stability from movement associated with the neck being placed on traditional cushioning devices.
A further embodiment of the present invention is to provide a converter piece that when placed over a traditional sink or porcelain base will convert into a shampoo basin.
B. Discussion of the Prior Art
The Cartwright patent (U.S. Pat. No. 6,925,660) discloses a gel-filled cushioning device for use with a shampoo bowl including a front wall having an inner surface and an outer surface, and a U-shaped, neck receiving notch in the front wall. However, the cushioning device disclosed under the Cartwright Patent is directed to the notch of the shampoo basin, as opposed to a cushioning device that is mounted along the upper perimeter of the basin such that it will not easily move when a neck of the end user rests upon it. Furthermore, an alternative embodiment enables the end user to convert a traditional sink or porcelain basin into a shampoo bowl, which is not a feature disclosed under the Cartwright Patent.
The Flora patent (U.S. Pat. No. 5,978,980) discloses a neck cushioning device adapted for use with a shampoo basin having a neck-receiving notch and includes a cushioning pad formed of a gel-based material. Again, the cushioning device disclosed under the Flora Patent is directed to the notch of the shampoo basin, as opposed to a cushioning device that is mounted along the upper perimeter of the basin such that it will not easily move when a neck of the end user rests upon it.
The Kirsch patent (U.S. Pat. No. 6,230,338) discloses an arrangement for the washing or other treatment of hair of a person which comprises a sink having a rim with an indentation, as is conventional. The rim indentation receives and supports the neck of the person. A gel-type flexibly, resilient pad is carried on the rim within the indentation. Again, the cushioning device disclosed under the Kirsch Patent is directed to the notch of the shampoo basin, and not the upper perimeter of the shampoo bowl.
The Morgan patent (U.S. Pat. No. 4,763,364) discloses a neck cushioning device for engagement with hair shampoo bowls. Again, the cushioning device disclosed under the Kirsch Patent is directed to the notch of the shampoo basin, and not the upper perimeter of the shampoo bowl, which provides additional security of the cushioning device so as to eliminate unwanted movement and resulting soreness associated with the placement of the neck against the cushioning device.
The Hakim patent (U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,365) discloses a neck support for a beauty salon hair washing sinks comprising a pillow formed of an elastomeric foam with a waterproof envelope thereof. Again, the cushioning device disclosed under the Kirsch Patent is directed to the notch of the shampoo basin, and not the upper perimeter of the shampoo bowl, thereby providing enhanced security of the cushioning device.
The Carlquist patent (U.S. Pat. No. Des. 456,944) illustrates a shampoo sink cushion, which does not securely fasten about the perimeter of a traditional shampoo basin.
The Bower et al. patent (U.S. Pat. No. 5,526,539) discloses a portable washing cart with a sink where the material of the sink to be deformable into a specific configuration, whereby such configuration is retained by a material comprising: soft plastics, lead alloys, or other conventionally known ductile materials. However, the washing cart disclosed under the Bower Patent requires the use of an entire cleaning station, as opposed to a single shampoo basin. Furthermore, the washing cart is not directed to the use of placement of a cushioning device over the notch in the shampoo basin in which a cushioning device maybe designed to securely attach about the upper perimeter of the shampoo basin.
The Hajek patent (U.S. Pat. No. 4,419,774) discloses a completely biodegradable disposable plastic basin containing a circular bottom with a ringed wall upstanding around it. However, the device disclosed under the Hajek Patent is adapted to fit over an existing shampoo basin for a sanitary purpose, as opposed to providing enhanced comfort for an existing shampoo basin. Furthermore, the device disclosed does not include discussion of an alternative embodiment that can convert a traditional sink or porcelain base into a shampoo basin.
In light of the above discussed prior art there is a need for a converter that can transform a traditional sink or porcelain base into a shampoo basin.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The preferred embodiment of the present invention is a shampoo basin cushioning device that cushions the neck along the notch in the shampoo basin, but also securely fastens along the top perimeter of the shampoo basin. The ability of the cushioning device to securely attach along the perimeter of the shampoo basin enables the cushioning device to avoid movement and remain steady when the neck of an end user is placed upon it. This embodiment seeks to eliminate the movement and associated neck soreness associated with moving cushions that are designed for the neck notch of a shampoo basin. A second embodiment is a sink or porcelain base converter that when placed over the sink or porcelain base will convert it into a shampoo basin.
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
Not Applicable
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH
Not Applicable
REFERENCE TO APPENDIX
Not Applicable
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of shampoo basins, more specifically, a cushioning device that securely attaches along the top perimeter of the shampoo basin so as to provide stability from movement associated with the neck being placed on traditional cushioning devices.
A further embodiment of the present invention is to provide a converter piece that when placed over a traditional sink or porcelain base will convert into a shampoo basin.
B. Discussion of the Prior Art
The Cartwright patent (U.S. Pat. No. 6,925,660) discloses a gel-filled cushioning device for use with a shampoo bowl including a front wall having an inner surface and an outer surface, and a U-shaped, neck receiving notch in the front wall. However, the cushioning device disclosed under the Cartwright Patent is directed to the notch of the shampoo basin, as opposed to a cushioning device that is mounted along the upper perimeter of the basin such that it will not easily move when a neck of the end user rests upon it. Furthermore, an alternative embodiment enables the end user to convert a traditional sink or porcelain basin into a shampoo bowl, which is not a feature disclosed under the Cartwright Patent.
The Flora patent (U.S. Pat. No. 5,978,980) discloses a neck cushioning device adapted for use with a shampoo basin having a neck-receiving notch and includes a cushioning pad formed of a gel-based material. Again, the cushioning device disclosed under the Flora Patent is directed to the notch of the shampoo basin, as opposed to a cushioning device that is mounted along the upper perimeter of the basin such that it will not easily move when a neck of the end user rests upon it.
The Kirsch patent (U.S. Pat. No. 6,230,338) discloses an arrangement for the washing or other treatment of hair of a person which comprises a sink having a rim with an indentation, as is conventional. The rim indentation receives and supports the neck of the person. A gel-type flexibly, resilient pad is carried on the rim within the indentation. Again, the cushioning device disclosed under the Kirsch Patent is directed to the notch of the shampoo basin, and not the upper perimeter of the shampoo bowl.
The Morgan patent (U.S. Pat. No. 4,763,364) discloses a neck cushioning device for engagement with hair shampoo bowls. Again, the cushioning device disclosed under the Kirsch Patent is directed to the notch of the shampoo basin, and not the upper perimeter of the shampoo bowl, which provides additional security of the cushioning device so as to eliminate unwanted movement and resulting soreness associated with the placement of the neck against the cushioning device.
The Hakim patent (U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,365) discloses a neck support for a beauty salon hair washing sinks comprising a pillow formed of an elastomeric foam with a waterproof envelope thereof. Again, the cushioning device disclosed under the Kirsch Patent is directed to the notch of the shampoo basin, and not the upper perimeter of the shampoo bowl, thereby providing enhanced security of the cushioning device.
The Carlquist patent (U.S. Pat. No. Des. 456,944) illustrates a shampoo sink cushion, which does not securely fasten about the perimeter of a traditional shampoo basin.
The Bower et al. patent (U.S. Pat. No. 5,526,539) discloses a portable washing cart with a sink where the material of the sink to be deformable into a specific configuration, whereby such configuration is retained by a material comprising: soft plastics, lead alloys, or other conventionally known ductile materials. However, the washing cart disclosed under the Bower Patent requires the use of an entire cleaning station, as opposed to a single shampoo basin. Furthermore, the washing cart is not directed to the use of placement of a cushioning device over the notch in the shampoo basin in which a cushioning device maybe designed to securely attach about the upper perimeter of the shampoo basin.
The Hajek patent (U.S. Pat. No. 4,419,774) discloses a completely biodegradable disposable plastic basin containing a circular bottom with a ringed wall upstanding around it. However, the device disclosed under the Hajek Patent is adapted to fit over an existing shampoo basin for a sanitary purpose, as opposed to providing enhanced comfort for an existing shampoo basin. Furthermore, the device disclosed does not include discussion of an alternative embodiment that can convert a traditional sink or porcelain base into a shampoo basin.
In light of the above discussed prior art there is a need for a converter that can transform a traditional sink or porcelain base into a shampoo basin.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The preferred embodiment of the present invention is a shampoo basin cushioning device that cushions the neck along the notch in the shampoo basin, but also securely fastens along the top perimeter of the shampoo basin. The ability of the cushioning device to securely attach along the perimeter of the shampoo basin enables the cushioning device to avoid movement and remain steady when the neck of an end user is placed upon it. This embodiment seeks to eliminate the movement and associated neck soreness associated with moving cushions that are designed for the neck notch of a shampoo basin. A second embodiment is a sink or porcelain base converter that when placed over the sink or porcelain base will convert it into a shampoo basin.
Is this patent green technology? Respond with 'yes' or 'no'. |
7752650 | BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to an integrated system of programming communication and involves the fields of computer processing, computer communications, television, radio, and other electronic communications; the fields of automating the handling, recording, and retransmitting of television, radio, computer, and other electronically transmitted programming; and the fields of regulating, metering, and monitoring the availability, use, and usage of such programming.
For years, television has been recognized as a most powerful medium for communicating ideas. And television is so-called “user-friendly”; that is, despite technical complexity, television is easy for subscribers to use.
Radio and electronic print services such as stock brokers so-called “tickers” and “broad tapes” are also powerful, user friendly mass media. (Hereinafter, the electronic print mass medium is called, “broadcast print.”)
But television, radio, and broadcast print are only mass media. Program content is the same for every viewer. Occasionally one viewer may see, hear, or read information of specific relevance to him (as happens when a guest on a television talk show turns to the camera and says, “Hi, Mom”), but such electronic media have no capacity for conveying user specific information simultaneously to each user.
For years, computers have been recognized as having unsurpassed capacity for processing and displaying user specific information.
But computer processing is not a mass medium. Computers operate under the control of computer programs that are inputted by specific users for specific purposes, not programs that are broadcast to and executed simultaneously at the stations of mass user audiences. And computer processing is far less user friendly than, for example, television.
Today great potential exists for combining the capacity of broadcast communications media to convey ideas with the capacity of computers to process and output user specific information. One such combination would provide a new radio-based or broadcast print medium with the capacity for conveying general information to large audiences—e.g., “Stock prices rose today in heavy trading,”—with information of specific relevance to each particular user in the audience—e.g., “but the value of your stock portfolio went down.” (Hereinafter, the new media that result from such combinations are called “combined” media.)
Unlocking this potential is desirable because these new media will add substantial richness and variety to the communication of ideas, information and entertainment. Understanding complex subjects and making informed decisions will become easier.
To unlock this potential fully requires means and methods for combining and controlling receiver systems that are now separate—television and computers, radio and computers, broadcast print and computers, television and computers and broadcast print, etc.
But it requires much more.
To unlock this potential fully requires a system with efficient capacity for satisfying the demands of subscribers who have little receiver apparatus and simple information demands as well as subscribers who have extensive apparatus and complex demands. It requires capacity for transmitting and organizing vastly more information and programming than any one-channel transmission system can possibly convey at one time. It requires capacity for controlling intermediate transmission stations that receive information and programming from many sources and for organizing the information and programming and retransmitting the information and programming so as to make the use of the information and programming at ultimate receiver stations as efficient as possible.
To unlock this potential also requires efficient capacity for providing reliable audit information to (1) advertisers and others who pay for the transmission and performance of programming and (2) copyright holders, pay service operators, and others such as talent who demand, instead, to be paid. This requires capacity for identifying and recording (1) what television, radio, data, and other programming and what instruction signals are transmitted at each transmission station and (2) what is received at each receiver station as well as (3) what received programming is combined or otherwise used at each receiver station and (4) how it is received, combined, and/or otherwise used.
Moreover, this system must have the capacity to ensure that programming supplied for pay or for other conditional use is used only in accordance with those conditions. For example, subscriber station apparatus must display the commercials that are transmitted in transmissions that advertisers pay for. The system must have capacity for decrypting, in many varying ways, programming and instruction signals that are encrypted and for identifying those who pirate programming and inhibiting piracy.
It is the object of this invention to unlock this great potential in the fullest measure by means of an integrated system of programming communication that joins together all these capacities most efficiently.
Computer systems generate user specific information, but in any given computer system, any given set of program instructions that causes and controls the generation of user specific information is inputted to only one computer at a time.
Computer communications systems do transmit data point-to-multipoint. The Dataspeed Corporation division of Lotus Development Corporation of Cambridge, Mass. transmits real-time financial data over radio frequencies to microcomputers equipped with devices called “modios” that combine the features of radio receivers, modems, and decryptors. The Equatorial Communications Company of Mountain View, Calif. transmits to similarly equipped receiver systems by satellite. At each receiver station, apparatus receive the particular transmission and convert its data content into unencrypted digital signals that computers can process. Each subscriber programs his subscriber station apparatus to select particular data of interest.
This prior art is limited. It only transmits data; it does not control data processing. No system is preprogrammed to simultaneously control a plurality of central processor units, operating systems, and pluralities of computer peripheral units. None has capacity to cause simultaneous generation of user specific information at a plurality of receiver stations. None has any capacity to cause subscriber station computers to process received data, let alone in ways that are not inputted by the subscribers. None has any capacity to explain automatically why any given information might be of particular interest to any subscriber or why any subscriber might wish to select information that is not selected or how any subscriber might wish to change the way selected information is processed.
As regards broadcast media, systems in the prior art have capacity for receiving and displaying multiple images on television receivers simultaneously. One such system for superimposing printed characters transmitted incrementally during the vertical blanking interval of the television scanning format is described in Kimura U.S. Pat. No. 3,891,792. Baer U.S. Pat. No. 4,310,854 describes a second system for continuously displaying readable alphanumeric captions that are transmitted as digital data superimposed on a normal FM sound signal and that relate in program content to the conventional television information upon which they are displayed. These systems permit a viewer to view a primary program and a secondary program.
This prior art, too, is limited. It has no capacity to overlay any information other than information transmitted to all receiver stations simultaneously. It has no capacity to overlay any such information except in the order in which it is received. It has no capacity to cause receiver station computers to generate any information whatsoever, let alone user specific information. It has no capacity to cause overlays to commence or cease appearing at receiver stations, let alone commence and cease appearing periodically.
As regards the automation of intermediate transmission stations, various so-called “cueing” systems in the prior art operate in conjunction with network broadcast transmissions to automate the so-called “cut-in” at local television and radio stations of locally originated programming such as so-called “local spot” advertisements.
Also in the prior art, Lambert U.S. Pat. No. 4,381,522 describes a cable television system controlled by a minicomputer that responds to signals transmitted from viewers by telephone. In response to viewers input preferences, the computer generates a schedule which determines what prerecorded, so-called local origination programs will be transmitted, when, and over what channels. The computer generates a video image of this schedule which it transmits over one cable channel to viewers which permits them to see when they can view the programs they request and over what channels. Then, in accordance with the schedule, it actuates preloaded video tape, disc or film players and transmits the programming transmissions from these players to the designated cable channels by means of a controlled video switch.
This prior art, too, is limited. It has no capacity to schedule automatically or transmit any programming other than that loaded immediately at the play heads of the controlled video players. It has no capacity to load the video players or identify what programming is loaded on the players or verify that scheduled programs are played correctly. It has no capacity to cause the video players to record programming from any source. It has no capacity to receive programming transmissions or process received transmissions in any way. It has no capacity to operate under the control of instructions transmitted by broadcasters. It has no capacity to insert signals that convey information to or control, in any way, the automatic operation of ultimate receiver station apparatus other than television receivers.
As regards the automation of ultimate receiver stations, in the prior art, Bourassin et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,337,480 describes a dynamic interconnection system for connecting at least one television receiver to a plurality of television peripheral units. By means of a single remote keyboard, a viewer can automatically connect and disconnect any of the peripheral units without the need manually to switch systems or fasten and unfasten cabling each time. In addition, using a so-called “image-within-image” capacity, the viewer can superimpose a secondary image from a second peripheral unit upon the primary image on the television display. In this fashion, two peripheral units can be viewed simultaneously on one television receiver. Freeman et. al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,264,925 describes a multi-channel programming transmission system wherein subscribers may select manually among related programming alternatives transmitted simultaneously on separate channels.
This prior art, too, is limited. It has no capacity for interconnecting or operating a system at any time other than the time when the order to do so is entered manually at the system or remote keyboard. It has no capacity for acting on instructions transmitted by broadcasters to interconnect, actuate or tune systems peripheral to a television receiver or to actuate a television receiver or automatically change channels received by a receiver. It has no capacity for coordinating the programming content transmitted by any given peripheral system with any other programming transmitted to a television receiver. It has no capacity for controlling two separate systems such as, for example, an automatic radio and television stereo simulcast. It has no capacity for selectively connecting radio receivers to radio peripherals such as computers or printers or speakers or for connecting computers to computer peripherals (except perhaps a television set). It has no capacity for controlling the operation of decryptors or selectively inputting transmissions to decryptors or outputting transmissions from decryptors to other apparatus. It has no capacity for monitoring and maintaining records regarding what programming is selected or played on any apparatus or what apparatus is connected or how connected apparatus operate.
The prior art includes a variety of systems for monitoring programming and generating so-called “ratings.” One system that monitors by means of embedded digital signals is described in Haselwood, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,025,851. Another that monitors by means of audio codes that are only “substantially inaudible” is described in Crosby U.S. Pat. No. 3,845,391. A third that automatically monitors a plurality of channels by switching sequentially among them and that includes capacity to monitor audio and visual quality is described in Greenberg U.S. Pat. No. 4,547,804.
This prior art, too, is limited. It has capacity to monitor only single broadcast stations, channels or units and lacks capacity to monitor more than one channel at a time or to monitor the combining of media. At any given monitor station, it has had capacity to monitor either what is transmitted over one or more channels or what is received on one or more receivers but not both. It has assumed monitored signals of particular format in particular transmission locations and has lacked capacity to vary formats or locations or to distinguish and act on the absence of signals or to interpret and process in any fashion signals that appear in monitored locations that are not monitored signals.
It has lacked capacity to identify encrypted signals then decrypt them. It has lacked capacity to record and also transfer information to a remote geographic location simultaneously.
As regards recorder/player systems, many means and methods exist in the prior art for recording television or audio programming and/or data on magnetic, optical or other recording media and for retransmitting prerecorded programming. Video tape recorders have capacity for automatic delayed recording of television transmissions on the basis of instructions input manually by viewers. So-called “interactive video” systems have capacity for locating prerecorded television programming on a given disc and transmitting it to television receivers and locating prerecorded digital data on the same disc and transmitting them to computers.
This prior art, too, is limited. It has no capacity for automatically embedding signals in and/or removing embedded signals from a television transmission then recording the transmission. It has no capacity for controlling the connection or actuation or tuning of external apparatus. It has no capacity for retransmitting prerecorded programming and controlling the decryption of said programming, let alone doing so on the basis of signals that are embedded in said programming that contain keys for the decryption of said programming. It has no capacity for operating on the basis of control signals transmitted to recorder/players at a plurality of subscriber stations, let alone operating on the basis of such signals to record user specific information at each subscriber station.
As regards decoders and decryptors, many different systems exist, at present, that enable programming suppliers to restrict the use of transmitted programming to only duly authorized subscribers. The prior art includes so-called “addressable” systems that have capacity for controlling specific individual subscriber station apparatus by means of control instructions transmitted in broadcasts. Such systems enable broadcasters to turn off subscriber station decoder/decryptor apparatus of subscribers who do not pay their bills and turn them back on when the bills are paid. This prior art, too, is limited. It has no capacity for decrypting combined media programming. It has no capacity for identifying then selectively decrypting control instructions embedded in unencrypted programming transmissions. It has no capacity for identifying programming transmissions or control instructions selectively and transferring them to a decryptor for decryption. It has no capacity for transferring the output of a decryptor selectively to one of a plurality of output apparatus. It has no capacity for automatically identifying decryption keys and inputting them to a decryptor to serve as the key for any step of decryption. It has no capacity for identifying and recording the identity of what is input to or output from a decryptor. It has no capacity for decrypting a transmission then embedding a signal in the transmission—let alone for simultaneously embedding user specific signals at a plurality of subscriber stations. It has no capacity for distinguishing the absence of an expected signal or controlling any operation when such absence occurs.
Further significant limitations arise out of the failure to reconcile aspects of these individual areas of art—monitoring programming, automating ultimate receiver stations, decrypting programming, generating the programming itself, etc.—into an integrated system. These limitations are both technical and commercial.
For example, the commercial objective of the aforementioned monitoring systems of Crosby, Haselwood et. al., and Greenberg is to provide independent audits to advertisers and others who pay for programming transmissions. All require embedding signals in programming that are used only to identify programming. Greenberg, for example, requires that a digital signal be transmitted at a particular place on a select line of each frame of a television program. But television has only so much capacity for transmitting signals outside the visible image; it is inefficient for such signals to serve only one function; and broadcasters can foresee alternate potential for this capacity that may be more profitable to them. Furthermore, advertisers recognize that if the systems of Crosby, Haselwood and Greenberg distinguish TV advertisements by means of single purpose signals, television receivers and video tape recorders can include capacity for identifying said signals and suppressing the associated advertisements. Accordingly, no independent automatic comprehensive so-called “proof-of-performance” audit service has yet proven commercially viable.
As a second example, because of the lack of a viable independent audit system, each service that broadcasts encrypted programming controls and services at each subscriber station one or more receiver/decryptors dedicated to its service alone. Lacking a viable audit system, services do not transmit to shared, common receiver/decryptors.
These are just two examples of limitations that arise in the absence of an integrated system of programming communication.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome these and other limitations of the prior art.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention consists of an integrated system of methods and apparatus for communicating programming. The term “programming” refers to everything that is transmitted electronically to entertain, instruct or inform, including television, radio, broadcast print, and computer programming was well as combined medium programming. The system includes capacity for automatically organizing multi-channel communications. Like television, radio, broadcast print, and other electronic media, the present invention has capacity for transmitting to standardized programming that is very simple for subscribers to play and understand. Like computer systems, the present invention has capacity for transmitting data and control instructions in the same information stream to many different apparatus at a given subscriber station, for causing computers to generate and transmit programming, and for causing receiver apparatus to operate on the basis of programming and information received at widely separated times.
It is the further purpose of this invention to provide means and methods whereby a simplex point-to-multipoint transmission (such as a television or radio broadcast) can cause simultaneous generation of user specific information at a plurality of subscriber stations. One advantage of the present invention is great ease of use. For example, as will be seen, a subscriber can cause his own information to be processed in highly complex ways by merely turning his television receiver on and tuning to a particular channel. Another advantage of the present invention is its so-called “transparency”—subscribers see none of the complex processing taking place. Another advantage is privacy. No private information is required at transmitting stations, and no subscriber's information is available at any other subscriber's station.
It is the further purpose of this invention to provide means and methods whereby a simplex broadcast transmission can cause periodic combining of relevant user specific information and conventional broadcast programming simultaneously at a plurality of subscriber stations, thereby integrating the broadcast information with each user's own information. One advantage of the present invention is its use of powerful communication media such as television to reveal the meaning of the results of complex processing in ways that appear clear and simple. Another advantage is that receiver stations that lack said capacity for combining user specific information into television or radio programming can continue, without modification, to receive and display the conventional television or radio and without the appearance of any signals or change in the conventional programming.
It is the further purpose of this invention to provide means and methods for the automation of intermediate transmission stations that receive and retransmit programming. The programming may be delivered by any means including over-the-air, hard-wire, and manual means. The stations may transmit programming over-the-air (hereinafter, “broadcast”) or over hard-wire (hereinafter, “cablecast”). They may transmit single channels or multiple channels. The present invention includes capacity for automatically constructing records for each transmitted channel that duplicate the logs that the Federal Communications Commission requires broadcast station operators to maintain.
It is the further purpose of this invention to provide means and methods for the automation of ultimate receiver stations, especially the automation of combined medium and multi-channel presentations. Such ultimate receiver stations may be private homes or offices or commercial establishments such as theaters, hotels, or brokerage offices.
It is the further purpose of this invention to provide means and methods for identifying and recording what television, radio, data, and other programming is transmitted at each transmission station, what programming is received at each receiver station, and how programming is used. In the present invention, certain monitored signals may be encrypted, and certain data collected from such monitoring may be automatically transferred from subscriber stations to one or more remote geographic stations.
It is a further purpose of this invention to provide means and methods for recording combined media and/or multi-channel programming and for playing back prerecorded programming of such types.
It is a further purpose of this invention to provide a variety of means and methods for restricting the use of transmitted communications to only duly authorized subscribers. Such means and methods include techniques for encrypting programming and/or instructions and decrypting them at subscriber stations. They also include techniques whereby the pattern of the composition, timing, and location of embedded signals may vary in such fashions that only receiving apparatus that are preinformed regarding the patterns that obtain at any given time will be able to process the signals correctly.
The present invention employs signals embedded in programming. Embedded signals provide several advantages. They cannot become separated inadvertently from the programming and, thereby, inhibit automatic processing. They occur at precise times in programming and can synchronize the operation of receiver station apparatus to the timing of programming transmissions. They can be conveniently monitored.
In the present invention, the embedded signals contain digital information that may include addresses of specific receiver apparatus controlled by the signals and instructions that identify particular functions the signals cause addressed apparatus to perform.
In programming transmissions, given signals may run and repeat, for periods of time, continuously or at regular intervals. Or they may run only occasionally or only once. They may appear in various and varying locations. In television they may appear on one line in the video portion of the transmission such as line20of the vertical interval, or on a portion of one line, or on more than one line, and they will probably lie outside the range of the television picture displayed on a normally tuned television set. In television and radio they may appear in a portion of the audio range that is not normally rendered in a form audible to the human ear. In television audio, they are likely to lie between eight and fifteen kilohertz. In broadcast print and data communications transmissions, the signals may accompany conventional print or data programming in the conventional transmission stream but will include instructions that receiver station apparatus are preprogrammed to process that instruct receiver apparatus to separate the signals from the conventional programming and process them differently. In all cases, signals may convey information in discrete words, transmitted at separate times or in separate locations, that receiver apparatus must assemble in order to receive one complete instruction.
(The term “signal unit” hereinafter means one complete signal instruction or information message unit. Examples of signal units are a unique code identifying a programming unit, or a unique purchase order number identifying the proper use of a programming unit, or a general instruction identifying whether a programming unit is to be retransmitted immediately or recorded for delayed transmission. The term “signal word” hereinafter means one full discrete appearance of a signal as embedded at one time in one location on a transmission. Examples of signal words are a string of one or more digital data bits encoded together on a single line of video or sequentially in audio. Such strings may or may not have predetermined data bits to identify the beginnings and ends of words. Signal words may contain parts of signal units, whole signal units, or groups of partial or whole signal units or combinations.)
In the present invention, particular signal processing apparatus (hereinafter called the “signal processor”) detect signals and, in accordance with instructions in the signals wand preprogramming in the signal processor, decrypt and/or record and/or control station apparatus by means of the signals and/or discard the signals. The apparatus include one or more devices that can selectively scan transmission frequencies as directed and, separately, capacity to receive signals from one or more devices that continuously monitor selected frequencies. The frequencies may convey television, radio, or other programming transmissions. The input transmissions may be received by means of antennas or from hard-wire connections. The scanners/switches, working in parallel or series or combinations, transfer the transmissions to receiver/decoder/detectors that identify signals encoded in programming transmissions and convert the encoded signals to digital information; decryptors that may convert the received information, in part or in whole, to other digital information according to preset methods or patterns; and one or more processor/monitors and/or buffer/comparators that organize and transfer the information stream. The processors and buffers can have inputs from each of the receiver/detector lines and evaluate information continuously. From the processors and buffers, the signals may be transferred to external equipment such as computers, videotape recorders and players, etc. And/or they may be transferred to one or more internal digital recorders that receive and store in memory the recorded information and have connections to one or more remote sites for further transmission of the recorded information. The apparatus has means for external communication and an automatic dialer and can contact remote sites and transfer stored information as required in a predetermined fashion or fashions. The apparatus has a clock for determining and recording time as required. It has a read only memory for recording permanent operating instructions and other information and a programmable random access memory controller (“PRAM controller”) that permits revision of operating patterns and instructions. The PRAM controller may be connected to all internal operating units for full flexibility of operations.
Signal processing apparatus that are employed in specific situations that require fewer functions than those provided by the signal processor described above may omit one or more of the specific operating elements described above.
A central objective of the present invention is to provide flexibility in regard to installed station apparatus. At any given time, the system must have capacity for wide variation in individual station apparatus in order to provide individual subscribers the widest range of information options at the least cost in terms of installed equipment. Flexibility must exist for expanding the capacity of installed systems by means of transmitted software and for altering installed systems in a modular fashion by adding or removing components. Flexibility must exist for varying techniques that restrict programming to duly authorized subscribers in order to identify and deter pirates of programming.
Other objects, features, and advantages of this invention will appear in the following descriptions and the appended claims.
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SUMMARY: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to an integrated system of programming communication and involves the fields of computer processing, computer communications, television, radio, and other electronic communications; the fields of automating the handling, recording, and retransmitting of television, radio, computer, and other electronically transmitted programming; and the fields of regulating, metering, and monitoring the availability, use, and usage of such programming.
For years, television has been recognized as a most powerful medium for communicating ideas. And television is so-called “user-friendly”; that is, despite technical complexity, television is easy for subscribers to use.
Radio and electronic print services such as stock brokers so-called “tickers” and “broad tapes” are also powerful, user friendly mass media. (Hereinafter, the electronic print mass medium is called, “broadcast print.”)
But television, radio, and broadcast print are only mass media. Program content is the same for every viewer. Occasionally one viewer may see, hear, or read information of specific relevance to him (as happens when a guest on a television talk show turns to the camera and says, “Hi, Mom”), but such electronic media have no capacity for conveying user specific information simultaneously to each user.
For years, computers have been recognized as having unsurpassed capacity for processing and displaying user specific information.
But computer processing is not a mass medium. Computers operate under the control of computer programs that are inputted by specific users for specific purposes, not programs that are broadcast to and executed simultaneously at the stations of mass user audiences. And computer processing is far less user friendly than, for example, television.
Today great potential exists for combining the capacity of broadcast communications media to convey ideas with the capacity of computers to process and output user specific information. One such combination would provide a new radio-based or broadcast print medium with the capacity for conveying general information to large audiences—e.g., “Stock prices rose today in heavy trading,”—with information of specific relevance to each particular user in the audience—e.g., “but the value of your stock portfolio went down.” (Hereinafter, the new media that result from such combinations are called “combined” media.)
Unlocking this potential is desirable because these new media will add substantial richness and variety to the communication of ideas, information and entertainment. Understanding complex subjects and making informed decisions will become easier.
To unlock this potential fully requires means and methods for combining and controlling receiver systems that are now separate—television and computers, radio and computers, broadcast print and computers, television and computers and broadcast print, etc.
But it requires much more.
To unlock this potential fully requires a system with efficient capacity for satisfying the demands of subscribers who have little receiver apparatus and simple information demands as well as subscribers who have extensive apparatus and complex demands. It requires capacity for transmitting and organizing vastly more information and programming than any one-channel transmission system can possibly convey at one time. It requires capacity for controlling intermediate transmission stations that receive information and programming from many sources and for organizing the information and programming and retransmitting the information and programming so as to make the use of the information and programming at ultimate receiver stations as efficient as possible.
To unlock this potential also requires efficient capacity for providing reliable audit information to (1) advertisers and others who pay for the transmission and performance of programming and (2) copyright holders, pay service operators, and others such as talent who demand, instead, to be paid. This requires capacity for identifying and recording (1) what television, radio, data, and other programming and what instruction signals are transmitted at each transmission station and (2) what is received at each receiver station as well as (3) what received programming is combined or otherwise used at each receiver station and (4) how it is received, combined, and/or otherwise used.
Moreover, this system must have the capacity to ensure that programming supplied for pay or for other conditional use is used only in accordance with those conditions. For example, subscriber station apparatus must display the commercials that are transmitted in transmissions that advertisers pay for. The system must have capacity for decrypting, in many varying ways, programming and instruction signals that are encrypted and for identifying those who pirate programming and inhibiting piracy.
It is the object of this invention to unlock this great potential in the fullest measure by means of an integrated system of programming communication that joins together all these capacities most efficiently.
Computer systems generate user specific information, but in any given computer system, any given set of program instructions that causes and controls the generation of user specific information is inputted to only one computer at a time.
Computer communications systems do transmit data point-to-multipoint. The Dataspeed Corporation division of Lotus Development Corporation of Cambridge, Mass. transmits real-time financial data over radio frequencies to microcomputers equipped with devices called “modios” that combine the features of radio receivers, modems, and decryptors. The Equatorial Communications Company of Mountain View, Calif. transmits to similarly equipped receiver systems by satellite. At each receiver station, apparatus receive the particular transmission and convert its data content into unencrypted digital signals that computers can process. Each subscriber programs his subscriber station apparatus to select particular data of interest.
This prior art is limited. It only transmits data; it does not control data processing. No system is preprogrammed to simultaneously control a plurality of central processor units, operating systems, and pluralities of computer peripheral units. None has capacity to cause simultaneous generation of user specific information at a plurality of receiver stations. None has any capacity to cause subscriber station computers to process received data, let alone in ways that are not inputted by the subscribers. None has any capacity to explain automatically why any given information might be of particular interest to any subscriber or why any subscriber might wish to select information that is not selected or how any subscriber might wish to change the way selected information is processed.
As regards broadcast media, systems in the prior art have capacity for receiving and displaying multiple images on television receivers simultaneously. One such system for superimposing printed characters transmitted incrementally during the vertical blanking interval of the television scanning format is described in Kimura U.S. Pat. No. 3,891,792. Baer U.S. Pat. No. 4,310,854 describes a second system for continuously displaying readable alphanumeric captions that are transmitted as digital data superimposed on a normal FM sound signal and that relate in program content to the conventional television information upon which they are displayed. These systems permit a viewer to view a primary program and a secondary program.
This prior art, too, is limited. It has no capacity to overlay any information other than information transmitted to all receiver stations simultaneously. It has no capacity to overlay any such information except in the order in which it is received. It has no capacity to cause receiver station computers to generate any information whatsoever, let alone user specific information. It has no capacity to cause overlays to commence or cease appearing at receiver stations, let alone commence and cease appearing periodically.
As regards the automation of intermediate transmission stations, various so-called “cueing” systems in the prior art operate in conjunction with network broadcast transmissions to automate the so-called “cut-in” at local television and radio stations of locally originated programming such as so-called “local spot” advertisements.
Also in the prior art, Lambert U.S. Pat. No. 4,381,522 describes a cable television system controlled by a minicomputer that responds to signals transmitted from viewers by telephone. In response to viewers input preferences, the computer generates a schedule which determines what prerecorded, so-called local origination programs will be transmitted, when, and over what channels. The computer generates a video image of this schedule which it transmits over one cable channel to viewers which permits them to see when they can view the programs they request and over what channels. Then, in accordance with the schedule, it actuates preloaded video tape, disc or film players and transmits the programming transmissions from these players to the designated cable channels by means of a controlled video switch.
This prior art, too, is limited. It has no capacity to schedule automatically or transmit any programming other than that loaded immediately at the play heads of the controlled video players. It has no capacity to load the video players or identify what programming is loaded on the players or verify that scheduled programs are played correctly. It has no capacity to cause the video players to record programming from any source. It has no capacity to receive programming transmissions or process received transmissions in any way. It has no capacity to operate under the control of instructions transmitted by broadcasters. It has no capacity to insert signals that convey information to or control, in any way, the automatic operation of ultimate receiver station apparatus other than television receivers.
As regards the automation of ultimate receiver stations, in the prior art, Bourassin et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,337,480 describes a dynamic interconnection system for connecting at least one television receiver to a plurality of television peripheral units. By means of a single remote keyboard, a viewer can automatically connect and disconnect any of the peripheral units without the need manually to switch systems or fasten and unfasten cabling each time. In addition, using a so-called “image-within-image” capacity, the viewer can superimpose a secondary image from a second peripheral unit upon the primary image on the television display. In this fashion, two peripheral units can be viewed simultaneously on one television receiver. Freeman et. al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,264,925 describes a multi-channel programming transmission system wherein subscribers may select manually among related programming alternatives transmitted simultaneously on separate channels.
This prior art, too, is limited. It has no capacity for interconnecting or operating a system at any time other than the time when the order to do so is entered manually at the system or remote keyboard. It has no capacity for acting on instructions transmitted by broadcasters to interconnect, actuate or tune systems peripheral to a television receiver or to actuate a television receiver or automatically change channels received by a receiver. It has no capacity for coordinating the programming content transmitted by any given peripheral system with any other programming transmitted to a television receiver. It has no capacity for controlling two separate systems such as, for example, an automatic radio and television stereo simulcast. It has no capacity for selectively connecting radio receivers to radio peripherals such as computers or printers or speakers or for connecting computers to computer peripherals (except perhaps a television set). It has no capacity for controlling the operation of decryptors or selectively inputting transmissions to decryptors or outputting transmissions from decryptors to other apparatus. It has no capacity for monitoring and maintaining records regarding what programming is selected or played on any apparatus or what apparatus is connected or how connected apparatus operate.
The prior art includes a variety of systems for monitoring programming and generating so-called “ratings.” One system that monitors by means of embedded digital signals is described in Haselwood, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,025,851. Another that monitors by means of audio codes that are only “substantially inaudible” is described in Crosby U.S. Pat. No. 3,845,391. A third that automatically monitors a plurality of channels by switching sequentially among them and that includes capacity to monitor audio and visual quality is described in Greenberg U.S. Pat. No. 4,547,804.
This prior art, too, is limited. It has capacity to monitor only single broadcast stations, channels or units and lacks capacity to monitor more than one channel at a time or to monitor the combining of media. At any given monitor station, it has had capacity to monitor either what is transmitted over one or more channels or what is received on one or more receivers but not both. It has assumed monitored signals of particular format in particular transmission locations and has lacked capacity to vary formats or locations or to distinguish and act on the absence of signals or to interpret and process in any fashion signals that appear in monitored locations that are not monitored signals.
It has lacked capacity to identify encrypted signals then decrypt them. It has lacked capacity to record and also transfer information to a remote geographic location simultaneously.
As regards recorder/player systems, many means and methods exist in the prior art for recording television or audio programming and/or data on magnetic, optical or other recording media and for retransmitting prerecorded programming. Video tape recorders have capacity for automatic delayed recording of television transmissions on the basis of instructions input manually by viewers. So-called “interactive video” systems have capacity for locating prerecorded television programming on a given disc and transmitting it to television receivers and locating prerecorded digital data on the same disc and transmitting them to computers.
This prior art, too, is limited. It has no capacity for automatically embedding signals in and/or removing embedded signals from a television transmission then recording the transmission. It has no capacity for controlling the connection or actuation or tuning of external apparatus. It has no capacity for retransmitting prerecorded programming and controlling the decryption of said programming, let alone doing so on the basis of signals that are embedded in said programming that contain keys for the decryption of said programming. It has no capacity for operating on the basis of control signals transmitted to recorder/players at a plurality of subscriber stations, let alone operating on the basis of such signals to record user specific information at each subscriber station.
As regards decoders and decryptors, many different systems exist, at present, that enable programming suppliers to restrict the use of transmitted programming to only duly authorized subscribers. The prior art includes so-called “addressable” systems that have capacity for controlling specific individual subscriber station apparatus by means of control instructions transmitted in broadcasts. Such systems enable broadcasters to turn off subscriber station decoder/decryptor apparatus of subscribers who do not pay their bills and turn them back on when the bills are paid. This prior art, too, is limited. It has no capacity for decrypting combined media programming. It has no capacity for identifying then selectively decrypting control instructions embedded in unencrypted programming transmissions. It has no capacity for identifying programming transmissions or control instructions selectively and transferring them to a decryptor for decryption. It has no capacity for transferring the output of a decryptor selectively to one of a plurality of output apparatus. It has no capacity for automatically identifying decryption keys and inputting them to a decryptor to serve as the key for any step of decryption. It has no capacity for identifying and recording the identity of what is input to or output from a decryptor. It has no capacity for decrypting a transmission then embedding a signal in the transmission—let alone for simultaneously embedding user specific signals at a plurality of subscriber stations. It has no capacity for distinguishing the absence of an expected signal or controlling any operation when such absence occurs.
Further significant limitations arise out of the failure to reconcile aspects of these individual areas of art—monitoring programming, automating ultimate receiver stations, decrypting programming, generating the programming itself, etc.—into an integrated system. These limitations are both technical and commercial.
For example, the commercial objective of the aforementioned monitoring systems of Crosby, Haselwood et. al., and Greenberg is to provide independent audits to advertisers and others who pay for programming transmissions. All require embedding signals in programming that are used only to identify programming. Greenberg, for example, requires that a digital signal be transmitted at a particular place on a select line of each frame of a television program. But television has only so much capacity for transmitting signals outside the visible image; it is inefficient for such signals to serve only one function; and broadcasters can foresee alternate potential for this capacity that may be more profitable to them. Furthermore, advertisers recognize that if the systems of Crosby, Haselwood and Greenberg distinguish TV advertisements by means of single purpose signals, television receivers and video tape recorders can include capacity for identifying said signals and suppressing the associated advertisements. Accordingly, no independent automatic comprehensive so-called “proof-of-performance” audit service has yet proven commercially viable.
As a second example, because of the lack of a viable independent audit system, each service that broadcasts encrypted programming controls and services at each subscriber station one or more receiver/decryptors dedicated to its service alone. Lacking a viable audit system, services do not transmit to shared, common receiver/decryptors.
These are just two examples of limitations that arise in the absence of an integrated system of programming communication.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome these and other limitations of the prior art.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention consists of an integrated system of methods and apparatus for communicating programming. The term “programming” refers to everything that is transmitted electronically to entertain, instruct or inform, including television, radio, broadcast print, and computer programming was well as combined medium programming. The system includes capacity for automatically organizing multi-channel communications. Like television, radio, broadcast print, and other electronic media, the present invention has capacity for transmitting to standardized programming that is very simple for subscribers to play and understand. Like computer systems, the present invention has capacity for transmitting data and control instructions in the same information stream to many different apparatus at a given subscriber station, for causing computers to generate and transmit programming, and for causing receiver apparatus to operate on the basis of programming and information received at widely separated times.
It is the further purpose of this invention to provide means and methods whereby a simplex point-to-multipoint transmission (such as a television or radio broadcast) can cause simultaneous generation of user specific information at a plurality of subscriber stations. One advantage of the present invention is great ease of use. For example, as will be seen, a subscriber can cause his own information to be processed in highly complex ways by merely turning his television receiver on and tuning to a particular channel. Another advantage of the present invention is its so-called “transparency”—subscribers see none of the complex processing taking place. Another advantage is privacy. No private information is required at transmitting stations, and no subscriber's information is available at any other subscriber's station.
It is the further purpose of this invention to provide means and methods whereby a simplex broadcast transmission can cause periodic combining of relevant user specific information and conventional broadcast programming simultaneously at a plurality of subscriber stations, thereby integrating the broadcast information with each user's own information. One advantage of the present invention is its use of powerful communication media such as television to reveal the meaning of the results of complex processing in ways that appear clear and simple. Another advantage is that receiver stations that lack said capacity for combining user specific information into television or radio programming can continue, without modification, to receive and display the conventional television or radio and without the appearance of any signals or change in the conventional programming.
It is the further purpose of this invention to provide means and methods for the automation of intermediate transmission stations that receive and retransmit programming. The programming may be delivered by any means including over-the-air, hard-wire, and manual means. The stations may transmit programming over-the-air (hereinafter, “broadcast”) or over hard-wire (hereinafter, “cablecast”). They may transmit single channels or multiple channels. The present invention includes capacity for automatically constructing records for each transmitted channel that duplicate the logs that the Federal Communications Commission requires broadcast station operators to maintain.
It is the further purpose of this invention to provide means and methods for the automation of ultimate receiver stations, especially the automation of combined medium and multi-channel presentations. Such ultimate receiver stations may be private homes or offices or commercial establishments such as theaters, hotels, or brokerage offices.
It is the further purpose of this invention to provide means and methods for identifying and recording what television, radio, data, and other programming is transmitted at each transmission station, what programming is received at each receiver station, and how programming is used. In the present invention, certain monitored signals may be encrypted, and certain data collected from such monitoring may be automatically transferred from subscriber stations to one or more remote geographic stations.
It is a further purpose of this invention to provide means and methods for recording combined media and/or multi-channel programming and for playing back prerecorded programming of such types.
It is a further purpose of this invention to provide a variety of means and methods for restricting the use of transmitted communications to only duly authorized subscribers. Such means and methods include techniques for encrypting programming and/or instructions and decrypting them at subscriber stations. They also include techniques whereby the pattern of the composition, timing, and location of embedded signals may vary in such fashions that only receiving apparatus that are preinformed regarding the patterns that obtain at any given time will be able to process the signals correctly.
The present invention employs signals embedded in programming. Embedded signals provide several advantages. They cannot become separated inadvertently from the programming and, thereby, inhibit automatic processing. They occur at precise times in programming and can synchronize the operation of receiver station apparatus to the timing of programming transmissions. They can be conveniently monitored.
In the present invention, the embedded signals contain digital information that may include addresses of specific receiver apparatus controlled by the signals and instructions that identify particular functions the signals cause addressed apparatus to perform.
In programming transmissions, given signals may run and repeat, for periods of time, continuously or at regular intervals. Or they may run only occasionally or only once. They may appear in various and varying locations. In television they may appear on one line in the video portion of the transmission such as line20of the vertical interval, or on a portion of one line, or on more than one line, and they will probably lie outside the range of the television picture displayed on a normally tuned television set. In television and radio they may appear in a portion of the audio range that is not normally rendered in a form audible to the human ear. In television audio, they are likely to lie between eight and fifteen kilohertz. In broadcast print and data communications transmissions, the signals may accompany conventional print or data programming in the conventional transmission stream but will include instructions that receiver station apparatus are preprogrammed to process that instruct receiver apparatus to separate the signals from the conventional programming and process them differently. In all cases, signals may convey information in discrete words, transmitted at separate times or in separate locations, that receiver apparatus must assemble in order to receive one complete instruction.
(The term “signal unit” hereinafter means one complete signal instruction or information message unit. Examples of signal units are a unique code identifying a programming unit, or a unique purchase order number identifying the proper use of a programming unit, or a general instruction identifying whether a programming unit is to be retransmitted immediately or recorded for delayed transmission. The term “signal word” hereinafter means one full discrete appearance of a signal as embedded at one time in one location on a transmission. Examples of signal words are a string of one or more digital data bits encoded together on a single line of video or sequentially in audio. Such strings may or may not have predetermined data bits to identify the beginnings and ends of words. Signal words may contain parts of signal units, whole signal units, or groups of partial or whole signal units or combinations.)
In the present invention, particular signal processing apparatus (hereinafter called the “signal processor”) detect signals and, in accordance with instructions in the signals wand preprogramming in the signal processor, decrypt and/or record and/or control station apparatus by means of the signals and/or discard the signals. The apparatus include one or more devices that can selectively scan transmission frequencies as directed and, separately, capacity to receive signals from one or more devices that continuously monitor selected frequencies. The frequencies may convey television, radio, or other programming transmissions. The input transmissions may be received by means of antennas or from hard-wire connections. The scanners/switches, working in parallel or series or combinations, transfer the transmissions to receiver/decoder/detectors that identify signals encoded in programming transmissions and convert the encoded signals to digital information; decryptors that may convert the received information, in part or in whole, to other digital information according to preset methods or patterns; and one or more processor/monitors and/or buffer/comparators that organize and transfer the information stream. The processors and buffers can have inputs from each of the receiver/detector lines and evaluate information continuously. From the processors and buffers, the signals may be transferred to external equipment such as computers, videotape recorders and players, etc. And/or they may be transferred to one or more internal digital recorders that receive and store in memory the recorded information and have connections to one or more remote sites for further transmission of the recorded information. The apparatus has means for external communication and an automatic dialer and can contact remote sites and transfer stored information as required in a predetermined fashion or fashions. The apparatus has a clock for determining and recording time as required. It has a read only memory for recording permanent operating instructions and other information and a programmable random access memory controller (“PRAM controller”) that permits revision of operating patterns and instructions. The PRAM controller may be connected to all internal operating units for full flexibility of operations.
Signal processing apparatus that are employed in specific situations that require fewer functions than those provided by the signal processor described above may omit one or more of the specific operating elements described above.
A central objective of the present invention is to provide flexibility in regard to installed station apparatus. At any given time, the system must have capacity for wide variation in individual station apparatus in order to provide individual subscribers the widest range of information options at the least cost in terms of installed equipment. Flexibility must exist for expanding the capacity of installed systems by means of transmitted software and for altering installed systems in a modular fashion by adding or removing components. Flexibility must exist for varying techniques that restrict programming to duly authorized subscribers in order to identify and deter pirates of programming.
Other objects, features, and advantages of this invention will appear in the following descriptions and the appended claims.
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7837746 | FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to methods and compositions for inhibiting the formation of hydrocarbon hydrates, and most particularly relates, in one non-limiting embodiment, to methods and compositions for inhibiting the formation of hydrocarbon hydrates during the production of oil and gas.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A number of hydrocarbons, especially lower-boiling light hydrocarbons, in formation fluids or natural gas are known to form hydrates in conjunction with the water present in the system under a variety of conditions—particularly at a combination of lower temperature and higher pressure. The hydrates usually exist in solid forms that are essentially insoluble in the fluid itself. As a result, any solids in a formation or natural gas fluid are at least a nuisance for production, handling and transport of these fluids. It is not uncommon for hydrate solids (or crystals) to cause plugging and/or blockage of pipelines or transfer lines or other conduits, valves and/or safety devices and/or other equipment, resulting in shutdown, loss of production and risk of explosion or unintended release of hydrocarbons into the environment either on-land or off-shore. Accordingly, hydrocarbon hydrates have been of substantial interest as well as concern to many industries, particularly the petroleum and natural gas industries.
Hydrocarbon hydrates are clathrates, and are also referred to as inclusion compounds. Clathrates are cage structures formed between a host molecule and a guest molecule. A hydrocarbon hydrate generally is composed of crystals formed by water host molecules surrounding the hydrocarbon guest molecules. The smaller or lower-boiling hydrocarbon molecules, particularly C1(methane) to C4hydrocarbons and their mixtures, are more problematic because it is believed that their hydrate or clathrate crystals are easier to form. For instance, it is possible for ethane to form hydrates at as high as 4° C. at a pressure of about 1 MPa. If the pressure is about 3 MPa, ethane hydrates can form at as high a temperature as 14° C. Even certain non-hydrocarbons such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen and hydrogen sulfide are known to form hydrates under the proper conditions.
There are two broad techniques to overcome or control the hydrocarbon hydrate problems, namely thermodynamic and kinetic. For the thermodynamic approach, there are a number of reported or attempted methods, including water removal, increasing temperature, decreasing pressure, addition of “antifreeze” to the fluid and/or a combination of these. The kinetic approach generally attempts (a) to prevent the smaller hydrocarbon hydrate crystals from agglomerating into larger ones (known in the industry as an anti-agglomerate and abbreviated AA) and/or; (b) to inhibit and/or retard initial hydrocarbon hydrate crystal nucleation; and/or crystal growth (known in the industry as a kinetic hydrate inhibitor and abbreviated KHI). Thermodynamic and kinetic hydrate control methods may be used in conjunction. Kinetic hydrate inhibitors are abbreviated KHI.
Kinetic efforts to control hydrates have included use of different materials as inhibitors. For instance, onium compounds with at least four carbon substituents are used to inhibit the plugging of conduits by gas hydrates. Additives such as polymers with lactam rings have also been employed to control clathrate hydrates in fluid systems. These kinetic inhibitors are commonly labeled Low Dosage Hydrate Inhibitors (LDHI) in the art.
Thus, it is desirable if new gas hydrate inhibitors were discovered which would yield comparable or improved results over known gas hydrate inhibitors.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the invention is to provide a method for inhibiting gas hydrate formation in mixtures of hydrate-forming guest molecules and water where hydrates would otherwise form to a greater extent in absence of the method.
Another object of the invention is to provide gas hydrate inhibitor compositions and/or hydrate inhibitor synergists that are readily produced. These compositions may be blended with other oil field chemistries such as, but not limited to, corrosion, paraffin, scale and/or asphaltene inhibitors.
In carrying out these and other objects of the invention, there is provided, in one form, a method for inhibiting formation of hydrocarbon hydrates in a mixture having water and hydrate-forming guest molecules. The mixture is contacted with a composition under conditions effective to form the hydrocarbon hydrates in the absence of the composition. The composition includes a reaction product of a first reactant from the group of amines, polyamines, alcohols and polyalcohols with a second, aldehyde reactant and, a third reactant from the group of alcohols, polyalcohols, amides and polyamides, where the first and third reactants are different. The composition is present in an amount effective to inhibit formation of the hydrocarbon hydrates under the conditions.
In another non-limiting embodiment of the invention, in the method described immediately above, the amine to make the reaction product may be a primary or secondary cyclic amine; a primary or secondary acyclic amine; a fatty alkyl amine; a polyalkyleneimine; a polyallylamine; polyamines derived from condensation of ethylenedichloride, epichlorohydrin, or diepoxide with ammonia, ethylenediamine, polyethylenediamine, hexamethylenediamine, bis(hexamethylene)triamine, and mixtures thereof, as well as combinations of these amines and polyamines. The alcohol or polyalcohol to make the reaction product may be alcohols and diols containing 1 to 20 carbon atoms, starch, sugars, alkoxylated polyamines (e.g. ethoxylated and/or propoxylated polyamines including polyamines that have been both ethoxylated and propoxylated) and or polymers or copolymers of vinyl alcohol and/or allyl alcohol. When the polyalcohol is an alkoxylated polyamine within the definition of this invention, the polyamine may be fully or partially alkoxylated. The aldehyde to make the reaction product may be selected from the group consisting of aldehydes and dialdehydes having from 1 to 8 carbon atoms and compounds capable of generating these aldehydes under conditions effective to form the reaction product. The amide or polyamide to make the reaction product can be selected from the group consisting of cyclic amide, acyclic amide, polyacrylamide, and mixtures thereof.
In another aspect, the invention includes compositions formed by the method described above.
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SUMMARY: FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to methods and compositions for inhibiting the formation of hydrocarbon hydrates, and most particularly relates, in one non-limiting embodiment, to methods and compositions for inhibiting the formation of hydrocarbon hydrates during the production of oil and gas.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A number of hydrocarbons, especially lower-boiling light hydrocarbons, in formation fluids or natural gas are known to form hydrates in conjunction with the water present in the system under a variety of conditions—particularly at a combination of lower temperature and higher pressure. The hydrates usually exist in solid forms that are essentially insoluble in the fluid itself. As a result, any solids in a formation or natural gas fluid are at least a nuisance for production, handling and transport of these fluids. It is not uncommon for hydrate solids (or crystals) to cause plugging and/or blockage of pipelines or transfer lines or other conduits, valves and/or safety devices and/or other equipment, resulting in shutdown, loss of production and risk of explosion or unintended release of hydrocarbons into the environment either on-land or off-shore. Accordingly, hydrocarbon hydrates have been of substantial interest as well as concern to many industries, particularly the petroleum and natural gas industries.
Hydrocarbon hydrates are clathrates, and are also referred to as inclusion compounds. Clathrates are cage structures formed between a host molecule and a guest molecule. A hydrocarbon hydrate generally is composed of crystals formed by water host molecules surrounding the hydrocarbon guest molecules. The smaller or lower-boiling hydrocarbon molecules, particularly C1(methane) to C4hydrocarbons and their mixtures, are more problematic because it is believed that their hydrate or clathrate crystals are easier to form. For instance, it is possible for ethane to form hydrates at as high as 4° C. at a pressure of about 1 MPa. If the pressure is about 3 MPa, ethane hydrates can form at as high a temperature as 14° C. Even certain non-hydrocarbons such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen and hydrogen sulfide are known to form hydrates under the proper conditions.
There are two broad techniques to overcome or control the hydrocarbon hydrate problems, namely thermodynamic and kinetic. For the thermodynamic approach, there are a number of reported or attempted methods, including water removal, increasing temperature, decreasing pressure, addition of “antifreeze” to the fluid and/or a combination of these. The kinetic approach generally attempts (a) to prevent the smaller hydrocarbon hydrate crystals from agglomerating into larger ones (known in the industry as an anti-agglomerate and abbreviated AA) and/or; (b) to inhibit and/or retard initial hydrocarbon hydrate crystal nucleation; and/or crystal growth (known in the industry as a kinetic hydrate inhibitor and abbreviated KHI). Thermodynamic and kinetic hydrate control methods may be used in conjunction. Kinetic hydrate inhibitors are abbreviated KHI.
Kinetic efforts to control hydrates have included use of different materials as inhibitors. For instance, onium compounds with at least four carbon substituents are used to inhibit the plugging of conduits by gas hydrates. Additives such as polymers with lactam rings have also been employed to control clathrate hydrates in fluid systems. These kinetic inhibitors are commonly labeled Low Dosage Hydrate Inhibitors (LDHI) in the art.
Thus, it is desirable if new gas hydrate inhibitors were discovered which would yield comparable or improved results over known gas hydrate inhibitors.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the invention is to provide a method for inhibiting gas hydrate formation in mixtures of hydrate-forming guest molecules and water where hydrates would otherwise form to a greater extent in absence of the method.
Another object of the invention is to provide gas hydrate inhibitor compositions and/or hydrate inhibitor synergists that are readily produced. These compositions may be blended with other oil field chemistries such as, but not limited to, corrosion, paraffin, scale and/or asphaltene inhibitors.
In carrying out these and other objects of the invention, there is provided, in one form, a method for inhibiting formation of hydrocarbon hydrates in a mixture having water and hydrate-forming guest molecules. The mixture is contacted with a composition under conditions effective to form the hydrocarbon hydrates in the absence of the composition. The composition includes a reaction product of a first reactant from the group of amines, polyamines, alcohols and polyalcohols with a second, aldehyde reactant and, a third reactant from the group of alcohols, polyalcohols, amides and polyamides, where the first and third reactants are different. The composition is present in an amount effective to inhibit formation of the hydrocarbon hydrates under the conditions.
In another non-limiting embodiment of the invention, in the method described immediately above, the amine to make the reaction product may be a primary or secondary cyclic amine; a primary or secondary acyclic amine; a fatty alkyl amine; a polyalkyleneimine; a polyallylamine; polyamines derived from condensation of ethylenedichloride, epichlorohydrin, or diepoxide with ammonia, ethylenediamine, polyethylenediamine, hexamethylenediamine, bis(hexamethylene)triamine, and mixtures thereof, as well as combinations of these amines and polyamines. The alcohol or polyalcohol to make the reaction product may be alcohols and diols containing 1 to 20 carbon atoms, starch, sugars, alkoxylated polyamines (e.g. ethoxylated and/or propoxylated polyamines including polyamines that have been both ethoxylated and propoxylated) and or polymers or copolymers of vinyl alcohol and/or allyl alcohol. When the polyalcohol is an alkoxylated polyamine within the definition of this invention, the polyamine may be fully or partially alkoxylated. The aldehyde to make the reaction product may be selected from the group consisting of aldehydes and dialdehydes having from 1 to 8 carbon atoms and compounds capable of generating these aldehydes under conditions effective to form the reaction product. The amide or polyamide to make the reaction product can be selected from the group consisting of cyclic amide, acyclic amide, polyacrylamide, and mixtures thereof.
In another aspect, the invention includes compositions formed by the method described above.
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7805816 | BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to straps for securing or restraining items or for any other suitable use. For example, an exemplary embodiment of a strap may be used for securing gear, cargo, or any other suitable item that needs to be secured or restrained. Other uses are also possible and considered to be within the scope of the present invention. Thus, it is not intended to limit an exemplary embodiment of a strap to any particular use, unless expressly claimed otherwise.
For example, when transporting gear, cargo, or other items on a moving vehicle, it often becomes necessary to restrain the items from movement due to, among other things, directional changes, vibrations, or the wind. Further, people often use straps to tie down the trunk lid for items that are too large to fit within a closed trunk. In addition, people often tie oddly shaped items to the top of the vehicles or in a truck-bed.
Currently, a wide variety of strapping devices are in wide use for securing cargo on vehicles, tying down trunk lids, and holding down tarpaulins, tents, and other miscellaneous items. Examples of these strapping devices include bungee cords, woven synthetic straps, chains, and ropes. Bungee cords are generally formed as elongate, tubular elastic members, and some include a fabric covering. These bungee cords typically include a hook disposed at each end.
Some present examples of elastic straps have a common method of manufacture. Such elastic straps are commonly made from a material called Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer (i.e., EPDM). EPDM has traditionally been compression molded to create many current elastic straps on the market. A high temperature is needed to compression mold EPDM material into a desired shape. Many other materials cannot withstand such a high temperature, thereby making it difficult to bond EPDM to other materials. Consequently, holes are commonly provided in the ends of some EPDM compression molded elastic straps, which receive metal hooks to form many of the adjustable elastic straps on the market today.
Additionally, in the manufacture of elastic straps utilizing EPDM, during the compression molding process there may exist air pockets that never get filled with the EPDM material, thereby weakening the final product. Also, there may exist a certain high degree of scrap loss due to the cutting of the EPDM to size. Furthermore, the manufacturing time for EPDM tie-down straps is to a large measure dependant upon EPDM's drying time.
Each of the above elastic straps such bungee cords have drawbacks. A common drawback of many elastic straps such as bungee cords is the dangerously perched metal hooks at the ends of the straps. From overuse or improper use, these hooks have a dangerous tendency to snap off, bend, straighten out, or disengage from the strap. These malfunctions present a danger to the user, particularly ocular and other types of bodily injury. In fact, there exist multiple articles and studies done on eye injuries resulting from metal hooks that bend or otherwise malfunction when the straps are stretched.
Another common drawback of many elastic straps is that it is difficult for the user to stretch the strap to its maximum capability in order to secure an object due to the strap's slippery, elongated, cylindrical design. The more tension the user places upon the strap to stretch it, the more difficult it is for the user to actually hold onto it while attempting to secure or restrain an item. Since the strap at its maximum stretch capacity is also at its most difficult to grasp and hold, there exists the greatest danger for the strap to slip out of the user's hand and wildly snap an end of the strap with a hook, thereby presenting a significant risk of injury to those nearby. In addition, many common elastic straps, particularly excessively aged straps, may break when stretched, which also presents a major risk of injury to those nearby. A common problem is that there are no warnings or notices on traditional elastic straps. As a result, users of common elastic straps may be unaware of the age, suggested life span, or maximum amount of tension under which common elastic straps may properly function.
Under any of the aforementioned situations, the end of the strap and hook may fly at speeds in excess of 60 miles per hour. Such velocity leaves little time for those nearby to react to prevent injury. Thus, there is a significant need for an improved strap that may reduce or eliminate some or all such drawbacks of common straps.
Yet another drawback common to many straps is the lack of available attachment locations on the device itself. For example, when tying down an object with a bungee cord, there typically exists limited anchoring positions to which one of the end hooks may attach. Furthermore, many straps provide significantly limited options for securing one strap to another strap.
Finally, a primary drawback to the chain tie down device is the chain's lack of elasticity and the chain's excessive weight compared with other devices.
Various tie-down straps have been devised, which fail to adequately address some of the drawbacks mentioned above. Accordingly, a great need has arisen for a versatile, adjustable, lightweight, one-piece, elastic tie-down device of which hooks or other attachment members disposed at each end of the device may not snap or disengage in any manner from the strap, thereby reducing or eliminating the potential for injury. Additionally, non-slip gripping areas for the hand are needed when the user attempts to stretch the elastic cord to its maximum capacity. Also, there is a need for warnings or notices on the body of the strap, so that users are properly informed for safe use of the strap. None of the currently-used strapping and hold-down devices have this combination of characteristics which would prove safer from malfunctioning or flying straps, hooks, or attachment members, as well as concurrently possessing a variety of multifunctional anchoring positions. An improved tie-down or strapping device having any combination of some or all of these characteristics would be safer and easier to use.
In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in known types of adjustable, elastic tie-downs, some exemplary embodiments of the present invention may provide for a lightweight, one-piece, adjustable, elastic strap with hooks or attachment members overmolded into at least one end of the strap creating an overmold casing, with non-slip grips on the outer surface of the resulting overmold casing. For instance, an adjustable, elastic strap of some exemplary embodiments of the present invention may include at least one hook or other attachment member, which may be at least one reinforcing metal (e.g., steel) component that is overmolded by a plastic material. The resulting hook or attachment member may extend from and be overmolded by an end of an elastic member. Furthermore, in some exemplary embodiments, anchor holes may be provided along the elastic member, and non-slip grips may be provided on the outer surface of any overmold casings. Furthermore, in some exemplary embodiments, warnings or notices (e.g., the manufacture date of the strap, the suggested life span, and/or the recommended maximum amount of tension) may be molded or otherwise provided on the elastic member. As a result, some exemplary embodiments of the present invention, which will be described subsequently in greater detail, may provide an improved, adjustable, elastic, one-piece strap for securing or restraining items, which may have many of the advantages of known adjustable straps while eliminating or reducing any or all of the drawbacks of such straps.
In one exemplary embodiment, the hooks or attachment members at each end of an elongated, elastic strap may be comprised of a plastic material (e.g., rubber) within which is a reinforcing metal rod, thereby adding strength. For example, each molded hook may have a “U” shaped end and a relatively straight shaft end. Furthermore, in some exemplary embodiments, each molded hook or attachment member also may have multiple holes in the body or base of the plastic molding of the hook or attachment member, which may itself be overmolded via a suitable molding process (e.g., injection molding). These holes in the body or base of the hook or other attachment member may allow the overmolded material from the molding process to flow through the holes, thereby uniting the elastic member and the hook or other attachment member. For example, the overmolded plastic may bond (e.g., due to resin compatibility or the use of a bonding agent such as an adhesive or an epoxy) with the hook or other attachment member. The resultant overmolded area may be called an overmold casing. In such exemplary embodiments, this manufacturing method may secure hooks or other attachment members to each end of the elastic member, uniting the elastic member and the hooks or other attachment members as a single unit, via overmold casings. For example, the hooks or other attachment members on the ends of the elastic member may face in any desired direction(s) (e.g., the same or in opposite directions).
At each end of some exemplary embodiments of the elastic member, there may be raised ridges on the outer surface of the overmold casing, which may provide non-slip grip areas for the user's hand when the user stretches the elastic strap in order to secure an object. Optionally, a mid-point or other desired portion of the overmold casing may wider in diameter than either end of the elastic member. This expanded width may provide the user with a larger and ultimately safer and easier to use gripping area. Furthermore, an overmold casing may extend over a wide portion and a more narrow, distal portion of an attachment member, thereby reducing or eliminating a risk of the hook or other attachment member disengaging from the elastic member.
In some exemplary embodiments, there may openings along the body of the elastic member to allow for a secure place to insert hook ends when adjusting the strap or to allow for the combining of multiple hooks from other straps.
There may be no readily detachable parts of some exemplary embodiments of the present invention. Furthermore, the elastomer material (e.g., a thermoplastic elastomer) used for the body of the elastic member of some exemplary embodiments of the present invention may be easily colored while manufacturing the elastic strap. Also, the elastomer material may be adapted to glow in the dark.
Moreover, in an exemplary manufacturing method of a continuous, single-piece design, the materials used in the construction of the strap and an injection molding method of construction may allow for any or all of the following: (1) faster production cycles than that of the known art due to the faster drying times of the materials used in the injection molding process; (2) tighter tolerances (e.g., filling of air-space) because injection molding uses a fluid version of a plastic material (e.g., rubber) which pours into empty spaces, whereas EPDM is typically compression molded and sometimes contains air pockets within the compression molded object; (3) minimum scrap losses because molds may be pre-made exactly to specifications and poured therein; (4) the customization of the strength and rigidity of the elastic strap because ingredients (e.g., additives which harden or soften the elastomer) are available to be provided in the fluid plastic; and (5) a greater end product selection because the injection molding process (which may use lower temperatures) combined with the use of suitable plastics (e.g., thermoplastic rubbers or other plastics which may harden at lower temperatures) may facilitate the manufacture of improved products. Nevertheless, it should still be recognized that some exemplary embodiments of the present invention may utilize EPDM or may be manufactured using compression molding, unless expressly claimed otherwise.
Thus, in summary, an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may provide a new adjustable, lightweight, elastic tie-down strap that may prove to be safer from malfunctioning or flying hooks or other attachment members.
An exemplary embodiment of the present invention may provide a new adjustable, lightweight, elastic tie-down strap having molded rubberized hooks which are reinforced by a pre-bent metal rod and disposed on either end of the strap via overmolding, so that no parts comprising this exemplary tie-down strap may be detached without extreme difficulty or deliberateness during normal use. Other exemplary embodiments may simply include a metal or plastic hook or other attachment member. Other suitable materials may also be used in the manufacture of a hook or other attachment member in some exemplary embodiments of the present invention.
An exemplary embodiment of the present invention may also provide a new adjustable, lightweight, elastic tie-down strap with non-slip grips on either end of the strap and on the outer surface of the associated overmold casing, so that there will be less chance for the strap to slip out of the user's grip.
Furthermore, an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may provide a new adjustable, lightweight, elastic tie-down strap with an overmold casing that has the width substantially great enough to provide a large gripping area thereby creating a safer, easier to use strap.
In addition, an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may provide a new adjustable, lightweight, elastic tie-down strap with at least one attachment location for the strap's own hooks or for which to combine the hooks of multiple other straps.
An exemplary embodiment of the present invention may also provide a new adjustable, lightweight, elastic tie-down strap for securing gear/cargo that may be easily colored or glow in the dark to allow for new design opportunities in consumer applications.
Furthermore, an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may provide a new adjustable, lightweight, elastic tie-down strap to secure gear/cargo which may be easily and efficiently manufactured and marketed.
Moreover, an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may provide a new adjustable, lightweight, elastic tie-down strap to secure gear/cargo which may be constructed of a wide range of materials.
Finally, an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may provide a new adjustable, lightweight, elastic tie-down strap for securing gear/cargo that provides some or all of the advantages of the known art, while simultaneously overcoming some or all of the disadvantages normally associated therewith.
These advantages, together with other advantages and novel features of exemplary embodiments of the invention, are pointed out with particularity in the detailed description and claims forming a part of this disclosure. For a better understanding of exemplary embodiments of the invention, its operating advantages, and the specific advantages attained by its uses, reference should be made to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which there are illustrated exemplary embodiments of the invention. In addition to the novel features and advantages mentioned above, other features and advantages will be readily apparent from the following descriptions of the drawings and exemplary embodiments.
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SUMMARY: BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to straps for securing or restraining items or for any other suitable use. For example, an exemplary embodiment of a strap may be used for securing gear, cargo, or any other suitable item that needs to be secured or restrained. Other uses are also possible and considered to be within the scope of the present invention. Thus, it is not intended to limit an exemplary embodiment of a strap to any particular use, unless expressly claimed otherwise.
For example, when transporting gear, cargo, or other items on a moving vehicle, it often becomes necessary to restrain the items from movement due to, among other things, directional changes, vibrations, or the wind. Further, people often use straps to tie down the trunk lid for items that are too large to fit within a closed trunk. In addition, people often tie oddly shaped items to the top of the vehicles or in a truck-bed.
Currently, a wide variety of strapping devices are in wide use for securing cargo on vehicles, tying down trunk lids, and holding down tarpaulins, tents, and other miscellaneous items. Examples of these strapping devices include bungee cords, woven synthetic straps, chains, and ropes. Bungee cords are generally formed as elongate, tubular elastic members, and some include a fabric covering. These bungee cords typically include a hook disposed at each end.
Some present examples of elastic straps have a common method of manufacture. Such elastic straps are commonly made from a material called Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer (i.e., EPDM). EPDM has traditionally been compression molded to create many current elastic straps on the market. A high temperature is needed to compression mold EPDM material into a desired shape. Many other materials cannot withstand such a high temperature, thereby making it difficult to bond EPDM to other materials. Consequently, holes are commonly provided in the ends of some EPDM compression molded elastic straps, which receive metal hooks to form many of the adjustable elastic straps on the market today.
Additionally, in the manufacture of elastic straps utilizing EPDM, during the compression molding process there may exist air pockets that never get filled with the EPDM material, thereby weakening the final product. Also, there may exist a certain high degree of scrap loss due to the cutting of the EPDM to size. Furthermore, the manufacturing time for EPDM tie-down straps is to a large measure dependant upon EPDM's drying time.
Each of the above elastic straps such bungee cords have drawbacks. A common drawback of many elastic straps such as bungee cords is the dangerously perched metal hooks at the ends of the straps. From overuse or improper use, these hooks have a dangerous tendency to snap off, bend, straighten out, or disengage from the strap. These malfunctions present a danger to the user, particularly ocular and other types of bodily injury. In fact, there exist multiple articles and studies done on eye injuries resulting from metal hooks that bend or otherwise malfunction when the straps are stretched.
Another common drawback of many elastic straps is that it is difficult for the user to stretch the strap to its maximum capability in order to secure an object due to the strap's slippery, elongated, cylindrical design. The more tension the user places upon the strap to stretch it, the more difficult it is for the user to actually hold onto it while attempting to secure or restrain an item. Since the strap at its maximum stretch capacity is also at its most difficult to grasp and hold, there exists the greatest danger for the strap to slip out of the user's hand and wildly snap an end of the strap with a hook, thereby presenting a significant risk of injury to those nearby. In addition, many common elastic straps, particularly excessively aged straps, may break when stretched, which also presents a major risk of injury to those nearby. A common problem is that there are no warnings or notices on traditional elastic straps. As a result, users of common elastic straps may be unaware of the age, suggested life span, or maximum amount of tension under which common elastic straps may properly function.
Under any of the aforementioned situations, the end of the strap and hook may fly at speeds in excess of 60 miles per hour. Such velocity leaves little time for those nearby to react to prevent injury. Thus, there is a significant need for an improved strap that may reduce or eliminate some or all such drawbacks of common straps.
Yet another drawback common to many straps is the lack of available attachment locations on the device itself. For example, when tying down an object with a bungee cord, there typically exists limited anchoring positions to which one of the end hooks may attach. Furthermore, many straps provide significantly limited options for securing one strap to another strap.
Finally, a primary drawback to the chain tie down device is the chain's lack of elasticity and the chain's excessive weight compared with other devices.
Various tie-down straps have been devised, which fail to adequately address some of the drawbacks mentioned above. Accordingly, a great need has arisen for a versatile, adjustable, lightweight, one-piece, elastic tie-down device of which hooks or other attachment members disposed at each end of the device may not snap or disengage in any manner from the strap, thereby reducing or eliminating the potential for injury. Additionally, non-slip gripping areas for the hand are needed when the user attempts to stretch the elastic cord to its maximum capacity. Also, there is a need for warnings or notices on the body of the strap, so that users are properly informed for safe use of the strap. None of the currently-used strapping and hold-down devices have this combination of characteristics which would prove safer from malfunctioning or flying straps, hooks, or attachment members, as well as concurrently possessing a variety of multifunctional anchoring positions. An improved tie-down or strapping device having any combination of some or all of these characteristics would be safer and easier to use.
In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in known types of adjustable, elastic tie-downs, some exemplary embodiments of the present invention may provide for a lightweight, one-piece, adjustable, elastic strap with hooks or attachment members overmolded into at least one end of the strap creating an overmold casing, with non-slip grips on the outer surface of the resulting overmold casing. For instance, an adjustable, elastic strap of some exemplary embodiments of the present invention may include at least one hook or other attachment member, which may be at least one reinforcing metal (e.g., steel) component that is overmolded by a plastic material. The resulting hook or attachment member may extend from and be overmolded by an end of an elastic member. Furthermore, in some exemplary embodiments, anchor holes may be provided along the elastic member, and non-slip grips may be provided on the outer surface of any overmold casings. Furthermore, in some exemplary embodiments, warnings or notices (e.g., the manufacture date of the strap, the suggested life span, and/or the recommended maximum amount of tension) may be molded or otherwise provided on the elastic member. As a result, some exemplary embodiments of the present invention, which will be described subsequently in greater detail, may provide an improved, adjustable, elastic, one-piece strap for securing or restraining items, which may have many of the advantages of known adjustable straps while eliminating or reducing any or all of the drawbacks of such straps.
In one exemplary embodiment, the hooks or attachment members at each end of an elongated, elastic strap may be comprised of a plastic material (e.g., rubber) within which is a reinforcing metal rod, thereby adding strength. For example, each molded hook may have a “U” shaped end and a relatively straight shaft end. Furthermore, in some exemplary embodiments, each molded hook or attachment member also may have multiple holes in the body or base of the plastic molding of the hook or attachment member, which may itself be overmolded via a suitable molding process (e.g., injection molding). These holes in the body or base of the hook or other attachment member may allow the overmolded material from the molding process to flow through the holes, thereby uniting the elastic member and the hook or other attachment member. For example, the overmolded plastic may bond (e.g., due to resin compatibility or the use of a bonding agent such as an adhesive or an epoxy) with the hook or other attachment member. The resultant overmolded area may be called an overmold casing. In such exemplary embodiments, this manufacturing method may secure hooks or other attachment members to each end of the elastic member, uniting the elastic member and the hooks or other attachment members as a single unit, via overmold casings. For example, the hooks or other attachment members on the ends of the elastic member may face in any desired direction(s) (e.g., the same or in opposite directions).
At each end of some exemplary embodiments of the elastic member, there may be raised ridges on the outer surface of the overmold casing, which may provide non-slip grip areas for the user's hand when the user stretches the elastic strap in order to secure an object. Optionally, a mid-point or other desired portion of the overmold casing may wider in diameter than either end of the elastic member. This expanded width may provide the user with a larger and ultimately safer and easier to use gripping area. Furthermore, an overmold casing may extend over a wide portion and a more narrow, distal portion of an attachment member, thereby reducing or eliminating a risk of the hook or other attachment member disengaging from the elastic member.
In some exemplary embodiments, there may openings along the body of the elastic member to allow for a secure place to insert hook ends when adjusting the strap or to allow for the combining of multiple hooks from other straps.
There may be no readily detachable parts of some exemplary embodiments of the present invention. Furthermore, the elastomer material (e.g., a thermoplastic elastomer) used for the body of the elastic member of some exemplary embodiments of the present invention may be easily colored while manufacturing the elastic strap. Also, the elastomer material may be adapted to glow in the dark.
Moreover, in an exemplary manufacturing method of a continuous, single-piece design, the materials used in the construction of the strap and an injection molding method of construction may allow for any or all of the following: (1) faster production cycles than that of the known art due to the faster drying times of the materials used in the injection molding process; (2) tighter tolerances (e.g., filling of air-space) because injection molding uses a fluid version of a plastic material (e.g., rubber) which pours into empty spaces, whereas EPDM is typically compression molded and sometimes contains air pockets within the compression molded object; (3) minimum scrap losses because molds may be pre-made exactly to specifications and poured therein; (4) the customization of the strength and rigidity of the elastic strap because ingredients (e.g., additives which harden or soften the elastomer) are available to be provided in the fluid plastic; and (5) a greater end product selection because the injection molding process (which may use lower temperatures) combined with the use of suitable plastics (e.g., thermoplastic rubbers or other plastics which may harden at lower temperatures) may facilitate the manufacture of improved products. Nevertheless, it should still be recognized that some exemplary embodiments of the present invention may utilize EPDM or may be manufactured using compression molding, unless expressly claimed otherwise.
Thus, in summary, an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may provide a new adjustable, lightweight, elastic tie-down strap that may prove to be safer from malfunctioning or flying hooks or other attachment members.
An exemplary embodiment of the present invention may provide a new adjustable, lightweight, elastic tie-down strap having molded rubberized hooks which are reinforced by a pre-bent metal rod and disposed on either end of the strap via overmolding, so that no parts comprising this exemplary tie-down strap may be detached without extreme difficulty or deliberateness during normal use. Other exemplary embodiments may simply include a metal or plastic hook or other attachment member. Other suitable materials may also be used in the manufacture of a hook or other attachment member in some exemplary embodiments of the present invention.
An exemplary embodiment of the present invention may also provide a new adjustable, lightweight, elastic tie-down strap with non-slip grips on either end of the strap and on the outer surface of the associated overmold casing, so that there will be less chance for the strap to slip out of the user's grip.
Furthermore, an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may provide a new adjustable, lightweight, elastic tie-down strap with an overmold casing that has the width substantially great enough to provide a large gripping area thereby creating a safer, easier to use strap.
In addition, an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may provide a new adjustable, lightweight, elastic tie-down strap with at least one attachment location for the strap's own hooks or for which to combine the hooks of multiple other straps.
An exemplary embodiment of the present invention may also provide a new adjustable, lightweight, elastic tie-down strap for securing gear/cargo that may be easily colored or glow in the dark to allow for new design opportunities in consumer applications.
Furthermore, an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may provide a new adjustable, lightweight, elastic tie-down strap to secure gear/cargo which may be easily and efficiently manufactured and marketed.
Moreover, an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may provide a new adjustable, lightweight, elastic tie-down strap to secure gear/cargo which may be constructed of a wide range of materials.
Finally, an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may provide a new adjustable, lightweight, elastic tie-down strap for securing gear/cargo that provides some or all of the advantages of the known art, while simultaneously overcoming some or all of the disadvantages normally associated therewith.
These advantages, together with other advantages and novel features of exemplary embodiments of the invention, are pointed out with particularity in the detailed description and claims forming a part of this disclosure. For a better understanding of exemplary embodiments of the invention, its operating advantages, and the specific advantages attained by its uses, reference should be made to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which there are illustrated exemplary embodiments of the invention. In addition to the novel features and advantages mentioned above, other features and advantages will be readily apparent from the following descriptions of the drawings and exemplary embodiments.
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7685670 | CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application is based on and incorporates herein by reference Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-378176 filed on Nov. 7, 2003, Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-378101 filed on Nov. 7, 2003 and Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-232555 filed on Aug. 9, 2004. This application is also related to U.S. application Ser. No. 10/978,560, entitled “CLUTCH DEVICE, MOTOR APPARATUS AND WIPER SYSTEM,” filed on Nov. 2, 2004 and to U.S. application Ser. No. 11/265,146, entitled “MOTOR APPARATUS,” filed on Nov. 3, 2005.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an output shaft assembly, which has a clutch arrangement, and also relates to a motor apparatus and a wiper motor apparatus, which have such an output shaft assembly.
2. Description of Related Art
For example, in a vehicle power window system for driving a window glass of a vehicle door or in a vehicle sunroof system for driving a sunroof lid, a motor apparatus is used as a drive source.
Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. H05-3654 discloses a motor apparatus, which has a speed reducing mechanism that decelerates rotation of a motor main body. The speed reducing mechanism includes a worm gear and a worm wheel. The worm gear is provided to an end of a rotatable shaft of the motor main body to rotate integrally with the rotatable shaft. The motor apparatus is used to drive the sunroof lid of the sunroof system. A friction clutch device (a friction clutch arrangement) is provided to an output shaft of the motor apparatus. The friction clutch device includes a friction member and a disk plate. The friction member is integrally formed in the worm wheel, and the disk plate is connected to the output shaft to rotate integrally with the output shaft. Furthermore, the disk plate is urged against the friction member by a spring to form frictional engagement between the disk plate and the friction member. In a normal operation, rotation of the motor main body is supplied to the friction clutch through the engagement between the worm gear and the worm wheel. Then, this drive force is transmitted through the frictional engagement between the friction member of the worm wheel and the disk plate, so that the output shaft connected to the disk plate is rotated integrally with the worm wheel to drive a sunroof lid. When an object is placed in a moving path of the sunroof lid, movement of the sunroof lid is stopped by the object to lock the output shaft. At this time, the friction member is slid relative to the disk plate, so that the worm wheel is rotated relative to the output shaft.
In this way, it is possible to limit damage to each component, such as the worm wheel, and also possible to limit burnout of the motor main body.
This kind of clutch device is also preferred in the vehicle wiper system. For example, in the wiper system, at the time of wiping a window glass by a wiper blade of a wiper, when heavy snow, which has been accumulated on a roof of the vehicle, falls onto the wiper blade and a wiper arm connected to the wiper blade, the wiper blade and the wiper arm are arrested by the fallen heavy snow or receive an excessively large external force from the fallen snow. Therefore, the excessively large external force is applied to corresponding components of the wiper system. When the above clutch device is provided in the wiper system, it is possible to limit damage to the corresponding components of the wiper system or to limit burnout of the motor main body. Furthermore, a strength of each corresponding component does not need to be set upon consideration of the excessively large external force.
However, in the previously proposed clutch device recited in Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. H05-3654, the spring is used to urge the disk plate against the friction member to generate the frictional resistive force. The spring is rotated together with the disk plate or is slid relative to the disk plate. In the former case, the spring rotates together with the disk plate, and the spring is slid relative to a support structure. In the latter case, the spring does not slid relative to the support structure but is slid relative to the disk plate. In each of these cases, at the time of driving the motor main body, when rotation of the motor main body is transmitted to the output shaft through the clutch device, a sliding loss of the spring occurs to reduce a transmission efficiency of the rotational force. Furthermore, a substantial noise could be generated due to the sliding movement.
In the above clutch device, at the time of locking the output shaft, the worm wheel (the driving side) is rotated relative to the output shaft (the driven side) to limit damage to the corresponding components. However, the performance is sacrificed to cause a reduction in the transmission efficiency of the rotational force and/or generation of the noise.
Furthermore, in the case of Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. H05-3654, when the components of the clutch device are installed to a housing of the motor apparatus one after another, an entire assembly operation of the motor apparatus is lengthened. Thus, it is desirable to provide the clutch device in a form of a sub-assembly of the motor apparatus, such as an output shaft assembly, in which the clutch device (or the clutch arrangement) is integrated with the output shaft of the motor apparatus. When the clutch device is preassembled as the output shaft assembly, the clutch arrangement can be simultaneously installed to the motor apparatus at the time of installing the output shaft. Thus, an entire assembly time of the motor apparatus can be shortened. Furthermore, when the clutch device is preassembled as the output shaft assembly, handling of the clutch device can be eased during, for example, transporting of the output shaft assembly from one assembling stage to another assembling stage of the motor apparatus since it is formed as a single component or a single assembly.
Apart from the above case, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H09-118202 discloses another wiper motor apparatus, which includes a worm wheel, a swing arm and a joint member. The worm wheel is meshed with a rotatable shaft of an armature, which is rotatably supported by a case. The swing arm is connected to a wiper shaft. One end of the joint member is connected to a predetermined point of the worm wheel, and the other end of the joint member is connected to the swing arm. Upon energization of the wiper motor apparatus, the armature is rotated to rotate the worm wheel. Then, the rotation of the worm wheel is converted to a swing motion of the swing arm through the joint member to reciprocally rotate the wiper shaft. Therefore, a wiper arm, which is directly installed to the wiper shaft, is swung to wipe a window glass of the vehicle.
Similar to the above case, in the non-operating state of the wiper where a wiper blade connected to the wiper arm is stopped and is thus held substantially parallel to a lower edge of the glass surface, when an external force, which is exerted by, for example, heavy snow, is applied to the wiper blade and the wiper arm, the wiper blade and the wiper arm are pressed downward beyond a lower turning point. At this time, the wiper shaft and the swing arm of the wiper motor apparatus are rotated further beyond a normal reciprocal rotational angular range. Therefore, the joint member, which is connected to the swing arm, or the worm wheel, which is connected to the joint member, could be damaged by the external force.
Thus, to limit the damage of the above components and to limit rotation of the wiper arm into a vehicle body region beyond the window glass area of the vehicle, in the wiper motor apparatus disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H09-118202, a rotational range limiting portion is provided at a location, which is outside of the normal reciprocal rotational angular range of the swing arm to limit the rotation of the swing arm beyond the predetermined reciprocal rotational angular range of the swing arm.
However, an excessively large external force could be applied to, for example, the wiper blade and the wiper arm even in a case where the wiper blade and the wiper arm are not placed outside of the predetermined reciprocal rotational angular range. In other words, the excessively large external force could be applied to, for example, the wiper blade and the wiper arm even in the case where the wiper blade and the wiper arm are operated within the predetermined reciprocal rotational angular range (a normal wiping range). This could be a case where heavy snow, which has been accumulated on a roof of the vehicle, falls onto the wiper blade and the wiper arm, which is operated and is located in the normal wiping range other than the lower turning point. In such a case, the wiper blade and the wiper arm are arrested by the fallen heavy snow or receive an excessively large external force from the fallen snow. Therefore, the excessively large external force is applied to the swing arm, the joint member, the worm wheel and/or the worm gear through the wiper shaft, so that these components could be damaged by the excessively large external force. Thus, the above-described disadvantage still exists.
Therefore, in the case of the wiper motor apparatus described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H09-118202, each corresponding component of the wiper motor apparatus needs to be designed to withstand the above described excessively large external force.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention addresses the above disadvantages. Thus, it is an objective of the present invention to provide an output shaft assembly including a clutch arrangement that limits damage to a corresponding component or limits burnout of a motor main body upon application of an excessively large load to an output shaft of the output shaft assembly. It is another objective of the present invention to provide a motor apparatus and a wiper motor apparatus, which include such an output shaft assembly.
To achieve the objectives of the present invention, there is provided a motor apparatus, which includes an output shaft and a clutch arrangement. The clutch arrangement is installed to the output shaft. Furthermore, the clutch arrangement includes a first rotatable member, a second rotatable member and at least one resilient member. The first rotatable member has at least one first side mating portion and is supported by the output shaft on one output shaft end side of the output shaft in such a manner that the first rotatable member is axially non-detachable from the output shaft and is rotatable about an axis of the output shaft. The first rotatable member is rotated about the axis of the output shaft when a drive force is applied to the first rotatable member. The second rotatable member is located on the other output shaft end side of the output shaft with respect to the first rotatable member and is supported by the output shaft in such a manner that the second rotatable member is non-rotatable relative to the output shaft and is axially movable along the output shaft relative to the first rotatable member. The second rotatable member has at least one second side mating portion that is engageable with the at least one first side mating portion of the first rotatable member in an axial direction of the output shaft to couple between the first rotatable member and the second rotatable member and thereby to rotate the second rotatable member integrally with the first rotatable member. The at least one resilient member is arranged on the other output shaft end side of the second rotatable member and applies a resistive force against axial movement of the second rotatable member toward the other output shaft end side of the output shaft from a coupled state, at which the at least one first side mating portion and the at least one second side mating portion are engaged with one another.
To achieve the objectives of the present invention, there is also provided a motor apparatus, which includes the above output shaft assembly, a housing and a motor main body. The housing receives the output shaft assembly. The motor main body is connected to the output shaft assembly to supply the drive force to the first rotatable member of the output shaft assembly.
To achieve the objectives of the present invention, there is also provided a wiper motor apparatus for reciprocally swing a wiper. The wiper motor apparatus includes a motor main body, an output shaft assembly and a swing mechanism. The output shaft assembly is driven by the motor main body and includes an output shaft and a clutch arrangement. The output shaft is directly or indirectly connected to the wiper to reciprocally swing the wiper. The clutch arrangement is installed to the output shaft. The swing mechanism connects between the motor main body and the output shaft assembly and converts rotation of a rotatable shaft of the motor main body to reciprocal rotation of the output shaft. The clutch arrangement is provided between the output shaft and the swing mechanism to transmit a drive force from the swing mechanism to the output shaft. When a load applied to the output shaft is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, the clutch arrangement disables transmission of the drive force between the swing mechanism and the output shaft, so that relative rotation occurs between the swing mechanism and the output shaft.
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SUMMARY: CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application is based on and incorporates herein by reference Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-378176 filed on Nov. 7, 2003, Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-378101 filed on Nov. 7, 2003 and Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-232555 filed on Aug. 9, 2004. This application is also related to U.S. application Ser. No. 10/978,560, entitled “CLUTCH DEVICE, MOTOR APPARATUS AND WIPER SYSTEM,” filed on Nov. 2, 2004 and to U.S. application Ser. No. 11/265,146, entitled “MOTOR APPARATUS,” filed on Nov. 3, 2005.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an output shaft assembly, which has a clutch arrangement, and also relates to a motor apparatus and a wiper motor apparatus, which have such an output shaft assembly.
2. Description of Related Art
For example, in a vehicle power window system for driving a window glass of a vehicle door or in a vehicle sunroof system for driving a sunroof lid, a motor apparatus is used as a drive source.
Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. H05-3654 discloses a motor apparatus, which has a speed reducing mechanism that decelerates rotation of a motor main body. The speed reducing mechanism includes a worm gear and a worm wheel. The worm gear is provided to an end of a rotatable shaft of the motor main body to rotate integrally with the rotatable shaft. The motor apparatus is used to drive the sunroof lid of the sunroof system. A friction clutch device (a friction clutch arrangement) is provided to an output shaft of the motor apparatus. The friction clutch device includes a friction member and a disk plate. The friction member is integrally formed in the worm wheel, and the disk plate is connected to the output shaft to rotate integrally with the output shaft. Furthermore, the disk plate is urged against the friction member by a spring to form frictional engagement between the disk plate and the friction member. In a normal operation, rotation of the motor main body is supplied to the friction clutch through the engagement between the worm gear and the worm wheel. Then, this drive force is transmitted through the frictional engagement between the friction member of the worm wheel and the disk plate, so that the output shaft connected to the disk plate is rotated integrally with the worm wheel to drive a sunroof lid. When an object is placed in a moving path of the sunroof lid, movement of the sunroof lid is stopped by the object to lock the output shaft. At this time, the friction member is slid relative to the disk plate, so that the worm wheel is rotated relative to the output shaft.
In this way, it is possible to limit damage to each component, such as the worm wheel, and also possible to limit burnout of the motor main body.
This kind of clutch device is also preferred in the vehicle wiper system. For example, in the wiper system, at the time of wiping a window glass by a wiper blade of a wiper, when heavy snow, which has been accumulated on a roof of the vehicle, falls onto the wiper blade and a wiper arm connected to the wiper blade, the wiper blade and the wiper arm are arrested by the fallen heavy snow or receive an excessively large external force from the fallen snow. Therefore, the excessively large external force is applied to corresponding components of the wiper system. When the above clutch device is provided in the wiper system, it is possible to limit damage to the corresponding components of the wiper system or to limit burnout of the motor main body. Furthermore, a strength of each corresponding component does not need to be set upon consideration of the excessively large external force.
However, in the previously proposed clutch device recited in Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. H05-3654, the spring is used to urge the disk plate against the friction member to generate the frictional resistive force. The spring is rotated together with the disk plate or is slid relative to the disk plate. In the former case, the spring rotates together with the disk plate, and the spring is slid relative to a support structure. In the latter case, the spring does not slid relative to the support structure but is slid relative to the disk plate. In each of these cases, at the time of driving the motor main body, when rotation of the motor main body is transmitted to the output shaft through the clutch device, a sliding loss of the spring occurs to reduce a transmission efficiency of the rotational force. Furthermore, a substantial noise could be generated due to the sliding movement.
In the above clutch device, at the time of locking the output shaft, the worm wheel (the driving side) is rotated relative to the output shaft (the driven side) to limit damage to the corresponding components. However, the performance is sacrificed to cause a reduction in the transmission efficiency of the rotational force and/or generation of the noise.
Furthermore, in the case of Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. H05-3654, when the components of the clutch device are installed to a housing of the motor apparatus one after another, an entire assembly operation of the motor apparatus is lengthened. Thus, it is desirable to provide the clutch device in a form of a sub-assembly of the motor apparatus, such as an output shaft assembly, in which the clutch device (or the clutch arrangement) is integrated with the output shaft of the motor apparatus. When the clutch device is preassembled as the output shaft assembly, the clutch arrangement can be simultaneously installed to the motor apparatus at the time of installing the output shaft. Thus, an entire assembly time of the motor apparatus can be shortened. Furthermore, when the clutch device is preassembled as the output shaft assembly, handling of the clutch device can be eased during, for example, transporting of the output shaft assembly from one assembling stage to another assembling stage of the motor apparatus since it is formed as a single component or a single assembly.
Apart from the above case, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H09-118202 discloses another wiper motor apparatus, which includes a worm wheel, a swing arm and a joint member. The worm wheel is meshed with a rotatable shaft of an armature, which is rotatably supported by a case. The swing arm is connected to a wiper shaft. One end of the joint member is connected to a predetermined point of the worm wheel, and the other end of the joint member is connected to the swing arm. Upon energization of the wiper motor apparatus, the armature is rotated to rotate the worm wheel. Then, the rotation of the worm wheel is converted to a swing motion of the swing arm through the joint member to reciprocally rotate the wiper shaft. Therefore, a wiper arm, which is directly installed to the wiper shaft, is swung to wipe a window glass of the vehicle.
Similar to the above case, in the non-operating state of the wiper where a wiper blade connected to the wiper arm is stopped and is thus held substantially parallel to a lower edge of the glass surface, when an external force, which is exerted by, for example, heavy snow, is applied to the wiper blade and the wiper arm, the wiper blade and the wiper arm are pressed downward beyond a lower turning point. At this time, the wiper shaft and the swing arm of the wiper motor apparatus are rotated further beyond a normal reciprocal rotational angular range. Therefore, the joint member, which is connected to the swing arm, or the worm wheel, which is connected to the joint member, could be damaged by the external force.
Thus, to limit the damage of the above components and to limit rotation of the wiper arm into a vehicle body region beyond the window glass area of the vehicle, in the wiper motor apparatus disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H09-118202, a rotational range limiting portion is provided at a location, which is outside of the normal reciprocal rotational angular range of the swing arm to limit the rotation of the swing arm beyond the predetermined reciprocal rotational angular range of the swing arm.
However, an excessively large external force could be applied to, for example, the wiper blade and the wiper arm even in a case where the wiper blade and the wiper arm are not placed outside of the predetermined reciprocal rotational angular range. In other words, the excessively large external force could be applied to, for example, the wiper blade and the wiper arm even in the case where the wiper blade and the wiper arm are operated within the predetermined reciprocal rotational angular range (a normal wiping range). This could be a case where heavy snow, which has been accumulated on a roof of the vehicle, falls onto the wiper blade and the wiper arm, which is operated and is located in the normal wiping range other than the lower turning point. In such a case, the wiper blade and the wiper arm are arrested by the fallen heavy snow or receive an excessively large external force from the fallen snow. Therefore, the excessively large external force is applied to the swing arm, the joint member, the worm wheel and/or the worm gear through the wiper shaft, so that these components could be damaged by the excessively large external force. Thus, the above-described disadvantage still exists.
Therefore, in the case of the wiper motor apparatus described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H09-118202, each corresponding component of the wiper motor apparatus needs to be designed to withstand the above described excessively large external force.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention addresses the above disadvantages. Thus, it is an objective of the present invention to provide an output shaft assembly including a clutch arrangement that limits damage to a corresponding component or limits burnout of a motor main body upon application of an excessively large load to an output shaft of the output shaft assembly. It is another objective of the present invention to provide a motor apparatus and a wiper motor apparatus, which include such an output shaft assembly.
To achieve the objectives of the present invention, there is provided a motor apparatus, which includes an output shaft and a clutch arrangement. The clutch arrangement is installed to the output shaft. Furthermore, the clutch arrangement includes a first rotatable member, a second rotatable member and at least one resilient member. The first rotatable member has at least one first side mating portion and is supported by the output shaft on one output shaft end side of the output shaft in such a manner that the first rotatable member is axially non-detachable from the output shaft and is rotatable about an axis of the output shaft. The first rotatable member is rotated about the axis of the output shaft when a drive force is applied to the first rotatable member. The second rotatable member is located on the other output shaft end side of the output shaft with respect to the first rotatable member and is supported by the output shaft in such a manner that the second rotatable member is non-rotatable relative to the output shaft and is axially movable along the output shaft relative to the first rotatable member. The second rotatable member has at least one second side mating portion that is engageable with the at least one first side mating portion of the first rotatable member in an axial direction of the output shaft to couple between the first rotatable member and the second rotatable member and thereby to rotate the second rotatable member integrally with the first rotatable member. The at least one resilient member is arranged on the other output shaft end side of the second rotatable member and applies a resistive force against axial movement of the second rotatable member toward the other output shaft end side of the output shaft from a coupled state, at which the at least one first side mating portion and the at least one second side mating portion are engaged with one another.
To achieve the objectives of the present invention, there is also provided a motor apparatus, which includes the above output shaft assembly, a housing and a motor main body. The housing receives the output shaft assembly. The motor main body is connected to the output shaft assembly to supply the drive force to the first rotatable member of the output shaft assembly.
To achieve the objectives of the present invention, there is also provided a wiper motor apparatus for reciprocally swing a wiper. The wiper motor apparatus includes a motor main body, an output shaft assembly and a swing mechanism. The output shaft assembly is driven by the motor main body and includes an output shaft and a clutch arrangement. The output shaft is directly or indirectly connected to the wiper to reciprocally swing the wiper. The clutch arrangement is installed to the output shaft. The swing mechanism connects between the motor main body and the output shaft assembly and converts rotation of a rotatable shaft of the motor main body to reciprocal rotation of the output shaft. The clutch arrangement is provided between the output shaft and the swing mechanism to transmit a drive force from the swing mechanism to the output shaft. When a load applied to the output shaft is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, the clutch arrangement disables transmission of the drive force between the swing mechanism and the output shaft, so that relative rotation occurs between the swing mechanism and the output shaft.
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7677270 | FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention is directed to a plug that can seal into the end of a hydraulic/pneumatic hose fitting, and where a single plug can be used on a number of different types of fittings. Thus, it is no longer necessary to have a large range of plugs depending on the type of hydraulic/pneumatic fitting.
BACKGROUND ART
Hydraulic hoses and pipes contain steel fittings to enable hoses to be coupled together, to be attached to another member (such as an outlet) and the like. These fittings can be broadly classed into male fittings and female fittings. The male fittings contain external threads and are designed to connect to female fittings. Conversely, the female fittings typically contain an internally threaded recess.
The recess in the female fittings typically contains an innermost sealing surface that may be flat or tapered. The internal threads are positioned between the sealing surface and the open end of the recess. This type of coupling is well-known. However, there is a large range of this type of coupling where the sealing surfaces are different, and the pitch of the thread is different.
Occasionally, it is necessary to plug an otherwise open fitting. However, it is common for the open fitting to leak hydraulic fluid, which can be quite toxic and corrosive. Even if the line has been drained of hydraulic fluid, there may still be an amount of fluid present in the line which can leak through the open fitting. Thus, a variety of plugs is known in the marketplace. It is known to provide a hard plastic threaded plug that screws into the female fitting. The plug contains a tapered nose that engages against the tapered sealing surface. A disadvantage with this arrangement is that a particular plug can only be used in a particular female fitting having the same thread pitch, and, as there is a large number of different types of fittings, a large number of different types of plugs is required. Another disadvantage is that any damage to the plastic thread of the plug can result in improper sealing and therefore the hydraulic fluid can leak past the plug which is highly undesirable.
It is also known to provide a simple push-in plug. The plug typically contains a small annular ring that can be pressed into one turn of the female thread to hold the plug in place. This type of plug is not very useful as it does not provide any sealing and therefore hydraulic fluid (especially if under some pressure) will easily leak past the plug.
It is also known to provide a snap-fit plug. This plug contains a larger annular rib and is designed to give a tight fit with only a single turn of the plug once the plug is pushed into position. An advantage of this arrangement (and with the push-in plug) is that is not very sensitive to the type of thread and therefore a single plug can be used for a number of threads. The disadvantage of this plug is the same as that of the push-in plug which is that it does not provide any meaningful seal against leakage of hydraulic fluid and the primary use of the plug is to protect the female thread against damage
For male fittings, it is known to provide a threaded protection cap that can be threaded over the end of the male fitting. The disadvantage with this type of cap is similar to that of the hard plastic cap, in that different caps are required for different threads.
It could be argued that one possible solution would be to provide a plug having a soft wall that will cut its own thread when inserted into a female fitting. An advantage of this could be that the plug could be used on different types of threads. However, the disadvantage is that once the thread has been cut into the plug, the plug can then only be used on fittings that have that precise thread and therefore this does not really provide any meaningful solution to the above disadvantages. Also, the plug body would need to have quite a soft wall which might make it difficult to screw the plug in tightly into the recess.
Therefore, there would be an advantage if it were possible to provide some form of plug that could be used on different types of fittings and which is largely independent of the type of thread in the fitting, and which could also provide a useful degree of sealing (as opposed to just protecting the thread) to prevent leakage of hydraulic fluid when the plug is attached, and where the plug could be reused many times on different types of fittings and not just on the same fitting every time.
Another disadvantage with many of the existing plugs, and which has been described generally above, is the requirement to have many different sizes of plugs. Attempts have been made to reduce the number of plugs generally by having a “male” plug that is somewhat adaptable, and a “female” plug that is somewhat adaptable. There would be an advantage if it were possible to provide a plug that could be used both as a male plug and as a female plug.
It will be clearly understood that, if a prior art publication is referred to herein, this reference does not constitute an admission that the publication forms part of the common general knowledge in the art in Australia or in any other country.
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention to provide a plug that may overcome at least some of the above-mentioned disadvantages or provide the consumer with a useful or commercial choice.
In a broad form, the invention resides in a plug to plug a hydraulic fitting, the plug comprising an elastomeric body that can be stretched or pushed over a male fitting or pushed into a female fitting.
In another form the invention comprises a plug adapted for insertion into a female hydraulic fitting and adapted to be fitted over a male hydraulic fitting, the plug comprising a head portion and an elastomeric body portion, the body portion being cylindrical and having an internal open ended bore which is also cylindrical, the open end of the body portion containing an external inwardly tapering sealing face adjacent the open end of the bore and an internal outwardly tapering portion.
In another form, the invention resides in a plug to plug a female hydraulic fitting, the female hydraulic fitting containing a recess, an internal thread inside the recess, and a sealing surface in the recess, the plug comprising an elastomeric body adapted to be pushed into the recess, the body being compressible and resilient such that when the body is pushed into the recess, it engages at least partially with the threads in the recess to hold the plug in place, the plug containing sealing means to engage against and to at least partially seal against the sealing surface in the recess.
Thus, by providing an elastomeric body, the plug can be pushed into a female fitting and it does not particularly matter what type or pitch of thread is in the female fitting as the body will conform to the particular thread and be engaged thereby. The body can be pushed far enough in to seal against the sealing surface in the recess. Also, when removed, the plug does not have a formed thread and therefore can be reused many times on different types of fittings.
Therefore, the plug according to the present invention can function to protect the threads of the hydraulic fitting, as well as sealing against leakage of hydraulic fluid, and the engagement of the plug against the threads can be sufficient to enable some pressure in the line to be accommodated without the plug being blown out of the fitting.
In another form, the invention resides in a plug for a male fitting, the plug comprising a recess adapted to extend over the male fitting, the plug comprising a stretchable material to enable the plug to be stretched over the male fitting and then snugly engaged against threads of the male fitting. In this form of the invention, the recess may be provided with sealing means. Again, the material does not have a formed thread, and a thread is not cut into the material when the plug is fitted to the male fitting, and therefore the plug can be used many times on different types of fittings.
The plug may be of any size and shape to suit the particular fitting. The fitting may comprise a hydraulic fitting, a pneumatic fitting or even any other type of fittings where it is considered useful to use the plug which forms part of the present invention.
Typically, but without limitation, the plug will have a length of between 10-100 millimetres and a width of between 5-50 millimetres.
In one form of the invention, the plug has a body that is adapted to be pushed into a female fitting. The body will typically have a width/diameter which is slightly larger than the internal width/diameter of the fitting such that the body will be slightly compressed as it is pushed into the fitting.
The plug may be provided with means to facilitate insertion or turning and removal of the plug from the fitting. The means may comprise a hand grippable portion such as a nut configuration, although no particular limitation should be placed on the means merely by exemplification of this particular configuration. For instance, the means may comprise a wing nut, a projection, a handle, a lever, a knob and the like.
The plug, and especially the body, may be made from a single material, a blend of materials, composite materials, and the like. In a particularly preferred embodiment, the body is made from a rubber-like material such as “nitrile”, which is elastomeric but also relatively resistant to the corrosive effects of hydraulic fluid. It is envisaged that the body may be made from other rubber-like materials such as neoprene, treated rubbers (e.g. vulcanisation or crosslinking), homopolymers, copolymers, blended polymers, block polymers, nitriles, and the like. The material may contain strengthening agents, reinforcement, fillers, and the like.
The body may comprise an inner core made of one material and an outer layer made of the elastomeric material.
The body may be solid, hollow, may contain weight reducing voids, or may have any other type of internal configuration to facilitate the elastomeric properties of the body.
The body may have a head portion and a tail portion, with the tail portion typically containing the hand grippable means. The head portion will typically be that part that is inserted into the female recess. The head portion may be configured to facilitate sealing into the recess. The configuration may comprise an annular sealing surface. The annular sealing surface may form part of an annular ring or similar that can be bent, moved or otherwise manipulated to improve the sealing engagement in the recess.
It is especially preferred to provide a plug that could be used both as a male plug and as a female plug and in respect of a variety of fitting sizes. Although it would probably not be possible to have a single plug for all fitting sizes, an advantage of the present invention is that a relatively low number of plugs can be used for a very large number of fittings.
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SUMMARY: FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention is directed to a plug that can seal into the end of a hydraulic/pneumatic hose fitting, and where a single plug can be used on a number of different types of fittings. Thus, it is no longer necessary to have a large range of plugs depending on the type of hydraulic/pneumatic fitting.
BACKGROUND ART
Hydraulic hoses and pipes contain steel fittings to enable hoses to be coupled together, to be attached to another member (such as an outlet) and the like. These fittings can be broadly classed into male fittings and female fittings. The male fittings contain external threads and are designed to connect to female fittings. Conversely, the female fittings typically contain an internally threaded recess.
The recess in the female fittings typically contains an innermost sealing surface that may be flat or tapered. The internal threads are positioned between the sealing surface and the open end of the recess. This type of coupling is well-known. However, there is a large range of this type of coupling where the sealing surfaces are different, and the pitch of the thread is different.
Occasionally, it is necessary to plug an otherwise open fitting. However, it is common for the open fitting to leak hydraulic fluid, which can be quite toxic and corrosive. Even if the line has been drained of hydraulic fluid, there may still be an amount of fluid present in the line which can leak through the open fitting. Thus, a variety of plugs is known in the marketplace. It is known to provide a hard plastic threaded plug that screws into the female fitting. The plug contains a tapered nose that engages against the tapered sealing surface. A disadvantage with this arrangement is that a particular plug can only be used in a particular female fitting having the same thread pitch, and, as there is a large number of different types of fittings, a large number of different types of plugs is required. Another disadvantage is that any damage to the plastic thread of the plug can result in improper sealing and therefore the hydraulic fluid can leak past the plug which is highly undesirable.
It is also known to provide a simple push-in plug. The plug typically contains a small annular ring that can be pressed into one turn of the female thread to hold the plug in place. This type of plug is not very useful as it does not provide any sealing and therefore hydraulic fluid (especially if under some pressure) will easily leak past the plug.
It is also known to provide a snap-fit plug. This plug contains a larger annular rib and is designed to give a tight fit with only a single turn of the plug once the plug is pushed into position. An advantage of this arrangement (and with the push-in plug) is that is not very sensitive to the type of thread and therefore a single plug can be used for a number of threads. The disadvantage of this plug is the same as that of the push-in plug which is that it does not provide any meaningful seal against leakage of hydraulic fluid and the primary use of the plug is to protect the female thread against damage
For male fittings, it is known to provide a threaded protection cap that can be threaded over the end of the male fitting. The disadvantage with this type of cap is similar to that of the hard plastic cap, in that different caps are required for different threads.
It could be argued that one possible solution would be to provide a plug having a soft wall that will cut its own thread when inserted into a female fitting. An advantage of this could be that the plug could be used on different types of threads. However, the disadvantage is that once the thread has been cut into the plug, the plug can then only be used on fittings that have that precise thread and therefore this does not really provide any meaningful solution to the above disadvantages. Also, the plug body would need to have quite a soft wall which might make it difficult to screw the plug in tightly into the recess.
Therefore, there would be an advantage if it were possible to provide some form of plug that could be used on different types of fittings and which is largely independent of the type of thread in the fitting, and which could also provide a useful degree of sealing (as opposed to just protecting the thread) to prevent leakage of hydraulic fluid when the plug is attached, and where the plug could be reused many times on different types of fittings and not just on the same fitting every time.
Another disadvantage with many of the existing plugs, and which has been described generally above, is the requirement to have many different sizes of plugs. Attempts have been made to reduce the number of plugs generally by having a “male” plug that is somewhat adaptable, and a “female” plug that is somewhat adaptable. There would be an advantage if it were possible to provide a plug that could be used both as a male plug and as a female plug.
It will be clearly understood that, if a prior art publication is referred to herein, this reference does not constitute an admission that the publication forms part of the common general knowledge in the art in Australia or in any other country.
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention to provide a plug that may overcome at least some of the above-mentioned disadvantages or provide the consumer with a useful or commercial choice.
In a broad form, the invention resides in a plug to plug a hydraulic fitting, the plug comprising an elastomeric body that can be stretched or pushed over a male fitting or pushed into a female fitting.
In another form the invention comprises a plug adapted for insertion into a female hydraulic fitting and adapted to be fitted over a male hydraulic fitting, the plug comprising a head portion and an elastomeric body portion, the body portion being cylindrical and having an internal open ended bore which is also cylindrical, the open end of the body portion containing an external inwardly tapering sealing face adjacent the open end of the bore and an internal outwardly tapering portion.
In another form, the invention resides in a plug to plug a female hydraulic fitting, the female hydraulic fitting containing a recess, an internal thread inside the recess, and a sealing surface in the recess, the plug comprising an elastomeric body adapted to be pushed into the recess, the body being compressible and resilient such that when the body is pushed into the recess, it engages at least partially with the threads in the recess to hold the plug in place, the plug containing sealing means to engage against and to at least partially seal against the sealing surface in the recess.
Thus, by providing an elastomeric body, the plug can be pushed into a female fitting and it does not particularly matter what type or pitch of thread is in the female fitting as the body will conform to the particular thread and be engaged thereby. The body can be pushed far enough in to seal against the sealing surface in the recess. Also, when removed, the plug does not have a formed thread and therefore can be reused many times on different types of fittings.
Therefore, the plug according to the present invention can function to protect the threads of the hydraulic fitting, as well as sealing against leakage of hydraulic fluid, and the engagement of the plug against the threads can be sufficient to enable some pressure in the line to be accommodated without the plug being blown out of the fitting.
In another form, the invention resides in a plug for a male fitting, the plug comprising a recess adapted to extend over the male fitting, the plug comprising a stretchable material to enable the plug to be stretched over the male fitting and then snugly engaged against threads of the male fitting. In this form of the invention, the recess may be provided with sealing means. Again, the material does not have a formed thread, and a thread is not cut into the material when the plug is fitted to the male fitting, and therefore the plug can be used many times on different types of fittings.
The plug may be of any size and shape to suit the particular fitting. The fitting may comprise a hydraulic fitting, a pneumatic fitting or even any other type of fittings where it is considered useful to use the plug which forms part of the present invention.
Typically, but without limitation, the plug will have a length of between 10-100 millimetres and a width of between 5-50 millimetres.
In one form of the invention, the plug has a body that is adapted to be pushed into a female fitting. The body will typically have a width/diameter which is slightly larger than the internal width/diameter of the fitting such that the body will be slightly compressed as it is pushed into the fitting.
The plug may be provided with means to facilitate insertion or turning and removal of the plug from the fitting. The means may comprise a hand grippable portion such as a nut configuration, although no particular limitation should be placed on the means merely by exemplification of this particular configuration. For instance, the means may comprise a wing nut, a projection, a handle, a lever, a knob and the like.
The plug, and especially the body, may be made from a single material, a blend of materials, composite materials, and the like. In a particularly preferred embodiment, the body is made from a rubber-like material such as “nitrile”, which is elastomeric but also relatively resistant to the corrosive effects of hydraulic fluid. It is envisaged that the body may be made from other rubber-like materials such as neoprene, treated rubbers (e.g. vulcanisation or crosslinking), homopolymers, copolymers, blended polymers, block polymers, nitriles, and the like. The material may contain strengthening agents, reinforcement, fillers, and the like.
The body may comprise an inner core made of one material and an outer layer made of the elastomeric material.
The body may be solid, hollow, may contain weight reducing voids, or may have any other type of internal configuration to facilitate the elastomeric properties of the body.
The body may have a head portion and a tail portion, with the tail portion typically containing the hand grippable means. The head portion will typically be that part that is inserted into the female recess. The head portion may be configured to facilitate sealing into the recess. The configuration may comprise an annular sealing surface. The annular sealing surface may form part of an annular ring or similar that can be bent, moved or otherwise manipulated to improve the sealing engagement in the recess.
It is especially preferred to provide a plug that could be used both as a male plug and as a female plug and in respect of a variety of fitting sizes. Although it would probably not be possible to have a single plug for all fitting sizes, an advantage of the present invention is that a relatively low number of plugs can be used for a very large number of fittings.
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7763273 | PRIORITY CLAIM TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS
This patent claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §371 to International Patent Application No. PCT/EP2003/004555 (filed Apr. 29, 2003), which, in turn, claims priority to Sweden Patent Application No. 0201448.8 (filed May 14, 2002). The entire text of each of the above-referenced patent applications is incorporated by reference into this patent.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method for reducing the production of methane emanating from the digestive activities of an animal by using, as an active ingredient, one or more essential oil compounds selected from the group consisting of eugenol, limonene, a salicylate, quinoline, vanilla, thymol or a cresol. The active compounds can be orally administrated via a feed or a drinking water.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Methane is a greenhouse gas, which is many times more potent than CO2. Its concentration in the atmosphere has doubled over the last century and continues to increase alarmingly. Ruminants are the major contributors to the biogenic methane formation, and it has been estimated that the prevention of methane formation from ruminants would almost stabilise atmospheric methane concentrations. Furthermore, the recent re-assessment of the Kyoto protocol places increased priority in decreasing methane emissions as part of a multi-gas strategy. The most effective feed additives for reducing the formation of methane contain antibiotics and ionophores which diminish the formation of microorganisms provided H2to the methanogenes. However, the effect of antibiotic and ionophores on the formation of methane is limited.
Besides the increase of the greenhouse gases, the methane produced during the anaerobic fermentation also represents an energy loss to the host animal. Carbohydrate makes up 70-80% of the dry matter in a typical dairy cattle ration and in spite of this, the absorption of carbohydrates from the gastro-intestinal tract is normally very limited. The reason for this is the extensive fermentation of carbohydrates in the rumen resulting in production of acetate, propionate and butyrate as the main products. These products are part of the so called volatile fatty acids, VFA. The fermentation that produces the VFA, e.g. propionic acid, also provides energy and carbon for the growth and maintenance of the microbial community. VFA are important by-products of the microbial activity.
Furthermore, in recent years there has been an intense debate about the use of chemicals and antibiotics in feed additives and in many countries a ban on this type of additions to feed additives is being considered. Thus, there is an urgent need for agriculture to develop substances which are in line with reliable and generally accepted practice and not of a medicinal nature.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The purpose of the present invention is to provide a component which is not of medicinal nature and which strongly reduces the formation of methane but maintains the microbial activity and the consent of VFA, e.g. propionic acid, on normal levels.
It has now been found that single essential oil compounds or mixtures of two or more essential oil compounds, being present in different parts of cultivated, utility plants, can essentially reduce the formation of methane and still maintain the overall microbial activity on a high level.
More specific the present invention relates to a method for reducing the production of methane emanating from the digestions of an animal by using one or more essential oil compounds selected from the group consisting of limonene, eugenol, a salicylate, quinoline, vanilla, thymol and a cresol, which are administrated to the animal.
| 1 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: PRIORITY CLAIM TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS
This patent claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §371 to International Patent Application No. PCT/EP2003/004555 (filed Apr. 29, 2003), which, in turn, claims priority to Sweden Patent Application No. 0201448.8 (filed May 14, 2002). The entire text of each of the above-referenced patent applications is incorporated by reference into this patent.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method for reducing the production of methane emanating from the digestive activities of an animal by using, as an active ingredient, one or more essential oil compounds selected from the group consisting of eugenol, limonene, a salicylate, quinoline, vanilla, thymol or a cresol. The active compounds can be orally administrated via a feed or a drinking water.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Methane is a greenhouse gas, which is many times more potent than CO2. Its concentration in the atmosphere has doubled over the last century and continues to increase alarmingly. Ruminants are the major contributors to the biogenic methane formation, and it has been estimated that the prevention of methane formation from ruminants would almost stabilise atmospheric methane concentrations. Furthermore, the recent re-assessment of the Kyoto protocol places increased priority in decreasing methane emissions as part of a multi-gas strategy. The most effective feed additives for reducing the formation of methane contain antibiotics and ionophores which diminish the formation of microorganisms provided H2to the methanogenes. However, the effect of antibiotic and ionophores on the formation of methane is limited.
Besides the increase of the greenhouse gases, the methane produced during the anaerobic fermentation also represents an energy loss to the host animal. Carbohydrate makes up 70-80% of the dry matter in a typical dairy cattle ration and in spite of this, the absorption of carbohydrates from the gastro-intestinal tract is normally very limited. The reason for this is the extensive fermentation of carbohydrates in the rumen resulting in production of acetate, propionate and butyrate as the main products. These products are part of the so called volatile fatty acids, VFA. The fermentation that produces the VFA, e.g. propionic acid, also provides energy and carbon for the growth and maintenance of the microbial community. VFA are important by-products of the microbial activity.
Furthermore, in recent years there has been an intense debate about the use of chemicals and antibiotics in feed additives and in many countries a ban on this type of additions to feed additives is being considered. Thus, there is an urgent need for agriculture to develop substances which are in line with reliable and generally accepted practice and not of a medicinal nature.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The purpose of the present invention is to provide a component which is not of medicinal nature and which strongly reduces the formation of methane but maintains the microbial activity and the consent of VFA, e.g. propionic acid, on normal levels.
It has now been found that single essential oil compounds or mixtures of two or more essential oil compounds, being present in different parts of cultivated, utility plants, can essentially reduce the formation of methane and still maintain the overall microbial activity on a high level.
More specific the present invention relates to a method for reducing the production of methane emanating from the digestions of an animal by using one or more essential oil compounds selected from the group consisting of limonene, eugenol, a salicylate, quinoline, vanilla, thymol and a cresol, which are administrated to the animal.
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7652607 | This invention relates to digital to analogue converter circuits, and is in particular concerned with the power consumption of such circuits.
Digital to analogue converters based on resistors are well known. Examples of two possible circuits are shown inFIG. 1. The circuit on the right makes use of a set of binary weighted resistors R,2R, . . . ,32R. Data signals, D0to D5, which represent the bits of the digital data to be converted are applied to one side of the resistors and the other side of the resistors are connected to a common point which forms the output of the converter. D0represents the least significant bit of the digital data and D5represents the most significant bit.
The data signals switch between certain discrete voltage levels depending on whether the corresponding bit in the digital data is a 1 or a 0. The output voltage of the circuit varies linearly with the digital data.
The circuit on the left ofFIG. 1avoids the need for a large ratio in the values of the resistors by adopting a ladder network of resistors having a value of R and2R, as shown. The input data voltages are derived in the same way as for the previous circuit and the output voltage has the same linear dependence on the digital data. Other variations on these resistor based converters are also known.
One advantage of these resistor based converters is that when driving a capacitive load they do not require an output amplifier. Given sufficient time, the output voltage will charge to the value determined by the resistor network and the digital data. The resistive elements in the converters may be formed using real resistors, for example formed from semiconducting or metallic films, or alternatively they can be formed using switched capacitor resistive elements such as that shown inFIG. 2.
The switched capacitor circuit comprises two parallel branches each having first and second switches in series, operated with complementary signals. A capacitor is connected between the junctions between switches of the two branches. The switches are operated cyclically to periodically charge and discharge the capacitor.
As shown inFIG. 2, the equivalent circuit for the switched capacitor circuit is simply a resistor, with a resistance which depends on the capacitance and operating frequency of the circuit.
An advantage of using switched capacitor resistive elements is that it can be easier to control and accurately define the values of capacitors than for resistors. There is also greater flexibility in controlling the values of the resistors since this can be by means of both the capacitor value and the clock frequency.
One of the disadvantages of unbuffered resistor based DAC circuits using either conventional resistors or switched capacitor resistors is that significant current flows between the data voltage sources which drive the inputs to the resistor network. The magnitude of these currents depends on the digital data value, the resistor values and the data voltages. The resistor values are chosen taking into account how much time is available to charge the load capacitance. In applications where the output charging time must be short and therefore the resistor values must be relatively low the power consumed as a result of the current flow between the data voltage sources can be very significant.
There is therefore a need to reduce the power consumption in digital to analogue circuits using switched capacitor resistive circuits.
According to the invention, there is provided a digital to analogue converter comprising:
a plurality of digital inputs corresponding in number to the number of bits of a digital input word, the inputs being used to select one of first and second binary voltage levels as binary inputs to the converter;
a respective capacitor circuit associated with each input;
first and second clock inputs;
an output load; and
a plurality of switches controlled by the clock inputs for controlling the coupling of the capacitor circuits either to one of the binary inputs or to the output load,
wherein a plurality of the capacitor circuits are controllable to output an effective voltage to the load comprising the first binary voltage level, the second binary voltage level or an average of the first and second binary voltage levels in dependence on the bits of the digital input word.
The invention thus provides a plurality of capacitor (input) circuits which can be operated in either a voltage divider mode (to provide an average output) or a resistor mode depending on the value of the digital data. Operation of the capacitor circuits in this way can result in a substantial reduction in the currents flowing between the data voltage sources and can is therefore significantly reduce the power consumption of the converter circuits. The output resistance of the circuits and therefore their ability to charge a load capacitor is not, however, degraded by the modifications provided by the invention.
Preferably, each capacitor circuit comprises a switched capacitor resistor circuit. For example, each capacitor capacitor circuit may comprise:
a first branch between a first input and the output and comprising first and second switches in series;
a second branch between a second input and the output and comprising third and fourth switches in series;
a capacitor connected between the junction between the first and second switches and the junction between the third and fourth switches.
This defines a switched capacitor circuit which functions as a series resistance, and which has two inputs. By controlling the voltages applied to the two inputs, the circuit can operate essentially as a voltage source and a resistive load or else a voltage divider and a resistive load.
In this circuit, the first and fourth switches are clocked by a first clock signal and the second and third switches are clocked by a second clock signal, although the first and second clock signals can be complementary signals.
Each capacitor circuit may then further comprise a first switching arrangement for supplying a first selected one of the binary voltage levels to the first input and a second switching arrangement for supplying a second selected one of the binary voltage levels to the second input.
In one arrangement, the capacitor circuits are connected in parallel between the plurality of inputs and the capacitive output load. In particular, the capacitor circuits can define a binary weighted configuration of resistors. In this implementation, the capacitor circuit with greatest effective resistance is controlled by the most significant bit of the digital input word, and the other capacitor circuits are each controlled by the most significant bit of the digital input word and one respective other bit of the digital input word. Most of the capacitor circuits thus have two control inputs, one of which is the most significant bit. This arrangement allows the converter to be configured in dependence on the digital data, in such a way as to save power.
In another implementation, the capacitor circuits are connected in parallel between the plurality of inputs and junctions of a resistor ladder, a first end of the resistor ladder being connected to the capacitive output load. This type of converter architecture enables more uniform circuits to be used. In particular, the capacitor circuits can have the same effective resistances.
The capacitor circuit at the second end of the resistor ladder is preferably controlled by the most significant bit of the digital input word, and the other capacitor circuits are each controlled by the most significant bit of the digital input word and one respective other bit of the digital input word.
In either implementation:
the capacitor circuit at the end of the ladder of capacitor circuits opposite to the capacitive load is controlled effectively to output either the first binary voltage level or the second binary voltage level in dependence on the most significant bit; and
each of the other capacitor circuits are controlled effectively to output:either the second binary voltage level or the average of the first and second binary voltage levels when the most significant bit of the digital input word is high, in dependence on the respective other bit; oreither the first binary voltage level or the average of the first and second binary voltage levels when the most significant bit of the digital input word is low, in dependence on the respective other bit.
In a circuit which reduces the number of switches required, each of the capacitor circuits can comprise an input switch and an output switch in series between one of the binary inputs and the output load, and further comprising a capacitor connected between the junction between the input switch and output switch and a common terminal.
In a further modification, each of the capacitor circuits can comprise an input switch and an output switch in series between a first power line and a second power line, wherein the first power line is selectively connected to the first binary voltage level and the second power line is selectively connected to the second binary voltage level, and further comprising a capacitor connected between the junction between the input switch and output switch and a common terminal. The input switches are each controlled by a respective digital input and the output switches are each controlled by the complement of the respective digital input. This arrangement reduces the number of switches controlled by the clock inputs.
The invention also provides a method of performing digital to analogue conversion, comprising:
using the bits of a digital input word to generate a plurality of control voltages corresponding in number to the number of bits, one control voltage comprising a first binary voltage level or a second binary voltage level, and each other control voltage comprising a first binary voltage level, a second binary voltage level or an average of the first and second binary voltage levels; and
using the plurality of control voltages to drive an output load.
This method preferably uses switched capacitor resistor circuits, as used in the converter circuit of the invention.
The invention also provides a display device (for example a liquid crystal display) in which the digital to analogue converter of the invention is used in the column address circuitry.
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SUMMARY: This invention relates to digital to analogue converter circuits, and is in particular concerned with the power consumption of such circuits.
Digital to analogue converters based on resistors are well known. Examples of two possible circuits are shown inFIG. 1. The circuit on the right makes use of a set of binary weighted resistors R,2R, . . . ,32R. Data signals, D0to D5, which represent the bits of the digital data to be converted are applied to one side of the resistors and the other side of the resistors are connected to a common point which forms the output of the converter. D0represents the least significant bit of the digital data and D5represents the most significant bit.
The data signals switch between certain discrete voltage levels depending on whether the corresponding bit in the digital data is a 1 or a 0. The output voltage of the circuit varies linearly with the digital data.
The circuit on the left ofFIG. 1avoids the need for a large ratio in the values of the resistors by adopting a ladder network of resistors having a value of R and2R, as shown. The input data voltages are derived in the same way as for the previous circuit and the output voltage has the same linear dependence on the digital data. Other variations on these resistor based converters are also known.
One advantage of these resistor based converters is that when driving a capacitive load they do not require an output amplifier. Given sufficient time, the output voltage will charge to the value determined by the resistor network and the digital data. The resistive elements in the converters may be formed using real resistors, for example formed from semiconducting or metallic films, or alternatively they can be formed using switched capacitor resistive elements such as that shown inFIG. 2.
The switched capacitor circuit comprises two parallel branches each having first and second switches in series, operated with complementary signals. A capacitor is connected between the junctions between switches of the two branches. The switches are operated cyclically to periodically charge and discharge the capacitor.
As shown inFIG. 2, the equivalent circuit for the switched capacitor circuit is simply a resistor, with a resistance which depends on the capacitance and operating frequency of the circuit.
An advantage of using switched capacitor resistive elements is that it can be easier to control and accurately define the values of capacitors than for resistors. There is also greater flexibility in controlling the values of the resistors since this can be by means of both the capacitor value and the clock frequency.
One of the disadvantages of unbuffered resistor based DAC circuits using either conventional resistors or switched capacitor resistors is that significant current flows between the data voltage sources which drive the inputs to the resistor network. The magnitude of these currents depends on the digital data value, the resistor values and the data voltages. The resistor values are chosen taking into account how much time is available to charge the load capacitance. In applications where the output charging time must be short and therefore the resistor values must be relatively low the power consumed as a result of the current flow between the data voltage sources can be very significant.
There is therefore a need to reduce the power consumption in digital to analogue circuits using switched capacitor resistive circuits.
According to the invention, there is provided a digital to analogue converter comprising:
a plurality of digital inputs corresponding in number to the number of bits of a digital input word, the inputs being used to select one of first and second binary voltage levels as binary inputs to the converter;
a respective capacitor circuit associated with each input;
first and second clock inputs;
an output load; and
a plurality of switches controlled by the clock inputs for controlling the coupling of the capacitor circuits either to one of the binary inputs or to the output load,
wherein a plurality of the capacitor circuits are controllable to output an effective voltage to the load comprising the first binary voltage level, the second binary voltage level or an average of the first and second binary voltage levels in dependence on the bits of the digital input word.
The invention thus provides a plurality of capacitor (input) circuits which can be operated in either a voltage divider mode (to provide an average output) or a resistor mode depending on the value of the digital data. Operation of the capacitor circuits in this way can result in a substantial reduction in the currents flowing between the data voltage sources and can is therefore significantly reduce the power consumption of the converter circuits. The output resistance of the circuits and therefore their ability to charge a load capacitor is not, however, degraded by the modifications provided by the invention.
Preferably, each capacitor circuit comprises a switched capacitor resistor circuit. For example, each capacitor capacitor circuit may comprise:
a first branch between a first input and the output and comprising first and second switches in series;
a second branch between a second input and the output and comprising third and fourth switches in series;
a capacitor connected between the junction between the first and second switches and the junction between the third and fourth switches.
This defines a switched capacitor circuit which functions as a series resistance, and which has two inputs. By controlling the voltages applied to the two inputs, the circuit can operate essentially as a voltage source and a resistive load or else a voltage divider and a resistive load.
In this circuit, the first and fourth switches are clocked by a first clock signal and the second and third switches are clocked by a second clock signal, although the first and second clock signals can be complementary signals.
Each capacitor circuit may then further comprise a first switching arrangement for supplying a first selected one of the binary voltage levels to the first input and a second switching arrangement for supplying a second selected one of the binary voltage levels to the second input.
In one arrangement, the capacitor circuits are connected in parallel between the plurality of inputs and the capacitive output load. In particular, the capacitor circuits can define a binary weighted configuration of resistors. In this implementation, the capacitor circuit with greatest effective resistance is controlled by the most significant bit of the digital input word, and the other capacitor circuits are each controlled by the most significant bit of the digital input word and one respective other bit of the digital input word. Most of the capacitor circuits thus have two control inputs, one of which is the most significant bit. This arrangement allows the converter to be configured in dependence on the digital data, in such a way as to save power.
In another implementation, the capacitor circuits are connected in parallel between the plurality of inputs and junctions of a resistor ladder, a first end of the resistor ladder being connected to the capacitive output load. This type of converter architecture enables more uniform circuits to be used. In particular, the capacitor circuits can have the same effective resistances.
The capacitor circuit at the second end of the resistor ladder is preferably controlled by the most significant bit of the digital input word, and the other capacitor circuits are each controlled by the most significant bit of the digital input word and one respective other bit of the digital input word.
In either implementation:
the capacitor circuit at the end of the ladder of capacitor circuits opposite to the capacitive load is controlled effectively to output either the first binary voltage level or the second binary voltage level in dependence on the most significant bit; and
each of the other capacitor circuits are controlled effectively to output:either the second binary voltage level or the average of the first and second binary voltage levels when the most significant bit of the digital input word is high, in dependence on the respective other bit; oreither the first binary voltage level or the average of the first and second binary voltage levels when the most significant bit of the digital input word is low, in dependence on the respective other bit.
In a circuit which reduces the number of switches required, each of the capacitor circuits can comprise an input switch and an output switch in series between one of the binary inputs and the output load, and further comprising a capacitor connected between the junction between the input switch and output switch and a common terminal.
In a further modification, each of the capacitor circuits can comprise an input switch and an output switch in series between a first power line and a second power line, wherein the first power line is selectively connected to the first binary voltage level and the second power line is selectively connected to the second binary voltage level, and further comprising a capacitor connected between the junction between the input switch and output switch and a common terminal. The input switches are each controlled by a respective digital input and the output switches are each controlled by the complement of the respective digital input. This arrangement reduces the number of switches controlled by the clock inputs.
The invention also provides a method of performing digital to analogue conversion, comprising:
using the bits of a digital input word to generate a plurality of control voltages corresponding in number to the number of bits, one control voltage comprising a first binary voltage level or a second binary voltage level, and each other control voltage comprising a first binary voltage level, a second binary voltage level or an average of the first and second binary voltage levels; and
using the plurality of control voltages to drive an output load.
This method preferably uses switched capacitor resistor circuits, as used in the converter circuit of the invention.
The invention also provides a display device (for example a liquid crystal display) in which the digital to analogue converter of the invention is used in the column address circuitry.
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7834928 | BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital camera, and more particularly to a digital camera including a display device which displays an image formed by an image pickup device such as CCD.
The invention relates to a digital camera having a plurality of photographing systems, and more particularly to a digital camera having a plurality of photographing systems which are independently constructed including a plurality of solid-state image pickup devices such as CCDs, and which have automatic focusing functions, respectively.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a large number of digital cameras have been distributed as imaging apparatuses each having a CCD image pickup device or the like which is capable of easy photographing. In its photographing operation, the digital camera reads charges corresponding to the quantity of light (through photoelectric conversion) every pixel by the CCD image pickup device or the like, and converts the charges into image data, whereupon it records a photographed image as the image data on a recording medium such as magnetic recording medium.
In the course from the formation of an image to the recording, the digital conversion process of the formed image, an image creation process for displaying the formed image and a recording process for recording the photographed image are respectively executed as principal processes every photographing frame.
Besides, the digital camera of this type has become capable of photographing a dynamic image, owing to the use of the CCD image pickup device or the like. It has been proposed to photograph a dynamic image, for example, in such a way that a plurality of lens units are arrayed in the direction of an optic axis, and that the respective lens units are driven to zoom in accordance with photographing optical systems changed over and selected, so as to form optical images on the CCD (refer to JP-A No. 10-262175).
Further, imaging apparatuses etc. each including a plurality of CCD image pickup devices have been proposed. By way of example, in a technique disclosed in JP-A No. 11-122536, it has been proposed to dispose a plurality of CCDs for black-and-white use and for color use or ones of different device sizes, and a control unit for driving the CCDs, to divide an optical signal from an optical lens and receive divided signals by the respective CCDs, and to execute a signal process by the control unit. In this technique, the CCDs for photographing are changed over in accordance with the situation of surroundings, whereby an image corresponding to the circumstances can be obtained.
The digital camera stated above includes a zoom lever, and has the zoom function of enlarging or reducing the image of a subject on the basis of the operation of the zoom lever. There has also been proposed a camera including two photographing systems, and two display units which correspond to the respective photographing systems and which display images obtained by the respective photographing systems.
With the prior-art digital camera, however, during telescopic photographing, only a subject to be photographed can be confirmed by an optical finder or a display device of liquid crystal or the like functioning as the optical finder, and the situation of surroundings cannot be confirmed. This poses, for example, the problem that the proceeding of a game is not noticed in sports photographing, so the photographing of a scoring scene or any accident is missed.
Besides, an autofocusing function in the prior art poses a problem in case of using a lens of short focal depth, such as zoom lens, and depending upon the reference position and focal position of the lens on the occasion of autofocusing. More specifically, as shown inFIG. 18by way of example, when contrast at each lens position is calculated as the lens is moved in the direction of arrow A inFIG. 18(as the lens is moved from the side of the longest focal distance), a distance which the lens is moved till the detection of the maximum value of the contrast becomes longer than in case of moving the lens in the opposite direction to the direction of the arrow A, so that a longer time is expended in searching for the focal position.
Besides, in the case of using a lens of short focal depth, such as zoom lens, it is common that a stepping motor for driving the focusing lens is driven at intervals of several steps, thereby to specify a rough focal position range (as rough search), whereupon the stepping motor is finely driven, thereby to search the specified rough focal position range for a focus. Even on this occasion, as in the above, there is the problem that, since a focus search range is extensive in the rough search, a distance which the lens is moved becomes long, so a long time is expended in searching for a focal position.
Besides, even when the digital camera has the autofocusing function, a user cannot know which range the image of a subject is automatically focused on the CCD in, if the image of the subject has been focused, and so forth.
Further, it is considered to furnish a camera with two photographing systems, and two display units which display images obtained by the respective imaging systems, in correspondence with these respective imaging systems, and to dispose zoom levers in correspondence with the respective imaging systems in case of widening or narrowing an image angle.
Besides, an autofocusing function in the prior art performs autofocusing in such a way that, as shown inFIG. 35by way of example, the position of a lens focusing in a case where a photographing distance to a subject is the closest distance previously determined is set as an initial position, whereupon a lens position at which a contrast value becomes the maximum value is found as a focusing position as the lens is driven stepwise every predetermined distance L from the initial position to the position of the lens focusing in a case where the photographing distance to the subject is an infinite distance. Accordingly, there is the problem that, when the focusing position lies on an infinite distance side as shown inFIG. 35, a long time is expended on the detection of the focusing position. With a contrary setting at which the position of the lens focusing in a case where the photographing distance to the subject is the infinite distance is set as an initial position, a long time is expended on the detection of the focusing position when the focusing position lies on a closest distance side.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in order to solve the above problems, and has for its first object to provide a digital camera which can photograph while grasping the situation of surroundings.
The invention has been made in order to solve the above problems, and has for its second object to provide a digital camera having a plurality of photographing systems as can shorten a search time for a focal position.
The invention has been made in view of the above facts, and has for its third object to provide a digital camera which is capable of recognizing a focus adjustment state.
The invention has been made in view of the above facts, and has for its fourth object to provide a digital camera which can have a simple apparatus construction even when it includes two photographing systems and is permitted to change the size of the image of a subject.
The invention has been made in order to solve the above problems, and has for its fifth object to provide a digital camera which can shorten a detection time for a focusing position.
In order to accomplish the first object, the first aspect of a digital camera according to a first invention comprises a first photographing system and a second photographing system which respectively photograph a subject; a changeover switch which changeovers a photographing system for photographing the subject, to one of said first photographing system and said second photographing system; and a display control unit which displays an image formed by one photographing system determined by said changeover switch, and which performs a display control so as to display information other than the formed image.
That is, the first photographing system and the second photographing system respectively photograph the subject.
The changeover switch changeovers the photographing system for photographing the subject, to either the first photographing system or the second photographing system. The display control unit displays the image formed by one photographing system determined by the changeover switch, and it performs the display control so as to display the information other than the formed image.
Here, in the second aspect, a photographing state of said second photographing system differs from a photographing state of said first photographing system; and said display control unit performs the display control so as to display image information which is the information other than said formed image, and which represents an image formed by the other photographing system not being said photographing system determined by said changeover switch.
More specifically, in accordance with this aspect, photographing systems which include a main photographing system and a sub photographing system are included as the first photographing system and the second photographing system, and the main photographing system and the sub photographing system photograph the subject in the photographing states different from each other (for example, photographing states of different image angles). For example, the subject can be photographed in the different photographing states in such a way that the subject is photographed by employing a plurality of CCD image pickup devices of different sizes. Incidentally, each of the photographing systems may consist of a single photographing system, or it may well consist of the main photographing system and the sub photographing system.
The changeover switch changeovers the photographing system for photographing the subject, to either the main photographing system or the subphotographing system. Besides, the display control unit displays the image formed by one photographing system determined by the changeover switch, and it performs the display control so as to display the image information which represents the image formed by the other photographing system. The display control may be performed so as to display the image formed by the other photographing system, as the image information, or it may well be performed so as to display the information of, e.g., a region corresponding to the formed image. Besides, the display control may well be performed so as to display information other than the formed image, e.g., the operation menu of the digital camera, as the image information.
Thus, as the image formed by one photographing system is displayed, the image information indicative of the image formed by the other photographing system can also be displayed, so that the image information indicative of the image which is formed by the other photographing system and which is other than the image formed by one photographing system can also be confirmed in photographing. Accordingly, the subject can be photographed as the situation of surroundings is grasped.
Besides, in the third aspect, the digital camera further comprises a recording unit which records the image formed by said one photographing system determined by said changeover switch. In accordance with this aspect, the recording unit is further comprised in the second aspect, and the recording unit records the image formed by one photographing system determined by the changeover switch. Thus, only the image formed by one photographing system is recorded without recording the image formed by the other photographing system, so that the recording capacity of the recording unit can be suppressed.
Moreover, in a case where the image formed by one photographing system is recorded by the recording unit, a user can record it while confirming the image information indicative of the image formed by the other photographing system as displayed by the display control of the display control unit. Therefore, when the user wants to record the image formed by the other photographing system, in this case, he/she can record it easily by altering one photographing system to the other photographing system through the changeover of the changeover switch, and he/she is prevented from missing a shutter chance.
In accordance with the fourth aspect, in the second aspect or the third aspect, the first and the second photographing system are respectively constructed of photographing systems whose image angles are different from each other. This can be incarnated by employing, for example, CCD image pickup devices whose sizes are different, or lens systems of different image angles for the respective CCD image pickup devices.
By applying the photographing systems of different image angles in this manner, the user is permitted to photograph the subject by, for example, a wide-angle photographing system while confirming the image formed by a telescopic photographing system.
By the way, in any of the second through fourth aspects, aspects as stated below can be performed.
As the fifth aspect, the display control unit displays the respective images formed by the main photographing system and the sub photographing system, on a single display screen.
In accordance with the fifth aspect, the display control unit in any of the second through fourth aspects can display the respective images formed by the main photographing system and the sub photographing system, on the single display screen. By way of example, in a case where a telescopic photographing system and a wide-angle photographing system are included, the image formed by the wide-angle photographing system can be displayed at the central part of the image formed by the telescopic photographing system, or the image formed by the other photographing system can be displayed as being small at part of the image formed by one photographing system.
In the sixth aspect, in any of the second through fourth aspects, the display control unit has a plurality of display screens, and image information items which indicate the image formed by one photographing system and the image formed by the other photographing system are respectively displayed on the separate display screens.
That is, in accordance with the sixth aspect, the display control unit in any of the second through fourth aspects can display the respective images formed by the plurality of photographing systems, on the separate display screens. By way of example, the display screens can be disposed in the number of the photographing systems so as to display the respective images. On this occasion, by disposing the display screens of different sizes, the display control may well be performed so as to display the image formed by the photographing system determined by the changeover switch, on the larger display screen. Besides, all the plurality of display screens may well be equalized in size.
As the seventh aspect, in each of the above aspects, the main photographing system and the sub photographing system are constructed of a single optical system which forms an image of a subject, a splitting unit which splits the subject image formed by the optical system, into a plurality of images, and a plurality of image pickup devices which pick up the subject images split by the splitting unit.
In accordance with the seventh aspect, in each of the above aspects, the plurality of photographing systems (main photographing system and sub photographing system) are constructed of the single optical system, the splitting unit and the plurality of image pickup devices, and the subject image entering the optical system is split by the splitting unit into the plurality of images, which are formed on the plurality of image pickup devices. Thus, the subject images can be photographed by the plurality of photographing systems. It is possible, for example, to split light entered from one lens, into two light beams by the splitting unit such as semitransparent mirror, and to form the images of the light beams on the two image pickup devices such as CCDs.
As the eighth aspect, in each of the above aspects, each of the main photographing system and the sub photographing system is constructed of an optical system which focuses a subject, and an image pickup device which forms a subject image focused by the optical system.
In accordance with the eighth aspect, in each of the above aspects, each of the plurality of photographing systems (main photographing system and sub photographing system) is permitted to construct one photographing system out of the optical system and the image pickup device. That is, the photographing systems can be rendered independent of each other, and various photographing modes such as telescopic, wide-angle and zooming modes are possible by disposing the plurality of independent photographing systems in this manner.
As the ninth aspect, in the first aspect, the first photographing system and the second photographing system include image pickup devices which picks up an image of a subject, an optical system which focuses subject on the image pickup devices, and a focus adjustment unit which adjusts a focus for the subject, and the display control unit performs the display control so as to display a focus adjustment state which indicates a state of the focus adjustment based on the focus adjustment unit of the photographing system determined by the changeover switch, as information other than the formed image.
In order to accomplish the above object, a digital camera in the first aspect of a second invention comprises a first photographing system and a second photographing system which respectively photograph a subject; a changeover switch which changeovers a photographing system for photographing the subject, to one of said first photographing system or said second photographing system; and a utilization unit which utilizes focus adjustment information at the time when a focus is adjusted when photographing the subject with one photographing system determined by said changeover switch, for a use other than the focus adjustment.
As the second aspect, in the first aspect, said first photographing system and said second photographing system include image pickup devices which picks up the image of the subject, an optical system which forms the image of the subject on said image pickup devices, and a focus adjustment unit which adjusts a focus for the subject; and said utilization unit displays the photographed image obtained by one photographing system determined by said changeover switch, and displays a focus adjustment state which expresses a state of the focus adjustment based on said focus adjustment unit of said one photographing system determined by said changeover switch, on the basis of the focus adjustment information at the time when the focus is adjusted when photographing the subject by said one photographing system.
More specifically, in this aspect, at least one photographing system is comprised. The photographing system includes the image pickup devices which picks up the image of the subject, the optical system which forms the image of the subject on the image pickup devices, and the focus adjustment unit which adjusts the focus for the subject.
Here, in a prior-art digital camera, a focus for a subject is adjusted, but a range in which the focusing is to be established, if the focusing has been established, etc. are not known.
Therefore, the utilization unit in this aspect displays the image obtained by the imaging of the photographing system, and the focus adjustment state expressing the state of the focus adjustment based on the focus adjustment unit.
Here, the focus adjustment state may well be set as at least one of a focusing range which is that range of the subject in which the focus is being adjusted, and the adjusted result of the focus.
In this manner, the image obtained by the imaging of the photographing system and the focus adjustment state expressing the state of the focus adjustment based on the focus adjustment unit are displayed, so that the focus adjustment state can be recognized.
Here, the invention comprises at least one photographing system, and it may well comprise the first photographing system which photographs the subject, and the second photographing system the photographing state of which is different from that of the first photographing system.
In the third aspect, when said photographing systems have been changed over by said changeover switch, said utilization unit displays an adjusted result of the focus in correspondence with the image obtained by the photographing of the photographing system determined by said changeover switch, and it displays a focusing range being that range of the subject in which the focus is being adjusted, in correspondence with, at least, the image obtained by the imaging of the changed over photographing system.
In this manner, the utilization unit displays the adjusted result of the focus in correspondence with the image obtained by the photographing of the photographing system determined by the changeover switch, and it displays the focusing range being that range of the subject in which the focus is being adjusted, in correspondence with, at least, the image obtained by the imaging of the changed over photographing system, so that the focus adjustment state can be recognized more.
Incidentally, it is also allowed to employ such a construction that the plurality of photographing systems include a first photographing system, and a second photographing system the photographing state of which is different from that of the first photographing system, and that a utilization unit displays an image formed by one photographing system determined by a changeover switch, while it performs a display control so as to display image information indicative of an image formed by the other photographing system.
In the fourth aspect, said second photographing system has a focal depth set shorter than that of said first photographing system; and a focus adjustment control unit is further comprised for controlling the respective focus adjustment units of said first photographing system and said second photographing system so that, when said second photographing system has been determined by said changeover switch, the focus adjustment unit of said first photographing system may be controlled so as to perform the focus adjustment based on the first focus adjustment unit, whereupon the focus adjustment based on the focus adjustment unit of said second photographing system is performed on the basis of a focus adjustment result based on said first focus adjustment unit.
When the second photographing system has been determined by the changeover switch, that is, when the subject is to be photographed by the second photographing system, note must be taken of the fact that the second optical system is set shorter in the focal depth than the first optical system. On account of this fact, in case of adjusting the focus by the second focus adjustment unit, a focal distance range in which the focus adjustment is performed by the second focus adjustment unit of the second photographing system is broader than in the first photographing system, so that a longer time is expended on a search for the focus in the focus adjustment.
Therefore, the focus adjustment control unit controls the respective focus adjustment units of the first photographing system and the second photographing system so that, after the focus adjustment unit of the first photographing system is controlled so as to perform the focus adjustment based on the first focus adjustment unit, the focus adjustment based on the focus adjustment unit of the second photographing system may be performed on the basis of the focus adjustment result based on the first focus adjustment unit.
More specifically, when the subject is to be photographed by the second photographing system, the first focus adjustment unit is controlled by the focus adjustment control unit so as to perform the focus adjustment, and a rough focal distance is specified by the focus adjustment based on the first focus adjustment unit. Thereafter, the second focus adjustment unit is controlled so as to perform the focal adjustment based on this unit, in order to search, for example, the range of the specified rough focal distance for a focal position on the basis of the result of the focus adjustment based on the first focus adjustment unit. That is, after the rough focal position is specified by the first photographing system of narrower focal distance range (longer focal depth), the focus adjustment based on the second photographing system is performed on the basis of the specified rough focal position. Therefore, as compared with a case where a focal distance is specified by only the second photographing system of wider focal distance range (shorter focal depth), the search for the focal position can be made in the narrower range, and hence, a time period required for the focus search can be rendered shorter.
Incidentally, the second optical system can employ a zoom lens. Since the focal depth of the zoom lens is short, a long time is expended on the focus adjustment. In this regard, the time period for the focus adjustment based on the second photographing system can be shortened in such a way that the rough focal position is specified by the first photographing system which is longer in the focal depth than the zoom lens.
Besides, the first optical system can employ a monofocal lens. Since the monofocal lens has a long focal depth, a focal search can be made in a short time in specifying the rough focal position, by employing the monofocal lens for the first optical system.
In the fifth aspect, said first photographing system includes a first image pickup device which picks up an image of a subject, a first monofocal optical system which forms the image of the subject on said first image pickup device, and a first focus adjustment unit which adjusts a focus for the subject, while said second photographing system includes a second image pickup device which picks up an image of a subject, a second variable-focus optical system whose focus is variable and which forms an image of the subject on said second image pickup device, and a second focus adjustment unit which adjusts the focus for the subject; said digital camera further comprises a single image-angle alteration unit by which an alteration of an image angle is instructed; and in a case where said first photographing system has been determined by said changeover switch and where the alteration of the image angle has been instructed by said image-angle alteration unit, said utilization unit submits image data obtained by said first photographing system, to image processing so as to correspond to an image whose image angle is altered in correspondence with the instruction of said image-angle alteration unit, while in a case where said second photographing system has been determined by said changeover switch and where the alteration of the image angle has been instructed by said image-angle alteration unit, said utilization unit utilizes the focus adjustment information by adjusting said second variable-focus optical system through said second focus adjustment unit so as to alter the image angle in correspondence with the instruction of said image-angle alteration unit.
That is, the digital camera according to the invention comprises the first photographing system and the second photographing system. The first photographing system includes the first image pickup device which picks up the image of the subject, the first monofocal optical system which forms, the image of the subject on the first image pickup device, and the first focus adjustment unit which adjusts the focus for the subject.
The second photographing system includes the second image pickup device which picks up the image of the subject, the second variable-focus optical system whose focus is variable and which forms the image of the subject on the second image pickup device, and the second focus adjustment unit which adjusts the focus for the subject.
The changeover switch changeovers the photographing system for photographing the subject, to the first photographing system or the second photographing system. The image-angle alteration unit serves to instruct the alteration of the image angle, and the invention comprises the single image-angle alteration unit.
In the case where the first photographing system has been determined by the changeover switch and where the alteration of the image angle has been instructed by the image-angle alteration unit, the utilization unit submits the image data obtained by the first photographing system, to the image processing so as to alter the image angle in correspondence with the instruction of the image-angle alteration unit.
Besides, in the case where the second photographing system has been determined by the changeover switch and where the alteration of the image angle has been instructed by the image-angle alteration unit, the utilization unit adjusts the second variable-focus optical system through the second focus adjustment unit so as to alter the image angle in correspondence with the instruction of the image-angle alteration unit.
In this manner, the alterations of the image angles of the first and second photographing systems can be instructed by the single image-angle alteration unit, so that the apparatus can be rendered simple in construction.
Meanwhile, in the case where the second photographing system has been determined by the changeover switch and where the alteration of the image angle has been instructed by the image-angle alteration unit, the utilization unit adjusts the second variable-focus optical system. In this regard, in a case where the second variable-focus optical system has been instructed to alter the image angle in excess of an adjustable range, by the image-angle alteration unit through the second focus adjustment unit, the image angle cannot be altered by the adjustment of the second variable-focus optical system.
In the sixth aspect, therefore, in a case where said second variable-focus optical system has been instructed to alter the image angle in excess of an adjustable range by said image-angle alteration unit through said second focus adjustment unit said utilization unit submits image data obtained by said second photographing system to image processing so as to correspond to an image whose image angle is altered in correspondence with the instruction of said image-angle alteration unit.
In the seventh aspect, a display device which displays images is further comprised, and said image-angle control unit controls said display device so as to display the images which are respectively obtained by said first photographing system and said second photographing system, regardless of a changeover state based on said changeover switch.
In the eighth aspect, a display device which displays images is further comprised, and said image-angle control unit controls said display device so as to display only the image obtained by said first photographing system, in a case where said first photographing system has been determined by said changeover switch, and to display the images respectively obtained by said first photographing system and said second photographing system, in a case where said second photographing system has been determined by said changeover switch.
In the ninth aspect, said optical system of said second photographing system has a focal depth set shorter than that of said optical system of said first photographing system; and in a case where said second photographing system has been determined by said changeover switch, the image-angle control unit controls the respective focus adjustment units of said first photographing system and said second photographing system so that, after said focus adjustment unit of said first photographing unit is controlled so as to perform the focus adjustment based on said first focus adjustment unit, the focus adjustment based on said focus adjustment unit of said second photographing system may be performed on the basis of a result of the focus adjustment based on said first focus adjustment unit.
More specifically, when the subject is to be photographed by the second photographing system, the first focus adjustment unit is controlled by the control unit so as to perform the focus adjustment based on the first focus adjustment unit, and a rough focal distance is specified. Thereafter, the second focus adjustment unit is controlled so as to perform the focal adjustment based on this unit, in order to search, for example, the range of the specified rough focal distance for a focal position on the basis of the result of the focus adjustment based on the first focus adjustment unit. That is, after the rough focal position is specified by the first photographing system of narrower focal distance range (longer focal depth), the focus adjustment based on the second photographing system is performed on the basis of the specified rough focal position. Therefore, as compared with a case where a focal distance is specified by only the second photographing system of wider focal distance range (shorter focal depth), the search for the focal position can be made in the narrower range, and hence, a time period required for the focus search can be rendered shorter.
Incidentally, a zoom lens can be employed as the second variable-focus optical system. Since the focal depth of the zoom lens is short, a long time is expended on the focus adjustment. In this regard, the time period for the focus adjustment based on the second photographing system can be shortened in such a way that the rough focal position is specified by the first photographing system which is longer in the focal depth than the zoom lens.
Besides, a monofocal lens can be employed as the first monofocal optical system. Since the monofocal lens has a long focal depth, a focal search can be made in a short time in specifying the rough focal position, by employing the monofocal lens for the first optical system.
In order to accomplish the above object, a digital camera in the first aspect of a third invention comprises a first photographing system and a second photographing system which respectively pick up an image of a subject; and a focus adjustment control unit which performs a focus adjustment when photographing the subject by at least one of said first photographing system and said second photographing system, by utilizing both said first photographing system and said second photographing system.
In the second aspect, said first photographing system includes a first image pickup device which picks up an image of a subject, a first optical system which forms the image of the subject on said first image pickup device, and a first focus adjustment unit which adjusts a focus for the subject, while said second photographing system includes a second image pickup device which picks up an image of a subject, a second optical system which forms the image of the subject on said second image pickup device and which has a focal depth set shorter than that of said first optical system, and a second focus adjustment unit which adjusts the focus for the subject; and when the subject is to be photographed by said second photographing system, said focus adjustment control unit controls said first focus adjustment unit so as to perform the focus adjustment based on said first focus adjustment unit and thereafter controls said second focus adjustment unit so as to perform the focus adjustment based on said second focus adjustment unit, on the basis of a result of the focus adjustment based on said first focus adjustment unit.
The first imaging system consists of the first image pickup device, the first optical system and the first focus adjustment unit, and the subject image is formed on the first image pickup device by the first optical system. On this occasion, the focal position is adjusted by the first focus adjustment unit.
Besides, the second imaging system similarly consists of the second image pickup device, the second optical system and the second focus adjustment unit, and the subject image is formed on the second image pickup device by the second optical system. On this occasion, the focal position is adjusted by the second focus adjustment unit.
Here, in a case where the subject is to be photographed by the second photographing system, note must be taken of the fact that the second optical system is set shorter in the focal depth than the first optical system. On account of this fact, in case of adjusting the focus by the second focus adjustment unit, a focal distance range in which the focus adjustment is performed by the second focus adjustment unit of the second photographing system is broader than in the first photographing system, so that a longer time is expended on a search for the focus in the focus adjustment.
Therefore, when the subject is to be photographed by the second photographing system, the first focus adjustment unit is controlled by the focus adjustment control unit so as to perform the focus adjustment based on the first focus adjustment unit, and a rough focal distance is specified. Thereafter, the second focus adjustment unit is controlled so as to perform the focal adjustment based on the second focus adjustment unit, in order to search, for example, the range of the specified rough focal distance for the focal position on the basis of the result of the focus adjustment based on the first focus adjustment unit. That is, after the rough focal position is specified by the first photographing system of narrower focal distance range (longer focal depth), the focus adjustment based on the second photographing system is performed on the basis of the specified rough focal position. Therefore, as compared with a case where a focal distance is specified by only the second photographing system of wider focal distance range (shorter focal depth), the search for the focal position can be made in the narrower range, and hence, a time period required for the focus search can be rendered shorter.
In the third aspect, said second optical system includes a zoom lens. Accordingly, the rough focal position is specified by the first photographing system the focal depth of which is longer than that of the zoom lens, whereby a time period for the focus adjustment based on the second photographing system can be shortened.
Besides, said first optical system can employ a monofocal lens. Since the monofocal lens has a long focal depth, the focus can be searched for in a short time in specifying the rough focal position, by employing the monofocal lens for the first optical system.
Further, the fourth aspect further comprises a changeover switch which changeovers a photographing system for photographing the subject, to one of said first photographing system or said second photographing system, and a display device which displays images; and said focus adjustment control unit controls said display device so as to display the image formed by one photographing system determined by said changeover switch, and to display image information indicative of the image formed by the other photographing system.
Thus, while the image formed by either of the first photographing system and the second photographing system is being displayed, also the image information indicative of the image formed by the other photographing system can be displayed. It is therefore possible to confirm during photographing, also the image information indicative of the image which is other than the image formed by one photographing system and which is formed by the other photographing system. Accordingly, the photographing can be performed as the situation of surroundings is grasped.
Incidentally, the fifth aspect further comprises a recording unit which records the image photographed by said one photographing system determined by said changeover switch. Besides, in the sixth aspect, said first photographing system and said second photographing system are photographing systems whose image angles are different from each other.
By the way, in the seventh aspect, a focal distance is specified within a predetermined range on the basis of the result of the first focus adjustment, and the focus adjustment based on the second focus adjustment unit is controlled so as to proceed only within the predetermined range.
Besides, in the eighth aspect, each of the first focus adjustment unit and the second focus adjustment unit includes a drive unit which drives a focusing lens included in the corresponding optical system, and a focus control unit which calculates a contrast value from image data representing the subject image obtained from the corresponding image pickup device and which controls the drive unit on the basis of the contrast value.
In the ninth aspect, said first photographing system includes a first image pickup device which picks up a subject, and a first lens which forms the image of the subject on said first image pickup device; said second photographing system includes a second image pickup device which is substantially identical to said first image pickup device, and a second lens which is substantially identical to said first lens; and said focus adjustment control unit drives said first lens so as to move from a first predetermined position side at which said first lens is to be located in a case where a focusing position is one end of a predetermined photographing distance range, toward a second predetermined position side at which said first lens is to be located in a case where the focusing position is the other end of the photographing distance range, while it drives said second lens so as to move from the second predetermined position side toward the first predetermined position side, and it performs the focus adjustment on the basis of the image of the subject obtained by said first image pickup device and the image of the subject obtained by said second image pickup device.
In accordance with the ninth aspect, the two photographing systems which are substantially identical in construction (performance) are comprised. Each of the photographing systems includes the image pickup device, and the lens for forming the image of the subject on the image pickup device.
The focus adjustment control unit performs the focus adjustment on the basis of the image of the subject obtained by the first image pickup device and the image of the subject obtained by the second image pickup device.
The focus adjustment control unit executes the focus adjustment while moving the first lens and the second lens. More specifically, the first lens is driven so as to move from the first predetermined position side at which the first lens is to be located in the case where the focusing position is one end of the predetermined photographing distance range, toward the second predetermined position side at which the first lens is to be located in the case where the focusing position is the other end of the photographing distance range. Besides, simultaneously therewith, the second lens is driven so as to move from the second predetermined position side toward the first predetermined position side. Here, the photographing distance range can be set as, for example, a range from the infinite distance to the closest distance. In this case, one end of the photographing distance range is the position of the infinite distance, and the other end is the position of the closest distance.
In this manner, the focus adjustment is executed while the two lenses are being moved in directions opposite to each other, so that a time period for the focus adjustment can be sharply shortened.
In the tenth aspect, said first photographing system includes a first image pickup device which picks up a subject, and a first lens which forms the image of the subject on said first image pickup device; said second photographing system includes a second image pickup device which picks up a subject, and a second lens which forms the image of the subject on said second image pickup device, at least one of said second image pickup device and said second lens being different from the corresponding one of said first photographing system; and said focus adjustment control unit drives said first lens so as to move from a first predetermined position side at which said first lens is to be located in a case where a focusing position is one end of a predetermined photographing distance range, toward a second predetermined position side at which said first lens is to be located in a case where the focusing position is the other end of the photographing distance range, while it drives said second lens so as to move from the second predetermined position side toward the first predetermined position side, and it performs the focus adjustment on the basis of the image of the subject obtained by said first image pickup device and the image of the subject obtained by said second image pickup device.
In accordance with this aspect, the two photographing systems which are different in construction (performance) are comprised. Each of the photographing systems includes the image pickup device, and the lens for forming the image of the subject on the image pickup device. The respective photographing systems are different in, at least, either of the image pickup devices and the lenses. Such a difference includes, for example, the case of construction where the image pickup devices are different in size or the number of pixels and where the lenses are identical, or the case of construction where the image pickup devices are identical and where the image angles of the lenses are different.
The focus adjustment control unit performs the focus adjustment on the basis of the image of the subject obtained by the first image pickup device and the image of the subject obtained by the second image pickup device.
The focus adjustment control unit executes the focus adjustment while moving the first lens and the second lens. More specifically, the first lens is driven so as to move from the first predetermined position side at which the first lens is to be located in the case where the focusing position is one end of the predetermined photographing distance range, toward the second predetermined position side at which the first lens is to be located in the case where the focusing position is the other end of the photographing distance range. Besides, simultaneously therewith, the second lens is driven so as to move from the second predetermined position side toward the first predetermined position side. Here, the photographing distance range can be set as, for example, a range from the infinite distance to the closest distance. In this case, one end of the photographing distance range is the position of the infinite distance, and the other end is the position of the closest distance.
In this manner, the focus adjustment is executed while the two lenses are being moved in directions opposite to each other, so that a time period for the focus adjustment can be sharply shortened.
Here, even in a case, for example, where the numbers of pixels of the first image pickup device and the second image pickup device are different, no problem is posed on condition that the sizes thereof are equal. The reason therefor is that the subject to be imaged by the first image pickup device and the subject to be imaged by the second image pickup device are substantially identical, so the focusing positions of the first and second lenses become substantially identical.
On the other hand, in a case where the sizes of the first image pickup device and the second image pickup device are different, a problem might be posed because the subject to be imaged by the first image pickup device and the subject to be imaged by the second image pickup device are different.
In the eleventh aspect, said first image pickup device has a size different from that of said second image pickup device; and said focus adjustment control unit performs the focus adjustment on the basis of an image of a predetermined focus adjustment area in the image of the subject formed by said first image pickup device, and an image of a focus adjustment area having the same image angle as that of the first-mentioned focus adjustment area, in the image of the subject formed by said second image pickup device.
That is, the image angles of the focus adjustment areas are rendered identical in the two photographing systems. Thus, even in the case where the sizes of the image pickup devices are different, the images which are utilized for the focus adjustment become substantially identical, and hence, the peak positions of AF evaluation values can be rendered identical.
In the twelfth aspect, said focus adjustment control unit may well set an initial position of said first lens at the first predetermined position and an initial position of said second lens at the second predetermined position. Thus, in a case where the focusing position exists on one side of the photographing distance range, a time period for the focal adjustment can be sharply shortened.
In the thirteenth aspect, said focus adjustment control unit can calculate as a first evaluation value, contrast of the image of the subject formed by said first image pickup device, and as a second evaluation value, contrast of the image of the subject formed by said second image pickup device, and it can move said first lens and said second lens to a position at which at least one of the first evaluation value and the second evaluation value is maximized. Thus, the focus adjustment can be accurately performed on the basis of the contrasts of the formed images.
Alternatively, the focus adjustment unit may well be operated so as to find those positions of the first lens and the second lens at which the first evaluation value and the second evaluation value become substantially equal, to set a predetermined range which includes the middle position between the found positions of the first and second lenses, and to move the first lens to one end of the predetermined range and the second lens to the other end thereof.
The contrast of each formed image is considered to become the maximum at the focusing position and to decrease more at the same rate as the position of the corresponding lens comes nearer to an infinite distance side or a closest distance side with respect to the focusing position, and the focusing position is considered to exist at or near the middle position between those positions of the first and second lenses at which the first and second evaluation values become substantially equal. Accordingly, the predetermined range including the middle position is set as a range in which the focusing position exists, and the first lens is moved to one end of the predetermined range, while the second lens is moved to the other end of the predetermined range, whereupon the focus adjustment is consecutively executed. Thus, a time period for detecting the focusing position can be shortened still further.
It is also allowed to employ a construction comprising a photographing system which includes a first image pickup device for imaging a subject, a second image pickup device being substantially identical to said first image pickup device, a branch unit for branching light entered from the subject, to said first image pickup device and said second image pickup device, and a lens for forming the images of the subject on said first image pickup device and said second image pickup device; and a focus adjustment unit which drives said first image pickup device so as to move from a first predetermined position side where said first image pickup device is to be located when a focusing position is one end of a predetermined photographing distance range, toward a second predetermined position side where said first image pickup device is to be located when the focusing position is the other end of the photographing distance range, and also drives said second image pickup device so as to move from the second predetermined position side toward the first predetermined position side, and which performs a focus adjustment on the basis of the image of the subject obtained by said first image pickup device and the image of the subject obtained by said second image pickup device. Thus, the focus adjustment can be executed on the basis of the identical images, so that a more accurate focus adjustment can be effected.
Besides, it is allowed to employ a construction comprising a photographing system which includes a first image pickup device for imaging a subject, a second image pickup device being different from said first image pickup device, a branch unit for branching light entered from the subject, to said first image pickup device and said second image pickup device, and a lens for forming the images of the subject on said first image pickup device and said second image pickup device; and a focus adjustment unit which drives said first image pickup device so as to move from a first predetermined position side where said first image pickup device is to be located when a focusing position is one end of a predetermined photographing distance range, toward a second predetermined position side where said first image pickup device is to be located when the focusing position is the other end of the photographing distance range, and also drives said second image pickup device so as to move from the second predetermined position side toward the first predetermined position side, and which performs a focus adjustment on the basis of the image of the subject obtained by said first image pickup device and the image of the subject obtained by said second image pickup device.
The first image pickup device and the second image pickup device are different in, at least, one of size and the number of pixels by way of example, and the focus adjustment can be implemented as described before. A more accurate focus adjustment can be effected by sharing the lens in this manner.
A digital camera according to a fourth invention comprises at least one photographing system which includes an image pickup device which picks up an image of a subject, an optical system which forms an image of the subject on said image pickup device, and a focus adjustment unit for adjusting a focus for the subject; and a display unit which displays the picked up an image of said photographing system, and further displays a focus adjustment state indicated by said focus adjustment unit.
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SUMMARY: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital camera, and more particularly to a digital camera including a display device which displays an image formed by an image pickup device such as CCD.
The invention relates to a digital camera having a plurality of photographing systems, and more particularly to a digital camera having a plurality of photographing systems which are independently constructed including a plurality of solid-state image pickup devices such as CCDs, and which have automatic focusing functions, respectively.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a large number of digital cameras have been distributed as imaging apparatuses each having a CCD image pickup device or the like which is capable of easy photographing. In its photographing operation, the digital camera reads charges corresponding to the quantity of light (through photoelectric conversion) every pixel by the CCD image pickup device or the like, and converts the charges into image data, whereupon it records a photographed image as the image data on a recording medium such as magnetic recording medium.
In the course from the formation of an image to the recording, the digital conversion process of the formed image, an image creation process for displaying the formed image and a recording process for recording the photographed image are respectively executed as principal processes every photographing frame.
Besides, the digital camera of this type has become capable of photographing a dynamic image, owing to the use of the CCD image pickup device or the like. It has been proposed to photograph a dynamic image, for example, in such a way that a plurality of lens units are arrayed in the direction of an optic axis, and that the respective lens units are driven to zoom in accordance with photographing optical systems changed over and selected, so as to form optical images on the CCD (refer to JP-A No. 10-262175).
Further, imaging apparatuses etc. each including a plurality of CCD image pickup devices have been proposed. By way of example, in a technique disclosed in JP-A No. 11-122536, it has been proposed to dispose a plurality of CCDs for black-and-white use and for color use or ones of different device sizes, and a control unit for driving the CCDs, to divide an optical signal from an optical lens and receive divided signals by the respective CCDs, and to execute a signal process by the control unit. In this technique, the CCDs for photographing are changed over in accordance with the situation of surroundings, whereby an image corresponding to the circumstances can be obtained.
The digital camera stated above includes a zoom lever, and has the zoom function of enlarging or reducing the image of a subject on the basis of the operation of the zoom lever. There has also been proposed a camera including two photographing systems, and two display units which correspond to the respective photographing systems and which display images obtained by the respective photographing systems.
With the prior-art digital camera, however, during telescopic photographing, only a subject to be photographed can be confirmed by an optical finder or a display device of liquid crystal or the like functioning as the optical finder, and the situation of surroundings cannot be confirmed. This poses, for example, the problem that the proceeding of a game is not noticed in sports photographing, so the photographing of a scoring scene or any accident is missed.
Besides, an autofocusing function in the prior art poses a problem in case of using a lens of short focal depth, such as zoom lens, and depending upon the reference position and focal position of the lens on the occasion of autofocusing. More specifically, as shown inFIG. 18by way of example, when contrast at each lens position is calculated as the lens is moved in the direction of arrow A inFIG. 18(as the lens is moved from the side of the longest focal distance), a distance which the lens is moved till the detection of the maximum value of the contrast becomes longer than in case of moving the lens in the opposite direction to the direction of the arrow A, so that a longer time is expended in searching for the focal position.
Besides, in the case of using a lens of short focal depth, such as zoom lens, it is common that a stepping motor for driving the focusing lens is driven at intervals of several steps, thereby to specify a rough focal position range (as rough search), whereupon the stepping motor is finely driven, thereby to search the specified rough focal position range for a focus. Even on this occasion, as in the above, there is the problem that, since a focus search range is extensive in the rough search, a distance which the lens is moved becomes long, so a long time is expended in searching for a focal position.
Besides, even when the digital camera has the autofocusing function, a user cannot know which range the image of a subject is automatically focused on the CCD in, if the image of the subject has been focused, and so forth.
Further, it is considered to furnish a camera with two photographing systems, and two display units which display images obtained by the respective imaging systems, in correspondence with these respective imaging systems, and to dispose zoom levers in correspondence with the respective imaging systems in case of widening or narrowing an image angle.
Besides, an autofocusing function in the prior art performs autofocusing in such a way that, as shown inFIG. 35by way of example, the position of a lens focusing in a case where a photographing distance to a subject is the closest distance previously determined is set as an initial position, whereupon a lens position at which a contrast value becomes the maximum value is found as a focusing position as the lens is driven stepwise every predetermined distance L from the initial position to the position of the lens focusing in a case where the photographing distance to the subject is an infinite distance. Accordingly, there is the problem that, when the focusing position lies on an infinite distance side as shown inFIG. 35, a long time is expended on the detection of the focusing position. With a contrary setting at which the position of the lens focusing in a case where the photographing distance to the subject is the infinite distance is set as an initial position, a long time is expended on the detection of the focusing position when the focusing position lies on a closest distance side.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in order to solve the above problems, and has for its first object to provide a digital camera which can photograph while grasping the situation of surroundings.
The invention has been made in order to solve the above problems, and has for its second object to provide a digital camera having a plurality of photographing systems as can shorten a search time for a focal position.
The invention has been made in view of the above facts, and has for its third object to provide a digital camera which is capable of recognizing a focus adjustment state.
The invention has been made in view of the above facts, and has for its fourth object to provide a digital camera which can have a simple apparatus construction even when it includes two photographing systems and is permitted to change the size of the image of a subject.
The invention has been made in order to solve the above problems, and has for its fifth object to provide a digital camera which can shorten a detection time for a focusing position.
In order to accomplish the first object, the first aspect of a digital camera according to a first invention comprises a first photographing system and a second photographing system which respectively photograph a subject; a changeover switch which changeovers a photographing system for photographing the subject, to one of said first photographing system and said second photographing system; and a display control unit which displays an image formed by one photographing system determined by said changeover switch, and which performs a display control so as to display information other than the formed image.
That is, the first photographing system and the second photographing system respectively photograph the subject.
The changeover switch changeovers the photographing system for photographing the subject, to either the first photographing system or the second photographing system. The display control unit displays the image formed by one photographing system determined by the changeover switch, and it performs the display control so as to display the information other than the formed image.
Here, in the second aspect, a photographing state of said second photographing system differs from a photographing state of said first photographing system; and said display control unit performs the display control so as to display image information which is the information other than said formed image, and which represents an image formed by the other photographing system not being said photographing system determined by said changeover switch.
More specifically, in accordance with this aspect, photographing systems which include a main photographing system and a sub photographing system are included as the first photographing system and the second photographing system, and the main photographing system and the sub photographing system photograph the subject in the photographing states different from each other (for example, photographing states of different image angles). For example, the subject can be photographed in the different photographing states in such a way that the subject is photographed by employing a plurality of CCD image pickup devices of different sizes. Incidentally, each of the photographing systems may consist of a single photographing system, or it may well consist of the main photographing system and the sub photographing system.
The changeover switch changeovers the photographing system for photographing the subject, to either the main photographing system or the subphotographing system. Besides, the display control unit displays the image formed by one photographing system determined by the changeover switch, and it performs the display control so as to display the image information which represents the image formed by the other photographing system. The display control may be performed so as to display the image formed by the other photographing system, as the image information, or it may well be performed so as to display the information of, e.g., a region corresponding to the formed image. Besides, the display control may well be performed so as to display information other than the formed image, e.g., the operation menu of the digital camera, as the image information.
Thus, as the image formed by one photographing system is displayed, the image information indicative of the image formed by the other photographing system can also be displayed, so that the image information indicative of the image which is formed by the other photographing system and which is other than the image formed by one photographing system can also be confirmed in photographing. Accordingly, the subject can be photographed as the situation of surroundings is grasped.
Besides, in the third aspect, the digital camera further comprises a recording unit which records the image formed by said one photographing system determined by said changeover switch. In accordance with this aspect, the recording unit is further comprised in the second aspect, and the recording unit records the image formed by one photographing system determined by the changeover switch. Thus, only the image formed by one photographing system is recorded without recording the image formed by the other photographing system, so that the recording capacity of the recording unit can be suppressed.
Moreover, in a case where the image formed by one photographing system is recorded by the recording unit, a user can record it while confirming the image information indicative of the image formed by the other photographing system as displayed by the display control of the display control unit. Therefore, when the user wants to record the image formed by the other photographing system, in this case, he/she can record it easily by altering one photographing system to the other photographing system through the changeover of the changeover switch, and he/she is prevented from missing a shutter chance.
In accordance with the fourth aspect, in the second aspect or the third aspect, the first and the second photographing system are respectively constructed of photographing systems whose image angles are different from each other. This can be incarnated by employing, for example, CCD image pickup devices whose sizes are different, or lens systems of different image angles for the respective CCD image pickup devices.
By applying the photographing systems of different image angles in this manner, the user is permitted to photograph the subject by, for example, a wide-angle photographing system while confirming the image formed by a telescopic photographing system.
By the way, in any of the second through fourth aspects, aspects as stated below can be performed.
As the fifth aspect, the display control unit displays the respective images formed by the main photographing system and the sub photographing system, on a single display screen.
In accordance with the fifth aspect, the display control unit in any of the second through fourth aspects can display the respective images formed by the main photographing system and the sub photographing system, on the single display screen. By way of example, in a case where a telescopic photographing system and a wide-angle photographing system are included, the image formed by the wide-angle photographing system can be displayed at the central part of the image formed by the telescopic photographing system, or the image formed by the other photographing system can be displayed as being small at part of the image formed by one photographing system.
In the sixth aspect, in any of the second through fourth aspects, the display control unit has a plurality of display screens, and image information items which indicate the image formed by one photographing system and the image formed by the other photographing system are respectively displayed on the separate display screens.
That is, in accordance with the sixth aspect, the display control unit in any of the second through fourth aspects can display the respective images formed by the plurality of photographing systems, on the separate display screens. By way of example, the display screens can be disposed in the number of the photographing systems so as to display the respective images. On this occasion, by disposing the display screens of different sizes, the display control may well be performed so as to display the image formed by the photographing system determined by the changeover switch, on the larger display screen. Besides, all the plurality of display screens may well be equalized in size.
As the seventh aspect, in each of the above aspects, the main photographing system and the sub photographing system are constructed of a single optical system which forms an image of a subject, a splitting unit which splits the subject image formed by the optical system, into a plurality of images, and a plurality of image pickup devices which pick up the subject images split by the splitting unit.
In accordance with the seventh aspect, in each of the above aspects, the plurality of photographing systems (main photographing system and sub photographing system) are constructed of the single optical system, the splitting unit and the plurality of image pickup devices, and the subject image entering the optical system is split by the splitting unit into the plurality of images, which are formed on the plurality of image pickup devices. Thus, the subject images can be photographed by the plurality of photographing systems. It is possible, for example, to split light entered from one lens, into two light beams by the splitting unit such as semitransparent mirror, and to form the images of the light beams on the two image pickup devices such as CCDs.
As the eighth aspect, in each of the above aspects, each of the main photographing system and the sub photographing system is constructed of an optical system which focuses a subject, and an image pickup device which forms a subject image focused by the optical system.
In accordance with the eighth aspect, in each of the above aspects, each of the plurality of photographing systems (main photographing system and sub photographing system) is permitted to construct one photographing system out of the optical system and the image pickup device. That is, the photographing systems can be rendered independent of each other, and various photographing modes such as telescopic, wide-angle and zooming modes are possible by disposing the plurality of independent photographing systems in this manner.
As the ninth aspect, in the first aspect, the first photographing system and the second photographing system include image pickup devices which picks up an image of a subject, an optical system which focuses subject on the image pickup devices, and a focus adjustment unit which adjusts a focus for the subject, and the display control unit performs the display control so as to display a focus adjustment state which indicates a state of the focus adjustment based on the focus adjustment unit of the photographing system determined by the changeover switch, as information other than the formed image.
In order to accomplish the above object, a digital camera in the first aspect of a second invention comprises a first photographing system and a second photographing system which respectively photograph a subject; a changeover switch which changeovers a photographing system for photographing the subject, to one of said first photographing system or said second photographing system; and a utilization unit which utilizes focus adjustment information at the time when a focus is adjusted when photographing the subject with one photographing system determined by said changeover switch, for a use other than the focus adjustment.
As the second aspect, in the first aspect, said first photographing system and said second photographing system include image pickup devices which picks up the image of the subject, an optical system which forms the image of the subject on said image pickup devices, and a focus adjustment unit which adjusts a focus for the subject; and said utilization unit displays the photographed image obtained by one photographing system determined by said changeover switch, and displays a focus adjustment state which expresses a state of the focus adjustment based on said focus adjustment unit of said one photographing system determined by said changeover switch, on the basis of the focus adjustment information at the time when the focus is adjusted when photographing the subject by said one photographing system.
More specifically, in this aspect, at least one photographing system is comprised. The photographing system includes the image pickup devices which picks up the image of the subject, the optical system which forms the image of the subject on the image pickup devices, and the focus adjustment unit which adjusts the focus for the subject.
Here, in a prior-art digital camera, a focus for a subject is adjusted, but a range in which the focusing is to be established, if the focusing has been established, etc. are not known.
Therefore, the utilization unit in this aspect displays the image obtained by the imaging of the photographing system, and the focus adjustment state expressing the state of the focus adjustment based on the focus adjustment unit.
Here, the focus adjustment state may well be set as at least one of a focusing range which is that range of the subject in which the focus is being adjusted, and the adjusted result of the focus.
In this manner, the image obtained by the imaging of the photographing system and the focus adjustment state expressing the state of the focus adjustment based on the focus adjustment unit are displayed, so that the focus adjustment state can be recognized.
Here, the invention comprises at least one photographing system, and it may well comprise the first photographing system which photographs the subject, and the second photographing system the photographing state of which is different from that of the first photographing system.
In the third aspect, when said photographing systems have been changed over by said changeover switch, said utilization unit displays an adjusted result of the focus in correspondence with the image obtained by the photographing of the photographing system determined by said changeover switch, and it displays a focusing range being that range of the subject in which the focus is being adjusted, in correspondence with, at least, the image obtained by the imaging of the changed over photographing system.
In this manner, the utilization unit displays the adjusted result of the focus in correspondence with the image obtained by the photographing of the photographing system determined by the changeover switch, and it displays the focusing range being that range of the subject in which the focus is being adjusted, in correspondence with, at least, the image obtained by the imaging of the changed over photographing system, so that the focus adjustment state can be recognized more.
Incidentally, it is also allowed to employ such a construction that the plurality of photographing systems include a first photographing system, and a second photographing system the photographing state of which is different from that of the first photographing system, and that a utilization unit displays an image formed by one photographing system determined by a changeover switch, while it performs a display control so as to display image information indicative of an image formed by the other photographing system.
In the fourth aspect, said second photographing system has a focal depth set shorter than that of said first photographing system; and a focus adjustment control unit is further comprised for controlling the respective focus adjustment units of said first photographing system and said second photographing system so that, when said second photographing system has been determined by said changeover switch, the focus adjustment unit of said first photographing system may be controlled so as to perform the focus adjustment based on the first focus adjustment unit, whereupon the focus adjustment based on the focus adjustment unit of said second photographing system is performed on the basis of a focus adjustment result based on said first focus adjustment unit.
When the second photographing system has been determined by the changeover switch, that is, when the subject is to be photographed by the second photographing system, note must be taken of the fact that the second optical system is set shorter in the focal depth than the first optical system. On account of this fact, in case of adjusting the focus by the second focus adjustment unit, a focal distance range in which the focus adjustment is performed by the second focus adjustment unit of the second photographing system is broader than in the first photographing system, so that a longer time is expended on a search for the focus in the focus adjustment.
Therefore, the focus adjustment control unit controls the respective focus adjustment units of the first photographing system and the second photographing system so that, after the focus adjustment unit of the first photographing system is controlled so as to perform the focus adjustment based on the first focus adjustment unit, the focus adjustment based on the focus adjustment unit of the second photographing system may be performed on the basis of the focus adjustment result based on the first focus adjustment unit.
More specifically, when the subject is to be photographed by the second photographing system, the first focus adjustment unit is controlled by the focus adjustment control unit so as to perform the focus adjustment, and a rough focal distance is specified by the focus adjustment based on the first focus adjustment unit. Thereafter, the second focus adjustment unit is controlled so as to perform the focal adjustment based on this unit, in order to search, for example, the range of the specified rough focal distance for a focal position on the basis of the result of the focus adjustment based on the first focus adjustment unit. That is, after the rough focal position is specified by the first photographing system of narrower focal distance range (longer focal depth), the focus adjustment based on the second photographing system is performed on the basis of the specified rough focal position. Therefore, as compared with a case where a focal distance is specified by only the second photographing system of wider focal distance range (shorter focal depth), the search for the focal position can be made in the narrower range, and hence, a time period required for the focus search can be rendered shorter.
Incidentally, the second optical system can employ a zoom lens. Since the focal depth of the zoom lens is short, a long time is expended on the focus adjustment. In this regard, the time period for the focus adjustment based on the second photographing system can be shortened in such a way that the rough focal position is specified by the first photographing system which is longer in the focal depth than the zoom lens.
Besides, the first optical system can employ a monofocal lens. Since the monofocal lens has a long focal depth, a focal search can be made in a short time in specifying the rough focal position, by employing the monofocal lens for the first optical system.
In the fifth aspect, said first photographing system includes a first image pickup device which picks up an image of a subject, a first monofocal optical system which forms the image of the subject on said first image pickup device, and a first focus adjustment unit which adjusts a focus for the subject, while said second photographing system includes a second image pickup device which picks up an image of a subject, a second variable-focus optical system whose focus is variable and which forms an image of the subject on said second image pickup device, and a second focus adjustment unit which adjusts the focus for the subject; said digital camera further comprises a single image-angle alteration unit by which an alteration of an image angle is instructed; and in a case where said first photographing system has been determined by said changeover switch and where the alteration of the image angle has been instructed by said image-angle alteration unit, said utilization unit submits image data obtained by said first photographing system, to image processing so as to correspond to an image whose image angle is altered in correspondence with the instruction of said image-angle alteration unit, while in a case where said second photographing system has been determined by said changeover switch and where the alteration of the image angle has been instructed by said image-angle alteration unit, said utilization unit utilizes the focus adjustment information by adjusting said second variable-focus optical system through said second focus adjustment unit so as to alter the image angle in correspondence with the instruction of said image-angle alteration unit.
That is, the digital camera according to the invention comprises the first photographing system and the second photographing system. The first photographing system includes the first image pickup device which picks up the image of the subject, the first monofocal optical system which forms, the image of the subject on the first image pickup device, and the first focus adjustment unit which adjusts the focus for the subject.
The second photographing system includes the second image pickup device which picks up the image of the subject, the second variable-focus optical system whose focus is variable and which forms the image of the subject on the second image pickup device, and the second focus adjustment unit which adjusts the focus for the subject.
The changeover switch changeovers the photographing system for photographing the subject, to the first photographing system or the second photographing system. The image-angle alteration unit serves to instruct the alteration of the image angle, and the invention comprises the single image-angle alteration unit.
In the case where the first photographing system has been determined by the changeover switch and where the alteration of the image angle has been instructed by the image-angle alteration unit, the utilization unit submits the image data obtained by the first photographing system, to the image processing so as to alter the image angle in correspondence with the instruction of the image-angle alteration unit.
Besides, in the case where the second photographing system has been determined by the changeover switch and where the alteration of the image angle has been instructed by the image-angle alteration unit, the utilization unit adjusts the second variable-focus optical system through the second focus adjustment unit so as to alter the image angle in correspondence with the instruction of the image-angle alteration unit.
In this manner, the alterations of the image angles of the first and second photographing systems can be instructed by the single image-angle alteration unit, so that the apparatus can be rendered simple in construction.
Meanwhile, in the case where the second photographing system has been determined by the changeover switch and where the alteration of the image angle has been instructed by the image-angle alteration unit, the utilization unit adjusts the second variable-focus optical system. In this regard, in a case where the second variable-focus optical system has been instructed to alter the image angle in excess of an adjustable range, by the image-angle alteration unit through the second focus adjustment unit, the image angle cannot be altered by the adjustment of the second variable-focus optical system.
In the sixth aspect, therefore, in a case where said second variable-focus optical system has been instructed to alter the image angle in excess of an adjustable range by said image-angle alteration unit through said second focus adjustment unit said utilization unit submits image data obtained by said second photographing system to image processing so as to correspond to an image whose image angle is altered in correspondence with the instruction of said image-angle alteration unit.
In the seventh aspect, a display device which displays images is further comprised, and said image-angle control unit controls said display device so as to display the images which are respectively obtained by said first photographing system and said second photographing system, regardless of a changeover state based on said changeover switch.
In the eighth aspect, a display device which displays images is further comprised, and said image-angle control unit controls said display device so as to display only the image obtained by said first photographing system, in a case where said first photographing system has been determined by said changeover switch, and to display the images respectively obtained by said first photographing system and said second photographing system, in a case where said second photographing system has been determined by said changeover switch.
In the ninth aspect, said optical system of said second photographing system has a focal depth set shorter than that of said optical system of said first photographing system; and in a case where said second photographing system has been determined by said changeover switch, the image-angle control unit controls the respective focus adjustment units of said first photographing system and said second photographing system so that, after said focus adjustment unit of said first photographing unit is controlled so as to perform the focus adjustment based on said first focus adjustment unit, the focus adjustment based on said focus adjustment unit of said second photographing system may be performed on the basis of a result of the focus adjustment based on said first focus adjustment unit.
More specifically, when the subject is to be photographed by the second photographing system, the first focus adjustment unit is controlled by the control unit so as to perform the focus adjustment based on the first focus adjustment unit, and a rough focal distance is specified. Thereafter, the second focus adjustment unit is controlled so as to perform the focal adjustment based on this unit, in order to search, for example, the range of the specified rough focal distance for a focal position on the basis of the result of the focus adjustment based on the first focus adjustment unit. That is, after the rough focal position is specified by the first photographing system of narrower focal distance range (longer focal depth), the focus adjustment based on the second photographing system is performed on the basis of the specified rough focal position. Therefore, as compared with a case where a focal distance is specified by only the second photographing system of wider focal distance range (shorter focal depth), the search for the focal position can be made in the narrower range, and hence, a time period required for the focus search can be rendered shorter.
Incidentally, a zoom lens can be employed as the second variable-focus optical system. Since the focal depth of the zoom lens is short, a long time is expended on the focus adjustment. In this regard, the time period for the focus adjustment based on the second photographing system can be shortened in such a way that the rough focal position is specified by the first photographing system which is longer in the focal depth than the zoom lens.
Besides, a monofocal lens can be employed as the first monofocal optical system. Since the monofocal lens has a long focal depth, a focal search can be made in a short time in specifying the rough focal position, by employing the monofocal lens for the first optical system.
In order to accomplish the above object, a digital camera in the first aspect of a third invention comprises a first photographing system and a second photographing system which respectively pick up an image of a subject; and a focus adjustment control unit which performs a focus adjustment when photographing the subject by at least one of said first photographing system and said second photographing system, by utilizing both said first photographing system and said second photographing system.
In the second aspect, said first photographing system includes a first image pickup device which picks up an image of a subject, a first optical system which forms the image of the subject on said first image pickup device, and a first focus adjustment unit which adjusts a focus for the subject, while said second photographing system includes a second image pickup device which picks up an image of a subject, a second optical system which forms the image of the subject on said second image pickup device and which has a focal depth set shorter than that of said first optical system, and a second focus adjustment unit which adjusts the focus for the subject; and when the subject is to be photographed by said second photographing system, said focus adjustment control unit controls said first focus adjustment unit so as to perform the focus adjustment based on said first focus adjustment unit and thereafter controls said second focus adjustment unit so as to perform the focus adjustment based on said second focus adjustment unit, on the basis of a result of the focus adjustment based on said first focus adjustment unit.
The first imaging system consists of the first image pickup device, the first optical system and the first focus adjustment unit, and the subject image is formed on the first image pickup device by the first optical system. On this occasion, the focal position is adjusted by the first focus adjustment unit.
Besides, the second imaging system similarly consists of the second image pickup device, the second optical system and the second focus adjustment unit, and the subject image is formed on the second image pickup device by the second optical system. On this occasion, the focal position is adjusted by the second focus adjustment unit.
Here, in a case where the subject is to be photographed by the second photographing system, note must be taken of the fact that the second optical system is set shorter in the focal depth than the first optical system. On account of this fact, in case of adjusting the focus by the second focus adjustment unit, a focal distance range in which the focus adjustment is performed by the second focus adjustment unit of the second photographing system is broader than in the first photographing system, so that a longer time is expended on a search for the focus in the focus adjustment.
Therefore, when the subject is to be photographed by the second photographing system, the first focus adjustment unit is controlled by the focus adjustment control unit so as to perform the focus adjustment based on the first focus adjustment unit, and a rough focal distance is specified. Thereafter, the second focus adjustment unit is controlled so as to perform the focal adjustment based on the second focus adjustment unit, in order to search, for example, the range of the specified rough focal distance for the focal position on the basis of the result of the focus adjustment based on the first focus adjustment unit. That is, after the rough focal position is specified by the first photographing system of narrower focal distance range (longer focal depth), the focus adjustment based on the second photographing system is performed on the basis of the specified rough focal position. Therefore, as compared with a case where a focal distance is specified by only the second photographing system of wider focal distance range (shorter focal depth), the search for the focal position can be made in the narrower range, and hence, a time period required for the focus search can be rendered shorter.
In the third aspect, said second optical system includes a zoom lens. Accordingly, the rough focal position is specified by the first photographing system the focal depth of which is longer than that of the zoom lens, whereby a time period for the focus adjustment based on the second photographing system can be shortened.
Besides, said first optical system can employ a monofocal lens. Since the monofocal lens has a long focal depth, the focus can be searched for in a short time in specifying the rough focal position, by employing the monofocal lens for the first optical system.
Further, the fourth aspect further comprises a changeover switch which changeovers a photographing system for photographing the subject, to one of said first photographing system or said second photographing system, and a display device which displays images; and said focus adjustment control unit controls said display device so as to display the image formed by one photographing system determined by said changeover switch, and to display image information indicative of the image formed by the other photographing system.
Thus, while the image formed by either of the first photographing system and the second photographing system is being displayed, also the image information indicative of the image formed by the other photographing system can be displayed. It is therefore possible to confirm during photographing, also the image information indicative of the image which is other than the image formed by one photographing system and which is formed by the other photographing system. Accordingly, the photographing can be performed as the situation of surroundings is grasped.
Incidentally, the fifth aspect further comprises a recording unit which records the image photographed by said one photographing system determined by said changeover switch. Besides, in the sixth aspect, said first photographing system and said second photographing system are photographing systems whose image angles are different from each other.
By the way, in the seventh aspect, a focal distance is specified within a predetermined range on the basis of the result of the first focus adjustment, and the focus adjustment based on the second focus adjustment unit is controlled so as to proceed only within the predetermined range.
Besides, in the eighth aspect, each of the first focus adjustment unit and the second focus adjustment unit includes a drive unit which drives a focusing lens included in the corresponding optical system, and a focus control unit which calculates a contrast value from image data representing the subject image obtained from the corresponding image pickup device and which controls the drive unit on the basis of the contrast value.
In the ninth aspect, said first photographing system includes a first image pickup device which picks up a subject, and a first lens which forms the image of the subject on said first image pickup device; said second photographing system includes a second image pickup device which is substantially identical to said first image pickup device, and a second lens which is substantially identical to said first lens; and said focus adjustment control unit drives said first lens so as to move from a first predetermined position side at which said first lens is to be located in a case where a focusing position is one end of a predetermined photographing distance range, toward a second predetermined position side at which said first lens is to be located in a case where the focusing position is the other end of the photographing distance range, while it drives said second lens so as to move from the second predetermined position side toward the first predetermined position side, and it performs the focus adjustment on the basis of the image of the subject obtained by said first image pickup device and the image of the subject obtained by said second image pickup device.
In accordance with the ninth aspect, the two photographing systems which are substantially identical in construction (performance) are comprised. Each of the photographing systems includes the image pickup device, and the lens for forming the image of the subject on the image pickup device.
The focus adjustment control unit performs the focus adjustment on the basis of the image of the subject obtained by the first image pickup device and the image of the subject obtained by the second image pickup device.
The focus adjustment control unit executes the focus adjustment while moving the first lens and the second lens. More specifically, the first lens is driven so as to move from the first predetermined position side at which the first lens is to be located in the case where the focusing position is one end of the predetermined photographing distance range, toward the second predetermined position side at which the first lens is to be located in the case where the focusing position is the other end of the photographing distance range. Besides, simultaneously therewith, the second lens is driven so as to move from the second predetermined position side toward the first predetermined position side. Here, the photographing distance range can be set as, for example, a range from the infinite distance to the closest distance. In this case, one end of the photographing distance range is the position of the infinite distance, and the other end is the position of the closest distance.
In this manner, the focus adjustment is executed while the two lenses are being moved in directions opposite to each other, so that a time period for the focus adjustment can be sharply shortened.
In the tenth aspect, said first photographing system includes a first image pickup device which picks up a subject, and a first lens which forms the image of the subject on said first image pickup device; said second photographing system includes a second image pickup device which picks up a subject, and a second lens which forms the image of the subject on said second image pickup device, at least one of said second image pickup device and said second lens being different from the corresponding one of said first photographing system; and said focus adjustment control unit drives said first lens so as to move from a first predetermined position side at which said first lens is to be located in a case where a focusing position is one end of a predetermined photographing distance range, toward a second predetermined position side at which said first lens is to be located in a case where the focusing position is the other end of the photographing distance range, while it drives said second lens so as to move from the second predetermined position side toward the first predetermined position side, and it performs the focus adjustment on the basis of the image of the subject obtained by said first image pickup device and the image of the subject obtained by said second image pickup device.
In accordance with this aspect, the two photographing systems which are different in construction (performance) are comprised. Each of the photographing systems includes the image pickup device, and the lens for forming the image of the subject on the image pickup device. The respective photographing systems are different in, at least, either of the image pickup devices and the lenses. Such a difference includes, for example, the case of construction where the image pickup devices are different in size or the number of pixels and where the lenses are identical, or the case of construction where the image pickup devices are identical and where the image angles of the lenses are different.
The focus adjustment control unit performs the focus adjustment on the basis of the image of the subject obtained by the first image pickup device and the image of the subject obtained by the second image pickup device.
The focus adjustment control unit executes the focus adjustment while moving the first lens and the second lens. More specifically, the first lens is driven so as to move from the first predetermined position side at which the first lens is to be located in the case where the focusing position is one end of the predetermined photographing distance range, toward the second predetermined position side at which the first lens is to be located in the case where the focusing position is the other end of the photographing distance range. Besides, simultaneously therewith, the second lens is driven so as to move from the second predetermined position side toward the first predetermined position side. Here, the photographing distance range can be set as, for example, a range from the infinite distance to the closest distance. In this case, one end of the photographing distance range is the position of the infinite distance, and the other end is the position of the closest distance.
In this manner, the focus adjustment is executed while the two lenses are being moved in directions opposite to each other, so that a time period for the focus adjustment can be sharply shortened.
Here, even in a case, for example, where the numbers of pixels of the first image pickup device and the second image pickup device are different, no problem is posed on condition that the sizes thereof are equal. The reason therefor is that the subject to be imaged by the first image pickup device and the subject to be imaged by the second image pickup device are substantially identical, so the focusing positions of the first and second lenses become substantially identical.
On the other hand, in a case where the sizes of the first image pickup device and the second image pickup device are different, a problem might be posed because the subject to be imaged by the first image pickup device and the subject to be imaged by the second image pickup device are different.
In the eleventh aspect, said first image pickup device has a size different from that of said second image pickup device; and said focus adjustment control unit performs the focus adjustment on the basis of an image of a predetermined focus adjustment area in the image of the subject formed by said first image pickup device, and an image of a focus adjustment area having the same image angle as that of the first-mentioned focus adjustment area, in the image of the subject formed by said second image pickup device.
That is, the image angles of the focus adjustment areas are rendered identical in the two photographing systems. Thus, even in the case where the sizes of the image pickup devices are different, the images which are utilized for the focus adjustment become substantially identical, and hence, the peak positions of AF evaluation values can be rendered identical.
In the twelfth aspect, said focus adjustment control unit may well set an initial position of said first lens at the first predetermined position and an initial position of said second lens at the second predetermined position. Thus, in a case where the focusing position exists on one side of the photographing distance range, a time period for the focal adjustment can be sharply shortened.
In the thirteenth aspect, said focus adjustment control unit can calculate as a first evaluation value, contrast of the image of the subject formed by said first image pickup device, and as a second evaluation value, contrast of the image of the subject formed by said second image pickup device, and it can move said first lens and said second lens to a position at which at least one of the first evaluation value and the second evaluation value is maximized. Thus, the focus adjustment can be accurately performed on the basis of the contrasts of the formed images.
Alternatively, the focus adjustment unit may well be operated so as to find those positions of the first lens and the second lens at which the first evaluation value and the second evaluation value become substantially equal, to set a predetermined range which includes the middle position between the found positions of the first and second lenses, and to move the first lens to one end of the predetermined range and the second lens to the other end thereof.
The contrast of each formed image is considered to become the maximum at the focusing position and to decrease more at the same rate as the position of the corresponding lens comes nearer to an infinite distance side or a closest distance side with respect to the focusing position, and the focusing position is considered to exist at or near the middle position between those positions of the first and second lenses at which the first and second evaluation values become substantially equal. Accordingly, the predetermined range including the middle position is set as a range in which the focusing position exists, and the first lens is moved to one end of the predetermined range, while the second lens is moved to the other end of the predetermined range, whereupon the focus adjustment is consecutively executed. Thus, a time period for detecting the focusing position can be shortened still further.
It is also allowed to employ a construction comprising a photographing system which includes a first image pickup device for imaging a subject, a second image pickup device being substantially identical to said first image pickup device, a branch unit for branching light entered from the subject, to said first image pickup device and said second image pickup device, and a lens for forming the images of the subject on said first image pickup device and said second image pickup device; and a focus adjustment unit which drives said first image pickup device so as to move from a first predetermined position side where said first image pickup device is to be located when a focusing position is one end of a predetermined photographing distance range, toward a second predetermined position side where said first image pickup device is to be located when the focusing position is the other end of the photographing distance range, and also drives said second image pickup device so as to move from the second predetermined position side toward the first predetermined position side, and which performs a focus adjustment on the basis of the image of the subject obtained by said first image pickup device and the image of the subject obtained by said second image pickup device. Thus, the focus adjustment can be executed on the basis of the identical images, so that a more accurate focus adjustment can be effected.
Besides, it is allowed to employ a construction comprising a photographing system which includes a first image pickup device for imaging a subject, a second image pickup device being different from said first image pickup device, a branch unit for branching light entered from the subject, to said first image pickup device and said second image pickup device, and a lens for forming the images of the subject on said first image pickup device and said second image pickup device; and a focus adjustment unit which drives said first image pickup device so as to move from a first predetermined position side where said first image pickup device is to be located when a focusing position is one end of a predetermined photographing distance range, toward a second predetermined position side where said first image pickup device is to be located when the focusing position is the other end of the photographing distance range, and also drives said second image pickup device so as to move from the second predetermined position side toward the first predetermined position side, and which performs a focus adjustment on the basis of the image of the subject obtained by said first image pickup device and the image of the subject obtained by said second image pickup device.
The first image pickup device and the second image pickup device are different in, at least, one of size and the number of pixels by way of example, and the focus adjustment can be implemented as described before. A more accurate focus adjustment can be effected by sharing the lens in this manner.
A digital camera according to a fourth invention comprises at least one photographing system which includes an image pickup device which picks up an image of a subject, an optical system which forms an image of the subject on said image pickup device, and a focus adjustment unit for adjusting a focus for the subject; and a display unit which displays the picked up an image of said photographing system, and further displays a focus adjustment state indicated by said focus adjustment unit.
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7798417 | BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to data interchange technology, and more particularly, though not exclusively, to a method and apparatus for inputting tagged or un-tagged data into electronic documents (e-forms), summing up data in the electronic document, or in a linked and separate document or file as one or more 1D and/or 2D bar codes ready for use in data interchange.
2. Problems in the Art
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is used throughout this document in the broadest sense as a method for capturing and interchanging information. Unless specifically referred to as one of the four following predominant narrowly defined EDI standards: 1) the United Nations recommended UN/EDIFACT is the only international standard and is predominant outside of North America, 2) the U.S. standard ANSI ASC X12 (X12) is predominant in North America, 3) the TRADACOMS standard developed by the ANA (Article Numbering Association) is predominant in the UK retail industry, and 4) The ODETTE standard used within the European automotive industry.
These narrowly defined EDI standards prescribe the formats, character sets, and data elements used in the exchange of business documents and forms. The complete X12 Document List includes all major business documents, including purchase orders (called “ORDERS” in UN/EDIFACT and an “850” in X12) and invoices (called “INVOIC” in UN/EDIFACT and an “810” in X12).
The narrowly defined EDI standards say which pieces of information are mandatory for a particular document, which pieces are optional and give the rules for the structure of the document. The standards are like building codes. Just as two kitchens can be built “to code” but look completely different, two EDI documents can follow the same standard and contain different sets of information. For example a food company may indicate a product's expiration date while a clothing manufacturer would choose to send color and size information.
Organizations that send or receive narrowly defined EDI documents from each other are referred to as “trading partners” in EDI terminology. The trading partners agree on the specific information to be transmitted and how it should be used. This is done in human readable specifications (also called Message Implementation Guidelines). While the standards are analogous to building codes, the specifications are analogous to blue prints. (The specification may also be called a mapping but the term mapping is typically reserved for specific machine readable instructions given to the translation software.) Larger trading “hubs” have existing Message Implementation Guidelines which mirror their business processes for processing EDI and they are usually unwilling to modify their EDI business practices to meet the needs of their trading partners. Often in a large company these narrowly defined EDI guidelines will be written to be generic enough to be used by different branches or divisions and therefore will contain information not needed for a particular business document exchange. For other large companies, they may create separate EDI guidelines for each branch/division.
Trading partners who use narrowly defined EDI are free to use any method for the transmission of documents. In the past one of the more popular methods was the usage of a bisync modem to communicate through a “Value Added Network” (VAN). Some organizations have used direct modem to modem connections, “Bulletin Board System” (BBS), and recently there has been a move towards using the some of the many Internet protocols for transmission, but most EDI is still transmitted using a VAN. In the healthcare industry, a VAN is referred to as a “Clearinghouse”.
In the most basic form, a VAN acts as a regional post office. They receive transactions, examine the ‘From’ and the ‘To’ information, and route the transaction to the final recipient. VAN's provide a number of additional services, e.g. retransmission of documents, provide third party audit information, and act as a gateway for different transmission methods, handling telecommunications support, etc. Because of these and other services VAN's provide, businesses frequently use a VAN even when both trading partners are using Internet-based protocols. Healthcare clearinghouses perform many of the same functions as a VAN, but have additional legal restrictions that govern protected healthcare information.
VAN's also provide an advantage with certificate replacement in AS2 transmissions. Because each node in a traditionally business-related AS2 transmission usually involves a security certificate, routing a large number of partners through a VAN can make certificate replacement much easier.
Until recently the Internet transmission was handled by nonstandard methods between trading partners usually involving FTP or email attachments. There are also standards for embedding EDI documents into XML. Many organizations are migrating to this protocol to reduce costs. For example, Wal-Mart is now requiring its trading partners to switch to the AS2 protocol.
Often missing from the narrowly defined EDI specifications (referred to as EDI Implementation Guidelines) are real world descriptions of how the information should be interpreted by the business receiving it. For example, suppose candy is packaged in a large box that contains 5 display boxes and each display box contains 24 boxes of candy packaged for the consumer. If an EDI document says to ship 10 boxes of candy it may not be clear whether to ship 10 consumer packaged boxes, 240 consumer packaged boxes or 1200 consumer packaged boxes. It is not enough for two parties to agree to use a particular qualifier indicating case, pack, box or each; they must also agree on what that particular qualifier means.
Translation software for narrowly defined EDI provides the interface between internal systems and the EDI format sent/received. For an “inbound” document the EDI solution will receive the file (either via a Value Added Network or directly using protocols such as FTP or AS2), take the received EDI file (commonly referred to as a “mailbag”), validate that the trading partner who is sending the file is a valid trading partner, that the structure of the file meets the narrowly defined EDI standards and that the individual fields of information conforms to the agreed upon standards. Typically the translator will either create a file of either fixed length, variable length or XML tagged format or “print” the received EDI document (for non-integrated EDI environments). The next step is to convert/transform the file that the translator creates into a format that can be imported into a company's back-end business systems or ERP. This can be accomplished by using a custom program, an integrated proprietary “mapper” or to use an integrated standards based graphical “mapper” using a standard data transformation language such as XSLT. The final step is to import the transformed file (or database) into the company's back-end ERP. It is important to note from the previous discussion, EDI is not XML. Narrowly defined EDI can be translated into an XML document, or XML can encapsulate EDI documents created using a standard such as, but not limited to, X12, UN/EDIFACT, TRADACOMS, ODETTE, etc.
To further highlight the difference between EDI in its narrow sense and XML, the following is about the current state of EDIFACT from a Wikipedia article on EDIFACT: “It seems there is a battle between XML and EDIFACT. An equivalent EDIFACT message will be smaller in size than an XML message but the XML message will be easier to read for a human (which is correct but of course not necessary because the content of such messages are not developed to be read by human but by computers). Another possible explanation is that compatibility is being favored over performance, since more tools exist to work with XML data than with EDIFACT. As mentioned in the beginning, EDIFACT-messages are smaller, in some cases about ten times smaller than XML-messages, and therefore not recommended for large message contents. The advantage of EDIFACT is the availability of agreed message-contents and the XML-world today needs these contents to develop similar “agreed” contents for XML.
One of the emerging XML standards is RosettaNet, widely used in the semiconductor and high tech industry in general. Another is UBL, currently being adopted by Scandinavian governments as legal requirement to send invoices to governments. For example, all invoices to the Danish government have had to be in electronic format since February 2005.
Another XML standard (also built by UN/CEFACT, like EDIFACT) is ebXML, often seen as a standard best suited for small and medium enterprises.
However, EDIFACT is still widely used in the high tech, civil aviation, retail and tourism industries and is likely to remain so for some time due to the amount of software making use of it and the need for newer systems to be able to integrate with legacy systems. Europe started early with adopting EDIFACT and therefore has a large installed base, where as for example the Asian region started later with B2B implementations and is therefore using more XML standards. As mentioned EDIFACT is widely used in Europe in nearly all areas of economy and the application will grow in future. One example is the energy market where the EDIFACT-Standard in Europe is a requirement for now and the future.” The point again is, EDI in its narrowly defined sense, such as, but not limited to, X12,UN/EDIFACT<TRADACOMS, ODETTE, etc. is XML is not EDI.
The following comes from the home page of the ASC X12 organization, a promulgator of narrowly defined, traditional EDI standards: “With more than 315 X12 EDI transactions, a growing collection of X12 XML schemas and related documents for national and global arenas, ASC X12 enhances data exchange processes from anywhere in your organization to anywhere in the world. Network and collaborate with business process experts, technology innovators, and complementary standards and industry initiatives to advance convergence, interoperability and message reusability across vertical and horizontal markets.” Again, the point is, one of the promulgators of a narrowly defined EDI, X12, says that they develop both EDI and XML standards for data interchange.
For an “outbound” document the process for integrated narrowly defined EDI is to export a file (or read a database) from a company's back-end ERP, transform the file to the appropriate format for the translator. The translation software will then “validate” the EDI file sent to ensure that it meets the standard agreed upon by the trading partners, convert the file into “EDI” format (adding in the appropriate identifiers and control structures) and send the file to the trading partner (using the appropriate communications protocol).
Another critical component of any narrowly defined EDI translation software is a complete “audit” of all the steps to move business documents between trading partners. The audit ensures that any transaction (which in reality is a business document) can be tracked to ensure that they are not lost. In case of a retailer sending a Purchase Order to a supplier, if the Purchase Order is “lost” anywhere in the business process, the effect is devastating to both businesses. To the supplier, they do not fulfill the order as they have not received it thereby losing business and damaging the business relationship with their retail client. For the retailer, they have a stock outage and the effects are lost sales, reduced customer service and ultimately lower profits.
In narrowly defined EDI terminology “inbound” and “outbound” refer to the direction of transmission of an EDI document in relation to a particular system, not the direction of merchandise, money or other things represented by the document. For example, an EDI document that tells a warehouse to perform an outbound shipment is an inbound document in relation to the warehouse computer system. It is an outbound document in relation to the manufacturer or dealer that transmitted the document.
One of the main advantages of narrowly defined EDI is its advantage over paper systems. Narrowly defined EDI and other similar technologies save a company money by providing an alternative to or replacing information flows that require a great deal of human interaction and materials such as paper documents, meetings, faxes, email, etc. Even when paper documents are maintained in parallel with EDI exchange, i.e. printed shipping manifests, electronic exchange and the use of data from that exchange reduces the handling costs of sorting, distributing, organizing, and searching paper documents. EDI and similar technologies allow a company to take advantage of the benefits of storing and manipulating data electronically without the cost of manual entry or scanning.
There are a few barriers to adopting electronic data interchange. One of the most significant barriers is the accompanying business process change. Existing business processes built around slow paper handling may not be suited for narrowly defined EDI and would require changes to accommodate automated processing of business documents. For example, a business may receive the bulk of their goods by 1 or 2 day shipping and all of their invoices by mail. The existing process may therefore assume that goods are typically received before the invoice. With narrowly defined EDI, the invoice will typically be sent when the goods ship and will therefore require a process that handles large numbers of invoices whose corresponding goods have not yet been received.
Another significant barrier for using narrowly defined EDI is the cost in time and money in the initial set-up. The preliminary expenses and time that arise from the implementation, customization and training can be costly and therefore may discourage some businesses. The key is to determine what method of integration is right for your company which will determine the cost of implementation. For a business that only receives one P.O. per year from a client, fully integrated EDI may not make economic sense. In this case, businesses may implement inexpensive “rip and read” solutions or use outsourced EDI solutions provided by EDI “Service Bureaus”. For other businesses, the implementation of an integrated EDI solution may be necessary as increase in trading volumes brought on by EDI force them to re-implement their order processing business processes.
The key hindrance to a successful implementation of narrowly defined EDI is the perception many businesses have of the nature of EDI. Many view EDI from the technical perspective that EDI is a data format; it would be more accurate to take the business view that EDI is a system for exchanging business documents with external entities, and integrating the data from those documents into the company's internal systems. Successful implementations of EDI take into account the effect externally generated information will have on their internal systems and validate the business information received. For example, allowing a supplier to update a retailer's Accounts Payables system without appropriate checks and balances would be a recipe for disaster. Businesses new to the implementation of narrowly defined EDI should take pains to avoid such pitfalls.
Increased efficiency and cost savings drive the adoption of narrowly defined EDI for most trading partners. But even if a company would not choose to use EDI on their own, pressures from larger trading partners (called hubs) often force smaller trading partners to use EDI.
To summarize the prior art up to this point, XML is not narrowly defined EDI. XML is a means of doing data interchange in a broader sense, but not EDI narrowly defined by standards, such as, but not limited to, X12, UN/EDIFACT, TRADACOMS, ODETTE, etc. Also, narrowly defined EDI touts as one of its main advantages—no paper. Lastly, narrowly defined EDI documents can be translated in XML tagged schema, and narrowly defined EDI can be encapsulated in XML schema, but narrowly defined EDI is not XML.
Other forms of non-narrowly defined EDI data interchange can include various forms of data capture or Auto ID system, such as, but not limited to, bar codes, radio frequency identification (RFID), magnetic stripe, optical character recognition (OCR), etc.
Bar codes were first introduced in the United States in the late 1960s. Bar code technology allows almost any data to be collected rapidly and with almost perfect accuracy. Bar code technology provides a simple and easy method of data collection by encoding text information that is easily read by many different stationary, and/or inexpensive hand held electronic devices. Bar codes have become the standard method of identification, processing, and management used universally throughout the manufacturing, retail, and distribution industries. While the utilization of this technology has been limited to printed media, similar needs exist for capturing, storing, and interchanging data using a digital medium.
Another form of data interchange is Optical Character Recognition (OCR). This technology has been employed to speed the collection of human readable data, in the form of handwriting, from scanned paper forms. Even though OCR speeds the data collection process, it is still an expensive method due to the error-checking required to insure that correct data has been captured and input. Also, OCR is limited in its ability to be a widely adopted data interchange technology.
Optical character recognition (OCR) was one of the earliest Auto ID technologies used in retail applications since mid-1980. Today, OCR is currently part of resurgence because of improved reading equipment that is much more accurate, and recognizes a wider range of type styles than earlier equipment.
OCR is typically used to read selected areas of text (as opposed to text recognition software that process full pages of text). OCR is both human- and machine-readable and suited for use with account numbers or short data strings.
OCR readers scan the data in much the same way bar code scanners do: either by moving the document past the scanner or moving the scanner over the document. The scan produces a “picture” of the text that is then analyzed for characteristic features. Features are then matched to specific letters or numbers for output.
It should be noted that OCR readers do not work the same way as vision systems do. The equipment for text string scanning is much simpler and less expensive that vision systems or text scanners.
Another OCR technology is magnetic ink character recognition (MICR). MICR like OCR has a narrow range of usefulness as an EDI system that can be widely adopted.
Another OCR technology is intelligent character recognition (ICR). ICR is the intelligent recognition of non-OCR font characters, and hand-printed characters. ICR like OCR and MICR has a narrow range of usefulness as an EDI system (in the broadest definition of EDI) that can be widely adopted.
Wireless devices in the form of cellular phones, PDA's, pager's, etc. have equipped consumers with additional functionality; however barriers have become more complex between such devices and their various operating platforms and software applications. In addition, these devices do not provide for an easy-to-use, two-way interactive means by which to access and interchange data.
To achieve the desired flexibility and speed in capturing, storing, and interchanging data, businesses and consumers continue to deal with increasingly complex integration issues with management information systems.
Some of these issues have recently been solved by leveraging the proven ability of bar codes as an easy, point-of-use method for capturing and exchanging data, where computing devices may share the same data sources seamlessly and easily. More importantly, these methods enable small to medium size companies with electronic commerce capabilities without the need to build infrastructure, or to develop sophisticated middle-ware solutions.
Another form of data interchange, or EDI in its broadest definition that is becoming more prevalent is eXtensible Markup Language (XML). XML is an open standard that is a subset of SGML (Standardized General Markup Language). XML was developed to overcome the shortcomings of HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) which much of the data on the Internet was originally tagged.
Many large businesses have positioned themselves to conduct business online, but due to the costs and complexity associated with electronic commerce, their vendors have not been quick to follow. Given the cost savings benefits of on-line businesses, these companies will be more willing to find new suppliers and trading partners online rather than by traditional means.
During the past decade, acquisitions and mergers have also escalated at a rapid pace as more and more companies posture for a piece of international trade. As economies continue to open, companies will continue to aggressively pursue strategic alliances to capitalize on these opportunities. To date, an overriding consideration in such alliances has been complex conversion and information exchange issues. While the Internet has done much to free the information flow, the compatibility of legacy hardware and software remains paramount.
Even though business has tried to become paperless for the past two decades, paper documents persist, and will for the foreseeable future.
Another limitation of e-Forms is they have been limited to HTML, XML, or PDF formats or a few proprietary formats.
There is therefore an unfilled need for a method and apparatus which overcomes the limitations of narrowly defined EDI, overcomes and uses data interchange technologies such as OCR, bar codes, RFID, and magnetic stripe, and addresses the persistence of paper by embracing it, and solves these and other problems. This invention has as its primary objective fulfillment of this need for electronic data interchange in its broadest definition. The present invention is not, however, to be limited in any way by this discussion.
FEATURES OF THE INVENTION
A general feature of the present invention is the provision of a method and apparatus for tagged bar code data interchange which overcomes the problems found in the prior art.
A further feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data interchange using tagged printed and/or video displayed bar codes which uses XML as an ad hoc middleware.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data interchange between computers using different operating systems using tagged printed and/or video bar codes.
A further feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data interchange between computers using different computer software applications using tagged printed and/or video bar codes.
Another feature of the present invention is a method for data interchange using tagged video bar codes generated by a software application running within, or in conjunction with an electronic document, to represent data contained therein.
Another feature of the present invention is a method for data interchange using tagged printed bar codes generated by a software application running within, or in conjunction with an electronic document, to represent data contained therein.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method and apparatus for data interchange using tagged video bar codes for business-consumer transactions.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method and apparatus for data interchange using tagged printed bar codes for business-consumer transactions.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method and apparatus for data interchange using tagged video bar codes for consumer-consumer transactions.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method and apparatus for data interchange using tagged printed bar codes for consumer-consumer transactions.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method and apparatus for data interchange using tagged video bar codes for business-business transactions.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method and apparatus for data interchange using tagged printed bar codes for business-business transactions.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method and apparatus for data interchange using tagged video and/or tagged printed bar codes via a remote web, security, or phone camera and transmitted to a remote video display for data capture.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged printed and/or tagged video bar codes to provide data in multiple languages.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged printed and/or tagged video bar codes in conjunction with XML network routing equipment.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using a keyboard.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using voice recognition technology.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using a computer-telephone interface.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using tagged 1-D bar code data.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using tagged 2-D bar code data.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using tagged 3D bumpy bar code data.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using tagged OCR data.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using tagged MICR data.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using tagged RFID data.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using tagged magnetic stripe data.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using tagged ICR data.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using un-tagged 1-D bar code data.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using un-tagged 2-D bar code data.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using un-tagged 3D bumpy bar code data.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using un-tagged OCR data.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using un-tagged MICR data.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using un-tagged RFID data.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using un-tagged magnetic stripe data.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using un-tagged ICR data.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data interchange between computers using different operating systems using tagged video bar codes in an e-mail.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data interchange between computers using different operating systems using tagged video bar codes in an Instant Message.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data interchange between computers using different operating systems using tagged video bar codes in a web-page.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for tagged data output into a cell phone device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for tagged data output into a PDA device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for tagged data output into a television set-top device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for tagged data output into a communication network router device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for tagged data output into a communication network switch device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for tagged data output into a communication network hub device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for tagged data output into an Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for tagged data output into a laptop computer device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for tagged data output into a personal computer (PC) device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for tagged data output into a pager device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for tagged data output into a text messaging device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for un-tagged data output into a cell phone device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for un-tagged data output into a PDA device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for un-tagged data output into a television set-top device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for un-tagged data output into a communication network router device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for un-tagged data output into a communication network switch device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for un-tagged data output into a communication network hub device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for un-tagged data output into an Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for un-tagged data output into a laptop computer device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for un-tagged bar coded data output into a personal computer (PC) device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for un-tagged data output into a pager device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for un-tagged data output into a text messaging device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of an efficient method for bar coding UNICODE characters.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of bar code representing tagged or un-tagged address information on a video display.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged or un-tagged video or printed bar codes for discounts given to restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores at the time of delivery of inventory in order to keep track of discounts and provide data to accounting and back-end systems.
Another feature of the present invention is using tagged or un-tagged video bar codes as pre-paid chits for things like bowling, go-kart rides, etc.
Another feature of the present invention is using cell phone cameras in conjunction with bar code decoder software to scan and decode tagged or un-tagged printed or video bar codes.
Another feature of the present invention is using web cameras in conjunction with bar code decoder software to scan and decode tagged or un-tagged printed or video bar codes.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged or un-tagged video bar codes as cash or gift cards.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged or un-tagged bar coded data on PDF documents in a print directory such as Yummy!.
Another feature of the present invention is the conversion of scanned bar coded data on a driver's license to XML data.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged or un-tagged bar coded data in RSS feeds.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of a hash to produce the expiration date of product that carries a tagged or un-tagged bar code.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of XML tags in a tagged bar code to do mathematical calculations in a printed or video bar code.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of a hash in conjunction with a PIN to encrypt a tagged or un-tagged bar code.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of a hash in conjunction with a PIN to un-lock all or a portion of a tagged or un-tagged bar code.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of XML tags in a tagged bar code to represent row and cell identifiers in a spreadsheet software program.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of XML tags in a tagged bar code to represent attributes and tuples and specific records in a relational database.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged or un-tagged bar coded data on employee financial transaction card statements and expense statements and vouchers for the purpose of reconciliation.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged or un-tagged bar coded data in conjunction with EDI standards, such as ANSI.1, EDI-INT, ASC X12, UN/EDIFACT, CICA, etc.
Another feature of the present invention is the association of a tagged or un-tagged bar code to an XML XSL or XSLT file.
Another feature of the present invention is the association of a tagged or un-tagged bar code to and XML XSD file
Another feature of the present invention is the association of a tagged or un-tagged bar code to an XML Schema file.
Another feature of the present invention is the association of a tagged or un-tagged bar code to an XML DTD file.
Another feature of the present invention is the association of a tagged or un-tagged bar code to an XML file with XML Signatures.
Another feature of the present invention is the association of a tagged or un-tagged bar code to an XML pointer file.
Another feature of the present invention is the association of a tagged or un-tagged bar code to an XML XPath file.
Another feature of the present invention is the association of a tagged or un-tagged bar code to an XML file with XLinks.
Another feature of the present invention is the association of a tagged or un-tagged bar code to an e-Form created by the XForm standard.
Another feature of the present invention is the association of a tagged or un-tagged bar code to an XML document that uses XML:ID.
Another feature of the present invention is the present invention is a security feature in which tagged or un-tagged bar codes are graphically separated into two or more layers, and the graphical combination of all the layers is required in order to complete the graphical representation of the bar code for scanning.
Another feature of the present invention is the secure wireless transmission of tagged or un-tagged bar coded data by the optical scan.
Another feature of the present invention is the integration of the Airclic bar code solution to further extend the power of tagged or un-tagged bar coded e-Forms.
Another feature of the present invention is the integration of the NeoMedia cell phone camera bar code reader solution to extend the power of tagged or un-tagged bar coded e-Forms.
Another feature of the present invention is the enabling of coupons distributed by Booble.com.
Another feature of the present invention is the integration of the DataCard driver's license solution with the present invention.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of DataIntro software to create the bar coded e-Forms used in the present invention.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of PureEdge software to create the bar coded e-Forms used in the present invention.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of Icoya software to create the bar coded e-Forms used in the present invention.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of Adobe software to create the bar coded e-Forms used in the present invention.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of Microsoft software to create the bar coded e-Forms used in the present invention.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of Macola software to create the bar coded e-Forms used in the present invention.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of Altova MapForce software to manage and map bar coded e-Forms used in the present invention.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged or un-tagged bar coded data in SmartBOL software products.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged or un-tagged bar coded data in Macromedia frames in web pages, or windows.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged or un-tagged bar coded data in QuickTime frames in web pages, or windows.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged or un-tagged bar coded data in RealNetworks frames in web pages, or windows.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged or un-tagged EPC bar codes.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged or un-tagged Quick Response bar codes.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged or un-tagged Semacodes.
Another feature of the present invention is the providing the self-tagging capability of e-Forms and related documents using 43 Things, Flickr, del.icio.us, etc.
Another feature of the present invention is HIPPA compliant tagged or un-tagged bar coded documents
Another feature of the present invention is Sarbanes-Oxley compliant tagged or un-tagged bar coded documents.
Another feature of the present invention is encrypted data tags contained in the bar code.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged or un-tagged bar codes to represent data in an e-Form as an integral part of the e-Form.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged or un-tagged bar codes to represent data in an e-Form in a separate software application.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of e-Forms that are not constructed with HTML.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of e-Forms that are not constructed with XML.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of e-Forms that are not constructed as PDFs.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of the VISA XML standard for financial transaction card statement data interchange.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of AJAX programming.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of biometric data included within tagged or un-tagged 2D bar codes for validation, authentication, and verification activities.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of biometrics used in conjunction with tagged or un-tagged 2D bar codes for validation, authentication, and verification activities.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of MLC/MSC encoded bar codes.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of WiFi enabled cell phones as a device that can receive and transmit the present invention's form which may or may not contain tagged and/or un-tagged data summarized as a bar code.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of cell phone-PC merged devices.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of “Dial-A-Web Page” as a shortcut method to access web pages that may or may not include tagged and/or un-tagged data summed up as a bar code.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of “Dial-An-Exit” as a shortcut method to access information related to hotels, motels, restaurants, gas stations, etc. located at or near a specific exit on a highway. The information related to hotels, motels, restaurants, gas stations, ATM, etc. would be accessed by speaking or typing the Highway and Exit number into a cell phone, PDA, smart phone, etc., without having to depend on location based services acquiring a user's location, or may not provide enough granularity of position.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of “Dial-An-Airport” as a shortcut method to access information related to restaurants, bookstores, ATMs, rest rooms, etc. located at or near a specific gate or concourse in an airport. The information related to restaurants, bookstores, ATMs, rest rooms, etc., would be accessed by first speaking or typing the airport code, and second speaking or typing the concourse, gate number, or flight number into a cell phone, PDA, smart phone, etc. without having to depend on location based services acquiring a user's location using WiFi, cell location, or GPS—which doesn't work indoors, or may not provide enough granularity of position. This feature of the present invention may be used with video bar codes that represent discounts, coupons, chits, tickets, bar coded e-money, etc., for vendors in or near the airport. These video bar coded discounts, coupons, chits, tickets, bar coded e-money may be delivered via SMS, EMS, MMS, e-mail, IM, etc.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of “Dial-An-Train Station” as a shortcut method to access information related to restaurants, bookstores, ATMs, rest rooms, etc., located at or near a specific track or concourse in a train station. The information related to restaurants, bookstores, ATMs, rest rooms, etc., would be accessed by first speaking or typing the train station name, or train station code, and second speaking or typing a concourse, track number, or train number into a cell phone, PDA, smart phone, etc. without having to depend on location based services acquiring a user's location using WiFi, cell location, or GPS—which doesn't work indoors, or may not provide enough granularity of position. This feature of the present invention may be used with video bar codes that represent discounts, coupons, chits, tickets, bar coded e-money, etc., for vendors in or near the train station. These video bar coded discounts, coupons, chits, tickets, bar coded e-money may be delivered via SMS, EMS, MMS, e-mail, IM, etc.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of “Dial-A-Stadium” as a shortcut method to access information related to restaurants, ATMs, rest rooms, etc. located at or near a specific seating section in an indoor or outdoor sporting venue. The information related to restaurants, ATMs, rest rooms, etc., would be accessed by first speaking or typing the stadium's name, or stadium's code, and second speaking or typing a seating section, or seat number into a cell phone, PDA, smart phone, etc. without having to depend on location based services acquiring a user's location using WiFi, cell location, or GPS—which doesn't work indoors or shielded environments, or may not provide enough granularity of position. This feature of the present invention may be used with video bar codes that represent discounts, coupons, chits, tickets, bar coded e-money, etc., for vendors in or near the stadium. These video bar coded discounts, coupons, chits, tickets, bar coded e-money may be delivered via SMS, EMS, MMS, e-mail, IM, etc.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of “Dial-A-Convention Center” as a shortcut method to access information related to restaurants, ATMs, rest rooms, etc., located at or near a specific area, exit, entrance, etc. in a convention hall, etc. The information related to restaurants, ATMs, rest rooms, etc. would be accessed by first speaking or typing the name of the convention center, or convention code, and second speaking or typing a specific area, exit, entrance, etc., into a cell phone, PDA, smart phone, etc. without having to depend on location based services acquiring a user's location using WiFi, cell location, or GPS—which doesn't work indoors. This feature of the present invention may be used with video bar codes that represent discounts, coupons, chits, tickets, bar coded e-money, etc., for vendors in or near the convention center. These video bar coded discounts, coupons, chits, tickets, bar coded e-money may be delivered via SMS, EMS, MMS, e-mail, IM, etc.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of GoXML as an XML schema.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of NavXML and GeoXML as schemas.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of Autonomy software that enable identification of the patterns that naturally occur in text, based on the usage and frequency of words or terms that correspond to specific concepts. In order to extract a document's digital essence (which may or may not include data summed up as a tagged or un-tagged bar code) in order to enable a host of operations to be performed automatically.
Another feature of the present invention is the inclusion of a bar code reader, RFID scanner, magnetic stripe reader in a sled, integrated into a cell phone, PCMCIA, SDIO, etc
Another feature of the present invention is the use of iDRS intelligent recognition software application to process imaged files to extract data contained therein using ICR, OCR, MICR, and 1D and 2D bar code recognition technologies.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of microfilm and/or microfiche as either a source and/or target for the present inventions forms containing tagged and/or un-tagged data summarized as a bar code.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a software feature or ASP to provide a service for providing copyright filing of the present invention's forms containing tagged or un-tagged data summarized as a bar code.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of JSON Lightweight Data Interchange as an alternative to XML.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of JSON Lightweight Data Interchange in conjunction with XML.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of XML in the form of RSS Branded feeds.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged and/or un-tagged bar codes in conjunction with documents created in the OpenDocument Format.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged and/or un-tagged bar codes in conjunction with documents created in the XForms format.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged and/or un-tagged bar codes in conjunction with documents created using Microsoft XPS.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of a Kofax departmental sized scanner with a built-in bar code scanner and decoder.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of bar codes displayed in web pages that use Adobe Flash.
The present invention may be built on top of Redberri software.
One or more of these and/or other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following specification and claims. No single embodiment of the invention need implement all of these features.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed towards means and methods for the interchange of data. This includes the interchange of data from one electronic system to another electronic system either directly or through an intermediary physical form such as a printed bar code, a video displayed bar code, an RFID tag, or other physical mechanism. The interchange of data is performed in a meaningful way so that it is readily usable. In particular, embedded tags can be used to facilitate the proper identification of the data.
According to one aspect of the invention, a 3-step method and apparatus provides for 1) inputting tagged or un-tagged data into electronic documents (e-forms), 2) summing up data in the electronic document as one or more 1D and/or 2D bar codes ready for interchange using data tags, and 3) outputting tagged data.
In the first step, tagged or un-tagged input data can come from a variety of data sources, including, but not limited to, 1D and/or 2D bar codes displayed on driver's licenses, national identification cards, social security cards, military identification cards, company identification cards, business cards, financial transaction cards including, but not limited to, credit cards, check cards, and ATM cards, health plan identification cards, purchase receipts, warranties, bills of lading, purchase orders, invoices, sales orders, insurance cards, statements of account, work orders, drawings, photographs, blueprints, packing lists, UCC forms, contracts, redemption coupons, newspapers, magazines, products, product packaging, vehicles, shipping containers, pallets, etc. In addition, tagged or un-tagged sources for data input into an electronic document can come from sources, such as, but not limited to, 3D bumpy bar codes, RFID tags, magnetic stripes, optically recognizable characters (OCR), characters recognizable via magnetic ink technology (MICR), intelligently recognized characters (ICR), voice, voice recognition technology, computer-telephone interfaces, keyboards, touch screens, PC, laptop, PDA, mouse, pager, text messaging device, WiFi enabled cell phones, cell phone-PC merged devices, etc.
Electronic document file types have previously been created using a very limited number of file formats, specifically, HTML and XML in order to make them universally available for viewing in a browser, and as PDFs using the Adobe Reader plug-in. In a quantum leap forward the present invention makes virtually any electronic document file format available for viewing and as a mechanism to sum-up data for exchange as one or more tagged or un-tagged bar codes. As an example, additional electronic document file types that would be made available in the present invention using a viewer, such as, but not limited to the Kamel Fastlook browser plug-in include, but are not limited to the following:
300 - Enable WP 3.0BAK - AutoCAD backup filesBMP - Windows bitmapCAL - SuperCalc 5CDR - Corel Draw (Header only)CGM - Computer Graphic MetafilesCH3 - Harvard Graphics 3.0CHP - Legacy filesCHT - Harvard Graphics 2.0CUR - Windows CursorDB - Paradox DatabaseDB - Smart DatabaseDBA - DataEase 4.xDBF - DBase III, IV, VDCX - Multipage PCXDGN - Intergraph/MicroStation files*DIB - Windows bitmapDIF - Navy DIFDLL - Windows DLL fileDOC - First Choice 3 WPDOC - IBM DisplayWrite 4/5DOC - Microsoft Word 4.0-6.0DOC - Microsoft WordPadDOC - MultiMate 3.6DOC - SmartWare IIDOC - Wang IWP filesDOC - Word for Windows 1.0, 7.0, 97DOX - MultiMate 4.0DRW - Micrografx DrawDTF - Q&A DatabaseDWF - AutoCAD DWF 2.0DWG - AutoCAD Drawing filesDX3 - DEC DX filesDXF - Drawing Interchange filesEPS - EPS (TIFF header)EXE - DOS/Windows ExecutableEXE - Self Extracting ZIPFAX - CCITT Group3 FaxFAX - CCITT Group3/4 FaxFFT - IBM FFT filesFirst Choice Word ProcessorFNT - MultiMate Advantage 2FNX - MultiMate NoteFOL - First Choice DBFWK - Framework IIIGEM - GEM ImageGeneric WKSGIF - Rendered Image filesGP4 - CALS Group4 imagesHPGL/2 - Hewlet-Packard GraphicsLanguageHTML - Internet-WWWIBM Writing AssistantICO - Windows IconIDW - Autodesk InventorIMG - GEM Image fileJFIFJPEG - Compressed ColorJW - JustWrite 1.0/2.0Lotus Manuscript 1.0-2.0Lotus PICLTR - PC File 5.0 DocLZA CompressLZH CompressMac WordPerfect 2.0Mac WordPerfect 3.0Mac WordPerfect 1.xMac Works 2.0 DatabaseMac Works 2.0 SpreadsheetMac Works 2.0 Word ProcessorMacintosh PICT/PICT2MacPaintMacWrite IIMASS 11MDB - Microsoft AccessMI - ME10/30Microsoft Office BinderMultiplan 4Novell PerfectWorks 2.0 Word ProcessorNovell PerfectWorks 2.0 DrawNovell PerfectWorks 2.0 SpreadsheetNovell Presentations 3.0OS/2 BitmapOS/2 Warp BitmapPCX - Zsoft Corporation filesPFB - PFS WritePL - PFS: PlanPPT - PowerPoint 3.0-4.0PPT - Powerpoint7.0PR2 - Freelance filesProfessional Write 1-2PRT - CADKey design filePWP - Professional Write PlusQ&A WriteQ&A Write 3R2D - Reflex filesRBF - R: Base SystemV/5000RFT - IBM DCA/RFT filesRLC - CAD Overlay filesRLE - Windows bitmapRTF - Rich Text FormatSAM - Ami Pro filesSAM - Samna filesSDW - Ami DrawSignatureSLDDRW - SolidWorksSNP - Lotus SnapshotSPR - Sprint filesSS - First Choice SpreadsheetSSF - Enable SpreadsheetSY1- Smart PIC filesSYM - Lotus SymphonyTAR - UNIX Tar filesTAZ - UNIX Compress filesTGA - Rendered Image filesTIF - TIFF Group3/4, LZW ColorTW - Total Word filesTXT - IBM DisplayWrite 2/3TXT - Text FilesVW4 - Volkswriter filesWB1 - Quattro Pro for WindowsWDB - MS Works DatabaseWG1 - Lotus 123 for OS2Windows Works DatabaseWindows Works SpreadsheetWK1 - Lotus 123 v1.0-2.0WK3 - Lotus 123 v3.0-5.0WKS - MS Works SpreadsheetWKS - VP- PlannerWKU - Mosaic Twin filesWMC - WordMarc filesWMF - Windows MetafilesWord for Macintosh 4.0-5.0WP - WordPerfect 4.2WP - OfficeWriterWPD - WordPerfect 5.xWPD - WordPerfect 6.0-7.0WPF - Enable WP 4.xWPG - WordPerfect Graphic 1.0-2.0WPG - WordPerfect PresentationsWPS - MS Works WordprocessorWQ1 - Quattro Pro DOSWRI - Windows WriteWS - WordStar 3.0-7.0WS - Smart SpreadsheetWS - Wordstar for WindowsWS2 - WordStar 2000XLC - Microsoft Excel ChartXLS - Microsoft ExcelXyWrite/Nota BeneZIP - PkZip file
Also, by using other viewers in the present invention, such as, but not limited to, DjVu, DiJu files that include data summed up as one or more tagged and/or un-tagged bar codes can be read.
In addition, by using other viewers in the present invention, such as, but not limited to, PureEdge Viewer, PureEdge files that include data summed up as one or more tagged and/or un-tagged bar codes can be read.
Tagged input data is automatically input into an electronic document. Input data tags may be useful to facilitate data input to an electronic document, and subsequently re-tagged by the electronic document in order to facilitate interchange into an information system. Alternatively, input data tags may be useful to facilitate data input into an electronic document, and subsequently remain with the input data without alteration in order to facilitate interchange into an information system.
Un-tagged input data is semi-automatically input into an electronic document.
In step two, source data and/or electronic form fields contained in the electronic document are summed up as one or more 1D and/or 2D tagged bar code(s), which is the means for data interchange via bar code scanning technology in the present invention. Alternatively, the data may be summed up by the remote server and returned to the original electronic document or other electronic documents as one or more 1D and/or 2D tagged bar codes for data interchange via bar code scanning technology. The electronic document may use the data tags contained in the source data, and/or strip the source data tags and/or re-tag the source data in order to facilitate data interchange. Additionally, the electronic document can add data tags to un-tagged input source data in order to facilitate interchange into an information system.
In step three, tagged information summed up on an electronic document in the form of one or more 1D and/or 2D bar codes are captured from either a printed version of the electronic document, or a video displayed version of the electronic document. The video bar code may come from either a local, or remotely viewed source. The captured tagged data string is parsed; the data tags are used to route and/or input and/or exchange data into a variety of software applications, such as but not limited to, a database, a spreadsheet, a web page, a word processor, another electronic document, etc. The tags may remain with the output data, or alternatively may be stripped from the data.
The tagged data captured from one or more 1D and/or 2D bar code(s) in an electronic document, either directly off a video display or from a printed version of the document, can be output to a data target that is capable of receiving and/or use tagged data, such as but not limited to, an RFID tag, Smart Card, magnetic stripe, bar code printer, OCR encoder, MICR encoder, ICR encoder, cell phone, television set-top box, telecommunication network router, telecommunication network switch, telecommunication network hub, ATM machine, laptop computer, PC, PDA, pager, text messaging device, touch screen, keyboard, mouse, etc.
In a preferred embodiment, a business user or consumer uses an integrated software system to create electronic generated documents which include integrally or in a separate software application tagged bar coded information, create specific stylesheets to define bar coded data tags, publish documents with tagged bar coded information, scan video displayed documents using a high scan rate CCD or linear imager, or scan printed documents using any type of applicable bar code reader to capture tagged bar coded information, cache tagged bar coded information, parse the tagged bar coded information and applicable software applications, strip the bar coded data tags, input stripped bar coded data into the applicable software application.
This scanned information is not formatted specifically for any business/consumer software and therefore is easily transferable between businesses/consumers which may use different software applications to manipulate the same data to suit their needs. This minimizes the need for many of the conversion programs or interpretation programs, commonly known as middleware, and provides data interchange across a wide variety of settings for a myriad of purposes.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a method for data interchange is provided. The method includes providing a first document having at least one data field. Then inputted information is received into the at least one data field. A bar code is generated based on the at least one data field and the information inputted into the at least one data field. The at least one data field and the information inputted into the at least one data field is stored within the first document or otherwise.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a method for data interchange includes opening a document having tagged bar coded information including data tags and data. Then the data is updated. A bar code defined by the tagged bar code information is also updated. The tagged bar coded information is then transmitted. The transmitting can occur in electronic or paper form.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a method for data interchange includes opening a document having embedded tagged or un-tagged bar coded information, updating data within data field of the document, updating the embedded bar coded information based on the data, and generating a bar code based on the embedded bar coded information. The embedded bar coded information can then be transmitted in either electronic or paper form, or a combination of electronic and paper forms.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a method for data interchange includes opening a document that is linked to tagged or un-tagged bar coded information represented in a separate software application, updating data within the data field of the document, updating the bar coded information in the linked and separate software application based on the data, and generating a bar code based on the bar coded information in the linked and separate software application. The combination of the document and bar coded information in a linked and separate software application can then be transmitted in either electronic or paper form, or combination of electronic and paper forms.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a method for data interchange includes summing up data associated with an electronic document to provide summed up data, representing the summed up data as one or more bar codes, and returning the one or more bar codes for display and data capture via a bar code scan from either a video display or a printed version of the one or more bar codes. The summing up may include taking data from multiple information fields to create the summed up data. The data may include data tags. The method may include adding data tags to the data to assist in data interchange. The steps of summing up, representing, and returning are performed by a software application running on a first computer. The method may include sending the data associated with the electronic document to a remote computing device for performing the steps of summing up, representing, and returning. The step of returning may be returning an image. The electronic document may include data from a source associated with the electronic document. The data source may be a physical device. The one or more bar codes may be maintained by incorporating the one or more bar codes into the electronic document as one or more images. The method may include representing the electronic document and the one or more bar codes on microfilm or microfiche for archival purposes.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a method for data interchange includes receiving a number from a user representing a location of a web resource, accessing the web resource using the number, receiving from the web resource a bar code summing up data associated with the web resource. The number may be a phone number or other number which may be easily entered by a user, such as using a dial pad of a phone. The number may include other characters associated with a dial pad of a phone. The data may data tags.
A more complete understanding of the method and apparatus for tagged bar code data interchange will be afforded to those skilled in the art, as well as a realization of the additional features and advantages thereof, by a consideration of the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment. Reference will be made to the appended drawings which will first be described briefly.
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SUMMARY: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to data interchange technology, and more particularly, though not exclusively, to a method and apparatus for inputting tagged or un-tagged data into electronic documents (e-forms), summing up data in the electronic document, or in a linked and separate document or file as one or more 1D and/or 2D bar codes ready for use in data interchange.
2. Problems in the Art
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is used throughout this document in the broadest sense as a method for capturing and interchanging information. Unless specifically referred to as one of the four following predominant narrowly defined EDI standards: 1) the United Nations recommended UN/EDIFACT is the only international standard and is predominant outside of North America, 2) the U.S. standard ANSI ASC X12 (X12) is predominant in North America, 3) the TRADACOMS standard developed by the ANA (Article Numbering Association) is predominant in the UK retail industry, and 4) The ODETTE standard used within the European automotive industry.
These narrowly defined EDI standards prescribe the formats, character sets, and data elements used in the exchange of business documents and forms. The complete X12 Document List includes all major business documents, including purchase orders (called “ORDERS” in UN/EDIFACT and an “850” in X12) and invoices (called “INVOIC” in UN/EDIFACT and an “810” in X12).
The narrowly defined EDI standards say which pieces of information are mandatory for a particular document, which pieces are optional and give the rules for the structure of the document. The standards are like building codes. Just as two kitchens can be built “to code” but look completely different, two EDI documents can follow the same standard and contain different sets of information. For example a food company may indicate a product's expiration date while a clothing manufacturer would choose to send color and size information.
Organizations that send or receive narrowly defined EDI documents from each other are referred to as “trading partners” in EDI terminology. The trading partners agree on the specific information to be transmitted and how it should be used. This is done in human readable specifications (also called Message Implementation Guidelines). While the standards are analogous to building codes, the specifications are analogous to blue prints. (The specification may also be called a mapping but the term mapping is typically reserved for specific machine readable instructions given to the translation software.) Larger trading “hubs” have existing Message Implementation Guidelines which mirror their business processes for processing EDI and they are usually unwilling to modify their EDI business practices to meet the needs of their trading partners. Often in a large company these narrowly defined EDI guidelines will be written to be generic enough to be used by different branches or divisions and therefore will contain information not needed for a particular business document exchange. For other large companies, they may create separate EDI guidelines for each branch/division.
Trading partners who use narrowly defined EDI are free to use any method for the transmission of documents. In the past one of the more popular methods was the usage of a bisync modem to communicate through a “Value Added Network” (VAN). Some organizations have used direct modem to modem connections, “Bulletin Board System” (BBS), and recently there has been a move towards using the some of the many Internet protocols for transmission, but most EDI is still transmitted using a VAN. In the healthcare industry, a VAN is referred to as a “Clearinghouse”.
In the most basic form, a VAN acts as a regional post office. They receive transactions, examine the ‘From’ and the ‘To’ information, and route the transaction to the final recipient. VAN's provide a number of additional services, e.g. retransmission of documents, provide third party audit information, and act as a gateway for different transmission methods, handling telecommunications support, etc. Because of these and other services VAN's provide, businesses frequently use a VAN even when both trading partners are using Internet-based protocols. Healthcare clearinghouses perform many of the same functions as a VAN, but have additional legal restrictions that govern protected healthcare information.
VAN's also provide an advantage with certificate replacement in AS2 transmissions. Because each node in a traditionally business-related AS2 transmission usually involves a security certificate, routing a large number of partners through a VAN can make certificate replacement much easier.
Until recently the Internet transmission was handled by nonstandard methods between trading partners usually involving FTP or email attachments. There are also standards for embedding EDI documents into XML. Many organizations are migrating to this protocol to reduce costs. For example, Wal-Mart is now requiring its trading partners to switch to the AS2 protocol.
Often missing from the narrowly defined EDI specifications (referred to as EDI Implementation Guidelines) are real world descriptions of how the information should be interpreted by the business receiving it. For example, suppose candy is packaged in a large box that contains 5 display boxes and each display box contains 24 boxes of candy packaged for the consumer. If an EDI document says to ship 10 boxes of candy it may not be clear whether to ship 10 consumer packaged boxes, 240 consumer packaged boxes or 1200 consumer packaged boxes. It is not enough for two parties to agree to use a particular qualifier indicating case, pack, box or each; they must also agree on what that particular qualifier means.
Translation software for narrowly defined EDI provides the interface between internal systems and the EDI format sent/received. For an “inbound” document the EDI solution will receive the file (either via a Value Added Network or directly using protocols such as FTP or AS2), take the received EDI file (commonly referred to as a “mailbag”), validate that the trading partner who is sending the file is a valid trading partner, that the structure of the file meets the narrowly defined EDI standards and that the individual fields of information conforms to the agreed upon standards. Typically the translator will either create a file of either fixed length, variable length or XML tagged format or “print” the received EDI document (for non-integrated EDI environments). The next step is to convert/transform the file that the translator creates into a format that can be imported into a company's back-end business systems or ERP. This can be accomplished by using a custom program, an integrated proprietary “mapper” or to use an integrated standards based graphical “mapper” using a standard data transformation language such as XSLT. The final step is to import the transformed file (or database) into the company's back-end ERP. It is important to note from the previous discussion, EDI is not XML. Narrowly defined EDI can be translated into an XML document, or XML can encapsulate EDI documents created using a standard such as, but not limited to, X12, UN/EDIFACT, TRADACOMS, ODETTE, etc.
To further highlight the difference between EDI in its narrow sense and XML, the following is about the current state of EDIFACT from a Wikipedia article on EDIFACT: “It seems there is a battle between XML and EDIFACT. An equivalent EDIFACT message will be smaller in size than an XML message but the XML message will be easier to read for a human (which is correct but of course not necessary because the content of such messages are not developed to be read by human but by computers). Another possible explanation is that compatibility is being favored over performance, since more tools exist to work with XML data than with EDIFACT. As mentioned in the beginning, EDIFACT-messages are smaller, in some cases about ten times smaller than XML-messages, and therefore not recommended for large message contents. The advantage of EDIFACT is the availability of agreed message-contents and the XML-world today needs these contents to develop similar “agreed” contents for XML.
One of the emerging XML standards is RosettaNet, widely used in the semiconductor and high tech industry in general. Another is UBL, currently being adopted by Scandinavian governments as legal requirement to send invoices to governments. For example, all invoices to the Danish government have had to be in electronic format since February 2005.
Another XML standard (also built by UN/CEFACT, like EDIFACT) is ebXML, often seen as a standard best suited for small and medium enterprises.
However, EDIFACT is still widely used in the high tech, civil aviation, retail and tourism industries and is likely to remain so for some time due to the amount of software making use of it and the need for newer systems to be able to integrate with legacy systems. Europe started early with adopting EDIFACT and therefore has a large installed base, where as for example the Asian region started later with B2B implementations and is therefore using more XML standards. As mentioned EDIFACT is widely used in Europe in nearly all areas of economy and the application will grow in future. One example is the energy market where the EDIFACT-Standard in Europe is a requirement for now and the future.” The point again is, EDI in its narrowly defined sense, such as, but not limited to, X12,UN/EDIFACT<TRADACOMS, ODETTE, etc. is XML is not EDI.
The following comes from the home page of the ASC X12 organization, a promulgator of narrowly defined, traditional EDI standards: “With more than 315 X12 EDI transactions, a growing collection of X12 XML schemas and related documents for national and global arenas, ASC X12 enhances data exchange processes from anywhere in your organization to anywhere in the world. Network and collaborate with business process experts, technology innovators, and complementary standards and industry initiatives to advance convergence, interoperability and message reusability across vertical and horizontal markets.” Again, the point is, one of the promulgators of a narrowly defined EDI, X12, says that they develop both EDI and XML standards for data interchange.
For an “outbound” document the process for integrated narrowly defined EDI is to export a file (or read a database) from a company's back-end ERP, transform the file to the appropriate format for the translator. The translation software will then “validate” the EDI file sent to ensure that it meets the standard agreed upon by the trading partners, convert the file into “EDI” format (adding in the appropriate identifiers and control structures) and send the file to the trading partner (using the appropriate communications protocol).
Another critical component of any narrowly defined EDI translation software is a complete “audit” of all the steps to move business documents between trading partners. The audit ensures that any transaction (which in reality is a business document) can be tracked to ensure that they are not lost. In case of a retailer sending a Purchase Order to a supplier, if the Purchase Order is “lost” anywhere in the business process, the effect is devastating to both businesses. To the supplier, they do not fulfill the order as they have not received it thereby losing business and damaging the business relationship with their retail client. For the retailer, they have a stock outage and the effects are lost sales, reduced customer service and ultimately lower profits.
In narrowly defined EDI terminology “inbound” and “outbound” refer to the direction of transmission of an EDI document in relation to a particular system, not the direction of merchandise, money or other things represented by the document. For example, an EDI document that tells a warehouse to perform an outbound shipment is an inbound document in relation to the warehouse computer system. It is an outbound document in relation to the manufacturer or dealer that transmitted the document.
One of the main advantages of narrowly defined EDI is its advantage over paper systems. Narrowly defined EDI and other similar technologies save a company money by providing an alternative to or replacing information flows that require a great deal of human interaction and materials such as paper documents, meetings, faxes, email, etc. Even when paper documents are maintained in parallel with EDI exchange, i.e. printed shipping manifests, electronic exchange and the use of data from that exchange reduces the handling costs of sorting, distributing, organizing, and searching paper documents. EDI and similar technologies allow a company to take advantage of the benefits of storing and manipulating data electronically without the cost of manual entry or scanning.
There are a few barriers to adopting electronic data interchange. One of the most significant barriers is the accompanying business process change. Existing business processes built around slow paper handling may not be suited for narrowly defined EDI and would require changes to accommodate automated processing of business documents. For example, a business may receive the bulk of their goods by 1 or 2 day shipping and all of their invoices by mail. The existing process may therefore assume that goods are typically received before the invoice. With narrowly defined EDI, the invoice will typically be sent when the goods ship and will therefore require a process that handles large numbers of invoices whose corresponding goods have not yet been received.
Another significant barrier for using narrowly defined EDI is the cost in time and money in the initial set-up. The preliminary expenses and time that arise from the implementation, customization and training can be costly and therefore may discourage some businesses. The key is to determine what method of integration is right for your company which will determine the cost of implementation. For a business that only receives one P.O. per year from a client, fully integrated EDI may not make economic sense. In this case, businesses may implement inexpensive “rip and read” solutions or use outsourced EDI solutions provided by EDI “Service Bureaus”. For other businesses, the implementation of an integrated EDI solution may be necessary as increase in trading volumes brought on by EDI force them to re-implement their order processing business processes.
The key hindrance to a successful implementation of narrowly defined EDI is the perception many businesses have of the nature of EDI. Many view EDI from the technical perspective that EDI is a data format; it would be more accurate to take the business view that EDI is a system for exchanging business documents with external entities, and integrating the data from those documents into the company's internal systems. Successful implementations of EDI take into account the effect externally generated information will have on their internal systems and validate the business information received. For example, allowing a supplier to update a retailer's Accounts Payables system without appropriate checks and balances would be a recipe for disaster. Businesses new to the implementation of narrowly defined EDI should take pains to avoid such pitfalls.
Increased efficiency and cost savings drive the adoption of narrowly defined EDI for most trading partners. But even if a company would not choose to use EDI on their own, pressures from larger trading partners (called hubs) often force smaller trading partners to use EDI.
To summarize the prior art up to this point, XML is not narrowly defined EDI. XML is a means of doing data interchange in a broader sense, but not EDI narrowly defined by standards, such as, but not limited to, X12, UN/EDIFACT, TRADACOMS, ODETTE, etc. Also, narrowly defined EDI touts as one of its main advantages—no paper. Lastly, narrowly defined EDI documents can be translated in XML tagged schema, and narrowly defined EDI can be encapsulated in XML schema, but narrowly defined EDI is not XML.
Other forms of non-narrowly defined EDI data interchange can include various forms of data capture or Auto ID system, such as, but not limited to, bar codes, radio frequency identification (RFID), magnetic stripe, optical character recognition (OCR), etc.
Bar codes were first introduced in the United States in the late 1960s. Bar code technology allows almost any data to be collected rapidly and with almost perfect accuracy. Bar code technology provides a simple and easy method of data collection by encoding text information that is easily read by many different stationary, and/or inexpensive hand held electronic devices. Bar codes have become the standard method of identification, processing, and management used universally throughout the manufacturing, retail, and distribution industries. While the utilization of this technology has been limited to printed media, similar needs exist for capturing, storing, and interchanging data using a digital medium.
Another form of data interchange is Optical Character Recognition (OCR). This technology has been employed to speed the collection of human readable data, in the form of handwriting, from scanned paper forms. Even though OCR speeds the data collection process, it is still an expensive method due to the error-checking required to insure that correct data has been captured and input. Also, OCR is limited in its ability to be a widely adopted data interchange technology.
Optical character recognition (OCR) was one of the earliest Auto ID technologies used in retail applications since mid-1980. Today, OCR is currently part of resurgence because of improved reading equipment that is much more accurate, and recognizes a wider range of type styles than earlier equipment.
OCR is typically used to read selected areas of text (as opposed to text recognition software that process full pages of text). OCR is both human- and machine-readable and suited for use with account numbers or short data strings.
OCR readers scan the data in much the same way bar code scanners do: either by moving the document past the scanner or moving the scanner over the document. The scan produces a “picture” of the text that is then analyzed for characteristic features. Features are then matched to specific letters or numbers for output.
It should be noted that OCR readers do not work the same way as vision systems do. The equipment for text string scanning is much simpler and less expensive that vision systems or text scanners.
Another OCR technology is magnetic ink character recognition (MICR). MICR like OCR has a narrow range of usefulness as an EDI system that can be widely adopted.
Another OCR technology is intelligent character recognition (ICR). ICR is the intelligent recognition of non-OCR font characters, and hand-printed characters. ICR like OCR and MICR has a narrow range of usefulness as an EDI system (in the broadest definition of EDI) that can be widely adopted.
Wireless devices in the form of cellular phones, PDA's, pager's, etc. have equipped consumers with additional functionality; however barriers have become more complex between such devices and their various operating platforms and software applications. In addition, these devices do not provide for an easy-to-use, two-way interactive means by which to access and interchange data.
To achieve the desired flexibility and speed in capturing, storing, and interchanging data, businesses and consumers continue to deal with increasingly complex integration issues with management information systems.
Some of these issues have recently been solved by leveraging the proven ability of bar codes as an easy, point-of-use method for capturing and exchanging data, where computing devices may share the same data sources seamlessly and easily. More importantly, these methods enable small to medium size companies with electronic commerce capabilities without the need to build infrastructure, or to develop sophisticated middle-ware solutions.
Another form of data interchange, or EDI in its broadest definition that is becoming more prevalent is eXtensible Markup Language (XML). XML is an open standard that is a subset of SGML (Standardized General Markup Language). XML was developed to overcome the shortcomings of HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) which much of the data on the Internet was originally tagged.
Many large businesses have positioned themselves to conduct business online, but due to the costs and complexity associated with electronic commerce, their vendors have not been quick to follow. Given the cost savings benefits of on-line businesses, these companies will be more willing to find new suppliers and trading partners online rather than by traditional means.
During the past decade, acquisitions and mergers have also escalated at a rapid pace as more and more companies posture for a piece of international trade. As economies continue to open, companies will continue to aggressively pursue strategic alliances to capitalize on these opportunities. To date, an overriding consideration in such alliances has been complex conversion and information exchange issues. While the Internet has done much to free the information flow, the compatibility of legacy hardware and software remains paramount.
Even though business has tried to become paperless for the past two decades, paper documents persist, and will for the foreseeable future.
Another limitation of e-Forms is they have been limited to HTML, XML, or PDF formats or a few proprietary formats.
There is therefore an unfilled need for a method and apparatus which overcomes the limitations of narrowly defined EDI, overcomes and uses data interchange technologies such as OCR, bar codes, RFID, and magnetic stripe, and addresses the persistence of paper by embracing it, and solves these and other problems. This invention has as its primary objective fulfillment of this need for electronic data interchange in its broadest definition. The present invention is not, however, to be limited in any way by this discussion.
FEATURES OF THE INVENTION
A general feature of the present invention is the provision of a method and apparatus for tagged bar code data interchange which overcomes the problems found in the prior art.
A further feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data interchange using tagged printed and/or video displayed bar codes which uses XML as an ad hoc middleware.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data interchange between computers using different operating systems using tagged printed and/or video bar codes.
A further feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data interchange between computers using different computer software applications using tagged printed and/or video bar codes.
Another feature of the present invention is a method for data interchange using tagged video bar codes generated by a software application running within, or in conjunction with an electronic document, to represent data contained therein.
Another feature of the present invention is a method for data interchange using tagged printed bar codes generated by a software application running within, or in conjunction with an electronic document, to represent data contained therein.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method and apparatus for data interchange using tagged video bar codes for business-consumer transactions.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method and apparatus for data interchange using tagged printed bar codes for business-consumer transactions.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method and apparatus for data interchange using tagged video bar codes for consumer-consumer transactions.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method and apparatus for data interchange using tagged printed bar codes for consumer-consumer transactions.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method and apparatus for data interchange using tagged video bar codes for business-business transactions.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method and apparatus for data interchange using tagged printed bar codes for business-business transactions.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method and apparatus for data interchange using tagged video and/or tagged printed bar codes via a remote web, security, or phone camera and transmitted to a remote video display for data capture.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged printed and/or tagged video bar codes to provide data in multiple languages.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged printed and/or tagged video bar codes in conjunction with XML network routing equipment.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using a keyboard.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using voice recognition technology.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using a computer-telephone interface.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using tagged 1-D bar code data.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using tagged 2-D bar code data.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using tagged 3D bumpy bar code data.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using tagged OCR data.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using tagged MICR data.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using tagged RFID data.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using tagged magnetic stripe data.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using tagged ICR data.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using un-tagged 1-D bar code data.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using un-tagged 2-D bar code data.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using un-tagged 3D bumpy bar code data.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using un-tagged OCR data.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using un-tagged MICR data.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using un-tagged RFID data.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using un-tagged magnetic stripe data.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data input into an electronic document using un-tagged ICR data.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data interchange between computers using different operating systems using tagged video bar codes in an e-mail.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data interchange between computers using different operating systems using tagged video bar codes in an Instant Message.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for data interchange between computers using different operating systems using tagged video bar codes in a web-page.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for tagged data output into a cell phone device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for tagged data output into a PDA device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for tagged data output into a television set-top device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for tagged data output into a communication network router device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for tagged data output into a communication network switch device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for tagged data output into a communication network hub device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for tagged data output into an Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for tagged data output into a laptop computer device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for tagged data output into a personal computer (PC) device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for tagged data output into a pager device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for tagged data output into a text messaging device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for un-tagged data output into a cell phone device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for un-tagged data output into a PDA device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for un-tagged data output into a television set-top device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for un-tagged data output into a communication network router device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for un-tagged data output into a communication network switch device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for un-tagged data output into a communication network hub device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for un-tagged data output into an Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for un-tagged data output into a laptop computer device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for un-tagged bar coded data output into a personal computer (PC) device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for un-tagged data output into a pager device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a method for un-tagged data output into a text messaging device.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of an efficient method for bar coding UNICODE characters.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of bar code representing tagged or un-tagged address information on a video display.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged or un-tagged video or printed bar codes for discounts given to restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores at the time of delivery of inventory in order to keep track of discounts and provide data to accounting and back-end systems.
Another feature of the present invention is using tagged or un-tagged video bar codes as pre-paid chits for things like bowling, go-kart rides, etc.
Another feature of the present invention is using cell phone cameras in conjunction with bar code decoder software to scan and decode tagged or un-tagged printed or video bar codes.
Another feature of the present invention is using web cameras in conjunction with bar code decoder software to scan and decode tagged or un-tagged printed or video bar codes.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged or un-tagged video bar codes as cash or gift cards.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged or un-tagged bar coded data on PDF documents in a print directory such as Yummy!.
Another feature of the present invention is the conversion of scanned bar coded data on a driver's license to XML data.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged or un-tagged bar coded data in RSS feeds.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of a hash to produce the expiration date of product that carries a tagged or un-tagged bar code.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of XML tags in a tagged bar code to do mathematical calculations in a printed or video bar code.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of a hash in conjunction with a PIN to encrypt a tagged or un-tagged bar code.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of a hash in conjunction with a PIN to un-lock all or a portion of a tagged or un-tagged bar code.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of XML tags in a tagged bar code to represent row and cell identifiers in a spreadsheet software program.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of XML tags in a tagged bar code to represent attributes and tuples and specific records in a relational database.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged or un-tagged bar coded data on employee financial transaction card statements and expense statements and vouchers for the purpose of reconciliation.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged or un-tagged bar coded data in conjunction with EDI standards, such as ANSI.1, EDI-INT, ASC X12, UN/EDIFACT, CICA, etc.
Another feature of the present invention is the association of a tagged or un-tagged bar code to an XML XSL or XSLT file.
Another feature of the present invention is the association of a tagged or un-tagged bar code to and XML XSD file
Another feature of the present invention is the association of a tagged or un-tagged bar code to an XML Schema file.
Another feature of the present invention is the association of a tagged or un-tagged bar code to an XML DTD file.
Another feature of the present invention is the association of a tagged or un-tagged bar code to an XML file with XML Signatures.
Another feature of the present invention is the association of a tagged or un-tagged bar code to an XML pointer file.
Another feature of the present invention is the association of a tagged or un-tagged bar code to an XML XPath file.
Another feature of the present invention is the association of a tagged or un-tagged bar code to an XML file with XLinks.
Another feature of the present invention is the association of a tagged or un-tagged bar code to an e-Form created by the XForm standard.
Another feature of the present invention is the association of a tagged or un-tagged bar code to an XML document that uses XML:ID.
Another feature of the present invention is the present invention is a security feature in which tagged or un-tagged bar codes are graphically separated into two or more layers, and the graphical combination of all the layers is required in order to complete the graphical representation of the bar code for scanning.
Another feature of the present invention is the secure wireless transmission of tagged or un-tagged bar coded data by the optical scan.
Another feature of the present invention is the integration of the Airclic bar code solution to further extend the power of tagged or un-tagged bar coded e-Forms.
Another feature of the present invention is the integration of the NeoMedia cell phone camera bar code reader solution to extend the power of tagged or un-tagged bar coded e-Forms.
Another feature of the present invention is the enabling of coupons distributed by Booble.com.
Another feature of the present invention is the integration of the DataCard driver's license solution with the present invention.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of DataIntro software to create the bar coded e-Forms used in the present invention.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of PureEdge software to create the bar coded e-Forms used in the present invention.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of Icoya software to create the bar coded e-Forms used in the present invention.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of Adobe software to create the bar coded e-Forms used in the present invention.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of Microsoft software to create the bar coded e-Forms used in the present invention.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of Macola software to create the bar coded e-Forms used in the present invention.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of Altova MapForce software to manage and map bar coded e-Forms used in the present invention.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged or un-tagged bar coded data in SmartBOL software products.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged or un-tagged bar coded data in Macromedia frames in web pages, or windows.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged or un-tagged bar coded data in QuickTime frames in web pages, or windows.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged or un-tagged bar coded data in RealNetworks frames in web pages, or windows.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged or un-tagged EPC bar codes.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged or un-tagged Quick Response bar codes.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged or un-tagged Semacodes.
Another feature of the present invention is the providing the self-tagging capability of e-Forms and related documents using 43 Things, Flickr, del.icio.us, etc.
Another feature of the present invention is HIPPA compliant tagged or un-tagged bar coded documents
Another feature of the present invention is Sarbanes-Oxley compliant tagged or un-tagged bar coded documents.
Another feature of the present invention is encrypted data tags contained in the bar code.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged or un-tagged bar codes to represent data in an e-Form as an integral part of the e-Form.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged or un-tagged bar codes to represent data in an e-Form in a separate software application.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of e-Forms that are not constructed with HTML.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of e-Forms that are not constructed with XML.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of e-Forms that are not constructed as PDFs.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of the VISA XML standard for financial transaction card statement data interchange.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of AJAX programming.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of biometric data included within tagged or un-tagged 2D bar codes for validation, authentication, and verification activities.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of biometrics used in conjunction with tagged or un-tagged 2D bar codes for validation, authentication, and verification activities.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of MLC/MSC encoded bar codes.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of WiFi enabled cell phones as a device that can receive and transmit the present invention's form which may or may not contain tagged and/or un-tagged data summarized as a bar code.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of cell phone-PC merged devices.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of “Dial-A-Web Page” as a shortcut method to access web pages that may or may not include tagged and/or un-tagged data summed up as a bar code.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of “Dial-An-Exit” as a shortcut method to access information related to hotels, motels, restaurants, gas stations, etc. located at or near a specific exit on a highway. The information related to hotels, motels, restaurants, gas stations, ATM, etc. would be accessed by speaking or typing the Highway and Exit number into a cell phone, PDA, smart phone, etc., without having to depend on location based services acquiring a user's location, or may not provide enough granularity of position.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of “Dial-An-Airport” as a shortcut method to access information related to restaurants, bookstores, ATMs, rest rooms, etc. located at or near a specific gate or concourse in an airport. The information related to restaurants, bookstores, ATMs, rest rooms, etc., would be accessed by first speaking or typing the airport code, and second speaking or typing the concourse, gate number, or flight number into a cell phone, PDA, smart phone, etc. without having to depend on location based services acquiring a user's location using WiFi, cell location, or GPS—which doesn't work indoors, or may not provide enough granularity of position. This feature of the present invention may be used with video bar codes that represent discounts, coupons, chits, tickets, bar coded e-money, etc., for vendors in or near the airport. These video bar coded discounts, coupons, chits, tickets, bar coded e-money may be delivered via SMS, EMS, MMS, e-mail, IM, etc.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of “Dial-An-Train Station” as a shortcut method to access information related to restaurants, bookstores, ATMs, rest rooms, etc., located at or near a specific track or concourse in a train station. The information related to restaurants, bookstores, ATMs, rest rooms, etc., would be accessed by first speaking or typing the train station name, or train station code, and second speaking or typing a concourse, track number, or train number into a cell phone, PDA, smart phone, etc. without having to depend on location based services acquiring a user's location using WiFi, cell location, or GPS—which doesn't work indoors, or may not provide enough granularity of position. This feature of the present invention may be used with video bar codes that represent discounts, coupons, chits, tickets, bar coded e-money, etc., for vendors in or near the train station. These video bar coded discounts, coupons, chits, tickets, bar coded e-money may be delivered via SMS, EMS, MMS, e-mail, IM, etc.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of “Dial-A-Stadium” as a shortcut method to access information related to restaurants, ATMs, rest rooms, etc. located at or near a specific seating section in an indoor or outdoor sporting venue. The information related to restaurants, ATMs, rest rooms, etc., would be accessed by first speaking or typing the stadium's name, or stadium's code, and second speaking or typing a seating section, or seat number into a cell phone, PDA, smart phone, etc. without having to depend on location based services acquiring a user's location using WiFi, cell location, or GPS—which doesn't work indoors or shielded environments, or may not provide enough granularity of position. This feature of the present invention may be used with video bar codes that represent discounts, coupons, chits, tickets, bar coded e-money, etc., for vendors in or near the stadium. These video bar coded discounts, coupons, chits, tickets, bar coded e-money may be delivered via SMS, EMS, MMS, e-mail, IM, etc.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of “Dial-A-Convention Center” as a shortcut method to access information related to restaurants, ATMs, rest rooms, etc., located at or near a specific area, exit, entrance, etc. in a convention hall, etc. The information related to restaurants, ATMs, rest rooms, etc. would be accessed by first speaking or typing the name of the convention center, or convention code, and second speaking or typing a specific area, exit, entrance, etc., into a cell phone, PDA, smart phone, etc. without having to depend on location based services acquiring a user's location using WiFi, cell location, or GPS—which doesn't work indoors. This feature of the present invention may be used with video bar codes that represent discounts, coupons, chits, tickets, bar coded e-money, etc., for vendors in or near the convention center. These video bar coded discounts, coupons, chits, tickets, bar coded e-money may be delivered via SMS, EMS, MMS, e-mail, IM, etc.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of GoXML as an XML schema.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of NavXML and GeoXML as schemas.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of Autonomy software that enable identification of the patterns that naturally occur in text, based on the usage and frequency of words or terms that correspond to specific concepts. In order to extract a document's digital essence (which may or may not include data summed up as a tagged or un-tagged bar code) in order to enable a host of operations to be performed automatically.
Another feature of the present invention is the inclusion of a bar code reader, RFID scanner, magnetic stripe reader in a sled, integrated into a cell phone, PCMCIA, SDIO, etc
Another feature of the present invention is the use of iDRS intelligent recognition software application to process imaged files to extract data contained therein using ICR, OCR, MICR, and 1D and 2D bar code recognition technologies.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of microfilm and/or microfiche as either a source and/or target for the present inventions forms containing tagged and/or un-tagged data summarized as a bar code.
Another feature of the present invention is the provision of a software feature or ASP to provide a service for providing copyright filing of the present invention's forms containing tagged or un-tagged data summarized as a bar code.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of JSON Lightweight Data Interchange as an alternative to XML.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of JSON Lightweight Data Interchange in conjunction with XML.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of XML in the form of RSS Branded feeds.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged and/or un-tagged bar codes in conjunction with documents created in the OpenDocument Format.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged and/or un-tagged bar codes in conjunction with documents created in the XForms format.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of tagged and/or un-tagged bar codes in conjunction with documents created using Microsoft XPS.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of a Kofax departmental sized scanner with a built-in bar code scanner and decoder.
Another feature of the present invention is the use of bar codes displayed in web pages that use Adobe Flash.
The present invention may be built on top of Redberri software.
One or more of these and/or other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following specification and claims. No single embodiment of the invention need implement all of these features.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed towards means and methods for the interchange of data. This includes the interchange of data from one electronic system to another electronic system either directly or through an intermediary physical form such as a printed bar code, a video displayed bar code, an RFID tag, or other physical mechanism. The interchange of data is performed in a meaningful way so that it is readily usable. In particular, embedded tags can be used to facilitate the proper identification of the data.
According to one aspect of the invention, a 3-step method and apparatus provides for 1) inputting tagged or un-tagged data into electronic documents (e-forms), 2) summing up data in the electronic document as one or more 1D and/or 2D bar codes ready for interchange using data tags, and 3) outputting tagged data.
In the first step, tagged or un-tagged input data can come from a variety of data sources, including, but not limited to, 1D and/or 2D bar codes displayed on driver's licenses, national identification cards, social security cards, military identification cards, company identification cards, business cards, financial transaction cards including, but not limited to, credit cards, check cards, and ATM cards, health plan identification cards, purchase receipts, warranties, bills of lading, purchase orders, invoices, sales orders, insurance cards, statements of account, work orders, drawings, photographs, blueprints, packing lists, UCC forms, contracts, redemption coupons, newspapers, magazines, products, product packaging, vehicles, shipping containers, pallets, etc. In addition, tagged or un-tagged sources for data input into an electronic document can come from sources, such as, but not limited to, 3D bumpy bar codes, RFID tags, magnetic stripes, optically recognizable characters (OCR), characters recognizable via magnetic ink technology (MICR), intelligently recognized characters (ICR), voice, voice recognition technology, computer-telephone interfaces, keyboards, touch screens, PC, laptop, PDA, mouse, pager, text messaging device, WiFi enabled cell phones, cell phone-PC merged devices, etc.
Electronic document file types have previously been created using a very limited number of file formats, specifically, HTML and XML in order to make them universally available for viewing in a browser, and as PDFs using the Adobe Reader plug-in. In a quantum leap forward the present invention makes virtually any electronic document file format available for viewing and as a mechanism to sum-up data for exchange as one or more tagged or un-tagged bar codes. As an example, additional electronic document file types that would be made available in the present invention using a viewer, such as, but not limited to the Kamel Fastlook browser plug-in include, but are not limited to the following:
300 - Enable WP 3.0BAK - AutoCAD backup filesBMP - Windows bitmapCAL - SuperCalc 5CDR - Corel Draw (Header only)CGM - Computer Graphic MetafilesCH3 - Harvard Graphics 3.0CHP - Legacy filesCHT - Harvard Graphics 2.0CUR - Windows CursorDB - Paradox DatabaseDB - Smart DatabaseDBA - DataEase 4.xDBF - DBase III, IV, VDCX - Multipage PCXDGN - Intergraph/MicroStation files*DIB - Windows bitmapDIF - Navy DIFDLL - Windows DLL fileDOC - First Choice 3 WPDOC - IBM DisplayWrite 4/5DOC - Microsoft Word 4.0-6.0DOC - Microsoft WordPadDOC - MultiMate 3.6DOC - SmartWare IIDOC - Wang IWP filesDOC - Word for Windows 1.0, 7.0, 97DOX - MultiMate 4.0DRW - Micrografx DrawDTF - Q&A DatabaseDWF - AutoCAD DWF 2.0DWG - AutoCAD Drawing filesDX3 - DEC DX filesDXF - Drawing Interchange filesEPS - EPS (TIFF header)EXE - DOS/Windows ExecutableEXE - Self Extracting ZIPFAX - CCITT Group3 FaxFAX - CCITT Group3/4 FaxFFT - IBM FFT filesFirst Choice Word ProcessorFNT - MultiMate Advantage 2FNX - MultiMate NoteFOL - First Choice DBFWK - Framework IIIGEM - GEM ImageGeneric WKSGIF - Rendered Image filesGP4 - CALS Group4 imagesHPGL/2 - Hewlet-Packard GraphicsLanguageHTML - Internet-WWWIBM Writing AssistantICO - Windows IconIDW - Autodesk InventorIMG - GEM Image fileJFIFJPEG - Compressed ColorJW - JustWrite 1.0/2.0Lotus Manuscript 1.0-2.0Lotus PICLTR - PC File 5.0 DocLZA CompressLZH CompressMac WordPerfect 2.0Mac WordPerfect 3.0Mac WordPerfect 1.xMac Works 2.0 DatabaseMac Works 2.0 SpreadsheetMac Works 2.0 Word ProcessorMacintosh PICT/PICT2MacPaintMacWrite IIMASS 11MDB - Microsoft AccessMI - ME10/30Microsoft Office BinderMultiplan 4Novell PerfectWorks 2.0 Word ProcessorNovell PerfectWorks 2.0 DrawNovell PerfectWorks 2.0 SpreadsheetNovell Presentations 3.0OS/2 BitmapOS/2 Warp BitmapPCX - Zsoft Corporation filesPFB - PFS WritePL - PFS: PlanPPT - PowerPoint 3.0-4.0PPT - Powerpoint7.0PR2 - Freelance filesProfessional Write 1-2PRT - CADKey design filePWP - Professional Write PlusQ&A WriteQ&A Write 3R2D - Reflex filesRBF - R: Base SystemV/5000RFT - IBM DCA/RFT filesRLC - CAD Overlay filesRLE - Windows bitmapRTF - Rich Text FormatSAM - Ami Pro filesSAM - Samna filesSDW - Ami DrawSignatureSLDDRW - SolidWorksSNP - Lotus SnapshotSPR - Sprint filesSS - First Choice SpreadsheetSSF - Enable SpreadsheetSY1- Smart PIC filesSYM - Lotus SymphonyTAR - UNIX Tar filesTAZ - UNIX Compress filesTGA - Rendered Image filesTIF - TIFF Group3/4, LZW ColorTW - Total Word filesTXT - IBM DisplayWrite 2/3TXT - Text FilesVW4 - Volkswriter filesWB1 - Quattro Pro for WindowsWDB - MS Works DatabaseWG1 - Lotus 123 for OS2Windows Works DatabaseWindows Works SpreadsheetWK1 - Lotus 123 v1.0-2.0WK3 - Lotus 123 v3.0-5.0WKS - MS Works SpreadsheetWKS - VP- PlannerWKU - Mosaic Twin filesWMC - WordMarc filesWMF - Windows MetafilesWord for Macintosh 4.0-5.0WP - WordPerfect 4.2WP - OfficeWriterWPD - WordPerfect 5.xWPD - WordPerfect 6.0-7.0WPF - Enable WP 4.xWPG - WordPerfect Graphic 1.0-2.0WPG - WordPerfect PresentationsWPS - MS Works WordprocessorWQ1 - Quattro Pro DOSWRI - Windows WriteWS - WordStar 3.0-7.0WS - Smart SpreadsheetWS - Wordstar for WindowsWS2 - WordStar 2000XLC - Microsoft Excel ChartXLS - Microsoft ExcelXyWrite/Nota BeneZIP - PkZip file
Also, by using other viewers in the present invention, such as, but not limited to, DjVu, DiJu files that include data summed up as one or more tagged and/or un-tagged bar codes can be read.
In addition, by using other viewers in the present invention, such as, but not limited to, PureEdge Viewer, PureEdge files that include data summed up as one or more tagged and/or un-tagged bar codes can be read.
Tagged input data is automatically input into an electronic document. Input data tags may be useful to facilitate data input to an electronic document, and subsequently re-tagged by the electronic document in order to facilitate interchange into an information system. Alternatively, input data tags may be useful to facilitate data input into an electronic document, and subsequently remain with the input data without alteration in order to facilitate interchange into an information system.
Un-tagged input data is semi-automatically input into an electronic document.
In step two, source data and/or electronic form fields contained in the electronic document are summed up as one or more 1D and/or 2D tagged bar code(s), which is the means for data interchange via bar code scanning technology in the present invention. Alternatively, the data may be summed up by the remote server and returned to the original electronic document or other electronic documents as one or more 1D and/or 2D tagged bar codes for data interchange via bar code scanning technology. The electronic document may use the data tags contained in the source data, and/or strip the source data tags and/or re-tag the source data in order to facilitate data interchange. Additionally, the electronic document can add data tags to un-tagged input source data in order to facilitate interchange into an information system.
In step three, tagged information summed up on an electronic document in the form of one or more 1D and/or 2D bar codes are captured from either a printed version of the electronic document, or a video displayed version of the electronic document. The video bar code may come from either a local, or remotely viewed source. The captured tagged data string is parsed; the data tags are used to route and/or input and/or exchange data into a variety of software applications, such as but not limited to, a database, a spreadsheet, a web page, a word processor, another electronic document, etc. The tags may remain with the output data, or alternatively may be stripped from the data.
The tagged data captured from one or more 1D and/or 2D bar code(s) in an electronic document, either directly off a video display or from a printed version of the document, can be output to a data target that is capable of receiving and/or use tagged data, such as but not limited to, an RFID tag, Smart Card, magnetic stripe, bar code printer, OCR encoder, MICR encoder, ICR encoder, cell phone, television set-top box, telecommunication network router, telecommunication network switch, telecommunication network hub, ATM machine, laptop computer, PC, PDA, pager, text messaging device, touch screen, keyboard, mouse, etc.
In a preferred embodiment, a business user or consumer uses an integrated software system to create electronic generated documents which include integrally or in a separate software application tagged bar coded information, create specific stylesheets to define bar coded data tags, publish documents with tagged bar coded information, scan video displayed documents using a high scan rate CCD or linear imager, or scan printed documents using any type of applicable bar code reader to capture tagged bar coded information, cache tagged bar coded information, parse the tagged bar coded information and applicable software applications, strip the bar coded data tags, input stripped bar coded data into the applicable software application.
This scanned information is not formatted specifically for any business/consumer software and therefore is easily transferable between businesses/consumers which may use different software applications to manipulate the same data to suit their needs. This minimizes the need for many of the conversion programs or interpretation programs, commonly known as middleware, and provides data interchange across a wide variety of settings for a myriad of purposes.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a method for data interchange is provided. The method includes providing a first document having at least one data field. Then inputted information is received into the at least one data field. A bar code is generated based on the at least one data field and the information inputted into the at least one data field. The at least one data field and the information inputted into the at least one data field is stored within the first document or otherwise.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a method for data interchange includes opening a document having tagged bar coded information including data tags and data. Then the data is updated. A bar code defined by the tagged bar code information is also updated. The tagged bar coded information is then transmitted. The transmitting can occur in electronic or paper form.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a method for data interchange includes opening a document having embedded tagged or un-tagged bar coded information, updating data within data field of the document, updating the embedded bar coded information based on the data, and generating a bar code based on the embedded bar coded information. The embedded bar coded information can then be transmitted in either electronic or paper form, or a combination of electronic and paper forms.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a method for data interchange includes opening a document that is linked to tagged or un-tagged bar coded information represented in a separate software application, updating data within the data field of the document, updating the bar coded information in the linked and separate software application based on the data, and generating a bar code based on the bar coded information in the linked and separate software application. The combination of the document and bar coded information in a linked and separate software application can then be transmitted in either electronic or paper form, or combination of electronic and paper forms.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a method for data interchange includes summing up data associated with an electronic document to provide summed up data, representing the summed up data as one or more bar codes, and returning the one or more bar codes for display and data capture via a bar code scan from either a video display or a printed version of the one or more bar codes. The summing up may include taking data from multiple information fields to create the summed up data. The data may include data tags. The method may include adding data tags to the data to assist in data interchange. The steps of summing up, representing, and returning are performed by a software application running on a first computer. The method may include sending the data associated with the electronic document to a remote computing device for performing the steps of summing up, representing, and returning. The step of returning may be returning an image. The electronic document may include data from a source associated with the electronic document. The data source may be a physical device. The one or more bar codes may be maintained by incorporating the one or more bar codes into the electronic document as one or more images. The method may include representing the electronic document and the one or more bar codes on microfilm or microfiche for archival purposes.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a method for data interchange includes receiving a number from a user representing a location of a web resource, accessing the web resource using the number, receiving from the web resource a bar code summing up data associated with the web resource. The number may be a phone number or other number which may be easily entered by a user, such as using a dial pad of a phone. The number may include other characters associated with a dial pad of a phone. The data may data tags.
A more complete understanding of the method and apparatus for tagged bar code data interchange will be afforded to those skilled in the art, as well as a realization of the additional features and advantages thereof, by a consideration of the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment. Reference will be made to the appended drawings which will first be described briefly.
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7843430 | FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an inertial input apparatus with six-axial detection ability and the operating method thereof, and more particularly, to an inertial input apparatus configured with accelerometers and gyroscope, capable of adapting itself to be operative no matter the inertial input apparatus is being held to operate on a planar surface or in a free space.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
There are already several cursor-control devices integrating functions of the computer mouse and the presentation device. However, the control methods adopted thereby are still similar to those conventional computer mice and thus suffering the same limitations. As for the inertial/gravity mouse which are being aggressively studied, it is still troubled by many technical difficulties and thus remains to be improved.
There are many researches relating to inertial mouse. One of which is an input device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,898,421, entitled “Gyroscopic Pointer and Method”, as seen inFIG. 1. The hand-held input device, having an inertial gyroscope110arranged therein, is capable of being used in free space, employing the inertial gyroscope110for detecting angular velocity of a user's hand and thus, by the signal transmission of the interface180, defining movements of a cursor displayed on a screen of an interactive computer. In one embodiment of the aforesaid patent as that shown inFIG. 1, the inertial gyroscope110, arranged inside the hand-held input device, is driven to rotate by power provided from a wall adapter190and is pivotally coupled to an inner frame170by a pair of coaxial gimbals115,120while pivotally coupling to an outer frame160by another pair of coaxial gimbals140,145whose axis is perpendicular to that of the gimbals115,120. As there is only a gyroscope110configured in the hand-held input device, it is only suitable to be used in a free space and is not able to operate on a planar surface. Moreover, it is conceivable that the referring mouse is comparably bulky and suffers a high margin of error as gyroscope110is mechanically coupled inside the hand-held input device.
Please refer toFIG. 2, which shows a pointing device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,825,350, entitled “Electronic Pointing Apparatus and Method”. The foregoing pointing apparatus100is capable of controlling cursor movement and selecting elements on a computer screen no matter it is being held to move on a planar surface or in a free space, in which two gyroscopes, respectively coupled to a gyroscope printed circuit board452, are provided for indicating yaw and pitch movements of the pointing apparatus in free space, and a mouse ball260and relating mouse ball encoders are provided for indicating movement of the pointing device on a planar surface. The switching of the pointing apparatus100between a two-dimensional mode and a three-dimensional mode is enabled by a ball locking mechanism, which is comprised of a lever472and a plunger270, connected to the lever472. That is, when the pointing apparatus100is being held to move on a planar surface, the plunger270that extends out of an opening of the housing is pushed through the opening to a position substantially level with the surface of the bottom side and thus lifts the lever472for freeing the mouse ball260, so that the pointing apparatus100is being enabled to operate in the two-dimensional mode, and when the pointing apparatus100is being lift and move in a free space, the plunger270will drop and thus pull the lever472to press down while enabling the elevated region506to press upon the mouse ball260for holding the same from rolling freely, so that the pointing apparatus100is being enabled to operate in the three-dimensional mode. Although the aforesaid pointing apparatus is operable no matter it is being held to move on a planar surface or in a free space, it is still not preferred, since when the pointing apparatus100is being lift and move in a free space, it is more than likely that the cooperative effort of the lever472and its elevated region506can not precisely hold the mouse ball260still that the mouse ball260is intended to roll or move unexpected and causes the pointing apparatus100to generate unwanted signals interfering the cursor movement on the screen.
There are some consumer products, similar to the pointing apparatus shown inFIG. 2, currently available on the market that each can be considered as a standard LED optical mouse with addition gyroscope arranged therein and is different from that ofFIG. 2by replacing the mouse ball260with an optical module and thus the problem caused by the unexpected rolling of the mouse ball is prevented. However, such optical gyroscope mouse is just a housing accommodating two separated and independent modules, one acting as a common LED optical mouse while sitting on a planar surface, and another acting as gyroscope to detect the angular velocity of rotation while operating in free space, that the circuit of the LED optical module has no relation with the gyroscopic circuit. Therefore, not only such optical gyroscope mouse can not benefit from the design since it can only provide basic functions the same as the addition of a standard LED optical mouse and a gyroscope, but also it is a heavy, bulky and complicated device.
Please refer toFIG. 3, which is gravity mouse disclosed in TW Pat. Appl. No. 90221010. As the gravity mouse is being held to move and used for controlling the movement of a cursor displayed on a monitor of a personal computer (PC), its gravity sensor (i.e. G sensor) with potential energy measuring ability is enable to detect the potential energy variation of the gravity mouse caused by a movement of the same while transmitting a signal generated accordingly to its micro process unit (MCU) to be processed. As the MCU is able to detect the duration of the movement while receiving an acceleration caused by the movement, it can generate a control signal for controlling the cursor to move accordingly with respect to the duration and the acceleration. It is known that the movement of the cursor is determined by a integration operation performed based upon the detections of at least two accelerometers configuring in the gravity mouse at two perpendicular axes. Thus, as the movement is defined by integration which is prone to accumulate error, the positioning of the cursor might not be accurate.
Therefore, it is in need of an inertial sensing input apparatus that is accurate and convenience to operate no matter it is being held to move on a surface or in a free space, by which not only the unconscious rotation caused by a human operation as it is being held in a human hand is compensated, but also the interferences caused by the electronic noises generated from the accelerometer can be prevented for freeing the inertial sensing input apparatus of the invention from the shortcomings of prior-art inertial input apparatus using only accelerometers.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the disadvantages of prior art, the primary object of the present invention is to provide an inertial input apparatus with six-axial detection ability, structured with a gyroscope and an acceleration module capable of detecting accelerations of X, Y, Z axes defined by a 3-D Cartesian coordinates, which is operable either being held to move on a planar surface or in a free space. When the inertial input apparatus is being held to move and operate on a planar surface by a user, a two-dimensional detection mode is adopted thereby that the gyroscope is used for detection rotation of the inertial input apparatus caused by unconscious rolling motions of the user and thus compensating the erroneous rotations, by which the technical disadvantages of prior-art inertial input apparatuses equipped with only accelerometer can be overcame and thus control smoothness of using the input apparatus is enhanced. In addition, when the inertial input apparatus is being held to operate in a free space by a user, a three-dimensional detection mode is adopted for enabling the inertial input apparatus to detect movements of the same with respect to at most six axes defined by the 3-D Cartesian coordinates of X, Y, Z axes, that is, the rotations with respect to the X, Y, Z axes and the movements with respect to the X, Y, Z axes, and thus the inertial input apparatus is adapted to be used as an input device for interactive computer games, In a preferred aspect, when the inertial input apparatus is acting as a 3-D mouse suitable to be used for briefing or in a remote control environment, only the detections with respect to the X and Y axes acquired by the accelerometer along with that of the gyroscope are adopts and used as control signals for controlling cursor displayed on a screen, but the detection with respect to the Z and axis acquired by the accelerometer is used as a switch signal for directing the inertial input apparatus to switch between its two-dimensional detection mode and three-dimensional detection mode.
To achieve the above object, the present invention provides an inertial input apparatus with six-axial detection ability, comprising:an accelerometer module, structured with at least three accelerometers for detecting accelerations in three perpendicular directions with respect to a Cartesian coordinate system of X-, Y-, and Z-axes; anda gyroscope, used for detecting a rotation measured with respect to the Z-axis;wherein, an angle of rotation is obtained by integrating the angular velocity of the rotation detected by the gyroscope while calculating a centrifugal force as well as a centripetal force exerting upon the inertial input apparatus at the moment of the rotation so as to using those for compensating acceleration signals measured along the Y-axis and thus obtaining a pitch angle basing on the compensated Y-axis acceleration signal, thereafter defining movements of an object displayed on a screen of an interactive computer by the use of the pitch angle and the angle of rotation.
Preferably, one accelerometer of the acceleration module, referring hereinafter as an X-axis accelerometer, is being enabled for detecting an acceleration generated by a rolling of the inertial input apparatus about the Y-axis while referring hereinafter such acceleration as X-axis acceleration; another accelerometer of the acceleration module, referring hereinafter as a Y-axis accelerometer, is being enabled for detecting an acceleration generated by a pitching of the inertial input apparatus about the X-axis while referring hereinafter such acceleration as Y-axis acceleration; one another accelerometer of the acceleration module, referring hereinafter as an Z-axis accelerometer, is being enabled for detecting an acceleration with respect to the Z-axis while the inertial sensing input apparatus is experiencing an up-and-down displacement; and the gyroscope is used for detecting and measuring a rotation about the Z-axis.
To achieve the above object, the present invention further provide an operating method for an inertial input apparatus with six-axial detection ability being held to move in a free space, comprising the steps of:recording two accelerations (gxs, gys) measured along two perpendicular directions with respect to a Cartesian coordinate system of X-, and Y-axes at an initial operating stage of the inertial input apparatus along with an initial angular velocity ωzsof a gyroscope while setting an initial angle θpof the inertial input apparatus to be zero;calculating a yawing angle θzwith respect to a Z-axis of the Cartesian coordinate system and a pitch angle θywith respect to the Y-axis; andusing the two angles (θz, θy) to define a position coordinate (Mx, My) for an object displayed on a screen of an interactive computer.
Preferably, the calculating of the yawing angle θzand the pitch angle θyfurther comprises the steps of:calculating the yawing angle θzwith respect to the Z-axis by the following formulas:
θz=θp+(ωz-ωzs)×Δt, while |ωz-ωzs| is larger than a threshold value,wherein Δt is the sampling interval, preferably every 10 mini-sec,the threshold value is preferably being set to be 0.1 (degree/sec) so as to eliminate noise correspondingly,and then let θp=θz;compensating a Y-axis acceleration detected by a Y-axis accelerometer of an acceleration module by subtracting a centripetal force grfrom an actual acceleration gadetected by the Y-axis accelerometer, as illustrated in the following formulas:
ga=gr+gs;
gr=R×(ωz−ωzs)2;
gy=ga−gr;wherein R is the distance between a rotation center and the accelerometer;gsis acceleration caused by other electrical noises;gyis the compensated Y-axis acceleration;calculating the pitch angle θywith respect to the Y-axis using the compensated Y-axis acceleration gyby the following formulas:
θy=sin-1(gy-gysgys)
Preferably, the two angles (θz, θy) are amplified by specific ratios in respective so as to be used for defining a position coordinate (Mx, My) for an object displayed on a screen of an interactive computer, according to the following formulas:
Ms=Sx×θz, My=Sy×θy;wherein Sxis the amplifying ratio with respect to the X-axis;Syis the amplifying ratio with respect to the Y-axis.
Preferably, the method further comprises a page-change detection step, which use an abrupt change in X-axis acceleration detected by the inertial input apparatus as a page-change signal by comparing the abrupt change with a threshold value. In a preferred aspect, by defining a threshold value thr as 150 count, the page-change detection step is structured as following:paging up if (gx−gxz)>thr; and paging down if (gx−gxz)<−thr; or vice versamaintaining without page change if −thr≦(gx−gxz)≦thr;wherein gxis an X-axis acceleration at the end of an abrupt change occur;gxsis an X-axis acceleration at the beginning of an abrupt change occur.
It is noted that the threshold value thr can be adjusted at will with respect to any actual requirement.
In another preferred embodiment, the method further comprises another page-change detection step, which uses a rolling angle θxwith respect to the X-axis as a page-change signal by comparing the rolling angle θxwith a threshold value. In a preferred aspect, by defining the threshold value thr as 30 degree, the page-change detection step is structured as following:
paging up if θx>thr; and paging down if θx<−thr; or vice versa;maintaining without page change if −thr≦θx≦thr.
In addition, the present invention further provide a method for switching an inertial input apparatus with six-axial detection ability between a two-dimensional detection mode and a three-dimensional detection mode, comprising the steps of:recording three initial accelerations (gxz, gyz, gzs) measured along three perpendicular directions with respect to a Cartesian coordinate system of X-, Y- and Z-axes respectively by an acceleration module of the inertial input apparatus while the inertial input apparatus is at rest on a surface along with an initial angular velocity ωzsof a gyroscope and setting an initial angle θpof the inertial input apparatus to be zero and enabling the inertial input apparatus to enter the two-dimensional detection mode;double-integrating the difference between the initial acceleration gzsand current accelerations detected by a Z-axis accelerometer of the acceleration module for obtaining a mode-change value SZ, i.e. SZ=∫∫(gz−gzs);comparing SZwith a threshold value thr;maintaining the inertial input apparatus at the two-dimensional detection mode when SZ<thr; andenabling the inertial input apparatus to enter the three-dimensional detection mode when SZ>thr.
Preferably, the inertial input apparatus is enabled to enter the three-dimensional detection mode when a plurality of mode-change values SZdetected within a specific time interval are all larger than the threshold value thr.
Preferably, the inertial input apparatus is enabled to enter the two-dimensional detection mode when the mode-change values SZis smaller than the threshold value thr and the absolute differences between the inertial acceleration gysand a plurality of Y-axis accelerations gydetected by a Y-axis accelerometer of the acceleration module within a specific time interval, i.e. |gy−gyz|, are all smaller than a specific value or almost equal to zero.
Other aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, illustrating by way of example the principles of the present invention.
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SUMMARY: FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an inertial input apparatus with six-axial detection ability and the operating method thereof, and more particularly, to an inertial input apparatus configured with accelerometers and gyroscope, capable of adapting itself to be operative no matter the inertial input apparatus is being held to operate on a planar surface or in a free space.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
There are already several cursor-control devices integrating functions of the computer mouse and the presentation device. However, the control methods adopted thereby are still similar to those conventional computer mice and thus suffering the same limitations. As for the inertial/gravity mouse which are being aggressively studied, it is still troubled by many technical difficulties and thus remains to be improved.
There are many researches relating to inertial mouse. One of which is an input device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,898,421, entitled “Gyroscopic Pointer and Method”, as seen inFIG. 1. The hand-held input device, having an inertial gyroscope110arranged therein, is capable of being used in free space, employing the inertial gyroscope110for detecting angular velocity of a user's hand and thus, by the signal transmission of the interface180, defining movements of a cursor displayed on a screen of an interactive computer. In one embodiment of the aforesaid patent as that shown inFIG. 1, the inertial gyroscope110, arranged inside the hand-held input device, is driven to rotate by power provided from a wall adapter190and is pivotally coupled to an inner frame170by a pair of coaxial gimbals115,120while pivotally coupling to an outer frame160by another pair of coaxial gimbals140,145whose axis is perpendicular to that of the gimbals115,120. As there is only a gyroscope110configured in the hand-held input device, it is only suitable to be used in a free space and is not able to operate on a planar surface. Moreover, it is conceivable that the referring mouse is comparably bulky and suffers a high margin of error as gyroscope110is mechanically coupled inside the hand-held input device.
Please refer toFIG. 2, which shows a pointing device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,825,350, entitled “Electronic Pointing Apparatus and Method”. The foregoing pointing apparatus100is capable of controlling cursor movement and selecting elements on a computer screen no matter it is being held to move on a planar surface or in a free space, in which two gyroscopes, respectively coupled to a gyroscope printed circuit board452, are provided for indicating yaw and pitch movements of the pointing apparatus in free space, and a mouse ball260and relating mouse ball encoders are provided for indicating movement of the pointing device on a planar surface. The switching of the pointing apparatus100between a two-dimensional mode and a three-dimensional mode is enabled by a ball locking mechanism, which is comprised of a lever472and a plunger270, connected to the lever472. That is, when the pointing apparatus100is being held to move on a planar surface, the plunger270that extends out of an opening of the housing is pushed through the opening to a position substantially level with the surface of the bottom side and thus lifts the lever472for freeing the mouse ball260, so that the pointing apparatus100is being enabled to operate in the two-dimensional mode, and when the pointing apparatus100is being lift and move in a free space, the plunger270will drop and thus pull the lever472to press down while enabling the elevated region506to press upon the mouse ball260for holding the same from rolling freely, so that the pointing apparatus100is being enabled to operate in the three-dimensional mode. Although the aforesaid pointing apparatus is operable no matter it is being held to move on a planar surface or in a free space, it is still not preferred, since when the pointing apparatus100is being lift and move in a free space, it is more than likely that the cooperative effort of the lever472and its elevated region506can not precisely hold the mouse ball260still that the mouse ball260is intended to roll or move unexpected and causes the pointing apparatus100to generate unwanted signals interfering the cursor movement on the screen.
There are some consumer products, similar to the pointing apparatus shown inFIG. 2, currently available on the market that each can be considered as a standard LED optical mouse with addition gyroscope arranged therein and is different from that ofFIG. 2by replacing the mouse ball260with an optical module and thus the problem caused by the unexpected rolling of the mouse ball is prevented. However, such optical gyroscope mouse is just a housing accommodating two separated and independent modules, one acting as a common LED optical mouse while sitting on a planar surface, and another acting as gyroscope to detect the angular velocity of rotation while operating in free space, that the circuit of the LED optical module has no relation with the gyroscopic circuit. Therefore, not only such optical gyroscope mouse can not benefit from the design since it can only provide basic functions the same as the addition of a standard LED optical mouse and a gyroscope, but also it is a heavy, bulky and complicated device.
Please refer toFIG. 3, which is gravity mouse disclosed in TW Pat. Appl. No. 90221010. As the gravity mouse is being held to move and used for controlling the movement of a cursor displayed on a monitor of a personal computer (PC), its gravity sensor (i.e. G sensor) with potential energy measuring ability is enable to detect the potential energy variation of the gravity mouse caused by a movement of the same while transmitting a signal generated accordingly to its micro process unit (MCU) to be processed. As the MCU is able to detect the duration of the movement while receiving an acceleration caused by the movement, it can generate a control signal for controlling the cursor to move accordingly with respect to the duration and the acceleration. It is known that the movement of the cursor is determined by a integration operation performed based upon the detections of at least two accelerometers configuring in the gravity mouse at two perpendicular axes. Thus, as the movement is defined by integration which is prone to accumulate error, the positioning of the cursor might not be accurate.
Therefore, it is in need of an inertial sensing input apparatus that is accurate and convenience to operate no matter it is being held to move on a surface or in a free space, by which not only the unconscious rotation caused by a human operation as it is being held in a human hand is compensated, but also the interferences caused by the electronic noises generated from the accelerometer can be prevented for freeing the inertial sensing input apparatus of the invention from the shortcomings of prior-art inertial input apparatus using only accelerometers.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the disadvantages of prior art, the primary object of the present invention is to provide an inertial input apparatus with six-axial detection ability, structured with a gyroscope and an acceleration module capable of detecting accelerations of X, Y, Z axes defined by a 3-D Cartesian coordinates, which is operable either being held to move on a planar surface or in a free space. When the inertial input apparatus is being held to move and operate on a planar surface by a user, a two-dimensional detection mode is adopted thereby that the gyroscope is used for detection rotation of the inertial input apparatus caused by unconscious rolling motions of the user and thus compensating the erroneous rotations, by which the technical disadvantages of prior-art inertial input apparatuses equipped with only accelerometer can be overcame and thus control smoothness of using the input apparatus is enhanced. In addition, when the inertial input apparatus is being held to operate in a free space by a user, a three-dimensional detection mode is adopted for enabling the inertial input apparatus to detect movements of the same with respect to at most six axes defined by the 3-D Cartesian coordinates of X, Y, Z axes, that is, the rotations with respect to the X, Y, Z axes and the movements with respect to the X, Y, Z axes, and thus the inertial input apparatus is adapted to be used as an input device for interactive computer games, In a preferred aspect, when the inertial input apparatus is acting as a 3-D mouse suitable to be used for briefing or in a remote control environment, only the detections with respect to the X and Y axes acquired by the accelerometer along with that of the gyroscope are adopts and used as control signals for controlling cursor displayed on a screen, but the detection with respect to the Z and axis acquired by the accelerometer is used as a switch signal for directing the inertial input apparatus to switch between its two-dimensional detection mode and three-dimensional detection mode.
To achieve the above object, the present invention provides an inertial input apparatus with six-axial detection ability, comprising:an accelerometer module, structured with at least three accelerometers for detecting accelerations in three perpendicular directions with respect to a Cartesian coordinate system of X-, Y-, and Z-axes; anda gyroscope, used for detecting a rotation measured with respect to the Z-axis;wherein, an angle of rotation is obtained by integrating the angular velocity of the rotation detected by the gyroscope while calculating a centrifugal force as well as a centripetal force exerting upon the inertial input apparatus at the moment of the rotation so as to using those for compensating acceleration signals measured along the Y-axis and thus obtaining a pitch angle basing on the compensated Y-axis acceleration signal, thereafter defining movements of an object displayed on a screen of an interactive computer by the use of the pitch angle and the angle of rotation.
Preferably, one accelerometer of the acceleration module, referring hereinafter as an X-axis accelerometer, is being enabled for detecting an acceleration generated by a rolling of the inertial input apparatus about the Y-axis while referring hereinafter such acceleration as X-axis acceleration; another accelerometer of the acceleration module, referring hereinafter as a Y-axis accelerometer, is being enabled for detecting an acceleration generated by a pitching of the inertial input apparatus about the X-axis while referring hereinafter such acceleration as Y-axis acceleration; one another accelerometer of the acceleration module, referring hereinafter as an Z-axis accelerometer, is being enabled for detecting an acceleration with respect to the Z-axis while the inertial sensing input apparatus is experiencing an up-and-down displacement; and the gyroscope is used for detecting and measuring a rotation about the Z-axis.
To achieve the above object, the present invention further provide an operating method for an inertial input apparatus with six-axial detection ability being held to move in a free space, comprising the steps of:recording two accelerations (gxs, gys) measured along two perpendicular directions with respect to a Cartesian coordinate system of X-, and Y-axes at an initial operating stage of the inertial input apparatus along with an initial angular velocity ωzsof a gyroscope while setting an initial angle θpof the inertial input apparatus to be zero;calculating a yawing angle θzwith respect to a Z-axis of the Cartesian coordinate system and a pitch angle θywith respect to the Y-axis; andusing the two angles (θz, θy) to define a position coordinate (Mx, My) for an object displayed on a screen of an interactive computer.
Preferably, the calculating of the yawing angle θzand the pitch angle θyfurther comprises the steps of:calculating the yawing angle θzwith respect to the Z-axis by the following formulas:
θz=θp+(ωz-ωzs)×Δt, while |ωz-ωzs| is larger than a threshold value,wherein Δt is the sampling interval, preferably every 10 mini-sec,the threshold value is preferably being set to be 0.1 (degree/sec) so as to eliminate noise correspondingly,and then let θp=θz;compensating a Y-axis acceleration detected by a Y-axis accelerometer of an acceleration module by subtracting a centripetal force grfrom an actual acceleration gadetected by the Y-axis accelerometer, as illustrated in the following formulas:
ga=gr+gs;
gr=R×(ωz−ωzs)2;
gy=ga−gr;wherein R is the distance between a rotation center and the accelerometer;gsis acceleration caused by other electrical noises;gyis the compensated Y-axis acceleration;calculating the pitch angle θywith respect to the Y-axis using the compensated Y-axis acceleration gyby the following formulas:
θy=sin-1(gy-gysgys)
Preferably, the two angles (θz, θy) are amplified by specific ratios in respective so as to be used for defining a position coordinate (Mx, My) for an object displayed on a screen of an interactive computer, according to the following formulas:
Ms=Sx×θz, My=Sy×θy;wherein Sxis the amplifying ratio with respect to the X-axis;Syis the amplifying ratio with respect to the Y-axis.
Preferably, the method further comprises a page-change detection step, which use an abrupt change in X-axis acceleration detected by the inertial input apparatus as a page-change signal by comparing the abrupt change with a threshold value. In a preferred aspect, by defining a threshold value thr as 150 count, the page-change detection step is structured as following:paging up if (gx−gxz)>thr; and paging down if (gx−gxz)<−thr; or vice versamaintaining without page change if −thr≦(gx−gxz)≦thr;wherein gxis an X-axis acceleration at the end of an abrupt change occur;gxsis an X-axis acceleration at the beginning of an abrupt change occur.
It is noted that the threshold value thr can be adjusted at will with respect to any actual requirement.
In another preferred embodiment, the method further comprises another page-change detection step, which uses a rolling angle θxwith respect to the X-axis as a page-change signal by comparing the rolling angle θxwith a threshold value. In a preferred aspect, by defining the threshold value thr as 30 degree, the page-change detection step is structured as following:
paging up if θx>thr; and paging down if θx<−thr; or vice versa;maintaining without page change if −thr≦θx≦thr.
In addition, the present invention further provide a method for switching an inertial input apparatus with six-axial detection ability between a two-dimensional detection mode and a three-dimensional detection mode, comprising the steps of:recording three initial accelerations (gxz, gyz, gzs) measured along three perpendicular directions with respect to a Cartesian coordinate system of X-, Y- and Z-axes respectively by an acceleration module of the inertial input apparatus while the inertial input apparatus is at rest on a surface along with an initial angular velocity ωzsof a gyroscope and setting an initial angle θpof the inertial input apparatus to be zero and enabling the inertial input apparatus to enter the two-dimensional detection mode;double-integrating the difference between the initial acceleration gzsand current accelerations detected by a Z-axis accelerometer of the acceleration module for obtaining a mode-change value SZ, i.e. SZ=∫∫(gz−gzs);comparing SZwith a threshold value thr;maintaining the inertial input apparatus at the two-dimensional detection mode when SZ<thr; andenabling the inertial input apparatus to enter the three-dimensional detection mode when SZ>thr.
Preferably, the inertial input apparatus is enabled to enter the three-dimensional detection mode when a plurality of mode-change values SZdetected within a specific time interval are all larger than the threshold value thr.
Preferably, the inertial input apparatus is enabled to enter the two-dimensional detection mode when the mode-change values SZis smaller than the threshold value thr and the absolute differences between the inertial acceleration gysand a plurality of Y-axis accelerations gydetected by a Y-axis accelerometer of the acceleration module within a specific time interval, i.e. |gy−gyz|, are all smaller than a specific value or almost equal to zero.
Other aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, illustrating by way of example the principles of the present invention.
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7746707 | BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device, more particularly to an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable and Programmable Read-Only Memory).
As an example of a memory cell of EEPROM known as a flash memory, there is a memory cell having an MOSFET structure, which comprises a floating gate and a control gate. The floating gate (i.e., charge storage layer) is provided on a semiconductor substrate, and the control gate is provided on the charge storage layer. The memory cell stores a 1-bit data which is either “0” or “1”, depending on the amount of electric charge accumulated in the floating gate.
Another type of a memory cell is known, which is designed for use in a flash memory having a large storage capacity. This memory cell can store multi-bit data. A four-value memory cell, for example, can store “0”, “1”, “2” and “3” by accumulating, respectively, four different amounts of charge in the floating gate.
How a four-value memory cell stores multi-bit data will be explained below.
A four-value memory cell assumes a neutral state when its floating gate accumulates no electric charge. A condition in which a more positive charge is accumulated than the neutral state is an erased state, storing data “0”. More specifically, a high voltage of about 20V is applied to the substrate, setting the control gate at 0V, whereby erasing the data, i.e., storing data “0”. The threshold voltage of the four-value memory cell may differ from the design value. If so, the voltage applied to the substrate may be too high, and the floating gate may accumulate an excessively large positive charge and the memory cell is, so to speak, “over-erased.” In the four-value memory cell which has been over-erased, the charge accumulated in the floating gate would not change to a predetermined negative level even if an ordinary programming pulse voltage is applied to the memory cell. In this case, data, particularly “0” cannot be programmed into the four-value memory cell.
The four-value memory cell stores data “1” when the floating gate accumulates a first negative charge. The memory cell stores data “2” when the floating gate accumulates a second negative charge greater than the first. The memory cell stores data “3” when the floating gate accumulates a third negative charge greater than the second negative charge.
To program data into the four-value memory cell, the program operation, the substrate, source and drain are set at 0V and a high voltage (about 20V) is applied to the control gate. When the floating gate accumulates the first negative charge, data “1” is programmed into the memory cell. When the floating gate accumulates the second negative charge, data “2” is programmed into the memory cell. When the floating gate accumulates the third negative charge, data “3” is programmed into the memory cell. When the substrate, the source, drain and channel are set at a positive potential and the control gate is applied with the high voltage (about 20V), while the substrate remains at 0V, the floating gate holds the accumulated charge. In this case, data “0” is programmed into the memory cell.
The four-value memory cell can thus store four values “0”, “1”, “2” and “3”.
A NAND-type memory cell unit is known, which is designed to increase the storage capacity of a flash memory. The NAND-type memory cell unit comprises a plurality of memory cells and two selection transistors. The memory cells are connected in series, forming a series circuit. The first selection transistor connects one end of the series circuit to a bit line. The second selection transistor connects the other end of the series circuit to the common source line of the memory cells.
To program “0” into a selected one of the memory cells of the NAND-type memory cell unit, the bit line and the gate of the first selection transistor are set at the power-supply voltage VCC (e.g., 3V), the control gate of the selected memory cell is set at 20V, the control gates of the two memory cells adjacent to the selected memory cell are set at 0V, and the control gate of any other memory cells is set at 11V.
In this case, the voltage applied from the bit line via the first selection transistor to the channel of the memory cell at one end of the series circuit is equal to or lower than the power-supply voltage VCC. Once the first selection transistor is turned off, however, the channel voltage rises due to the electrostatic capacitive coupling between the control gate and channel of the memory cell.
The two memory cells adjacent to the selected memory cell are thereby turned off, too. If the coupling ratio is 50%, the channel potential of the selected memory cell will be 10V, as is obtained by simple calculation. The channel potential of any memory cell not selected will be 5.5V.
When the channel potential of any memory cell not selected is 5.5V, the two memory cells adjacent to the selected memory cell will be turned off if their threshold voltage is equal to or higher than −5.5V. In other words, these memory cells must have a threshold voltage equal to or higher than −5.5V in order to program “0” into the selected memory cell.
To program “1”, “2” or “3” into any selected memory cell of the NAND-type memory cell unit, the bit line is set at 0V. Program verification is performed on the selected memory cell. If a memory cell is found into which the data is not completely programmed, the program operation is effected again on that memory cell.
The threshold voltage of any memory cell is thereby controlled with high precision. The program operation on the NAND-type memory cell unit ends when all the memory cells are verified. Time periods of one cycle for programming “1”, “2” and “3” are set to the same period. Therefore, data “2” and “3” are programmed by controlling the number of cycles for programming. That is, the program operation is effected once to program data “1”, twice to program data “2”, and thrice to program data “3”.
Hence, data “1” is programmed into a memory cell that should store “1” when the program operation is carried out for the first time. Then, data “2” is programmed into a memory cell that should store “2”, and thereafter data “3” is programmed into a memory cell that should store “3.”
There is known another method of programming data into flash memories. In this method, the bit line voltage is changed in accordance with the value of the data to be programmed, whereby “1”, “2” and “3” are written at the same speed, or within the same time period.
The method cannot be used to program data into a NAND-type memory cell unit of the type described above. If the method is so used, however, a voltage higher than 0V of the bit line voltage cannot be transferred to the selected memory cell, if the control gate of the selected memory cell is set at 0V. This is because both memory cells adjacent to the selected memory cell have a threshold voltage which is almost 0V.
The floating gate of a multi-value memory cell must accumulate a larger electric charge to program data into the memory cell than the amount of charge the floating gate of a binary memory cell needs to accumulate to program data. The greater the charge the floating gate accumulates, the higher the rate at which the floating gate is discharged due to a self electromagnetic field. Hence, multi-value memory cells can hold data, but for a shorter time than binary memory cell.
In the conventional nonvolatile memory device having multi-value memory cells, the channel voltage of the selected memory cell at the time of “0” programming rises sufficiently since the channel potential is isolated from the channel voltage any other memory cells. However, when the selected memory cell is over-erased, its threshold voltage decreases excessively and both memory cells adjacent to the selected memory cell cannot be turned off. Consequently, the channel potential of the selected memory cell fails to increase sufficiently, making it impossible to program data “0” into the selected memory cell. It should be noted that the memory cell is over-erased if the erase operation has been performed many times or if an excessively high data-erasing voltage is applied.
Further, the pulse width of a programming pulse which indicates a time period of one cycle of program operation is constant irrespective of the program operations for “1”, “2” and “3”. Therefore, the programming speed for programming “1”, “2” and “3” cannot be made equal. Stated another way, time periods of one cycle for programming “1”, “2” and “3” are set to the same period and data “2” and “3” are written by controlling the number of cycles for programming. Therefore, the programming pulse must be applied at short intervals, and much time is required to rewrite data in the memory.
Further, each multi-value memory cell can hold data, but for a shorter time than a binary memory cell.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device in which the voltage applied to a selected memory cell is low enough to program data “0” reliably into the selected memory cell even if the selected memory cell has been over-erased.
Another object of the invention is to provide a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device in which multi-value data can be programmed into the memory cells at high speed.
Still another object of this invention is to provide a nonvolatile semiconductor memory system in which each memory cell can hold multi-value data for a long time and which can achieve reliable storage of multi-value data.
(1) According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device comprising a NAND cell unit comprising a plurality of memory cells connected in series; an erase circuit for applying an erase voltage to all memory cells of the NAND cell unit, thereby to erase data from all memory cells of the NAND cell unit; a soft-programming circuit for applying a soft-program voltage to all memory cells of the NAND cell unit, the soft-program voltage being of a polarity opposite to the polarity of the erase voltage; and a programming circuit for applying a program voltage to any selected one of the memory cells, applying a first voltage to at least one of two memory cells adjacent to the any selected one of the memory cells, and applying a second voltage to the remaining memory cells of the NAND cell unit, thereby to program data into the any selected one of the memory cells.
(2) According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the first aspect, in which the programming circuit for applying the first voltage to both of the two memory cells adjacent to the any selected one of the memory cells.
(3) According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the first aspect, in which the soft-programming circuit applies the soft-program voltage to all the memory cells after the erasing circuit has erased data from all memory cells of the NAND cell unit, and the programming circuit programs the memory cells after the soft-programming circuit has applied the soft-program voltage to all the memory cells.
(4) According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the first aspect, in which the soft-program voltage is lower than the program voltage.
(5) According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the first aspect, which further comprises an erase-verification circuit for determining whether data has been erased from all the memory cells of the NAND cell unit and have threshold voltages controlled within a predetermined range after the soft-programming circuit has applied the soft-program voltage to all the memory cells, and in which the programming circuit programs data into the any selected one of the memory cells after the soft-programming circuit and the erase-verification circuit have performed a soft-program operation and an erase verification operation.
(6) According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the fifth aspect, further comprising a control circuit for causing the soft-programming circuit and the erase-verification circuit to repeat the soft-program operation and the erase verification operation, and for causing the soft-programming circuit to terminate the soft-program operation when at least one of the memory cells of the NAND cell unit has a threshold voltage forced out of the predetermined range.
(7) According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the sixth aspect, in which the control circuit causes the erasing circuit to erase data again from all memory cells of the NAND cell unit when the soft-program operation and the erase verification operation have not repeated a predetermined number of times and when at least one of the memory cells of the NAND cell unit is forced out of the predetermined range.
(8) According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the first aspect, in which the program voltage is higher than the first and second voltages, and the second voltage is higher than the first voltage.
(9) According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the eighth aspect, in which the first voltage is 0V.
(10) According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device comprising a plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor memory cells, each capable of storing n-value data, where n is a natural number greater than 2; and a data-programming circuit for performing a program operation in which program pulses are applied to the plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor memory cells to program n-value data into the plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor memory cells, performing a program verification operation in which it is determined whether or not the n-value data has been programmed into the plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor memory cells and repeating the program operation and the program verification operation, wherein each of the program pulses has a predetermined pulse width in accordance with a value of the n-value data to be programmed into corresponding memory cell.
(11) According to an eleventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the tenth aspect, in which each program pulse is removed from corresponding memory cell after the program verification operation in which it has been determined that n-value data has been programmed into the corresponding memory cell.
(12) According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the tenth aspect, in which the program operation is terminated when it is determined in the program verification operation that all of n-value data have been programmed into the plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor memory cells.
(13) According to a thirteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the tenth aspect, in which the program operation and the program verification operation are terminated after a limited number of cycles.
(14) According to a fourteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the tenth aspect, in which the plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor memory cells are connected to one word line.
(15) According to a fifteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the tenth aspect, in which the plurality of memory cells are respectively included in corresponding NAND cell units, each NAND cell unit comprising a predetermined number of nonvolatile semiconductor memory cells connected in series, and in the program operation, the data-programming circuit applies a first voltage to at least one of the two memory cells adjacent to the selected memory cells to be programmed and a second voltage to the remaining memory cells.
(16) According to a sixteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the fifteenth aspect, in which voltages of the program pulses are higher than the first and second voltages, and the second voltage is higher than the first voltage.
(17) According to a seventeenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the sixteenth aspect, in which the first voltage is 0V.
(18) According to an eighteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device comprising a memory cell array comprising memory cells arranged in rows and columns, each having a control gate; a programming circuit for programming data into any selected one of the memory cells by applying a program voltage to the control gate of the selected memory cell; an erasing circuit for erasing data from the memory cells by applying an erase voltage opposite in polarity to the program voltage; a soft-programming circuit for applying a soft-program voltage to the memory cells, thereby setting the memory cells into a desirable erased state; a verification read circuit for determining whether the memory cells have been set into the desirable erased state; and an erased-state determining circuit for causing the soft-programming circuit to terminate the soft-program operation upon determining from an output of the verification read circuit that at least two of the memory cells have a threshold voltage which has reached a predetermined value.
(19) According to a nineteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the eighteenth aspect, in which the soft-programming circuit soft-programs the memory cells after the erasing circuit has erased data from the memory cells, and the verification read circuit performs a determination operation after the soft-programming circuit has soft-programmed the memory cells.
(20) According to a twentieth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the eighteenth aspect, in which the memory cell array includes a plurality of data input/output lines divided into m units (m≧2), and the erase-state determining circuit comprises circuits for detecting erased states of the memory cells based on the data input/output lines of each unit and causing the soft-programming circuit to terminate soft-program operation, upon determining that at least one of the memory cells connected to the data input/output lines of any unit has a threshold voltage which has reached the predetermined value.
(21) According to a twenty-first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the eighteenth aspect, in which the memory cell array includes a plurality of word lines divided into m units (m≧2), and the erase-state determining circuit comprises circuits for detecting erased states of the memory cells based on the word lines of each unit and causing the soft-programming circuit to terminate soft-program operation, upon determining that at least one of the memory cells connected to the word lines of any unit has a threshold voltage which has reached the predetermined value.
(22) According to a twenty-second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the eighteenth aspect, in which the nonvolatile semiconductor memory cells of the memory cell array form NAND cell units, each comprising a plurality of memory cells connected in series, and the programming circuit applies a first voltage lower than the program voltage to the control gate of at least one of two memory cells adjacent to any selected one of the memory cells of each NAND cell unit, and applies a second voltage between the program voltage and the first voltage, to the remaining memory cells of each NAND cell unit, thereby to program data into the any selected one of the memory cells.
(23) According to a twenty-third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the twenty-second aspect, which further comprises a memory circuit for storing data output from the verification read circuit, and in which the erased-state determining circuit comprises a scan-detection circuit for monitoring the data stored in the memory circuit and counting the memory cells which have a threshold voltage which has reached the predetermined value.
(24) According to a twenty-fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the twenty-third aspect, further comprising a control circuit for repeatedly causing the soft-programming circuit to perform a soft-program operation, the verification read circuit to perform a verification read operation and the scan-detection circuit to perform a memory-cell counting operation, and for causing the soft-programming circuit to terminate the soft-program operation, the verification read operation and the memory-cell counting operation when the scan-detection circuit counts at least two memory cells having a threshold voltage which has reached the predetermined value.
(25) According to a twenty-fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the twenty-fourth aspect, in which the control circuit causes the verification read circuit to perform the verification read operation by applying a margin voltage to the word line of each NAND cell unit after the soft-programming circuit has finished performing the soft-program operation, causes the scan-detection circuit to perform the memory-cell counting operation, and causes the soft-programming circuit to terminate the soft-program operation, the verification read operation and the memory-cell counting operation, when the scan-detection circuit detects that all memory cells of each NAND cell unit have a threshold voltage equal to or lower than a predetermined threshold voltage, the predetermined threshold voltage being higher than the predetermined value.
(26) According to a twenty-sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device comprising a memory cell section including at least one memory cell and having first and second ends; a first signal line connected to the first end of the memory cell section; a second signal line connected to the second end of the memory cell section; a reading circuit connected to the first signal line, for reading the memory cell; an erasing circuit for erasing data stored in the memory cell; and an over-erase detecting circuit for detecting whether the memory cell is over-erased, wherein the over-erase detecting circuit applies a first reference potential to the second signal line, thereby outputting a first read potential to the first signal line, and the reading circuit detects the first read potential.
(27) According to a twenty-seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the twenty-sixth aspect, further comprising a soft-programming circuit for performing soft-program operation on the memory cell when the over-erase detecting circuit detects that the memory cell has been over-erased.
(28) According to a twenty-eighth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device comprising a first memory cell section including at least one memory cell; a second memory cell section including at least one memory cell; a first signal line connected to a first end of the first memory cell section; a second signal line connected to a second end of the first memory cell section; a third signal line connected to a first end of the second memory cell section; a fourth signal line connected to a second end of the second memory cell section; a reading circuit connected to the first signal line, for reading the memory cell; an erasing circuit for erasing data stored in the memory cell; and an over-erase detecting circuit for detecting whether the memory cell is over-erased, wherein the over-erase detecting circuit applies a first reference potential to the second signal line, thereby outputting a first read potential to the first signal line and applying a second reference potential to the third signal line, and the reading circuit detects the first read potential.
(29) According to a twenty-ninth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device comprising a first memory cell section including at least one memory cell; a second memory cell section including at least one memory cell; a first signal line connected to a first end of the first memory cell section; a second signal line connected to a second end of the first memory cell section; a third signal line connected to a first end of the second memory cell section; a fourth signal line connected to a second end of the second memory cell section; a reading circuit connected to the first signal line, for reading the memory cell; an erasing circuit for erasing data stored in the memory cell; an over-erase detecting circuit for detecting whether the memory cell is over-erased; and a soft-programming circuit for performing a soft-program operation on the memory cell when the over-erase detecting circuit detects that the memory cell has been over-erased, wherein the over-erase detecting circuit applies a first reference potential to the second signal line, thereby outputting a first read potential to the first signal line and applying a second reference potential to the third signal line, and the reading circuit detects the first read potential.
(30) According to a thirtieth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the twenty-sixth aspect, in which the reading circuit includes a first switch for connecting the first signal line to a first node, a sense amplifier for detecting a potential of the first node, and a capacitor connected at one end to the first node and at the other end to the second node, and the potential applied to the second node is changed when the sense amplifier detects the potential of the first node.
(31) According to a thirty-first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the twenty-sixth aspect, in which the reading circuit includes a first switch for connecting the first signal line to a first node, a sense amplifier for detecting a potential of the first node, and a capacitor connected at one end to the first node and at the other end to the second node, the potential applied to the second node is changed when the sense amplifier detects the potential of the first node, the over-erase detecting circuit applies the first reference potential to the second signal line to detect whether the memory cell has been over-erased, the first read potential output to the first signal line is transferred through the first switch to the first node as a second read potential, and the potential of the first node is changed to a third read potential different from the second read potential, by changing potential of the second node.
(32) According to a thirty-second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the twenty-ninth aspect, in which the first and third lines are bit lines.
(33) According to a thirty-third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the twenty-ninth aspect, in which the first line is a bit line, and the third line is a bit line adjacent to the first line.
(34) According to a thirty-fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the twenty-ninth aspect, in which the second and fourth lines are source lines.
(35) According to a thirty-fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the twenty-ninth aspect, in which the first and second reference potentials are of approximately the same value.
(36) According to a thirty-sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the twenty-sixth aspect, in which the first reference potential is a power-supply voltage.
(37) According to a thirty-seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the twenty-sixth aspect, in which the memory cell section includes a NAND cell unit comprising a plurality of memory cells connected in series.
(38) According to a thirty-eighth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the twenty-sixth aspect, in which when the over-erase detecting circuit applies the first reference potential to the second signal line, a first over-erase detection word-line potential is applied to the gate of any selected memory cell and a second over-erase detection word-line potential is applied to the gates of the memory cells connected in series to the any selected memory cell, thereby the first read potential is output to the first signal line.
(39) According to a thirty-ninth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the thirty-eighth aspect, in which the first and second over-erase detection word-line potentials are of approximately the same value.
(40) According to a fortieth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the thirty-eight aspect, in which the first and second over-erase detection word-line potentials are of different values.
(41) According to a forty-first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the thirty-eighth aspect, in which the first over-erase detection word-line potential is 0V.
(42) According to a forty-second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the thirty-eighth aspect, in which the second over-erase detection word-line potential is a power-supply voltage.
(43) According to a forty-third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device comprising a memory cell section including a NAND cell unit comprising a plurality of memory cells connected in series; an erasing circuit for erasing data stored in the memory cells; and an over-erase detecting circuit for detecting whether the memory cells are over-erased.
(44) According to a forty-fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the forty-third aspect, further comprising a soft-programming circuit for performing a soft-program operation on any one of the memory cells that has been over-erased.
(45) According to a forty-fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the forty-third aspect, which further comprises a first signal line connected to one end of the NAND cell unit, a second signal line connected to the other end of the NAND cell unit, and a reading circuit connected to the first signal line, for reading the memory cells, and in which the reading circuit includes a first switch for connecting the first signal line to a first node, a sense amplifier for detecting a potential of the first node and a capacitor connected at one end to the first node and at the other end to the second node, and the second node is changed, when the sense amplifier detects the potential of the first node.
(46) According to a forty-sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the forty-fifth aspect, further comprising a transistor which includes a gate connected to an output terminal of the sense amplifier and which detects that the second sense amplifier stores the data that has been erased from one of the memory cells.
(47) According to a forty-seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device comprising a first signal line connected to one end of a unit of memory cells; a second signal line connected to the other end of the unit of memory cells; and a reading circuit connected to the first signal line, for reading the memory cells, and wherein the reading circuit includes a first switch for connecting the first signal line to a first node, a sense amplifier for detecting a potential of the first node and a capacitor connected at one end to the first node and at the other end to the second node, and the second node is changed, when the sense amplifier detects the potential of the first node.
(48) According to a forty-eighth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the forty-seventh aspect, in which a potential of the second signal line is set to a potential higher than a potential of the first signal line during a reading operation.
(49) According to a forty-ninth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a nonvolatile semiconductor memory system comprising an electrically programmable nonvolatile semiconductor memory device; and a controller for controlling the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device, and wherein the controller determines whether a predetermined time has elapsed after data was programmed into the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device.
(50) According to a fiftieth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory system according to the forty-ninth aspect, in which the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device comprises a multi-value memory device.
(51) According to a fifty-first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory system according to the forty-ninth aspect, in which the controller refreshes data upon determining that the predetermined time has elapsed after data was programmed into the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device.
(52) According to a fifty-second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory system comprising an electrically programmable nonvolatile semiconductor memory device; a controller for controlling the nonvolatile semiconductor memory; a battery for supplying power to the controller when external power supplies are unavailable; and a terminal for receiving and supplying signals and power from and to an external device, and wherein the controller determines whether a predetermined time has elapsed after data was programmed into the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device.
(53) According to a fifty-third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory system comprising an electrically programmable nonvolatile semiconductor memory device; a controller for controlling the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device; a battery for supplying power to the controller when external power supplies are unavailable; a timer for storing data representing a time when data is programmed into the nonvolatile semiconductor memory; a terminal for receiving and supplying signals and power from and to an external device, and wherein the controller determines whether a predetermined time has elapsed after data was programmed into the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device.
(54) According to a fifty-fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory system according to the fifty-second or fifty-third aspect, in which the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device comprises a multi-value memory device.
(55) According to a fifty-fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory system according to the fifty-second or fifty-third aspect, in which the controller refreshes data upon determining that the predetermined time has elapsed after data was programmed into the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device.
(56) According to a fifty-sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory system according to the fifty-second or fifty-third aspect, further comprising an indicator for indicating that the predetermined time has elapsed after data was programmed into the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device, when the controller determines that the predetermined time has elapsed.
(57) According to a fifty-seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory system according to the fifty-second or fifty-third aspect, in which the battery is a chargeable one and is charged while power is supplied from an external power supply.
(58) According to a fifty-eighth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory system according to the fifty-second or fifty-third aspect, in which the controller stops supply of power to the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device while no power is being supplied from an external power supply.
(59) According to a fifty-ninth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory system according to the fifty-second or fifty-third aspect, in which the controller refreshes data upon determining that the predetermined time has elapsed after data was programmed into the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device, and stops supply of power to the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device while no power is being supplied from an external power supply and while the controller is not refreshing the data.
Additional objects and advantages of the present invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the present invention.
The objects and advantages of the present invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
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SUMMARY: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device, more particularly to an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable and Programmable Read-Only Memory).
As an example of a memory cell of EEPROM known as a flash memory, there is a memory cell having an MOSFET structure, which comprises a floating gate and a control gate. The floating gate (i.e., charge storage layer) is provided on a semiconductor substrate, and the control gate is provided on the charge storage layer. The memory cell stores a 1-bit data which is either “0” or “1”, depending on the amount of electric charge accumulated in the floating gate.
Another type of a memory cell is known, which is designed for use in a flash memory having a large storage capacity. This memory cell can store multi-bit data. A four-value memory cell, for example, can store “0”, “1”, “2” and “3” by accumulating, respectively, four different amounts of charge in the floating gate.
How a four-value memory cell stores multi-bit data will be explained below.
A four-value memory cell assumes a neutral state when its floating gate accumulates no electric charge. A condition in which a more positive charge is accumulated than the neutral state is an erased state, storing data “0”. More specifically, a high voltage of about 20V is applied to the substrate, setting the control gate at 0V, whereby erasing the data, i.e., storing data “0”. The threshold voltage of the four-value memory cell may differ from the design value. If so, the voltage applied to the substrate may be too high, and the floating gate may accumulate an excessively large positive charge and the memory cell is, so to speak, “over-erased.” In the four-value memory cell which has been over-erased, the charge accumulated in the floating gate would not change to a predetermined negative level even if an ordinary programming pulse voltage is applied to the memory cell. In this case, data, particularly “0” cannot be programmed into the four-value memory cell.
The four-value memory cell stores data “1” when the floating gate accumulates a first negative charge. The memory cell stores data “2” when the floating gate accumulates a second negative charge greater than the first. The memory cell stores data “3” when the floating gate accumulates a third negative charge greater than the second negative charge.
To program data into the four-value memory cell, the program operation, the substrate, source and drain are set at 0V and a high voltage (about 20V) is applied to the control gate. When the floating gate accumulates the first negative charge, data “1” is programmed into the memory cell. When the floating gate accumulates the second negative charge, data “2” is programmed into the memory cell. When the floating gate accumulates the third negative charge, data “3” is programmed into the memory cell. When the substrate, the source, drain and channel are set at a positive potential and the control gate is applied with the high voltage (about 20V), while the substrate remains at 0V, the floating gate holds the accumulated charge. In this case, data “0” is programmed into the memory cell.
The four-value memory cell can thus store four values “0”, “1”, “2” and “3”.
A NAND-type memory cell unit is known, which is designed to increase the storage capacity of a flash memory. The NAND-type memory cell unit comprises a plurality of memory cells and two selection transistors. The memory cells are connected in series, forming a series circuit. The first selection transistor connects one end of the series circuit to a bit line. The second selection transistor connects the other end of the series circuit to the common source line of the memory cells.
To program “0” into a selected one of the memory cells of the NAND-type memory cell unit, the bit line and the gate of the first selection transistor are set at the power-supply voltage VCC (e.g., 3V), the control gate of the selected memory cell is set at 20V, the control gates of the two memory cells adjacent to the selected memory cell are set at 0V, and the control gate of any other memory cells is set at 11V.
In this case, the voltage applied from the bit line via the first selection transistor to the channel of the memory cell at one end of the series circuit is equal to or lower than the power-supply voltage VCC. Once the first selection transistor is turned off, however, the channel voltage rises due to the electrostatic capacitive coupling between the control gate and channel of the memory cell.
The two memory cells adjacent to the selected memory cell are thereby turned off, too. If the coupling ratio is 50%, the channel potential of the selected memory cell will be 10V, as is obtained by simple calculation. The channel potential of any memory cell not selected will be 5.5V.
When the channel potential of any memory cell not selected is 5.5V, the two memory cells adjacent to the selected memory cell will be turned off if their threshold voltage is equal to or higher than −5.5V. In other words, these memory cells must have a threshold voltage equal to or higher than −5.5V in order to program “0” into the selected memory cell.
To program “1”, “2” or “3” into any selected memory cell of the NAND-type memory cell unit, the bit line is set at 0V. Program verification is performed on the selected memory cell. If a memory cell is found into which the data is not completely programmed, the program operation is effected again on that memory cell.
The threshold voltage of any memory cell is thereby controlled with high precision. The program operation on the NAND-type memory cell unit ends when all the memory cells are verified. Time periods of one cycle for programming “1”, “2” and “3” are set to the same period. Therefore, data “2” and “3” are programmed by controlling the number of cycles for programming. That is, the program operation is effected once to program data “1”, twice to program data “2”, and thrice to program data “3”.
Hence, data “1” is programmed into a memory cell that should store “1” when the program operation is carried out for the first time. Then, data “2” is programmed into a memory cell that should store “2”, and thereafter data “3” is programmed into a memory cell that should store “3.”
There is known another method of programming data into flash memories. In this method, the bit line voltage is changed in accordance with the value of the data to be programmed, whereby “1”, “2” and “3” are written at the same speed, or within the same time period.
The method cannot be used to program data into a NAND-type memory cell unit of the type described above. If the method is so used, however, a voltage higher than 0V of the bit line voltage cannot be transferred to the selected memory cell, if the control gate of the selected memory cell is set at 0V. This is because both memory cells adjacent to the selected memory cell have a threshold voltage which is almost 0V.
The floating gate of a multi-value memory cell must accumulate a larger electric charge to program data into the memory cell than the amount of charge the floating gate of a binary memory cell needs to accumulate to program data. The greater the charge the floating gate accumulates, the higher the rate at which the floating gate is discharged due to a self electromagnetic field. Hence, multi-value memory cells can hold data, but for a shorter time than binary memory cell.
In the conventional nonvolatile memory device having multi-value memory cells, the channel voltage of the selected memory cell at the time of “0” programming rises sufficiently since the channel potential is isolated from the channel voltage any other memory cells. However, when the selected memory cell is over-erased, its threshold voltage decreases excessively and both memory cells adjacent to the selected memory cell cannot be turned off. Consequently, the channel potential of the selected memory cell fails to increase sufficiently, making it impossible to program data “0” into the selected memory cell. It should be noted that the memory cell is over-erased if the erase operation has been performed many times or if an excessively high data-erasing voltage is applied.
Further, the pulse width of a programming pulse which indicates a time period of one cycle of program operation is constant irrespective of the program operations for “1”, “2” and “3”. Therefore, the programming speed for programming “1”, “2” and “3” cannot be made equal. Stated another way, time periods of one cycle for programming “1”, “2” and “3” are set to the same period and data “2” and “3” are written by controlling the number of cycles for programming. Therefore, the programming pulse must be applied at short intervals, and much time is required to rewrite data in the memory.
Further, each multi-value memory cell can hold data, but for a shorter time than a binary memory cell.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device in which the voltage applied to a selected memory cell is low enough to program data “0” reliably into the selected memory cell even if the selected memory cell has been over-erased.
Another object of the invention is to provide a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device in which multi-value data can be programmed into the memory cells at high speed.
Still another object of this invention is to provide a nonvolatile semiconductor memory system in which each memory cell can hold multi-value data for a long time and which can achieve reliable storage of multi-value data.
(1) According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device comprising a NAND cell unit comprising a plurality of memory cells connected in series; an erase circuit for applying an erase voltage to all memory cells of the NAND cell unit, thereby to erase data from all memory cells of the NAND cell unit; a soft-programming circuit for applying a soft-program voltage to all memory cells of the NAND cell unit, the soft-program voltage being of a polarity opposite to the polarity of the erase voltage; and a programming circuit for applying a program voltage to any selected one of the memory cells, applying a first voltage to at least one of two memory cells adjacent to the any selected one of the memory cells, and applying a second voltage to the remaining memory cells of the NAND cell unit, thereby to program data into the any selected one of the memory cells.
(2) According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the first aspect, in which the programming circuit for applying the first voltage to both of the two memory cells adjacent to the any selected one of the memory cells.
(3) According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the first aspect, in which the soft-programming circuit applies the soft-program voltage to all the memory cells after the erasing circuit has erased data from all memory cells of the NAND cell unit, and the programming circuit programs the memory cells after the soft-programming circuit has applied the soft-program voltage to all the memory cells.
(4) According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the first aspect, in which the soft-program voltage is lower than the program voltage.
(5) According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the first aspect, which further comprises an erase-verification circuit for determining whether data has been erased from all the memory cells of the NAND cell unit and have threshold voltages controlled within a predetermined range after the soft-programming circuit has applied the soft-program voltage to all the memory cells, and in which the programming circuit programs data into the any selected one of the memory cells after the soft-programming circuit and the erase-verification circuit have performed a soft-program operation and an erase verification operation.
(6) According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the fifth aspect, further comprising a control circuit for causing the soft-programming circuit and the erase-verification circuit to repeat the soft-program operation and the erase verification operation, and for causing the soft-programming circuit to terminate the soft-program operation when at least one of the memory cells of the NAND cell unit has a threshold voltage forced out of the predetermined range.
(7) According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the sixth aspect, in which the control circuit causes the erasing circuit to erase data again from all memory cells of the NAND cell unit when the soft-program operation and the erase verification operation have not repeated a predetermined number of times and when at least one of the memory cells of the NAND cell unit is forced out of the predetermined range.
(8) According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the first aspect, in which the program voltage is higher than the first and second voltages, and the second voltage is higher than the first voltage.
(9) According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the eighth aspect, in which the first voltage is 0V.
(10) According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device comprising a plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor memory cells, each capable of storing n-value data, where n is a natural number greater than 2; and a data-programming circuit for performing a program operation in which program pulses are applied to the plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor memory cells to program n-value data into the plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor memory cells, performing a program verification operation in which it is determined whether or not the n-value data has been programmed into the plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor memory cells and repeating the program operation and the program verification operation, wherein each of the program pulses has a predetermined pulse width in accordance with a value of the n-value data to be programmed into corresponding memory cell.
(11) According to an eleventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the tenth aspect, in which each program pulse is removed from corresponding memory cell after the program verification operation in which it has been determined that n-value data has been programmed into the corresponding memory cell.
(12) According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the tenth aspect, in which the program operation is terminated when it is determined in the program verification operation that all of n-value data have been programmed into the plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor memory cells.
(13) According to a thirteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the tenth aspect, in which the program operation and the program verification operation are terminated after a limited number of cycles.
(14) According to a fourteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the tenth aspect, in which the plurality of nonvolatile semiconductor memory cells are connected to one word line.
(15) According to a fifteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the tenth aspect, in which the plurality of memory cells are respectively included in corresponding NAND cell units, each NAND cell unit comprising a predetermined number of nonvolatile semiconductor memory cells connected in series, and in the program operation, the data-programming circuit applies a first voltage to at least one of the two memory cells adjacent to the selected memory cells to be programmed and a second voltage to the remaining memory cells.
(16) According to a sixteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the fifteenth aspect, in which voltages of the program pulses are higher than the first and second voltages, and the second voltage is higher than the first voltage.
(17) According to a seventeenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the sixteenth aspect, in which the first voltage is 0V.
(18) According to an eighteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device comprising a memory cell array comprising memory cells arranged in rows and columns, each having a control gate; a programming circuit for programming data into any selected one of the memory cells by applying a program voltage to the control gate of the selected memory cell; an erasing circuit for erasing data from the memory cells by applying an erase voltage opposite in polarity to the program voltage; a soft-programming circuit for applying a soft-program voltage to the memory cells, thereby setting the memory cells into a desirable erased state; a verification read circuit for determining whether the memory cells have been set into the desirable erased state; and an erased-state determining circuit for causing the soft-programming circuit to terminate the soft-program operation upon determining from an output of the verification read circuit that at least two of the memory cells have a threshold voltage which has reached a predetermined value.
(19) According to a nineteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the eighteenth aspect, in which the soft-programming circuit soft-programs the memory cells after the erasing circuit has erased data from the memory cells, and the verification read circuit performs a determination operation after the soft-programming circuit has soft-programmed the memory cells.
(20) According to a twentieth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the eighteenth aspect, in which the memory cell array includes a plurality of data input/output lines divided into m units (m≧2), and the erase-state determining circuit comprises circuits for detecting erased states of the memory cells based on the data input/output lines of each unit and causing the soft-programming circuit to terminate soft-program operation, upon determining that at least one of the memory cells connected to the data input/output lines of any unit has a threshold voltage which has reached the predetermined value.
(21) According to a twenty-first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the eighteenth aspect, in which the memory cell array includes a plurality of word lines divided into m units (m≧2), and the erase-state determining circuit comprises circuits for detecting erased states of the memory cells based on the word lines of each unit and causing the soft-programming circuit to terminate soft-program operation, upon determining that at least one of the memory cells connected to the word lines of any unit has a threshold voltage which has reached the predetermined value.
(22) According to a twenty-second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the eighteenth aspect, in which the nonvolatile semiconductor memory cells of the memory cell array form NAND cell units, each comprising a plurality of memory cells connected in series, and the programming circuit applies a first voltage lower than the program voltage to the control gate of at least one of two memory cells adjacent to any selected one of the memory cells of each NAND cell unit, and applies a second voltage between the program voltage and the first voltage, to the remaining memory cells of each NAND cell unit, thereby to program data into the any selected one of the memory cells.
(23) According to a twenty-third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the twenty-second aspect, which further comprises a memory circuit for storing data output from the verification read circuit, and in which the erased-state determining circuit comprises a scan-detection circuit for monitoring the data stored in the memory circuit and counting the memory cells which have a threshold voltage which has reached the predetermined value.
(24) According to a twenty-fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the twenty-third aspect, further comprising a control circuit for repeatedly causing the soft-programming circuit to perform a soft-program operation, the verification read circuit to perform a verification read operation and the scan-detection circuit to perform a memory-cell counting operation, and for causing the soft-programming circuit to terminate the soft-program operation, the verification read operation and the memory-cell counting operation when the scan-detection circuit counts at least two memory cells having a threshold voltage which has reached the predetermined value.
(25) According to a twenty-fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the twenty-fourth aspect, in which the control circuit causes the verification read circuit to perform the verification read operation by applying a margin voltage to the word line of each NAND cell unit after the soft-programming circuit has finished performing the soft-program operation, causes the scan-detection circuit to perform the memory-cell counting operation, and causes the soft-programming circuit to terminate the soft-program operation, the verification read operation and the memory-cell counting operation, when the scan-detection circuit detects that all memory cells of each NAND cell unit have a threshold voltage equal to or lower than a predetermined threshold voltage, the predetermined threshold voltage being higher than the predetermined value.
(26) According to a twenty-sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device comprising a memory cell section including at least one memory cell and having first and second ends; a first signal line connected to the first end of the memory cell section; a second signal line connected to the second end of the memory cell section; a reading circuit connected to the first signal line, for reading the memory cell; an erasing circuit for erasing data stored in the memory cell; and an over-erase detecting circuit for detecting whether the memory cell is over-erased, wherein the over-erase detecting circuit applies a first reference potential to the second signal line, thereby outputting a first read potential to the first signal line, and the reading circuit detects the first read potential.
(27) According to a twenty-seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the twenty-sixth aspect, further comprising a soft-programming circuit for performing soft-program operation on the memory cell when the over-erase detecting circuit detects that the memory cell has been over-erased.
(28) According to a twenty-eighth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device comprising a first memory cell section including at least one memory cell; a second memory cell section including at least one memory cell; a first signal line connected to a first end of the first memory cell section; a second signal line connected to a second end of the first memory cell section; a third signal line connected to a first end of the second memory cell section; a fourth signal line connected to a second end of the second memory cell section; a reading circuit connected to the first signal line, for reading the memory cell; an erasing circuit for erasing data stored in the memory cell; and an over-erase detecting circuit for detecting whether the memory cell is over-erased, wherein the over-erase detecting circuit applies a first reference potential to the second signal line, thereby outputting a first read potential to the first signal line and applying a second reference potential to the third signal line, and the reading circuit detects the first read potential.
(29) According to a twenty-ninth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device comprising a first memory cell section including at least one memory cell; a second memory cell section including at least one memory cell; a first signal line connected to a first end of the first memory cell section; a second signal line connected to a second end of the first memory cell section; a third signal line connected to a first end of the second memory cell section; a fourth signal line connected to a second end of the second memory cell section; a reading circuit connected to the first signal line, for reading the memory cell; an erasing circuit for erasing data stored in the memory cell; an over-erase detecting circuit for detecting whether the memory cell is over-erased; and a soft-programming circuit for performing a soft-program operation on the memory cell when the over-erase detecting circuit detects that the memory cell has been over-erased, wherein the over-erase detecting circuit applies a first reference potential to the second signal line, thereby outputting a first read potential to the first signal line and applying a second reference potential to the third signal line, and the reading circuit detects the first read potential.
(30) According to a thirtieth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the twenty-sixth aspect, in which the reading circuit includes a first switch for connecting the first signal line to a first node, a sense amplifier for detecting a potential of the first node, and a capacitor connected at one end to the first node and at the other end to the second node, and the potential applied to the second node is changed when the sense amplifier detects the potential of the first node.
(31) According to a thirty-first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the twenty-sixth aspect, in which the reading circuit includes a first switch for connecting the first signal line to a first node, a sense amplifier for detecting a potential of the first node, and a capacitor connected at one end to the first node and at the other end to the second node, the potential applied to the second node is changed when the sense amplifier detects the potential of the first node, the over-erase detecting circuit applies the first reference potential to the second signal line to detect whether the memory cell has been over-erased, the first read potential output to the first signal line is transferred through the first switch to the first node as a second read potential, and the potential of the first node is changed to a third read potential different from the second read potential, by changing potential of the second node.
(32) According to a thirty-second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the twenty-ninth aspect, in which the first and third lines are bit lines.
(33) According to a thirty-third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the twenty-ninth aspect, in which the first line is a bit line, and the third line is a bit line adjacent to the first line.
(34) According to a thirty-fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the twenty-ninth aspect, in which the second and fourth lines are source lines.
(35) According to a thirty-fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the twenty-ninth aspect, in which the first and second reference potentials are of approximately the same value.
(36) According to a thirty-sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the twenty-sixth aspect, in which the first reference potential is a power-supply voltage.
(37) According to a thirty-seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the twenty-sixth aspect, in which the memory cell section includes a NAND cell unit comprising a plurality of memory cells connected in series.
(38) According to a thirty-eighth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the twenty-sixth aspect, in which when the over-erase detecting circuit applies the first reference potential to the second signal line, a first over-erase detection word-line potential is applied to the gate of any selected memory cell and a second over-erase detection word-line potential is applied to the gates of the memory cells connected in series to the any selected memory cell, thereby the first read potential is output to the first signal line.
(39) According to a thirty-ninth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the thirty-eighth aspect, in which the first and second over-erase detection word-line potentials are of approximately the same value.
(40) According to a fortieth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the thirty-eight aspect, in which the first and second over-erase detection word-line potentials are of different values.
(41) According to a forty-first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the thirty-eighth aspect, in which the first over-erase detection word-line potential is 0V.
(42) According to a forty-second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the thirty-eighth aspect, in which the second over-erase detection word-line potential is a power-supply voltage.
(43) According to a forty-third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device comprising a memory cell section including a NAND cell unit comprising a plurality of memory cells connected in series; an erasing circuit for erasing data stored in the memory cells; and an over-erase detecting circuit for detecting whether the memory cells are over-erased.
(44) According to a forty-fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the forty-third aspect, further comprising a soft-programming circuit for performing a soft-program operation on any one of the memory cells that has been over-erased.
(45) According to a forty-fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the forty-third aspect, which further comprises a first signal line connected to one end of the NAND cell unit, a second signal line connected to the other end of the NAND cell unit, and a reading circuit connected to the first signal line, for reading the memory cells, and in which the reading circuit includes a first switch for connecting the first signal line to a first node, a sense amplifier for detecting a potential of the first node and a capacitor connected at one end to the first node and at the other end to the second node, and the second node is changed, when the sense amplifier detects the potential of the first node.
(46) According to a forty-sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the forty-fifth aspect, further comprising a transistor which includes a gate connected to an output terminal of the sense amplifier and which detects that the second sense amplifier stores the data that has been erased from one of the memory cells.
(47) According to a forty-seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device comprising a first signal line connected to one end of a unit of memory cells; a second signal line connected to the other end of the unit of memory cells; and a reading circuit connected to the first signal line, for reading the memory cells, and wherein the reading circuit includes a first switch for connecting the first signal line to a first node, a sense amplifier for detecting a potential of the first node and a capacitor connected at one end to the first node and at the other end to the second node, and the second node is changed, when the sense amplifier detects the potential of the first node.
(48) According to a forty-eighth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory device according to the forty-seventh aspect, in which a potential of the second signal line is set to a potential higher than a potential of the first signal line during a reading operation.
(49) According to a forty-ninth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a nonvolatile semiconductor memory system comprising an electrically programmable nonvolatile semiconductor memory device; and a controller for controlling the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device, and wherein the controller determines whether a predetermined time has elapsed after data was programmed into the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device.
(50) According to a fiftieth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory system according to the forty-ninth aspect, in which the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device comprises a multi-value memory device.
(51) According to a fifty-first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory system according to the forty-ninth aspect, in which the controller refreshes data upon determining that the predetermined time has elapsed after data was programmed into the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device.
(52) According to a fifty-second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory system comprising an electrically programmable nonvolatile semiconductor memory device; a controller for controlling the nonvolatile semiconductor memory; a battery for supplying power to the controller when external power supplies are unavailable; and a terminal for receiving and supplying signals and power from and to an external device, and wherein the controller determines whether a predetermined time has elapsed after data was programmed into the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device.
(53) According to a fifty-third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory system comprising an electrically programmable nonvolatile semiconductor memory device; a controller for controlling the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device; a battery for supplying power to the controller when external power supplies are unavailable; a timer for storing data representing a time when data is programmed into the nonvolatile semiconductor memory; a terminal for receiving and supplying signals and power from and to an external device, and wherein the controller determines whether a predetermined time has elapsed after data was programmed into the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device.
(54) According to a fifty-fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory system according to the fifty-second or fifty-third aspect, in which the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device comprises a multi-value memory device.
(55) According to a fifty-fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory system according to the fifty-second or fifty-third aspect, in which the controller refreshes data upon determining that the predetermined time has elapsed after data was programmed into the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device.
(56) According to a fifty-sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory system according to the fifty-second or fifty-third aspect, further comprising an indicator for indicating that the predetermined time has elapsed after data was programmed into the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device, when the controller determines that the predetermined time has elapsed.
(57) According to a fifty-seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory system according to the fifty-second or fifty-third aspect, in which the battery is a chargeable one and is charged while power is supplied from an external power supply.
(58) According to a fifty-eighth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory system according to the fifty-second or fifty-third aspect, in which the controller stops supply of power to the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device while no power is being supplied from an external power supply.
(59) According to a fifty-ninth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory system according to the fifty-second or fifty-third aspect, in which the controller refreshes data upon determining that the predetermined time has elapsed after data was programmed into the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device, and stops supply of power to the nonvolatile semiconductor memory device while no power is being supplied from an external power supply and while the controller is not refreshing the data.
Additional objects and advantages of the present invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the present invention.
The objects and advantages of the present invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
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7808094 | BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stacked structure of semiconductor chips, a memory card, and a method of manufacturing the stacked structure of semiconductor chips.
2. Related art of the Invention
In recent years, small memory cards such as an SD memory card are often used as recording media in cellular phones, digital cameras, and the like. According to improvement of functions of apparatuses such as an increase in the number of pixels of the digital cameras, an increase in capacities of the memory cards is demanded.
A stacked structure formed by stacking plural semiconductor chips in order to realize such an increase in a capacity of a memory card is disclosed.FIG. 26is a diagram showing a stacked structure of semiconductor chips of the prior art. In the stacked structure of semiconductor chips shown inFIG. 26, a semiconductor chip105is mounted on one side of a substrate107. Four pairs of the substrate107and the semiconductor chip105are stacked on a mother board104. The substrates107arranged to be adjacent to each other in a vertical direction in the figure are electrically connected by solder balls108. In the figure, the substrate107arranged at the bottom and the mother board104are also electrically connected by the solder balls108.
As shown inFIG. 27, a stacked structure in which semiconductor chips are arranged on both sides of the substrates107is disclosed (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-207986). In the stacked structure of semiconductor chips shown inFIG. 27, two pairs of the substrate107and the semiconductor chip105mounted on both sides of the substrate107are stacked on the mother board104. In places where the semiconductor chips105are opposed to each other, insulating sheets125are arranged.
However, even if it is attempted to realize a further increase in a capacity of the SD memory card, a size of the SD memory card is determined according to its own standard and it is necessary to secure to have a certain thickness of the substrates107. Therefore, there is a limit in stacking the semiconductor chips105by the method described above.
In order to realize the increase in a capacity of the SD memory card, it is also conceivable to use a semiconductor chip with a large capacity. However, compared with the structure formed by stacking plural semiconductor chips with low unit cost and a small capacity, cost substantially increases.
The present invention has been devised in view of the problems of the stacked structures of semiconductor chips in the past and it is an object of the present invention to provide a stacked structure of semiconductor chips in which semiconductor chips larger in number than in the prior art can be stacked, a memory card, and a method of manufacturing the stacked structure of semiconductor chips.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The 1staspect of the present invention is a stacked structure of semiconductor chips comprising:
plural stacked semiconductor chips; and
plural tabular holding members which hold the respective semiconductor chips, wherein
at least two holding members among the holding members are arranged in places at ends of the semiconductor chips where inner side facets of the holding members are opposed to each other,
at least one semiconductor chip of the two semiconductor chips held by the two holding members, respectively, is held by only one holding member of the holding members at one end of the semiconductor chip, and
all or a part of the one semiconductor chip is arranged in the largest space positioned in an inner side of the inner side facet of the other holding member of the holding members, the largest space being formed by a surface including the one surface of the other holding member, a surface including the other surface of the other holding member, and a surface including a surface of the other semiconductor chip held by the other holding member, the other semiconductor chip being closer to the other holding member.
The 2ndaspect of the present invention is the stacked structure of semiconductor chips according to the 1staspect of the present invention, wherein the semiconductor chip is held on at least one surface of the one holding member.
The 3rdaspect of the present invention is the stacked structure of semiconductor chips according to the 2ndaspect of the present invention, wherein the other semiconductor chip is adjacent to the one semiconductor chip and held by only the other holding member at the other end opposed to the one end, and
the largest space is a space positioned in an inner side of the inner side facet of the other holding member and is formed by a surface including a surface on an opposite side of the other semiconductor chip side of the other holding member and a surface including a surface on the holding member side of the other semiconductor chip.
The 4thaspect of the present invention is the stacked structure of semiconductor chips according to the 3rdaspect of the present invention, wherein
the plural stacked semiconductor chips have a plurality of the one semiconductor chips and a plurality of the other semiconductor chips both of which are alternately stacked, and
all or a part of the other semiconductor chip is arranged in a space positioned in an inner side of the inner side facet of the one holding member, the space being formed by a surface including a surface on an opposite side of the one semiconductor chip side of the one holding member and a surface including a surface on the one holding member side of the one semiconductor chip.
The 5thaspect of the present invention is the stacked structure of semiconductor chips according to the 1staspect of the present invention, wherein
the semiconductor chips are held on both surfaces of the other holding member,
the largest space is a space positioned in an inner side of the inner side facet of the other holding member and is formed by a surface including a surface on the holding member side of the semiconductor chip held on one surface of the other holding member and a surface including a surface on the holding member side of the semiconductor chip held on the other surface of the other holding member, and
arrangement of the entire one semiconductor ship or a part of the one semiconductor chip in the space means that the semiconductor chip held by the one holding member is arranged between the semiconductor chips arranged on both the surfaces of the other holding member.
The 6thaspect of the present invention is the stacked structure of semiconductor chips according to the 5thaspect of the present invention, wherein
the semiconductor chips are held on both surfaces of the one holding member, and
one semiconductor chip of the semiconductor chips held on both the surfaces of the one holding member is arranged between the semiconductor chips arranged on both the surfaces of the other holding member.
The 7thaspect of the present invention is the stacked structure of semiconductor chips according to the 6thaspect of the present invention, wherein one semiconductor chip of the semiconductor chips held on both surfaces of the one holding member by one holding member adjacent to the one holding member is further arranged between the semiconductor chips arranged on both the sides of the other holding member. The 8thaspect of the present invention is the stacked structure of semiconductor chips according to the 1staspect of the present invention, wherein
the holding members are substrates, and
the semiconductor chips are mounted on the substrates by flip chip or wire bonding.
The 9thaspect of the present invention is the stacked structure of semiconductor chips according to the 8thaspect of the present invention, wherein
adjacent substrates of the substrates are electrically connected by a conductive member, and
a space between the adjacent substrates is adjusted by the conductive member.
The 10thaspect of the present invention is a memory card comprising:
a mother board on which one or plural stacked modules having the stacked structure of semiconductor chips according to the 1staspect of the present invention are arranged; and
an IC chip for controlling the semiconductor chips.
The 11thaspect of the present invention is a method of manufacturing a stacked structure of semiconductor chips including plural stacked semiconductor chips and plural tabular holding members which hold the respective semiconductor chips,
the method comprising a stacking step of arranging the semiconductor chip held by the holding member at one end thereof such that at least a part of the semiconductor chip overlaps a space formed on inner sides of inner side facets of the holding members which hold the other semiconductor chips.
The 12thaspect of the present invention is a method of manufacturing a stacked structure of semiconductor chips including: plural stacked semiconductor chips; and plural tabular holding members which hold the respective semiconductor chips, in which at least two holding members among the holding members are arranged in places at ends of the semiconductor chips where inner side facets of the holding members are opposed to each other, and at least one semiconductor chip of the two semiconductor chips held by the two holding members, respectively, is held by only one holding member of the holding members at one end of the semiconductor chip,
the method comprising a stacking step of arranging semiconductor chips so that all or a part of the one semiconductor chip is arranged in the largest space positioned in an inner side of the inner side facet of the other holding member of the holding members, the largest space being formed by a surface including the one surface of the other holding member, a surface including the other surface of the other holding member, and a surface including a surface of the other semiconductor chip held by the other holding member, the other semiconductor chip being closer to the other holding member.
The 13thaspect of the present invention is a stacked structure of semiconductor chips comprising:
plural stacked semiconductor chips; and
plural tabular holding members which hold the respective semiconductor chips, wherein
at least two holding members among the holding members are arranged in places at ends of the semiconductor chips,
at least one semiconductor chip of the two semiconductor chips held by the two holding members, respectively, is held by only one holding member of the holding members at one end of the semiconductor chip, and
all or a part of the one semiconductor chip is arranged
so as to be intersected the other semiconductor chip in the view of the direction of stacking, and arranged in the largest space positioned in an inner side of the inner side facet of the other holding member of the holding members, the largest space being formed by a surface including the one surface of the other holding member, a surface including the other surface of the other holding member, and a surface including a surface of the other semiconductor chip held by the other holding member, the other semiconductor chip being closer to the other holding member.
The 14thaspect of the present invention is a semiconductor device, comprising:
a plurality of semiconductor chips; and
a plurality of substrates to which said semiconductor chips are mounted to, respectively;
one of said substrates on a left side of said device, one of said chips mounted thereto extending past a right edge of said one of said substrates;
another of said substrates on a right side of said device, another said of chips mounted thereto extending past a left edge of said another of said substrates;
said another of said chips partially over and laterally offset relative to said one of said chips.
According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a stacked structure of semiconductor chips in which semiconductor chips larger in number than in the prior art can be stacked, a memory card, and a method of manufacturing the stacked structure of semiconductor chips.
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stacked structure of semiconductor chips, a memory card, and a method of manufacturing the stacked structure of semiconductor chips.
2. Related art of the Invention
In recent years, small memory cards such as an SD memory card are often used as recording media in cellular phones, digital cameras, and the like. According to improvement of functions of apparatuses such as an increase in the number of pixels of the digital cameras, an increase in capacities of the memory cards is demanded.
A stacked structure formed by stacking plural semiconductor chips in order to realize such an increase in a capacity of a memory card is disclosed.FIG. 26is a diagram showing a stacked structure of semiconductor chips of the prior art. In the stacked structure of semiconductor chips shown inFIG. 26, a semiconductor chip105is mounted on one side of a substrate107. Four pairs of the substrate107and the semiconductor chip105are stacked on a mother board104. The substrates107arranged to be adjacent to each other in a vertical direction in the figure are electrically connected by solder balls108. In the figure, the substrate107arranged at the bottom and the mother board104are also electrically connected by the solder balls108.
As shown inFIG. 27, a stacked structure in which semiconductor chips are arranged on both sides of the substrates107is disclosed (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-207986). In the stacked structure of semiconductor chips shown inFIG. 27, two pairs of the substrate107and the semiconductor chip105mounted on both sides of the substrate107are stacked on the mother board104. In places where the semiconductor chips105are opposed to each other, insulating sheets125are arranged.
However, even if it is attempted to realize a further increase in a capacity of the SD memory card, a size of the SD memory card is determined according to its own standard and it is necessary to secure to have a certain thickness of the substrates107. Therefore, there is a limit in stacking the semiconductor chips105by the method described above.
In order to realize the increase in a capacity of the SD memory card, it is also conceivable to use a semiconductor chip with a large capacity. However, compared with the structure formed by stacking plural semiconductor chips with low unit cost and a small capacity, cost substantially increases.
The present invention has been devised in view of the problems of the stacked structures of semiconductor chips in the past and it is an object of the present invention to provide a stacked structure of semiconductor chips in which semiconductor chips larger in number than in the prior art can be stacked, a memory card, and a method of manufacturing the stacked structure of semiconductor chips.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The 1staspect of the present invention is a stacked structure of semiconductor chips comprising:
plural stacked semiconductor chips; and
plural tabular holding members which hold the respective semiconductor chips, wherein
at least two holding members among the holding members are arranged in places at ends of the semiconductor chips where inner side facets of the holding members are opposed to each other,
at least one semiconductor chip of the two semiconductor chips held by the two holding members, respectively, is held by only one holding member of the holding members at one end of the semiconductor chip, and
all or a part of the one semiconductor chip is arranged in the largest space positioned in an inner side of the inner side facet of the other holding member of the holding members, the largest space being formed by a surface including the one surface of the other holding member, a surface including the other surface of the other holding member, and a surface including a surface of the other semiconductor chip held by the other holding member, the other semiconductor chip being closer to the other holding member.
The 2ndaspect of the present invention is the stacked structure of semiconductor chips according to the 1staspect of the present invention, wherein the semiconductor chip is held on at least one surface of the one holding member.
The 3rdaspect of the present invention is the stacked structure of semiconductor chips according to the 2ndaspect of the present invention, wherein the other semiconductor chip is adjacent to the one semiconductor chip and held by only the other holding member at the other end opposed to the one end, and
the largest space is a space positioned in an inner side of the inner side facet of the other holding member and is formed by a surface including a surface on an opposite side of the other semiconductor chip side of the other holding member and a surface including a surface on the holding member side of the other semiconductor chip.
The 4thaspect of the present invention is the stacked structure of semiconductor chips according to the 3rdaspect of the present invention, wherein
the plural stacked semiconductor chips have a plurality of the one semiconductor chips and a plurality of the other semiconductor chips both of which are alternately stacked, and
all or a part of the other semiconductor chip is arranged in a space positioned in an inner side of the inner side facet of the one holding member, the space being formed by a surface including a surface on an opposite side of the one semiconductor chip side of the one holding member and a surface including a surface on the one holding member side of the one semiconductor chip.
The 5thaspect of the present invention is the stacked structure of semiconductor chips according to the 1staspect of the present invention, wherein
the semiconductor chips are held on both surfaces of the other holding member,
the largest space is a space positioned in an inner side of the inner side facet of the other holding member and is formed by a surface including a surface on the holding member side of the semiconductor chip held on one surface of the other holding member and a surface including a surface on the holding member side of the semiconductor chip held on the other surface of the other holding member, and
arrangement of the entire one semiconductor ship or a part of the one semiconductor chip in the space means that the semiconductor chip held by the one holding member is arranged between the semiconductor chips arranged on both the surfaces of the other holding member.
The 6thaspect of the present invention is the stacked structure of semiconductor chips according to the 5thaspect of the present invention, wherein
the semiconductor chips are held on both surfaces of the one holding member, and
one semiconductor chip of the semiconductor chips held on both the surfaces of the one holding member is arranged between the semiconductor chips arranged on both the surfaces of the other holding member.
The 7thaspect of the present invention is the stacked structure of semiconductor chips according to the 6thaspect of the present invention, wherein one semiconductor chip of the semiconductor chips held on both surfaces of the one holding member by one holding member adjacent to the one holding member is further arranged between the semiconductor chips arranged on both the sides of the other holding member. The 8thaspect of the present invention is the stacked structure of semiconductor chips according to the 1staspect of the present invention, wherein
the holding members are substrates, and
the semiconductor chips are mounted on the substrates by flip chip or wire bonding.
The 9thaspect of the present invention is the stacked structure of semiconductor chips according to the 8thaspect of the present invention, wherein
adjacent substrates of the substrates are electrically connected by a conductive member, and
a space between the adjacent substrates is adjusted by the conductive member.
The 10thaspect of the present invention is a memory card comprising:
a mother board on which one or plural stacked modules having the stacked structure of semiconductor chips according to the 1staspect of the present invention are arranged; and
an IC chip for controlling the semiconductor chips.
The 11thaspect of the present invention is a method of manufacturing a stacked structure of semiconductor chips including plural stacked semiconductor chips and plural tabular holding members which hold the respective semiconductor chips,
the method comprising a stacking step of arranging the semiconductor chip held by the holding member at one end thereof such that at least a part of the semiconductor chip overlaps a space formed on inner sides of inner side facets of the holding members which hold the other semiconductor chips.
The 12thaspect of the present invention is a method of manufacturing a stacked structure of semiconductor chips including: plural stacked semiconductor chips; and plural tabular holding members which hold the respective semiconductor chips, in which at least two holding members among the holding members are arranged in places at ends of the semiconductor chips where inner side facets of the holding members are opposed to each other, and at least one semiconductor chip of the two semiconductor chips held by the two holding members, respectively, is held by only one holding member of the holding members at one end of the semiconductor chip,
the method comprising a stacking step of arranging semiconductor chips so that all or a part of the one semiconductor chip is arranged in the largest space positioned in an inner side of the inner side facet of the other holding member of the holding members, the largest space being formed by a surface including the one surface of the other holding member, a surface including the other surface of the other holding member, and a surface including a surface of the other semiconductor chip held by the other holding member, the other semiconductor chip being closer to the other holding member.
The 13thaspect of the present invention is a stacked structure of semiconductor chips comprising:
plural stacked semiconductor chips; and
plural tabular holding members which hold the respective semiconductor chips, wherein
at least two holding members among the holding members are arranged in places at ends of the semiconductor chips,
at least one semiconductor chip of the two semiconductor chips held by the two holding members, respectively, is held by only one holding member of the holding members at one end of the semiconductor chip, and
all or a part of the one semiconductor chip is arranged
so as to be intersected the other semiconductor chip in the view of the direction of stacking, and arranged in the largest space positioned in an inner side of the inner side facet of the other holding member of the holding members, the largest space being formed by a surface including the one surface of the other holding member, a surface including the other surface of the other holding member, and a surface including a surface of the other semiconductor chip held by the other holding member, the other semiconductor chip being closer to the other holding member.
The 14thaspect of the present invention is a semiconductor device, comprising:
a plurality of semiconductor chips; and
a plurality of substrates to which said semiconductor chips are mounted to, respectively;
one of said substrates on a left side of said device, one of said chips mounted thereto extending past a right edge of said one of said substrates;
another of said substrates on a right side of said device, another said of chips mounted thereto extending past a left edge of said another of said substrates;
said another of said chips partially over and laterally offset relative to said one of said chips.
According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a stacked structure of semiconductor chips in which semiconductor chips larger in number than in the prior art can be stacked, a memory card, and a method of manufacturing the stacked structure of semiconductor chips.
Is this patent green technology? Respond with 'yes' or 'no'. |
7765867 | BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a transmitter.
In many branches of industry, products are stored in vessels, for example in tanks or containers. Suppliers supply the product to the vessel and users obtain it from the vessel. Since industrial products can be very expensive complex inventory systems are used to account for in and out going product.
A product received from a supplier may be valued in volume (i.e. liters or gallons) when delivered and valued as a weight (i.e. kilograms or pounds) as plant inventory. The reconciliation of incoming product value and storage value can result in financial losses if not properly managed. As bulk supply chains become more collaborative, product within a given vessel may have more than one owner. Tracking product inventory accurately becomes more important. Suppliers and users do not always have the appropriate volumetric or mass flow measurement devices on site to account for usage. If platform scales are not available at the delivery site to weigh an incoming bulk liquid delivery truck, valuation of the delivered bulk liquids given by the supplier is assumed to be correct by the user. If a custody transfer station is not available at the delivery site, a valuation of the delivered bulk liquids given by the supplier is assumed to be correct by the user.
At present individual measurement devices are used to get information on inventory of products in a tank.
Pressure measurement devices mounted on a sidewall of the vessel or on a cable or rod extending into the vessel determine hydrostatic pressure exerted on the device by the product above it. Algorithms are used to convert this hydrostatic pressure into level or volume values. Level or volume values are not fully corrected for density or temperature changes. Temperature measurement devices mounted on a sidewall of the vessel or inside the vessel on a cable or rod are used to determine the temperature of the liquid. Algorithms are used to correct the level or volume information for temperature variation. This requires another opening in the tank to accomplish.
Devices mounted on a sidewall of the vessel can be subject to wider temperature differences between product and ambient temperatures. In addition externally mounted pressure sensors are subject to tank wall movements, when the tank bulges out when filled, that can introduce significant errors.
A position of a surface of the product within the vessel can be determined with top mounted electronic measuring devices using capacitance, ultrasonic, radar, laser technologies. Algorithms are used to convert the position of the liquid into inventory level or volume information. Again, these values are not fully corrected for density or temperature changes. Often an additional pressure transmitter is used to calculate mass or density corrected volume. These hybrid solutions require multiple tank openings to accomplish.
Determination of the mass or weight of a liquid in a pressurized tank may require the addition of another pressure sensing device to account for a head pressure inside the tank above the product.
Determination of the density of the product is required by some algorithms to calculate corrected volume or level. In order to determine the density an additional pressure sensing device is mounted some known distance above the hydrostatic pressure measurement device. Density is then determined based on the distance between the two devices and the difference in pressure at their respective locations.
Another method to determine product inventory within a tank is to use mechanical floats or displacers mounted on a cable or rod inside the tank. The position of these floats is used to determine the level of the liquid. Magnetostrictive, resistance or cable tension sensing technologies are used to determine the position of the float. An additional displacer may be used to detect the density of the liquid at some point below the level measurement. Mechanical floats and displacers often require significant maintenance and are subject to material buildup errors. They often require physical entry into a tank to repair.
Load cell and strain gauge sensors are used to determine the weight of product in a tank. It is not always possible to install such sensors due to technical limitations and high installation cost.
More recently time of flight radar techniques have been used to determine the position of the surface of a product in a tank. Corresponding level measurement devices comprise a conductive probe that extends into the vessel. Microwave energy pulses are transmitted via a coupling, for example a launch plate down the probe. Some energy is reflected by the surface and returned back up the probe. A transit time from launch pulse launch to return can be used to calculate the position of the product surface.
Current practice is to use current loops to convey each individual measurement value from each measurement device to a programmable logical controller (PLC), a distributed control system (DCS) or other calculation device to perform the algorithms required to scale, compensate and correct the inventory information. Each measurement transmitter, its installation and wiring, adds cost.
If wireless technology is employed continuous power consumption from each transmitter can be over 0.5 watts.
Often process control measurement transmitters are employed in inventory measurement applications. The update times for each transmitter often exceed one second increasing power consumption for each device used. Inventory applications generally need to provide periodic, timed or event based information.
In the petroleum industry additional requirements need to be fulfilled. The American Petroleum Institute (API) defines the practice of measuring petroleum products in terms of corrected volume. The liquid position and liquid temperature at one or more points is used to calculate the inventory volume at a reference temperature using well known algorithms. Direct mass or weight measurement approaches are not generally used. There is increasing interest in using mass and/or weight determined values of petroleum products however, the current practices do not broadly support development of this information.
Floats and displacer gauging systems use mechanically moving components and sensors to measure level, temperature and density of products.
Radar gauges often combined with externally mounted temperature sensors are used to determine corrected level and volume.
Hydrostatic tank gauging systems use up to three externally mounted pressure transmitters, a temperature transmitter and a calculation box to calculate mass and sometimes density.
Hybrid systems use a top mounted radar gauge to determine level and externally mounted temperature transmitters and sometimes externally mounted pressure transmitters. A calculation box is installed to calculate mass, corrected volume and sometimes density.
Various digital buses generally of a proprietary design are used to convey the level, temperature and sometimes pressure information to the calculation box for volume correction and then to an inventory reporting and/or management system. Various types of converter boxes are used to transform one digital protocol into another at some significant expense when replacement of measurement technologies and/or suppliers are integrated into existing installations.
It is an object of the invention to provide a transmitter for providing inventory or inventory transfer information on industrial sites.
To this end the invention comprises a sensor apparatus for measurement of mass, weight, volume, level and/or density of a product in a vessel comprising:a level sensor, comprising:a conductive probe extending into the vessel,means for generating and sending short electromagnetic pulses down the probe,means for reception of echoes of the pulses reflected at a surface of the product,means for determining a time of flight needed for a pulse to travel down the probe and its echo to return,a pressure sensor,mounted on the probe, anda signal processing unit for determining mass, weight, volume, level and/or density based on measurement signals supplied by the level sensor and the pressure sensor.
According to a preferred embodiment, the transmitter comprises at least one temperature sensor, integrated in the probe.
According to a preferred embodiment, the transmitter comprises a communication interface for reception and/or delivery of information to a user, a supplier and/or a control unit.
According to a preferred embodiment, the transmitter comprises a totalizer, for totalizing supplies or withdrawals of the product.
According to a preferred embodiment, the transmitter comprises a monitor, for monitoring unauthorized supply or withdrawal of product and leakage.
According to a preferred embodiment, the transmitter comprises a device for determining a physical position of the transmitter.
According to a preferred embodiment, the transmitter comprises an integral server for supporting communication with at least one Information Technology Network.
According to a preferred embodiment, the transmitter comprises a power supply to provide energy for the level sensor, the pressure sensor, the temperature sensors, the means, and the signal processing unit.
According to a preferred embodiment, the transmitter comprises at least one optical fibre as temperature sensor, which is integrated in the probe.
According to a preferred embodiment, the transmitter comprises at least one optically analysing pressure sensor.
The transmitter according to the invention provides multiple inventory information variables from one measurement device. Compensation and correction of any of these output values can be performed by the transmitter itself. The need for external programmable logical controllers (PLC), distributed control systems (DCS) or other calculation boxes to provide correct inventory information is eliminated. Pressure and temperature sensors are incorporated on the same probe used for time domain reflectometry.
The sensors are mounted internal to the vessel so they will generally be at the same temperature as the product.
The transmitter is able to provide level, weight, volume and/or density inventory information over time to inventory logistics operations that use this information to determine if a product delivery is required or that there is room to receive a delivery. The transmitter can simultaneously provide the information to both suppliers and users.
The invention and its advantages are explained in more detail using the figures of the drawing, in which one exemplary embodiment is shown. The same reference numerals refer to the same elements throughout the figures.
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a transmitter.
In many branches of industry, products are stored in vessels, for example in tanks or containers. Suppliers supply the product to the vessel and users obtain it from the vessel. Since industrial products can be very expensive complex inventory systems are used to account for in and out going product.
A product received from a supplier may be valued in volume (i.e. liters or gallons) when delivered and valued as a weight (i.e. kilograms or pounds) as plant inventory. The reconciliation of incoming product value and storage value can result in financial losses if not properly managed. As bulk supply chains become more collaborative, product within a given vessel may have more than one owner. Tracking product inventory accurately becomes more important. Suppliers and users do not always have the appropriate volumetric or mass flow measurement devices on site to account for usage. If platform scales are not available at the delivery site to weigh an incoming bulk liquid delivery truck, valuation of the delivered bulk liquids given by the supplier is assumed to be correct by the user. If a custody transfer station is not available at the delivery site, a valuation of the delivered bulk liquids given by the supplier is assumed to be correct by the user.
At present individual measurement devices are used to get information on inventory of products in a tank.
Pressure measurement devices mounted on a sidewall of the vessel or on a cable or rod extending into the vessel determine hydrostatic pressure exerted on the device by the product above it. Algorithms are used to convert this hydrostatic pressure into level or volume values. Level or volume values are not fully corrected for density or temperature changes. Temperature measurement devices mounted on a sidewall of the vessel or inside the vessel on a cable or rod are used to determine the temperature of the liquid. Algorithms are used to correct the level or volume information for temperature variation. This requires another opening in the tank to accomplish.
Devices mounted on a sidewall of the vessel can be subject to wider temperature differences between product and ambient temperatures. In addition externally mounted pressure sensors are subject to tank wall movements, when the tank bulges out when filled, that can introduce significant errors.
A position of a surface of the product within the vessel can be determined with top mounted electronic measuring devices using capacitance, ultrasonic, radar, laser technologies. Algorithms are used to convert the position of the liquid into inventory level or volume information. Again, these values are not fully corrected for density or temperature changes. Often an additional pressure transmitter is used to calculate mass or density corrected volume. These hybrid solutions require multiple tank openings to accomplish.
Determination of the mass or weight of a liquid in a pressurized tank may require the addition of another pressure sensing device to account for a head pressure inside the tank above the product.
Determination of the density of the product is required by some algorithms to calculate corrected volume or level. In order to determine the density an additional pressure sensing device is mounted some known distance above the hydrostatic pressure measurement device. Density is then determined based on the distance between the two devices and the difference in pressure at their respective locations.
Another method to determine product inventory within a tank is to use mechanical floats or displacers mounted on a cable or rod inside the tank. The position of these floats is used to determine the level of the liquid. Magnetostrictive, resistance or cable tension sensing technologies are used to determine the position of the float. An additional displacer may be used to detect the density of the liquid at some point below the level measurement. Mechanical floats and displacers often require significant maintenance and are subject to material buildup errors. They often require physical entry into a tank to repair.
Load cell and strain gauge sensors are used to determine the weight of product in a tank. It is not always possible to install such sensors due to technical limitations and high installation cost.
More recently time of flight radar techniques have been used to determine the position of the surface of a product in a tank. Corresponding level measurement devices comprise a conductive probe that extends into the vessel. Microwave energy pulses are transmitted via a coupling, for example a launch plate down the probe. Some energy is reflected by the surface and returned back up the probe. A transit time from launch pulse launch to return can be used to calculate the position of the product surface.
Current practice is to use current loops to convey each individual measurement value from each measurement device to a programmable logical controller (PLC), a distributed control system (DCS) or other calculation device to perform the algorithms required to scale, compensate and correct the inventory information. Each measurement transmitter, its installation and wiring, adds cost.
If wireless technology is employed continuous power consumption from each transmitter can be over 0.5 watts.
Often process control measurement transmitters are employed in inventory measurement applications. The update times for each transmitter often exceed one second increasing power consumption for each device used. Inventory applications generally need to provide periodic, timed or event based information.
In the petroleum industry additional requirements need to be fulfilled. The American Petroleum Institute (API) defines the practice of measuring petroleum products in terms of corrected volume. The liquid position and liquid temperature at one or more points is used to calculate the inventory volume at a reference temperature using well known algorithms. Direct mass or weight measurement approaches are not generally used. There is increasing interest in using mass and/or weight determined values of petroleum products however, the current practices do not broadly support development of this information.
Floats and displacer gauging systems use mechanically moving components and sensors to measure level, temperature and density of products.
Radar gauges often combined with externally mounted temperature sensors are used to determine corrected level and volume.
Hydrostatic tank gauging systems use up to three externally mounted pressure transmitters, a temperature transmitter and a calculation box to calculate mass and sometimes density.
Hybrid systems use a top mounted radar gauge to determine level and externally mounted temperature transmitters and sometimes externally mounted pressure transmitters. A calculation box is installed to calculate mass, corrected volume and sometimes density.
Various digital buses generally of a proprietary design are used to convey the level, temperature and sometimes pressure information to the calculation box for volume correction and then to an inventory reporting and/or management system. Various types of converter boxes are used to transform one digital protocol into another at some significant expense when replacement of measurement technologies and/or suppliers are integrated into existing installations.
It is an object of the invention to provide a transmitter for providing inventory or inventory transfer information on industrial sites.
To this end the invention comprises a sensor apparatus for measurement of mass, weight, volume, level and/or density of a product in a vessel comprising:a level sensor, comprising:a conductive probe extending into the vessel,means for generating and sending short electromagnetic pulses down the probe,means for reception of echoes of the pulses reflected at a surface of the product,means for determining a time of flight needed for a pulse to travel down the probe and its echo to return,a pressure sensor,mounted on the probe, anda signal processing unit for determining mass, weight, volume, level and/or density based on measurement signals supplied by the level sensor and the pressure sensor.
According to a preferred embodiment, the transmitter comprises at least one temperature sensor, integrated in the probe.
According to a preferred embodiment, the transmitter comprises a communication interface for reception and/or delivery of information to a user, a supplier and/or a control unit.
According to a preferred embodiment, the transmitter comprises a totalizer, for totalizing supplies or withdrawals of the product.
According to a preferred embodiment, the transmitter comprises a monitor, for monitoring unauthorized supply or withdrawal of product and leakage.
According to a preferred embodiment, the transmitter comprises a device for determining a physical position of the transmitter.
According to a preferred embodiment, the transmitter comprises an integral server for supporting communication with at least one Information Technology Network.
According to a preferred embodiment, the transmitter comprises a power supply to provide energy for the level sensor, the pressure sensor, the temperature sensors, the means, and the signal processing unit.
According to a preferred embodiment, the transmitter comprises at least one optical fibre as temperature sensor, which is integrated in the probe.
According to a preferred embodiment, the transmitter comprises at least one optically analysing pressure sensor.
The transmitter according to the invention provides multiple inventory information variables from one measurement device. Compensation and correction of any of these output values can be performed by the transmitter itself. The need for external programmable logical controllers (PLC), distributed control systems (DCS) or other calculation boxes to provide correct inventory information is eliminated. Pressure and temperature sensors are incorporated on the same probe used for time domain reflectometry.
The sensors are mounted internal to the vessel so they will generally be at the same temperature as the product.
The transmitter is able to provide level, weight, volume and/or density inventory information over time to inventory logistics operations that use this information to determine if a product delivery is required or that there is room to receive a delivery. The transmitter can simultaneously provide the information to both suppliers and users.
The invention and its advantages are explained in more detail using the figures of the drawing, in which one exemplary embodiment is shown. The same reference numerals refer to the same elements throughout the figures.
Is this patent green technology? Respond with 'yes' or 'no'. |
7769375 | BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed generally to communications and, more particularly, to a system and method for spectrum sharing in a communication system using time-division duplexing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Telecommunication systems have evolved from simple hard-wired telephones to complex wireless networks that often include satellite as well as terrestrial components. With wireless systems, allocation of the frequency spectrum and appropriate use of the allocated spectrum is critical to satisfactory operation. Complex systems of spectrum sharing and frequency reuse have been developed as one means of sharing this limited resource with more and more users.
Some communication systems utilize both satellite and terrestrial components. This combined system often refers to the terrestrial components as an ancillary terrestrial component (ATC) communication system. Some proposals have been put forth that allow spectrum sharing by both the satellite portion and the ATC portion of a telecommunication system. That is, the ATC portion of the system reuses the frequency spectrum currently assigned to satellites.
Unfortunately, these conventional approaches often lead to performance degradation because it is very difficult to create sufficient distance between the satellites and between the ground elements to permit frequency reuse and still minimize interference. Interference between the satellite portion and the ACT portion of a communication system may lead to unacceptable data error rates and decreased overall system performance.
Therefore, it can be appreciated that there is a significant need for a system and method for frequency spectrum sharing that does not result in interference and system degradation. The present disclosure describes a system and method that provides this advantage and others as will be apparent from the following detailed description and accompanying figures.
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed generally to communications and, more particularly, to a system and method for spectrum sharing in a communication system using time-division duplexing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Telecommunication systems have evolved from simple hard-wired telephones to complex wireless networks that often include satellite as well as terrestrial components. With wireless systems, allocation of the frequency spectrum and appropriate use of the allocated spectrum is critical to satisfactory operation. Complex systems of spectrum sharing and frequency reuse have been developed as one means of sharing this limited resource with more and more users.
Some communication systems utilize both satellite and terrestrial components. This combined system often refers to the terrestrial components as an ancillary terrestrial component (ATC) communication system. Some proposals have been put forth that allow spectrum sharing by both the satellite portion and the ATC portion of a telecommunication system. That is, the ATC portion of the system reuses the frequency spectrum currently assigned to satellites.
Unfortunately, these conventional approaches often lead to performance degradation because it is very difficult to create sufficient distance between the satellites and between the ground elements to permit frequency reuse and still minimize interference. Interference between the satellite portion and the ACT portion of a communication system may lead to unacceptable data error rates and decreased overall system performance.
Therefore, it can be appreciated that there is a significant need for a system and method for frequency spectrum sharing that does not result in interference and system degradation. The present disclosure describes a system and method that provides this advantage and others as will be apparent from the following detailed description and accompanying figures.
Is this patent green technology? Respond with 'yes' or 'no'. |
7730863 | TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a warm-up apparatus for warming an internal combustion engine by rapidly increasing the temperature in the internal combustion engine when starting the engine.
BACKGROUND ART
In general, when starting an internal combustion engine, if the internal temperature of the internal combustion engine, particularly, the cylinder wall temperature or the combustion chamber temperature, is low, friction loss occurs during movement of the piston and exhaust gas compositions deteriorates.
Therefore, in the prior art, a latent heat type heat storage material is accommodated in an internal combustion engine. There has been a proposal for a warm-up apparatus that stores heat generated by the operation of the internal combustion engine in the heat storage material and releases the heat stored in the heat storage material when the internal combustion engine is next started to accelerate warming of the internal combustion engine (refer to, for example, patent document 1).
A warm-up apparatus in the prior art includes a nucleation device having a pair of electrodes inserted into a heat storage material. Voltage is externally applied to the electrodes to activate the nucleation device. This nucleates the heat storage material, which is in a supercooled state, so as to accelerate phase transition and release heat from the heat storage material.
However, in the warm-up apparatus of the prior art, voltage is externally applied to the electrodes to accelerate the phase transition of the heat storage material. This requires insertion holes for inserting the electrodes into the heat storage material from the outer side and an electrical circuit for applying voltage to the electrodes. Therefore, an operation for forming holes extending through the heat storage material and seals arranged around the holes become necessary. Furthermore, an electrical circuit is also required. This inevitably increases the cost of the warm-up apparatus.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 11-182393
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a warm-up apparatus for an internal combustion engine having a simple and inexpensive structure that eliminates the need for forming a hole extending through a heat storage material and eliminates the need for an electrical circuit or the arrangement of a seal around the hole.
A first aspect of the present invention provides a warm-up apparatus for an internal combustion engine. The warm-up apparatus includes a latent heat type heat storage material accommodated in the internal combustion engine, undergoing phase transition between a liquid phase including a supercooled state and a solid phase, and increasing volume as temperature increases in the liquid phase. A nucleation device is arranged in the heat storage material and operated to accelerate phase transition of the heat storage material in the supercooled state to release heat. The nucleation device includes a nucleation portion for nucleating and changing the phase of the heat storage material in the supercooled state. A hammer is movable toward the nucleation portion and away from the nucleation portion along a predetermined axial direction. A target member applies impact to the nucleation portion by abutting against the hammer when the hammer moves forward in a first direction along the axial direction. A spring urges the hammer in the first direction along the axial direction. The spring is compressed when the hammer moves backward in a second direction along the axial direction by making use of the increase in the volume of the heat storage material when heat is received from the internal combustion engine and phase transition from the solid phase to the liquid phase occurs. A lock mechanism restrains the hammer at a predetermined position in the axial direction in a state in which the spring is compressed when the temperature of the heat storage material in the liquid phase is low and the volume of the heat storage material is decreased. The lock mechanism is released by vibrations generated when the internal combustion engine is started so that the hammer is abutted against the target member by the urging force of the spring to apply an impact to the nucleation portion in order to activate the nucleation device and cause phase transition of the heat storage material in the supercooled state.
Further, a second aspect of the present invention provides a warm-up apparatus for an internal combustion engine. The warm-up apparatus includes a latent heat type heat storage material accommodated in the internal combustion engine, undergoing phase transition between a liquid phase including a supercooled state and a solid phase, and increasing volume as temperature increases in the liquid phase. A nucleation device is arranged in the heat storage material and operated to accelerate phase transition of the heat storage material in the supercooled state to release heat. The nucleation device includes a nucleation portion for nucleating and changing the phase of the heat storage material in the supercooled state. A hammer is movable toward the nucleation portion and away from the nucleation portion along a predetermined axial direction. The hammer applies impact to the nucleation portion when moving forward in a first direction along the axial direction. An air chamber urges the hammer in the first direction along the axial direction with air compressed therein. The air in the air chamber is compressed when the hammer is moved backward in a second direction along the axial direction by making use of the increase in the volume of the heat storage material when heat is received from the internal combustion engine and a phase transition occurs from the solid phase to the liquid phase. A lock mechanism restrains the hammer in a predetermined position along the axial direction in a state in which the air in the air chamber is compressed when the temperature of the heat storage material in the liquid phase is low and the volume of the heat storage material is decreased. The lock mechanism is released by vibrations generated when the internal combustion engine is started so that the hammer is abutted against the nucleation portion by the urging force of the air compressed in the air chamber to apply an impact to the nucleation portion in order to activate the nucleation device and cause phase transition of the heat storage material in the supercooled state.
According to the specified features of the first and second aspects of the invention, the lock mechanism for restraining the hammer in the predetermined position along the axial direction is released by vibrations generated when the internal combustion engine is started. The hammer applies impact to the nucleation portion to nucleate the heat storage material when the hammer is abutted against the target member by the urging force of the spring or when the hammer is abuts against the nucleation portion by the urging force of the air compressed in the air chamber. Therefore, the nucleation device is independently activated in the heat storage material in a supercooled state by vibrations generated when the internal combustion engine is started in order to accelerate the phase transition of the heat storage material. Accordingly, the discharge of heat from the heat storage material is smoothly performed by the nucleation device in the heat storage material. This provides an inexpensive warm-up apparatus having a simple structure.
Moreover, when the heat storage material receives heat from the internal combustion engine and undergoes phase transition from solid to liquid, the heat storage material increases volume. As a result, the hammer is moved backward in the second direction of the axial direction away from the target member or the nucleation portion and is restrained in the predetermined position along the axial direction even after the temperature of the heat storage material in the liquid phase becomes low and the volume of the heat storage material is decreased. Accordingly, even after the hammer is moved forward in the first direction of the axial direction to activate the nucleation device, the hammer may be moved in the second direction of the axial direction to prepare for activation of the nucleation device and be held to standby in the predetermined position by making use of heat from the internal combustion engine and causing the phase transition of the heat storage material without using additional members. This provides a significantly inexpensive warm-up apparatus having high efficiency.
In particular, the lock mechanism has the specified features described below.
The lock mechanism includes a vibrator arranged at the outer side of the hammer in a direction orthogonal to the axial direction and being swingable in the axial direction. An elastic body holds the vibrator in an equilibrium position located at the center of swing. The vibrator is moved away from the equilibrium position by being swung in the axial direction by vibrations generated when the internal combustion engine is started in order to release the hammer from restraint at the predetermined position.
According to this specified feature, the vibrator held in the equilibrium position by the elastic body at the outside of the hammer is released from the equilibrium position by vibrations generated when the internal combustion engine is started. The hammer is released from restraint in the predetermined position and the nucleation device is activated. Then, the phase transition of the heat storage material in the supercooled state is accelerated when the hammer is abutted against the target member in the heat storage material by the urging force of the spring or when the hammer is abutted against the nucleation portion in the heat storage material by the urging force of the compressed air in the air chamber. This ensures that heat is released from the heat storage material.
In particular, the lock mechanism and the vibrator have the specified features described below.
The lock mechanism includes a lock ball rollable in a direction orthogonal to the axial direction. The lock ball rolls between an engagement position where the lock ball is engaged with the hammer to restrain the hammer at the predetermined position and a disengagement position where the lock ball is disengaged from the hammer. The vibrator includes a projection projecting toward the hammer along a direction orthogonal to the axial direction. The projection restrains the hammer in the predetermined position by abutting against and holding the lock ball at the engagement position when the vibrator is held at the equilibrium position, and the projection releases the hammer from restraint at the predetermined position by disengaging the lock ball from the projection and rolling the lock ball to the disengagement position when the vibrator is moved away from the equilibrium position by vibrations generated when the internal combustion engine is started.
According to these specified features, the lock ball, which is engaged with the hammer in the engagement position by abutting against the projection of the vibrator in the predetermined position to restrain the hammer, is released from the projection when moved away from the equilibrium position by the vibrator when vibrations are generated when the internal combustion engine is started. This rolls the lock ball to the release position. As a result, the hammer is released from the restraint in the predetermined position and the nucleation device is activated. The phase transition of the heat storage material in the supercooled state is accelerated by the hammer abut against the target member in the heat storage material by the urging force of the spring, or the hammer abut against the nucleation portion in the heat storage material by the urging force of the compressed air in the air chamber. This ensures the release of heat from the heat storage material.
Further, the air chamber includes either an air bag having air sealed therein or a copper bellows. When using the air chamber, the hermetic seal of the air chamber is easily obtained, and urging force is smoothly applied to the hammer.
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SUMMARY: TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a warm-up apparatus for warming an internal combustion engine by rapidly increasing the temperature in the internal combustion engine when starting the engine.
BACKGROUND ART
In general, when starting an internal combustion engine, if the internal temperature of the internal combustion engine, particularly, the cylinder wall temperature or the combustion chamber temperature, is low, friction loss occurs during movement of the piston and exhaust gas compositions deteriorates.
Therefore, in the prior art, a latent heat type heat storage material is accommodated in an internal combustion engine. There has been a proposal for a warm-up apparatus that stores heat generated by the operation of the internal combustion engine in the heat storage material and releases the heat stored in the heat storage material when the internal combustion engine is next started to accelerate warming of the internal combustion engine (refer to, for example, patent document 1).
A warm-up apparatus in the prior art includes a nucleation device having a pair of electrodes inserted into a heat storage material. Voltage is externally applied to the electrodes to activate the nucleation device. This nucleates the heat storage material, which is in a supercooled state, so as to accelerate phase transition and release heat from the heat storage material.
However, in the warm-up apparatus of the prior art, voltage is externally applied to the electrodes to accelerate the phase transition of the heat storage material. This requires insertion holes for inserting the electrodes into the heat storage material from the outer side and an electrical circuit for applying voltage to the electrodes. Therefore, an operation for forming holes extending through the heat storage material and seals arranged around the holes become necessary. Furthermore, an electrical circuit is also required. This inevitably increases the cost of the warm-up apparatus.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 11-182393
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a warm-up apparatus for an internal combustion engine having a simple and inexpensive structure that eliminates the need for forming a hole extending through a heat storage material and eliminates the need for an electrical circuit or the arrangement of a seal around the hole.
A first aspect of the present invention provides a warm-up apparatus for an internal combustion engine. The warm-up apparatus includes a latent heat type heat storage material accommodated in the internal combustion engine, undergoing phase transition between a liquid phase including a supercooled state and a solid phase, and increasing volume as temperature increases in the liquid phase. A nucleation device is arranged in the heat storage material and operated to accelerate phase transition of the heat storage material in the supercooled state to release heat. The nucleation device includes a nucleation portion for nucleating and changing the phase of the heat storage material in the supercooled state. A hammer is movable toward the nucleation portion and away from the nucleation portion along a predetermined axial direction. A target member applies impact to the nucleation portion by abutting against the hammer when the hammer moves forward in a first direction along the axial direction. A spring urges the hammer in the first direction along the axial direction. The spring is compressed when the hammer moves backward in a second direction along the axial direction by making use of the increase in the volume of the heat storage material when heat is received from the internal combustion engine and phase transition from the solid phase to the liquid phase occurs. A lock mechanism restrains the hammer at a predetermined position in the axial direction in a state in which the spring is compressed when the temperature of the heat storage material in the liquid phase is low and the volume of the heat storage material is decreased. The lock mechanism is released by vibrations generated when the internal combustion engine is started so that the hammer is abutted against the target member by the urging force of the spring to apply an impact to the nucleation portion in order to activate the nucleation device and cause phase transition of the heat storage material in the supercooled state.
Further, a second aspect of the present invention provides a warm-up apparatus for an internal combustion engine. The warm-up apparatus includes a latent heat type heat storage material accommodated in the internal combustion engine, undergoing phase transition between a liquid phase including a supercooled state and a solid phase, and increasing volume as temperature increases in the liquid phase. A nucleation device is arranged in the heat storage material and operated to accelerate phase transition of the heat storage material in the supercooled state to release heat. The nucleation device includes a nucleation portion for nucleating and changing the phase of the heat storage material in the supercooled state. A hammer is movable toward the nucleation portion and away from the nucleation portion along a predetermined axial direction. The hammer applies impact to the nucleation portion when moving forward in a first direction along the axial direction. An air chamber urges the hammer in the first direction along the axial direction with air compressed therein. The air in the air chamber is compressed when the hammer is moved backward in a second direction along the axial direction by making use of the increase in the volume of the heat storage material when heat is received from the internal combustion engine and a phase transition occurs from the solid phase to the liquid phase. A lock mechanism restrains the hammer in a predetermined position along the axial direction in a state in which the air in the air chamber is compressed when the temperature of the heat storage material in the liquid phase is low and the volume of the heat storage material is decreased. The lock mechanism is released by vibrations generated when the internal combustion engine is started so that the hammer is abutted against the nucleation portion by the urging force of the air compressed in the air chamber to apply an impact to the nucleation portion in order to activate the nucleation device and cause phase transition of the heat storage material in the supercooled state.
According to the specified features of the first and second aspects of the invention, the lock mechanism for restraining the hammer in the predetermined position along the axial direction is released by vibrations generated when the internal combustion engine is started. The hammer applies impact to the nucleation portion to nucleate the heat storage material when the hammer is abutted against the target member by the urging force of the spring or when the hammer is abuts against the nucleation portion by the urging force of the air compressed in the air chamber. Therefore, the nucleation device is independently activated in the heat storage material in a supercooled state by vibrations generated when the internal combustion engine is started in order to accelerate the phase transition of the heat storage material. Accordingly, the discharge of heat from the heat storage material is smoothly performed by the nucleation device in the heat storage material. This provides an inexpensive warm-up apparatus having a simple structure.
Moreover, when the heat storage material receives heat from the internal combustion engine and undergoes phase transition from solid to liquid, the heat storage material increases volume. As a result, the hammer is moved backward in the second direction of the axial direction away from the target member or the nucleation portion and is restrained in the predetermined position along the axial direction even after the temperature of the heat storage material in the liquid phase becomes low and the volume of the heat storage material is decreased. Accordingly, even after the hammer is moved forward in the first direction of the axial direction to activate the nucleation device, the hammer may be moved in the second direction of the axial direction to prepare for activation of the nucleation device and be held to standby in the predetermined position by making use of heat from the internal combustion engine and causing the phase transition of the heat storage material without using additional members. This provides a significantly inexpensive warm-up apparatus having high efficiency.
In particular, the lock mechanism has the specified features described below.
The lock mechanism includes a vibrator arranged at the outer side of the hammer in a direction orthogonal to the axial direction and being swingable in the axial direction. An elastic body holds the vibrator in an equilibrium position located at the center of swing. The vibrator is moved away from the equilibrium position by being swung in the axial direction by vibrations generated when the internal combustion engine is started in order to release the hammer from restraint at the predetermined position.
According to this specified feature, the vibrator held in the equilibrium position by the elastic body at the outside of the hammer is released from the equilibrium position by vibrations generated when the internal combustion engine is started. The hammer is released from restraint in the predetermined position and the nucleation device is activated. Then, the phase transition of the heat storage material in the supercooled state is accelerated when the hammer is abutted against the target member in the heat storage material by the urging force of the spring or when the hammer is abutted against the nucleation portion in the heat storage material by the urging force of the compressed air in the air chamber. This ensures that heat is released from the heat storage material.
In particular, the lock mechanism and the vibrator have the specified features described below.
The lock mechanism includes a lock ball rollable in a direction orthogonal to the axial direction. The lock ball rolls between an engagement position where the lock ball is engaged with the hammer to restrain the hammer at the predetermined position and a disengagement position where the lock ball is disengaged from the hammer. The vibrator includes a projection projecting toward the hammer along a direction orthogonal to the axial direction. The projection restrains the hammer in the predetermined position by abutting against and holding the lock ball at the engagement position when the vibrator is held at the equilibrium position, and the projection releases the hammer from restraint at the predetermined position by disengaging the lock ball from the projection and rolling the lock ball to the disengagement position when the vibrator is moved away from the equilibrium position by vibrations generated when the internal combustion engine is started.
According to these specified features, the lock ball, which is engaged with the hammer in the engagement position by abutting against the projection of the vibrator in the predetermined position to restrain the hammer, is released from the projection when moved away from the equilibrium position by the vibrator when vibrations are generated when the internal combustion engine is started. This rolls the lock ball to the release position. As a result, the hammer is released from the restraint in the predetermined position and the nucleation device is activated. The phase transition of the heat storage material in the supercooled state is accelerated by the hammer abut against the target member in the heat storage material by the urging force of the spring, or the hammer abut against the nucleation portion in the heat storage material by the urging force of the compressed air in the air chamber. This ensures the release of heat from the heat storage material.
Further, the air chamber includes either an air bag having air sealed therein or a copper bellows. When using the air chamber, the hermetic seal of the air chamber is easily obtained, and urging force is smoothly applied to the hammer.
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7780308 | CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is a National Stage of International Application No. PCT/EP2006/000558, filed Jan. 23, 2006, and which claims the benefit of German Patent Application No. 10 2005 004 868.4, filed Feb. 2, 2005. The disclosures of the above application are incorporated herein by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a built-in lamp comprising a housing and a holder for fastening in a build-in surface, in particular a room ceiling, a light source socket to hold a light source in a light source region and a direct light reflector having a direct light reflector opening which is disposed in the direction of illumination, which defines a direct light exit region and which is surrounded at least regionally by a diffuse light exit region, with the director light reflector having a rear opening.
BACKGROUND
Built-in lamps are known from the prior art in a variety of forms. “Dark-light lamps” are known, among others, in which the light source and the reflector are arranged with respect to one another such that the light source cannot be seen either directly or in reflection on the reflector from a specific angle of view and thus cannot develop any glare effect. This avoidance of a glare effect, however, also results in the ceiling region of a room illuminated in this manner remaining largely non-illuminated and in the relationship between the source of light and the illuminated region perceived as natural by a person being lost, since it cannot be recognized from which source of light the light originates.
SUMMARY
A built-in lamp of the initially named kind, which also has a diffuse light exit region in addition to a direct light exit region and which is described, for example, in the German patent application DE 103 60 947.4 avoids the mentioned disadvantages while providing a warm room climate from a technical lighting aspect since it is possible to work according to the “dark light principle” in the direct light exit region, with the non dazzling diffuse light exit region simultaneously providing the emission of scattered light whose luminance can be selected such that no glare effect occurs. A visible marking of the source of light is thus always ensured by the diffuse light exit region, which results in a room mood perceived as pleasing with a good light atmosphere despite the use of the dark light principle in the direct light exit region.
Built-in lamps such as are described in DE 103 60 947.4 are usually operated with compact fluorescent lamps, which has the consequence that no sufficient luminance can be achieved here for specific applications which require a particularly intense illumination.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention comprises further developing a built-in lamp in accordance with DE 103 60 974.4 such that increased luminance can be achieved, in particular on the use of spot-type light sources which can be made e.g. as high pressure halogen lamps.
This object is satisfied in accordance with the invention by the features of claim1and in particular in that a head reflector is provided on the side of the light source region remote from the direct light exit region, is separate from the direct light reflector and is shaped such that it directs at least a large portion of the light emitted from the light source region and incident on it into the inner space of the direct light reflector.
It is therefore achieved here in accordance with the invention while maintaining all advantages of a built-in lamp in accordance with DE 103 60 947.4 that a large portion of the light emitted by a light source is directed, on the one hand, directly and, on the other hand, via the additional head reflector into the inner space of the direct light reflector so that it can ultimately exit the direct light exit region of the built-in lamp. The amount of light entering into the inner space of the direct light reflector is thus considerably increased by the head reflector with respect to a built-in lamp in accordance with DE 103 60 947.4, which has the result that the luminance on the directly illuminated surfaces is also considerably increased. A more intense illumination with more pronounced contrasts and greater shadow formation is thus adopted, with these effects primarily being achieved by the additional head reflector provided in accordance with the invention.
It is furthermore of advantage in accordance with the invention that the head reflector ensures that a large portion of the light incident on it can reach the direct light exit region directly, i.e. without any further reflection at the inner surfaces of the direct light reflector, such that the areas to be illuminated are ultimately illuminated to a substantial extent directly via the head reflector. This has the result that the reflecting inner surfaces of the direct light reflector appear less bright, whereby the glare effect due to the inner surfaces of the direct light reflector is additionally reduced.
With a skillful arrangement of the head reflector, which will be explained specifically in the following, it can simultaneously be achieved that a still sufficiently large portion of light reaches the diffuse light exit region so that the latter can signal the position of the built-in lamp in a non dazzling manner.
Overall, in accordance with the invention, an exceptionally good, uniform light distribution results over the whole surface to be illuminated via the direct light exit region with a nevertheless pleasant room mood and a good light atmosphere. This is achieved by the intense illumination via the direct light exit region and the emission of an additional amount of scattered light via the diffuse light exit region.
The advantages in accordance with the invention can be realized in a particularly good manner when the head reflector has a concave shape opening toward the light source region. The head reflector can specifically be made as a parabolic reflector, for example.
Various possibilities exist in accordance with the invention with respect to the positioning of the light source region, the direct light reflector and the head reflector. It is, however, preferred for the light source region to be arranged on the side of the rear opening of the direct light reflector remote from the direct light exit region so that the light source region ultimately comes to lie between the rear opening of the direct light reflector and the head reflector. In this case, light emitted from the light source region reaches the head reflector and is directed from there via the rear opening of the direct light reflector into its inner space.
The head reflector is generally made as small as possible in accordance with the invention. It is specifically possible to select the extent of the head reflector to be smaller in a direction extending parallel to the plane of the direct light exit region than the diameter of the rear opening of the direct light reflector. However, the head reflector should simultaneously engage at least to the largest possible extent over the light source present in the light source region so that it is of advantage for the extent of the head reflector to be larger in a direction extending parallel to the plane of the direct light exit region than the longitudinal extent of the light source region or of the light source in a direction likewise extending parallel to the plane of the direct light exit region.
It is preferred for the light source region to be arranged at least substantially inside the head reflector since it can be achieved in this manner that the light emitted by the light source is directly incident on the head reflector to a very large extent and can reach into the inner space of the direct light reflector from there.
It is advantageous for the direct light exit region and the diffuse light exit region to be acted on by a common light source, since no separate light source has to be provided for the diffuse light exit region in this manner.
An additional reflector can be provided in a housing region surrounding the direct light reflector and/or the head reflector and is in particular formed by the inner surfaces of the housing. The diffuse light exit region is then primarily acted on via this additional reflector; however, the direct light exit region can also be acted on to a lesser extent via the additional reflector. With such an arrangement, the light source radiates direct light, on the one hand, directly via the direct light reflector and indirectly via the head reflector into the actual direction of illumination and, however, on the other hand, also to the additional reflector which directs the light incident on it at least partly to the diffuse light exit region. The additional reflector can reflect either in a specularly reflecting manner or in a diffuse manner and a conversion of directly reflected light into scattered light should take place in the region of the diffuse light exit region in the first-named case.
The light source socket provided in accordance with the invention can in particular be configured for the holding of a halogen lamp, of a high pressure halogen lamp or of another spot-like source of light since a particularly high intensity of illumination or a particularly high luminous flux can be achieved using a light source of this type.
It is particularly advantageous for a diffuser plate to be arranged on the side of the light source region remote from the head reflector. This diffuser plate preferably extends parallel to the plane of the direct light exit region. It can in particular be arranged between the light source region and the rear opening of the direct light reflector.
The extent of the diffuser plate in a direction extending parallel to the plane of the direct light exit region is advantageously approximately just as large as the corresponding extent of the head reflector.
The diffuser plate is preferably arranged spaced apart both from the head reflector and from the rear opening of the direct light reflector, with these spacings being able to amount to between 0.5 cm and 3 cm. It is hereby achieved that a proportion of light quantity which is admittedly comparatively small, but still large enough, does not reach into the inner space of the direct light reflector, but can rather be directed to the diffuse light exit region.
The diffuser plate provided in accordance with the invention has the effect that the light reflected by the head reflector in the direction of the inner space of the direct light reflector has to pass through the diffuser plate. That light must furthermore also pass through the diffuser plate which reaches into the inner space of the direct light reflector directly and without reflection at the head reflector. This has the result that the light passing through the diffuser plate is distributed particularly uniformly over the direct light exit region and thus ultimately provides a uniform illumination of the areas acted on by light while reducing the luminance of the light source. At the same time, the diffuser plate can ensure due to its light conducting and/or reflecting properties that light also reaches the additional reflector which has already been mentioned above and which is then ultimately responsible for an action on the diffuse light exit region.
It is particularly preferred for the diffuser plate to be made as a UV filter. Since ultimately all of the light exiting the direct light exit region must first pass through the diffuser plate, the diffuser plate already provides sufficient UV filtering so that it is no longer necessary to make a cover plate provided in the direct light exit region as a UV filter. The diffuser plate as a rule has smaller dimensions than a cover plate in the direct light exit region. The total area of the UV filter to be provided in the built-in lamp in accordance with the invention can therefore be considerably reduced by a diffuser plate made as a UV filter so that an economic advantage is hereby achieved.
Alternatively or additionally, the diffuser plate can also be made as a color filter so that colored light exits the direct light exit region—unlike the diffuse light exit region.
The light source socket of a built-in lamp in accordance with the invention can in particular be pivotably supported together with a diffuser plate holder. In this case, the light source socket together with the light source, and optionally the diffuser plate together with the diffuser plate holder, can be pivoted, for example, from a substantially horizontal position into a position in which the light source is particularly easily accessible for the purpose of changing. The maximum pivot angle on such a pivot movement can amount, for example, to between 45° and 90°, in particular to between 50° and 70°. With a pivot angle of approximately 60°, the light source can be changed particularly comfortably.
The light source socket and in particular also the diffuser plate holder can be biased into their operating position by means of a spring element. The light source and the diffuser plate as a rule extend horizontally in the operating position. On a change of the light source or also of the diffuser plate, only the already described pivot movement then has to take place against the comparatively small force of the spring element, whereupon a change of the light source is possible without problem in this pivoted position. After a completed change of the light source, the light source socket and optionally the diffuser plate holder are automatically pivoted back into their correct operating position again by the spring element so that operating error is practically precluded here.
The light source socket and the diffuser plate holder can be provided in a common holding element. In this case, the common pivot movement of the light source socket and the diffuser plate holder can be effected particularly simply in that the named holding element is made to be pivotable. In this case, the light source socket and the diffuser plate holder are arranged rigidly in the holding element.
A particularly good accessibility of the light source, which is in particular pivotable, is produced when the direct light reflector is also held pivotably in the housing. In this case, the direct light reflector can be pivoted away first so that the light source and optionally the diffuser plate is easily accessible for a further pivot movement.
The diffuse light exit region is—as already mentioned—not acted on directly in accordance with the invention via the head reflector, but only indirectly via the additional reflector and optionally via the diffuser plate. A particularly good illumination of the diffuse light exit region is produced when the direct light reflector is made to be specularly reflecting or diffusely reflecting on its outer side since in this case light can reach the diffuse light exit region particularly easily via the additional reflector and the outer side of the direct light reflector.
The housing of the built-in lamp in accordance with the invention can also be in particular at least largely closed in a dust tight manner in the region of the diffuse exit region, and preferably also in the region of the direct light exit region, by a transparent cover plate. It is not necessary in this connection to make this plate as a UV filter when the diffuser plate already acts as a UV filter.
The cover plate can also only be provided in the region of the diffuse light exit region so that the direct light exit region is open in the direction of illumination. It is preferred in this case for the cover plate to have the light scattering properties desired in the diffuse light exit region and accordingly to be made of a suitable material which is not completely transparent.
Further preferred embodiments of the invention are set forth in the dependent claims.
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is a National Stage of International Application No. PCT/EP2006/000558, filed Jan. 23, 2006, and which claims the benefit of German Patent Application No. 10 2005 004 868.4, filed Feb. 2, 2005. The disclosures of the above application are incorporated herein by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a built-in lamp comprising a housing and a holder for fastening in a build-in surface, in particular a room ceiling, a light source socket to hold a light source in a light source region and a direct light reflector having a direct light reflector opening which is disposed in the direction of illumination, which defines a direct light exit region and which is surrounded at least regionally by a diffuse light exit region, with the director light reflector having a rear opening.
BACKGROUND
Built-in lamps are known from the prior art in a variety of forms. “Dark-light lamps” are known, among others, in which the light source and the reflector are arranged with respect to one another such that the light source cannot be seen either directly or in reflection on the reflector from a specific angle of view and thus cannot develop any glare effect. This avoidance of a glare effect, however, also results in the ceiling region of a room illuminated in this manner remaining largely non-illuminated and in the relationship between the source of light and the illuminated region perceived as natural by a person being lost, since it cannot be recognized from which source of light the light originates.
SUMMARY
A built-in lamp of the initially named kind, which also has a diffuse light exit region in addition to a direct light exit region and which is described, for example, in the German patent application DE 103 60 947.4 avoids the mentioned disadvantages while providing a warm room climate from a technical lighting aspect since it is possible to work according to the “dark light principle” in the direct light exit region, with the non dazzling diffuse light exit region simultaneously providing the emission of scattered light whose luminance can be selected such that no glare effect occurs. A visible marking of the source of light is thus always ensured by the diffuse light exit region, which results in a room mood perceived as pleasing with a good light atmosphere despite the use of the dark light principle in the direct light exit region.
Built-in lamps such as are described in DE 103 60 947.4 are usually operated with compact fluorescent lamps, which has the consequence that no sufficient luminance can be achieved here for specific applications which require a particularly intense illumination.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention comprises further developing a built-in lamp in accordance with DE 103 60 974.4 such that increased luminance can be achieved, in particular on the use of spot-type light sources which can be made e.g. as high pressure halogen lamps.
This object is satisfied in accordance with the invention by the features of claim1and in particular in that a head reflector is provided on the side of the light source region remote from the direct light exit region, is separate from the direct light reflector and is shaped such that it directs at least a large portion of the light emitted from the light source region and incident on it into the inner space of the direct light reflector.
It is therefore achieved here in accordance with the invention while maintaining all advantages of a built-in lamp in accordance with DE 103 60 947.4 that a large portion of the light emitted by a light source is directed, on the one hand, directly and, on the other hand, via the additional head reflector into the inner space of the direct light reflector so that it can ultimately exit the direct light exit region of the built-in lamp. The amount of light entering into the inner space of the direct light reflector is thus considerably increased by the head reflector with respect to a built-in lamp in accordance with DE 103 60 947.4, which has the result that the luminance on the directly illuminated surfaces is also considerably increased. A more intense illumination with more pronounced contrasts and greater shadow formation is thus adopted, with these effects primarily being achieved by the additional head reflector provided in accordance with the invention.
It is furthermore of advantage in accordance with the invention that the head reflector ensures that a large portion of the light incident on it can reach the direct light exit region directly, i.e. without any further reflection at the inner surfaces of the direct light reflector, such that the areas to be illuminated are ultimately illuminated to a substantial extent directly via the head reflector. This has the result that the reflecting inner surfaces of the direct light reflector appear less bright, whereby the glare effect due to the inner surfaces of the direct light reflector is additionally reduced.
With a skillful arrangement of the head reflector, which will be explained specifically in the following, it can simultaneously be achieved that a still sufficiently large portion of light reaches the diffuse light exit region so that the latter can signal the position of the built-in lamp in a non dazzling manner.
Overall, in accordance with the invention, an exceptionally good, uniform light distribution results over the whole surface to be illuminated via the direct light exit region with a nevertheless pleasant room mood and a good light atmosphere. This is achieved by the intense illumination via the direct light exit region and the emission of an additional amount of scattered light via the diffuse light exit region.
The advantages in accordance with the invention can be realized in a particularly good manner when the head reflector has a concave shape opening toward the light source region. The head reflector can specifically be made as a parabolic reflector, for example.
Various possibilities exist in accordance with the invention with respect to the positioning of the light source region, the direct light reflector and the head reflector. It is, however, preferred for the light source region to be arranged on the side of the rear opening of the direct light reflector remote from the direct light exit region so that the light source region ultimately comes to lie between the rear opening of the direct light reflector and the head reflector. In this case, light emitted from the light source region reaches the head reflector and is directed from there via the rear opening of the direct light reflector into its inner space.
The head reflector is generally made as small as possible in accordance with the invention. It is specifically possible to select the extent of the head reflector to be smaller in a direction extending parallel to the plane of the direct light exit region than the diameter of the rear opening of the direct light reflector. However, the head reflector should simultaneously engage at least to the largest possible extent over the light source present in the light source region so that it is of advantage for the extent of the head reflector to be larger in a direction extending parallel to the plane of the direct light exit region than the longitudinal extent of the light source region or of the light source in a direction likewise extending parallel to the plane of the direct light exit region.
It is preferred for the light source region to be arranged at least substantially inside the head reflector since it can be achieved in this manner that the light emitted by the light source is directly incident on the head reflector to a very large extent and can reach into the inner space of the direct light reflector from there.
It is advantageous for the direct light exit region and the diffuse light exit region to be acted on by a common light source, since no separate light source has to be provided for the diffuse light exit region in this manner.
An additional reflector can be provided in a housing region surrounding the direct light reflector and/or the head reflector and is in particular formed by the inner surfaces of the housing. The diffuse light exit region is then primarily acted on via this additional reflector; however, the direct light exit region can also be acted on to a lesser extent via the additional reflector. With such an arrangement, the light source radiates direct light, on the one hand, directly via the direct light reflector and indirectly via the head reflector into the actual direction of illumination and, however, on the other hand, also to the additional reflector which directs the light incident on it at least partly to the diffuse light exit region. The additional reflector can reflect either in a specularly reflecting manner or in a diffuse manner and a conversion of directly reflected light into scattered light should take place in the region of the diffuse light exit region in the first-named case.
The light source socket provided in accordance with the invention can in particular be configured for the holding of a halogen lamp, of a high pressure halogen lamp or of another spot-like source of light since a particularly high intensity of illumination or a particularly high luminous flux can be achieved using a light source of this type.
It is particularly advantageous for a diffuser plate to be arranged on the side of the light source region remote from the head reflector. This diffuser plate preferably extends parallel to the plane of the direct light exit region. It can in particular be arranged between the light source region and the rear opening of the direct light reflector.
The extent of the diffuser plate in a direction extending parallel to the plane of the direct light exit region is advantageously approximately just as large as the corresponding extent of the head reflector.
The diffuser plate is preferably arranged spaced apart both from the head reflector and from the rear opening of the direct light reflector, with these spacings being able to amount to between 0.5 cm and 3 cm. It is hereby achieved that a proportion of light quantity which is admittedly comparatively small, but still large enough, does not reach into the inner space of the direct light reflector, but can rather be directed to the diffuse light exit region.
The diffuser plate provided in accordance with the invention has the effect that the light reflected by the head reflector in the direction of the inner space of the direct light reflector has to pass through the diffuser plate. That light must furthermore also pass through the diffuser plate which reaches into the inner space of the direct light reflector directly and without reflection at the head reflector. This has the result that the light passing through the diffuser plate is distributed particularly uniformly over the direct light exit region and thus ultimately provides a uniform illumination of the areas acted on by light while reducing the luminance of the light source. At the same time, the diffuser plate can ensure due to its light conducting and/or reflecting properties that light also reaches the additional reflector which has already been mentioned above and which is then ultimately responsible for an action on the diffuse light exit region.
It is particularly preferred for the diffuser plate to be made as a UV filter. Since ultimately all of the light exiting the direct light exit region must first pass through the diffuser plate, the diffuser plate already provides sufficient UV filtering so that it is no longer necessary to make a cover plate provided in the direct light exit region as a UV filter. The diffuser plate as a rule has smaller dimensions than a cover plate in the direct light exit region. The total area of the UV filter to be provided in the built-in lamp in accordance with the invention can therefore be considerably reduced by a diffuser plate made as a UV filter so that an economic advantage is hereby achieved.
Alternatively or additionally, the diffuser plate can also be made as a color filter so that colored light exits the direct light exit region—unlike the diffuse light exit region.
The light source socket of a built-in lamp in accordance with the invention can in particular be pivotably supported together with a diffuser plate holder. In this case, the light source socket together with the light source, and optionally the diffuser plate together with the diffuser plate holder, can be pivoted, for example, from a substantially horizontal position into a position in which the light source is particularly easily accessible for the purpose of changing. The maximum pivot angle on such a pivot movement can amount, for example, to between 45° and 90°, in particular to between 50° and 70°. With a pivot angle of approximately 60°, the light source can be changed particularly comfortably.
The light source socket and in particular also the diffuser plate holder can be biased into their operating position by means of a spring element. The light source and the diffuser plate as a rule extend horizontally in the operating position. On a change of the light source or also of the diffuser plate, only the already described pivot movement then has to take place against the comparatively small force of the spring element, whereupon a change of the light source is possible without problem in this pivoted position. After a completed change of the light source, the light source socket and optionally the diffuser plate holder are automatically pivoted back into their correct operating position again by the spring element so that operating error is practically precluded here.
The light source socket and the diffuser plate holder can be provided in a common holding element. In this case, the common pivot movement of the light source socket and the diffuser plate holder can be effected particularly simply in that the named holding element is made to be pivotable. In this case, the light source socket and the diffuser plate holder are arranged rigidly in the holding element.
A particularly good accessibility of the light source, which is in particular pivotable, is produced when the direct light reflector is also held pivotably in the housing. In this case, the direct light reflector can be pivoted away first so that the light source and optionally the diffuser plate is easily accessible for a further pivot movement.
The diffuse light exit region is—as already mentioned—not acted on directly in accordance with the invention via the head reflector, but only indirectly via the additional reflector and optionally via the diffuser plate. A particularly good illumination of the diffuse light exit region is produced when the direct light reflector is made to be specularly reflecting or diffusely reflecting on its outer side since in this case light can reach the diffuse light exit region particularly easily via the additional reflector and the outer side of the direct light reflector.
The housing of the built-in lamp in accordance with the invention can also be in particular at least largely closed in a dust tight manner in the region of the diffuse exit region, and preferably also in the region of the direct light exit region, by a transparent cover plate. It is not necessary in this connection to make this plate as a UV filter when the diffuser plate already acts as a UV filter.
The cover plate can also only be provided in the region of the diffuse light exit region so that the direct light exit region is open in the direction of illumination. It is preferred in this case for the cover plate to have the light scattering properties desired in the diffuse light exit region and accordingly to be made of a suitable material which is not completely transparent.
Further preferred embodiments of the invention are set forth in the dependent claims.
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7714393 | CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
The present invention contains subject matter related to Japanese Patent Application JP 2006-281026 filed with the Japan Patent Office on Oct. 16, 2006 and Japanese Patent Application JP 2007-161030 filed with the Japan Patent Office on Jun. 19, 2007, the entire contents of which being incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device including an N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and a P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, and a method for manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
For an insulated gate field effect transistor (metal insulator semiconductor FET (MISFET)) such as a MOSFET, the combination of a gate insulating film composed of silicon oxide and a gate electrode formed of a polycrystalline silicon film is widely used. For example, in a CMOS semiconductor device, there is a need for an N-channel MOSFET (hereinafter, referred to simply as NMOS) and a P-channel MOSFET (hereinafter, referred to simply as PMOS) included in the CMOS semiconductor device to have threshold voltages that are sufficiently low and symmetric with each other. Even for MOSFETs of which gate length is 0.1 μm or smaller, a gate electrode having the optimum work function value can be formed for each of an NMOS and PMOS by forming the gate electrode by using polycrystalline silicon and adjusting an impurity in the gate electrode and the concentration thereof.
Presently, miniaturization of transistors is being advanced based on the so-called scaling rule, and thereby enhancement in the integration degree and the operating speed of semiconductor devices is being promoted. For miniaturization of an insulated gate field effect transistor, it may be required to suppress the influence of the so-called short-channel effect. As long as a gate electrode is composed of a semiconductor material, it may be impossible to effectively suppress the depletion of the gate electrode, which is one of factors in the short-channel effect. To address this, there has been proposed a scheme in which a gate electrode is formed by using a conductive material such as a metal or metal nitride. As schemes for forming a gate electrode by using a conductive material, there has been proposed a method in which e.g. a metal film is deposited instead of a polycrystalline silicon film and a gate electrode is formed by pattering this metal film similarly to existing methods. Furthermore, there has also been proposed a method in which a gate electrode is formed by a so-called damascene process of burying the electrode in a gate electrode formation opening (refer to e.g., Atsushi Yagishita et al., “High Performance Metal Gate MOSFETs Fabricated by CMP for 0.1 μm Regime”, International Electron Devices Meeting 1998 Technical Digest pp. 785 to 788 (1998)). In the method of forming a gate electrode by a damascene process, a gate insulating film composed of an insulating material (e.g., hafnium oxide) of which relative dielectric constant is higher than that of silicon oxide is formed in a gate electrode formation opening arising from removal of a dummy gate, and then a gate electrode is formed. In this damascene process, various kinds of heat treatment (e.g., annealing treatment for activation of an impurity in source/drain regions) have been completed before the formation of the gate electrode. Therefore, mobility deterioration and so on hardly occur, and thus an insulated gate field effect transistor having enhanced characteristics can be provided.
Different kinds of insulated gate field effect transistors, such as an NMOS and PMOS, typically have different optimum work function values of gate electrodes. In a configuration in which the gate electrode of an NMOS and the gate electrode of a PMOS included in a CMOS semiconductor device are formed by using the same conductive material (e.g., the same kind of metal), it is difficult to ensure symmetrical threshold voltage characteristic and so on. In other words, it is difficult to form a configuration in which each of the gate electrodes of an NMOS and PMOS has the optimum work function value. To address this, there has also been proposed a scheme in which the gate electrodes of an NMOS and PMOS are formed by using different conductive materials. In addition, in order to achieve both optimization of the work function value of a gate electrode and low resistivity of the gate electrode, there has also been proposed the following method relating to formation of a gate electrode based on a damascene process. Specifically, in this method, initially a layer composed of a conductive material having a favorable work function value (for convenience, referred to as a work function control layer) is formed in a gate electrode formation opening (more specifically, in a bottom region and side region of the gate electrode formation opening that has the bottom region, the side region, and a center region surrounded by the bottom region and the side region). Subsequently, in the center region, another conductive material layer having lower resistivity (ratio resistivity) (for convenience, referred to as a center layer) is formed, so that a gate electrode is formed.
Miniaturization of insulated gate field effect transistors decreases the alignment margin in formation of contact plugs that are provided in an interlayer insulating layer covering a gate electrode and source/drain regions and are connected to the top surface of the gate electrode and the source/drain regions. Therefore, it is preferable to simultaneously form these contact plugs through a series of processes. The contact plugs are formed by forming in an interlayer insulating layer a contact plug formation opening having the bottom through which the top surface of a gate electrode is exposed and contact plug formation openings having the bottoms through which source/drain regions are exposed, and then burying tungsten or the like in these openings. The contact plug formation opening is formed by using known lithography and etching techniques.
Due to the difference in the height between the top surface of the gate electrode and the source/drain regions, the thickness of the interlayer insulating layer covering the gate electrode and the source/drain regions is relatively smaller on the gate electrode and relatively larger on the source/drain regions, at the timing after planarization treatment for the interlayer insulating layer. Consequently, in the formation of the contact plug formation openings in the interlayer insulating layer through a series of etching processes, the top surface of the gate electrode exposed at the bottom of the contact plug formation opening is subjected to the etching treatment for a relatively longer period compared with the source/drain regions exposed at the bottoms of the contact plug formation openings. Therefore, as the combination between the condition of the etching of the interlayer insulating layer and the material of the gate electrode, a combination that can offer a sufficiently high etching selection ratio may be required. Moreover, the material of the gate electrode is desirable to have sufficient resistance also against a series of chemical treatments performed after the etching.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
However, when in a semiconductor device including different kinds of insulated gate field effect transistors, such as a CMOS semiconductor device or BiCMOS semiconductor device including an NMOS and PMOS, the gate electrodes of the NMOS and the PMOS are formed by using different conductive materials, it is difficult to satisfy all of the following conditions: each of the gate electrodes has a favorable work function value; the material of each of the gate electrodes provides a sufficiently high etching selection ratio; and the material of each of the gate electrodes has sufficient resistance against chemical treatment performed after the etching. This difficulty will act as a factor in inhibition of optimization of the fabrication process for the semiconductor device. In addition, when in formation of a gate electrode by a damascene process, the gate electrode is provided by forming a work function control layer in a gate electrode formation opening and then forming a center layer having lower resistivity, regions each composed of a respective one of the conductive materials (specifically, the conductive material of the work function control layer and the conductive material of the center layer) are exposed at the top surface of the gate electrode. Thus, for example, due to the difference in the etching selection ratio between these conductive materials, the planarity of the top surface of the gate electrode will be problematically deteriorated when the top surface is subjected to etching treatment.
Furthermore, as the gate length (the width of a gate electrode obtained when the gate electrode is cut along a virtual plane perpendicular to the extension direction of the gate electrode) becomes smaller, the area ratio of a work function control layer becomes relatively higher in a section of the gate electrode. As described above, the resistivity of the conductive material of a work function control layer is higher than that of the conductive material of a center layer in general. Accordingly, if the area ratio of a work function control layer becomes relatively higher, the electric resistance of the gate electrode becomes higher. The relationship between the gate length (GL) and the sheet resistance value of a gate electrode was calculated regarding a structure (seeFIG. 14A) in which the height (T) of the gate electrode was 70 nm, the thickness of the gate insulating film composed of HfO2was 5 nm, the conductive material of the work function control layer was HfSiX(having a volume resistivity of 300 μΩ·cm), and the conductive material of the center layer was tungsten (W). The calculation results are shown inFIG. 14B. Parameters for the respective curves inFIG. 14Bare as follows.
Thickness of WorkElectric Resistance ofCurveFunction Control LayerCenter LayerA5nm15μΩB10nm15μΩC20nm15μΩD5nm30μΩE10nm30μΩF20nm30μΩG5nm100μΩH10nm100μΩI20nm100μΩ
For the above-described reason, there is a strong demand for measures that suppress the occurrence of the phenomenon in which the electric resistance of a gate electrode increases as a result of decrease in the gate length and corresponding relative increase in the area ratio of the work function control layer.
There is a desire for the present invention to provide a semiconductor device that includes different kinds of insulated gate field effect transistors and has a configuration and structure in which each gate electrode can be formed by using a conductive material having a favorable work function value and there is no need to take into consideration the relationship between the material of each gate electrode and the condition of etching of an interlayer insulating layer, and to provide a method for manufacturing the same. There is another desire for the present invention to provide a semiconductor device that includes different kinds of insulated gate field effect transistors and has a configuration and structure in which each gate electrode can be formed by using a conductive material having a favorable work function value and the electric resistance of each gate electrode hardly increases even when the gate length becomes smaller, and to provide a method for manufacturing the same.
According to a first embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a semiconductor device including an N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and a P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor. The device includes:
a first insulating layer and a second insulating layer configured to be formed on the first insulating layer; and
gate electrode contact plugs configured to penetrate the second insulating layer and be each connected to a respective one of gate electrodes of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, and source/drain region contact plugs configured to penetrate the first insulating layer and the second insulating layer and be each connected to a respective one of source/drain regions, wherein
each of the gate electrodes of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor is buried in a gate electrode formation opening provided in the first insulating layer,
the gate electrode of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor has a bottom part, a side part, and a center part surrounded by the bottom part and the side part, and at least the bottom part and the side part are composed of a first conductive material,
the gate electrode of the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor has a bottom part, a side part, and a center part surrounded by the bottom part and the side part, and at least the bottom part and the side part are composed of a second conductive material different from the first conductive material,
protective layers having electric conductivity are each formed on a top surface of a respective one of the gate electrodes of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, and
the gate electrode contact plug for the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor is connected via the protective layer to the top surface of the gate electrode of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, and the gate electrode contact plug for the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor is connected via the protective layer to the top surface of the gate electrode of the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor.
According to the first embodiment of the present invention, there is also provided a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device including an N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and a P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor. The method includes the steps of:
preparing a base that includes channel forming regions and source/drain regions of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, a first insulating layer, gate electrode formation openings provided in the first insulating layer for the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, and a gate insulating film provided at least on bottoms of the gate electrode formation openings;
forming a first conductive material layer composed of a first conductive material at least in a bottom region and a side region of the gate electrode formation opening for the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, having the bottom region, the side region, and a center region surrounded by the bottom region and the side region, to thereby form a gate electrode of which at least bottom part and side part are composed of the first conductive material, and
forming a second conductive material layer composed of a second conductive material different from the first conductive material at least in a bottom region and a side region of the gate electrode formation opening for the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, having the bottom region, the side region, and a center region surrounded by the bottom region and the side region, to thereby form a gate electrode of which at least bottom part and side part are composed of the second conductive material;
forming protective layers having electric conductivity on top surfaces of the gate electrodes of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor;
forming a second insulating layer that covers an entire surface; and
forming a gate electrode contact plug that penetrates the second insulating layer and is connected via the protective layer to the top surface of the gate electrode of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, a gate electrode contact plug that penetrates the second insulating layer and is connected via the protective layer to the top surface of the gate electrode of the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, source/drain region contact plugs that penetrate the first insulating layer and the second insulating layer and are connected to the source/drain regions of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, and source/drain region contact plugs that penetrate the first insulating layer and the second insulating layer and are connected to the source/drain regions of the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor.
In the method for manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the first embodiment of the present invention, the protective layers can be formed by any of the following methods: various kinds of physical vapor deposition (PVD) such as evaporation typified by electron beam evaporation and filament evaporation, sputtering, ion plating, and laser ablation; various kinds of chemical vapor deposition (CVD); electrolytic plating; and electroless plating. It is preferable to selectively form the protective layers based on selective CVD among these methods. This method allows the protective layers to be selectively formed on the top surfaces of the gate electrodes without patterning, and thus can simplify the manufacturing process for a semiconductor device.
In the semiconductor device according to the first embodiment of the present invention or a semiconductor device manufactured by the method for manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the first embodiment of the present invention including the above-described preferred modes (hereinafter, these semiconductor devices will be often referred to collectively as “semiconductor device and so on according to the first embodiment of the present invention” simply), in the gate electrode of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor (hereinafter, it will be often referred to simply as an NMISFET gate electrode), having a bottom part and a side part (hereinafter, the bottom part and the side part will be often referred to collectively as a “shell part”) and a center part (the remaining part of the gate electrode, and it will be often referred to as a “core part” as the contrary to the shell part) surrounded by the bottom part and the side part, the center part may be composed of the first conductive material for work function control or may be composed of a conductive material different from the first conductive material. Similarly, the core part surrounded by the shell part of the gate electrode of the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor (hereinafter, it will be often referred to simply as a PMISFET gate electrode) may be composed of the second conductive material for work function control or may be composed of a conductive material different from the second conductive material. For example, a form is available in which the whole of an NMISFET gate electrode is composed of the first conductive material for work function control (i.e., having a function to control the work function). Furthermore, a form is also available in which the shell part of an NMISFET gate electrode is composed of the first conductive material and the core part is composed of a conductive material of which resistivity is lower than that of the first conductive material. In the former form, the forming step for the NMISFET gate electrode can be simplified. In the latter form, the electric resistance of the NMISFET gate electrode can be lowered. In addition, further another conductive material layer may be formed between the core part and the shell part of a gate electrode. In other words, the gate electrode may be formed through stacking of three or more conductive material layers. The same holds also for a PMISFET gate electrode. As the first conductive material for work function control (i.e., having a function to control the work function), a conductive material that has a favorable work function value in terms of the relationship with the channel forming region of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor is appropriately selected. Similarly, as the second conductive material for work function control (i.e., having a function to control the work function), a conductive material that has a favorable work function value in terms of the relationship with the channel forming region of the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor is appropriately selected.
The term “channel forming region” indicates not only a region in which the channel is actually formed but also a region in which the channel will be possibly formed. For example, partial portions of a semiconductor layer and semiconductor substrate positioned to face a gate electrode correspond to the “channel forming region”. Furthermore, the “gate electrode” encompasses not only an electrode portion facing the “channel forming region” but also a lead-out electrode part as an extension from this electrode portion. Examples of the semiconductor device and so on according to the first embodiment of the present invention or the semiconductor device and so on according to the second embodiment of the present invention to be described later include a CMOS semiconductor device formed of an NMOS and PMOS, and a BiCMOS semiconductor device including a bipolar transistor in addition to an NMOS and PMOS.
In the method for manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the first embodiment of the present invention including the above-described preferred modes, the protective layers having electric conductivity are formed on the top surfaces of the respective gate electrodes of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, and then the second insulating layer covering the entire surface is formed. The multilayer structure formed of the first insulating layer and the second insulating layer will be often referred to as an interlayer insulating layer. In the method for manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the first embodiment of the present invention, in the formation of contact plug formation openings in the second insulating layer and the first insulating layer through a series of etching processes, the protective layers formed on the top surfaces of the gate electrodes are exposed at the bottoms of the contact plug formation openings in which the gate electrode contact plugs are to be formed. Therefore, although an NMISFET gate electrode and a PMISFET gate electrode are composed of different conductive materials, the differences in the etching selection ratio and so on between these conductive materials lead to no problem. The same holds also for the case in which an NMISFET gate electrode is composed of plural conductive materials different from each other and the case in which a PMISFET gate electrode is composed of plural conductive materials different from each other. Consequently, in the method for manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the first embodiment of the present invention, the etching process can be optimized based on the relationship between the interlayer insulating layer and the protective layers. Thus, the method for manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the first embodiment of the present invention enhances the flexibility of selection of conductive materials of gate electrodes to thereby allow improvement in characteristics of the semiconductor device and optimization of the manufacturing process.
The protective layers may be formed to cover the whole of the top surfaces of the respective gate electrodes of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor. Alternatively, the protective layers may be formed to cover the bottoms of the contact plug formation openings in which the gate electrode contact plugs are to be formed and the top surfaces of partial portions of the gate electrodes near the bottoms.
According to a second embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a semiconductor device including an N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and a P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and being provided with an insulating layer, wherein
each of gate electrodes of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor is buried in a gate electrode formation opening provided in the insulating layer,
the gate electrode of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor is composed of a first conductive material,
the gate electrode of the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor is composed of a second conductive material different from the first conductive material, and
interconnect layers are formed to each cover a top surface of a respective one of the gate electrodes of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor.
According to the second embodiment of the present invention, there is also provided a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device including an N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and a P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor. The method includes the steps of:
preparing a base that includes channel forming regions and source/drain regions of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, an insulating layer, gate electrode formation openings provided in the insulating layer for the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, and a gate insulating film provided at least on bottoms of the gate electrode formation openings;
forming a gate electrode composed of a first conductive material in the gate electrode formation opening for the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, and
forming a gate electrode composed of a second conductive material different from the first conductive material in the gate electrode formation opening for the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor; and
forming interconnect layers that each cover a top surface of a respective one of the gate electrodes of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor.
In the method for manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the second embodiment of the present invention, the step of forming interconnect layers may include the steps of forming an upper insulating layer on an entire surface, selectively removing partial portions of the upper insulating layer above the top surfaces of the gate electrodes of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, to thereby provide interconnect layer trenches in the upper insulating layer, filling the interconnect layer trenches with a conductive material layer, and removing the conductive material layer on the upper insulating layer. That is, the interconnect layers can be formed based on a so-called damascene process.
Alternatively, in the method for manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the second embodiment of the present invention, the step of forming interconnect layers may include the steps of forming a silicon layer, patterning the silicon layer, forming a metal layer on the entire surface, carrying out heat treatment for a reaction between a metal of the metal layer and silicon of the silicon layer to thereby form the interconnect layers each formed of a metal silicide layer, and removing the metal layer on the insulating layer.
In the semiconductor device according to the second embodiment of the present invention or a semiconductor device manufactured by the method for manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the second embodiment of the present invention including the above-described preferred modes (hereinafter, these semiconductor devices will be often referred to collectively as “semiconductor device and so on according to the second embodiment of the present invention” simply), the interconnect layer formed to cover the top surface of the gate electrode of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the interconnect layer formed to cover the top surface of the gate electrode of the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor may be a common interconnect layer. That is, a structure is available in which an extended portion of the interconnect layer formed to cover the top surface of the gate electrode of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor is equivalent to the interconnect layer formed to cover the top surface of the gate electrode of the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor.
In the semiconductor device and so on according to the second embodiment of the present invention including the above-described various preferred configurations, the insulating layer may exist between the gate electrode of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the gate electrode of the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor. That is, the gate electrode of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the gate electrode of the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor may be separated from each other. However, the structure of the semiconductor device is not limited thereto but the gate electrode of the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor may exist as an extension of the gate electrode of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor.
Furthermore, in the semiconductor device and so on according to the second embodiment of the present invention including the above-described preferred configurations, the interconnect layers may be each formed of one conductive material layer. Alternatively, the interconnect layers may each have a multilayer structure formed of a lower conductive material layer and an upper conductive material layer, and the lower and upper conductive material layers may be formed of a silicon layer and a silicide layer, respectively.
In the semiconductor device and the method for manufacturing the same according to the second embodiment of the present invention, the interconnect layers are formed to cover the top surfaces of the respective gate electrodes of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor. More specifically, the interconnect layers are formed on the top surfaces of these gate electrodes, and furthermore, are extended to the top surfaces of partial portions of the insulating layer near these gate electrodes.
In the semiconductor device and so on according to the first embodiment of the present invention including the above-described preferred modes, any of the following materials can be used for the gate electrodes: metals such as hafnium (Hf), tantalum (Ta), titanium (Ti), tungsten (W), molybdenum (Mo), ruthenium (Ru), nickel (Ni), and platinum (Pt) (including alloys of any of these metals); compounds of any of these metals such as nitrides; and compounds between a metal and semiconductor material such as metal silicides. As described above, as the material for work function control (i.e., having a function to control the work function) included at least in the shell part, a material (e.g., a conductive material composed of a metal, alloy, or metal compound such as a metal nitride) that has a favorable work function value in terms of the relationship with the channel forming region is appropriately selected. For example, when the channel forming region is an N-type, hafnium (Hf), tantalum (Ta), or the like can be selected. When the channel forming region is a P-type, molybdenum (Mo), ruthenium (Ru), nickel (Ni), platinum (Pt), or the like can be selected. However, the material is not limited thereto. The gate electrodes can be formed by a known damascene process. Specifically, in a damascene process, gate electrode formation openings are filled with a conductive material by carrying out any of the following deposition methods alone or in proper combination: various kinds of PVD; various kinds of CVD including atomic layer deposition (ALD) and metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD); electrolytic plating; and electroless plating. Subsequently, planarization treatment is carried out by chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) or the like.
In the semiconductor device and so on according to the first embodiment of the present invention, any of the following materials having electric conductivity can be widely used for the protective layers: metals such as tungsten (W), tantalum (Ta), platinum (Pt), and titanium (Ti) (including alloys of any of these metals); compounds of any of these metals such as nitrides; and compounds between a metal and semiconductor material such as metal silicides. It is preferable to select, as the material of the protective layers, a substance that offers a sufficiently high etching selection ratio with respect to the material of the interlayer insulating layer in the etching process for the interlayer insulating layer. The protective layer may have either a single-layer structure or multilayer structure. For example, the protective layer may be formed through stacking of plural materials different from each other. Furthermore, the protective layer may be formed by using the same material as that of the gate electrode, or alternatively may be formed by using a material different from the material of the gate electrode.
In the semiconductor device and so on according to the second embodiment of the present invention including the above-described preferred modes, as the material for work function control (i.e., having a function to control the work function) included in the gate electrode of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, a conductive material composed of a metal, alloy or metal compound typified by a metal nitride, such as hafnium (Hf), hafnium silicide (HfSiX), tantalum (Ta), or TaC, can be used. Furthermore, as the material for work function control (i.e., having a function to control the work function) included in the gate electrode of the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, a conductive material composed of a metal, alloy or metal compound typified by a metal nitride, such as molybdenum (Mo), ruthenium (Ru), nickel (Ni), platinum (Pt), TiN, or tungsten (W), can be used. The gate electrodes each have also a function to control the work function. Furthermore, in some cases, the gate electrode has also a function as the protective layer in the semiconductor device and so on according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The gate electrodes can be formed by a known damascene process. Specifically, in a damascene process, gate electrode formation openings are filled with a conductive material by carrying out any of the following deposition methods alone or in proper combination: various kinds of PVD; various kinds of CVD including ALD and MOCVD; electrolytic plating; and electroless plating. Subsequently, planarization treatment is carried out by chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), dry etching, etchback, or the like.
In the semiconductor device and so on according to the second embodiment of the present invention, when the interconnect layer is formed by using one conductive material layer, this conductive material layer is composed of e.g. tungsten (W), TiN, aluminum (Al), or copper (Cu). When the interconnect layer is formed by using e.g. tungsten (W), an adhesion layer formed of a Ti layer or TiN layer may be formed under the interconnect layer. On the other hand, when the interconnect layer is provided with a multilayer structure formed of a lower conductive material layer and an upper conductive material layer, the lower conductive material layer can be formed by using a silicon layer (e.g., a polycrystalline silicon layer or amorphous silicon layer), and the upper conductive material layer can be formed by using a nickel silicide layer, nickel-platinum silicide layer, cobalt silicide layer, or titanium silicide layer. In this case, the metal layer is composed of nickel, nickel-platinum, cobalt, or titanium.
In the semiconductor device and the method for manufacturing the same according to the first embodiment of the present invention and the semiconductor device and the method for manufacturing the same according to the second embodiment of the present invention (hereinafter, these devices and methods will be often referred to collectively as “the present invention” simply), the gate insulating film can be formed after the gate electrode formation openings are formed in the first insulating layer or the insulating layer. Alternatively, it is also possible to form the first insulating layer or the insulating layer after the formation of the gate insulating film, and then form the gate electrode formation openings. In this case, however, the gate electrode formation openings have to be formed in such a way that the gate insulating film is left at the bottoms of the openings. Examples of the material of the gate insulating film include, in addition to SiO2-based materials, SiOF-based materials, and SiN-based materials, which have been generally used, so-called high relative dielectric constant materials of which relative dielectric constant k (=∈/∈0) is substantially 4.0 or higher. Examples of the high relative dielectric constant material include HfO2, ZrO2, Al2O3, Y2O3, and La2O. The gate insulating film may be formed by using either one kind of material or plural kinds of materials. The gate insulating film may be formed as either a single film (including a composite film composed of plural materials) or multilayer film. The gate insulating films of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor can be formed by using either the same material or materials different from each other. The gate insulating film can be formed by a well-known method. In particular, ALD, MOCVD, or the like can be used as a method for forming the gate insulating film composed of the above-described high relative dielectric constant material.
Also in the semiconductor device and the method for manufacturing the same according to the second embodiment of the present invention, it is desirable to form the second insulating layer on the entire surface after the formation of the interconnect layers. The insulating layer in the semiconductor device and the method for manufacturing the same according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be referred to as the first insulating layer in some cases, and a multilayer structure formed of the insulating layer (first insulating layer) and the second insulating layer will be referred to as the interlayer insulating layer in some cases.
In the present invention, examples of the material of the first insulating layer, the second insulating layer, the insulating layer, and the upper insulating layer include SiO2, SiN, SiON, SiOF, SiC, and low dielectric constant insulating materials of which dielectric constant k (=∈/∈0) is e.g. 3.5 or lower, such as organic SOG, polyimide-based resin, and fluorine-based resin (e.g., fluorocarbon, amorphous tetrafluoroethylene, polyarylether, arylether fluoride, polyimide fluoride, parylene, benzocyclobutene, amorphous carbon, cycloperfluorocarbon polymer, and fluorofullerene). The first insulating layer, the second insulating layer, the insulating layer, and the upper insulating layer can be formed by using a multilayer structure formed of any of these materials. As the material of the contact plugs provided in the interlayer insulating layer, polycrystalline silicon doped with an impurity or a refractory metal material such as tungsten (W) can be used. In addition, copper (Cu) is also available. The contact plugs can be formed by providing contact plug formation openings in the interlayer insulating layer by RIE or the like and then filling the contact plug formation openings with the above-described material by a known method. For example, the contact plugs can be formed by burying tungsten in the contact plug formation openings by blanket CVD and then removing the excess tungsten layer on the interlayer insulating layer. A form is also available in which a Ti layer and TiN layer as an adhesion layer is formed inside the contact plug formation openings, and then tungsten is buried in the contact plug formation openings by blanket CVD.
As the base including the source/drain regions, the channel forming regions and so on used in the present invention, besides a semiconductor substrate, a support member of which surface has a semiconductor layer (e.g., a glass substrate, quartz substrate, silicon substrate of which surface has an insulating layer, plastic substrate, or plastic film) can be used. The insulated gate field effect transistor is formed in e.g. a well region or the like in a semiconductor substrate or semiconductor layer. A so-called element isolation region having e.g. a trench structure may be formed between the insulated gate field effect transistors. The element isolation region may have a LOCOS structure, or may be based on the combination of a trench structure and LOCOS structure. More alternatively, the base having an SOI structure arising from SIMOX or substrate bonding may be used. In this case, the formation of the element isolation region is unnecessary.
In the semiconductor device and the method for manufacturing the same according to the first embodiment of the present invention, in the formation of the contact plug formation openings in the interlayer insulating layer through a series of etching processes, the protective layers formed on the top surfaces of the gate electrodes are exposed at the bottoms of the contact plug formation openings in which the gate electrode contact plugs are to be formed. Therefore, in any of the case in which the top surface of the NMISFET gate electrode and the top surface of the PMISFET gate electrode are composed of different conductive materials, the case in which the top surface of the NMISFET gate electrode is composed of plural conductive materials different from each other, and the case in which the top surface of the PMISFET gate electrode is composed of plural conductive materials different from each other, the differences in the etching selection ratio and so on among these conductive materials lead to no problem. Thus, the semiconductor device and the method for manufacturing the same according to the first embodiment of the present invention enhance the flexibility of selection of conductive materials of the gate electrodes to thereby allow improvement in characteristics of the semiconductor device and optimization of the manufacturing process.
In the semiconductor device and the method for manufacturing the same according to the second embodiment of the present invention, the interconnect layers are formed to cover the top surfaces of the respective gate electrodes of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor. Therefore, each of the gate electrodes can be formed by using a conductive material having a favorable work function value. In addition, because the interconnect layers are provided, increase in the electric resistance hardly occurs as a whole even when the gate length becomes smaller. Moreover, if contact plugs are provided above the interconnect layers, in the formation of the contact plug formation openings in the interlayer insulating layer through a series of etching processes, the interconnect layers are exposed at the bottoms of the contact plug formation openings in which the gate electrode contact plugs are to be formed. Therefore, although the top surface of the NMISFET gate electrode and the top surface of the PMISFET gate electrode are composed of different conductive materials, the differences in the etching selection ratio and so on between these conductive materials lead to no problem. Thus, the semiconductor device and the method for manufacturing the same according to the second embodiment of the present invention enhance the flexibility of selection of conductive materials of the gate electrodes to thereby allow improvement in characteristics of the semiconductor device and optimization of the manufacturing process.
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SUMMARY: CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
The present invention contains subject matter related to Japanese Patent Application JP 2006-281026 filed with the Japan Patent Office on Oct. 16, 2006 and Japanese Patent Application JP 2007-161030 filed with the Japan Patent Office on Jun. 19, 2007, the entire contents of which being incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device including an N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and a P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, and a method for manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
For an insulated gate field effect transistor (metal insulator semiconductor FET (MISFET)) such as a MOSFET, the combination of a gate insulating film composed of silicon oxide and a gate electrode formed of a polycrystalline silicon film is widely used. For example, in a CMOS semiconductor device, there is a need for an N-channel MOSFET (hereinafter, referred to simply as NMOS) and a P-channel MOSFET (hereinafter, referred to simply as PMOS) included in the CMOS semiconductor device to have threshold voltages that are sufficiently low and symmetric with each other. Even for MOSFETs of which gate length is 0.1 μm or smaller, a gate electrode having the optimum work function value can be formed for each of an NMOS and PMOS by forming the gate electrode by using polycrystalline silicon and adjusting an impurity in the gate electrode and the concentration thereof.
Presently, miniaturization of transistors is being advanced based on the so-called scaling rule, and thereby enhancement in the integration degree and the operating speed of semiconductor devices is being promoted. For miniaturization of an insulated gate field effect transistor, it may be required to suppress the influence of the so-called short-channel effect. As long as a gate electrode is composed of a semiconductor material, it may be impossible to effectively suppress the depletion of the gate electrode, which is one of factors in the short-channel effect. To address this, there has been proposed a scheme in which a gate electrode is formed by using a conductive material such as a metal or metal nitride. As schemes for forming a gate electrode by using a conductive material, there has been proposed a method in which e.g. a metal film is deposited instead of a polycrystalline silicon film and a gate electrode is formed by pattering this metal film similarly to existing methods. Furthermore, there has also been proposed a method in which a gate electrode is formed by a so-called damascene process of burying the electrode in a gate electrode formation opening (refer to e.g., Atsushi Yagishita et al., “High Performance Metal Gate MOSFETs Fabricated by CMP for 0.1 μm Regime”, International Electron Devices Meeting 1998 Technical Digest pp. 785 to 788 (1998)). In the method of forming a gate electrode by a damascene process, a gate insulating film composed of an insulating material (e.g., hafnium oxide) of which relative dielectric constant is higher than that of silicon oxide is formed in a gate electrode formation opening arising from removal of a dummy gate, and then a gate electrode is formed. In this damascene process, various kinds of heat treatment (e.g., annealing treatment for activation of an impurity in source/drain regions) have been completed before the formation of the gate electrode. Therefore, mobility deterioration and so on hardly occur, and thus an insulated gate field effect transistor having enhanced characteristics can be provided.
Different kinds of insulated gate field effect transistors, such as an NMOS and PMOS, typically have different optimum work function values of gate electrodes. In a configuration in which the gate electrode of an NMOS and the gate electrode of a PMOS included in a CMOS semiconductor device are formed by using the same conductive material (e.g., the same kind of metal), it is difficult to ensure symmetrical threshold voltage characteristic and so on. In other words, it is difficult to form a configuration in which each of the gate electrodes of an NMOS and PMOS has the optimum work function value. To address this, there has also been proposed a scheme in which the gate electrodes of an NMOS and PMOS are formed by using different conductive materials. In addition, in order to achieve both optimization of the work function value of a gate electrode and low resistivity of the gate electrode, there has also been proposed the following method relating to formation of a gate electrode based on a damascene process. Specifically, in this method, initially a layer composed of a conductive material having a favorable work function value (for convenience, referred to as a work function control layer) is formed in a gate electrode formation opening (more specifically, in a bottom region and side region of the gate electrode formation opening that has the bottom region, the side region, and a center region surrounded by the bottom region and the side region). Subsequently, in the center region, another conductive material layer having lower resistivity (ratio resistivity) (for convenience, referred to as a center layer) is formed, so that a gate electrode is formed.
Miniaturization of insulated gate field effect transistors decreases the alignment margin in formation of contact plugs that are provided in an interlayer insulating layer covering a gate electrode and source/drain regions and are connected to the top surface of the gate electrode and the source/drain regions. Therefore, it is preferable to simultaneously form these contact plugs through a series of processes. The contact plugs are formed by forming in an interlayer insulating layer a contact plug formation opening having the bottom through which the top surface of a gate electrode is exposed and contact plug formation openings having the bottoms through which source/drain regions are exposed, and then burying tungsten or the like in these openings. The contact plug formation opening is formed by using known lithography and etching techniques.
Due to the difference in the height between the top surface of the gate electrode and the source/drain regions, the thickness of the interlayer insulating layer covering the gate electrode and the source/drain regions is relatively smaller on the gate electrode and relatively larger on the source/drain regions, at the timing after planarization treatment for the interlayer insulating layer. Consequently, in the formation of the contact plug formation openings in the interlayer insulating layer through a series of etching processes, the top surface of the gate electrode exposed at the bottom of the contact plug formation opening is subjected to the etching treatment for a relatively longer period compared with the source/drain regions exposed at the bottoms of the contact plug formation openings. Therefore, as the combination between the condition of the etching of the interlayer insulating layer and the material of the gate electrode, a combination that can offer a sufficiently high etching selection ratio may be required. Moreover, the material of the gate electrode is desirable to have sufficient resistance also against a series of chemical treatments performed after the etching.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
However, when in a semiconductor device including different kinds of insulated gate field effect transistors, such as a CMOS semiconductor device or BiCMOS semiconductor device including an NMOS and PMOS, the gate electrodes of the NMOS and the PMOS are formed by using different conductive materials, it is difficult to satisfy all of the following conditions: each of the gate electrodes has a favorable work function value; the material of each of the gate electrodes provides a sufficiently high etching selection ratio; and the material of each of the gate electrodes has sufficient resistance against chemical treatment performed after the etching. This difficulty will act as a factor in inhibition of optimization of the fabrication process for the semiconductor device. In addition, when in formation of a gate electrode by a damascene process, the gate electrode is provided by forming a work function control layer in a gate electrode formation opening and then forming a center layer having lower resistivity, regions each composed of a respective one of the conductive materials (specifically, the conductive material of the work function control layer and the conductive material of the center layer) are exposed at the top surface of the gate electrode. Thus, for example, due to the difference in the etching selection ratio between these conductive materials, the planarity of the top surface of the gate electrode will be problematically deteriorated when the top surface is subjected to etching treatment.
Furthermore, as the gate length (the width of a gate electrode obtained when the gate electrode is cut along a virtual plane perpendicular to the extension direction of the gate electrode) becomes smaller, the area ratio of a work function control layer becomes relatively higher in a section of the gate electrode. As described above, the resistivity of the conductive material of a work function control layer is higher than that of the conductive material of a center layer in general. Accordingly, if the area ratio of a work function control layer becomes relatively higher, the electric resistance of the gate electrode becomes higher. The relationship between the gate length (GL) and the sheet resistance value of a gate electrode was calculated regarding a structure (seeFIG. 14A) in which the height (T) of the gate electrode was 70 nm, the thickness of the gate insulating film composed of HfO2was 5 nm, the conductive material of the work function control layer was HfSiX(having a volume resistivity of 300 μΩ·cm), and the conductive material of the center layer was tungsten (W). The calculation results are shown inFIG. 14B. Parameters for the respective curves inFIG. 14Bare as follows.
Thickness of WorkElectric Resistance ofCurveFunction Control LayerCenter LayerA5nm15μΩB10nm15μΩC20nm15μΩD5nm30μΩE10nm30μΩF20nm30μΩG5nm100μΩH10nm100μΩI20nm100μΩ
For the above-described reason, there is a strong demand for measures that suppress the occurrence of the phenomenon in which the electric resistance of a gate electrode increases as a result of decrease in the gate length and corresponding relative increase in the area ratio of the work function control layer.
There is a desire for the present invention to provide a semiconductor device that includes different kinds of insulated gate field effect transistors and has a configuration and structure in which each gate electrode can be formed by using a conductive material having a favorable work function value and there is no need to take into consideration the relationship between the material of each gate electrode and the condition of etching of an interlayer insulating layer, and to provide a method for manufacturing the same. There is another desire for the present invention to provide a semiconductor device that includes different kinds of insulated gate field effect transistors and has a configuration and structure in which each gate electrode can be formed by using a conductive material having a favorable work function value and the electric resistance of each gate electrode hardly increases even when the gate length becomes smaller, and to provide a method for manufacturing the same.
According to a first embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a semiconductor device including an N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and a P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor. The device includes:
a first insulating layer and a second insulating layer configured to be formed on the first insulating layer; and
gate electrode contact plugs configured to penetrate the second insulating layer and be each connected to a respective one of gate electrodes of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, and source/drain region contact plugs configured to penetrate the first insulating layer and the second insulating layer and be each connected to a respective one of source/drain regions, wherein
each of the gate electrodes of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor is buried in a gate electrode formation opening provided in the first insulating layer,
the gate electrode of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor has a bottom part, a side part, and a center part surrounded by the bottom part and the side part, and at least the bottom part and the side part are composed of a first conductive material,
the gate electrode of the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor has a bottom part, a side part, and a center part surrounded by the bottom part and the side part, and at least the bottom part and the side part are composed of a second conductive material different from the first conductive material,
protective layers having electric conductivity are each formed on a top surface of a respective one of the gate electrodes of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, and
the gate electrode contact plug for the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor is connected via the protective layer to the top surface of the gate electrode of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, and the gate electrode contact plug for the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor is connected via the protective layer to the top surface of the gate electrode of the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor.
According to the first embodiment of the present invention, there is also provided a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device including an N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and a P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor. The method includes the steps of:
preparing a base that includes channel forming regions and source/drain regions of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, a first insulating layer, gate electrode formation openings provided in the first insulating layer for the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, and a gate insulating film provided at least on bottoms of the gate electrode formation openings;
forming a first conductive material layer composed of a first conductive material at least in a bottom region and a side region of the gate electrode formation opening for the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, having the bottom region, the side region, and a center region surrounded by the bottom region and the side region, to thereby form a gate electrode of which at least bottom part and side part are composed of the first conductive material, and
forming a second conductive material layer composed of a second conductive material different from the first conductive material at least in a bottom region and a side region of the gate electrode formation opening for the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, having the bottom region, the side region, and a center region surrounded by the bottom region and the side region, to thereby form a gate electrode of which at least bottom part and side part are composed of the second conductive material;
forming protective layers having electric conductivity on top surfaces of the gate electrodes of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor;
forming a second insulating layer that covers an entire surface; and
forming a gate electrode contact plug that penetrates the second insulating layer and is connected via the protective layer to the top surface of the gate electrode of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, a gate electrode contact plug that penetrates the second insulating layer and is connected via the protective layer to the top surface of the gate electrode of the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, source/drain region contact plugs that penetrate the first insulating layer and the second insulating layer and are connected to the source/drain regions of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, and source/drain region contact plugs that penetrate the first insulating layer and the second insulating layer and are connected to the source/drain regions of the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor.
In the method for manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the first embodiment of the present invention, the protective layers can be formed by any of the following methods: various kinds of physical vapor deposition (PVD) such as evaporation typified by electron beam evaporation and filament evaporation, sputtering, ion plating, and laser ablation; various kinds of chemical vapor deposition (CVD); electrolytic plating; and electroless plating. It is preferable to selectively form the protective layers based on selective CVD among these methods. This method allows the protective layers to be selectively formed on the top surfaces of the gate electrodes without patterning, and thus can simplify the manufacturing process for a semiconductor device.
In the semiconductor device according to the first embodiment of the present invention or a semiconductor device manufactured by the method for manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the first embodiment of the present invention including the above-described preferred modes (hereinafter, these semiconductor devices will be often referred to collectively as “semiconductor device and so on according to the first embodiment of the present invention” simply), in the gate electrode of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor (hereinafter, it will be often referred to simply as an NMISFET gate electrode), having a bottom part and a side part (hereinafter, the bottom part and the side part will be often referred to collectively as a “shell part”) and a center part (the remaining part of the gate electrode, and it will be often referred to as a “core part” as the contrary to the shell part) surrounded by the bottom part and the side part, the center part may be composed of the first conductive material for work function control or may be composed of a conductive material different from the first conductive material. Similarly, the core part surrounded by the shell part of the gate electrode of the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor (hereinafter, it will be often referred to simply as a PMISFET gate electrode) may be composed of the second conductive material for work function control or may be composed of a conductive material different from the second conductive material. For example, a form is available in which the whole of an NMISFET gate electrode is composed of the first conductive material for work function control (i.e., having a function to control the work function). Furthermore, a form is also available in which the shell part of an NMISFET gate electrode is composed of the first conductive material and the core part is composed of a conductive material of which resistivity is lower than that of the first conductive material. In the former form, the forming step for the NMISFET gate electrode can be simplified. In the latter form, the electric resistance of the NMISFET gate electrode can be lowered. In addition, further another conductive material layer may be formed between the core part and the shell part of a gate electrode. In other words, the gate electrode may be formed through stacking of three or more conductive material layers. The same holds also for a PMISFET gate electrode. As the first conductive material for work function control (i.e., having a function to control the work function), a conductive material that has a favorable work function value in terms of the relationship with the channel forming region of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor is appropriately selected. Similarly, as the second conductive material for work function control (i.e., having a function to control the work function), a conductive material that has a favorable work function value in terms of the relationship with the channel forming region of the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor is appropriately selected.
The term “channel forming region” indicates not only a region in which the channel is actually formed but also a region in which the channel will be possibly formed. For example, partial portions of a semiconductor layer and semiconductor substrate positioned to face a gate electrode correspond to the “channel forming region”. Furthermore, the “gate electrode” encompasses not only an electrode portion facing the “channel forming region” but also a lead-out electrode part as an extension from this electrode portion. Examples of the semiconductor device and so on according to the first embodiment of the present invention or the semiconductor device and so on according to the second embodiment of the present invention to be described later include a CMOS semiconductor device formed of an NMOS and PMOS, and a BiCMOS semiconductor device including a bipolar transistor in addition to an NMOS and PMOS.
In the method for manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the first embodiment of the present invention including the above-described preferred modes, the protective layers having electric conductivity are formed on the top surfaces of the respective gate electrodes of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, and then the second insulating layer covering the entire surface is formed. The multilayer structure formed of the first insulating layer and the second insulating layer will be often referred to as an interlayer insulating layer. In the method for manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the first embodiment of the present invention, in the formation of contact plug formation openings in the second insulating layer and the first insulating layer through a series of etching processes, the protective layers formed on the top surfaces of the gate electrodes are exposed at the bottoms of the contact plug formation openings in which the gate electrode contact plugs are to be formed. Therefore, although an NMISFET gate electrode and a PMISFET gate electrode are composed of different conductive materials, the differences in the etching selection ratio and so on between these conductive materials lead to no problem. The same holds also for the case in which an NMISFET gate electrode is composed of plural conductive materials different from each other and the case in which a PMISFET gate electrode is composed of plural conductive materials different from each other. Consequently, in the method for manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the first embodiment of the present invention, the etching process can be optimized based on the relationship between the interlayer insulating layer and the protective layers. Thus, the method for manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the first embodiment of the present invention enhances the flexibility of selection of conductive materials of gate electrodes to thereby allow improvement in characteristics of the semiconductor device and optimization of the manufacturing process.
The protective layers may be formed to cover the whole of the top surfaces of the respective gate electrodes of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor. Alternatively, the protective layers may be formed to cover the bottoms of the contact plug formation openings in which the gate electrode contact plugs are to be formed and the top surfaces of partial portions of the gate electrodes near the bottoms.
According to a second embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a semiconductor device including an N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and a P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and being provided with an insulating layer, wherein
each of gate electrodes of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor is buried in a gate electrode formation opening provided in the insulating layer,
the gate electrode of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor is composed of a first conductive material,
the gate electrode of the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor is composed of a second conductive material different from the first conductive material, and
interconnect layers are formed to each cover a top surface of a respective one of the gate electrodes of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor.
According to the second embodiment of the present invention, there is also provided a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device including an N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and a P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor. The method includes the steps of:
preparing a base that includes channel forming regions and source/drain regions of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, an insulating layer, gate electrode formation openings provided in the insulating layer for the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, and a gate insulating film provided at least on bottoms of the gate electrode formation openings;
forming a gate electrode composed of a first conductive material in the gate electrode formation opening for the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, and
forming a gate electrode composed of a second conductive material different from the first conductive material in the gate electrode formation opening for the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor; and
forming interconnect layers that each cover a top surface of a respective one of the gate electrodes of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor.
In the method for manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the second embodiment of the present invention, the step of forming interconnect layers may include the steps of forming an upper insulating layer on an entire surface, selectively removing partial portions of the upper insulating layer above the top surfaces of the gate electrodes of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, to thereby provide interconnect layer trenches in the upper insulating layer, filling the interconnect layer trenches with a conductive material layer, and removing the conductive material layer on the upper insulating layer. That is, the interconnect layers can be formed based on a so-called damascene process.
Alternatively, in the method for manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the second embodiment of the present invention, the step of forming interconnect layers may include the steps of forming a silicon layer, patterning the silicon layer, forming a metal layer on the entire surface, carrying out heat treatment for a reaction between a metal of the metal layer and silicon of the silicon layer to thereby form the interconnect layers each formed of a metal silicide layer, and removing the metal layer on the insulating layer.
In the semiconductor device according to the second embodiment of the present invention or a semiconductor device manufactured by the method for manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the second embodiment of the present invention including the above-described preferred modes (hereinafter, these semiconductor devices will be often referred to collectively as “semiconductor device and so on according to the second embodiment of the present invention” simply), the interconnect layer formed to cover the top surface of the gate electrode of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the interconnect layer formed to cover the top surface of the gate electrode of the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor may be a common interconnect layer. That is, a structure is available in which an extended portion of the interconnect layer formed to cover the top surface of the gate electrode of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor is equivalent to the interconnect layer formed to cover the top surface of the gate electrode of the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor.
In the semiconductor device and so on according to the second embodiment of the present invention including the above-described various preferred configurations, the insulating layer may exist between the gate electrode of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the gate electrode of the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor. That is, the gate electrode of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the gate electrode of the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor may be separated from each other. However, the structure of the semiconductor device is not limited thereto but the gate electrode of the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor may exist as an extension of the gate electrode of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor.
Furthermore, in the semiconductor device and so on according to the second embodiment of the present invention including the above-described preferred configurations, the interconnect layers may be each formed of one conductive material layer. Alternatively, the interconnect layers may each have a multilayer structure formed of a lower conductive material layer and an upper conductive material layer, and the lower and upper conductive material layers may be formed of a silicon layer and a silicide layer, respectively.
In the semiconductor device and the method for manufacturing the same according to the second embodiment of the present invention, the interconnect layers are formed to cover the top surfaces of the respective gate electrodes of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor. More specifically, the interconnect layers are formed on the top surfaces of these gate electrodes, and furthermore, are extended to the top surfaces of partial portions of the insulating layer near these gate electrodes.
In the semiconductor device and so on according to the first embodiment of the present invention including the above-described preferred modes, any of the following materials can be used for the gate electrodes: metals such as hafnium (Hf), tantalum (Ta), titanium (Ti), tungsten (W), molybdenum (Mo), ruthenium (Ru), nickel (Ni), and platinum (Pt) (including alloys of any of these metals); compounds of any of these metals such as nitrides; and compounds between a metal and semiconductor material such as metal silicides. As described above, as the material for work function control (i.e., having a function to control the work function) included at least in the shell part, a material (e.g., a conductive material composed of a metal, alloy, or metal compound such as a metal nitride) that has a favorable work function value in terms of the relationship with the channel forming region is appropriately selected. For example, when the channel forming region is an N-type, hafnium (Hf), tantalum (Ta), or the like can be selected. When the channel forming region is a P-type, molybdenum (Mo), ruthenium (Ru), nickel (Ni), platinum (Pt), or the like can be selected. However, the material is not limited thereto. The gate electrodes can be formed by a known damascene process. Specifically, in a damascene process, gate electrode formation openings are filled with a conductive material by carrying out any of the following deposition methods alone or in proper combination: various kinds of PVD; various kinds of CVD including atomic layer deposition (ALD) and metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD); electrolytic plating; and electroless plating. Subsequently, planarization treatment is carried out by chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) or the like.
In the semiconductor device and so on according to the first embodiment of the present invention, any of the following materials having electric conductivity can be widely used for the protective layers: metals such as tungsten (W), tantalum (Ta), platinum (Pt), and titanium (Ti) (including alloys of any of these metals); compounds of any of these metals such as nitrides; and compounds between a metal and semiconductor material such as metal silicides. It is preferable to select, as the material of the protective layers, a substance that offers a sufficiently high etching selection ratio with respect to the material of the interlayer insulating layer in the etching process for the interlayer insulating layer. The protective layer may have either a single-layer structure or multilayer structure. For example, the protective layer may be formed through stacking of plural materials different from each other. Furthermore, the protective layer may be formed by using the same material as that of the gate electrode, or alternatively may be formed by using a material different from the material of the gate electrode.
In the semiconductor device and so on according to the second embodiment of the present invention including the above-described preferred modes, as the material for work function control (i.e., having a function to control the work function) included in the gate electrode of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, a conductive material composed of a metal, alloy or metal compound typified by a metal nitride, such as hafnium (Hf), hafnium silicide (HfSiX), tantalum (Ta), or TaC, can be used. Furthermore, as the material for work function control (i.e., having a function to control the work function) included in the gate electrode of the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor, a conductive material composed of a metal, alloy or metal compound typified by a metal nitride, such as molybdenum (Mo), ruthenium (Ru), nickel (Ni), platinum (Pt), TiN, or tungsten (W), can be used. The gate electrodes each have also a function to control the work function. Furthermore, in some cases, the gate electrode has also a function as the protective layer in the semiconductor device and so on according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The gate electrodes can be formed by a known damascene process. Specifically, in a damascene process, gate electrode formation openings are filled with a conductive material by carrying out any of the following deposition methods alone or in proper combination: various kinds of PVD; various kinds of CVD including ALD and MOCVD; electrolytic plating; and electroless plating. Subsequently, planarization treatment is carried out by chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), dry etching, etchback, or the like.
In the semiconductor device and so on according to the second embodiment of the present invention, when the interconnect layer is formed by using one conductive material layer, this conductive material layer is composed of e.g. tungsten (W), TiN, aluminum (Al), or copper (Cu). When the interconnect layer is formed by using e.g. tungsten (W), an adhesion layer formed of a Ti layer or TiN layer may be formed under the interconnect layer. On the other hand, when the interconnect layer is provided with a multilayer structure formed of a lower conductive material layer and an upper conductive material layer, the lower conductive material layer can be formed by using a silicon layer (e.g., a polycrystalline silicon layer or amorphous silicon layer), and the upper conductive material layer can be formed by using a nickel silicide layer, nickel-platinum silicide layer, cobalt silicide layer, or titanium silicide layer. In this case, the metal layer is composed of nickel, nickel-platinum, cobalt, or titanium.
In the semiconductor device and the method for manufacturing the same according to the first embodiment of the present invention and the semiconductor device and the method for manufacturing the same according to the second embodiment of the present invention (hereinafter, these devices and methods will be often referred to collectively as “the present invention” simply), the gate insulating film can be formed after the gate electrode formation openings are formed in the first insulating layer or the insulating layer. Alternatively, it is also possible to form the first insulating layer or the insulating layer after the formation of the gate insulating film, and then form the gate electrode formation openings. In this case, however, the gate electrode formation openings have to be formed in such a way that the gate insulating film is left at the bottoms of the openings. Examples of the material of the gate insulating film include, in addition to SiO2-based materials, SiOF-based materials, and SiN-based materials, which have been generally used, so-called high relative dielectric constant materials of which relative dielectric constant k (=∈/∈0) is substantially 4.0 or higher. Examples of the high relative dielectric constant material include HfO2, ZrO2, Al2O3, Y2O3, and La2O. The gate insulating film may be formed by using either one kind of material or plural kinds of materials. The gate insulating film may be formed as either a single film (including a composite film composed of plural materials) or multilayer film. The gate insulating films of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor can be formed by using either the same material or materials different from each other. The gate insulating film can be formed by a well-known method. In particular, ALD, MOCVD, or the like can be used as a method for forming the gate insulating film composed of the above-described high relative dielectric constant material.
Also in the semiconductor device and the method for manufacturing the same according to the second embodiment of the present invention, it is desirable to form the second insulating layer on the entire surface after the formation of the interconnect layers. The insulating layer in the semiconductor device and the method for manufacturing the same according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be referred to as the first insulating layer in some cases, and a multilayer structure formed of the insulating layer (first insulating layer) and the second insulating layer will be referred to as the interlayer insulating layer in some cases.
In the present invention, examples of the material of the first insulating layer, the second insulating layer, the insulating layer, and the upper insulating layer include SiO2, SiN, SiON, SiOF, SiC, and low dielectric constant insulating materials of which dielectric constant k (=∈/∈0) is e.g. 3.5 or lower, such as organic SOG, polyimide-based resin, and fluorine-based resin (e.g., fluorocarbon, amorphous tetrafluoroethylene, polyarylether, arylether fluoride, polyimide fluoride, parylene, benzocyclobutene, amorphous carbon, cycloperfluorocarbon polymer, and fluorofullerene). The first insulating layer, the second insulating layer, the insulating layer, and the upper insulating layer can be formed by using a multilayer structure formed of any of these materials. As the material of the contact plugs provided in the interlayer insulating layer, polycrystalline silicon doped with an impurity or a refractory metal material such as tungsten (W) can be used. In addition, copper (Cu) is also available. The contact plugs can be formed by providing contact plug formation openings in the interlayer insulating layer by RIE or the like and then filling the contact plug formation openings with the above-described material by a known method. For example, the contact plugs can be formed by burying tungsten in the contact plug formation openings by blanket CVD and then removing the excess tungsten layer on the interlayer insulating layer. A form is also available in which a Ti layer and TiN layer as an adhesion layer is formed inside the contact plug formation openings, and then tungsten is buried in the contact plug formation openings by blanket CVD.
As the base including the source/drain regions, the channel forming regions and so on used in the present invention, besides a semiconductor substrate, a support member of which surface has a semiconductor layer (e.g., a glass substrate, quartz substrate, silicon substrate of which surface has an insulating layer, plastic substrate, or plastic film) can be used. The insulated gate field effect transistor is formed in e.g. a well region or the like in a semiconductor substrate or semiconductor layer. A so-called element isolation region having e.g. a trench structure may be formed between the insulated gate field effect transistors. The element isolation region may have a LOCOS structure, or may be based on the combination of a trench structure and LOCOS structure. More alternatively, the base having an SOI structure arising from SIMOX or substrate bonding may be used. In this case, the formation of the element isolation region is unnecessary.
In the semiconductor device and the method for manufacturing the same according to the first embodiment of the present invention, in the formation of the contact plug formation openings in the interlayer insulating layer through a series of etching processes, the protective layers formed on the top surfaces of the gate electrodes are exposed at the bottoms of the contact plug formation openings in which the gate electrode contact plugs are to be formed. Therefore, in any of the case in which the top surface of the NMISFET gate electrode and the top surface of the PMISFET gate electrode are composed of different conductive materials, the case in which the top surface of the NMISFET gate electrode is composed of plural conductive materials different from each other, and the case in which the top surface of the PMISFET gate electrode is composed of plural conductive materials different from each other, the differences in the etching selection ratio and so on among these conductive materials lead to no problem. Thus, the semiconductor device and the method for manufacturing the same according to the first embodiment of the present invention enhance the flexibility of selection of conductive materials of the gate electrodes to thereby allow improvement in characteristics of the semiconductor device and optimization of the manufacturing process.
In the semiconductor device and the method for manufacturing the same according to the second embodiment of the present invention, the interconnect layers are formed to cover the top surfaces of the respective gate electrodes of the N-channel insulated gate field effect transistor and the P-channel insulated gate field effect transistor. Therefore, each of the gate electrodes can be formed by using a conductive material having a favorable work function value. In addition, because the interconnect layers are provided, increase in the electric resistance hardly occurs as a whole even when the gate length becomes smaller. Moreover, if contact plugs are provided above the interconnect layers, in the formation of the contact plug formation openings in the interlayer insulating layer through a series of etching processes, the interconnect layers are exposed at the bottoms of the contact plug formation openings in which the gate electrode contact plugs are to be formed. Therefore, although the top surface of the NMISFET gate electrode and the top surface of the PMISFET gate electrode are composed of different conductive materials, the differences in the etching selection ratio and so on between these conductive materials lead to no problem. Thus, the semiconductor device and the method for manufacturing the same according to the second embodiment of the present invention enhance the flexibility of selection of conductive materials of the gate electrodes to thereby allow improvement in characteristics of the semiconductor device and optimization of the manufacturing process.
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7689785 | FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is related generally to a digital device architecture and, more particularly, to a digital system configuration and associated method for devices including an electromechanical data Storage Element. The invention is particularly well-suited for use in a portable device.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
One need only briefly survey virtually any public area in modern society in order to gain an appreciation for the popularity of electronic devices. Such devices include, but are not limited to cellular phones, music players, portable computers, personal digital assistants, pagers, digital cameras, digital camcorders, personal gaming devices and e-books. Continuous improvement has been seen in the capabilities present in these devices attributable, at least in part, to a movement into digital implementations.
Demands, with regard to future electronic devices, include further miniaturization coupled with still further improvements in performance. These demands are markedly intense with regard to portable devices. A particular area of concern resides in a desire to store ever-increasing amounts of digital information. At the same time, it should be appreciated that an electronic device, especially in a portable or miniaturized form, is likely to be subjected to a somewhat harsh environment, particularly with regard to mechanical shock. In an attempt to cope with the need for a significant amount of digital data storage while, at the same time, dealing with the problem of mechanical shock, designers resorted to the use of electronic memory, particularly in the form of flash memory. This solution is evident in the instance of state-of-the-art music players, including MP3 players. As of this writing, the popular configuration of these players is to use a removable flash memory card having a size of approximately 32 MB. Unfortunately, several problems are associated with this solution, as will be described.
One problem seen with regard to the flash memory solution resides in the fact that 32 MB is, in itself, a somewhat limited amount of storage. It is not unforeseeable that in the near future even amounts less than 512 MB will be considered as small. Considering present day devices, the owner of a portable device that relies on the use of flash memory cards typically must own a number of the cards in order to provide a sufficient overall amount of storage. Otherwise, the portable device owner may be forced to frequently reload the flash memory card via a personal computer or otherwise be subjected, for example, to listening to a quite limited music selection in the instance of an MP3 player. Moreover, the cost of flash memory cards is currently somewhat prohibitive. Many portable device owners simply choose not to incur the expense of buying numbers of additional flash memory cards.
In coping with the problems inherent in the use of flash memory cards, a recent alternative solution has been the provision of a larger, electromechanical digital storage arrangement that is nonetheless removable. This solution is exemplified by the IBM Microdrive™. The latter is a removable miniaturized computer hard disk drive provided with a connector that mates with a corresponding connector incorporated within the portable device to be served. It is noted that such miniature hard drives, including the Microdrive, have essentially the same configuration as prior art hard drives seen in personal computers. That is, the miniature hard drive is made up of two general assemblies including a head disk assembly (HDA) and a printed circuit board assembly (PCBA). The HDA itself includes a rotatable magnetic media, a sensor assembly for reading from and writing to the rotatable media and motors for accomplishing rotation of the rotatable media and positioning of the sensor assembly. The PCBA includes essentially all of the electronics needed to operate the HDA with the common exception of a preamplifier. While the Microdrive brings improvement in data capacity, as of this writing, the cost of the Microdrive is quite high in terms of megabytes per dollar and absolute cost when compared to such costs in conventional drives. It is submitted that this absolute cost, in and by itself, will prove to be a significant barrier with regard to broad-based use of the product.
The Microdrive utilizes a CompactFlash interface. This interface raises concerns for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the requirement for a rather bulky interface connector having fifty pins, as described in the CF+ and CompactFlash Specification Revision 1.4. Further concerns with regard to CompactFlash will be addressed below.
With regard to the removable configuration of the Microdrive, it is noted that the perceived need for removable media has been greatly reduced in certain environments once viable, significant levels of “permanently” installed storage space has been provided. Available embedded storage has traditionally taken a precedent over removable storage, as evidenced in desktop computers. Still further concerns are associated with removable storage, as will be discussed below.
While the use of a miniaturized hard disk drive effectively resolves the problem of limited storage by providing many times the storage currently available in a typical flash memory card, the issue of the use of such a component in the potentially harsh environment of a portable device is once again brought to the forefront. It should be appreciated that, under certain circumstances, prior art hard disk drives tolerate relatively high levels of mechanical shock—even as high as 1500Gs. Under operational circumstances, unfortunately, hard disk drives are generally quite susceptible to mechanical shock events, for example, during the time that the head or sensing assembly is actually accessing the rotating media. Consequences of a mechanical shock event occurring at precisely the most inopportune time include potential drive failure. For instance, a drive may fail when subjected to a 175 G event during an access. In this regard, Applicants are unaware of a miniaturized hard drive or overall device architecture incorporating effective features specifically intended to cope, for example, with the potentially harsh environment of a portable electronic device.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,061,751 (hereinafter the '751 patent), sharing the lead inventor of the present application, serves as one reference point with regard to several suggestions which may be utilized within a system incorporating a hard drive. The framework of the '751 patent, however, resides not in the area of drive miniaturization, ruggedization or portability, but primarily in reducing the cost of a hard disk drive as provided in an overall computer system. One approach taken by the patent encompasses moving all possible functionality out of the overall hard disk drive, including the controller, and onto the motherboard of the host device. For example, unused silicon “real estate” might be utilized for implementation of the controller. Moreover, such a controller may utilize memory that is already present on the host side. Thus, the drive cost is reduced to some extent. At the same time, it should be appreciated that the prior art functional control implemented as between the CPU and the controller is unchanged with respect to locating the controller on the motherboard. Specifically, the controller includes processing power which executes control code that is “native” to the peripheral device. As used herein, “native code” refers to the lowest level control code required to control a particular peripheral device. It is that code which is customarily executed by a device controller in a fashion that is isolated from the CPU resident within the host system.
FIG. 1is a representation of FIG. 2 of the '751 patent, including alternative reference numbers assigned consistent with the present discussion. Accordingly, a prior art computer system10includes a host circuit board12. A controller14is included as a single integrated circuit having further functions, as will be mentioned. A servo integrated circuit16is used to spin motors in any attached peripheral devices. Three peripheral devices are shown including a head disk assembly (HDA)20, a CDROM/DVD22and a floppy drive24. Alternatively, the latter may comprise a high capacity floppy drive, a miniature drive, or other suitable device.
One advantage, alluded to above, in the patent is the use of the HDA as an alternative to a complete hard disk drive (HDD) since costs are lessened by including components such as, for example, controller14within the host system. Components of the HDA (described above, but not illustrated) include a data media, a sensor/head mechanism to read and/or write data to and from the media, and motors to spin the media and position the sensor/head mechanism. A preamplifier is included to amplify the data read from or to be written to the media. The preamplifier may be installed on a flex circuit (see item 17 in FIG. 1A of the '751 patent) that electrically connects the HDA to the PCBA. It is appropriate to note, at this juncture, that the '751 patent also describes the location of a read/write channel, electrically in communication with the preamplifier, as potentially being arranged in the host system, distributed between the host system and the peripheral device or being within the peripheral device. The conventional location of the read/write channel in prior art HDD's is on the PCBA in close physical proximity to the electrical connection point of the HDA, for reasons described below.
Continuing with a description ofFIG. 1, each peripheral device may also have an associated personality ROM26. The specific location of the personality ROM is shown for an individual component in FIG. 3 (item 64) of the '751 patent. It is noted that the personality ROM is isolated from the rest of the individual component and is accessed via the PCI arrangement. Integrated circuit14, inFIG. 1, further includes peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus functionality such that the integrated circuit is interfaced to a PCI bus28. It is noted that PCI bus28comprises one example of a number of possible bus mastering buses. A CPU30and chipset32are provided with the chipset connected to PCI bus28. CPU30is, in turn, interfaced with chipset32. A RAM section34is also interfaced to chipset32. It is important to note that CPU30is indirectly connected to the peripheral components. Specifically, PCI bus28is interposed between the peripheral components, including HDA26, and the CPU. While this arrangement may be advantageous with regard to cost reduction, certain disadvantages that accompany this configuration will be considered at appropriate points below. For the moment, it is noted that system control is accomplished by the CPU issuing commands that are placed on PCI bus28in accordance with mandated PCI protocol. It is submitted that certain penalties are associated with this style of command configuration. For example, commands issued through levels or layers of protocol higher than the native code are particularly inflexible.
The present invention provides a highly advantageous digital device configuration and method that are submitted to resolve the foregoing problems and concerns while providing still further advantages, as described hereinafter.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
As will be described in more detail hereinafter, there is disclosed herein a Storage Element as well as associated devices and method. In one aspect of the invention, a device is configured for access by a user and includes an assembly having an electromechanical digital data storage arrangement configured for operation responsive to a native control code. The device further includes a processing arrangement which executes a control program for controlling the overall device and which executes at least a portion of the native control code, as part of the control program, for use in directly interfacing with the storage arrangement.
In another aspect of the present invention, an assembly includes a digital data storage arrangement made up of a rotatable read/write media, a head arrangement configured for reading and writing the rotatable media and a programmable channel at least for forming an interface between the rotatable media and the head arrangement. Additionally, a programming arrangement, produced separate from the digital storage arrangement, is electrically connectable with the digital storage arrangement at least sufficient to program the channel in a particular way that serves to customize the interface formed by the channel between the rotatable media and the head arrangement such that the digital storage arrangement is later to be used, without the programming arrangement, in an end installation including the customized channel.
In yet another aspect of the present invention, a system is described for providing a digital storage arrangement for end use in an end device. The system includes a rotatable read/write media forming a first part of the digital storage arrangement and a head arrangement forming a second part of the digital storage arrangement and configured for reading and writing the rotatable media. A programmable channel forms a third part of the digital storage arrangement and is configured at least for forming an interface between the rotatable media and the head arrangement. A programming arrangement, produced separate from the digital storage arrangement, is configured for electrical connection with the digital storage arrangement at least sufficient to program the channel in a particular way that serves to customize the interface formed by the channel between the rotatable media and the head arrangement such that the digital storage arrangement is later used in the end device including the customized channel.
In still another aspect of the present invention, in a device having a user access arrangement for receiving a user interaction and including a processing arrangement, the improvement includes a command execution arrangement for interpreting the user interaction in a way that defines a command to be executed by the processing arrangement and for initiating the execution of the command prior to termination of the user interaction. In one feature, a digital data storage arrangement is further included for storing digital information under control of the processing arrangement wherein the command defines a data access that uses the digital storage arrangement and the processing arrangement is programmed to initiate execution of the data access responsive to partial entry of the command during the user interaction. In another feature, the digital storage arrangement utilizes a rotatable media and an electronic memory arrangement is provided wherein the processing arrangement is programmed to execute the data access by reading certain information from the digital storage arrangement, after spinning up the rotatable media on which the certain information is stored, and for transferring that certain information to an electronic memory arrangement such that the certain information is available without the need to access the digital data storage arrangement.
In a further aspect of the present invention, within a device including an electromechanical digital storage arrangement and configured for receiving a plurality of external interactions, at least some of which require one or more data transfers using the storage arrangement, and at least some, but not all of which are user interactions, an assembly includes: a first arrangement for receiving a first one of the interactions requiring a first data transfer by the storage arrangement, a second arrangement for determining that the first interaction is a non-user interaction, and a third arrangement for delaying execution of the first data transfer, associated with the first non-user interaction, at least until a next user interaction.
In a continuing aspect of the present invention, within a device including an electronic memory arrangement having a capacity wherein the device is configured for responding to a plurality of external interactions including user interactions, at least a specific one of which interactions requires a specific data transfer to the electronic memory arrangement such that the specific data transfer is of a size that exceeds the capacity of the electronic memory arrangement, an assembly includes a first arrangement for loading the electronic memory arrangement with an initial portion of the specific data transfer to fill the electronic memory arrangement to its capacity such that the initial portion of data is available for use in a predetermined way. A second arrangement monitors the use, in the predetermined way, of any data stored in the electronic memory arrangement and a third arrangement is provided for loading an additional portion of the specific data transfer into the electronic memory arrangement to replace that part of the initial portion of the specific data transfer which has been used in the predetermined way such that an unused part of the initial portion of the specific data transfer and the additional portion of the specific data transfer are concurrently stored in the electronic memory arrangement. In one feature, the assembly includes an electromechanical digital storage arrangement such that the specific data transfer is stored by the electromechanical digital storage arrangement for transfer to the electronic storage arrangement in the first and additional portions.
In an ongoing aspect of the present invention, within a portable electronic device configured for receiving a user interaction and for operating in an overall environment which may subject the portable electronic device to mechanical shock, the device including an electromechanical Storage Element which is susceptible to such mechanical shock when reading and/or writing data and which is otherwise substantially less susceptible to mechanical shock, the electromechanical Storage Element is protected from shock at least to a limited extent by providing an electronic memory arrangement in the portable device. The user interaction is monitored to define a particular use of a selection of data stored on the electromechanical Storage Element. The selection of data is copied from the electromechanical Storage Element to the electronic memory arrangement. After using the electromechanical Storage Element in the copying step, availability of the selection of data for the particular use is indicated such that the user is able to initiate the particular use of the selection of data, through accessing the electronic memory arrangement, only after the electromechanical Storage Element is not in use and is substantially less susceptible to mechanical shock.
In another aspect of the present invention, in a device configured for access by a user and including a processing arrangement which executes a control program for controlling the overall device, an assembly includes an electromechanical digital data storage arrangement responsive to a native control code and a peripheral control arrangement configured such that the processing arrangement executes at least a portion of the native control code of the storage arrangement as part of the control program. The peripheral control arrangement includes an interface configured for implementing the native code between the processing arrangement and the electromechanical digital storage arrangement.
In still another aspect of the present invention, a digital data storage arrangement includes a rotatable media as well as a head arrangement configured for accessing the rotatable media by first initiating a control sequence intended to move the head arrangement from an unparked position to a parked position. Thereafter, a predetermined status is detected, related to head arrangement position which confirms that the head arrangement is in the parked position. An indication is then produced based on the predetermined status. In one feature, the indication is stored at a predetermined register location. In another feature, the storage arrangement is configured with a ramp for receiving the head arrangement in its parked position such that, when so received, the ramp and the head arrangement cooperate in a way which produces the indication thereby confirming that the head is in the parked position.
In another aspect of the present invention, in a digital data storage arrangement including a rotatable media as well as a head arrangement configured for accessing the rotatable media and for moving to a parked position, an apparatus includes a first arrangement for initiating a control sequence intended to move the head arrangement to the parked position after having accessed the rotatable media, a second arrangement for thereafter detecting a predetermined status related to head arrangement position by testing the head arrangement for reading from the rotatable media such that an inability of the head arrangement to read indicates that the head arrangement is at least away from the rotatable media, and a third arrangement for producing an indication based on the predetermined status.
In yet another aspect of the present invention, in a device including a processing arrangement for controlling operation of the device and including an electromechanical digital storage arrangement is described. A status of a particular attribute is established related to operation of the electromechanical digital storage arrangement. Using the processing arrangement, the status of the particular attribute is monitored for use in a further control operation.
In a continuing aspect of the present invention, in an electromechanical storage device including a rotatable magnetic media and a head arrangement configured for movement to access the rotatable media and for moving to a parked position, an assembly includes a first arrangement for producing a position signal which confirms that the head arrangement is in the parked position and an electrical interconnection arrangement in electrical communication with the head arrangement for use in controlling the head arrangement and which electrical interconnection arrangement is configured for receiving the position signal from the first arrangement for a control use.
In a further aspect of the present invention, in an electromechanical storage device including a housing supporting a spin motor for rotating a magnetic media disk and supporting an actuator arrangement for accessing the magnetic media disk using at least one head positioned on a distal end of the actuator arrangement, an assembly includes an electrical interconnection arrangement in electrical communication with said actuator arrangement and configured for forming an external interface to the storage device. The assembly is further configured such that at least a portion of the electrical interconnection arrangement is supported by the housing and includes a parking arrangement supported by the housing supported portion of the electrical interconnection arrangement for receiving the distal end of the actuator arm in a parked position.
In another aspect of the present invention, as applied to an electromechanical storage device including a rotatable magnetic media and a head arrangement configured for movement to access the rotatable media and for moving to a parked position responsive to at least one parameter in a parking sequence, an arrangement is provided as part of the electromechanical storage device, for producing a position signal which confirms the parked position of the head arrangement when so positioned. A calibration procedure is performed using the position signal to establish an operational value of the parameter for later use in parking the head arrangement.
In still another aspect of the present invention, as applied to a plurality of electromechanical storage devices each of which includes a rotatable magnetic media and a head arrangement configured for movement to access the rotatable media and for moving to a parked position responsive to a parking sequence, an arrangement is provided, as part of each electromechanical storage device, for producing a position signal which confirms the parked position of the head arrangement when so positioned. A calibration procedure is performed on each electromechanical storage device, in which the parking sequence is applied to each electromechanical storage device with the head arrangement initially in a data access position intended to move the head arrangement to the parked position. The parking sequence being repeatedly performed in a way which establishes a failure configuration of the parking sequence for each electromechanical storage device in which failure configuration the head arrangement at least once fails to achieve the parked position. A set of failure configurations, including at least one failure configuration for each electromechanical storage device, is tracked across the plurality of electromechanical storage devices.
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SUMMARY: FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is related generally to a digital device architecture and, more particularly, to a digital system configuration and associated method for devices including an electromechanical data Storage Element. The invention is particularly well-suited for use in a portable device.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
One need only briefly survey virtually any public area in modern society in order to gain an appreciation for the popularity of electronic devices. Such devices include, but are not limited to cellular phones, music players, portable computers, personal digital assistants, pagers, digital cameras, digital camcorders, personal gaming devices and e-books. Continuous improvement has been seen in the capabilities present in these devices attributable, at least in part, to a movement into digital implementations.
Demands, with regard to future electronic devices, include further miniaturization coupled with still further improvements in performance. These demands are markedly intense with regard to portable devices. A particular area of concern resides in a desire to store ever-increasing amounts of digital information. At the same time, it should be appreciated that an electronic device, especially in a portable or miniaturized form, is likely to be subjected to a somewhat harsh environment, particularly with regard to mechanical shock. In an attempt to cope with the need for a significant amount of digital data storage while, at the same time, dealing with the problem of mechanical shock, designers resorted to the use of electronic memory, particularly in the form of flash memory. This solution is evident in the instance of state-of-the-art music players, including MP3 players. As of this writing, the popular configuration of these players is to use a removable flash memory card having a size of approximately 32 MB. Unfortunately, several problems are associated with this solution, as will be described.
One problem seen with regard to the flash memory solution resides in the fact that 32 MB is, in itself, a somewhat limited amount of storage. It is not unforeseeable that in the near future even amounts less than 512 MB will be considered as small. Considering present day devices, the owner of a portable device that relies on the use of flash memory cards typically must own a number of the cards in order to provide a sufficient overall amount of storage. Otherwise, the portable device owner may be forced to frequently reload the flash memory card via a personal computer or otherwise be subjected, for example, to listening to a quite limited music selection in the instance of an MP3 player. Moreover, the cost of flash memory cards is currently somewhat prohibitive. Many portable device owners simply choose not to incur the expense of buying numbers of additional flash memory cards.
In coping with the problems inherent in the use of flash memory cards, a recent alternative solution has been the provision of a larger, electromechanical digital storage arrangement that is nonetheless removable. This solution is exemplified by the IBM Microdrive™. The latter is a removable miniaturized computer hard disk drive provided with a connector that mates with a corresponding connector incorporated within the portable device to be served. It is noted that such miniature hard drives, including the Microdrive, have essentially the same configuration as prior art hard drives seen in personal computers. That is, the miniature hard drive is made up of two general assemblies including a head disk assembly (HDA) and a printed circuit board assembly (PCBA). The HDA itself includes a rotatable magnetic media, a sensor assembly for reading from and writing to the rotatable media and motors for accomplishing rotation of the rotatable media and positioning of the sensor assembly. The PCBA includes essentially all of the electronics needed to operate the HDA with the common exception of a preamplifier. While the Microdrive brings improvement in data capacity, as of this writing, the cost of the Microdrive is quite high in terms of megabytes per dollar and absolute cost when compared to such costs in conventional drives. It is submitted that this absolute cost, in and by itself, will prove to be a significant barrier with regard to broad-based use of the product.
The Microdrive utilizes a CompactFlash interface. This interface raises concerns for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the requirement for a rather bulky interface connector having fifty pins, as described in the CF+ and CompactFlash Specification Revision 1.4. Further concerns with regard to CompactFlash will be addressed below.
With regard to the removable configuration of the Microdrive, it is noted that the perceived need for removable media has been greatly reduced in certain environments once viable, significant levels of “permanently” installed storage space has been provided. Available embedded storage has traditionally taken a precedent over removable storage, as evidenced in desktop computers. Still further concerns are associated with removable storage, as will be discussed below.
While the use of a miniaturized hard disk drive effectively resolves the problem of limited storage by providing many times the storage currently available in a typical flash memory card, the issue of the use of such a component in the potentially harsh environment of a portable device is once again brought to the forefront. It should be appreciated that, under certain circumstances, prior art hard disk drives tolerate relatively high levels of mechanical shock—even as high as 1500Gs. Under operational circumstances, unfortunately, hard disk drives are generally quite susceptible to mechanical shock events, for example, during the time that the head or sensing assembly is actually accessing the rotating media. Consequences of a mechanical shock event occurring at precisely the most inopportune time include potential drive failure. For instance, a drive may fail when subjected to a 175 G event during an access. In this regard, Applicants are unaware of a miniaturized hard drive or overall device architecture incorporating effective features specifically intended to cope, for example, with the potentially harsh environment of a portable electronic device.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,061,751 (hereinafter the '751 patent), sharing the lead inventor of the present application, serves as one reference point with regard to several suggestions which may be utilized within a system incorporating a hard drive. The framework of the '751 patent, however, resides not in the area of drive miniaturization, ruggedization or portability, but primarily in reducing the cost of a hard disk drive as provided in an overall computer system. One approach taken by the patent encompasses moving all possible functionality out of the overall hard disk drive, including the controller, and onto the motherboard of the host device. For example, unused silicon “real estate” might be utilized for implementation of the controller. Moreover, such a controller may utilize memory that is already present on the host side. Thus, the drive cost is reduced to some extent. At the same time, it should be appreciated that the prior art functional control implemented as between the CPU and the controller is unchanged with respect to locating the controller on the motherboard. Specifically, the controller includes processing power which executes control code that is “native” to the peripheral device. As used herein, “native code” refers to the lowest level control code required to control a particular peripheral device. It is that code which is customarily executed by a device controller in a fashion that is isolated from the CPU resident within the host system.
FIG. 1is a representation of FIG. 2 of the '751 patent, including alternative reference numbers assigned consistent with the present discussion. Accordingly, a prior art computer system10includes a host circuit board12. A controller14is included as a single integrated circuit having further functions, as will be mentioned. A servo integrated circuit16is used to spin motors in any attached peripheral devices. Three peripheral devices are shown including a head disk assembly (HDA)20, a CDROM/DVD22and a floppy drive24. Alternatively, the latter may comprise a high capacity floppy drive, a miniature drive, or other suitable device.
One advantage, alluded to above, in the patent is the use of the HDA as an alternative to a complete hard disk drive (HDD) since costs are lessened by including components such as, for example, controller14within the host system. Components of the HDA (described above, but not illustrated) include a data media, a sensor/head mechanism to read and/or write data to and from the media, and motors to spin the media and position the sensor/head mechanism. A preamplifier is included to amplify the data read from or to be written to the media. The preamplifier may be installed on a flex circuit (see item 17 in FIG. 1A of the '751 patent) that electrically connects the HDA to the PCBA. It is appropriate to note, at this juncture, that the '751 patent also describes the location of a read/write channel, electrically in communication with the preamplifier, as potentially being arranged in the host system, distributed between the host system and the peripheral device or being within the peripheral device. The conventional location of the read/write channel in prior art HDD's is on the PCBA in close physical proximity to the electrical connection point of the HDA, for reasons described below.
Continuing with a description ofFIG. 1, each peripheral device may also have an associated personality ROM26. The specific location of the personality ROM is shown for an individual component in FIG. 3 (item 64) of the '751 patent. It is noted that the personality ROM is isolated from the rest of the individual component and is accessed via the PCI arrangement. Integrated circuit14, inFIG. 1, further includes peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus functionality such that the integrated circuit is interfaced to a PCI bus28. It is noted that PCI bus28comprises one example of a number of possible bus mastering buses. A CPU30and chipset32are provided with the chipset connected to PCI bus28. CPU30is, in turn, interfaced with chipset32. A RAM section34is also interfaced to chipset32. It is important to note that CPU30is indirectly connected to the peripheral components. Specifically, PCI bus28is interposed between the peripheral components, including HDA26, and the CPU. While this arrangement may be advantageous with regard to cost reduction, certain disadvantages that accompany this configuration will be considered at appropriate points below. For the moment, it is noted that system control is accomplished by the CPU issuing commands that are placed on PCI bus28in accordance with mandated PCI protocol. It is submitted that certain penalties are associated with this style of command configuration. For example, commands issued through levels or layers of protocol higher than the native code are particularly inflexible.
The present invention provides a highly advantageous digital device configuration and method that are submitted to resolve the foregoing problems and concerns while providing still further advantages, as described hereinafter.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
As will be described in more detail hereinafter, there is disclosed herein a Storage Element as well as associated devices and method. In one aspect of the invention, a device is configured for access by a user and includes an assembly having an electromechanical digital data storage arrangement configured for operation responsive to a native control code. The device further includes a processing arrangement which executes a control program for controlling the overall device and which executes at least a portion of the native control code, as part of the control program, for use in directly interfacing with the storage arrangement.
In another aspect of the present invention, an assembly includes a digital data storage arrangement made up of a rotatable read/write media, a head arrangement configured for reading and writing the rotatable media and a programmable channel at least for forming an interface between the rotatable media and the head arrangement. Additionally, a programming arrangement, produced separate from the digital storage arrangement, is electrically connectable with the digital storage arrangement at least sufficient to program the channel in a particular way that serves to customize the interface formed by the channel between the rotatable media and the head arrangement such that the digital storage arrangement is later to be used, without the programming arrangement, in an end installation including the customized channel.
In yet another aspect of the present invention, a system is described for providing a digital storage arrangement for end use in an end device. The system includes a rotatable read/write media forming a first part of the digital storage arrangement and a head arrangement forming a second part of the digital storage arrangement and configured for reading and writing the rotatable media. A programmable channel forms a third part of the digital storage arrangement and is configured at least for forming an interface between the rotatable media and the head arrangement. A programming arrangement, produced separate from the digital storage arrangement, is configured for electrical connection with the digital storage arrangement at least sufficient to program the channel in a particular way that serves to customize the interface formed by the channel between the rotatable media and the head arrangement such that the digital storage arrangement is later used in the end device including the customized channel.
In still another aspect of the present invention, in a device having a user access arrangement for receiving a user interaction and including a processing arrangement, the improvement includes a command execution arrangement for interpreting the user interaction in a way that defines a command to be executed by the processing arrangement and for initiating the execution of the command prior to termination of the user interaction. In one feature, a digital data storage arrangement is further included for storing digital information under control of the processing arrangement wherein the command defines a data access that uses the digital storage arrangement and the processing arrangement is programmed to initiate execution of the data access responsive to partial entry of the command during the user interaction. In another feature, the digital storage arrangement utilizes a rotatable media and an electronic memory arrangement is provided wherein the processing arrangement is programmed to execute the data access by reading certain information from the digital storage arrangement, after spinning up the rotatable media on which the certain information is stored, and for transferring that certain information to an electronic memory arrangement such that the certain information is available without the need to access the digital data storage arrangement.
In a further aspect of the present invention, within a device including an electromechanical digital storage arrangement and configured for receiving a plurality of external interactions, at least some of which require one or more data transfers using the storage arrangement, and at least some, but not all of which are user interactions, an assembly includes: a first arrangement for receiving a first one of the interactions requiring a first data transfer by the storage arrangement, a second arrangement for determining that the first interaction is a non-user interaction, and a third arrangement for delaying execution of the first data transfer, associated with the first non-user interaction, at least until a next user interaction.
In a continuing aspect of the present invention, within a device including an electronic memory arrangement having a capacity wherein the device is configured for responding to a plurality of external interactions including user interactions, at least a specific one of which interactions requires a specific data transfer to the electronic memory arrangement such that the specific data transfer is of a size that exceeds the capacity of the electronic memory arrangement, an assembly includes a first arrangement for loading the electronic memory arrangement with an initial portion of the specific data transfer to fill the electronic memory arrangement to its capacity such that the initial portion of data is available for use in a predetermined way. A second arrangement monitors the use, in the predetermined way, of any data stored in the electronic memory arrangement and a third arrangement is provided for loading an additional portion of the specific data transfer into the electronic memory arrangement to replace that part of the initial portion of the specific data transfer which has been used in the predetermined way such that an unused part of the initial portion of the specific data transfer and the additional portion of the specific data transfer are concurrently stored in the electronic memory arrangement. In one feature, the assembly includes an electromechanical digital storage arrangement such that the specific data transfer is stored by the electromechanical digital storage arrangement for transfer to the electronic storage arrangement in the first and additional portions.
In an ongoing aspect of the present invention, within a portable electronic device configured for receiving a user interaction and for operating in an overall environment which may subject the portable electronic device to mechanical shock, the device including an electromechanical Storage Element which is susceptible to such mechanical shock when reading and/or writing data and which is otherwise substantially less susceptible to mechanical shock, the electromechanical Storage Element is protected from shock at least to a limited extent by providing an electronic memory arrangement in the portable device. The user interaction is monitored to define a particular use of a selection of data stored on the electromechanical Storage Element. The selection of data is copied from the electromechanical Storage Element to the electronic memory arrangement. After using the electromechanical Storage Element in the copying step, availability of the selection of data for the particular use is indicated such that the user is able to initiate the particular use of the selection of data, through accessing the electronic memory arrangement, only after the electromechanical Storage Element is not in use and is substantially less susceptible to mechanical shock.
In another aspect of the present invention, in a device configured for access by a user and including a processing arrangement which executes a control program for controlling the overall device, an assembly includes an electromechanical digital data storage arrangement responsive to a native control code and a peripheral control arrangement configured such that the processing arrangement executes at least a portion of the native control code of the storage arrangement as part of the control program. The peripheral control arrangement includes an interface configured for implementing the native code between the processing arrangement and the electromechanical digital storage arrangement.
In still another aspect of the present invention, a digital data storage arrangement includes a rotatable media as well as a head arrangement configured for accessing the rotatable media by first initiating a control sequence intended to move the head arrangement from an unparked position to a parked position. Thereafter, a predetermined status is detected, related to head arrangement position which confirms that the head arrangement is in the parked position. An indication is then produced based on the predetermined status. In one feature, the indication is stored at a predetermined register location. In another feature, the storage arrangement is configured with a ramp for receiving the head arrangement in its parked position such that, when so received, the ramp and the head arrangement cooperate in a way which produces the indication thereby confirming that the head is in the parked position.
In another aspect of the present invention, in a digital data storage arrangement including a rotatable media as well as a head arrangement configured for accessing the rotatable media and for moving to a parked position, an apparatus includes a first arrangement for initiating a control sequence intended to move the head arrangement to the parked position after having accessed the rotatable media, a second arrangement for thereafter detecting a predetermined status related to head arrangement position by testing the head arrangement for reading from the rotatable media such that an inability of the head arrangement to read indicates that the head arrangement is at least away from the rotatable media, and a third arrangement for producing an indication based on the predetermined status.
In yet another aspect of the present invention, in a device including a processing arrangement for controlling operation of the device and including an electromechanical digital storage arrangement is described. A status of a particular attribute is established related to operation of the electromechanical digital storage arrangement. Using the processing arrangement, the status of the particular attribute is monitored for use in a further control operation.
In a continuing aspect of the present invention, in an electromechanical storage device including a rotatable magnetic media and a head arrangement configured for movement to access the rotatable media and for moving to a parked position, an assembly includes a first arrangement for producing a position signal which confirms that the head arrangement is in the parked position and an electrical interconnection arrangement in electrical communication with the head arrangement for use in controlling the head arrangement and which electrical interconnection arrangement is configured for receiving the position signal from the first arrangement for a control use.
In a further aspect of the present invention, in an electromechanical storage device including a housing supporting a spin motor for rotating a magnetic media disk and supporting an actuator arrangement for accessing the magnetic media disk using at least one head positioned on a distal end of the actuator arrangement, an assembly includes an electrical interconnection arrangement in electrical communication with said actuator arrangement and configured for forming an external interface to the storage device. The assembly is further configured such that at least a portion of the electrical interconnection arrangement is supported by the housing and includes a parking arrangement supported by the housing supported portion of the electrical interconnection arrangement for receiving the distal end of the actuator arm in a parked position.
In another aspect of the present invention, as applied to an electromechanical storage device including a rotatable magnetic media and a head arrangement configured for movement to access the rotatable media and for moving to a parked position responsive to at least one parameter in a parking sequence, an arrangement is provided as part of the electromechanical storage device, for producing a position signal which confirms the parked position of the head arrangement when so positioned. A calibration procedure is performed using the position signal to establish an operational value of the parameter for later use in parking the head arrangement.
In still another aspect of the present invention, as applied to a plurality of electromechanical storage devices each of which includes a rotatable magnetic media and a head arrangement configured for movement to access the rotatable media and for moving to a parked position responsive to a parking sequence, an arrangement is provided, as part of each electromechanical storage device, for producing a position signal which confirms the parked position of the head arrangement when so positioned. A calibration procedure is performed on each electromechanical storage device, in which the parking sequence is applied to each electromechanical storage device with the head arrangement initially in a data access position intended to move the head arrangement to the parked position. The parking sequence being repeatedly performed in a way which establishes a failure configuration of the parking sequence for each electromechanical storage device in which failure configuration the head arrangement at least once fails to achieve the parked position. A set of failure configurations, including at least one failure configuration for each electromechanical storage device, is tracked across the plurality of electromechanical storage devices.
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7753790 | BACKGROUND
This patent is directed to an apparatus and method for a gaming tournament including a tournament host capable of hosting a gaming tournament among numerous players located at the gaming units of their choosing and capable of real-time, tournament event driven interaction with the numerous players during the gaming tournament. Numerous patents have been issued directed to online tournament games. One such patent, U.S. Pat. No. 6,224,486 issued to Walker et al., describes a method and system for a distributed electronic tournament system which allows remotely located players to be identified via a player tracking system, and allows the identified players to participate in tournaments such as chess, bridge, computer golf games, poker and the like from their homes. In addition to player tracking, the database, maintained at a central location, enables registration of players, acceptance of entry fees, and coordination of prize money.
Another patent directed toward online tournament games, U.S. Pat. No. 6,039,648, issued to Guinn et al., describes an apparatus and method for an automated tournament gaming system utilizing a computer network coupled to a number of gaming machines. The ‘Guinn patent also provides for a multi-site progressive automated tournament. The automation is provided by a central server computer coupled to a tournament schedule computer.
Additionally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,259,613 issued to Marnell, describes a gambling parlor configured to allow an operator to provide video programming, selected from a menu, to monitors mounted adjacent to the gaming machines of the gaming parlor. The operator is outfitted with a variety of audio and video entertainment items including a VCR, an audio tape deck, a camera trained on the operator, a microphone and commercial television broadcasting capability. A player, while gaming, may then select to be entertained by one of the audio or video entertainment items via the nearest video monitor.
Typically, each of the conventional gaming units used in a gaming tournament have been provided with a display unit that is capable of generating video images, a coin or bill acceptor, and a controller with a memory and a processor that controls the overall operation of the gaming unit. The controller was programmed to allow a person to make a wager, to cause video images to be generated on the display unit, to determine an outcome of the video gambling game, and to determine a value payout associated with the outcome of the video gambling game. Each of the conventional gaming units also were programmed to display video images representing a video gambling game, which included a number of user-selectable video gambling games including video poker, video blackjack, video slots, video keno, video bingo, video pachinko games, video card games, video games of chance, and combinations thereof.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In one aspect, the invention is directed to a gaming system that is configured to allow a gaming tournament to be conducted. The gaming system may include a number of gaming units and a host computer. Each of the gaming units may include a value input device, a display unit that is capable of generating video images, and a gaming unit controller operatively coupled to the display unit and the value input device. The gaming unit controller may include a processor and a memory and may be programmed to allow a person to make a wager, to allow a person to select to play the gaming tournament as a single tournament player or a group tournament player, to allow a person to reserve a gaming unit for tournament play, to cause a video image representing a game to be generated on the display unit, and to cause a video image representing an advertisement to be generated on the display unit.
The host computer may be operatively coupled to the number of gaming units. The host computer may include a host interface unit having a camera, a speaker, a microphone, and a keypad, and be capable of receiving audio and/or visual and/or data input from a live person acting as a tournament host during the gaming tournament. The host computer may also include a host computer controller operatively coupled to the host interface unit. The host computer controller may include a processor and a memory operatively coupled to the processor of the host computer, and may be programmed to cause host data to be transmitted to at least one of the gaming units during the gaming tournament. The host data may be generated based on the audio and/or visual input and/or data received from the live person by the host interface unit during the gaming tournament. In addition, the gaming unit controller may be programmed to cause a host display image to be generated on the display unit, the host display image being generated from the host data.
In another aspect, the invention is directed to a gaming system that allows a gaming tournament to be conducted. The gaming system may include a host computer operatively coupled to a number of gaming units. The host computer may include a host computer controller including a processor and a memory operatively coupled to the processor of the host computer. Each of the number of gaming units may include a display unit capable of generating video images, a player interface unit capable of receiving audio and visual and data input from a tournament player, and a gaming unit controller operatively coupled to the display unit and the player interface unit. The gaming unit controller may include a processor and a memory operatively coupled to the processor of the gaming unit controller. The gaming unit controller may be programmed to cause player data to be transmitted from its gaming unit to the host computer during the gaming tournament. The player data may be generated based on audio and/or visual input received by the player interface unit during said gaming tournament. The gaming unit controller may also be programmed to allow a tournament players to make a wager, to cause a video image representing a game to be generated on the display unit, to allow a tournament player to reserve a gaming unit prior to the gaming tournament, and to cause a video image representing an advertisement to be generated on the display unit.
The video image may represent a game selected from the group of games of chance including video poker, video blackjack, video slots, video keno, video bingo, or pachinko, games of skills such as trivia games, or combinations of games of chance and skill.
Additional aspects of the invention will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art in view of the detailed description of various embodiments, which is made with reference to the drawings, a brief description of which is provided below.
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SUMMARY: BACKGROUND
This patent is directed to an apparatus and method for a gaming tournament including a tournament host capable of hosting a gaming tournament among numerous players located at the gaming units of their choosing and capable of real-time, tournament event driven interaction with the numerous players during the gaming tournament. Numerous patents have been issued directed to online tournament games. One such patent, U.S. Pat. No. 6,224,486 issued to Walker et al., describes a method and system for a distributed electronic tournament system which allows remotely located players to be identified via a player tracking system, and allows the identified players to participate in tournaments such as chess, bridge, computer golf games, poker and the like from their homes. In addition to player tracking, the database, maintained at a central location, enables registration of players, acceptance of entry fees, and coordination of prize money.
Another patent directed toward online tournament games, U.S. Pat. No. 6,039,648, issued to Guinn et al., describes an apparatus and method for an automated tournament gaming system utilizing a computer network coupled to a number of gaming machines. The ‘Guinn patent also provides for a multi-site progressive automated tournament. The automation is provided by a central server computer coupled to a tournament schedule computer.
Additionally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,259,613 issued to Marnell, describes a gambling parlor configured to allow an operator to provide video programming, selected from a menu, to monitors mounted adjacent to the gaming machines of the gaming parlor. The operator is outfitted with a variety of audio and video entertainment items including a VCR, an audio tape deck, a camera trained on the operator, a microphone and commercial television broadcasting capability. A player, while gaming, may then select to be entertained by one of the audio or video entertainment items via the nearest video monitor.
Typically, each of the conventional gaming units used in a gaming tournament have been provided with a display unit that is capable of generating video images, a coin or bill acceptor, and a controller with a memory and a processor that controls the overall operation of the gaming unit. The controller was programmed to allow a person to make a wager, to cause video images to be generated on the display unit, to determine an outcome of the video gambling game, and to determine a value payout associated with the outcome of the video gambling game. Each of the conventional gaming units also were programmed to display video images representing a video gambling game, which included a number of user-selectable video gambling games including video poker, video blackjack, video slots, video keno, video bingo, video pachinko games, video card games, video games of chance, and combinations thereof.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In one aspect, the invention is directed to a gaming system that is configured to allow a gaming tournament to be conducted. The gaming system may include a number of gaming units and a host computer. Each of the gaming units may include a value input device, a display unit that is capable of generating video images, and a gaming unit controller operatively coupled to the display unit and the value input device. The gaming unit controller may include a processor and a memory and may be programmed to allow a person to make a wager, to allow a person to select to play the gaming tournament as a single tournament player or a group tournament player, to allow a person to reserve a gaming unit for tournament play, to cause a video image representing a game to be generated on the display unit, and to cause a video image representing an advertisement to be generated on the display unit.
The host computer may be operatively coupled to the number of gaming units. The host computer may include a host interface unit having a camera, a speaker, a microphone, and a keypad, and be capable of receiving audio and/or visual and/or data input from a live person acting as a tournament host during the gaming tournament. The host computer may also include a host computer controller operatively coupled to the host interface unit. The host computer controller may include a processor and a memory operatively coupled to the processor of the host computer, and may be programmed to cause host data to be transmitted to at least one of the gaming units during the gaming tournament. The host data may be generated based on the audio and/or visual input and/or data received from the live person by the host interface unit during the gaming tournament. In addition, the gaming unit controller may be programmed to cause a host display image to be generated on the display unit, the host display image being generated from the host data.
In another aspect, the invention is directed to a gaming system that allows a gaming tournament to be conducted. The gaming system may include a host computer operatively coupled to a number of gaming units. The host computer may include a host computer controller including a processor and a memory operatively coupled to the processor of the host computer. Each of the number of gaming units may include a display unit capable of generating video images, a player interface unit capable of receiving audio and visual and data input from a tournament player, and a gaming unit controller operatively coupled to the display unit and the player interface unit. The gaming unit controller may include a processor and a memory operatively coupled to the processor of the gaming unit controller. The gaming unit controller may be programmed to cause player data to be transmitted from its gaming unit to the host computer during the gaming tournament. The player data may be generated based on audio and/or visual input received by the player interface unit during said gaming tournament. The gaming unit controller may also be programmed to allow a tournament players to make a wager, to cause a video image representing a game to be generated on the display unit, to allow a tournament player to reserve a gaming unit prior to the gaming tournament, and to cause a video image representing an advertisement to be generated on the display unit.
The video image may represent a game selected from the group of games of chance including video poker, video blackjack, video slots, video keno, video bingo, or pachinko, games of skills such as trivia games, or combinations of games of chance and skill.
Additional aspects of the invention will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art in view of the detailed description of various embodiments, which is made with reference to the drawings, a brief description of which is provided below.
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7780278 | FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to printers and in particular inkjet printers.
CO-PENDING APPLICATIONS
The following applications have been filed by the Applicant simultaneously with the present application:
11/688,86311/688,8647,475,9767,364,26511/688,86711/688,86811/688,87111/688,8727,654,640
The disclosures of these co-pending applications are incorporated herein by reference.
CROSS REFERENCES
The following patents or patent applications filed by the applicant or assignee of the present invention are hereby incorporated by cross-reference.
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Some applications have been listed by docket numbers. These will be replaced when application numbers are known.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The Applicant has developed a wide range of printers that employ pagewidth printheads instead of traditional reciprocating printhead designs. Pagewidth designs increase print speeds as the printhead does not traverse back and forth across the page to deposit a line of an image. The pagewidth printhead simply deposits the ink on the media as it moves past at high speeds. Such printheads have made it possible to perform full colour 1600 dpi printing at speeds in the vicinity of 60 pages per minute, speeds previously unattainable with conventional inkjet printers.
Printing at these speeds consumes ink quickly and this gives rise to problems with supplying the printhead with enough ink. Not only are the flow rates higher but distributing the ink along the entire length of a pagewidth printhead is more complex than feeding ink to a relatively small reciprocating printhead.
The printer and the cartridge both need shut-off valves to seal the ink lines while the coupling is disengaged. For user convenience, it is important that the printer valve and cartridge valve actuate each other by opening upon engagement and closing upon disengagement. However, ink caught between the seal of the cartridge valve and the seal of the printer valve will pin itself to the external features of the separating valves. Residual ink on the printer valve is generally not an issue for users. However, residual ink on the cartridge valve can drip off as the cartridge is moved or placed elsewhere. Obviously, these drops of ink can be inconvenient for users.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, in a first aspect the present invention provides a printhead for an inkjet printer, the printhead comprising:
a printhead integrated circuit (IC) with an array of nozzles for ejecting ink;
a support structure for supporting the printhead IC, the support structure having ink conduits for supplying the array of nozzles with ink; and,
a fluidic damper containing gas for compression by pressure pulses in the ink within the ink conduits to dissipate the pressure pulse.
Damping pressure pulses using gas compression can be achieved with small volumes of gas. This preserves a compact design while avoiding any nozzle flooding from transient spikes in the ink pressure.
Optionally, the fluidic damper has an array of cavities for holding the gas such that each cavity is a separate pocket of the gas. Optionally, each of the cavities is partially defined by an ink meniscus when the ink conduits of the support structure are primed with ink.
Optionally, each of the cavities is a blind recess with an opening facing one or more of the ink conduits. Optionally, the opening of each of the blind recesses faces one of the ink conduits only. Optionally, the opening of each of the blind recesses of configured to inhibit ink filling the recess by capillary action.
Optionally, the support structure has an inlet for connecting the ink conduits to an ink supply and an outlet for connecting the ink conduits to a waste ink outlet. Optionally, the openings to each respective cavity have an upstream edge and a downstream edge, the upstream edge contacting the ink before the downstream edge during initial priming of the ink conduits from the ink supply, and the upstream edge having a transition face between the conduit and the cavity interior, the transition face being configured to inhibit from filling the cavity and purging the gas by capillary action during initial priming of the ink conduit.
Optionally, the printhead is a pagewidth printhead and the support structure is elongate with the inlet at one end and the outlet at the other end, and the ink conduits have channels extending longitudinally along the support structure between the inlet and the outlet, and each of the channels have a series ink feed passages spaced along it to provide fluid communication between the channel and the printhead IC. Optionally, the ink feed passages join to the channel along a wall of the channel that is opposite the wall including the openings to the cavities.
Optionally, the support structure is a liquid crystal polymer (LCP). Optionally the support structure is a two-part LCP molding with the channels and the feed passages formed in one part and the cavities formed in the other part.
Optionally, the support structure has a plurality of printhead ICs mounted end to end along one side face. Optionally the printhead ICs are mounted to the side face via an interposed adhesive film having holes for fluid communication between the ink feed passages and the printhead ICs.
Accordingly, in a second the present invention provides a printhead for an inkjet printer, the printhead comprising:
a printhead integrated circuit (IC) having an array of nozzles for ejecting ink; and,
a support structure for mounting the printhead IC within the printer, the support structure having ink conduits for supplying the array of nozzles with ink, the ink conduits have a weir formation to partially obstruct ink flow; wherein,
when priming the printhead, the weir formation preferentially primes an upstream section the ink conduit.
Using a weir downstream of areas that have a propensity to prime incorrectly can force them to prime more quickly or in preference to downstream sections. As long as the downstream section is one that reliably primes, albeit delayed by the weir, there is no disadvantage to priming the upstream section in preference.
Optionally, the weir formation has a top profile configured to provide an anchor point for the meniscus of an advancing ink flow. Optionally, the upstream section has cavities in its uppermost surface that are intended to hold pockets of air after the printhead has been primed. Optionally, the cavities have openings defined in the uppermost surface of the upstream section, the upstream edge of each opening being curved and the downstream edge being relatively sharp so that ink flowing from the upstream direction does get drawn into the cavity by capillary action. Optionally the weir is positioned to momentarily anchor the meniscus of the advancing ink flow and divert it from contact the relatively sharp edge of the opening for one of the cavities. Optionally, the printhead is a cartridge configured for user removal replacement. Optionally, the cartridge is unprimed when installed and subsequently primed by a pump in the printer.
Accordingly, in a third aspect the present invention provides a printhead for an inkjet printer, the printhead comprising:
an elongate array of nozzles for ejecting ink;
a plurality of ink conduits for supplying the array of nozzles with ink, the ink conduits extending adjacent the elongate array; and,
a plurality of pulse dampers, each containing a volume of gas for compression by pressure pulses in the ink conduits, and each being individually in fluid communication with the ink conduits; wherein,
the pulse dampers are distributed along the length of the elongate array.
A pressure pulse moving through an elongate printheads, such as a pagewidth printhead, can be damped at any point in the ink flow line. However, the pulse will cause nozzle flooding as it passes the nozzles in the printhead integrated circuit, regardless of whether it is subsequently dissipated at the damper. By incorporating a number of pulse dampers into the ink supply conduits immediately next to the nozzle array, any pressure spikes are damped at the site where they would otherwise cause detrimental flooding.
Optionally, the plurality of pulse dampers are a series of cavities open at one side to the ink conduits. Optionally, each the cavities has an opening in only one of the ink conduits, each of the ink conduits connect to a corresponding ink supply and the openings are configured such that the cavities do not prime with ink when the ink conduits are primed from the corresponding ink supply.
Optionally, each of the cavities is a blind recess such that the opening defines an area substantially equal to that of the blind end. Optionally, the openings each face one of the ink conduits only. Optionally, the openings are configured to inhibit ink filling the recess by capillary action.
Optionally, the openings to each respective cavity have an upstream edge and a downstream edge, the upstream edge contacting the ink before the downstream edge during initial priming of the ink conduits from the ink supply, and the upstream edge having a transition face between the conduit and the cavity interior, the transition face being configured to inhibit from filling the cavity and purging the gas by capillary action during initial priming of the ink conduit.
Optionally, the array of nozzles is formed in at least one printhead IC mounted to a support structure in which the ink conduits are formed. Optionally, the printhead is a pagewidth printhead and the support structure is elongate with the inlet at one end and the outlet at the other end, and the ink conduits have channels extending longitudinally along the support structure between the inlet and the outlet, and each of the channels have a series ink feed passages spaced along it to provide fluid communication between the channel and the printhead IC. Optionally, the ink feed passages join to the channel along a wall of the channel that is opposite the wall including the openings to the cavities.
Optionally, the support structure is a liquid crystal polymer (LCP). Optionally the support structure is a two-part LCP molding with the channels and the feed passages formed in one part and the cavities formed in the other part.
Optionally, the support structure has a plurality of printhead ICs mounted end to end along one side face. Optionally the printhead ICs are mounted to the side face via an interposed adhesive film having holes for fluid communication between the ink feed passages and the printhead ICs.
Accordingly, in a fourth aspect the present invention provides a printhead for an inkjet printer, the printhead comprising:
a printhead integrated circuit (IC), the printhead IC being elongate and having an array of nozzles for ejecting ink;
a support structure for supporting the printhead IC and having ink outlets for supplying the array of nozzles with ink; wherein,
the ink outlets are spaced along the printhead IC such that the ink outlet spacing decreases at the ends of the printhead IC.
By increasing the number of ink outlets near the end regions, the ink supply is enhanced to compensate for the slower priming of the end nozzles. This, in turn, makes the whole nozzle array prime more consistently to avoid flooding and ink wastage from early priming nozzles (or alternatively, unprimed end nozzles).
Optionally, the support structure supports a plurality of the printhead ICs configured in an end to end relationship, the support structure having a plurality of ink feed passages for supplying ink to the ink outlets such that at least some of the ink feed passages near a junction between ends of two of the printhead ICs, supplies ink to two of the ink outlets, the two ink outlets being on different sides of the junction. Optionally, the support structure has a molded ink manifold in which the ink feed passages are formed and a polymer film in which the ink outlets are formed, such that the polymer film is mounted to the molded ink manifold and the printhead ICs are mounted to the other side of the polymer film. Optionally, the printhead IC's have ink inlet channels on one side of a wafer substrate and the array of nozzles formed on the other side of the wafer substrate such that each of the ink inlet channels connects to at least one of the ink outlets.
Optionally the support structure has a fluidic damper for damping pressure pulses in the ink being supplied to the printhead ICs. Optionally, the fluidic damper has an array of cavities for holding a volume of gas such that each cavity is a separate pocket of the gas. Optionally, each of the cavities is partially defined by an ink meniscus formed when the ink conduits of the support structure are primed with ink.
Optionally, the ink manifold has a series in main channels extending parallel to the printhead ICs, the main channels supplying ink to the ink feed passages, and each of the cavities is a blind recess with an opening facing one or more of the main channels. Optionally, the opening of each of the blind recesses faces one of the main channels only. Optionally, the opening of each of the blind recesses of configured to inhibit ink filling the recess by capillary action.
Optionally, the support structure has an inlet for connecting the ink conduits to an ink supply and an outlet for connecting the ink conduits to a waste ink outlet. Optionally, the openings to each respective cavity have an upstream edge and a downstream edge, the upstream edge contacting the ink before the downstream edge during initial priming of the main channels from the ink supply, and the upstream edge having a transition face between the conduit and the cavity interior, the transition face being configured to inhibit from filling the cavity and purging the gas by capillary action during initial priming of the ink conduit.
Optionally, the printhead is a pagewidth printhead and the support structure is elongate with the inlet at one end and the outlet at the other end, and the main channels extend longitudinally along the support structure between the inlet and the outlet, and the ink feed passages join to one of the main channels along a wall of the main channel that is opposite the wall including the openings to the cavities.
Optionally, the support structure is a liquid crystal polymer (LCP). Optionally the support structure is a two-part LCP molding with the channels and the feed passages formed in one part and the cavities formed in the other part.
Accordingly, in a fifth aspect the present invention provides a detachable fluid coupling for establishing sealed fluid communication between an inkjet printhead and an ink supply; the detachable coupling comprising:
a fixed valve member defining a valve seat;
a sealing collar for sealing engagement with the valve seat;
a resilient sleeve having one annular end fixed relative to the fixed valve member, and the other annular end engaging the sealing collar to bias it into sealing engagement with the valve seat; and,
a conduit opening that is movable relative to the fixed valve member for engaging the sealing collar to unseal it from the valve seat; wherein,
unsealing the sealing collar from the valve seat compresses the resilient sleeve such that an intermediate section of the sleeve displaces outwardly relative to the annular ends.
With a resilient sleeve that buckles or folds outwardly, the diameter of the coupling is smaller that the conventional couplings that use an annular resilient element that biases the valve shut remaining residual tension. With a smaller outer diameter, the couplings for all the different ink colors can be positioned in a smaller more compact interface.
Optionally, the intermediate section of the resilient sleeve is an annular fold to expand outwardly when the sleeve is axially compressed. Optionally, the resilient sleeve applies a restorative force to the sealing collar when the conduit opening is withdrawn such that the restorative force increases as the axial length increases such that a maximum restorative force is applied to the sealing collar when it is sealed against the valve seat. Optionally, the resilient sleeve connects to an inner diameter of the sealing collar. Optionally, both of the annular ends of the resilient sleeve are substantially the same size.
Optionally, the sealing collar has resilient material where the conduit opening engages it so that a fluid tight seal forms upon such engagement. Optionally, the fluid tight seal between the conduit opening and the sealing collar forms before the sealing collar unseals from the valve seat.
Optionally, the fixed valve member has a hollow section that forms part of a fluid flow path through the coupling when the coupling is open. Optionally the fixed valve member and the resilient sleeve are on a downstream side of the coupling and the conduit opening is on an upstream side. Optionally, the downstream side is part of a cartridge with a replaceable printhead and the upstream side is part of a printer in which the cartridge can be installed.
Accordingly, in a sixth aspect the present invention provides a filter for an inkjet printer, the filter comprising:
a chamber divided into an upstream section and a downstream section by a filter membrane;
an inlet conduit for establishing fluid communication between an ink supply and the upstream section; and,
an outlet conduit for establishing fluid communication between the downstream section and a printhead; wherein during use,
at least part of the inlet conduit is elevated relative to the filter membrane.
By elevating the inlet conduit relative to the filter membrane, it acts as a bubble trap to retain bubbles that would otherwise obstruct the filter. This allows the filter size to be reduced for a more compact overall design.
Optionally, the chamber has an internal height and width corresponding to the dimensions of the filter membrane and a thickness that is substantially less that height and width dimensions.
Configuring the chamber in this way keeps the overall volume to a minimum and places the filter membrane in a generally vertical plane. The buoyancy of any bubbles in the chamber will urge them closer to the top of the chamber and possibly back into the inlet conduit. This discourages bubbles from pinning to the upstream face of the filter membrane.
Optionally, the outlet conduit connects to the downstream section at its point with the lowest elevation during use. If bubbles do start to obstruct the filter, they will obstruct the lowest areas of the chamber last. Optionally the filter membrane is rectangular and the inlet connects to the upstream section at one corner and the outlet conduit connects to the diagonally opposed corner.
Optionally, the downstream section has a support formation for the filter membrane to bear against such that it remains spaced from an opposing wall of the downstream section. Optionally the opposing wall is also a wall that partially defines the upstream section of a like chamber housing a like filter member, such that a number of filters are configured side-by-side.
Optionally, the filter is installed in a component of the inkjet printer that is intended to be periodically replaced.
Optionally, the filter is installed in a cartridge with a pagewidth printhead. Optionally the cartridge has a detachable ink coupling upstream of the filter for connection to an ink supply.
Accordingly, in a seventh aspect the present invention provides an ink coupling for establishing fluid communication between an inkjet printer and a replaceable cartridge for installation in the printer, the coupling comprising:
a cartridge valve on the cartridge side of the coupling; and,
a printer conduit on the printer side of the coupling, the cartridge valve and the printer conduit having complementary formations configured to form a coupling seal when brought into engagement; wherein,
the cartridge valve is biased closed and configured to open when brought into engagement with the printer conduit; such that,
upon disengagement, the coupling seal breaks after the cartridge valve closes, and an ink meniscus forms and recedes from the complementary formations as they separate, the cartridge valve having external surfaces configured so that the meniscus cleanly detaches from the printer conduit and only pins to the printer conduit surfaces.
The invention keeps residual ink off the exterior of the cartridge valve by careful design of the external surfaces with respect to known receding contact angle of the ink meniscus. As the coupling seal breaks and the meniscus forms, the ink properties and hydrophilicity of the respective valve materials will determine where the meniscus stops moving and eventually pins itself. Knowing the ink properties and that the direction of disengagement, the valve materials and exterior design can make the meniscus pin to the printer conduits only.
Optionally, at least one of the external surfaces of the cartridge valve has less hydrophilicity than at least one of the external surfaces on the printer conduit. Optionally, the cartridge engages from the printer by moving vertically downwards and disengages by moving vertically upwards. Optionally, upon engagement, the coupling seal forms before the cartridge valve opens. Optionally, the cartridge valve has a fixed valve member defining a valve seat and a sealing collar for sealing engagement with the valve seat, and a resilient sleeve having one annular end fixed relative to the fixed valve member, and the other annular end engaging the sealing collar to bias it into sealing engagement with the valve seat; and,
the printer conduit has a conduit opening; such that,
an axial end of the conduit opening and the sealing collar provide the complementary formations on the printer conduit and the cartridge valve respectively.
Optionally, the conduit opening seals against the sealing collar before opening the cartridge valve. Optionally, the resilient sleeve and the sealing collar are integrally formed. Optionally, the resilient sleeve and sealing collar are silicone. Optionally, the fixed valve member is formed from poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET). Optionally, the conduit opening is formed from poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET).
Optionally, the cartridge has a pagewidth printhead and the printer has an ink reservoir for supplying the printhead via the coupling.
Accordingly, in an eighth aspect the present invention provides a printhead for an inkjet printer, the printhead comprising:
a printhead integrated circuit (IC) having an array of nozzles for ejecting ink; and,
a support structure for mounting the printhead IC within the printer, the support structure having ink conduits for supplying the array of nozzles with ink, the ink conduits have a weir formation to partially obstruct ink flow; wherein, when priming the printhead, the weir formation preferentially primes an upstream section the ink conduit.
Using a weir downstream of areas that have a propensity to prime incorrectly can force them to prime more quickly or in preference to downstream sections. As long as the downstream section is one that reliably primes, albeit delayed by the weir, there is no disadvantage to priming the upstream section in preference.
Optionally, the weir formation has a top profile configured to provide an anchor point for the meniscus of an advancing ink flow. Optionally, the upstream section has cavities in its uppermost surface that are intended to hold pockets of air after the printhead has been primed. Optionally, the cavities have openings defined in the uppermost surface of the upstream section, the upstream edge of each opening being curved and the downstream edge being relatively sharp so that ink flowing from the upstream direction does get drawn into the cavity by capillary action. Optionally the weir is positioned to momentarily anchor the meniscus of the advancing ink flow and divert it from contact the relatively sharp edge of the opening for one of the cavities. Optionally, the printhead is a cartridge configured for user removal replacement. Optionally, the cartridge is unprimed when installed and subsequently primed by a pump in the printer.
Accordingly, in a ninth aspect the present invention provides a printhead for an inkjet printer, the printhead comprising:
a printhead integrated circuit (IC) having an array of nozzles for ejecting ink; and,
a support structure for mounting the printhead IC within the printer, the support structure having ink conduits for supplying the array of nozzles with ink, the ink conduits have a meniscus anchor for pinning part of an advancing meniscus of ink to divert the advancing meniscus from a path it would otherwise take.
If a printhead consistently fails to prime correctly because a meniscus pins at one or more points, then the advancing meniscus can be directed so that it does not contact these critical points. Deliberately incorporating a discontinuity into an ink conduit immediately upstream of the problem area can temporarily pin to the meniscus and skew it to one side of the conduit and away from the undesirable pinning point. Once flow has been initiated into the side branch or downstream of the undesirable pinning point, it is not necessary for the anchor to hold the ink meniscus any longer and priming can continue.
Optionally, the meniscus anchor is an abrupt protrusion into the ink conduit. Optionally, the meniscus anchor is a weir formation to partially obstruct ink flow such that, when priming the printhead, the weir formation preferentially primes an upstream section the ink conduit.
Optionally, the upstream section has cavities in its uppermost surface that are intended to hold pockets of air after the printhead has been primed. Optionally, the cavities have openings defined in the uppermost surface of the upstream section, the upstream edge of each opening being curved and the downstream edge being relatively sharp so that ink flowing from the upstream direction does get drawn into the cavity by capillary action. Optionally the weir is positioned to momentarily anchor the meniscus of the advancing ink flow and divert it from contact the relatively sharp edge of the opening for one of the cavities. Optionally, the printhead is a cartridge configured for user removal replacement. Optionally, the cartridge is unprimed when installed and subsequently primed by a pump in the printer.
Accordingly, in a tenth aspect the present invention provides a printhead for an inkjet printer, the inkjet printer having a print engine controller for receiving print data and sending it to the printhead, the printhead comprising:
a printhead IC with an array of nozzles for ejecting ink;
a support structure for mounting the printhead IC in the printer adjacent a paper path, the printhead IC being mounted on a face of the support structure that, in use, faces the paper path;
a flexible printed circuit board (flex PCB) having drive circuitry for operating the array of nozzles on the printhead IC, the drive circuitry having circuit components connected by traces in the flex PCB, the flex PCB also having contacts for receiving print data from the print engine controller, the flex PCB at the contacts being mounted to the support structure on a face that does not face the paper path such that the flex PCB extends through a bent section between the printhead IC and the contacts; wherein,
the printhead IC and the circuit components are adjacent each other and separated from the contacts by the bent section of the flex PCB.
Optionally, the support structure has a curved surface to support the bent section of the flex PCB. The curved surface reduces the likelihood of trace cracking by holding the flex PCB at a set radius rather than allowing the flex to follow an irregular curve in the bent section, and thereby risking localized points of high stress on the traces.
Optionally the flex PCB is anchored to the support structure at the circuit components. Optionally the circuit components include capacitors that discharge during a firing sequence of the nozzles on the printhead IC. Optionally the support structure is a liquid crystal polymer (LCP) molding. LCP can be molded such that its coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) is roughly the same as that of the silicon substrate in the printhead IC.
Optionally the LCP molding has ink conduits for supplying ink to the printhead IC. Optionally the ink conduits lead to outlets in the face of the LCP molding on which the printhead IC is mounted.
Optionally the printhead is a pagewidth printhead. Optionally the support structure has a cartridge bearing section located opposite the contacts, and a force transfer member extending from the contacts to cartridge bearing section such that when installed in the printer, pressure from the printer's complementary contacts is transferred directly to the cartridge bearing section via the force transfer member. Optionally the bearing section includes a locating formation for engagement with a complementary formation on the printer. Optionally, the locating formation is a ridge with a rounded distal end such that the cartridge can be rotated into position once the ridge has engaged the printer.
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SUMMARY: FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to printers and in particular inkjet printers.
CO-PENDING APPLICATIONS
The following applications have been filed by the Applicant simultaneously with the present application:
11/688,86311/688,8647,475,9767,364,26511/688,86711/688,86811/688,87111/688,8727,654,640
The disclosures of these co-pending applications are incorporated herein by reference.
CROSS REFERENCES
The following patents or patent applications filed by the applicant or assignee of the present invention are hereby incorporated by cross-reference.
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Some applications have been listed by docket numbers. These will be replaced when application numbers are known.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The Applicant has developed a wide range of printers that employ pagewidth printheads instead of traditional reciprocating printhead designs. Pagewidth designs increase print speeds as the printhead does not traverse back and forth across the page to deposit a line of an image. The pagewidth printhead simply deposits the ink on the media as it moves past at high speeds. Such printheads have made it possible to perform full colour 1600 dpi printing at speeds in the vicinity of 60 pages per minute, speeds previously unattainable with conventional inkjet printers.
Printing at these speeds consumes ink quickly and this gives rise to problems with supplying the printhead with enough ink. Not only are the flow rates higher but distributing the ink along the entire length of a pagewidth printhead is more complex than feeding ink to a relatively small reciprocating printhead.
The printer and the cartridge both need shut-off valves to seal the ink lines while the coupling is disengaged. For user convenience, it is important that the printer valve and cartridge valve actuate each other by opening upon engagement and closing upon disengagement. However, ink caught between the seal of the cartridge valve and the seal of the printer valve will pin itself to the external features of the separating valves. Residual ink on the printer valve is generally not an issue for users. However, residual ink on the cartridge valve can drip off as the cartridge is moved or placed elsewhere. Obviously, these drops of ink can be inconvenient for users.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, in a first aspect the present invention provides a printhead for an inkjet printer, the printhead comprising:
a printhead integrated circuit (IC) with an array of nozzles for ejecting ink;
a support structure for supporting the printhead IC, the support structure having ink conduits for supplying the array of nozzles with ink; and,
a fluidic damper containing gas for compression by pressure pulses in the ink within the ink conduits to dissipate the pressure pulse.
Damping pressure pulses using gas compression can be achieved with small volumes of gas. This preserves a compact design while avoiding any nozzle flooding from transient spikes in the ink pressure.
Optionally, the fluidic damper has an array of cavities for holding the gas such that each cavity is a separate pocket of the gas. Optionally, each of the cavities is partially defined by an ink meniscus when the ink conduits of the support structure are primed with ink.
Optionally, each of the cavities is a blind recess with an opening facing one or more of the ink conduits. Optionally, the opening of each of the blind recesses faces one of the ink conduits only. Optionally, the opening of each of the blind recesses of configured to inhibit ink filling the recess by capillary action.
Optionally, the support structure has an inlet for connecting the ink conduits to an ink supply and an outlet for connecting the ink conduits to a waste ink outlet. Optionally, the openings to each respective cavity have an upstream edge and a downstream edge, the upstream edge contacting the ink before the downstream edge during initial priming of the ink conduits from the ink supply, and the upstream edge having a transition face between the conduit and the cavity interior, the transition face being configured to inhibit from filling the cavity and purging the gas by capillary action during initial priming of the ink conduit.
Optionally, the printhead is a pagewidth printhead and the support structure is elongate with the inlet at one end and the outlet at the other end, and the ink conduits have channels extending longitudinally along the support structure between the inlet and the outlet, and each of the channels have a series ink feed passages spaced along it to provide fluid communication between the channel and the printhead IC. Optionally, the ink feed passages join to the channel along a wall of the channel that is opposite the wall including the openings to the cavities.
Optionally, the support structure is a liquid crystal polymer (LCP). Optionally the support structure is a two-part LCP molding with the channels and the feed passages formed in one part and the cavities formed in the other part.
Optionally, the support structure has a plurality of printhead ICs mounted end to end along one side face. Optionally the printhead ICs are mounted to the side face via an interposed adhesive film having holes for fluid communication between the ink feed passages and the printhead ICs.
Accordingly, in a second the present invention provides a printhead for an inkjet printer, the printhead comprising:
a printhead integrated circuit (IC) having an array of nozzles for ejecting ink; and,
a support structure for mounting the printhead IC within the printer, the support structure having ink conduits for supplying the array of nozzles with ink, the ink conduits have a weir formation to partially obstruct ink flow; wherein,
when priming the printhead, the weir formation preferentially primes an upstream section the ink conduit.
Using a weir downstream of areas that have a propensity to prime incorrectly can force them to prime more quickly or in preference to downstream sections. As long as the downstream section is one that reliably primes, albeit delayed by the weir, there is no disadvantage to priming the upstream section in preference.
Optionally, the weir formation has a top profile configured to provide an anchor point for the meniscus of an advancing ink flow. Optionally, the upstream section has cavities in its uppermost surface that are intended to hold pockets of air after the printhead has been primed. Optionally, the cavities have openings defined in the uppermost surface of the upstream section, the upstream edge of each opening being curved and the downstream edge being relatively sharp so that ink flowing from the upstream direction does get drawn into the cavity by capillary action. Optionally the weir is positioned to momentarily anchor the meniscus of the advancing ink flow and divert it from contact the relatively sharp edge of the opening for one of the cavities. Optionally, the printhead is a cartridge configured for user removal replacement. Optionally, the cartridge is unprimed when installed and subsequently primed by a pump in the printer.
Accordingly, in a third aspect the present invention provides a printhead for an inkjet printer, the printhead comprising:
an elongate array of nozzles for ejecting ink;
a plurality of ink conduits for supplying the array of nozzles with ink, the ink conduits extending adjacent the elongate array; and,
a plurality of pulse dampers, each containing a volume of gas for compression by pressure pulses in the ink conduits, and each being individually in fluid communication with the ink conduits; wherein,
the pulse dampers are distributed along the length of the elongate array.
A pressure pulse moving through an elongate printheads, such as a pagewidth printhead, can be damped at any point in the ink flow line. However, the pulse will cause nozzle flooding as it passes the nozzles in the printhead integrated circuit, regardless of whether it is subsequently dissipated at the damper. By incorporating a number of pulse dampers into the ink supply conduits immediately next to the nozzle array, any pressure spikes are damped at the site where they would otherwise cause detrimental flooding.
Optionally, the plurality of pulse dampers are a series of cavities open at one side to the ink conduits. Optionally, each the cavities has an opening in only one of the ink conduits, each of the ink conduits connect to a corresponding ink supply and the openings are configured such that the cavities do not prime with ink when the ink conduits are primed from the corresponding ink supply.
Optionally, each of the cavities is a blind recess such that the opening defines an area substantially equal to that of the blind end. Optionally, the openings each face one of the ink conduits only. Optionally, the openings are configured to inhibit ink filling the recess by capillary action.
Optionally, the openings to each respective cavity have an upstream edge and a downstream edge, the upstream edge contacting the ink before the downstream edge during initial priming of the ink conduits from the ink supply, and the upstream edge having a transition face between the conduit and the cavity interior, the transition face being configured to inhibit from filling the cavity and purging the gas by capillary action during initial priming of the ink conduit.
Optionally, the array of nozzles is formed in at least one printhead IC mounted to a support structure in which the ink conduits are formed. Optionally, the printhead is a pagewidth printhead and the support structure is elongate with the inlet at one end and the outlet at the other end, and the ink conduits have channels extending longitudinally along the support structure between the inlet and the outlet, and each of the channels have a series ink feed passages spaced along it to provide fluid communication between the channel and the printhead IC. Optionally, the ink feed passages join to the channel along a wall of the channel that is opposite the wall including the openings to the cavities.
Optionally, the support structure is a liquid crystal polymer (LCP). Optionally the support structure is a two-part LCP molding with the channels and the feed passages formed in one part and the cavities formed in the other part.
Optionally, the support structure has a plurality of printhead ICs mounted end to end along one side face. Optionally the printhead ICs are mounted to the side face via an interposed adhesive film having holes for fluid communication between the ink feed passages and the printhead ICs.
Accordingly, in a fourth aspect the present invention provides a printhead for an inkjet printer, the printhead comprising:
a printhead integrated circuit (IC), the printhead IC being elongate and having an array of nozzles for ejecting ink;
a support structure for supporting the printhead IC and having ink outlets for supplying the array of nozzles with ink; wherein,
the ink outlets are spaced along the printhead IC such that the ink outlet spacing decreases at the ends of the printhead IC.
By increasing the number of ink outlets near the end regions, the ink supply is enhanced to compensate for the slower priming of the end nozzles. This, in turn, makes the whole nozzle array prime more consistently to avoid flooding and ink wastage from early priming nozzles (or alternatively, unprimed end nozzles).
Optionally, the support structure supports a plurality of the printhead ICs configured in an end to end relationship, the support structure having a plurality of ink feed passages for supplying ink to the ink outlets such that at least some of the ink feed passages near a junction between ends of two of the printhead ICs, supplies ink to two of the ink outlets, the two ink outlets being on different sides of the junction. Optionally, the support structure has a molded ink manifold in which the ink feed passages are formed and a polymer film in which the ink outlets are formed, such that the polymer film is mounted to the molded ink manifold and the printhead ICs are mounted to the other side of the polymer film. Optionally, the printhead IC's have ink inlet channels on one side of a wafer substrate and the array of nozzles formed on the other side of the wafer substrate such that each of the ink inlet channels connects to at least one of the ink outlets.
Optionally the support structure has a fluidic damper for damping pressure pulses in the ink being supplied to the printhead ICs. Optionally, the fluidic damper has an array of cavities for holding a volume of gas such that each cavity is a separate pocket of the gas. Optionally, each of the cavities is partially defined by an ink meniscus formed when the ink conduits of the support structure are primed with ink.
Optionally, the ink manifold has a series in main channels extending parallel to the printhead ICs, the main channels supplying ink to the ink feed passages, and each of the cavities is a blind recess with an opening facing one or more of the main channels. Optionally, the opening of each of the blind recesses faces one of the main channels only. Optionally, the opening of each of the blind recesses of configured to inhibit ink filling the recess by capillary action.
Optionally, the support structure has an inlet for connecting the ink conduits to an ink supply and an outlet for connecting the ink conduits to a waste ink outlet. Optionally, the openings to each respective cavity have an upstream edge and a downstream edge, the upstream edge contacting the ink before the downstream edge during initial priming of the main channels from the ink supply, and the upstream edge having a transition face between the conduit and the cavity interior, the transition face being configured to inhibit from filling the cavity and purging the gas by capillary action during initial priming of the ink conduit.
Optionally, the printhead is a pagewidth printhead and the support structure is elongate with the inlet at one end and the outlet at the other end, and the main channels extend longitudinally along the support structure between the inlet and the outlet, and the ink feed passages join to one of the main channels along a wall of the main channel that is opposite the wall including the openings to the cavities.
Optionally, the support structure is a liquid crystal polymer (LCP). Optionally the support structure is a two-part LCP molding with the channels and the feed passages formed in one part and the cavities formed in the other part.
Accordingly, in a fifth aspect the present invention provides a detachable fluid coupling for establishing sealed fluid communication between an inkjet printhead and an ink supply; the detachable coupling comprising:
a fixed valve member defining a valve seat;
a sealing collar for sealing engagement with the valve seat;
a resilient sleeve having one annular end fixed relative to the fixed valve member, and the other annular end engaging the sealing collar to bias it into sealing engagement with the valve seat; and,
a conduit opening that is movable relative to the fixed valve member for engaging the sealing collar to unseal it from the valve seat; wherein,
unsealing the sealing collar from the valve seat compresses the resilient sleeve such that an intermediate section of the sleeve displaces outwardly relative to the annular ends.
With a resilient sleeve that buckles or folds outwardly, the diameter of the coupling is smaller that the conventional couplings that use an annular resilient element that biases the valve shut remaining residual tension. With a smaller outer diameter, the couplings for all the different ink colors can be positioned in a smaller more compact interface.
Optionally, the intermediate section of the resilient sleeve is an annular fold to expand outwardly when the sleeve is axially compressed. Optionally, the resilient sleeve applies a restorative force to the sealing collar when the conduit opening is withdrawn such that the restorative force increases as the axial length increases such that a maximum restorative force is applied to the sealing collar when it is sealed against the valve seat. Optionally, the resilient sleeve connects to an inner diameter of the sealing collar. Optionally, both of the annular ends of the resilient sleeve are substantially the same size.
Optionally, the sealing collar has resilient material where the conduit opening engages it so that a fluid tight seal forms upon such engagement. Optionally, the fluid tight seal between the conduit opening and the sealing collar forms before the sealing collar unseals from the valve seat.
Optionally, the fixed valve member has a hollow section that forms part of a fluid flow path through the coupling when the coupling is open. Optionally the fixed valve member and the resilient sleeve are on a downstream side of the coupling and the conduit opening is on an upstream side. Optionally, the downstream side is part of a cartridge with a replaceable printhead and the upstream side is part of a printer in which the cartridge can be installed.
Accordingly, in a sixth aspect the present invention provides a filter for an inkjet printer, the filter comprising:
a chamber divided into an upstream section and a downstream section by a filter membrane;
an inlet conduit for establishing fluid communication between an ink supply and the upstream section; and,
an outlet conduit for establishing fluid communication between the downstream section and a printhead; wherein during use,
at least part of the inlet conduit is elevated relative to the filter membrane.
By elevating the inlet conduit relative to the filter membrane, it acts as a bubble trap to retain bubbles that would otherwise obstruct the filter. This allows the filter size to be reduced for a more compact overall design.
Optionally, the chamber has an internal height and width corresponding to the dimensions of the filter membrane and a thickness that is substantially less that height and width dimensions.
Configuring the chamber in this way keeps the overall volume to a minimum and places the filter membrane in a generally vertical plane. The buoyancy of any bubbles in the chamber will urge them closer to the top of the chamber and possibly back into the inlet conduit. This discourages bubbles from pinning to the upstream face of the filter membrane.
Optionally, the outlet conduit connects to the downstream section at its point with the lowest elevation during use. If bubbles do start to obstruct the filter, they will obstruct the lowest areas of the chamber last. Optionally the filter membrane is rectangular and the inlet connects to the upstream section at one corner and the outlet conduit connects to the diagonally opposed corner.
Optionally, the downstream section has a support formation for the filter membrane to bear against such that it remains spaced from an opposing wall of the downstream section. Optionally the opposing wall is also a wall that partially defines the upstream section of a like chamber housing a like filter member, such that a number of filters are configured side-by-side.
Optionally, the filter is installed in a component of the inkjet printer that is intended to be periodically replaced.
Optionally, the filter is installed in a cartridge with a pagewidth printhead. Optionally the cartridge has a detachable ink coupling upstream of the filter for connection to an ink supply.
Accordingly, in a seventh aspect the present invention provides an ink coupling for establishing fluid communication between an inkjet printer and a replaceable cartridge for installation in the printer, the coupling comprising:
a cartridge valve on the cartridge side of the coupling; and,
a printer conduit on the printer side of the coupling, the cartridge valve and the printer conduit having complementary formations configured to form a coupling seal when brought into engagement; wherein,
the cartridge valve is biased closed and configured to open when brought into engagement with the printer conduit; such that,
upon disengagement, the coupling seal breaks after the cartridge valve closes, and an ink meniscus forms and recedes from the complementary formations as they separate, the cartridge valve having external surfaces configured so that the meniscus cleanly detaches from the printer conduit and only pins to the printer conduit surfaces.
The invention keeps residual ink off the exterior of the cartridge valve by careful design of the external surfaces with respect to known receding contact angle of the ink meniscus. As the coupling seal breaks and the meniscus forms, the ink properties and hydrophilicity of the respective valve materials will determine where the meniscus stops moving and eventually pins itself. Knowing the ink properties and that the direction of disengagement, the valve materials and exterior design can make the meniscus pin to the printer conduits only.
Optionally, at least one of the external surfaces of the cartridge valve has less hydrophilicity than at least one of the external surfaces on the printer conduit. Optionally, the cartridge engages from the printer by moving vertically downwards and disengages by moving vertically upwards. Optionally, upon engagement, the coupling seal forms before the cartridge valve opens. Optionally, the cartridge valve has a fixed valve member defining a valve seat and a sealing collar for sealing engagement with the valve seat, and a resilient sleeve having one annular end fixed relative to the fixed valve member, and the other annular end engaging the sealing collar to bias it into sealing engagement with the valve seat; and,
the printer conduit has a conduit opening; such that,
an axial end of the conduit opening and the sealing collar provide the complementary formations on the printer conduit and the cartridge valve respectively.
Optionally, the conduit opening seals against the sealing collar before opening the cartridge valve. Optionally, the resilient sleeve and the sealing collar are integrally formed. Optionally, the resilient sleeve and sealing collar are silicone. Optionally, the fixed valve member is formed from poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET). Optionally, the conduit opening is formed from poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET).
Optionally, the cartridge has a pagewidth printhead and the printer has an ink reservoir for supplying the printhead via the coupling.
Accordingly, in an eighth aspect the present invention provides a printhead for an inkjet printer, the printhead comprising:
a printhead integrated circuit (IC) having an array of nozzles for ejecting ink; and,
a support structure for mounting the printhead IC within the printer, the support structure having ink conduits for supplying the array of nozzles with ink, the ink conduits have a weir formation to partially obstruct ink flow; wherein, when priming the printhead, the weir formation preferentially primes an upstream section the ink conduit.
Using a weir downstream of areas that have a propensity to prime incorrectly can force them to prime more quickly or in preference to downstream sections. As long as the downstream section is one that reliably primes, albeit delayed by the weir, there is no disadvantage to priming the upstream section in preference.
Optionally, the weir formation has a top profile configured to provide an anchor point for the meniscus of an advancing ink flow. Optionally, the upstream section has cavities in its uppermost surface that are intended to hold pockets of air after the printhead has been primed. Optionally, the cavities have openings defined in the uppermost surface of the upstream section, the upstream edge of each opening being curved and the downstream edge being relatively sharp so that ink flowing from the upstream direction does get drawn into the cavity by capillary action. Optionally the weir is positioned to momentarily anchor the meniscus of the advancing ink flow and divert it from contact the relatively sharp edge of the opening for one of the cavities. Optionally, the printhead is a cartridge configured for user removal replacement. Optionally, the cartridge is unprimed when installed and subsequently primed by a pump in the printer.
Accordingly, in a ninth aspect the present invention provides a printhead for an inkjet printer, the printhead comprising:
a printhead integrated circuit (IC) having an array of nozzles for ejecting ink; and,
a support structure for mounting the printhead IC within the printer, the support structure having ink conduits for supplying the array of nozzles with ink, the ink conduits have a meniscus anchor for pinning part of an advancing meniscus of ink to divert the advancing meniscus from a path it would otherwise take.
If a printhead consistently fails to prime correctly because a meniscus pins at one or more points, then the advancing meniscus can be directed so that it does not contact these critical points. Deliberately incorporating a discontinuity into an ink conduit immediately upstream of the problem area can temporarily pin to the meniscus and skew it to one side of the conduit and away from the undesirable pinning point. Once flow has been initiated into the side branch or downstream of the undesirable pinning point, it is not necessary for the anchor to hold the ink meniscus any longer and priming can continue.
Optionally, the meniscus anchor is an abrupt protrusion into the ink conduit. Optionally, the meniscus anchor is a weir formation to partially obstruct ink flow such that, when priming the printhead, the weir formation preferentially primes an upstream section the ink conduit.
Optionally, the upstream section has cavities in its uppermost surface that are intended to hold pockets of air after the printhead has been primed. Optionally, the cavities have openings defined in the uppermost surface of the upstream section, the upstream edge of each opening being curved and the downstream edge being relatively sharp so that ink flowing from the upstream direction does get drawn into the cavity by capillary action. Optionally the weir is positioned to momentarily anchor the meniscus of the advancing ink flow and divert it from contact the relatively sharp edge of the opening for one of the cavities. Optionally, the printhead is a cartridge configured for user removal replacement. Optionally, the cartridge is unprimed when installed and subsequently primed by a pump in the printer.
Accordingly, in a tenth aspect the present invention provides a printhead for an inkjet printer, the inkjet printer having a print engine controller for receiving print data and sending it to the printhead, the printhead comprising:
a printhead IC with an array of nozzles for ejecting ink;
a support structure for mounting the printhead IC in the printer adjacent a paper path, the printhead IC being mounted on a face of the support structure that, in use, faces the paper path;
a flexible printed circuit board (flex PCB) having drive circuitry for operating the array of nozzles on the printhead IC, the drive circuitry having circuit components connected by traces in the flex PCB, the flex PCB also having contacts for receiving print data from the print engine controller, the flex PCB at the contacts being mounted to the support structure on a face that does not face the paper path such that the flex PCB extends through a bent section between the printhead IC and the contacts; wherein,
the printhead IC and the circuit components are adjacent each other and separated from the contacts by the bent section of the flex PCB.
Optionally, the support structure has a curved surface to support the bent section of the flex PCB. The curved surface reduces the likelihood of trace cracking by holding the flex PCB at a set radius rather than allowing the flex to follow an irregular curve in the bent section, and thereby risking localized points of high stress on the traces.
Optionally the flex PCB is anchored to the support structure at the circuit components. Optionally the circuit components include capacitors that discharge during a firing sequence of the nozzles on the printhead IC. Optionally the support structure is a liquid crystal polymer (LCP) molding. LCP can be molded such that its coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) is roughly the same as that of the silicon substrate in the printhead IC.
Optionally the LCP molding has ink conduits for supplying ink to the printhead IC. Optionally the ink conduits lead to outlets in the face of the LCP molding on which the printhead IC is mounted.
Optionally the printhead is a pagewidth printhead. Optionally the support structure has a cartridge bearing section located opposite the contacts, and a force transfer member extending from the contacts to cartridge bearing section such that when installed in the printer, pressure from the printer's complementary contacts is transferred directly to the cartridge bearing section via the force transfer member. Optionally the bearing section includes a locating formation for engagement with a complementary formation on the printer. Optionally, the locating formation is a ridge with a rounded distal end such that the cartridge can be rotated into position once the ridge has engaged the printer.
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7795288 | This application is the National Stage of Application No. PCT/EP2004/012892, filed on Nov. 12, 2004. The contents of both are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
The invention relates to thiazole and pyrazole derivatives and to processes for the preparation thereof, to pharmaceutical compositions comprising such derivatives and to the use of such derivatives for the preparation of pharmaceutical compositions for the treatment especially of a proliferative disease, such as a tumour disease, in particular such diseases which respond to an inhibition of the Flt-3 kinase.
The invention relates to thiazole and pyrazole derivatives of formula I
wherein
Q is S and X is C, or
Q is CH and X is N;
R1is unsubstituted or substituted phenyl; and
R2is unsubstituted or substituted aryl or heteroaryl;
or a salt of the said compounds.
The general terms used hereinbefore and hereinafter preferably have, within this disclosure, the following meanings, unless otherwise indicated:
Where the plural form is used for compounds, salts, pharmaceutical preparations, diseases and the like, this is intended to mean also a single compound, salt, or the like.
Where compounds of formula I are mentioned which can form tautomers, it is meant to include also the tautomers of such compounds of formula I.
In view of the close relationship between the novel compounds in free form and in the form of their salts, including those salts that can be used as intermediates, for example in the purification or identification of the novel compounds, hereinbefore and hereinafter any reference to the free compounds is to be understood as referring also to the corresponding salts, as appropriate and expedient.
Salts are preferably the pharmaceutically acceptable salts of compounds of formula I if they are carrying salt-forming groups.
Salt-forming groups are groups or radicals having basic or acidic properties. Compounds having at least one basic group or at least one basic radical, for example amino, a secondary amino group not forming a peptide bond or a pyridyl radical, may form acid addition salts, for example with inorganic acids, such as hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid or a phosphoric acid, or with suitable organic carboxylic or sulfonic acids, for example aliphatic mono- or di-carboxylic acids, such as trifluoroacetic acid, acetic acid, propionic acid, glycolic acid, succinic acid, maleic acid, fumaric acid, hydroxymaleic acid, malic acid, tartaric acid, citric acid or oxalic acid, or amino acids such as arginine or lysine, aromatic carboxylic acids, such as benzoic acid, 2-phenoxy-benzoic acid, 2-acetoxy-benzoic acid, salicylic acid, 4-aminosalicylic acid, aromatic-aliphatic carboxylic acids, such as mandelic acid or cinnamic acid, heteroaromatic carboxylic acids, such as nicotinic acid or isonicotinic acid, aliphatic sulfonic acids, such as methane-, ethane- or 2-hydroxyethanesulfonic acid, or aromatic sulfonic acids, for example benzene-, p-toluene- or naphthalene-2-sulfonic acid. When several basic groups are present mono- or poly-acid addition salts may be formed.
Compounds having acidic groups, a carboxy group or a phenolic hydroxy group, may form metal or ammonium salts, such as alkali metal or alkaline earth metal salts, for example sodium, potassium, magnesium or calcium salts, or ammonium salts with ammonia or suitable organic amines, such as tertiary monoamines, for example triethylamine or tri-(2-hydroxy-ethyl)-amine, or heterocyclic bases, for example N-ethyl-piperidine or N,N′-dimethyl-piperazine. Mixtures of salts are possible.
Compounds having both acidic and basic groups can form internal salts.
For the purposes of isolation or purification, as well as in the case of compounds that are used further as intermediates, it is also possible to use pharmaceutically unacceptable salts, e.g. the picrates. Only pharmaceutically acceptable, non-toxic salts may be used for therapeutic purposes, however, and those salts are therefore preferred.
Asymmetric carbon atoms of a compound of formula I that are optionally present may exist in the (R), (S) or (R,S) configuration, preferably in the (R) or (S) configuration. Substituents at a double bond or a ring may be present in cis- (═Z-) or trans (=E-) form. The compounds may thus be present as mixtures of isomers or preferably as pure isomers.
In R1being substituted phenyl, the phenyl group is preferably substituted by one or more, especially by one or two, radical(s) selected from the group consisting of hydroxy, lower alkyl, halogen-lower alkyl, lower alkoxy, pyrrolidinyl-lower alkoxy wherein the pyrrolidinyl moiety is optionally substituted by lower alkyl, piperidinyl-lower alkoxy, morpholinyl-lower alkoxy, N,N-di-lower alkylamino-lower alkyl, N,N-di-lower alkylamino-lower alkoxy and lower alkyl-piperazinyl.
Unsubstituted or substituted aryl R2is preferably phenyl that is optionally substituted by one or more, especially by one, radical(s) selected from the group consisting of halo, hydroxy, lower alkoxy and N,N-di-lower alkylamino-lower alkoxy.
Unsubstituted or substituted heteraryl R2is preferably thiophenyl that is optionally substituted by one or more, especially by one, radical(s) selected from the group consisting of halo, hydroxy, lower alkoxy and N,N-di-lower alkylamino-lower alkoxy. Most preferably it is unsubstituted thiophenyl.
R2is most preferably thiophenyl.
The prefix “lower” denotes a radical having 1 up to and including a maximum of 7, especially 1 up to and including a maximum of 4 carbon atoms, the radicals in question being either linear or branched with single or multiple branching. Lower alkyl, for example, is methyl, ethyl, n-propyl, sec-propyl, n-butyl, isobutyl, sec-butyl, tert-butyl, n-pentyl, n-hexyl or n-heptyl.
Halo(geno) is preferably iodo, bromo, chloro or fluoro, especially fluoro, chloro or bromo.
The compounds of formula I have valuable pharmacological properties and are useful in the treatment of proliferative diseases, in particular of protein tyrosine kinase dependent, especially Flt-3 dependent, diseases.
The efficacy of the compounds of formula I as inhibitors of Flt-3 protein-tyrosine kinase activity can be demonstrated as follows:
The baculovirus donor vector pFbacG01 (GIBCO) is used to generate a recombinant baculovirus expressing the amino acid region amino acids 563-993 of the cytoplasmic kinase domain of human Flt-3. The coding sequence for the cytoplasmic domain of Flt-3 is amplified by PCR from human c-DNA libraries (Clontech). The amplified DNA fragments and the pFbacG01 vector are made compatible for ligation by digestion with BamH1 and HindIII. Ligation of these DNA fragments results in the baculovirus donor plasmid Flt-3 (1.1). The production of the viruses, the expression of proteins in Sf9 cells and the purification of the GST-fused proteins are performed as follows:
Production of virus: Transfer vector (pFbacG01-Flt-3) containing the Flt-3 kinase domain is transfected into the DH10Bac cell line (GIBCO) and the transfected cells are plated on selective agar plates. Colonies without insertion of the fusion sequence into the viral genome (carried by the bacteria) are blue. Single white colonies are picked and viral DNA (bacmid) is isolated from the bacteria by standard plasmid purification procedures. Sf9 or Sf21 cells (American Type Culture Collection) are then transfected in flasks with the viral DNA using Cellfectin reagent.
Protein expression in Sf9 cells: Virus containing media is collected from the transfected cell culture and used for infection to increase its titre. Virus containing media obtained after two rounds of infection is used for large-scale protein expression. For large-scale protein expression 100 cm2round tissue culture plates are seeded with 5×107cells/plate and infected with 1 mL of virus-containing media (approx. 5 MOIs). After 3 days the cells are scraped off the plate and centrifuged at 500 rpm for 5 min. Cell pellets from 10-20, 100 cm2plates are resuspended in 50 mL of ice-cold lysis buffer (25 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.5, 2 mM EDTA, 1% NP-40, 1 mM DTT, 1 mM PMSF). The cells are stirred on ice for 15 min and then centrifuged at 5000 rpms for 20 min.
Purification of GST-tagged proteins: The centrifuged cell lysate is loaded onto a 2 mL glutathione-sepharose column (Pharmacia) and washed three times with 10 mL of 25 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.5, 2 mM EDTA, 1 mM DTT, 200 mM NaCl. The GST-tagged protein is then eluted by 10 applications (1 mL each) of 25 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.5, 10 mM reduced-glutathione, 100 mM NaCl, 1 mM DTT, 10% Glycerol and stored at −70° C.
Measurement of enzyme activity: Tyrosine protein kinase assays with purified GST-Flt-3 are carried out in a final volume of 30 μL containing 200-1800 ng of enzyme protein (depending on the specific activity), 20 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.6, 3 mM MnCl2, 3 mM MgCl2, 1 mM DTT, 10 μM Na3VO4, 3 μg/mL poly(Glu, Tyr) 4:1, 1% DMSO, 8.0 μM ATP and 0.1 μCi [γ33P] ATP. The activity is assayed in the presence or absence of inhibitors, by measuring the incorporation of33P from [γ33P] ATP into the poly(Glu, Tyr) substrate. The assay (30 μL) is carried out in 96-well plates at ambient temperature for 20 min and terminated by the addition of 20 μL of 125 mM EDTA. Subsequently, 40 μL of the reaction mixture is transferred onto Immobilon-PVDF membrane (Millipore, Bedford, Mass., USA) previously soaked for 5 min with methanol, rinsed with water, then soaked for 5 min with 0.5% H3PO4and mounted on vacuum manifold with disconnected vacuum source. After spotting all samples, vacuum is connected and each well rinsed with 200 μL 0.5% H3PO4. Membranes are removed and washed 4× on a shaker with 1.0% H3PO4, once with ethanol. Membranes are counted after drying at ambient temperature, mounting in Packard TopCount 96-well frame, and addition of 10 μL/well of Microscint™ (Packard). IC50values are calculated by linear regression analysis of the percentage inhibition of each compound in duplicate, at four concentrations (usually 0.01, 0.1, 1 and 10 μM). One unit of protein kinase activity is defined as 1 nmole of33P transferred from [γ33P] ATP to the substrate protein per minute per mg of protein at 37° C. The compounds of the formula I here show IC50values in the range between 0.005 and 1 μM, especially between 0.01 and 0.5 μM, most especially between 0.01 and 0.1 μM.
Flt-3 (FMD-like tyrosine kinase) is especially expressed in hematopoietic progenitor cells and in progenitors of the lymphoid and myeloid series. Aberrant expression of the Flt-3 gene has been documented in both adult and childhood leukemias including AML (acute myelogenous leukemia), AML with trilineage myelodysplasia (AML/TMDS), ALL (acute lymphoblastic leukemia), CML (chronic myelogenous leukemia) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), which are therefore the preferred diseases to be treated with compounds of the formula I. Activating mutations in Flt-3 have been found in approximately 25 to 30% of patients with AML. Thus there is accumulating evidence for the role of Flt-3 in human leukemias and the compounds of the formula I as Flt-3 inhibitors are especially of use in the therapy of this type of diseases (see Tse et al., Leukemia 15 (7), 1001-1010 (2001); Tomoki et al., Cancer Chemother. Pharmacol. 48 (Suppl. 1), S27-S30 (2001); Birkenkamp et al., Leukemia 15 (12), 1923-1921 (2001); Kelly et al., Neoplasia 99 (1), 310-318 (2002)).
With the groups of preferred compounds of formula I mentioned hereinafter, definitions of substituents from the general definitions mentioned hereinbefore may reasonably be used, for example, to replace more general definitions with more specific definitions or especially with definitions characterized as being preferred.
Special preference is given to a compound of formula I, wherein
Q is S and X is C, or
Q is CH and X is N;
R1is phenyl that is optionally substituted by hydroxy, lower alkoxy, pyrrolidinyl-lower alkoxy, piperidinyl-lower alkoxy, morpholinyl-lower alkoxy, N,N-di-lower alkylamino-lower alkyl, N,N-di-lower alkylamino-lower alkoxy or lower alkyl-piperazinyl; and
R2is thiophenyl or phenyl that is optionally substituted by halo, hydroxy, lower alkoxy or N,N-di-lower alkylamino-lower alkoxy;
or a salt thereof.
Special preference is further given to a compound of formula I, wherein
Q is S and X is C, or
Q is CH and X is N;
R1is phenyl that is optionally substituted by one or more radicals selected from the group consisting of hydroxy, lower alkyl, halogen-lower alkyl, lower alkoxy, pyrrolidinyl-lower alkoxy wherein the pyrrolidinyl moiety is optionally substituted by lower alkyl, piperidinyl-lower alkoxy, morpholinyl-lower alkoxy, N,N-di-lower alkylamino-lower alkyl, N,N-di-lower alkylamino-lower alkoxy and lower alkyl-piperazinyl; and
R2is thiophenyl or phenyl that is optionally substituted by halo, hydroxy, lower alkoxy or N,N-di-lower alkylamino-lower alkoxy;
or a salt thereof.
Very special preference is given to a compound of formula I, wherein Q is S and X is C or Q is CH and X is N and R1and R2are selected independently of one another from the different meanings given for these substituents in the Examples below, or a salt, especially a pharmaceutically acceptable salt, of such a compound.
Most special preference is further given to a compound of formula I mentioned in the Examples below, or a salt, especially a pharmaceutically acceptable salt, thereof. Very preferred is also the method of synthesis for these compounds analogously to the methods described in the Examples.
The compounds of formula I or salts thereof are prepared in accordance with processes known per se, though not previously described for the manufacture of the compounds of the formula I, especially whereby
(a) in order to prepare a compound of formula I wherein Q is S and X is C, a compound of formula II
wherein R1is as defined for a compound of formula I, is reacted with a compound of the formula R2—CH(Hal)-C(═O)—H, wherein Hal is halo and R2is as defined for a compound of formula I;
(b) in order to prepare a compound of formula I wherein R2is phenyl substituted by unsubstituted or substituted lower alkoxy wherein phenyl may be optionally further substituted, a compound of formula III
wherein R1, Q and X have the meanings as defined for a compound of formula I and the phenyl ring of the compound of formula III may in addition to the hydroxy group be optionally further substituted, is reacted with halo-lower alkyl, wherein the lower alkyl moiety is optionally substituted;
(c) in order to prepare a compound of formula I wherein R1is phenyl substituted by unsubstituted or substituted lower alkoxy wherein phenyl may be optionally further substituted, a compound of formula IV
wherein R2, Q and X have the meanings as defined for a compound of formula I and the phenyl ring of the compound of formula III may in addition to the hydroxy group be optionally further substituted, is reacted with halo-lower alkyl, wherein the lower alkyl moiety is optionally substituted;
(d) in order to prepare a compound of formula I wherein Q is S and X is C, a compound of formula V
wherein Hal is halo and R1is as defined for a compound of formula I, is reacted with R2—B(OH)2, wherein R2is as defined for a compound of formula I; or
(e) in order to prepare a compound of formula I wherein Q is CH and X is N, a compound of formula VI
wherein R1and R2have the meanings as defined for a compound of formula I, is reacted with hydrazine;
wherein functional groups which are present in the starting compounds of processes (a) to (e) and are not intended to take part in the reaction, are present in protected form if necessary, and protecting groups that are present are cleaved, wherein said starting compounds may also exist in the form of salts provided that a salt-forming group is present and a reaction in salt form is possible;
and, if so desired, a compound of formula I thus obtained is converted into another compound of formula I, a free compound of formula I is converted into a salt, an obtained salt of a compound of formula I is converted into the free compound or another salt, and/or a mixture of isomeric compounds of formula I is separated into the individual isomers.
Description of the Process Variants
Regarding Process (a):
The reaction between a compound of formula II and a compound of the formula R2—CH(Hal)-C(═O)—H preferably takes place in a suitable inert solvent, especially acetonitrile, at elevated temperatures, preferably above 50° C. In a compound of the formula R2—CH(Hal)-C(═O)—H, Hal is preferably bromo.
Regarding Processes (b) and (c):
The reaction between a compound of formula III or IV and halo-lower alkyl, wherein the lower alkyl moiety is optionally substituted, preferably takes place in a suitable inert solvent, especially alcohols, e.g. lower alcohols, preferably 1-butanol, in the presence of a base, preferably a strong base, especially a metal alcoholate such as sodium tert-butoxide, at elevated temperatures, preferably at around 100° C.
Regarding Process (d):
The reaction between a compound of formula V and a compound of the formula R2—B(OH)2preferably takes place in a suitable solvent, preferably toluene, in the presence of a base such as Na2CO3and a catalyst such as Pd(PPh3)4, and in an inert, for example an argon, atmosphere, at elevated temperature, preferably at the reflux temperature of the solvent employed. In a compound of formula V, Hal is preferably bromo.
Regarding Process (e):
The reaction between a compound of formula VI and hydrazine preferably takes place in a suitable inert solvent, especially alcohols, e.g. lower alcohols, preferably ethanol, and in an inert, for example an argon, atmosphere, at elevated temperatures, preferably at around 80° C.
Additional Process Steps
In the additional process steps, carried out as desired, functional groups of the starting compounds which should not take part in the reaction may be present in unprotected form or may be protected for example by one or more protecting groups. The protecting groups are then wholly or partly removed according to one of the known methods.
Protecting groups, and the manner in which they are introduced and removed are described, for example, in “Protective Groups in Organic Chemistry”, Plenum Press, London, New York 1973, and in “Methoden der organischen Chemie”, Houben-Weyl, 4th edition, Vol. 15/1, Georg-Thieme-Verlag, Stuttgart 1974 and in Theodora W. Greene, “Protective Groups in Organic Synthesis”, John Wiley & Sons, New York 1981. A characteristic of protecting groups is that they can be removed readily, i.e. without the occurrence of undesired secondary reactions, for example by solvolysis, reduction, photolysis or alternatively under physiological conditions.
The end products of formula I may however also contain substituents that can also be used as protecting groups in starting materials for the preparation of other end products of formula I. Thus, within the scope of this text, only a readily removable group that is not a constituent of the particular desired end product of formula I is designated a “protecting group”, unless the context indicates otherwise.
General Process Conditions
All process steps described here can be carried out under known reaction conditions, preferably under those specifically mentioned, in the absence of or usually in the presence of solvents or diluents, preferably those that are inert to the reagents used and able to dissolve them, in the absence or presence of catalysts, condensing agents or neutralising agents, for example ion exchangers, typically cation exchangers, for example in the H+form, depending on the type of reaction and/or reactants at reduced, normal, or elevated temperature, for example in the range from −100° C. to about 190° C., preferably from about −80° C. to about 150° C., for example at −80 to −60° C., at RT, at −20 to 40° C., at 0 to 100° C. or at the boiling point of the solvent used, under atmospheric pressure or in a closed vessel, if need be under pressure, and/or in an inert, for example an argon or nitrogen, atmosphere.
The invention relates also to those embodiments of the process in which one starts from a compound obtainable at any stage as an intermediate and carries out the missing steps, or breaks off the process at any stage, or forms a starting material under the reaction conditions, or uses said starting material in the form of a reactive derivative or salt, or produces a compound obtainable by means of the process according to the invention under those process conditions, and further processes the said compound in situ. In the preferred embodiment, one starts from those starting materials which lead to the compounds described hereinabove as preferred.
In the preferred embodiment, a compound of formula I is prepared according to the processes and process steps defined in the Examples.
The compounds of formula I, including their salts, are also obtainable in the form of hydrates, or their crystals can include for example the solvent used for crystallisation (present as solvates).
Starting Materials
New starting materials and/or intermediates, as well as processes for the preparation thereof, are likewise the subject of this invention. In the preferred embodiment, such starting materials are used and reaction conditions so selected as to enable the preferred compounds to be obtained.
The starting materials used in the above described process are known, capable of being prepared according to known processes, or commercially obtainable; in particular, they can be prepared using processes as described in the Examples.
In the preparation of starting materials, existing functional groups which do not participate in the reaction should, if necessary, be protected. Preferred protecting groups, their introduction and their removal are described above or in the Examples. In place of the respective starting materials and transients, salts thereof may also be used for the reaction, provided that salt-forming groups are present and the reaction with a salt is also possible. Where the term starting materials is used hereinbefore and hereinafter, the salts thereof are always included, insofar as reasonable and possible.
A compound of formula II can be prepared for example by reacting a compound of the formula VII
wherein R1is as defined for a compound of formula I, with ammonia, in a suitable inert solvent, especially alcohols, e.g. lower alcohols, such as methanol, and in an inert, for example an argon, atmosphere, at elevated temperature, preferably at around 60° C.
A compound of formula VII can be prepared for example by reacting a compound of the formula R1—NH2, wherein R1is as defined for a compound of formula I, with thiophosgene, in a suitable solvent, e.g. halogenated hydrocarbon, typically chloroform, in the presence of a suitable base, such as NaCO3, preferably at room temperature.
A compound of the formula R2—CH(Hal)-C(═O)—H can be prepared for example by reacting a compound of the formula R2—CH2—C(═O)—H, wherein R2is as defined for a compound of formula I, with Me3SiBr, in a suitable solvent such as acetonitrile, in the presence of dimethyl sulfoxide and in an inert, for example an argon, atmosphere, preferably at 0° C. or below.
A compound of formula V can be prepared for example by reacting a compound of the formula VIII
wherein R1is as defined for a compound of formula I, with Hal-Hal, wherein Hal is halo, preferably bromo, in a suitable inert solvent, such as N,N-dimethyl-formamide, and in an inert, for example an argon, atmosphere, preferably at room temperature.
A compound of formula VIII can be prepared for example by reacting a compound of the formula II, wherein R1is as defined for a compound of formula I, with chloroacetaldehyde, in a suitable inert solvent, especially alcohols, e.g. lower alcohols, such as ethanol, at elevated temperatures, preferably at the reflux temperature of the solvent employed.
A compound of formula VI can be prepared for example by (i) reacting a compound of the formula R2—C(═O)—CH3with NaH in a suitable inert solvent, such as N,N-dimethyl-formamide, preferably at around 0° C., (ii) adding to the reaction mixture a compound of formula VIII, wherein R1is as defined for a compound of formula I, the reaction preferably taking place at room temperature, and (iii) reacting the reaction mixtures with CH3I, preferably at room temperature.
The remaining starting materials are known, capable of being prepared according to known processes, or commercially available; or in particular, they can be prepared using processes as described in the Examples.
Pharmaceutical Compositions, Methods, and Uses
The present invention relates also to pharmaceutical compositions that comprise a compound of formula I, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, as active ingredient and that can be used especially in the treatment of the diseases mentioned above. Compositions for enteral administration, such as nasal, buccal, rectal or, especially, oral administration, and for parenteral administration, such as intravenous, intramuscular or subcutaneous administration, to warm-blooded animals, especially humans, are especially preferred. The compositions contain the active ingredient alone or, preferably, together with a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier. The dosage of the active ingredient depends upon the disease to be treated and upon the species, its age, weight, and individual condition, the individual pharmacokinetic data, and the mode of administration.
The present invention also relates to pro-drugs of a compound of formula I that convert in vivo to the compound of formula I as such. Any reference to a compound of formula I is therefore to be understood as referring also to the corresponding pro-drugs of the compound of formula I, as appropriate and expedient.
The invention relates also to compounds of formula I, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, as such or in the form of a pharmaceutical composition, for use in a method for the prophylactic or especially therapeutic treatment of the human or animal body, to a process for the preparation thereof (especially in the form of compositions for the treatment of tumours) and to a method of treating proliferative diseases, primarily tumour diseases, especially those mentioned above.
The invention relates also to processes and to the use of compounds of formula I, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, for the preparation of pharmaceutical compositions which comprise compounds of formula I, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, as active component (active ingredient).
If desired, the said pharmaceutical compositions may also contain further active components, for example cytostatics, and/or may be used in combination with known therapeutic processes, for example the administration of hormones or radiation.
Preference is given for a pharmaceutical composition which is suitable for administration to a warm-blooded animal, especially humans or commercially useful mammals suffering from a disease which responds to an inhibition of a protein tyrosine kinase, especially to an inhibition of Flt-3, especially a neoplastic disease, comprising an effective quantity of a compound of formula I for the inhibition of a protein tyrosine kinase, especially for the inhibition of Flt-3, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, together with at least one pharmaceutically acceptable carrier.
A pharmaceutical composition for the prophylactic or especially therapeutic management of neoplastic and other proliferative diseases of a warm-blooded animal, especially a human or a commercially useful mammal requiring such treatment, especially suffering from such a disease, comprising as active ingredient in a quantity that is prophylactically or especially therapeutically active against said diseases a compound of formula I, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, is likewise preferred.
The pharmaceutical compositions comprise from approximately 1% to approximately 95% active ingredient, single-dose administration forms comprising in the preferred embodiment from approximately 20% to approximately 90% active ingredient and forms that are not of single-dose type comprising in the preferred embodiment from approximately 5% to approximately 20% active ingredient. Unit dose forms are, for example, coated and uncoated tablets, ampoules, vials, suppositories or capsules. Examples are capsules containing from about 0.05 g to about 1.0 g of active substance.
The pharmaceutical compositions of the present invention are prepared in a manner known per se, for example by means of conventional mixing, granulating, coating, dissolving or lyophilising processes.
The invention relates likewise to a process or a method for the treatment of one of the pathological conditions mentioned hereinabove, especially a disease which responds to an inhibition of a protein tyrosine kinase, especially to an inhibition of Flt-3, especially a corresponding neoplastic disease. The compounds of formula I, or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof, can be administered as such or in the form of pharmaceutical compositions, prophylactically or therapeutically, preferably in an amount effective against the said diseases, to a warm-blooded animal, for example a human, requiring such treatment, the compounds especially being used in the form of pharmaceutical compositions. In the case of an individual having a bodyweight of about 70 kg the daily dose administered is from approximately 0.05 g to approximately 2 g, preferably from approximately 0.1 g to approximately 1 g, of a compound of the present invention.
The present invention relates especially also to the use of a compound of formula I, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, especially a compound of formula I which is said to be preferred, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, as such or in the form of a pharmaceutical composition with at least one pharmaceutically acceptable carrier, for the therapeutic and also prophylactic management of one or more of the diseases mentioned hereinabove, preferably a disease which responds to an inhibition of a protein tyrosine kinase, especially to an inhibition of Flt-3, especially a neoplastic disease, in particular if the said disease responds to an inhibition of a protein tyrosine kinase, especially to an inhibition of Flt-3.
The present invention relates especially also to the use of a compound of formula I, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, especially a compound of formula I which is said to be preferred, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, for the preparation of a pharmaceutical composition for the therapeutic and also prophylactic management of one or more of the diseases mentioned hereinabove, especially a neoplastic disease, in particular if the disease responds to an inhibition of a protein tyrosine kinase, especially to an inhibition of Flt-3.
A compound of the formula I may also be used to advantage in combination with other antiproliferative agents. Such antiproliferative agents include, but are not limited to aromatase inhibitors, antiestrogens, topoisomerase I inhibitors, topoisomerase II inhibitors, microtubule active agents, alkylating agents, histone deacetylase inhibitors, farnesyl transferase inhibitors, COX-2 inhibitors, MMP inhibitors, mTOR inhibitors, antineoplastic antimetabolites, platin compounds, compounds decreasing the protein kinase activity and further anti-angiogenic compounds, gonadorelin agonists, anti-androgens, bengamides, bisphosphonates, steroids, antiproliferative antibodies, 17-(allylamino)-17-demethoxygeldanamycin (17-AAG) and temozolomide (TEMODAL®).
The term “aromatase inhibitors” as used herein relates to compounds which inhibit the estrogen production, i.e. the conversion of the substrates androstenedione and testosterone to estrone and estradiol, respectively. The term includes, but is not limited to steroids, especially exemestane and formestane and, in particular, non-steroids, especially aminoglutethimide, vorozole, fadrozole, anastrozole and, very especially, letrozole. Exemestane can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark AROMASIN™. Formestane can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark LENTARON™. Fadrozole can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark AFEMA™. Anastrozole can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark ARIMIDEX™. Letrozole can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark FEMARA™ or FEMAR™. Aminoglutethimide can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark ORIMETEN™.
A combination of the invention comprising an antineoplastic agent which is an aromatase inhibitor is particularly useful for the treatment of hormone receptor positive breast tumors.
The term “antiestrogens” as used herein relates to compounds which antagonize the effect of estrogens at the estrogen receptor level. The term includes, but is not limited to tamoxifen, fulvestrant, raloxifene and raloxifene hydrochloride. Tamoxifen can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark NOLVADEX™. Raloxifene hydrochloride can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark EVISTA™. Fulvestrant can be formulated as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,659,516 or it can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark FASLODEX™.
The term “topoisomerase I inhibitors” as used herein includes, but is not limited to topotecan, irinotecan, 9-nitrocamptothecin and the macromolecular camptothecin conjugate PNU-166148 (compound A1 in WO 99/17804). Irinotecan can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark CAMPTOSAR™. Topotecan can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark HYCAMTIN™.
The term “topoisomerase II inhibitors” as used herein includes, but is not limited to the antracyclines doxorubicin (including liposomal formulation, e.g. CAELYX™), epirubicin, idarubicin and nemorubicin, the anthraquinones mitoxantrone and losoxantrone, and the podophillotoxines etoposide and teniposide. Etoposide can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark ETOPOPHOS™. Teniposide can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark VM 26-BRISTOL™. Doxorubicin can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark ADRIBLASTIN™. Epirubicin can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark FARMORUBICIN™. Idarubicin can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark ZAVEDOS™; Mitoxantrone can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark NOVANTRON™.
The term “microtubule active agents” relates to microtubule stabilizing and microtubule destabilizing agents including, but not limited to the taxanes paclitaxel and docetaxel, the vinca alkaloids, e.g., vinblastine, especially vinblastine sulfate, vincristine especially vincristine sulfate, and vinorelbine, discodermolide and epothilones, such as epothilone B and D. Docetaxel can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark TAXOTERE™. Vinblastine sulfate can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark VINBLASTIN R.P.™. Vincristine sulfate can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark FARMISTIN™. Discodermolide can be obtained, e.g., as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,010,099.
The term “alkylating agents” as used herein includes, but is not limited to cyclophosphamide, ifosfamide and melphalan. Cyclophosphamide can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark CYCLOSTIN™. Ifosfamide can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark HOLOXAN™.
The term “histone deacetylase inhibitors” relates to compounds which inhibit the histone deacetylase and which possess antiproliferative activity. This includes compounds disclosed in WO 02/22577, especially N-hydroxy-3-[4-[[(2-hydroxyethyl)[2-(1H-indol-3-yl)ethyl]-amino]methyl]phenyl]-2E-2-propenamide, N-hydroxy-3-[4-[[[2-(2-methyl-1H-indol-3-yl)-ethyl]-amino]methyl]phenyl]-2E-2-propenamide and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof. It further especially includes Suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA).
The term “farnesyl transferase inhibitors” relates to compounds which inhibit the farnesyl transferase and which possess antiproliferative activity.
The term “COX-2 inhibitors” relates to compounds which inhibit the cyclooxygenase type 2 enzyme (COX-2) and which possess antiproliferative activity such as celecoxib (Celebrex®), rofecoxib (Vioxx®) and lumiracoxib (COX189).
The term “MMP inhibitors” relates to compounds which inhibit the matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) and which possess antiproliferative activity.
The term “mTOR inhibitors” relates to compounds which inhibit the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) and which possess antiproliferative activity such as sirolimus (Rapamune®), everolimus (Certican™), CCl-779 and ABT578.
The term “antineoplastic antimetabolites” includes, but is not limited to 5-fluorouracil, tegafur, capecitabine, cladribine, cytarabine, fludarabine phosphate, fluorouridine, gemcitabine, 6-mercaptopurine, hydroxyurea, methotrexate, edatrexate and salts of such compounds, and furthermore ZD 1694 (RALTITREXED™), LY231514 (ALIMTA™), LY264618 (LOMOTREXOL™) and OGT719.
The term “platin compounds” as used herein includes, but is not limited to carboplatin, cis-platin and oxaliplatin. Carboplatin can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark CARBOPLAT™. Oxaliplatin can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark ELOXATIN™.
The term “compounds decreasing the protein kinase activity and further anti-angiogenic compounds” as used herein includes, but is not limited to compounds which decrease the activity of e.g. the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF), the Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF), c-Src, protein kinase C, the Platelet-derived Growth Factor (PDGF), Bcr-Abl, c-Kit, Flt-3, the Insulin-like Growth Factor I Receptor (IGF-IR) and the Cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs), and anti-angiogenic compounds having another mechanism of action than decreasing the protein kinase activity.
Compounds which decrease the activity of VEGF are especially compounds which inhibit the VEGF receptor, especially the tyrosine kinase activity of the VEGF receptor, and compounds binding to VEGF, and are in particular those compounds, proteins and monoclonal antibodies generically and specifically disclosed in WO 98/35958 (describing compounds of formula I), WO 00/09495, WO 00/27820, WO 00/59509, WO 98/11223, WO 00/27819, WO 01/55114, WO 01/58899 and EP 0 769 947; those as described by M. Prewett et al in Cancer Research 59 (1999) 5209-5218, by F. Yuan et al in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, vol. 93, pp. 14765-14770, December 1996, by Z. Zhu et al in Cancer Res. 58, 1998, 3209-3214, and by J. Mordenti et al in Toxicologic Pathology, vol. 27, no. 1, pp 14-21, 1999; in WO 00/37502 and WO 94/10202; Angiostatin™, described by M. S. O'Reilly et al, Cell 79, 1994, 315-328; and Endostatin™, described by M. S. O'Reilly et al, Cell 88, 1997, 277-285;
compounds which decrease the activity of EGF are especially compounds which inhibit the EGF receptor, especially the tyrosine kinase activity of the EGF receptor, and compounds binding to EGF, and are in particular those compounds generically and specifically disclosed in WO 97/02266 (describing compounds of formula IV), EP 0 564 409, WO 99/03854, EP 0520722, EP 0 566 226, EP 0 787 722, EP 0 837 063, WO 98/10767, WO 97/30034, WO 97/49688, WO 97/38983 and, especially, WO 96/33980;
compounds which decrease the activity of c-Src include, but are not limited to, compounds inhibiting the c-Src protein tyrosine kinase activity as defined below and to SH2 interaction inhibitors such as those disclosed in WO 97/07131 and WO 97/08193;
compounds inhibiting the c-Src protein tyrosine kinase activity include, but are not limited to, compounds belonging to the structure classes of pyrrolopyrimidines, especially pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidines, purines, pyrazopyrimidines, especially pyrazo[3,4-d]pyrimidines, pyrazopyrimidines, especially pyrazo[3,4-d]pyrimidines and pyridopyrimidines, especially pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidines. Preferably, the term relates to those compounds disclosed in WO 96/10028, WO 97/28161, WO 97/32879 and WO 97/49706;
compounds which decreases the activity of the protein kinase C are especially those staurosporine derivatives disclosed in EP 0 296 110 (pharmaceutical preparation described in WO 00/48571) which compounds are protein kinase C inhibitors;
compounds which decrease the activity of IGF-IR are especially those compounds disclosed in WO 02/92599;
further specific compounds that decrease protein kinase activity and which may also be used in combination with the compounds of the present invention are Imatinib (Gleevec®/Glivec®), PKC412, Iressa™ (ZD1839), {6-[4-(4-ethyl-piperazin-1-ylmethyl)-phenyl]-7H-pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidin-4-yl}-((R)-1-phenyl-ethyl)-amine (AEE788) and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof (see also WO 03/13541), 1-(4-chloro-anilino)-4-(4-pyridyl-methyl)-phthalazine (PTK787) and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof (see also WO 98/35958), ZD6474, GW2016, CHIR-200131, CEP-7055/CEP-5214, CP-547632, KRN-633 and SU5416;
anti-angiogenic compounds having another mechanism of action than decreasing the protein kinase activity include, but are not limited to e.g. thalidomide (THALOMID), celecoxib (Celebrex) and ZD6126.
The term “gonadorelin agonist” as used herein includes, but is not limited to abarelix, goserelin and goserelin acetate. Goserelin is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,100,274 and can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark ZOLADEX™. Abarelix can be formulated, e.g. as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,843,901.
The term “anti-androgens” as used herein includes, but is not limited to bicalutamide (CASODEX™), which can be formulated, e.g. as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,636,505.
The term “bengamides” relates to bengamides and derivatives thereof having antiproliferative properties.
The term “bisphosphonates” as used herein includes, but is not limited to etridonic acid, clodronic acid, tiludronic acid, pamidronic acid, alendronic acid, ibandronic acid, risedronic acid and zoledronic acid. “Etridonic acid” can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark DIDRONEL™. “Clodronic acid” can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark BONEFOS™. “Tiludronic acid” can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark SKELID™. “Pamidronic acid” can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark AREDIA™. “Alendronic acid” can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark FOSAMAX™. “Ibandronic acid” can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark BONDRANAT™. “Risedronic acid” can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark ACTONEL™. “Zoledronic acid” can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark ZOMETA™.
The term “steroids” includes hydrocortisone, dexamethasone (Decadron®), methylprednisolone and prednisolone.
The term “antiproliferative antibodies” as used herein includes, but is not limited to trastuzumab (Herceptin™), Trastuzumab-DM1, erlotinib (Tarceva™), bevacizumab (Avastin™), rituximab (Rituxan®), PRO64553 (anti-CD40) and 2C4 Antibody.
For the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), compounds of formula I can be used in combination with standard leukemia therapies, especially in combination with therapies used for the treatment of AML. In particular, compounds of formula I can be administered in combination with e.g. farnesyltransferase inhibitors and/or other drugs useful for the treatment of AML, such as Daunorubicin, Adriamycin, Ara-C, VP-16, Teniposide, Mitoxantrone, Idarubicin, Carboplatinum and PKC412.
The structure of the active agents identified by code nos., generic or trade names may be taken from the actual edition of the standard compendium “The Merck Index” or from databases, e.g. Patents International (e.g. IMS World Publications).
The above-mentioned compounds, which can be used in combination with a compound of the formula I, can be prepared and administered as described in the art such as in the documents cited above.
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SUMMARY: This application is the National Stage of Application No. PCT/EP2004/012892, filed on Nov. 12, 2004. The contents of both are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
The invention relates to thiazole and pyrazole derivatives and to processes for the preparation thereof, to pharmaceutical compositions comprising such derivatives and to the use of such derivatives for the preparation of pharmaceutical compositions for the treatment especially of a proliferative disease, such as a tumour disease, in particular such diseases which respond to an inhibition of the Flt-3 kinase.
The invention relates to thiazole and pyrazole derivatives of formula I
wherein
Q is S and X is C, or
Q is CH and X is N;
R1is unsubstituted or substituted phenyl; and
R2is unsubstituted or substituted aryl or heteroaryl;
or a salt of the said compounds.
The general terms used hereinbefore and hereinafter preferably have, within this disclosure, the following meanings, unless otherwise indicated:
Where the plural form is used for compounds, salts, pharmaceutical preparations, diseases and the like, this is intended to mean also a single compound, salt, or the like.
Where compounds of formula I are mentioned which can form tautomers, it is meant to include also the tautomers of such compounds of formula I.
In view of the close relationship between the novel compounds in free form and in the form of their salts, including those salts that can be used as intermediates, for example in the purification or identification of the novel compounds, hereinbefore and hereinafter any reference to the free compounds is to be understood as referring also to the corresponding salts, as appropriate and expedient.
Salts are preferably the pharmaceutically acceptable salts of compounds of formula I if they are carrying salt-forming groups.
Salt-forming groups are groups or radicals having basic or acidic properties. Compounds having at least one basic group or at least one basic radical, for example amino, a secondary amino group not forming a peptide bond or a pyridyl radical, may form acid addition salts, for example with inorganic acids, such as hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid or a phosphoric acid, or with suitable organic carboxylic or sulfonic acids, for example aliphatic mono- or di-carboxylic acids, such as trifluoroacetic acid, acetic acid, propionic acid, glycolic acid, succinic acid, maleic acid, fumaric acid, hydroxymaleic acid, malic acid, tartaric acid, citric acid or oxalic acid, or amino acids such as arginine or lysine, aromatic carboxylic acids, such as benzoic acid, 2-phenoxy-benzoic acid, 2-acetoxy-benzoic acid, salicylic acid, 4-aminosalicylic acid, aromatic-aliphatic carboxylic acids, such as mandelic acid or cinnamic acid, heteroaromatic carboxylic acids, such as nicotinic acid or isonicotinic acid, aliphatic sulfonic acids, such as methane-, ethane- or 2-hydroxyethanesulfonic acid, or aromatic sulfonic acids, for example benzene-, p-toluene- or naphthalene-2-sulfonic acid. When several basic groups are present mono- or poly-acid addition salts may be formed.
Compounds having acidic groups, a carboxy group or a phenolic hydroxy group, may form metal or ammonium salts, such as alkali metal or alkaline earth metal salts, for example sodium, potassium, magnesium or calcium salts, or ammonium salts with ammonia or suitable organic amines, such as tertiary monoamines, for example triethylamine or tri-(2-hydroxy-ethyl)-amine, or heterocyclic bases, for example N-ethyl-piperidine or N,N′-dimethyl-piperazine. Mixtures of salts are possible.
Compounds having both acidic and basic groups can form internal salts.
For the purposes of isolation or purification, as well as in the case of compounds that are used further as intermediates, it is also possible to use pharmaceutically unacceptable salts, e.g. the picrates. Only pharmaceutically acceptable, non-toxic salts may be used for therapeutic purposes, however, and those salts are therefore preferred.
Asymmetric carbon atoms of a compound of formula I that are optionally present may exist in the (R), (S) or (R,S) configuration, preferably in the (R) or (S) configuration. Substituents at a double bond or a ring may be present in cis- (═Z-) or trans (=E-) form. The compounds may thus be present as mixtures of isomers or preferably as pure isomers.
In R1being substituted phenyl, the phenyl group is preferably substituted by one or more, especially by one or two, radical(s) selected from the group consisting of hydroxy, lower alkyl, halogen-lower alkyl, lower alkoxy, pyrrolidinyl-lower alkoxy wherein the pyrrolidinyl moiety is optionally substituted by lower alkyl, piperidinyl-lower alkoxy, morpholinyl-lower alkoxy, N,N-di-lower alkylamino-lower alkyl, N,N-di-lower alkylamino-lower alkoxy and lower alkyl-piperazinyl.
Unsubstituted or substituted aryl R2is preferably phenyl that is optionally substituted by one or more, especially by one, radical(s) selected from the group consisting of halo, hydroxy, lower alkoxy and N,N-di-lower alkylamino-lower alkoxy.
Unsubstituted or substituted heteraryl R2is preferably thiophenyl that is optionally substituted by one or more, especially by one, radical(s) selected from the group consisting of halo, hydroxy, lower alkoxy and N,N-di-lower alkylamino-lower alkoxy. Most preferably it is unsubstituted thiophenyl.
R2is most preferably thiophenyl.
The prefix “lower” denotes a radical having 1 up to and including a maximum of 7, especially 1 up to and including a maximum of 4 carbon atoms, the radicals in question being either linear or branched with single or multiple branching. Lower alkyl, for example, is methyl, ethyl, n-propyl, sec-propyl, n-butyl, isobutyl, sec-butyl, tert-butyl, n-pentyl, n-hexyl or n-heptyl.
Halo(geno) is preferably iodo, bromo, chloro or fluoro, especially fluoro, chloro or bromo.
The compounds of formula I have valuable pharmacological properties and are useful in the treatment of proliferative diseases, in particular of protein tyrosine kinase dependent, especially Flt-3 dependent, diseases.
The efficacy of the compounds of formula I as inhibitors of Flt-3 protein-tyrosine kinase activity can be demonstrated as follows:
The baculovirus donor vector pFbacG01 (GIBCO) is used to generate a recombinant baculovirus expressing the amino acid region amino acids 563-993 of the cytoplasmic kinase domain of human Flt-3. The coding sequence for the cytoplasmic domain of Flt-3 is amplified by PCR from human c-DNA libraries (Clontech). The amplified DNA fragments and the pFbacG01 vector are made compatible for ligation by digestion with BamH1 and HindIII. Ligation of these DNA fragments results in the baculovirus donor plasmid Flt-3 (1.1). The production of the viruses, the expression of proteins in Sf9 cells and the purification of the GST-fused proteins are performed as follows:
Production of virus: Transfer vector (pFbacG01-Flt-3) containing the Flt-3 kinase domain is transfected into the DH10Bac cell line (GIBCO) and the transfected cells are plated on selective agar plates. Colonies without insertion of the fusion sequence into the viral genome (carried by the bacteria) are blue. Single white colonies are picked and viral DNA (bacmid) is isolated from the bacteria by standard plasmid purification procedures. Sf9 or Sf21 cells (American Type Culture Collection) are then transfected in flasks with the viral DNA using Cellfectin reagent.
Protein expression in Sf9 cells: Virus containing media is collected from the transfected cell culture and used for infection to increase its titre. Virus containing media obtained after two rounds of infection is used for large-scale protein expression. For large-scale protein expression 100 cm2round tissue culture plates are seeded with 5×107cells/plate and infected with 1 mL of virus-containing media (approx. 5 MOIs). After 3 days the cells are scraped off the plate and centrifuged at 500 rpm for 5 min. Cell pellets from 10-20, 100 cm2plates are resuspended in 50 mL of ice-cold lysis buffer (25 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.5, 2 mM EDTA, 1% NP-40, 1 mM DTT, 1 mM PMSF). The cells are stirred on ice for 15 min and then centrifuged at 5000 rpms for 20 min.
Purification of GST-tagged proteins: The centrifuged cell lysate is loaded onto a 2 mL glutathione-sepharose column (Pharmacia) and washed three times with 10 mL of 25 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.5, 2 mM EDTA, 1 mM DTT, 200 mM NaCl. The GST-tagged protein is then eluted by 10 applications (1 mL each) of 25 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.5, 10 mM reduced-glutathione, 100 mM NaCl, 1 mM DTT, 10% Glycerol and stored at −70° C.
Measurement of enzyme activity: Tyrosine protein kinase assays with purified GST-Flt-3 are carried out in a final volume of 30 μL containing 200-1800 ng of enzyme protein (depending on the specific activity), 20 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.6, 3 mM MnCl2, 3 mM MgCl2, 1 mM DTT, 10 μM Na3VO4, 3 μg/mL poly(Glu, Tyr) 4:1, 1% DMSO, 8.0 μM ATP and 0.1 μCi [γ33P] ATP. The activity is assayed in the presence or absence of inhibitors, by measuring the incorporation of33P from [γ33P] ATP into the poly(Glu, Tyr) substrate. The assay (30 μL) is carried out in 96-well plates at ambient temperature for 20 min and terminated by the addition of 20 μL of 125 mM EDTA. Subsequently, 40 μL of the reaction mixture is transferred onto Immobilon-PVDF membrane (Millipore, Bedford, Mass., USA) previously soaked for 5 min with methanol, rinsed with water, then soaked for 5 min with 0.5% H3PO4and mounted on vacuum manifold with disconnected vacuum source. After spotting all samples, vacuum is connected and each well rinsed with 200 μL 0.5% H3PO4. Membranes are removed and washed 4× on a shaker with 1.0% H3PO4, once with ethanol. Membranes are counted after drying at ambient temperature, mounting in Packard TopCount 96-well frame, and addition of 10 μL/well of Microscint™ (Packard). IC50values are calculated by linear regression analysis of the percentage inhibition of each compound in duplicate, at four concentrations (usually 0.01, 0.1, 1 and 10 μM). One unit of protein kinase activity is defined as 1 nmole of33P transferred from [γ33P] ATP to the substrate protein per minute per mg of protein at 37° C. The compounds of the formula I here show IC50values in the range between 0.005 and 1 μM, especially between 0.01 and 0.5 μM, most especially between 0.01 and 0.1 μM.
Flt-3 (FMD-like tyrosine kinase) is especially expressed in hematopoietic progenitor cells and in progenitors of the lymphoid and myeloid series. Aberrant expression of the Flt-3 gene has been documented in both adult and childhood leukemias including AML (acute myelogenous leukemia), AML with trilineage myelodysplasia (AML/TMDS), ALL (acute lymphoblastic leukemia), CML (chronic myelogenous leukemia) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), which are therefore the preferred diseases to be treated with compounds of the formula I. Activating mutations in Flt-3 have been found in approximately 25 to 30% of patients with AML. Thus there is accumulating evidence for the role of Flt-3 in human leukemias and the compounds of the formula I as Flt-3 inhibitors are especially of use in the therapy of this type of diseases (see Tse et al., Leukemia 15 (7), 1001-1010 (2001); Tomoki et al., Cancer Chemother. Pharmacol. 48 (Suppl. 1), S27-S30 (2001); Birkenkamp et al., Leukemia 15 (12), 1923-1921 (2001); Kelly et al., Neoplasia 99 (1), 310-318 (2002)).
With the groups of preferred compounds of formula I mentioned hereinafter, definitions of substituents from the general definitions mentioned hereinbefore may reasonably be used, for example, to replace more general definitions with more specific definitions or especially with definitions characterized as being preferred.
Special preference is given to a compound of formula I, wherein
Q is S and X is C, or
Q is CH and X is N;
R1is phenyl that is optionally substituted by hydroxy, lower alkoxy, pyrrolidinyl-lower alkoxy, piperidinyl-lower alkoxy, morpholinyl-lower alkoxy, N,N-di-lower alkylamino-lower alkyl, N,N-di-lower alkylamino-lower alkoxy or lower alkyl-piperazinyl; and
R2is thiophenyl or phenyl that is optionally substituted by halo, hydroxy, lower alkoxy or N,N-di-lower alkylamino-lower alkoxy;
or a salt thereof.
Special preference is further given to a compound of formula I, wherein
Q is S and X is C, or
Q is CH and X is N;
R1is phenyl that is optionally substituted by one or more radicals selected from the group consisting of hydroxy, lower alkyl, halogen-lower alkyl, lower alkoxy, pyrrolidinyl-lower alkoxy wherein the pyrrolidinyl moiety is optionally substituted by lower alkyl, piperidinyl-lower alkoxy, morpholinyl-lower alkoxy, N,N-di-lower alkylamino-lower alkyl, N,N-di-lower alkylamino-lower alkoxy and lower alkyl-piperazinyl; and
R2is thiophenyl or phenyl that is optionally substituted by halo, hydroxy, lower alkoxy or N,N-di-lower alkylamino-lower alkoxy;
or a salt thereof.
Very special preference is given to a compound of formula I, wherein Q is S and X is C or Q is CH and X is N and R1and R2are selected independently of one another from the different meanings given for these substituents in the Examples below, or a salt, especially a pharmaceutically acceptable salt, of such a compound.
Most special preference is further given to a compound of formula I mentioned in the Examples below, or a salt, especially a pharmaceutically acceptable salt, thereof. Very preferred is also the method of synthesis for these compounds analogously to the methods described in the Examples.
The compounds of formula I or salts thereof are prepared in accordance with processes known per se, though not previously described for the manufacture of the compounds of the formula I, especially whereby
(a) in order to prepare a compound of formula I wherein Q is S and X is C, a compound of formula II
wherein R1is as defined for a compound of formula I, is reacted with a compound of the formula R2—CH(Hal)-C(═O)—H, wherein Hal is halo and R2is as defined for a compound of formula I;
(b) in order to prepare a compound of formula I wherein R2is phenyl substituted by unsubstituted or substituted lower alkoxy wherein phenyl may be optionally further substituted, a compound of formula III
wherein R1, Q and X have the meanings as defined for a compound of formula I and the phenyl ring of the compound of formula III may in addition to the hydroxy group be optionally further substituted, is reacted with halo-lower alkyl, wherein the lower alkyl moiety is optionally substituted;
(c) in order to prepare a compound of formula I wherein R1is phenyl substituted by unsubstituted or substituted lower alkoxy wherein phenyl may be optionally further substituted, a compound of formula IV
wherein R2, Q and X have the meanings as defined for a compound of formula I and the phenyl ring of the compound of formula III may in addition to the hydroxy group be optionally further substituted, is reacted with halo-lower alkyl, wherein the lower alkyl moiety is optionally substituted;
(d) in order to prepare a compound of formula I wherein Q is S and X is C, a compound of formula V
wherein Hal is halo and R1is as defined for a compound of formula I, is reacted with R2—B(OH)2, wherein R2is as defined for a compound of formula I; or
(e) in order to prepare a compound of formula I wherein Q is CH and X is N, a compound of formula VI
wherein R1and R2have the meanings as defined for a compound of formula I, is reacted with hydrazine;
wherein functional groups which are present in the starting compounds of processes (a) to (e) and are not intended to take part in the reaction, are present in protected form if necessary, and protecting groups that are present are cleaved, wherein said starting compounds may also exist in the form of salts provided that a salt-forming group is present and a reaction in salt form is possible;
and, if so desired, a compound of formula I thus obtained is converted into another compound of formula I, a free compound of formula I is converted into a salt, an obtained salt of a compound of formula I is converted into the free compound or another salt, and/or a mixture of isomeric compounds of formula I is separated into the individual isomers.
Description of the Process Variants
Regarding Process (a):
The reaction between a compound of formula II and a compound of the formula R2—CH(Hal)-C(═O)—H preferably takes place in a suitable inert solvent, especially acetonitrile, at elevated temperatures, preferably above 50° C. In a compound of the formula R2—CH(Hal)-C(═O)—H, Hal is preferably bromo.
Regarding Processes (b) and (c):
The reaction between a compound of formula III or IV and halo-lower alkyl, wherein the lower alkyl moiety is optionally substituted, preferably takes place in a suitable inert solvent, especially alcohols, e.g. lower alcohols, preferably 1-butanol, in the presence of a base, preferably a strong base, especially a metal alcoholate such as sodium tert-butoxide, at elevated temperatures, preferably at around 100° C.
Regarding Process (d):
The reaction between a compound of formula V and a compound of the formula R2—B(OH)2preferably takes place in a suitable solvent, preferably toluene, in the presence of a base such as Na2CO3and a catalyst such as Pd(PPh3)4, and in an inert, for example an argon, atmosphere, at elevated temperature, preferably at the reflux temperature of the solvent employed. In a compound of formula V, Hal is preferably bromo.
Regarding Process (e):
The reaction between a compound of formula VI and hydrazine preferably takes place in a suitable inert solvent, especially alcohols, e.g. lower alcohols, preferably ethanol, and in an inert, for example an argon, atmosphere, at elevated temperatures, preferably at around 80° C.
Additional Process Steps
In the additional process steps, carried out as desired, functional groups of the starting compounds which should not take part in the reaction may be present in unprotected form or may be protected for example by one or more protecting groups. The protecting groups are then wholly or partly removed according to one of the known methods.
Protecting groups, and the manner in which they are introduced and removed are described, for example, in “Protective Groups in Organic Chemistry”, Plenum Press, London, New York 1973, and in “Methoden der organischen Chemie”, Houben-Weyl, 4th edition, Vol. 15/1, Georg-Thieme-Verlag, Stuttgart 1974 and in Theodora W. Greene, “Protective Groups in Organic Synthesis”, John Wiley & Sons, New York 1981. A characteristic of protecting groups is that they can be removed readily, i.e. without the occurrence of undesired secondary reactions, for example by solvolysis, reduction, photolysis or alternatively under physiological conditions.
The end products of formula I may however also contain substituents that can also be used as protecting groups in starting materials for the preparation of other end products of formula I. Thus, within the scope of this text, only a readily removable group that is not a constituent of the particular desired end product of formula I is designated a “protecting group”, unless the context indicates otherwise.
General Process Conditions
All process steps described here can be carried out under known reaction conditions, preferably under those specifically mentioned, in the absence of or usually in the presence of solvents or diluents, preferably those that are inert to the reagents used and able to dissolve them, in the absence or presence of catalysts, condensing agents or neutralising agents, for example ion exchangers, typically cation exchangers, for example in the H+form, depending on the type of reaction and/or reactants at reduced, normal, or elevated temperature, for example in the range from −100° C. to about 190° C., preferably from about −80° C. to about 150° C., for example at −80 to −60° C., at RT, at −20 to 40° C., at 0 to 100° C. or at the boiling point of the solvent used, under atmospheric pressure or in a closed vessel, if need be under pressure, and/or in an inert, for example an argon or nitrogen, atmosphere.
The invention relates also to those embodiments of the process in which one starts from a compound obtainable at any stage as an intermediate and carries out the missing steps, or breaks off the process at any stage, or forms a starting material under the reaction conditions, or uses said starting material in the form of a reactive derivative or salt, or produces a compound obtainable by means of the process according to the invention under those process conditions, and further processes the said compound in situ. In the preferred embodiment, one starts from those starting materials which lead to the compounds described hereinabove as preferred.
In the preferred embodiment, a compound of formula I is prepared according to the processes and process steps defined in the Examples.
The compounds of formula I, including their salts, are also obtainable in the form of hydrates, or their crystals can include for example the solvent used for crystallisation (present as solvates).
Starting Materials
New starting materials and/or intermediates, as well as processes for the preparation thereof, are likewise the subject of this invention. In the preferred embodiment, such starting materials are used and reaction conditions so selected as to enable the preferred compounds to be obtained.
The starting materials used in the above described process are known, capable of being prepared according to known processes, or commercially obtainable; in particular, they can be prepared using processes as described in the Examples.
In the preparation of starting materials, existing functional groups which do not participate in the reaction should, if necessary, be protected. Preferred protecting groups, their introduction and their removal are described above or in the Examples. In place of the respective starting materials and transients, salts thereof may also be used for the reaction, provided that salt-forming groups are present and the reaction with a salt is also possible. Where the term starting materials is used hereinbefore and hereinafter, the salts thereof are always included, insofar as reasonable and possible.
A compound of formula II can be prepared for example by reacting a compound of the formula VII
wherein R1is as defined for a compound of formula I, with ammonia, in a suitable inert solvent, especially alcohols, e.g. lower alcohols, such as methanol, and in an inert, for example an argon, atmosphere, at elevated temperature, preferably at around 60° C.
A compound of formula VII can be prepared for example by reacting a compound of the formula R1—NH2, wherein R1is as defined for a compound of formula I, with thiophosgene, in a suitable solvent, e.g. halogenated hydrocarbon, typically chloroform, in the presence of a suitable base, such as NaCO3, preferably at room temperature.
A compound of the formula R2—CH(Hal)-C(═O)—H can be prepared for example by reacting a compound of the formula R2—CH2—C(═O)—H, wherein R2is as defined for a compound of formula I, with Me3SiBr, in a suitable solvent such as acetonitrile, in the presence of dimethyl sulfoxide and in an inert, for example an argon, atmosphere, preferably at 0° C. or below.
A compound of formula V can be prepared for example by reacting a compound of the formula VIII
wherein R1is as defined for a compound of formula I, with Hal-Hal, wherein Hal is halo, preferably bromo, in a suitable inert solvent, such as N,N-dimethyl-formamide, and in an inert, for example an argon, atmosphere, preferably at room temperature.
A compound of formula VIII can be prepared for example by reacting a compound of the formula II, wherein R1is as defined for a compound of formula I, with chloroacetaldehyde, in a suitable inert solvent, especially alcohols, e.g. lower alcohols, such as ethanol, at elevated temperatures, preferably at the reflux temperature of the solvent employed.
A compound of formula VI can be prepared for example by (i) reacting a compound of the formula R2—C(═O)—CH3with NaH in a suitable inert solvent, such as N,N-dimethyl-formamide, preferably at around 0° C., (ii) adding to the reaction mixture a compound of formula VIII, wherein R1is as defined for a compound of formula I, the reaction preferably taking place at room temperature, and (iii) reacting the reaction mixtures with CH3I, preferably at room temperature.
The remaining starting materials are known, capable of being prepared according to known processes, or commercially available; or in particular, they can be prepared using processes as described in the Examples.
Pharmaceutical Compositions, Methods, and Uses
The present invention relates also to pharmaceutical compositions that comprise a compound of formula I, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, as active ingredient and that can be used especially in the treatment of the diseases mentioned above. Compositions for enteral administration, such as nasal, buccal, rectal or, especially, oral administration, and for parenteral administration, such as intravenous, intramuscular or subcutaneous administration, to warm-blooded animals, especially humans, are especially preferred. The compositions contain the active ingredient alone or, preferably, together with a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier. The dosage of the active ingredient depends upon the disease to be treated and upon the species, its age, weight, and individual condition, the individual pharmacokinetic data, and the mode of administration.
The present invention also relates to pro-drugs of a compound of formula I that convert in vivo to the compound of formula I as such. Any reference to a compound of formula I is therefore to be understood as referring also to the corresponding pro-drugs of the compound of formula I, as appropriate and expedient.
The invention relates also to compounds of formula I, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, as such or in the form of a pharmaceutical composition, for use in a method for the prophylactic or especially therapeutic treatment of the human or animal body, to a process for the preparation thereof (especially in the form of compositions for the treatment of tumours) and to a method of treating proliferative diseases, primarily tumour diseases, especially those mentioned above.
The invention relates also to processes and to the use of compounds of formula I, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, for the preparation of pharmaceutical compositions which comprise compounds of formula I, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, as active component (active ingredient).
If desired, the said pharmaceutical compositions may also contain further active components, for example cytostatics, and/or may be used in combination with known therapeutic processes, for example the administration of hormones or radiation.
Preference is given for a pharmaceutical composition which is suitable for administration to a warm-blooded animal, especially humans or commercially useful mammals suffering from a disease which responds to an inhibition of a protein tyrosine kinase, especially to an inhibition of Flt-3, especially a neoplastic disease, comprising an effective quantity of a compound of formula I for the inhibition of a protein tyrosine kinase, especially for the inhibition of Flt-3, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, together with at least one pharmaceutically acceptable carrier.
A pharmaceutical composition for the prophylactic or especially therapeutic management of neoplastic and other proliferative diseases of a warm-blooded animal, especially a human or a commercially useful mammal requiring such treatment, especially suffering from such a disease, comprising as active ingredient in a quantity that is prophylactically or especially therapeutically active against said diseases a compound of formula I, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, is likewise preferred.
The pharmaceutical compositions comprise from approximately 1% to approximately 95% active ingredient, single-dose administration forms comprising in the preferred embodiment from approximately 20% to approximately 90% active ingredient and forms that are not of single-dose type comprising in the preferred embodiment from approximately 5% to approximately 20% active ingredient. Unit dose forms are, for example, coated and uncoated tablets, ampoules, vials, suppositories or capsules. Examples are capsules containing from about 0.05 g to about 1.0 g of active substance.
The pharmaceutical compositions of the present invention are prepared in a manner known per se, for example by means of conventional mixing, granulating, coating, dissolving or lyophilising processes.
The invention relates likewise to a process or a method for the treatment of one of the pathological conditions mentioned hereinabove, especially a disease which responds to an inhibition of a protein tyrosine kinase, especially to an inhibition of Flt-3, especially a corresponding neoplastic disease. The compounds of formula I, or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof, can be administered as such or in the form of pharmaceutical compositions, prophylactically or therapeutically, preferably in an amount effective against the said diseases, to a warm-blooded animal, for example a human, requiring such treatment, the compounds especially being used in the form of pharmaceutical compositions. In the case of an individual having a bodyweight of about 70 kg the daily dose administered is from approximately 0.05 g to approximately 2 g, preferably from approximately 0.1 g to approximately 1 g, of a compound of the present invention.
The present invention relates especially also to the use of a compound of formula I, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, especially a compound of formula I which is said to be preferred, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, as such or in the form of a pharmaceutical composition with at least one pharmaceutically acceptable carrier, for the therapeutic and also prophylactic management of one or more of the diseases mentioned hereinabove, preferably a disease which responds to an inhibition of a protein tyrosine kinase, especially to an inhibition of Flt-3, especially a neoplastic disease, in particular if the said disease responds to an inhibition of a protein tyrosine kinase, especially to an inhibition of Flt-3.
The present invention relates especially also to the use of a compound of formula I, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, especially a compound of formula I which is said to be preferred, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, for the preparation of a pharmaceutical composition for the therapeutic and also prophylactic management of one or more of the diseases mentioned hereinabove, especially a neoplastic disease, in particular if the disease responds to an inhibition of a protein tyrosine kinase, especially to an inhibition of Flt-3.
A compound of the formula I may also be used to advantage in combination with other antiproliferative agents. Such antiproliferative agents include, but are not limited to aromatase inhibitors, antiestrogens, topoisomerase I inhibitors, topoisomerase II inhibitors, microtubule active agents, alkylating agents, histone deacetylase inhibitors, farnesyl transferase inhibitors, COX-2 inhibitors, MMP inhibitors, mTOR inhibitors, antineoplastic antimetabolites, platin compounds, compounds decreasing the protein kinase activity and further anti-angiogenic compounds, gonadorelin agonists, anti-androgens, bengamides, bisphosphonates, steroids, antiproliferative antibodies, 17-(allylamino)-17-demethoxygeldanamycin (17-AAG) and temozolomide (TEMODAL®).
The term “aromatase inhibitors” as used herein relates to compounds which inhibit the estrogen production, i.e. the conversion of the substrates androstenedione and testosterone to estrone and estradiol, respectively. The term includes, but is not limited to steroids, especially exemestane and formestane and, in particular, non-steroids, especially aminoglutethimide, vorozole, fadrozole, anastrozole and, very especially, letrozole. Exemestane can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark AROMASIN™. Formestane can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark LENTARON™. Fadrozole can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark AFEMA™. Anastrozole can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark ARIMIDEX™. Letrozole can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark FEMARA™ or FEMAR™. Aminoglutethimide can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark ORIMETEN™.
A combination of the invention comprising an antineoplastic agent which is an aromatase inhibitor is particularly useful for the treatment of hormone receptor positive breast tumors.
The term “antiestrogens” as used herein relates to compounds which antagonize the effect of estrogens at the estrogen receptor level. The term includes, but is not limited to tamoxifen, fulvestrant, raloxifene and raloxifene hydrochloride. Tamoxifen can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark NOLVADEX™. Raloxifene hydrochloride can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark EVISTA™. Fulvestrant can be formulated as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,659,516 or it can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark FASLODEX™.
The term “topoisomerase I inhibitors” as used herein includes, but is not limited to topotecan, irinotecan, 9-nitrocamptothecin and the macromolecular camptothecin conjugate PNU-166148 (compound A1 in WO 99/17804). Irinotecan can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark CAMPTOSAR™. Topotecan can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark HYCAMTIN™.
The term “topoisomerase II inhibitors” as used herein includes, but is not limited to the antracyclines doxorubicin (including liposomal formulation, e.g. CAELYX™), epirubicin, idarubicin and nemorubicin, the anthraquinones mitoxantrone and losoxantrone, and the podophillotoxines etoposide and teniposide. Etoposide can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark ETOPOPHOS™. Teniposide can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark VM 26-BRISTOL™. Doxorubicin can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark ADRIBLASTIN™. Epirubicin can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark FARMORUBICIN™. Idarubicin can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark ZAVEDOS™; Mitoxantrone can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark NOVANTRON™.
The term “microtubule active agents” relates to microtubule stabilizing and microtubule destabilizing agents including, but not limited to the taxanes paclitaxel and docetaxel, the vinca alkaloids, e.g., vinblastine, especially vinblastine sulfate, vincristine especially vincristine sulfate, and vinorelbine, discodermolide and epothilones, such as epothilone B and D. Docetaxel can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark TAXOTERE™. Vinblastine sulfate can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark VINBLASTIN R.P.™. Vincristine sulfate can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark FARMISTIN™. Discodermolide can be obtained, e.g., as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,010,099.
The term “alkylating agents” as used herein includes, but is not limited to cyclophosphamide, ifosfamide and melphalan. Cyclophosphamide can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark CYCLOSTIN™. Ifosfamide can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark HOLOXAN™.
The term “histone deacetylase inhibitors” relates to compounds which inhibit the histone deacetylase and which possess antiproliferative activity. This includes compounds disclosed in WO 02/22577, especially N-hydroxy-3-[4-[[(2-hydroxyethyl)[2-(1H-indol-3-yl)ethyl]-amino]methyl]phenyl]-2E-2-propenamide, N-hydroxy-3-[4-[[[2-(2-methyl-1H-indol-3-yl)-ethyl]-amino]methyl]phenyl]-2E-2-propenamide and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof. It further especially includes Suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA).
The term “farnesyl transferase inhibitors” relates to compounds which inhibit the farnesyl transferase and which possess antiproliferative activity.
The term “COX-2 inhibitors” relates to compounds which inhibit the cyclooxygenase type 2 enzyme (COX-2) and which possess antiproliferative activity such as celecoxib (Celebrex®), rofecoxib (Vioxx®) and lumiracoxib (COX189).
The term “MMP inhibitors” relates to compounds which inhibit the matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) and which possess antiproliferative activity.
The term “mTOR inhibitors” relates to compounds which inhibit the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) and which possess antiproliferative activity such as sirolimus (Rapamune®), everolimus (Certican™), CCl-779 and ABT578.
The term “antineoplastic antimetabolites” includes, but is not limited to 5-fluorouracil, tegafur, capecitabine, cladribine, cytarabine, fludarabine phosphate, fluorouridine, gemcitabine, 6-mercaptopurine, hydroxyurea, methotrexate, edatrexate and salts of such compounds, and furthermore ZD 1694 (RALTITREXED™), LY231514 (ALIMTA™), LY264618 (LOMOTREXOL™) and OGT719.
The term “platin compounds” as used herein includes, but is not limited to carboplatin, cis-platin and oxaliplatin. Carboplatin can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark CARBOPLAT™. Oxaliplatin can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark ELOXATIN™.
The term “compounds decreasing the protein kinase activity and further anti-angiogenic compounds” as used herein includes, but is not limited to compounds which decrease the activity of e.g. the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF), the Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF), c-Src, protein kinase C, the Platelet-derived Growth Factor (PDGF), Bcr-Abl, c-Kit, Flt-3, the Insulin-like Growth Factor I Receptor (IGF-IR) and the Cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs), and anti-angiogenic compounds having another mechanism of action than decreasing the protein kinase activity.
Compounds which decrease the activity of VEGF are especially compounds which inhibit the VEGF receptor, especially the tyrosine kinase activity of the VEGF receptor, and compounds binding to VEGF, and are in particular those compounds, proteins and monoclonal antibodies generically and specifically disclosed in WO 98/35958 (describing compounds of formula I), WO 00/09495, WO 00/27820, WO 00/59509, WO 98/11223, WO 00/27819, WO 01/55114, WO 01/58899 and EP 0 769 947; those as described by M. Prewett et al in Cancer Research 59 (1999) 5209-5218, by F. Yuan et al in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, vol. 93, pp. 14765-14770, December 1996, by Z. Zhu et al in Cancer Res. 58, 1998, 3209-3214, and by J. Mordenti et al in Toxicologic Pathology, vol. 27, no. 1, pp 14-21, 1999; in WO 00/37502 and WO 94/10202; Angiostatin™, described by M. S. O'Reilly et al, Cell 79, 1994, 315-328; and Endostatin™, described by M. S. O'Reilly et al, Cell 88, 1997, 277-285;
compounds which decrease the activity of EGF are especially compounds which inhibit the EGF receptor, especially the tyrosine kinase activity of the EGF receptor, and compounds binding to EGF, and are in particular those compounds generically and specifically disclosed in WO 97/02266 (describing compounds of formula IV), EP 0 564 409, WO 99/03854, EP 0520722, EP 0 566 226, EP 0 787 722, EP 0 837 063, WO 98/10767, WO 97/30034, WO 97/49688, WO 97/38983 and, especially, WO 96/33980;
compounds which decrease the activity of c-Src include, but are not limited to, compounds inhibiting the c-Src protein tyrosine kinase activity as defined below and to SH2 interaction inhibitors such as those disclosed in WO 97/07131 and WO 97/08193;
compounds inhibiting the c-Src protein tyrosine kinase activity include, but are not limited to, compounds belonging to the structure classes of pyrrolopyrimidines, especially pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidines, purines, pyrazopyrimidines, especially pyrazo[3,4-d]pyrimidines, pyrazopyrimidines, especially pyrazo[3,4-d]pyrimidines and pyridopyrimidines, especially pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidines. Preferably, the term relates to those compounds disclosed in WO 96/10028, WO 97/28161, WO 97/32879 and WO 97/49706;
compounds which decreases the activity of the protein kinase C are especially those staurosporine derivatives disclosed in EP 0 296 110 (pharmaceutical preparation described in WO 00/48571) which compounds are protein kinase C inhibitors;
compounds which decrease the activity of IGF-IR are especially those compounds disclosed in WO 02/92599;
further specific compounds that decrease protein kinase activity and which may also be used in combination with the compounds of the present invention are Imatinib (Gleevec®/Glivec®), PKC412, Iressa™ (ZD1839), {6-[4-(4-ethyl-piperazin-1-ylmethyl)-phenyl]-7H-pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidin-4-yl}-((R)-1-phenyl-ethyl)-amine (AEE788) and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof (see also WO 03/13541), 1-(4-chloro-anilino)-4-(4-pyridyl-methyl)-phthalazine (PTK787) and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof (see also WO 98/35958), ZD6474, GW2016, CHIR-200131, CEP-7055/CEP-5214, CP-547632, KRN-633 and SU5416;
anti-angiogenic compounds having another mechanism of action than decreasing the protein kinase activity include, but are not limited to e.g. thalidomide (THALOMID), celecoxib (Celebrex) and ZD6126.
The term “gonadorelin agonist” as used herein includes, but is not limited to abarelix, goserelin and goserelin acetate. Goserelin is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,100,274 and can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark ZOLADEX™. Abarelix can be formulated, e.g. as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,843,901.
The term “anti-androgens” as used herein includes, but is not limited to bicalutamide (CASODEX™), which can be formulated, e.g. as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,636,505.
The term “bengamides” relates to bengamides and derivatives thereof having antiproliferative properties.
The term “bisphosphonates” as used herein includes, but is not limited to etridonic acid, clodronic acid, tiludronic acid, pamidronic acid, alendronic acid, ibandronic acid, risedronic acid and zoledronic acid. “Etridonic acid” can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark DIDRONEL™. “Clodronic acid” can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark BONEFOS™. “Tiludronic acid” can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark SKELID™. “Pamidronic acid” can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark AREDIA™. “Alendronic acid” can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark FOSAMAX™. “Ibandronic acid” can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark BONDRANAT™. “Risedronic acid” can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark ACTONEL™. “Zoledronic acid” can be administered, e.g., in the form as it is marketed, e.g. under the trademark ZOMETA™.
The term “steroids” includes hydrocortisone, dexamethasone (Decadron®), methylprednisolone and prednisolone.
The term “antiproliferative antibodies” as used herein includes, but is not limited to trastuzumab (Herceptin™), Trastuzumab-DM1, erlotinib (Tarceva™), bevacizumab (Avastin™), rituximab (Rituxan®), PRO64553 (anti-CD40) and 2C4 Antibody.
For the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), compounds of formula I can be used in combination with standard leukemia therapies, especially in combination with therapies used for the treatment of AML. In particular, compounds of formula I can be administered in combination with e.g. farnesyltransferase inhibitors and/or other drugs useful for the treatment of AML, such as Daunorubicin, Adriamycin, Ara-C, VP-16, Teniposide, Mitoxantrone, Idarubicin, Carboplatinum and PKC412.
The structure of the active agents identified by code nos., generic or trade names may be taken from the actual edition of the standard compendium “The Merck Index” or from databases, e.g. Patents International (e.g. IMS World Publications).
The above-mentioned compounds, which can be used in combination with a compound of the formula I, can be prepared and administered as described in the art such as in the documents cited above.
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7818260 | BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods of managing digital rights.
2. Background Art
Digital rights are rights generally associated with electronic media and protections provided to govern the usage thereof. In the past, the digital rights have been associated with the electronic media, and in some cases, tied to a physical embodiment of the media (CD, DVD, downloaded version, etc.). This arrangement makes legal migration between formats cumbersome and fails to protect the purchaser from loss of the physical embodiment.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
One non-limiting aspect of the present invention relates to a system for managing subscriber access to content. The system may include a number of access points through which the subscribers access the content, a digital rights feature located remotely from the access points for storing digital rights of the subscribers to the content. Optionally, the digital rights feature is configured to control access to the content by the access points as function of digital rights individually associated with the subscribers.
Optionally, digital rights feature may be configured to facilitate platform-independent use of the content, which may include translating the content from a first format or protocol to a second, different format or protocol associated with the access point, and/or providing instructions for configuring the access point to access the content.
One non-limiting aspect of the present invention relates to a cable television system for managing digital rights. The system may include a cable provider configured for providing cable services to a number of subscribers, a number of access points associated with the subscribers and configured for interface the cable services with the subscribers, and a digital rights feature located remotely from the access points and configured to control subscriber access to the services as a function of subscriber digital rights thereto.
One non-limiting aspect of the present invention relates to a method of managing subscriber access to content. The method may include associating the subscribers with digital rights to the content, storing the digital rights remotely from the content, identifying subscribers attempting to access the content, determining whether the identified subscribers include digital rights to the content, and limiting access of the identified subscribes according to the remotely located digital rights.
One non-limiting aspect of the present invention relates to a scalable distributed system for recording and managing rights to digital content associated with individual subscribers in which an authentication chain is maintained back to one or more authorized authentication servers. The system may include a root server configured to store a master copy of the associated rights and a chain of intermediate servers located downstream from the root server and configured to store the associated rights such that the rights are retrievable on demand from digital rights requests from downstream devices if the digital rights of the subscriber associated therewith are evident on the server.
Optionally, the intermediate digital rights servers may request updates from upstream digital rights servers if the digital rights of the subscriber associated with the requesting downstream device are not evident on the server such that requests continue upstream until one of the intermediate servers in the authentication chain either discovers the requested rights or the root server determines that such rights do not exist and communicates this fact back downstream to the requesting device.
One non-limiting aspect of the present invention relates to a system for managing subscriber access to content. The system includes: a digital rights feature programmed to manage digital rights to purchased media content, the digital rights feature programmed to generate a single, unique key for each purchase, the key being required to playback the purchased media content; a digital rights server programmed to receive a message for each purchase, prior to first playback of each purchase, that identifies: (i) the purchased content; (ii) the unique key required to playback the purchased content; and (iii) identification of a purchaser; wherein the digital rights server is programmed to, upon receipt of a request to transmit the key associated with the purchased media content, identify the purchaser making the request and to transmits the unique key to the identified purchaser to permit playback, the digital rights server programmed to transmit different, unique keys for the same media content in the event the same media content is desired for playback by different purchasers; wherein the digital rights server is programmed to identify a primary playback device for each purchaser from the message, the primary playback device storing a full length copy of the media content on an included memory; wherein the digital rights server is programmed to transmit instructions to the primary playback device and to instruct delivery of the purchased media content from the memory of the primary playback device to a secondary playback device upon receipt of a request from the purchaser to playback the purchased media content on the secondary playback device; wherein the digital rights server is programmed to transmit the unique key to the secondary playback device for the purchased media content to be transferred from the primary playback device to the second playback device in order to permit playback at the second playback device; wherein the unique key is included on discs used to store multiple copies of the same media content, each disc being individually purchased and used by the primary playback device to copy the purchased media to the memory; wherein the primary playback device is programmed to permanently transmit the unique key included on the disc to the digital rights server, the permanent transmission being characterized by an inability of the primary playback device to subsequently transmit the unique key to the digital rights server; and wherein the primary playback device is programmed to permanently transmit the unique key included on the disc to the digital rights server, the permanent transmission being characterized by an inability of the primary playback device to subsequently transmit the unique key to the digital rights server.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention, the primary playback device is an electronic device that transmits the message from each purchaser of the purchased media content to the digital rights server prior to first playback.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention, the digital rights server is programmed to instruct the primary playback device to transmit the purchased media content to the digital rights server and not directly to the secondary playback device, wherein the digital rights server is programmed to then transmit the purchased media content to the secondary playback device.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention, the digital rights server is programmed to only temporarily buffer the purchased media content for a period of time sufficient to support transmission to the secondary playback device.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention, the digital rights server is programmed to convert the purchased media content from a first format used by the primary playback device to a second format used by the secondary playback device.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention, the digital rights server is programmed to assign the unique key to the media content prior to purchase, thereby requiring a plurality of the unique keys to be associated with the same media content prior to purchase.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention, the primary playback device is programmed to transmit the unique key to the digital rights server prior to first playback of the purchased media content on the primary playback device.
One non-limiting aspect of the present invention relates to a system for managing subscriber access to purchased media content. The system includes: a digital rights server programmed to cross-reference each piece of purchased media content with an individually and uniquely assigned key, each key being assigned to only one piece of media content available for purchase and being required to playback the associated media content; a digital rights application being embedded within each piece of media content available for purchase, the digital rights application being programmed to have the only copy of the key assigned to the associated media content and being programmed to automatically transmit the key to the digital rights server for cross-referencing as part of an authentication process executed after purchase of the media content; a first machine programmed to playback the media content using the assigned key; wherein the digital rights server is programmed to transmit the unique key to a second machine device in order to permit playback of the purchased media content at the second machine; and wherein the digital rights application is programmed to force the first machine to permanently transmit the key to the digital rights server, the permanent transmission being characterized by an inability of the first machine to subsequently transmit the unique key to the digital rights server.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention, the first machine is programmed to execute the digital rights application after purchase of the media content, the digital rights application forcing the first machine to permanently transfer the key to the digital rights server prior to first playback.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention, the media content is purchased on a disc and loaded for playback and execution of the digital rights application by the first machine.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention, the first machine is programmed to download the purchased media content from a website prior to first playback, wherein the website permanently transfers the key to the digital rights server prior to download to the first machine, the permanent transfer being characterized by an inability of the first machine to subsequently transmit the key to the digital rights server.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention, the digital rights server creates a cross-reference entry in a lookup table used to cross-reference the keys with the purchased media content only after the media content is purchased.
One non-limiting aspect of the present invention relates to a method for managing subscriber access to media content. The method includes: associating a unique key to each piece of media content, the unique key being required by a playback device in order to playback the associated piece of media content; embedding the unique key with the associated piece of media content, the embedded unique key traveling with the corresponding piece of media content; after purchase of a piece of the media content, receiving the unique key with a server, the server being in electronic communication with a first playback device initially used to playback the purchased piece of the media content, the first playback device being forced to permanently transmit the unique key to the server, the permanent transmission being characterized by an inability of the first playback device to subsequently transmit the unit key; and upon receipt of a request to playback the purchased piece of media content on a second playback device, transmitting the unique key from the server to the second playback device in order to permit playback of the purchased piece of media content at the second playback device.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, the server transmitting instructions to the first playback device in order to force the first playback device to permanently transmit the unique key embedded on the purchased piece of the media content to the server.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, the instructions requiring the first playback device to permanently transmit the unique key before a first playback of the purchase piece of the media content
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, embedding the unique key on the purchased piece of the media content at a time of purchase.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, embedding the unique key as a part of a download process used to download the purchased piece of the media content to the first playback device.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, embedding the unique key on a disc used to store the purchased piece of the media content.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, the server instructing the first playback device to remove the unique key from the disc after permanently transmitting the unique key to the server.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, the server receiving the purchased piece of the media content from the first playback device and re-transmitting the received, purchased piece of the media content to the second playback device.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, the server re-formatting the purchased piece of the media content prior to re-transmitting the purchased piece of the media content to the second playback device.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, the server re-formatting the purchased piece of the media content from a first format required by the first playback device to a second format required by the second playback device, the second playback device being unable to playback the first format.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, associating different, unique keys with each piece of the media content.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, associating different, unique keys with each piece of the media content prior to purchase.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, associating the unique key received by the server with a user.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, limiting transmission of the unique key received by the server to the user associated therewith.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, requiring the server to re-transmit the unique key each time the purchased piece of the media content is desired for playback.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, limiting use of the unique key to only one of the first and second playback devices at the same time.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, the server including digital right controls with the transmission of the unique key.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, the digital rights controls limiting a total number of times the purchased piece of the media content can be played or a total number of copies that can be made of the purchased piece of the media content.
The above features and advantages, along with other features and advantages of the present invention, are readily apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.
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SUMMARY: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods of managing digital rights.
2. Background Art
Digital rights are rights generally associated with electronic media and protections provided to govern the usage thereof. In the past, the digital rights have been associated with the electronic media, and in some cases, tied to a physical embodiment of the media (CD, DVD, downloaded version, etc.). This arrangement makes legal migration between formats cumbersome and fails to protect the purchaser from loss of the physical embodiment.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
One non-limiting aspect of the present invention relates to a system for managing subscriber access to content. The system may include a number of access points through which the subscribers access the content, a digital rights feature located remotely from the access points for storing digital rights of the subscribers to the content. Optionally, the digital rights feature is configured to control access to the content by the access points as function of digital rights individually associated with the subscribers.
Optionally, digital rights feature may be configured to facilitate platform-independent use of the content, which may include translating the content from a first format or protocol to a second, different format or protocol associated with the access point, and/or providing instructions for configuring the access point to access the content.
One non-limiting aspect of the present invention relates to a cable television system for managing digital rights. The system may include a cable provider configured for providing cable services to a number of subscribers, a number of access points associated with the subscribers and configured for interface the cable services with the subscribers, and a digital rights feature located remotely from the access points and configured to control subscriber access to the services as a function of subscriber digital rights thereto.
One non-limiting aspect of the present invention relates to a method of managing subscriber access to content. The method may include associating the subscribers with digital rights to the content, storing the digital rights remotely from the content, identifying subscribers attempting to access the content, determining whether the identified subscribers include digital rights to the content, and limiting access of the identified subscribes according to the remotely located digital rights.
One non-limiting aspect of the present invention relates to a scalable distributed system for recording and managing rights to digital content associated with individual subscribers in which an authentication chain is maintained back to one or more authorized authentication servers. The system may include a root server configured to store a master copy of the associated rights and a chain of intermediate servers located downstream from the root server and configured to store the associated rights such that the rights are retrievable on demand from digital rights requests from downstream devices if the digital rights of the subscriber associated therewith are evident on the server.
Optionally, the intermediate digital rights servers may request updates from upstream digital rights servers if the digital rights of the subscriber associated with the requesting downstream device are not evident on the server such that requests continue upstream until one of the intermediate servers in the authentication chain either discovers the requested rights or the root server determines that such rights do not exist and communicates this fact back downstream to the requesting device.
One non-limiting aspect of the present invention relates to a system for managing subscriber access to content. The system includes: a digital rights feature programmed to manage digital rights to purchased media content, the digital rights feature programmed to generate a single, unique key for each purchase, the key being required to playback the purchased media content; a digital rights server programmed to receive a message for each purchase, prior to first playback of each purchase, that identifies: (i) the purchased content; (ii) the unique key required to playback the purchased content; and (iii) identification of a purchaser; wherein the digital rights server is programmed to, upon receipt of a request to transmit the key associated with the purchased media content, identify the purchaser making the request and to transmits the unique key to the identified purchaser to permit playback, the digital rights server programmed to transmit different, unique keys for the same media content in the event the same media content is desired for playback by different purchasers; wherein the digital rights server is programmed to identify a primary playback device for each purchaser from the message, the primary playback device storing a full length copy of the media content on an included memory; wherein the digital rights server is programmed to transmit instructions to the primary playback device and to instruct delivery of the purchased media content from the memory of the primary playback device to a secondary playback device upon receipt of a request from the purchaser to playback the purchased media content on the secondary playback device; wherein the digital rights server is programmed to transmit the unique key to the secondary playback device for the purchased media content to be transferred from the primary playback device to the second playback device in order to permit playback at the second playback device; wherein the unique key is included on discs used to store multiple copies of the same media content, each disc being individually purchased and used by the primary playback device to copy the purchased media to the memory; wherein the primary playback device is programmed to permanently transmit the unique key included on the disc to the digital rights server, the permanent transmission being characterized by an inability of the primary playback device to subsequently transmit the unique key to the digital rights server; and wherein the primary playback device is programmed to permanently transmit the unique key included on the disc to the digital rights server, the permanent transmission being characterized by an inability of the primary playback device to subsequently transmit the unique key to the digital rights server.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention, the primary playback device is an electronic device that transmits the message from each purchaser of the purchased media content to the digital rights server prior to first playback.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention, the digital rights server is programmed to instruct the primary playback device to transmit the purchased media content to the digital rights server and not directly to the secondary playback device, wherein the digital rights server is programmed to then transmit the purchased media content to the secondary playback device.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention, the digital rights server is programmed to only temporarily buffer the purchased media content for a period of time sufficient to support transmission to the secondary playback device.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention, the digital rights server is programmed to convert the purchased media content from a first format used by the primary playback device to a second format used by the secondary playback device.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention, the digital rights server is programmed to assign the unique key to the media content prior to purchase, thereby requiring a plurality of the unique keys to be associated with the same media content prior to purchase.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention, the primary playback device is programmed to transmit the unique key to the digital rights server prior to first playback of the purchased media content on the primary playback device.
One non-limiting aspect of the present invention relates to a system for managing subscriber access to purchased media content. The system includes: a digital rights server programmed to cross-reference each piece of purchased media content with an individually and uniquely assigned key, each key being assigned to only one piece of media content available for purchase and being required to playback the associated media content; a digital rights application being embedded within each piece of media content available for purchase, the digital rights application being programmed to have the only copy of the key assigned to the associated media content and being programmed to automatically transmit the key to the digital rights server for cross-referencing as part of an authentication process executed after purchase of the media content; a first machine programmed to playback the media content using the assigned key; wherein the digital rights server is programmed to transmit the unique key to a second machine device in order to permit playback of the purchased media content at the second machine; and wherein the digital rights application is programmed to force the first machine to permanently transmit the key to the digital rights server, the permanent transmission being characterized by an inability of the first machine to subsequently transmit the unique key to the digital rights server.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention, the first machine is programmed to execute the digital rights application after purchase of the media content, the digital rights application forcing the first machine to permanently transfer the key to the digital rights server prior to first playback.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention, the media content is purchased on a disc and loaded for playback and execution of the digital rights application by the first machine.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention, the first machine is programmed to download the purchased media content from a website prior to first playback, wherein the website permanently transfers the key to the digital rights server prior to download to the first machine, the permanent transfer being characterized by an inability of the first machine to subsequently transmit the key to the digital rights server.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention, the digital rights server creates a cross-reference entry in a lookup table used to cross-reference the keys with the purchased media content only after the media content is purchased.
One non-limiting aspect of the present invention relates to a method for managing subscriber access to media content. The method includes: associating a unique key to each piece of media content, the unique key being required by a playback device in order to playback the associated piece of media content; embedding the unique key with the associated piece of media content, the embedded unique key traveling with the corresponding piece of media content; after purchase of a piece of the media content, receiving the unique key with a server, the server being in electronic communication with a first playback device initially used to playback the purchased piece of the media content, the first playback device being forced to permanently transmit the unique key to the server, the permanent transmission being characterized by an inability of the first playback device to subsequently transmit the unit key; and upon receipt of a request to playback the purchased piece of media content on a second playback device, transmitting the unique key from the server to the second playback device in order to permit playback of the purchased piece of media content at the second playback device.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, the server transmitting instructions to the first playback device in order to force the first playback device to permanently transmit the unique key embedded on the purchased piece of the media content to the server.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, the instructions requiring the first playback device to permanently transmit the unique key before a first playback of the purchase piece of the media content
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, embedding the unique key on the purchased piece of the media content at a time of purchase.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, embedding the unique key as a part of a download process used to download the purchased piece of the media content to the first playback device.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, embedding the unique key on a disc used to store the purchased piece of the media content.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, the server instructing the first playback device to remove the unique key from the disc after permanently transmitting the unique key to the server.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, the server receiving the purchased piece of the media content from the first playback device and re-transmitting the received, purchased piece of the media content to the second playback device.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, the server re-formatting the purchased piece of the media content prior to re-transmitting the purchased piece of the media content to the second playback device.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, the server re-formatting the purchased piece of the media content from a first format required by the first playback device to a second format required by the second playback device, the second playback device being unable to playback the first format.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, associating different, unique keys with each piece of the media content.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, associating different, unique keys with each piece of the media content prior to purchase.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, associating the unique key received by the server with a user.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, limiting transmission of the unique key received by the server to the user associated therewith.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, requiring the server to re-transmit the unique key each time the purchased piece of the media content is desired for playback.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, limiting use of the unique key to only one of the first and second playback devices at the same time.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, the server including digital right controls with the transmission of the unique key.
In accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention the method includes, the digital rights controls limiting a total number of times the purchased piece of the media content can be played or a total number of copies that can be made of the purchased piece of the media content.
The above features and advantages, along with other features and advantages of the present invention, are readily apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.
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7829134 | CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This Utility Patent Application claims priority to German Patent Application No. DE 10 2004 029 436.4, filed on Jun. 18, 2004, which is incorporated herein by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method for producing a solid electrolyte material region and, in particular, to a method for producing a solid electrolyte material region for a memory element of a solid electrolyte memory cell.
BACKGROUND
In the production of solid electrolyte memory cells, sputtering processes are used for forming the solid electrolyte material region that is to be provided as the memory. What is disadvantageous about these methods, however, is the inadequate reproducibility of the layer properties and also, in particular, the lack of layer homogeneity. Moreover, sputtering methods of this type exhibit difficulties with regard to satisfying ever more rigorous dimensioning requirements with regard to a maximum scale of integration to be achieved for corresponding memory elements and memory devices. Even the use of so-called CVD processes can only provide a remedy to a limited extent in this case because processes of this type are based on material combinations which are comparatively temperature-sensitive and can therefore lead to difficulties during the subsequent further processing processes.
For these and other reasons, there is a need for the present invention.
SUMMARY
A method for producing a solid electrolyte material region for a memory element of a solid electrolyte memory cell. A first material is formed in substantially pure form. A thermal treatment is carried out in the presence of at least one second material, and the chalcogenide material of the solid electrolyte material region thereby being produced.
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SUMMARY: CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This Utility Patent Application claims priority to German Patent Application No. DE 10 2004 029 436.4, filed on Jun. 18, 2004, which is incorporated herein by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method for producing a solid electrolyte material region and, in particular, to a method for producing a solid electrolyte material region for a memory element of a solid electrolyte memory cell.
BACKGROUND
In the production of solid electrolyte memory cells, sputtering processes are used for forming the solid electrolyte material region that is to be provided as the memory. What is disadvantageous about these methods, however, is the inadequate reproducibility of the layer properties and also, in particular, the lack of layer homogeneity. Moreover, sputtering methods of this type exhibit difficulties with regard to satisfying ever more rigorous dimensioning requirements with regard to a maximum scale of integration to be achieved for corresponding memory elements and memory devices. Even the use of so-called CVD processes can only provide a remedy to a limited extent in this case because processes of this type are based on material combinations which are comparatively temperature-sensitive and can therefore lead to difficulties during the subsequent further processing processes.
For these and other reasons, there is a need for the present invention.
SUMMARY
A method for producing a solid electrolyte material region for a memory element of a solid electrolyte memory cell. A first material is formed in substantially pure form. A thermal treatment is carried out in the presence of at least one second material, and the chalcogenide material of the solid electrolyte material region thereby being produced.
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7765871 | RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application claims priority from co-pending, commonly assigned application Ser. No. 11/485,129 filed 12 Jul. 2006.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to the field of analyte detection and concentration analysis and to an improved apparatus for performing same. In one preferred embodiment, the present invention relates especially to gas contaminant detection, e.g., trace moisture in a semiconductor process gas.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
As semiconductor technology advances and device sizes shrink, the impact of contaminants in the gases used to fabricate these devices becomes increasingly important. Many specialty gases are used in the production of semiconductor devices. For example, a major source of contamination in the chip fabrication process is the presence in process gases of trace amounts, e.g., on the order of tens of parts per billion by volume (ppbv), of water. While ultra pure (water and other contaminant free) gases are sometimes available, chemical reactions, phase changes, and other effects often result in the presence of moisture in a gas supply line of a semiconductor fabrication system. These facts make it very attractive to have moisture sensors that are small, efficient, have rapid response times, and are inexpensive enough to be placed in multiple locations in the system. These locations include each line of the gas box and also immediately before the reactor of a semiconductor fabrication system. Currently available sensors do not meet all the aforementioned requirements.
The ambient atmosphere typically contains water vapor concentrations of up to, or even exceeding, approximately 1%. This is at least six orders of magnitude greater than the acceptable limits for most semiconductor process gases. As such, even very small leaks of ambient air into the gas distribution system may introduce significant moisture contamination. Furthermore, even well-dried gas lines can contribute moisture to an otherwise high-purity gas. After a gas distribution system is purged with an inert gas, some water molecules can remain in the lines due to strong binding to adsorption sites on metal and metal oxide surfaces. Subsequently, when polar gases such as HBr and HCl enter the feed gas lines, they tend to displace water molecules, which then enter the feed gas stream. Additionally, surface oxides within the gas distribution system can interact with corrosive gases to create water molecules by chemical reactions such as the following:
Fe2O3+6HCl2FeCl3+3H2O
Since even dry components within the distribution system can spontaneously create water, it seems clear that the semiconductor industry needs real time, in-line moisture monitors to protect wafer fabrication systems from moisture contamination.
Semiconductor fabs require as many as 50 gases to process a wafer. Table 1 lists some of the gases associated with different process steps. Contaminants in these gases can diminish yields and degrade chip reliability. Purity requirements for process gases will likely become even more strict as chip line widths continue to shrink. As indicated, one common contaminant is water vapor which can distort manufacturing processes and thereby compromise device performance. Process steps which are vulnerable to moisture contamination include epitaxial growth, sputtering, metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy, thermal etching, gas phase etching of tungsten films, plasma etching of silicon and polysilicon, and chemical vapor deposition of polysilicon, silicon dioxide, silicon nitride, and tungsten. The presence of water can accelerate or retard the chemical reactions which occur during deposition or etching, thereby altering the thickness and/or composition of critical layers. Moisture can create pitting, hazing, and stacking faults; cause resist patterns to fail; induce diodes and junctions to leak; and otherwise degrade the service lifetime of products which pass inspection and reach the marketplace.
TABLE 1Process Steps and Associated GasesProcess StepsGases (Inert Gases, Hydrides, and Corrosives)OxidationCarriersAr, N,ReactantsCl2, H2, HCl, O2PhotolithographyCarriersAr, N2,EtchingPlasma orAr, BCl3, Cl2, CF2, CF4, C2F6,Reactive IonHe, H2, N2, O2, C2F8, SiF4, SF6EtchingCarriersAr, H2, Ne, XeDiffusionCarriersAr, H2, N2, O2Dopant SourcesAsH3, BCl3, B2H6, PH3Chemical VaporOxidationCO2, N2, O2, H2SiCl2, SiH4DepositionDopingAsH3, B2H6, , PH3, SiH4NitrideN2O, SiCl4, NH3III-V LayersAsH3, H2, HCl, H2S, PH3Ion ImplantationAr, AsH3, BCl3, BF3, B11F3, Cl2, He, H2, H2S,N2, PH3, SiH4, P2F6, SiF4AnnealingAr, H2, N2MetallizationArBondingAr, H2, N2Crystal GrowthAr, He, H2EpitaxyCarriersAr, H2, N2Silicon SourcesSiH4, H2SiCl2, HSiCl3, SiCl4DopantsAsH3, B2H6, PH3EtchantHCl
Additionally, moisture will react with certain process gases, yielding acids which corrode gas handling equipment. For example, aqueous hydrochloric acid attacks iron and other constituents of stainless steel. As corrosion advances, pipes, valves, mass flow meters, mass flow controllers, and other components can fail, causing equipment downtime. Furthermore, corroded pipes release particles which enter the gas stream. Gas-phase nucleation by particles and flaking of particles from gas lines onto wafers can reduce yield. According to one report, the gas distribution system accounts for 68% of all contamination in CMOS processes. Moisture in arsine and phosphine lines may also contaminate the ultra-high-vacuum chambers used for doping wafers. Water molecules in the chamber can make it impossible to draw a sufficiently high vacuum, forcing engineers to shut down the chamber and subject it to an extended bake.
Manufacturers of LED's and VCSELs generally deposit three to five epitaxial layers by organometallic vapor phase epitaxy, using ultra-high-purity anhydrous ammonia as a process gas. Trace oxygen in the epitaxial layers can limit device performance. The photoluminescence of LED's and VCSELs depend strongly on the moisture content of the ammonia used during production and therefore to increase the efficiency, the amount of moisture needs to be accurately monitored during production.
Kermarrec and co-workers have studied the effect of moisture on SiGe devices. In their words, “A direct correlation between moisture impurity in process gases and atomic oxygen present in epitaxial SiGe layers was demonstrated, both qualitatively and quantitatively. The resulting incorporation of oxygen atoms can induce dislocations into the strained layers, which may degrade device performance and, subsequently, reliability.” O. Kermarrec et. al.,Solid State Technology,45(3). Pp. 55-60, 2002.
Sensors for process gases in the semiconductor industry should advantageously have the following characteristics:be sensitive enough to detect moisture or other contaminants in concentrations of <10 parts per billion by volume (ppbv),be fast enough to react to changes in gas flows that may last less than 30 seconds,be small enough (<1 ft3, or 0.029 m3) to fit among the gas lines and the surrounding areas,be quick-drying enough to return the process tool that it monitors to productive use within an hour, and inexpensive enough (<$10,000) to be placed at multiple locations.
Unlike the sensor design of the present invention, the prior art designs have been unable to fulfill all these requirements
Moisture sensors (monitors) are often referred to as “in-line” or “at-line”. Generally, in-line refers to a monitor that is in the gas line such that the gas under test passes through the monitor without a need for tapping off the line. The term at-line is generally used for monitors that tap some flow off of the gas line. The flow that is tapped off is generally discarded. Both in-line and at-line monitors for semiconductor industry process gases should advantageously have the above-indicated characteristics, which are not available with current technologies. Since none of the technologies available today can satisfy all of these criteria and therefore do not meet the needs of fab operators, it is not surprising that wafer fabs rarely deploy in-line monitors. The present invention satisfies an unmet industry need by providing a system which meets all four requirements (sensitivity, speed, size, and price) and is suitable for both in-line and at-line sensors.
Of course, the detection of trace contaminants or other target analytes present in a liquid or solid matrix is also a matter of significance in a wide variety of industrial, medical, academic and defense contexts. Although the present invention will be discussed primarily in the context of analyte detection in a gaseous medium, it is to be understood that the unique photoacoustic apparatus and method of the present invention is suitable for the detection of target analytes present in a gaseous, liquid or solid matrix. Furthermore, although the present invention will be described primarily in the context of moisture detection, it should be recognized that it is applicable to the detection of essentially any fluid (i.e., gas or liquid) that is photoacoustically active and whose absorption peak or peaks coincide with the emission frequency of an available light source capable of supplying optical energy.
Photoacoustic Spectroscopy (PAS) studies optical events which through non-radiative transitions have become acoustic events. The molecules of any given compound absorb light at specific wavelengths characteristic of the compound and undergo quantized vibrational or rotational transitions. They gain kinetic energy in the form of heat, and collide with other neighboring molecules thereby creating a pressure wave. Since a pressure wave in a gaseous or liquid medium is sound, it can be detected by a microphone. As used in the present invention, the term “microphone” connotes any acoustic sensing mechanism capable of detecting a pressure wave or velocity in a gaseous or liquid medium. Examples include electric and diaphragm microphones and piezoelectric transducers. The sensitivity of a PAS instrument is determined primarily by: i) the efficiency with which the optical excitation produces a pressure wave in the fluid (i.e., gas or liquid) contained in an acoustic chamber, and ii) the efficiency with which the acoustic wave is converted into an electrical signal. In the simplest case these efficiencies can be multiplied to determine the total instrument efficiency. In the most general case the microphone contains moving parts which affect the total acoustic impedance of the PAS instrument so the total instrument efficiency can only be determined by including the interaction between the microphone and the acoustic chamber.
In order to further elucidate the photoacoustic effect it is useful to consider the physical steps that result in a photoacoustic signal. The photoacoustic effect in a photoacoustic chamber (often although not invariably in the form of a tube) can be divided into four sequential events: 1) absorption of incident optical radiation by a target analyte molecule; 2) heat release due to transformation of the absorbed light energy into molecular motion; 3) pressure wave generation due to heat induced expansion of the fluid present in the acoustic chamber; and 4) detection of the acoustic signal generated by the pressure wave. In the context of the present invention, it should be understood that the target analyte can be a gas or liquid which is: i) dispersed in a gas or liquid which fills the acoustic chamber, or ii) dispersed in a solid matrix which is contained within a gas filled acoustic chamber.
Alexander Graham Bell discovered the photoacoustic (Tyndall-Roentgen) effect in 1881. However, scientific and technological interest in the effect lay dormant for approximately 80 years in the absence of suitable light sources and microphones. In the 1960's, lasers stimulated researchers to explore using the photoacoustic effect for spectroscopic analysis. In 1968, Kerr and Atwood were able to detect low concentrations of pollutants in air by using lasers and phase-sensitive, lock-in acoustic detection techniques. (E. L. Kerr, and J. G. Atwood, “The laser illuminated absorptivity spectrophone: a method for measurement of weak absorptivity in gases at laser wavelengths,”Applied Optics, No 7, p. 915-921, 1968. Kreuzer detected methane in nitrogen in 1971, using an intensity-modulated He—Ne laser (L. B. Kreuzer, “Ultralow gas concentration infrared absorption spectroscopy,”J. Applied Physics, Vol. 42, p. 2934-2943, 1971. See also: Aniko Veres, Zoltan Bozoki, Arpad Mohacsi, Miklos Szakall and Gabor Szabo; External Cavity Diode Laser Based Photoacoustic Detection of CO2 at 1.43 um: The Effect of Molecular Relaxation; Applied Spectroscopy, Vol. 57, No. 8, pp. 900-905, 2003. Per Ohlckers, Alain. M. Ferber, Vitaly K. Dmitriev and Grigory Kirpilenko; A Photoacoustic Gas Sensing Silicon Microsystem; Transducers 2001, Jun. 10-14, 2001. P. D. Goldan and Kito Goto; An acoustically resonant system for the detection of low-level infra-red absorption in atmospheric pollutants; J. Appl. Physics; Vol. 45; No. 10; pp. 4350-4355, October, 1974. J.-P. Besson, S. Schilt, L. Thevenaz; Multi-gas Sensing Based on Photoacoustic Spectroscopy using Tunable Laser Diodes; Spectrochemica; Vol. 60; pp. 3449-3456; 2004. Lars-Goran Rosengren; Optimal Optoacoustic Detector Design; Applied Optics; Vol. 14; No. 8; pp. 1960-1976; August, 1975. M. Szakall, Z. Bozoki, M. Kraemer, N. Spelten, O. Moehler, and U. Schurath; Evaluation of a Photoacoustic Detector for Water Vapor Measurements under Simulated Tropospheric Conditions; Environ. Sci. Tech.; Vol. 35; No. 24; pp. 4881-4885; 2001. A. Miklos, P. Hess, Z. Bozoki; Application of Acoustic Resonators in Photoacoustic Trace Gas Analysis and Metrology; Rev. Sci. Instru., Vol. 72; No. 4; pp. 1937-1955; April 2001. M. Sigrist; Laser Generation of Acoustic Signals in Liquids and Gases; J. Appl. Phys.; Vol. 60; No. 7; pp. R83-R121; October 1986. M. Sigrist; Trace Gas Monitoring by Photoacoustic and Related Techniques; Rev. Sci. Instr.; Vol. 74; No. 1; pp. 486-490; January 2003. M. Nagale and M. Sigrist, Mobile Laser Spectrometer with Novel Resonant Multipass Photoacoustic Cell for Trace-Gas Sensing; Appl. Phys. B; Vol. 70; pp. 895-901; June 2005. S. L. Firebaugh; Miniaturization and Integration of Photoacoustic Detection; Ph.D. Thesis; MIT, May 2001.
As is apparent from the numerous above-cited references, there is a large body of work on both the theoretical fundamentals of photoacoustic spectroscopy, and also on the physical systems that have heretofore been used to carry out photoacoustic spectroscopy. Several companies sell PAS based detection systems, comprising either an incoherent or coherent light source, an acoustic cell, a microphone and means (usually a transducer) to convert a pressure to a voltage, and electronics to collect data and to digitize the output signal from the transducer. Researchers have utilized these systems to explore applications in environmental monitoring, life sciences, and medicine. Historically, the most sensitive systems employ large, high-power (>2 W) CO or CO2lasers. Widely deployable systems, however, will require compact and inexpensive light sources.
In 1996, a group at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences reported using a photoacoustic cell situated inside the optical cavity of a diode laser to achieve a significant gain in detection efficiency compared to extracavity operation. (Z. Bozoki, et. al.,Appl. Phys., B63, 399 (1966). The same group later described a PAS system which supplied optical power with a DFB laser (M. Szakall, Z. Bozôki, A. Mohâcsi, A. Varga, and G. Szabô, “Diode Laser Based Photoacoustic Water Vapor Detection System for Atmospheric Research,”Applied Spectroscopy, Volume 58, Number 7, 792-798, 2004). This system reportedly was able to detect moisture at levels of about 250 ppbv and would therefore appear to have come within a factor of about 25 of the minimum required sensitivity for semiconductor gases, but did not meet the criteria for industrial use in terms of size or cost.
It is known that the configuration of the cell in which the gas is contained can influence the detection process. The first cells used to detect gaseous analytes were simple cylinders with windows at each end which were more or less transparent to the optical excitation beam. The optical signal entering the cell was modulated to induce a pressure wave at an acoustic resonance frequency of the cell and this pressure wave detected using a microphone affixed to the interior wall of the cell. Prior art workers sought to optimize this design by analyzing the pressure variation within the cell structure caused by the optical excitation beam and adjusting the microphone placement to be at the site of maximum pressure hoping to thereby maximize the microphone output voltage or current for a given optical modulation frequency. The designs of the prior art utilized the microphone as a mere “observer” which simply registered the pressure changes within the cell without affecting the result. Indeed, the prior art sought in most cases to have the microphone's effect on the cell acoustic resonance frequency be as small as possible. The prior art also sought achieve maximum power transfer to the microphone, which I have found is undesirable since this inherently draws the maximum energy out of the cavity. Moreover, the prior art did not realize that the detection sensitivity can be maximized by causing the microphone to form a integral part of the resonant system as opposed to considering only the cell itself without a microphone. A recent article (FGC Bijnen et. al.: “Geometrical Optimization of a Longitudinal Resonant Photoacoustic Cell for Sensitive and Fast Trace Gas Detection” Review of Scientific Instruments Vol. 67, No. 8 1 Aug. 1996, pp 2914-2923) used an electrical circuit equivalent of the cell and microphone to determine the negative effect of the microphone on the performance (peak pressure) of a previously optimized acoustic chamber. In contradistinction, I have specifically found that the photoacoustic cell response can be enhanced by causing the microphone to be an integral part of the resonant acoustic cell as opposed to being merely a passive monitor of the pressure wave developed in the acoustic cell. This provides a number of advantages including a significant reduction in the size of the instrument and/or an enhancement of its sensitivity. As used herein the term “instrument” connotes the acoustical cavity plus the light source, modulation means, microphone while the terms “cavity” and “chamber” connote the acoustic volume in resonance, and “cell” the acoustic volume in resonance with walls, windows, and microphone and possible connecting tubes. The term “microphone” includes, but is not limited to, diaphragm and electrets.
Light sources may be modulated directly or externally. The particular light source modulation method is not a determining factor in the practice of this invention and many different modulation schemes are known to those skilled in the art. Direct modulation means that the optical source power output or wavelength is changed by directly changing the operating current or temperature of the source. External modulation means that a device outside of the light source is used to change the power or phase of the light source. External amplitude modulation is suitably achieved by a shutter and external phase modulation is often achieved by passing the light source through one of various electro-optic materials. The type of light source modulation is not essential to this invention, and either type of modulation is suitable. The various methods of both direct and external modulation are described in the literature and are known to those skilled in the art.
The light source modulation frequency is set by the cell acoustic resonance frequency. The light source modulation frequency must equal a resonant frequency of the acoustic cell. However, the particular light source modulation frequency is not a determining factor in this invention. The light source modulation frequency is also affected by the detection scheme chosen (typically either 1f or 2f). The selection of a particular detection scheme will be influenced by available lasers, target analytes, available power sources, and/or system size constraints. If external amplitude modulation is chosen the source modulation frequency will typically be chosen to be equal to the cell acoustic resonance frequency. If wavelength source modulation is used then the acoustic resonance frequency will typically be twice the source modulation frequency. This is called 2f modulation and is described below. 2f modulation is utilized in a preferred embodiment of this invention but is not required for this invention.
A 2f modulation scheme, is described, for example, in Reid and Labrie, Second-Harmonic Detection with Tunable Diode Lasers—Comparison of Experiment and Theory, Applied Physics, #26, pp. 203-210, 1981, A 2f modulation has the advantage of rejecting many different sources of background noise. This modulation scheme is suitably realized by wavelength modulation of the optical source. As the optical source is swept back and forth across an absorption wavelength feature of the target analyte (with one complete cycle of the optical source wavelength going first shorter and then longer and then back over the absorption feature wavelength) which thus causes the absorption feature to be encountered twice. The detector (microphone) thus responds twice for every modulation cycle of the light source. This means that the microphone response is at twice the modulation frequency, whereas any spurious signals created at the modulation frequency will be at the source frequency and thus easily rejected by the detection instrument, which only responds to the 2f frequency.
The particular acoustic resonance frequency of the photoacoustic cell is not a critical parameter in this invention. This parameter may be chosen to satisfy a variety of system design constraints such as system size, external noise rejection, available microphones or even arbitrarily chosen. One skilled in the art of engineering can either pick an acoustic resonance frequency based on system design constraints detailed in the following paragraphs, or choose an arbitrary acoustic resonance frequency and design a PAS cell according to the constraints of this invention.
Equation (1) describes the sensitivity of a prior art cylindrical resonant photoacoustic cell, as shown inFIG. 1a, operating on the first longitudinal node, and suggests the issues facing the design engineer:
SPAS∝PαlQacVωEquation(1)
In Equation (1) SPASis the sensitivity of the PAS system, P is the optical power in the acoustic cavity, α is the absorption coefficient of the target analyte gas, l is the absorption path length, Qacis the quality factor of the acoustic cavity, V is the volume of the acoustic cavity, and ω is the acoustic resonant frequency of the cell (as defined in paragraph 17). Equation (1) indicates that sensitivity is proportional to l (the path length) divided by V (the cavity volume). For a cylindrical resonant cavity, V divided by l is the cross sectional area of the cavity. Equation (1) suggests that theoretically a cylindrical cavity with a vanishingly small diameter would have infinite sensitivity. For the purposes of this invention, cavity will refer to the main acoustic resonator and cell will refer to the cavity with the microphone, and possible connecting tubes, attached. In practice, the applicability of Equation (1) to very small diameter resonant acoustic cells is limited by turbulence and boundary layer effects near the cell walls for very small diameter resonator tubes. I have found that a suitable diameter for the resonant cavity of a PAS system in accordance with my invention will range from about 0.1 mm to about 20 mm, preferably from about 1 mm to 10 mm, most preferably 2 to 4 mm.
Methods and systems for increasing the sensitivity of photoacoustic spectroscopy cells, while simultaneously reducing their size and the cost, are essential if widespread industrial use is to be realized. Photoacoustic systems for industrial use will preferably utilize small and inexpensive light sources, such as the semiconductor diode lasers heretofore developed for telecommunications use. Such lasers are small, relatively inexpensive, and convert electrical energy into optical energy with high efficiency. Traditional PAS cell designs are discussed in detail in books such as “Optoacoustic Spectroscopy and Detection” by Pao, Academic Press, 1977. Traditional photoacoustic sensor cells use microphones as a sensing device for the pressure waves in the acoustic cavity. As already indicated, all these prior art cell designs are predicated on the assumption that the microphone is a passive detection element and the microphone should optimally have minimal influence the cell sensitivity or cell resonance frequency. I have found, contrary to the teaching of the prior art such as “Optoacoustic Spectroscopy and Detection” by Pao, Academic Press, 1977, P. D. Goldan and Kito Goto; An acoustically resonant system for the detection of low-level infra-red absorption in atmospheric pollutants; J. Appl. Physics; Vol. 45; No. 10; pp. 4350-4355, October, 1974. F. G. C. Bijnen, J. Ruess, and F. J. M. Harren; Geometrical optimization of a longitudinal resonant photoacoustic cell for sensitive and fast trace gas detection; Rev. Sci. Instruments; Vol. 67, pp. 2914-2923; 1996, J.-P. Besson, S. Schilt, L. Thevenaz; Multi-gas Sensing Based on Photoacoustic Spectroscopy using Tunable Laser Diodes; Spectrochemica; Vol. 60; pp. 3449-3456; 2004. Lars-Goran Rosengren; Optimal Optoacoustic Detector Design; Applied Optics; Vol. 14; No. 8; pp. 1960-1976; August, 1975. M. Szakall, Z. Bozoki, M. Kraemer, N. Spelten, O. Moehler, and U. Schurath; Evaluation of a Photoacoustic Detector for Water Vapor Measurements under Simulated Tropospheric Conditions; Environ. Sci. Tech.; Vol. 35; No. 24; pp. 4881-4885; 2001. A. Miklos, P. Hess, Z. Bozoki; Application of Acoustic Resonators in Photoacoustic Trace Gas Analysis and Metrology; Rev. Sci. Instru., Vol. 72; No. 4; pp. 1937-1955; April 2001. M. Sigrist; Laser Generation of Acoustic Signals in Liquids and Gases; J. Appl. Phys.; Vol. 60; No. 7; pp. R83-R121; October 1986. M. Sigrist; Trace Gas Monitoring by Photoacoustic and Related Techniques; Rev. Sci. Instr.; Vol. 74; No. 1; pp. 486-490; January 2003. M. Nagale and M. Sigrist, Mobile Laser Spectrometer with Novel Resonant Multipass Photoacoustic Cell for Trace-Gas Sensing; Appl. Phys. B; Vol. 70; pp. 895-901; June 2005. S. L. Firebaugh; Miniaturization and Integration of Photoacoustic Detection; Ph.D. Thesis; MIT, May 2001, that by using the microphone impedance as part of the total acoustic network (i.e., cell including microphone) one can substantially reduce the cell size while maintaining or even increasing the detection sensitivity. In general, it is very helpful to utilize the analogies between electrical and acoustical systems, as the existing tools for solving electrical circuit problems are quite mature. This analogy will be described in great detail later, but it will be helpful to know that a volume displacement or acoustical compliance is analogous to a capacitance, while an acoustically short tube can act as an acoustic resistance and inertance which are represented electrically by resistance and inductance respectively. With these definitions in mind, reference to acoustic quantities in electrical engineering terminology should have specific meaning.
I have found that the microphone impedance may be incorporated into (combined with) the PAS cell impedance in a number of ways. One approach is to operate the PAS cell at a low frequency using tubes of a diameter much less than their length which open into buffer regions of much larger diameter or even open air, as shown inFIGS. 2 and 4. This results in the PAS cell acting like an equivalent acoustic inductance. For a resonance to also occur there must also be an equivalent acoustic capacitance to complete the energy exchange of a resonator. I have discovered that a resonant cell can be achieved by placing the microphone in the PAS cell and using the back-volume of the microphone to act as an acoustic capacitance.
PAS cells in accordance with the present invention use resonant acoustic cavities. Resonant cavities can be realized in different forms, either lumped (commonly referred to as Helmholtz resonators), or distributed. My invention is applicable to both types of cells. The distinction between lumped and distributed cavities can be described as follows. As the acoustic cavity resonant frequency increases the acoustic wavelength of the chamber decreases and the dimensions of the structure will approach a substantial fraction (e.g. an eighth or more) of an acoustic wavelength, causing the pressure and volume velocity to show significant changes along the axis of the chamber. This pressure and volume velocity variation with distance along the axis of the chamber means that the inductive and capacitive attributes can no longer be considered as lumped in particular regions of the chamber but must now be considered as distributed along the chamber (See e.g., “Theoretical Acoustics”, Morse and Ingard, Princeton University Press, 1968). PAS cell geometries in accordance with the present invention can have many shapes. A preferred embodiment of a distributed system in accordance with my invention is a tube between two optical windows with auxiliary tubes branching off near the optical windows. The branch tubes in this preferred embodiment end in buffer chambers of larger diameter connected to the analyte containing fluid inlet and outlet as shown inFIG. 6. The resonant acoustic chamber be either a closed cell or an open cell. Preferably the resonant acoustic chamber is substantially cylindrical and comprises an optical window and/or an optical reflector at least one end. Provided however, the resonant acoustic chamber can in the alternative be non-cylindrical
Helmholtz (“lumped”) resonators are sometimes preferred for the practice of the present invention in that they permit a reduction in the size of the resonator chamber because, unlike distributed resonators, they do not require chamber dimensions which approach that of the acoustic wavelength. Reducing the size of a PAS instrument is desirable for a variety of reasons including reduced cost and weight. The dimensions of the various elements of a lumped acoustic system can be small in comparison with the wavelength of the generated sound and, when this is true, the motion of the fluid medium (usually a gas) in the system is analogous to that of a mechanical system having lumped mechanical elements of mass, stiffness and resistance. A Helmholtz resonator can be realized in a variety of configurations, two of which are shown inFIGS. 1a) and1b).FIG. 1a) shows a Helmholtz resonator with one end open to the gas (or other fluid) containing the target analyte. The fluid in the large cavity acts as a spring, and the gas in the narrow tube acts as a mass because of the relative cross-sectional areas. The Helmholtz resonator shown inFIG. 1a), consists of a rigid enclosure of volume Vc, communicating with the external medium through a small opening of area S and length lm. The gas in the opening is considered to move as a unit and provides the mass element of the system, the pressure of the gas within the acoustic cell changes as it is alternately compressed and expanded by the influx and efflux of gas through the opening and thus provides the stiffness element. At the opening, moreover, there is radiation of sound into the surrounding medium which leads to the dissipation of acoustic energy and thus provides one source of frictional loss.
As mentioned before, acoustic systems can be analogized to electrical systems and quantitatively solved. In an analogous electrical system the motion of the fluid medium is equivalent to the behavior of current in an electric circuit having elements of inductance, capacitance, and resistance. The electrical analogue of the pressure difference across an acoustic element is the voltage across a component of an electric circuit. The acoustic analogue of current at a point in the circuit is equivalent to the volume velocity of the fluid in the acoustic element. The latter quantity is defined in terms of the rate of volume displacement of fluid in the acoustic element.
The analogy between acoustic and electrical systems may be advantageously carried further by again consideringFIG. 1a) and defining the acoustic inertance M of a cylindrical acoustic element as:
M=mS2Equation(2)
where m is the mass of the element and S is the cross sectional area of the mass in the plane through which the mass moves. Typically an acoustic mass is related to a constriction, orifice, or column of air with an area, S, and length, lm. An application of this definition to a Helmholtz resonator in which the mass is a cylindrical volume of gas, Vm, gives:
M=ρVmS2=ρlmSS2=ρlmSEquation(3)
where ρ is the density of the gas. Acoustic inertance is analogous to electrical inductance and has the dimensions of kg/m4in the MKS system of units.
The acoustic compliance C of an acoustic element is defined as the volume displacement that is produced by the application of unit pressure. It is the analogue of electrical capacitance, (the charge appearing on a capacitor per unit of applied voltage). For an acoustic element having an enclosed volume Vc, such as in the Helmholtz resonator ofFIG. 1a), this definition leads to:
C=Vcρc2Equation(4)
where lower case c is the speed of sound in the fluid, ρ is the density of the fluid (normally a gas), and Vcis the volume of the acoustic cavity. The units of acoustic compliance are m4sec2/kg.
An element or characteristic of an acoustic system that leads to the dissipation of energy is analogous to electrical resistance. For example, a major portion of the acoustic resistance R of a Helmholtz resonator can result from the radiation of sound energy and is given by R=ρ c k2/2π, where k is 2π divided by the acoustic wavelength, It is also possible to derive expressions for the additional acoustic resistance associated with viscous forces in the fluid medium.
Helmholtz resonators are schematically represented inFIGS. 1a) and1b). However, it should be understood that these acoustic systems may also be represented schematically by the circuit of the analogous electrical systems, i.e.,FIGS. 3a) and3b) which correspond to1a) and1b), respectively. In general, when it is possible to replace an acoustic system by the schematic circuit of an analogous electrical system, known solutions of the latter may be used to analyze the former. The analogies just described are those most commonly used in acoustics. However, another system of analogies known as the mobility system can sometimes also be advantageously used. In the mobility system acoustic mobility, defined as the ratio of volume velocity across, to pressure through, the acoustic system is analogous to electrical impedance, volume velocity to voltage, pressure to current, inertance to capacitance, compliance to inductance and the reciprocal of the acoustic resistance to electrical resistance.
A known embodiment for a closed PAS cell is a ‘dumbbell’ Helmholtz resonator as shown inFIG. 1b). InFIG. 1b) the relatively large gas volumes on each end of the dumbbell act as springs and the central narrow tube acts as a mass which resonates with the springs. Typically in prior art designs a light source excites the gas in one of the tube ends and a microphone is located in the opposite end. Because PAS cell sensitivity for most configurations is inversely proportional to volume, the large gas volumes in the two ends of the dumbbell tend to limit cell sensitivity.
My invention is substantially independent of the optical source power. Light sources for my invention are preferably, but not limited to, coherent, wavelength (frequency) modulatable continuous wave lasers. Alternative sources may be incoherent, or pulsed lasers which can be either directly or indirectly modulated. Likewise, although not preferred, the light source may be energy modulated. Collimated LED sources are also suitable for the practice of my invention. Sources of a wide power range are suitable. Preferably the power will range from about microwatts up to hundreds of milliwatts.
Both lumped and distributed acoustic cells fall within the scope of my invention provided only that the cavity impedance at the interface to the microphone has an absolute impedance magnitude within a factor of three (i.e., ⅓ to 3 times that) of the microphone impedance magnitude and of opposite reactance to the microphone reactance. A preferred embodiment is an acoustic cylinder of diameter between about 1 and 4 mm with a length of approximately 40 to 100 mm between the optical windows. My invention also applies to PAS operation with liquid or solid substrates. Examples of PAS operation using prior art cell designs for detecting materials other than gases can be found in J. Pelzl, K. Klein, and O. Nordhaus, “Extended Helmholtz Resonator in Low-Temperature Photoacoustic Spectroscopy”,Applied Optics, Vol.21, No. 1, January 1982, pp. 94-99.
My invention is directed to a photoacoustic cell wherein the acoustic impedances of both the acoustic sensor (i.e., the microphone) and the PAS chamber significantly interact. Since impedance equals pressure divided by volume velocity, by designing the cell and choosing the sensor so that the acoustic impedances of the chamber and the sensor are of substantially the same order of magnitude they will significantly interact. This permits a significant reduction in the acoustic chamber size and thereby significantly increases the sensitivity of the PAS cell. As indicated, I have found that the impedance of the microphone should range from about one-third (⅓) to about three (3) times the impedance of the resonant chamber at the point where the microphone attaches to the chamber and at the acoustic frequency used for detection. I have further discovered that the use of the microphone as part of the resonant structure, e.g., as shown inFIG. 6, is a highly effective way of minimizing chamber volume.
I have found that if the tube (acoustic chamber) dimensions are chosen correctly (as defined herein) a mode will occur which is significantly lower in frequency than the first half-wavelength mode. For the purposes of this invention the tube dimensions are chosen so that its acoustic impedance is substantially equal in magnitude to (i.e., ⅓ to 3×) the microphone acoustic impedance at the desired resonance frequency. If the microphone impedance is capacitive at the desired resonance frequency then the chamber acoustic impedance must be inductive in order for it to resonate with the microphone impedance. This lowest order mode uses the back volume of the microphone as a spring and the gas in the tube as a mass. The tube length should be maximized for the greatest optical power absorption. Suitable lengths will range from about 20 mm to 200 mm, especially 40 mm to 100 mm. However, the tube diameter and length are ultimately determined by the requirement to have the cavity reactance substantially match the microphone reactance. The resulting resonant mode can correctly be called a Helmholtz resonance because it depends on the lumped properties of the gas mass in the tube and the spring constant of the microphone back volume. Because this realization permits a significant reduction in the PAS chamber volume it therefore tends to maximize sensitivity as shown by Equation 1. Although larger chamber volumes are suitable for the practice of my invention, I have found that excellent sensitivity can be achieved with small cavity volumes in the range of from about 0.1 cc to 1.0 cc. For example, by using the compliance from the back-volume in a microphone as the equivalent spring in a resonant cavity the Vcsection inFIG. 1acan be replaced with a microphone, thus permitting greatly reducing the size of the acoustic resonator chamber. This is because the diaphragm of a microphone combines with the volume of air behind the microphone (i.e., the “back-volume”) to create an equivalent acoustic capacitance equal to a much larger volume chamber containing air alone.
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SUMMARY: RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application claims priority from co-pending, commonly assigned application Ser. No. 11/485,129 filed 12 Jul. 2006.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to the field of analyte detection and concentration analysis and to an improved apparatus for performing same. In one preferred embodiment, the present invention relates especially to gas contaminant detection, e.g., trace moisture in a semiconductor process gas.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
As semiconductor technology advances and device sizes shrink, the impact of contaminants in the gases used to fabricate these devices becomes increasingly important. Many specialty gases are used in the production of semiconductor devices. For example, a major source of contamination in the chip fabrication process is the presence in process gases of trace amounts, e.g., on the order of tens of parts per billion by volume (ppbv), of water. While ultra pure (water and other contaminant free) gases are sometimes available, chemical reactions, phase changes, and other effects often result in the presence of moisture in a gas supply line of a semiconductor fabrication system. These facts make it very attractive to have moisture sensors that are small, efficient, have rapid response times, and are inexpensive enough to be placed in multiple locations in the system. These locations include each line of the gas box and also immediately before the reactor of a semiconductor fabrication system. Currently available sensors do not meet all the aforementioned requirements.
The ambient atmosphere typically contains water vapor concentrations of up to, or even exceeding, approximately 1%. This is at least six orders of magnitude greater than the acceptable limits for most semiconductor process gases. As such, even very small leaks of ambient air into the gas distribution system may introduce significant moisture contamination. Furthermore, even well-dried gas lines can contribute moisture to an otherwise high-purity gas. After a gas distribution system is purged with an inert gas, some water molecules can remain in the lines due to strong binding to adsorption sites on metal and metal oxide surfaces. Subsequently, when polar gases such as HBr and HCl enter the feed gas lines, they tend to displace water molecules, which then enter the feed gas stream. Additionally, surface oxides within the gas distribution system can interact with corrosive gases to create water molecules by chemical reactions such as the following:
Fe2O3+6HCl2FeCl3+3H2O
Since even dry components within the distribution system can spontaneously create water, it seems clear that the semiconductor industry needs real time, in-line moisture monitors to protect wafer fabrication systems from moisture contamination.
Semiconductor fabs require as many as 50 gases to process a wafer. Table 1 lists some of the gases associated with different process steps. Contaminants in these gases can diminish yields and degrade chip reliability. Purity requirements for process gases will likely become even more strict as chip line widths continue to shrink. As indicated, one common contaminant is water vapor which can distort manufacturing processes and thereby compromise device performance. Process steps which are vulnerable to moisture contamination include epitaxial growth, sputtering, metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy, thermal etching, gas phase etching of tungsten films, plasma etching of silicon and polysilicon, and chemical vapor deposition of polysilicon, silicon dioxide, silicon nitride, and tungsten. The presence of water can accelerate or retard the chemical reactions which occur during deposition or etching, thereby altering the thickness and/or composition of critical layers. Moisture can create pitting, hazing, and stacking faults; cause resist patterns to fail; induce diodes and junctions to leak; and otherwise degrade the service lifetime of products which pass inspection and reach the marketplace.
TABLE 1Process Steps and Associated GasesProcess StepsGases (Inert Gases, Hydrides, and Corrosives)OxidationCarriersAr, N,ReactantsCl2, H2, HCl, O2PhotolithographyCarriersAr, N2,EtchingPlasma orAr, BCl3, Cl2, CF2, CF4, C2F6,Reactive IonHe, H2, N2, O2, C2F8, SiF4, SF6EtchingCarriersAr, H2, Ne, XeDiffusionCarriersAr, H2, N2, O2Dopant SourcesAsH3, BCl3, B2H6, PH3Chemical VaporOxidationCO2, N2, O2, H2SiCl2, SiH4DepositionDopingAsH3, B2H6, , PH3, SiH4NitrideN2O, SiCl4, NH3III-V LayersAsH3, H2, HCl, H2S, PH3Ion ImplantationAr, AsH3, BCl3, BF3, B11F3, Cl2, He, H2, H2S,N2, PH3, SiH4, P2F6, SiF4AnnealingAr, H2, N2MetallizationArBondingAr, H2, N2Crystal GrowthAr, He, H2EpitaxyCarriersAr, H2, N2Silicon SourcesSiH4, H2SiCl2, HSiCl3, SiCl4DopantsAsH3, B2H6, PH3EtchantHCl
Additionally, moisture will react with certain process gases, yielding acids which corrode gas handling equipment. For example, aqueous hydrochloric acid attacks iron and other constituents of stainless steel. As corrosion advances, pipes, valves, mass flow meters, mass flow controllers, and other components can fail, causing equipment downtime. Furthermore, corroded pipes release particles which enter the gas stream. Gas-phase nucleation by particles and flaking of particles from gas lines onto wafers can reduce yield. According to one report, the gas distribution system accounts for 68% of all contamination in CMOS processes. Moisture in arsine and phosphine lines may also contaminate the ultra-high-vacuum chambers used for doping wafers. Water molecules in the chamber can make it impossible to draw a sufficiently high vacuum, forcing engineers to shut down the chamber and subject it to an extended bake.
Manufacturers of LED's and VCSELs generally deposit three to five epitaxial layers by organometallic vapor phase epitaxy, using ultra-high-purity anhydrous ammonia as a process gas. Trace oxygen in the epitaxial layers can limit device performance. The photoluminescence of LED's and VCSELs depend strongly on the moisture content of the ammonia used during production and therefore to increase the efficiency, the amount of moisture needs to be accurately monitored during production.
Kermarrec and co-workers have studied the effect of moisture on SiGe devices. In their words, “A direct correlation between moisture impurity in process gases and atomic oxygen present in epitaxial SiGe layers was demonstrated, both qualitatively and quantitatively. The resulting incorporation of oxygen atoms can induce dislocations into the strained layers, which may degrade device performance and, subsequently, reliability.” O. Kermarrec et. al.,Solid State Technology,45(3). Pp. 55-60, 2002.
Sensors for process gases in the semiconductor industry should advantageously have the following characteristics:be sensitive enough to detect moisture or other contaminants in concentrations of <10 parts per billion by volume (ppbv),be fast enough to react to changes in gas flows that may last less than 30 seconds,be small enough (<1 ft3, or 0.029 m3) to fit among the gas lines and the surrounding areas,be quick-drying enough to return the process tool that it monitors to productive use within an hour, and inexpensive enough (<$10,000) to be placed at multiple locations.
Unlike the sensor design of the present invention, the prior art designs have been unable to fulfill all these requirements
Moisture sensors (monitors) are often referred to as “in-line” or “at-line”. Generally, in-line refers to a monitor that is in the gas line such that the gas under test passes through the monitor without a need for tapping off the line. The term at-line is generally used for monitors that tap some flow off of the gas line. The flow that is tapped off is generally discarded. Both in-line and at-line monitors for semiconductor industry process gases should advantageously have the above-indicated characteristics, which are not available with current technologies. Since none of the technologies available today can satisfy all of these criteria and therefore do not meet the needs of fab operators, it is not surprising that wafer fabs rarely deploy in-line monitors. The present invention satisfies an unmet industry need by providing a system which meets all four requirements (sensitivity, speed, size, and price) and is suitable for both in-line and at-line sensors.
Of course, the detection of trace contaminants or other target analytes present in a liquid or solid matrix is also a matter of significance in a wide variety of industrial, medical, academic and defense contexts. Although the present invention will be discussed primarily in the context of analyte detection in a gaseous medium, it is to be understood that the unique photoacoustic apparatus and method of the present invention is suitable for the detection of target analytes present in a gaseous, liquid or solid matrix. Furthermore, although the present invention will be described primarily in the context of moisture detection, it should be recognized that it is applicable to the detection of essentially any fluid (i.e., gas or liquid) that is photoacoustically active and whose absorption peak or peaks coincide with the emission frequency of an available light source capable of supplying optical energy.
Photoacoustic Spectroscopy (PAS) studies optical events which through non-radiative transitions have become acoustic events. The molecules of any given compound absorb light at specific wavelengths characteristic of the compound and undergo quantized vibrational or rotational transitions. They gain kinetic energy in the form of heat, and collide with other neighboring molecules thereby creating a pressure wave. Since a pressure wave in a gaseous or liquid medium is sound, it can be detected by a microphone. As used in the present invention, the term “microphone” connotes any acoustic sensing mechanism capable of detecting a pressure wave or velocity in a gaseous or liquid medium. Examples include electric and diaphragm microphones and piezoelectric transducers. The sensitivity of a PAS instrument is determined primarily by: i) the efficiency with which the optical excitation produces a pressure wave in the fluid (i.e., gas or liquid) contained in an acoustic chamber, and ii) the efficiency with which the acoustic wave is converted into an electrical signal. In the simplest case these efficiencies can be multiplied to determine the total instrument efficiency. In the most general case the microphone contains moving parts which affect the total acoustic impedance of the PAS instrument so the total instrument efficiency can only be determined by including the interaction between the microphone and the acoustic chamber.
In order to further elucidate the photoacoustic effect it is useful to consider the physical steps that result in a photoacoustic signal. The photoacoustic effect in a photoacoustic chamber (often although not invariably in the form of a tube) can be divided into four sequential events: 1) absorption of incident optical radiation by a target analyte molecule; 2) heat release due to transformation of the absorbed light energy into molecular motion; 3) pressure wave generation due to heat induced expansion of the fluid present in the acoustic chamber; and 4) detection of the acoustic signal generated by the pressure wave. In the context of the present invention, it should be understood that the target analyte can be a gas or liquid which is: i) dispersed in a gas or liquid which fills the acoustic chamber, or ii) dispersed in a solid matrix which is contained within a gas filled acoustic chamber.
Alexander Graham Bell discovered the photoacoustic (Tyndall-Roentgen) effect in 1881. However, scientific and technological interest in the effect lay dormant for approximately 80 years in the absence of suitable light sources and microphones. In the 1960's, lasers stimulated researchers to explore using the photoacoustic effect for spectroscopic analysis. In 1968, Kerr and Atwood were able to detect low concentrations of pollutants in air by using lasers and phase-sensitive, lock-in acoustic detection techniques. (E. L. Kerr, and J. G. Atwood, “The laser illuminated absorptivity spectrophone: a method for measurement of weak absorptivity in gases at laser wavelengths,”Applied Optics, No 7, p. 915-921, 1968. Kreuzer detected methane in nitrogen in 1971, using an intensity-modulated He—Ne laser (L. B. Kreuzer, “Ultralow gas concentration infrared absorption spectroscopy,”J. Applied Physics, Vol. 42, p. 2934-2943, 1971. See also: Aniko Veres, Zoltan Bozoki, Arpad Mohacsi, Miklos Szakall and Gabor Szabo; External Cavity Diode Laser Based Photoacoustic Detection of CO2 at 1.43 um: The Effect of Molecular Relaxation; Applied Spectroscopy, Vol. 57, No. 8, pp. 900-905, 2003. Per Ohlckers, Alain. M. Ferber, Vitaly K. Dmitriev and Grigory Kirpilenko; A Photoacoustic Gas Sensing Silicon Microsystem; Transducers 2001, Jun. 10-14, 2001. P. D. Goldan and Kito Goto; An acoustically resonant system for the detection of low-level infra-red absorption in atmospheric pollutants; J. Appl. Physics; Vol. 45; No. 10; pp. 4350-4355, October, 1974. J.-P. Besson, S. Schilt, L. Thevenaz; Multi-gas Sensing Based on Photoacoustic Spectroscopy using Tunable Laser Diodes; Spectrochemica; Vol. 60; pp. 3449-3456; 2004. Lars-Goran Rosengren; Optimal Optoacoustic Detector Design; Applied Optics; Vol. 14; No. 8; pp. 1960-1976; August, 1975. M. Szakall, Z. Bozoki, M. Kraemer, N. Spelten, O. Moehler, and U. Schurath; Evaluation of a Photoacoustic Detector for Water Vapor Measurements under Simulated Tropospheric Conditions; Environ. Sci. Tech.; Vol. 35; No. 24; pp. 4881-4885; 2001. A. Miklos, P. Hess, Z. Bozoki; Application of Acoustic Resonators in Photoacoustic Trace Gas Analysis and Metrology; Rev. Sci. Instru., Vol. 72; No. 4; pp. 1937-1955; April 2001. M. Sigrist; Laser Generation of Acoustic Signals in Liquids and Gases; J. Appl. Phys.; Vol. 60; No. 7; pp. R83-R121; October 1986. M. Sigrist; Trace Gas Monitoring by Photoacoustic and Related Techniques; Rev. Sci. Instr.; Vol. 74; No. 1; pp. 486-490; January 2003. M. Nagale and M. Sigrist, Mobile Laser Spectrometer with Novel Resonant Multipass Photoacoustic Cell for Trace-Gas Sensing; Appl. Phys. B; Vol. 70; pp. 895-901; June 2005. S. L. Firebaugh; Miniaturization and Integration of Photoacoustic Detection; Ph.D. Thesis; MIT, May 2001.
As is apparent from the numerous above-cited references, there is a large body of work on both the theoretical fundamentals of photoacoustic spectroscopy, and also on the physical systems that have heretofore been used to carry out photoacoustic spectroscopy. Several companies sell PAS based detection systems, comprising either an incoherent or coherent light source, an acoustic cell, a microphone and means (usually a transducer) to convert a pressure to a voltage, and electronics to collect data and to digitize the output signal from the transducer. Researchers have utilized these systems to explore applications in environmental monitoring, life sciences, and medicine. Historically, the most sensitive systems employ large, high-power (>2 W) CO or CO2lasers. Widely deployable systems, however, will require compact and inexpensive light sources.
In 1996, a group at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences reported using a photoacoustic cell situated inside the optical cavity of a diode laser to achieve a significant gain in detection efficiency compared to extracavity operation. (Z. Bozoki, et. al.,Appl. Phys., B63, 399 (1966). The same group later described a PAS system which supplied optical power with a DFB laser (M. Szakall, Z. Bozôki, A. Mohâcsi, A. Varga, and G. Szabô, “Diode Laser Based Photoacoustic Water Vapor Detection System for Atmospheric Research,”Applied Spectroscopy, Volume 58, Number 7, 792-798, 2004). This system reportedly was able to detect moisture at levels of about 250 ppbv and would therefore appear to have come within a factor of about 25 of the minimum required sensitivity for semiconductor gases, but did not meet the criteria for industrial use in terms of size or cost.
It is known that the configuration of the cell in which the gas is contained can influence the detection process. The first cells used to detect gaseous analytes were simple cylinders with windows at each end which were more or less transparent to the optical excitation beam. The optical signal entering the cell was modulated to induce a pressure wave at an acoustic resonance frequency of the cell and this pressure wave detected using a microphone affixed to the interior wall of the cell. Prior art workers sought to optimize this design by analyzing the pressure variation within the cell structure caused by the optical excitation beam and adjusting the microphone placement to be at the site of maximum pressure hoping to thereby maximize the microphone output voltage or current for a given optical modulation frequency. The designs of the prior art utilized the microphone as a mere “observer” which simply registered the pressure changes within the cell without affecting the result. Indeed, the prior art sought in most cases to have the microphone's effect on the cell acoustic resonance frequency be as small as possible. The prior art also sought achieve maximum power transfer to the microphone, which I have found is undesirable since this inherently draws the maximum energy out of the cavity. Moreover, the prior art did not realize that the detection sensitivity can be maximized by causing the microphone to form a integral part of the resonant system as opposed to considering only the cell itself without a microphone. A recent article (FGC Bijnen et. al.: “Geometrical Optimization of a Longitudinal Resonant Photoacoustic Cell for Sensitive and Fast Trace Gas Detection” Review of Scientific Instruments Vol. 67, No. 8 1 Aug. 1996, pp 2914-2923) used an electrical circuit equivalent of the cell and microphone to determine the negative effect of the microphone on the performance (peak pressure) of a previously optimized acoustic chamber. In contradistinction, I have specifically found that the photoacoustic cell response can be enhanced by causing the microphone to be an integral part of the resonant acoustic cell as opposed to being merely a passive monitor of the pressure wave developed in the acoustic cell. This provides a number of advantages including a significant reduction in the size of the instrument and/or an enhancement of its sensitivity. As used herein the term “instrument” connotes the acoustical cavity plus the light source, modulation means, microphone while the terms “cavity” and “chamber” connote the acoustic volume in resonance, and “cell” the acoustic volume in resonance with walls, windows, and microphone and possible connecting tubes. The term “microphone” includes, but is not limited to, diaphragm and electrets.
Light sources may be modulated directly or externally. The particular light source modulation method is not a determining factor in the practice of this invention and many different modulation schemes are known to those skilled in the art. Direct modulation means that the optical source power output or wavelength is changed by directly changing the operating current or temperature of the source. External modulation means that a device outside of the light source is used to change the power or phase of the light source. External amplitude modulation is suitably achieved by a shutter and external phase modulation is often achieved by passing the light source through one of various electro-optic materials. The type of light source modulation is not essential to this invention, and either type of modulation is suitable. The various methods of both direct and external modulation are described in the literature and are known to those skilled in the art.
The light source modulation frequency is set by the cell acoustic resonance frequency. The light source modulation frequency must equal a resonant frequency of the acoustic cell. However, the particular light source modulation frequency is not a determining factor in this invention. The light source modulation frequency is also affected by the detection scheme chosen (typically either 1f or 2f). The selection of a particular detection scheme will be influenced by available lasers, target analytes, available power sources, and/or system size constraints. If external amplitude modulation is chosen the source modulation frequency will typically be chosen to be equal to the cell acoustic resonance frequency. If wavelength source modulation is used then the acoustic resonance frequency will typically be twice the source modulation frequency. This is called 2f modulation and is described below. 2f modulation is utilized in a preferred embodiment of this invention but is not required for this invention.
A 2f modulation scheme, is described, for example, in Reid and Labrie, Second-Harmonic Detection with Tunable Diode Lasers—Comparison of Experiment and Theory, Applied Physics, #26, pp. 203-210, 1981, A 2f modulation has the advantage of rejecting many different sources of background noise. This modulation scheme is suitably realized by wavelength modulation of the optical source. As the optical source is swept back and forth across an absorption wavelength feature of the target analyte (with one complete cycle of the optical source wavelength going first shorter and then longer and then back over the absorption feature wavelength) which thus causes the absorption feature to be encountered twice. The detector (microphone) thus responds twice for every modulation cycle of the light source. This means that the microphone response is at twice the modulation frequency, whereas any spurious signals created at the modulation frequency will be at the source frequency and thus easily rejected by the detection instrument, which only responds to the 2f frequency.
The particular acoustic resonance frequency of the photoacoustic cell is not a critical parameter in this invention. This parameter may be chosen to satisfy a variety of system design constraints such as system size, external noise rejection, available microphones or even arbitrarily chosen. One skilled in the art of engineering can either pick an acoustic resonance frequency based on system design constraints detailed in the following paragraphs, or choose an arbitrary acoustic resonance frequency and design a PAS cell according to the constraints of this invention.
Equation (1) describes the sensitivity of a prior art cylindrical resonant photoacoustic cell, as shown inFIG. 1a, operating on the first longitudinal node, and suggests the issues facing the design engineer:
SPAS∝PαlQacVωEquation(1)
In Equation (1) SPASis the sensitivity of the PAS system, P is the optical power in the acoustic cavity, α is the absorption coefficient of the target analyte gas, l is the absorption path length, Qacis the quality factor of the acoustic cavity, V is the volume of the acoustic cavity, and ω is the acoustic resonant frequency of the cell (as defined in paragraph 17). Equation (1) indicates that sensitivity is proportional to l (the path length) divided by V (the cavity volume). For a cylindrical resonant cavity, V divided by l is the cross sectional area of the cavity. Equation (1) suggests that theoretically a cylindrical cavity with a vanishingly small diameter would have infinite sensitivity. For the purposes of this invention, cavity will refer to the main acoustic resonator and cell will refer to the cavity with the microphone, and possible connecting tubes, attached. In practice, the applicability of Equation (1) to very small diameter resonant acoustic cells is limited by turbulence and boundary layer effects near the cell walls for very small diameter resonator tubes. I have found that a suitable diameter for the resonant cavity of a PAS system in accordance with my invention will range from about 0.1 mm to about 20 mm, preferably from about 1 mm to 10 mm, most preferably 2 to 4 mm.
Methods and systems for increasing the sensitivity of photoacoustic spectroscopy cells, while simultaneously reducing their size and the cost, are essential if widespread industrial use is to be realized. Photoacoustic systems for industrial use will preferably utilize small and inexpensive light sources, such as the semiconductor diode lasers heretofore developed for telecommunications use. Such lasers are small, relatively inexpensive, and convert electrical energy into optical energy with high efficiency. Traditional PAS cell designs are discussed in detail in books such as “Optoacoustic Spectroscopy and Detection” by Pao, Academic Press, 1977. Traditional photoacoustic sensor cells use microphones as a sensing device for the pressure waves in the acoustic cavity. As already indicated, all these prior art cell designs are predicated on the assumption that the microphone is a passive detection element and the microphone should optimally have minimal influence the cell sensitivity or cell resonance frequency. I have found, contrary to the teaching of the prior art such as “Optoacoustic Spectroscopy and Detection” by Pao, Academic Press, 1977, P. D. Goldan and Kito Goto; An acoustically resonant system for the detection of low-level infra-red absorption in atmospheric pollutants; J. Appl. Physics; Vol. 45; No. 10; pp. 4350-4355, October, 1974. F. G. C. Bijnen, J. Ruess, and F. J. M. Harren; Geometrical optimization of a longitudinal resonant photoacoustic cell for sensitive and fast trace gas detection; Rev. Sci. Instruments; Vol. 67, pp. 2914-2923; 1996, J.-P. Besson, S. Schilt, L. Thevenaz; Multi-gas Sensing Based on Photoacoustic Spectroscopy using Tunable Laser Diodes; Spectrochemica; Vol. 60; pp. 3449-3456; 2004. Lars-Goran Rosengren; Optimal Optoacoustic Detector Design; Applied Optics; Vol. 14; No. 8; pp. 1960-1976; August, 1975. M. Szakall, Z. Bozoki, M. Kraemer, N. Spelten, O. Moehler, and U. Schurath; Evaluation of a Photoacoustic Detector for Water Vapor Measurements under Simulated Tropospheric Conditions; Environ. Sci. Tech.; Vol. 35; No. 24; pp. 4881-4885; 2001. A. Miklos, P. Hess, Z. Bozoki; Application of Acoustic Resonators in Photoacoustic Trace Gas Analysis and Metrology; Rev. Sci. Instru., Vol. 72; No. 4; pp. 1937-1955; April 2001. M. Sigrist; Laser Generation of Acoustic Signals in Liquids and Gases; J. Appl. Phys.; Vol. 60; No. 7; pp. R83-R121; October 1986. M. Sigrist; Trace Gas Monitoring by Photoacoustic and Related Techniques; Rev. Sci. Instr.; Vol. 74; No. 1; pp. 486-490; January 2003. M. Nagale and M. Sigrist, Mobile Laser Spectrometer with Novel Resonant Multipass Photoacoustic Cell for Trace-Gas Sensing; Appl. Phys. B; Vol. 70; pp. 895-901; June 2005. S. L. Firebaugh; Miniaturization and Integration of Photoacoustic Detection; Ph.D. Thesis; MIT, May 2001, that by using the microphone impedance as part of the total acoustic network (i.e., cell including microphone) one can substantially reduce the cell size while maintaining or even increasing the detection sensitivity. In general, it is very helpful to utilize the analogies between electrical and acoustical systems, as the existing tools for solving electrical circuit problems are quite mature. This analogy will be described in great detail later, but it will be helpful to know that a volume displacement or acoustical compliance is analogous to a capacitance, while an acoustically short tube can act as an acoustic resistance and inertance which are represented electrically by resistance and inductance respectively. With these definitions in mind, reference to acoustic quantities in electrical engineering terminology should have specific meaning.
I have found that the microphone impedance may be incorporated into (combined with) the PAS cell impedance in a number of ways. One approach is to operate the PAS cell at a low frequency using tubes of a diameter much less than their length which open into buffer regions of much larger diameter or even open air, as shown inFIGS. 2 and 4. This results in the PAS cell acting like an equivalent acoustic inductance. For a resonance to also occur there must also be an equivalent acoustic capacitance to complete the energy exchange of a resonator. I have discovered that a resonant cell can be achieved by placing the microphone in the PAS cell and using the back-volume of the microphone to act as an acoustic capacitance.
PAS cells in accordance with the present invention use resonant acoustic cavities. Resonant cavities can be realized in different forms, either lumped (commonly referred to as Helmholtz resonators), or distributed. My invention is applicable to both types of cells. The distinction between lumped and distributed cavities can be described as follows. As the acoustic cavity resonant frequency increases the acoustic wavelength of the chamber decreases and the dimensions of the structure will approach a substantial fraction (e.g. an eighth or more) of an acoustic wavelength, causing the pressure and volume velocity to show significant changes along the axis of the chamber. This pressure and volume velocity variation with distance along the axis of the chamber means that the inductive and capacitive attributes can no longer be considered as lumped in particular regions of the chamber but must now be considered as distributed along the chamber (See e.g., “Theoretical Acoustics”, Morse and Ingard, Princeton University Press, 1968). PAS cell geometries in accordance with the present invention can have many shapes. A preferred embodiment of a distributed system in accordance with my invention is a tube between two optical windows with auxiliary tubes branching off near the optical windows. The branch tubes in this preferred embodiment end in buffer chambers of larger diameter connected to the analyte containing fluid inlet and outlet as shown inFIG. 6. The resonant acoustic chamber be either a closed cell or an open cell. Preferably the resonant acoustic chamber is substantially cylindrical and comprises an optical window and/or an optical reflector at least one end. Provided however, the resonant acoustic chamber can in the alternative be non-cylindrical
Helmholtz (“lumped”) resonators are sometimes preferred for the practice of the present invention in that they permit a reduction in the size of the resonator chamber because, unlike distributed resonators, they do not require chamber dimensions which approach that of the acoustic wavelength. Reducing the size of a PAS instrument is desirable for a variety of reasons including reduced cost and weight. The dimensions of the various elements of a lumped acoustic system can be small in comparison with the wavelength of the generated sound and, when this is true, the motion of the fluid medium (usually a gas) in the system is analogous to that of a mechanical system having lumped mechanical elements of mass, stiffness and resistance. A Helmholtz resonator can be realized in a variety of configurations, two of which are shown inFIGS. 1a) and1b).FIG. 1a) shows a Helmholtz resonator with one end open to the gas (or other fluid) containing the target analyte. The fluid in the large cavity acts as a spring, and the gas in the narrow tube acts as a mass because of the relative cross-sectional areas. The Helmholtz resonator shown inFIG. 1a), consists of a rigid enclosure of volume Vc, communicating with the external medium through a small opening of area S and length lm. The gas in the opening is considered to move as a unit and provides the mass element of the system, the pressure of the gas within the acoustic cell changes as it is alternately compressed and expanded by the influx and efflux of gas through the opening and thus provides the stiffness element. At the opening, moreover, there is radiation of sound into the surrounding medium which leads to the dissipation of acoustic energy and thus provides one source of frictional loss.
As mentioned before, acoustic systems can be analogized to electrical systems and quantitatively solved. In an analogous electrical system the motion of the fluid medium is equivalent to the behavior of current in an electric circuit having elements of inductance, capacitance, and resistance. The electrical analogue of the pressure difference across an acoustic element is the voltage across a component of an electric circuit. The acoustic analogue of current at a point in the circuit is equivalent to the volume velocity of the fluid in the acoustic element. The latter quantity is defined in terms of the rate of volume displacement of fluid in the acoustic element.
The analogy between acoustic and electrical systems may be advantageously carried further by again consideringFIG. 1a) and defining the acoustic inertance M of a cylindrical acoustic element as:
M=mS2Equation(2)
where m is the mass of the element and S is the cross sectional area of the mass in the plane through which the mass moves. Typically an acoustic mass is related to a constriction, orifice, or column of air with an area, S, and length, lm. An application of this definition to a Helmholtz resonator in which the mass is a cylindrical volume of gas, Vm, gives:
M=ρVmS2=ρlmSS2=ρlmSEquation(3)
where ρ is the density of the gas. Acoustic inertance is analogous to electrical inductance and has the dimensions of kg/m4in the MKS system of units.
The acoustic compliance C of an acoustic element is defined as the volume displacement that is produced by the application of unit pressure. It is the analogue of electrical capacitance, (the charge appearing on a capacitor per unit of applied voltage). For an acoustic element having an enclosed volume Vc, such as in the Helmholtz resonator ofFIG. 1a), this definition leads to:
C=Vcρc2Equation(4)
where lower case c is the speed of sound in the fluid, ρ is the density of the fluid (normally a gas), and Vcis the volume of the acoustic cavity. The units of acoustic compliance are m4sec2/kg.
An element or characteristic of an acoustic system that leads to the dissipation of energy is analogous to electrical resistance. For example, a major portion of the acoustic resistance R of a Helmholtz resonator can result from the radiation of sound energy and is given by R=ρ c k2/2π, where k is 2π divided by the acoustic wavelength, It is also possible to derive expressions for the additional acoustic resistance associated with viscous forces in the fluid medium.
Helmholtz resonators are schematically represented inFIGS. 1a) and1b). However, it should be understood that these acoustic systems may also be represented schematically by the circuit of the analogous electrical systems, i.e.,FIGS. 3a) and3b) which correspond to1a) and1b), respectively. In general, when it is possible to replace an acoustic system by the schematic circuit of an analogous electrical system, known solutions of the latter may be used to analyze the former. The analogies just described are those most commonly used in acoustics. However, another system of analogies known as the mobility system can sometimes also be advantageously used. In the mobility system acoustic mobility, defined as the ratio of volume velocity across, to pressure through, the acoustic system is analogous to electrical impedance, volume velocity to voltage, pressure to current, inertance to capacitance, compliance to inductance and the reciprocal of the acoustic resistance to electrical resistance.
A known embodiment for a closed PAS cell is a ‘dumbbell’ Helmholtz resonator as shown inFIG. 1b). InFIG. 1b) the relatively large gas volumes on each end of the dumbbell act as springs and the central narrow tube acts as a mass which resonates with the springs. Typically in prior art designs a light source excites the gas in one of the tube ends and a microphone is located in the opposite end. Because PAS cell sensitivity for most configurations is inversely proportional to volume, the large gas volumes in the two ends of the dumbbell tend to limit cell sensitivity.
My invention is substantially independent of the optical source power. Light sources for my invention are preferably, but not limited to, coherent, wavelength (frequency) modulatable continuous wave lasers. Alternative sources may be incoherent, or pulsed lasers which can be either directly or indirectly modulated. Likewise, although not preferred, the light source may be energy modulated. Collimated LED sources are also suitable for the practice of my invention. Sources of a wide power range are suitable. Preferably the power will range from about microwatts up to hundreds of milliwatts.
Both lumped and distributed acoustic cells fall within the scope of my invention provided only that the cavity impedance at the interface to the microphone has an absolute impedance magnitude within a factor of three (i.e., ⅓ to 3 times that) of the microphone impedance magnitude and of opposite reactance to the microphone reactance. A preferred embodiment is an acoustic cylinder of diameter between about 1 and 4 mm with a length of approximately 40 to 100 mm between the optical windows. My invention also applies to PAS operation with liquid or solid substrates. Examples of PAS operation using prior art cell designs for detecting materials other than gases can be found in J. Pelzl, K. Klein, and O. Nordhaus, “Extended Helmholtz Resonator in Low-Temperature Photoacoustic Spectroscopy”,Applied Optics, Vol.21, No. 1, January 1982, pp. 94-99.
My invention is directed to a photoacoustic cell wherein the acoustic impedances of both the acoustic sensor (i.e., the microphone) and the PAS chamber significantly interact. Since impedance equals pressure divided by volume velocity, by designing the cell and choosing the sensor so that the acoustic impedances of the chamber and the sensor are of substantially the same order of magnitude they will significantly interact. This permits a significant reduction in the acoustic chamber size and thereby significantly increases the sensitivity of the PAS cell. As indicated, I have found that the impedance of the microphone should range from about one-third (⅓) to about three (3) times the impedance of the resonant chamber at the point where the microphone attaches to the chamber and at the acoustic frequency used for detection. I have further discovered that the use of the microphone as part of the resonant structure, e.g., as shown inFIG. 6, is a highly effective way of minimizing chamber volume.
I have found that if the tube (acoustic chamber) dimensions are chosen correctly (as defined herein) a mode will occur which is significantly lower in frequency than the first half-wavelength mode. For the purposes of this invention the tube dimensions are chosen so that its acoustic impedance is substantially equal in magnitude to (i.e., ⅓ to 3×) the microphone acoustic impedance at the desired resonance frequency. If the microphone impedance is capacitive at the desired resonance frequency then the chamber acoustic impedance must be inductive in order for it to resonate with the microphone impedance. This lowest order mode uses the back volume of the microphone as a spring and the gas in the tube as a mass. The tube length should be maximized for the greatest optical power absorption. Suitable lengths will range from about 20 mm to 200 mm, especially 40 mm to 100 mm. However, the tube diameter and length are ultimately determined by the requirement to have the cavity reactance substantially match the microphone reactance. The resulting resonant mode can correctly be called a Helmholtz resonance because it depends on the lumped properties of the gas mass in the tube and the spring constant of the microphone back volume. Because this realization permits a significant reduction in the PAS chamber volume it therefore tends to maximize sensitivity as shown by Equation 1. Although larger chamber volumes are suitable for the practice of my invention, I have found that excellent sensitivity can be achieved with small cavity volumes in the range of from about 0.1 cc to 1.0 cc. For example, by using the compliance from the back-volume in a microphone as the equivalent spring in a resonant cavity the Vcsection inFIG. 1acan be replaced with a microphone, thus permitting greatly reducing the size of the acoustic resonator chamber. This is because the diaphragm of a microphone combines with the volume of air behind the microphone (i.e., the “back-volume”) to create an equivalent acoustic capacitance equal to a much larger volume chamber containing air alone.
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7706534 | FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates generally to communications networks. More specifically, the invention relates to providing access to programming in a communication network.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Digital broadband broadcast networks enable end users to receive digital content including video, audio, data, and so forth. Using a mobile terminal, a user may receive digital content over a wireless digital communications network. For example, a user may receive data such as a broadcast program in a data stream. However, certain data transmissions may be intended for selected end users and not other end users. In this case, a method should be employed to prevent unauthorized access of the data transmission by end users not entitled to receive the data transmission.
Typically, transmitted data is encrypted to prevent unauthorized access to the data. For example, an algorithm may be employed to encrypt the data such that the encrypted data is unreadable. The data may be decrypted at an authorized terminal with the use of a key such as a particular number or string of characters. For the unidirectional communication of data in a digital communications network, a user terminal may receive a signal and filter encrypted services and decrypt the encrypted services with keys that are delivered through the digital communications network. In addition, the keys used to decrypt the data may be encrypted such that a user would need access to both the key for encrypting the data (i.e., a transport encryption key) and the key for encrypting the transport encryption key.
A user terminal may have access to a transmitted program or service for an authorized period of time such as, for example, when a user pays for access to the program or service. In this case, the user gains access to a program or service for a particular length of time, for example, the length of time of the program or service. As an example, a user may wish to view a television program that is one hour long. In this case, the user may purchase access to view the television program during that one hour period which the television program is broadcast.
However, access to the program or service for the user is limited in many ways. For example, the access to the program is time-based such that the keys for decrypting the program or for decrypting transport encryption keys are based on a length of time corresponding to the program. Such a key management system is inefficient since the user is purchasing the keys that provide access to the program or service content and may thus be unable to purchase access to a desired program/service or portion of a program/service.
Thus, a system and method is needed for providing access to a program or service such as programming via a digital communications network in an efficient and flexible manner. Also, a system and method is needed for permitting an end user to gain access to desired portions of a program or service.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. The summary is not an extensive overview of the invention. It is neither intended to identify key or critical elements of the invention nor to delineate the scope of the invention. The following summary merely presents some concepts of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description below.
In one example, a method, device, and computer-readable medium is provided for receiving an encrypted program or service at a terminal, transmitting a purchase request including a requested period of access to the program or service, receiving a key stream containing a plurality of key stream messages (KSM) wherein each KSM is separated in time from a neighboring KSM by a key interval, and decrypting each KSM received in the key stream for a granted period of access wherein the granted period of access is based on the count of decryption operations and therefore dependent on the key interval.
In another example, a method for providing an encrypted program or service to a terminal is provided. In one example, the method includes receiving a purchase request including a requested period of access to the program or service, converting the period of access to a corresponding number of KSM decryption counts, transmitting the number of counts within a rights object message, and transmitting the encrypted program or service and a corresponding key stream containing a plurality of key stream messages (KSM) separated by a key interval where the number of counts is based on the key interval.
In another example, a display device is described having rendered thereon a query specification comprising a first field name in association with a first input field, the first input field for receiving a first user input comprising an identifier corresponding to a requested program or service and a second field name in association with a second input field, the second input field for receiving a requested period of time for access to the requested program or service. In another example, a third field name is provided for receiving a request for start time to begin access to a decrypted program or service.
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SUMMARY: FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates generally to communications networks. More specifically, the invention relates to providing access to programming in a communication network.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Digital broadband broadcast networks enable end users to receive digital content including video, audio, data, and so forth. Using a mobile terminal, a user may receive digital content over a wireless digital communications network. For example, a user may receive data such as a broadcast program in a data stream. However, certain data transmissions may be intended for selected end users and not other end users. In this case, a method should be employed to prevent unauthorized access of the data transmission by end users not entitled to receive the data transmission.
Typically, transmitted data is encrypted to prevent unauthorized access to the data. For example, an algorithm may be employed to encrypt the data such that the encrypted data is unreadable. The data may be decrypted at an authorized terminal with the use of a key such as a particular number or string of characters. For the unidirectional communication of data in a digital communications network, a user terminal may receive a signal and filter encrypted services and decrypt the encrypted services with keys that are delivered through the digital communications network. In addition, the keys used to decrypt the data may be encrypted such that a user would need access to both the key for encrypting the data (i.e., a transport encryption key) and the key for encrypting the transport encryption key.
A user terminal may have access to a transmitted program or service for an authorized period of time such as, for example, when a user pays for access to the program or service. In this case, the user gains access to a program or service for a particular length of time, for example, the length of time of the program or service. As an example, a user may wish to view a television program that is one hour long. In this case, the user may purchase access to view the television program during that one hour period which the television program is broadcast.
However, access to the program or service for the user is limited in many ways. For example, the access to the program is time-based such that the keys for decrypting the program or for decrypting transport encryption keys are based on a length of time corresponding to the program. Such a key management system is inefficient since the user is purchasing the keys that provide access to the program or service content and may thus be unable to purchase access to a desired program/service or portion of a program/service.
Thus, a system and method is needed for providing access to a program or service such as programming via a digital communications network in an efficient and flexible manner. Also, a system and method is needed for permitting an end user to gain access to desired portions of a program or service.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. The summary is not an extensive overview of the invention. It is neither intended to identify key or critical elements of the invention nor to delineate the scope of the invention. The following summary merely presents some concepts of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description below.
In one example, a method, device, and computer-readable medium is provided for receiving an encrypted program or service at a terminal, transmitting a purchase request including a requested period of access to the program or service, receiving a key stream containing a plurality of key stream messages (KSM) wherein each KSM is separated in time from a neighboring KSM by a key interval, and decrypting each KSM received in the key stream for a granted period of access wherein the granted period of access is based on the count of decryption operations and therefore dependent on the key interval.
In another example, a method for providing an encrypted program or service to a terminal is provided. In one example, the method includes receiving a purchase request including a requested period of access to the program or service, converting the period of access to a corresponding number of KSM decryption counts, transmitting the number of counts within a rights object message, and transmitting the encrypted program or service and a corresponding key stream containing a plurality of key stream messages (KSM) separated by a key interval where the number of counts is based on the key interval.
In another example, a display device is described having rendered thereon a query specification comprising a first field name in association with a first input field, the first input field for receiving a first user input comprising an identifier corresponding to a requested program or service and a second field name in association with a second input field, the second input field for receiving a requested period of time for access to the requested program or service. In another example, a third field name is provided for receiving a request for start time to begin access to a decrypted program or service.
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7855798 | CROSS-NOTING PARAGRAPH
This nonprovisional application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) on Patent Applications No. 2005-220669 filed in Japan on Jul. 29, 2005, No. 2005-358949 filed in Japan on Dec. 13, 2005, and No. 2005-358966 filed in Japan on Dec. 13, 2005, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a printing system having a network connection, an image forming device, a printing control method, and a printing control program, and more particularly, to a printing system that makes a printing server grasp the state of each image forming device such as a printer, copier, fax machine, and multifunction printer, connected to the printing server via a network, and control each image forming device on the basis of its condition, and/or that makes the printing server assign a job volume for printing data to each image forming device on the basis of a judgment on the state of the image forming device for executing distributed printing, and as well as to an image forming device, a print control method, and a print control program for a computer to execute the print control method, used for the printing system.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
As the office automations are progressed these days, many image forming devices, such as printers, copiers, fax machines, and multifunction printers, have been installed in offices in a concentrated or distributed layout, where the image forming devices are usually connected to a server via a network. Locations vary in installing those image forming devices including printers, copiers, fax machines, and multifunction printers. Some locations may offer an unfavorable environment for the image forming devices to operate. Particularly, when a daylong environment or a year-round environment changes greatly, the image forming devices are exposed to a constant risk of bedewing.
At offices and schools, sometimes a large volume of printed matters have to be prepared within a certain period. In such a case, a distributed printing system is employed to carry out division printing by grouping a plurality of the image forming devices, instead of using only one image forming device.
Environmental conditions for locations where image forming devices are installed vary widely at large offices, schools, etc. Some locations are in high temperature and others are in low temperature, and some are in high humidity and others are in low humidity, and some locations have a large fluctuation in temperature and humidity. Quite a few locations are not preferable for installation, and some measures for preventing the devices from bedewing is required for the location where temperature and humidity changes fiercely. Particularly, an electrophotographic image forming device is equipped with photosensitive drums, charged rollers, transfer rollers, optical lenses, dustproof glasses, and the like, and bedewing those equipment results in the formation of a blur or blot on a formed image that deteriorates image quality substantially, or causes a device failure.
Such a phenomenon as bedewing happens when photosensitive rollers or the like cooled at night touches the fresh air heated by a heater or the like, especially tends to happen just after the start of the device in winter. Image forming devices, therefore, must be under constant monitoring in terms of installation environment, and a bedewed or possibly bedewed image forming device must be excluded from printing operation.
The electronic copier disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 60-76759 offers a technique for preventing bedewing on an image forming device. This copier detects temperature and humidity inside and outside a copier body, and actuates a bedewing preventive heater inside the copier when external humidity reaches a value corresponding to a saturated steam pressure value at an internal temperature.
In another case, the image forming device disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 11-38861 has an exhaust means that exhausts air in the device to the outside, a means that detects an external temperature, and a means that detects an internal temperature. This image forming device controls the output of the exhaust means in response to a difference between the internal temperature and the external temperature, which is detected by the temperature detecting means.
The installation environment monitoring device for a printing device disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-165036 offers a technique for monitoring an installation environment for an image forming device. The installation environment monitoring device comprises a detecting means that detects an environmental parameter indicating the environment of an installation location for the printing device, a judging means that judges on whether the environmental parameter is within the range of a prescribed environment permissible value or not, a message creating means that creates a message informing of a judgment that the environmental parameter is not within the range of the environment permissible value when the judging means makes that judgment, and a communication means that transmits the message created by the message creating means to an external apparatus.
According to the optimum distributed printing system disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 11-194911, the report printing capacity of each printing device is estimated to allow a plurality of grouped printing devices to exert their full capacity as a whole and enable printing of multiple reports in a shortest time. In this system, a printing server calculates a time each printing device takes to output printing data on the basis of printing capacity data of each printing device that is a candidate for distributed job assignment. With the calculated output time, the printing server optimizes the distribution of printing data so that each printing device finishes individual printing job at the same time, and assigns distributed data to each printing device, then gives printing instruction.
According to the conventional image forming devices as described above, individual judging means attached to each image forming device judges a state for bedewing independently. The conventional image forming devices, therefore, offers no uniform judging method, thus makes judgments that cannot be considered to be reliable enough. Such image forming devices are not appropriate to be interconnected via a network to construct a printing system.
A conventional image forming device provided with a bedewing preventive device is so constructed as to actuate the bedewing preventive device in advance when there is a concern of bedewing in the device. SO, it is not preferable from the point of energy saving for the case that a lot of image forming devices are connected in network because the power consumption for preventing bedewing becomes larger.
When a large volume of printed matters are prepared quickly by distributed printing, image forming devices have to be used as many as possible. If image forming devices not satisfying a given operational environmental condition, such as ones in a bedewing state, are not used but only the image forming devices satisfying the given operational environmental condition are used, the number of image forming devices to be used decreases and that makes it impossible to meet a requirement for printing in a shortest time.
When the individual judging means attached to interconnected each image forming device independently judges whether or not bedewing is developing in the device or whether or not the installation location environment of the device satisfies a given environmental condition, the judgment becomes less reliable because the criteria for the judgment is not uniform. Such image forming devices, therefore, are not appropriate to be interconnected via a network to construct a printing system.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a printing system for such a distributed printing system that includes a plurality of image forming devices, such as printers, copiers, fax machines, and multifunction printers, connected via a network, judges the environmental state of each image forming device, such as a bedewing state, with a uniform criteria and method in a highly reliable manner, executes printing operation in response to a distributed printing request without using an image forming device not in a given environmental state, such as in a bedewed condition and/or without staying in a stand-by state for printing for a long time, and is capable of highly efficient distributed printing, and to provide a printing control method, and a program for a computer to execute the printing system.
An image forming device not in a given operational environment state can be operated under control for reducing load on the device when the operational environment of the device is not out of the given operational environment to a great extent. Accordingly, another object of the present invention is to operate an image forming device not in a given operational environment by reducing load on the device and to enable the use of image forming devices in a broader operational environment.
Not using image forming devices not in a preset given operational environment limits a number of usable image forming devices, thus hampers office work using the image forming devices. Accordingly, a further object of the present invention is to actuate only the bedewing preventive mechanisms of image forming devices in an environmental condition for bedewing among image forming devices interconnected via a network so as to limit the number of the image forming devices with the bedewing preventive mechanisms on operation, thus prevent bedewing with less power consumption and turn inoperable image forming devices to operable ones.
The state of each image forming device is judged based on the current temperature and humidity in an operational environment of the device. Preferably, however, such judgment should be made in consideration of the history of temperature and humidity as well as of the current temperature and humidity. Accordingly, still another object of the present invention is to judge the state of each image forming device precisely in consideration of the history of operational environment of the device and control the image forming device based on the results of the judgment.
A first technical means of the present invention is a printing system comprising a printing server; and a plurality of image forming devices connected to the printing server, wherein each image forming device has an operational environment information acquiring means that acquires operational environment information of each image forming device, and an operational environment information sending means that sends the acquired operational environment information to the printing server, wherein the printing server has a control means that judges a state of each image forming device on the basis of the operational environment information sent to the printing server, and that controls each image forming device on the basis of the results of the judgment.
A second technical means is the printing system of the first technical means, wherein the control means of the printing server judges whether or not each image forming device is in a given operational environment on the basis of the operational environment information, and sends printing data to an image forming device that is in the given operational environment.
A third technical means is the printing system of the second technical means, wherein the operational environment information consists of temperature information and humidity information, and wherein the given operational environment is an environment where each image forming device is not bedewed.
A fourth technical means is the printing system of the first technical means, wherein each image forming device has an operational state information sending means that sends operational state information to the printing server, and wherein the control means of the printing server controls each image forming device on the basis of the operational state information sent to the printing server.
A fifth technical means is the printing system of the first technical means, wherein each image forming device has a means that acquires temperature environment information of an installation location of each image forming device, and that sends the acquired temperature environment information to the printing server, and wherein the printing server analyzes the temperature environment information sent to the printing server, selects an image forming device best to image formation on the basis of the results of the analysis, and sends printing data to the selected image forming device.
A sixth technical means is the printing system of the first technical means, wherein each image forming device has a means that acquires humidity environment information of an installation location of each image forming device, and that sends the acquired humidity environment information to the printing server, and wherein the printing server analyzes the humidity environment information of the installation location of each image forming device, selects an image forming device best to image formation on the basis of the results of the analysis, and sends printing data to the selected image forming device.
A seventh technical means is the printing system of the first technical means, wherein the image forming devices are classified into groups, and wherein when the control means of the printing server cannot acquire environmental information from one image forming device in a group, the control means acquires environmental information from another image forming device in the same group and judges a state of the another image forming device.
An eighth technical means is the printing system of the first technical means, wherein when the control means of the printing server judges that an image forming device is not in the given operational environment, the control means changes control over the image forming device to reduce load thereon, and then sends printing data to the image forming device.
A ninth technical means is the printing system of the eighth technical means, wherein printing data of total pages not more than a given amount is sent to an image forming device having an internal temperature that is not within the given operational environment.
A tenth technical means is the printing system of the ninth technical means, wherein the given amount is changed according to a type of recording papers used for printing.
An eleventh technical means is the printing system of the eighth technical means, wherein printing data of only one page is sent to an image forming device having internal humidity that is not within the given operational environment during a time when a recording paper is fed and is ejected out.
A twelfth technical means is the printing system of the first technical means, wherein each image forming device has a means for changing its operational environment, wherein when the control means of the printing server judges that an image forming device is not in the given operational environment, the control means actuates the means for changing operational environment, and sends printing data to the image forming device after an operational environment for the image forming device has been turned into the given operational environment.
A thirteenth technical means is the printing system of the twelfth technical means, wherein the means for changing operational environment is a bedewing preventive means, and wherein when the control means of the printing server judges that an image forming device is in a bedewing state, the control means sends a bedewing clearing signal for actuating the bedewing preventive means to the image forming device.
A fourteenth technical means is the printing system of the thirteenth technical means, wherein the control means of the printing server judges that the image forming device is an image forming device to which printing data can be sent when a given time has passed since the control means sent the bedewing clearing signal to the image forming device.
A fifteenth technical means is the printing system of the first technical means, wherein the control means of the printing server judges whether or not each image forming device is in the given operational environment in consideration of a history of an operational environment for each image forming device.
A sixteenth technical means is the printing system of the fifteenth technical means, wherein the history of the operational environment represents a total of time when the humidity is out of a given range during a given period, and wherein when the total of time exceeds a given time, the image forming device is judged to be not in the given operational environment.
A seventeenth technical means is an image forming device used in the printing system of any one of the first to sixteenth technical means.
An eighteenth technical means is a printing control method for the printing system of any one of the first to sixteenth technical means, wherein each of the image forming devices acquires its own operational environment information respectively, and sends the acquired operational environment information to the printing server, and wherein the printing server judges a state of each image forming device on the basis of the operational environment information, and controls each image forming device on the basis of the results of the judgment.
A nineteenth technical means is a printing control program for a computer to execute the printing control method of the eighteenth technical means.
A twentieth technical means is a distributed printing system comprising a plurality of image forming devices; and a printing server that sends printing data to the image forming devices to execute distributed printing, wherein each image forming device has an operational environment information acquiring means that acquires operational environment information of each image forming device, and an operational environment information sending means that sends the acquired operational environment information to the printing server, and wherein the printing server has a control means that judges a state of each image forming device on the basis of the operational environment information, and that decides an assignment of an amount of distributed print job to be sent to each image forming device on the basis of the results of the judgment.
A twenty-first technical means is the distributed printing system of the twentieth technical means, wherein the control means judges whether or not each of the image forming devices is in a bedewing state on the basis of the operational environment information, instructs image forming devices in the bedewing state to clear bedewing, estimates the times that the image forming devices in the bedewing state take to clear bedewing and also estimates the respective time when each of the image forming devices in the bedewing state will finish respective print jobs after it clears its bedewing state, and then assigns an amount of distributed print job to each image forming device so that each image forming device finishes the assigned print job at the same time.
A twenty-second technical means is the distributed printing system of the twentieth technical means, wherein the operational environment information acquiring means acquires a temperature of an installation environment of each image forming device, and wherein the control means reduces an amount of printing data sent as an assigned job to an image forming device that is in an installation environment where the temperature is lower than a given value.
A twenty-third technical means is the distributed printing system of the twentieth technical means, wherein the operational environment information acquiring means acquires a humidity of an installation environment of each image forming device, and wherein the control means controls an image forming device that is in an installation environment where the humidity is out of a given range to carry out the printing work for a recording medium one by one.
A twenty-fourth technical means is a printing control method for the distributed printing system of the twentieth technical means, wherein each image forming device acquires operational environment information of each image forming device, and sends the acquired operational environment information to the printing server, and wherein the printing server judges a state of each image forming device on the basis of the operational environment information, and decides an assignment of an amount of distributed print job to be sent to each image forming device on the basis of the results of the judgment.
A twenty-fifth technical means is a printing control program for a computer to execute the printing control method of the twenty-fourth technical means for the printing system, wherein the control program has the step for each image forming device to acquire the operational environment information of each image forming device; the step for each image forming device to send the acquired operational environment information to the printing server; the step for the printing server to judge a state of each image forming device on the basis of the operational environment information; and the step for the printing server to decide an assignment of an amount of distributed print job to be sent to each image forming device on the basis of the results of the judgment.
| 0 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: CROSS-NOTING PARAGRAPH
This nonprovisional application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) on Patent Applications No. 2005-220669 filed in Japan on Jul. 29, 2005, No. 2005-358949 filed in Japan on Dec. 13, 2005, and No. 2005-358966 filed in Japan on Dec. 13, 2005, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a printing system having a network connection, an image forming device, a printing control method, and a printing control program, and more particularly, to a printing system that makes a printing server grasp the state of each image forming device such as a printer, copier, fax machine, and multifunction printer, connected to the printing server via a network, and control each image forming device on the basis of its condition, and/or that makes the printing server assign a job volume for printing data to each image forming device on the basis of a judgment on the state of the image forming device for executing distributed printing, and as well as to an image forming device, a print control method, and a print control program for a computer to execute the print control method, used for the printing system.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
As the office automations are progressed these days, many image forming devices, such as printers, copiers, fax machines, and multifunction printers, have been installed in offices in a concentrated or distributed layout, where the image forming devices are usually connected to a server via a network. Locations vary in installing those image forming devices including printers, copiers, fax machines, and multifunction printers. Some locations may offer an unfavorable environment for the image forming devices to operate. Particularly, when a daylong environment or a year-round environment changes greatly, the image forming devices are exposed to a constant risk of bedewing.
At offices and schools, sometimes a large volume of printed matters have to be prepared within a certain period. In such a case, a distributed printing system is employed to carry out division printing by grouping a plurality of the image forming devices, instead of using only one image forming device.
Environmental conditions for locations where image forming devices are installed vary widely at large offices, schools, etc. Some locations are in high temperature and others are in low temperature, and some are in high humidity and others are in low humidity, and some locations have a large fluctuation in temperature and humidity. Quite a few locations are not preferable for installation, and some measures for preventing the devices from bedewing is required for the location where temperature and humidity changes fiercely. Particularly, an electrophotographic image forming device is equipped with photosensitive drums, charged rollers, transfer rollers, optical lenses, dustproof glasses, and the like, and bedewing those equipment results in the formation of a blur or blot on a formed image that deteriorates image quality substantially, or causes a device failure.
Such a phenomenon as bedewing happens when photosensitive rollers or the like cooled at night touches the fresh air heated by a heater or the like, especially tends to happen just after the start of the device in winter. Image forming devices, therefore, must be under constant monitoring in terms of installation environment, and a bedewed or possibly bedewed image forming device must be excluded from printing operation.
The electronic copier disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 60-76759 offers a technique for preventing bedewing on an image forming device. This copier detects temperature and humidity inside and outside a copier body, and actuates a bedewing preventive heater inside the copier when external humidity reaches a value corresponding to a saturated steam pressure value at an internal temperature.
In another case, the image forming device disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 11-38861 has an exhaust means that exhausts air in the device to the outside, a means that detects an external temperature, and a means that detects an internal temperature. This image forming device controls the output of the exhaust means in response to a difference between the internal temperature and the external temperature, which is detected by the temperature detecting means.
The installation environment monitoring device for a printing device disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-165036 offers a technique for monitoring an installation environment for an image forming device. The installation environment monitoring device comprises a detecting means that detects an environmental parameter indicating the environment of an installation location for the printing device, a judging means that judges on whether the environmental parameter is within the range of a prescribed environment permissible value or not, a message creating means that creates a message informing of a judgment that the environmental parameter is not within the range of the environment permissible value when the judging means makes that judgment, and a communication means that transmits the message created by the message creating means to an external apparatus.
According to the optimum distributed printing system disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 11-194911, the report printing capacity of each printing device is estimated to allow a plurality of grouped printing devices to exert their full capacity as a whole and enable printing of multiple reports in a shortest time. In this system, a printing server calculates a time each printing device takes to output printing data on the basis of printing capacity data of each printing device that is a candidate for distributed job assignment. With the calculated output time, the printing server optimizes the distribution of printing data so that each printing device finishes individual printing job at the same time, and assigns distributed data to each printing device, then gives printing instruction.
According to the conventional image forming devices as described above, individual judging means attached to each image forming device judges a state for bedewing independently. The conventional image forming devices, therefore, offers no uniform judging method, thus makes judgments that cannot be considered to be reliable enough. Such image forming devices are not appropriate to be interconnected via a network to construct a printing system.
A conventional image forming device provided with a bedewing preventive device is so constructed as to actuate the bedewing preventive device in advance when there is a concern of bedewing in the device. SO, it is not preferable from the point of energy saving for the case that a lot of image forming devices are connected in network because the power consumption for preventing bedewing becomes larger.
When a large volume of printed matters are prepared quickly by distributed printing, image forming devices have to be used as many as possible. If image forming devices not satisfying a given operational environmental condition, such as ones in a bedewing state, are not used but only the image forming devices satisfying the given operational environmental condition are used, the number of image forming devices to be used decreases and that makes it impossible to meet a requirement for printing in a shortest time.
When the individual judging means attached to interconnected each image forming device independently judges whether or not bedewing is developing in the device or whether or not the installation location environment of the device satisfies a given environmental condition, the judgment becomes less reliable because the criteria for the judgment is not uniform. Such image forming devices, therefore, are not appropriate to be interconnected via a network to construct a printing system.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a printing system for such a distributed printing system that includes a plurality of image forming devices, such as printers, copiers, fax machines, and multifunction printers, connected via a network, judges the environmental state of each image forming device, such as a bedewing state, with a uniform criteria and method in a highly reliable manner, executes printing operation in response to a distributed printing request without using an image forming device not in a given environmental state, such as in a bedewed condition and/or without staying in a stand-by state for printing for a long time, and is capable of highly efficient distributed printing, and to provide a printing control method, and a program for a computer to execute the printing system.
An image forming device not in a given operational environment state can be operated under control for reducing load on the device when the operational environment of the device is not out of the given operational environment to a great extent. Accordingly, another object of the present invention is to operate an image forming device not in a given operational environment by reducing load on the device and to enable the use of image forming devices in a broader operational environment.
Not using image forming devices not in a preset given operational environment limits a number of usable image forming devices, thus hampers office work using the image forming devices. Accordingly, a further object of the present invention is to actuate only the bedewing preventive mechanisms of image forming devices in an environmental condition for bedewing among image forming devices interconnected via a network so as to limit the number of the image forming devices with the bedewing preventive mechanisms on operation, thus prevent bedewing with less power consumption and turn inoperable image forming devices to operable ones.
The state of each image forming device is judged based on the current temperature and humidity in an operational environment of the device. Preferably, however, such judgment should be made in consideration of the history of temperature and humidity as well as of the current temperature and humidity. Accordingly, still another object of the present invention is to judge the state of each image forming device precisely in consideration of the history of operational environment of the device and control the image forming device based on the results of the judgment.
A first technical means of the present invention is a printing system comprising a printing server; and a plurality of image forming devices connected to the printing server, wherein each image forming device has an operational environment information acquiring means that acquires operational environment information of each image forming device, and an operational environment information sending means that sends the acquired operational environment information to the printing server, wherein the printing server has a control means that judges a state of each image forming device on the basis of the operational environment information sent to the printing server, and that controls each image forming device on the basis of the results of the judgment.
A second technical means is the printing system of the first technical means, wherein the control means of the printing server judges whether or not each image forming device is in a given operational environment on the basis of the operational environment information, and sends printing data to an image forming device that is in the given operational environment.
A third technical means is the printing system of the second technical means, wherein the operational environment information consists of temperature information and humidity information, and wherein the given operational environment is an environment where each image forming device is not bedewed.
A fourth technical means is the printing system of the first technical means, wherein each image forming device has an operational state information sending means that sends operational state information to the printing server, and wherein the control means of the printing server controls each image forming device on the basis of the operational state information sent to the printing server.
A fifth technical means is the printing system of the first technical means, wherein each image forming device has a means that acquires temperature environment information of an installation location of each image forming device, and that sends the acquired temperature environment information to the printing server, and wherein the printing server analyzes the temperature environment information sent to the printing server, selects an image forming device best to image formation on the basis of the results of the analysis, and sends printing data to the selected image forming device.
A sixth technical means is the printing system of the first technical means, wherein each image forming device has a means that acquires humidity environment information of an installation location of each image forming device, and that sends the acquired humidity environment information to the printing server, and wherein the printing server analyzes the humidity environment information of the installation location of each image forming device, selects an image forming device best to image formation on the basis of the results of the analysis, and sends printing data to the selected image forming device.
A seventh technical means is the printing system of the first technical means, wherein the image forming devices are classified into groups, and wherein when the control means of the printing server cannot acquire environmental information from one image forming device in a group, the control means acquires environmental information from another image forming device in the same group and judges a state of the another image forming device.
An eighth technical means is the printing system of the first technical means, wherein when the control means of the printing server judges that an image forming device is not in the given operational environment, the control means changes control over the image forming device to reduce load thereon, and then sends printing data to the image forming device.
A ninth technical means is the printing system of the eighth technical means, wherein printing data of total pages not more than a given amount is sent to an image forming device having an internal temperature that is not within the given operational environment.
A tenth technical means is the printing system of the ninth technical means, wherein the given amount is changed according to a type of recording papers used for printing.
An eleventh technical means is the printing system of the eighth technical means, wherein printing data of only one page is sent to an image forming device having internal humidity that is not within the given operational environment during a time when a recording paper is fed and is ejected out.
A twelfth technical means is the printing system of the first technical means, wherein each image forming device has a means for changing its operational environment, wherein when the control means of the printing server judges that an image forming device is not in the given operational environment, the control means actuates the means for changing operational environment, and sends printing data to the image forming device after an operational environment for the image forming device has been turned into the given operational environment.
A thirteenth technical means is the printing system of the twelfth technical means, wherein the means for changing operational environment is a bedewing preventive means, and wherein when the control means of the printing server judges that an image forming device is in a bedewing state, the control means sends a bedewing clearing signal for actuating the bedewing preventive means to the image forming device.
A fourteenth technical means is the printing system of the thirteenth technical means, wherein the control means of the printing server judges that the image forming device is an image forming device to which printing data can be sent when a given time has passed since the control means sent the bedewing clearing signal to the image forming device.
A fifteenth technical means is the printing system of the first technical means, wherein the control means of the printing server judges whether or not each image forming device is in the given operational environment in consideration of a history of an operational environment for each image forming device.
A sixteenth technical means is the printing system of the fifteenth technical means, wherein the history of the operational environment represents a total of time when the humidity is out of a given range during a given period, and wherein when the total of time exceeds a given time, the image forming device is judged to be not in the given operational environment.
A seventeenth technical means is an image forming device used in the printing system of any one of the first to sixteenth technical means.
An eighteenth technical means is a printing control method for the printing system of any one of the first to sixteenth technical means, wherein each of the image forming devices acquires its own operational environment information respectively, and sends the acquired operational environment information to the printing server, and wherein the printing server judges a state of each image forming device on the basis of the operational environment information, and controls each image forming device on the basis of the results of the judgment.
A nineteenth technical means is a printing control program for a computer to execute the printing control method of the eighteenth technical means.
A twentieth technical means is a distributed printing system comprising a plurality of image forming devices; and a printing server that sends printing data to the image forming devices to execute distributed printing, wherein each image forming device has an operational environment information acquiring means that acquires operational environment information of each image forming device, and an operational environment information sending means that sends the acquired operational environment information to the printing server, and wherein the printing server has a control means that judges a state of each image forming device on the basis of the operational environment information, and that decides an assignment of an amount of distributed print job to be sent to each image forming device on the basis of the results of the judgment.
A twenty-first technical means is the distributed printing system of the twentieth technical means, wherein the control means judges whether or not each of the image forming devices is in a bedewing state on the basis of the operational environment information, instructs image forming devices in the bedewing state to clear bedewing, estimates the times that the image forming devices in the bedewing state take to clear bedewing and also estimates the respective time when each of the image forming devices in the bedewing state will finish respective print jobs after it clears its bedewing state, and then assigns an amount of distributed print job to each image forming device so that each image forming device finishes the assigned print job at the same time.
A twenty-second technical means is the distributed printing system of the twentieth technical means, wherein the operational environment information acquiring means acquires a temperature of an installation environment of each image forming device, and wherein the control means reduces an amount of printing data sent as an assigned job to an image forming device that is in an installation environment where the temperature is lower than a given value.
A twenty-third technical means is the distributed printing system of the twentieth technical means, wherein the operational environment information acquiring means acquires a humidity of an installation environment of each image forming device, and wherein the control means controls an image forming device that is in an installation environment where the humidity is out of a given range to carry out the printing work for a recording medium one by one.
A twenty-fourth technical means is a printing control method for the distributed printing system of the twentieth technical means, wherein each image forming device acquires operational environment information of each image forming device, and sends the acquired operational environment information to the printing server, and wherein the printing server judges a state of each image forming device on the basis of the operational environment information, and decides an assignment of an amount of distributed print job to be sent to each image forming device on the basis of the results of the judgment.
A twenty-fifth technical means is a printing control program for a computer to execute the printing control method of the twenty-fourth technical means for the printing system, wherein the control program has the step for each image forming device to acquire the operational environment information of each image forming device; the step for each image forming device to send the acquired operational environment information to the printing server; the step for the printing server to judge a state of each image forming device on the basis of the operational environment information; and the step for the printing server to decide an assignment of an amount of distributed print job to be sent to each image forming device on the basis of the results of the judgment.
Is this patent green technology? Respond with 'yes' or 'no'. |
7841830 | REFERENCES CITED
U.S. Patent Documents
U.S. Pat. No. 4,353,702 October 1982 Nagy . . . 440/8U.S. Pat. No. 1,417,000 May 1922 Vogt . . . 440/132 B
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
At present the oil deposits in the Middle East are getting depleted rapidly so much so that the industrialized countries are frantically searching for alternative fuels as well as for other sources of energy. Although the hydroelectric dam is generating significant amounts of electricity there are environmental problems created by the dam as follows: (i) the hydroelectric dam is choking the river and preventing the wild salmons from spawning upstream of the river (ii) the big lakes created by the dam have destroyed the river habitats and valuable artifacts. (iii) records show that due to earthquakes and metal fatigue the old hydroelectric dams have collapsed and wiped out the downstream cities. A river power megawatts producer is provided in order to extract the energy from the river without using a hydroelectric dam.
SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
It is the object of the present invention to provide a river power megawatts producer that is inexpensive to construct for harvesting and converting the available energy from the flowing river into inexpensive electric current. The present invention does not use the hydroelectric dam for operation and will not prevent the wild salmons from spawning upstream of the river.
Another object of the present invention is to harvest and convert the available energy from flowing water into large quantities of megawatts of electric current to supply the power needs of the cities, towns and municipalities.
A further object of the present invention is to use the river power megawatts producer for harvesting and converting the available energy from ocean currents and tides into inexpensive electricity.
| 1 | You are a knowledgeable patent classifier specializing in environmental technology. Examine the following summary of a patent and determine if it relates to green technology.
SUMMARY: REFERENCES CITED
U.S. Patent Documents
U.S. Pat. No. 4,353,702 October 1982 Nagy . . . 440/8U.S. Pat. No. 1,417,000 May 1922 Vogt . . . 440/132 B
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
At present the oil deposits in the Middle East are getting depleted rapidly so much so that the industrialized countries are frantically searching for alternative fuels as well as for other sources of energy. Although the hydroelectric dam is generating significant amounts of electricity there are environmental problems created by the dam as follows: (i) the hydroelectric dam is choking the river and preventing the wild salmons from spawning upstream of the river (ii) the big lakes created by the dam have destroyed the river habitats and valuable artifacts. (iii) records show that due to earthquakes and metal fatigue the old hydroelectric dams have collapsed and wiped out the downstream cities. A river power megawatts producer is provided in order to extract the energy from the river without using a hydroelectric dam.
SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
It is the object of the present invention to provide a river power megawatts producer that is inexpensive to construct for harvesting and converting the available energy from the flowing river into inexpensive electric current. The present invention does not use the hydroelectric dam for operation and will not prevent the wild salmons from spawning upstream of the river.
Another object of the present invention is to harvest and convert the available energy from flowing water into large quantities of megawatts of electric current to supply the power needs of the cities, towns and municipalities.
A further object of the present invention is to use the river power megawatts producer for harvesting and converting the available energy from ocean currents and tides into inexpensive electricity.
Is this patent green technology? Respond with 'yes' or 'no'. |
7843137 | This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application P2005-101983 filed on Mar. 31, 2005, the entirety of which is incorporated by reference.
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a luminous vessel.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
According to a high pressure discharge lamp disclosed in Japanese patent publication 11-149903A, a tungsten electrode is fitted to the tip end of a pipe-shaped current through conductor of molybdenum and inserted into a luminous container of a high pressure discharge lamp. Then, a ring-shaped sealing member made of molybdenum cermet is fitted onto the outer periphery of the pipe-shaped current through conductor and sintered so that the current through conductor and sealing member are attached to the tip end of the luminous container.
According to a high pressure discharge lamp of ceramic metal halide type disclosed in Japanese patent publication 7-192697A, a current supply conductor has a first part having a relatively high melting point and a second part having a relatively low melting point. The parts are opposed at the end faces and welded to produce a connection. Further, an electrode is welded to the tip end of the first part having a higher melting point.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
According to the structure disclosed in Japanese patent publication 11-149903A, however, the bonding of the pipe-shaped current through conductor of molybdenum and the tungsten electrode is difficult, according to the following reasons. Both of molybdenum and tungsten are high melting point metals and difficult to melt, have high hardness and are brittle, so that a process for bonding them at a high bonding strength is difficult and requires a high cost.
It is preferred to form a pipe-shaped current through conductor by molybdenum for reducing the difference of thermal expansion coefficients of and improving air-tightness between a cermet sealing material and the current through conductor. Although it may be speculated that the pipe-shaped current through conductor is made of tungsten as an electrode, the difference of thermal expansion coefficients of the cermet sealing material and current through conductor becomes large, and the air-tightness between them tends to be deteriorated.
Similarly, according to the structure disclosed in Japanese patent publication 7-192697A, for example, the combination of the first part made of tungsten and the second part of tantalum, and the combination of the first part of molybdenum and the second part of niobium are described. These materials are high melting point metals and hard to melt, have high hardness and are brittle, so that a process for bonding them at a high bonding strength is difficult and requires a high cost.
According to the structure disclosed in Japanese patent publication 7-192697A, a high level bonding technique is required so that the current through conductor is inserted into a ceramic lead through tube and a sealing frit is molten and flown into the interface of the first and second parts to carry out the sealing and fixing while avoiding an excess thermal stress. Such process requires accurate control of process parameters, so that the yield tends to be lowered and the processing cost tends to be higher.
An object of the present invention is to provide a luminous vessel whose bonding with a current through conductor provided inside of the vessel is strong and the adhesion is improved.
The present invention provides a luminous vessel comprising a luminous container comprising a brittle material, a solid current through conductor comprising a metal or a cermet and a sintered body of a molded body comprising at least metal powder, wherein the sintered body is fixed outside of the current through conductor.
The present invention will be described below in detail, referring to the attached drawings. According to the present invention, for example as shown inFIGS. 1(a) and1(b), for example disk-shaped molded body1of metal powder (or mixture of metal powder and ceramic powder) is prepared. A through hole1ais formed in the molded body1. As shown inFIG. 1(c), a solid current through conductor2made of a metal or a cermet is then inserted into the through hole1a. The molded body1is thus sintered to obtain a composite body3shown inFIG. 1(d). The composite body3has a solid current through conductor2made of a metal and a disk-shaped sintered body11fitted to the outer periphery of the current through conductor2. The conductor2is inserted into the through hole11a. During the sintering process, the molded body1is shrunk due to the sintering. Adhesion force is thus generated between the outer surface of the conductor2and the inner surface of the through hole1aof the molded body due to the action of sintering shrinkage, and compressive force is generated to the outer surface of the current through conductor radially due the sintering shrinkage of the molded body1. The sintered body11is thus strongly fixed around the conductor2.
According to such composite body, the bonding of the current through conductor2with the sintered body11is strong and air-tight, and resistive against thermal cycles because sintering process is applied to the bonding. If the conductor2would have been tubular, the sintering shrinkage of the molded body1would result in the shrinkage and deformation of the conductor2radially, so that the stress due to the sintering shrinkage of the molded body1is escaped radially. A strong and air-tight bonding cannot be obtained.
Particularly, according to the present invention, even when the whole of the current through conductor is made of a material suitable as the electrode material such as tungsten, the conductor can be bonded to a luminous vessel strongly and in air tight manner. The whole of the conductor may be formed of one kind of appropriate material such as tungsten to alleviate the need of bonding process of high melting point metals and thereby to considerably reduce the production cost.
Similarly, according to the present invention, for example as shown inFIGS. 2(a) and2(b), for example disk-shaped molded body1of metal powder (or mixture of metal powder and ceramic powder) is prepared. A through hole1ais formed in the molded body1. As shown inFIG. 2(c), solid elongate products2aand2bmade of a metal or a cermet are then inserted into the through hole1a, so that the elongate products2aand2bcontact with each other at a contact part located at the center of the molded body1. The molded body1is thus sintered to obtain a composite body3shown inFIG. 1(d). The composite body3has a solid elongate products2aand2bmade of a metal and a disk-shaped sintered body11fitted to the outer periphery of the elongate products2aand2b. The elongate products2aand2bare inserted into the through hole1a. During the sintering process, the molded body1is shrunk due to the sintering. Adhesion force is thus generated between the outer surfaces of the elongate products2aand2band the inner surface of the through hole1aof the molded body due to the action of sintering shrinkage, and compressive force is generated to the outer surfaces of the elongate products2aand2bradially due the sintering shrinkage of the molded body1. The sintered body11is thus strongly fixed around the elongate products2aand2b.
According to such composite body, the bonding of the current through conductor2or elongate products2aand2bwith the sintered body11is strong, air-tight, and resistive against thermal cycles because sintering process has been applied to the bonding. If the conductor2or elongate products2aand2bwould have been tubular, the sintering shrinkage of the molded body1results in the shrinkage and deformation of the conductor2or elongate products2aand2bradially, so that the stress due to the sintering shrinkage of the molded body1is escaped radially. A strong and air-tight bonding cannot be thus obtained.
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SUMMARY: This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application P2005-101983 filed on Mar. 31, 2005, the entirety of which is incorporated by reference.
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a luminous vessel.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
According to a high pressure discharge lamp disclosed in Japanese patent publication 11-149903A, a tungsten electrode is fitted to the tip end of a pipe-shaped current through conductor of molybdenum and inserted into a luminous container of a high pressure discharge lamp. Then, a ring-shaped sealing member made of molybdenum cermet is fitted onto the outer periphery of the pipe-shaped current through conductor and sintered so that the current through conductor and sealing member are attached to the tip end of the luminous container.
According to a high pressure discharge lamp of ceramic metal halide type disclosed in Japanese patent publication 7-192697A, a current supply conductor has a first part having a relatively high melting point and a second part having a relatively low melting point. The parts are opposed at the end faces and welded to produce a connection. Further, an electrode is welded to the tip end of the first part having a higher melting point.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
According to the structure disclosed in Japanese patent publication 11-149903A, however, the bonding of the pipe-shaped current through conductor of molybdenum and the tungsten electrode is difficult, according to the following reasons. Both of molybdenum and tungsten are high melting point metals and difficult to melt, have high hardness and are brittle, so that a process for bonding them at a high bonding strength is difficult and requires a high cost.
It is preferred to form a pipe-shaped current through conductor by molybdenum for reducing the difference of thermal expansion coefficients of and improving air-tightness between a cermet sealing material and the current through conductor. Although it may be speculated that the pipe-shaped current through conductor is made of tungsten as an electrode, the difference of thermal expansion coefficients of the cermet sealing material and current through conductor becomes large, and the air-tightness between them tends to be deteriorated.
Similarly, according to the structure disclosed in Japanese patent publication 7-192697A, for example, the combination of the first part made of tungsten and the second part of tantalum, and the combination of the first part of molybdenum and the second part of niobium are described. These materials are high melting point metals and hard to melt, have high hardness and are brittle, so that a process for bonding them at a high bonding strength is difficult and requires a high cost.
According to the structure disclosed in Japanese patent publication 7-192697A, a high level bonding technique is required so that the current through conductor is inserted into a ceramic lead through tube and a sealing frit is molten and flown into the interface of the first and second parts to carry out the sealing and fixing while avoiding an excess thermal stress. Such process requires accurate control of process parameters, so that the yield tends to be lowered and the processing cost tends to be higher.
An object of the present invention is to provide a luminous vessel whose bonding with a current through conductor provided inside of the vessel is strong and the adhesion is improved.
The present invention provides a luminous vessel comprising a luminous container comprising a brittle material, a solid current through conductor comprising a metal or a cermet and a sintered body of a molded body comprising at least metal powder, wherein the sintered body is fixed outside of the current through conductor.
The present invention will be described below in detail, referring to the attached drawings. According to the present invention, for example as shown inFIGS. 1(a) and1(b), for example disk-shaped molded body1of metal powder (or mixture of metal powder and ceramic powder) is prepared. A through hole1ais formed in the molded body1. As shown inFIG. 1(c), a solid current through conductor2made of a metal or a cermet is then inserted into the through hole1a. The molded body1is thus sintered to obtain a composite body3shown inFIG. 1(d). The composite body3has a solid current through conductor2made of a metal and a disk-shaped sintered body11fitted to the outer periphery of the current through conductor2. The conductor2is inserted into the through hole11a. During the sintering process, the molded body1is shrunk due to the sintering. Adhesion force is thus generated between the outer surface of the conductor2and the inner surface of the through hole1aof the molded body due to the action of sintering shrinkage, and compressive force is generated to the outer surface of the current through conductor radially due the sintering shrinkage of the molded body1. The sintered body11is thus strongly fixed around the conductor2.
According to such composite body, the bonding of the current through conductor2with the sintered body11is strong and air-tight, and resistive against thermal cycles because sintering process is applied to the bonding. If the conductor2would have been tubular, the sintering shrinkage of the molded body1would result in the shrinkage and deformation of the conductor2radially, so that the stress due to the sintering shrinkage of the molded body1is escaped radially. A strong and air-tight bonding cannot be obtained.
Particularly, according to the present invention, even when the whole of the current through conductor is made of a material suitable as the electrode material such as tungsten, the conductor can be bonded to a luminous vessel strongly and in air tight manner. The whole of the conductor may be formed of one kind of appropriate material such as tungsten to alleviate the need of bonding process of high melting point metals and thereby to considerably reduce the production cost.
Similarly, according to the present invention, for example as shown inFIGS. 2(a) and2(b), for example disk-shaped molded body1of metal powder (or mixture of metal powder and ceramic powder) is prepared. A through hole1ais formed in the molded body1. As shown inFIG. 2(c), solid elongate products2aand2bmade of a metal or a cermet are then inserted into the through hole1a, so that the elongate products2aand2bcontact with each other at a contact part located at the center of the molded body1. The molded body1is thus sintered to obtain a composite body3shown inFIG. 1(d). The composite body3has a solid elongate products2aand2bmade of a metal and a disk-shaped sintered body11fitted to the outer periphery of the elongate products2aand2b. The elongate products2aand2bare inserted into the through hole1a. During the sintering process, the molded body1is shrunk due to the sintering. Adhesion force is thus generated between the outer surfaces of the elongate products2aand2band the inner surface of the through hole1aof the molded body due to the action of sintering shrinkage, and compressive force is generated to the outer surfaces of the elongate products2aand2bradially due the sintering shrinkage of the molded body1. The sintered body11is thus strongly fixed around the elongate products2aand2b.
According to such composite body, the bonding of the current through conductor2or elongate products2aand2bwith the sintered body11is strong, air-tight, and resistive against thermal cycles because sintering process has been applied to the bonding. If the conductor2or elongate products2aand2bwould have been tubular, the sintering shrinkage of the molded body1results in the shrinkage and deformation of the conductor2or elongate products2aand2bradially, so that the stress due to the sintering shrinkage of the molded body1is escaped radially. A strong and air-tight bonding cannot be thus obtained.
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7774281 | BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a configuration for downloading information contents and a program used for materializing the information contents and a processing system for any charge generated in the download.
2. Description of the Related Arts
An advancement of a broadband communication technology in recent years has been facilitating the transmission/reception of information contents of various types (image, music and the like), whose too a large information volume had always been a bottleneck in a communication process. Further, it is now being realized to materialize all of required functions on software using a terminal device in response to an increasingly higher performance achieved in LSI. For example, when image data of MPEG4, which cannot be reproduced when the terminal device is in an initial state, can be reproduced by acquiring a reproduction function (reproduction program) of the MPEG4 in a download process or the like via the internet and installing the function in the terminal device. A part of such an extensible and flexible function-adding configuration is increasingly materialized in the reconfigurable DSP (Digital Signal Processor) and the like. As an example of a conventional technology relating to the present invention can be mentioned an invention relating to a method of distributing software to a terminal recited in U.S. Pat. No. 6,026,366 A of the Publication of the U.S. Patents.
In the function, which is thus optionally addable, various function standards are set in order to realize the function further, it is necessary to obtain a usage license from a management organization in charge of managing the distribution of the function standards in order to realize the function in the terminal device in the case of some of the functions having the function standards. To be specific, the usage license is obtained as a result of paying a usage charge to the management organization.
As the extensibility and flexibility in acquiring the functions are more enhanced, there is a strong demand for building a communication management system for handling transactions of acquiring the information contents and functions. Some functions subjected to the acquisition transactions are obtained based on a license obtained from a third party. For example, there is a license management organization which handles a license for the MPEG4 method used for compression and decoding of a moving image or the like, and an obligation to pay a license fee to them is generated even when a constitution for realizing the function (recording, reproduction and the like) is installed in the terminal device (instrument). If such a function is not installed in the terminal device in a shipment stage, it is a key issue how the license management (management of usage license) should be handled. It is important to carry out the license management because it becomes necessary to include the license fee in a currently available payment method, that is a sales price of the terminal device, if the management of the usage license is not handled in a proper manner, which consequently becomes a large burden for a user purchasing the terminal device in which the targeted function is not installed in the shipment stage and a bender who manufactures and sells the terminal device.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, a main object of the present invention is, in a communication management for handling transactions of acquiring information contents and functions, to properly acquire the information contents and the functions in the state in which a license for using a function standard required for realizing the function in the terminal device is being managed.
In order to solve any existing problem, the present invention comprises the following components. First, a constitution according to the present invention in a system basically adapted to transmit and receive the information contents is described.
The system according to the present invention comprises a terminal device comprising a hardware configuration capable of materializing optional information contents by adding a predetermined function thereto, a contents distribution device for distributing the information contents, a program distribution device for distributing a program for realizing the function used for the materialization in the terminal device of the information contents in the terminal device, and a license management device for managing a license for using a function standard required for realizing the function in the terminal device, wherein these devices are connected to one another to enable an intercommunication via an electric communication line.
The terminal device transmits device information of the terminal device and a request for acquiring information contents desired by a user of the terminal device identified based on an instruction input operation implemented to the terminal device by the user to the contents distribution device. The information contents desired by the user are received from the contents distribution device and the program required for the materialization of the desired information contents is received from the program distribution device. The information contents are materialized by means of the function acquired in the execution the received program.
The contents distribution device judges whether or not a new program for realizing the function for materializing the information contents in the terminal device transmitting the acquisition request is necessary based on the information contents required in the acquisition request received from the terminal device and the device information attached to the acquisition request. The contents distribution device transmits the information contents required in the received acquisition request to the terminal device when the new program is judged to be unnecessary. The contents distribution device designates the new program when it is judged to be necessary and transmits a request for distributing the designated program to the program distribution device, and further transmits a request for the license for using the function standard required for realizing the function in the terminal device to the license management device.
The license management device transmits an authorization for using the function standard required for realizing the function in the terminal device to the program distribution device and the contents distribution device in response to the reception of the usage license request.
The program distribution device transmits the program designated in the distribution request to the terminal device only when the usage authorization is received from the license management device.
In the case of demanding the new program in the terminal device, the contents distribution device transmits the information contents designated in the received acquisition request to the terminal device only when the usage authorization is received from the license management device.
Next, a constitution according to the present invention in a system basically adapted to transmit and receive the function is described.
The system according to the present invention comprises a terminal device comprising a hardware configuration capable of realizing an optional function on software, a program distribution device for distributing a program for realizing the function in the terminal device, a distribution management device for managing the distribution of the program, and a license management device for managing a license for using a function standard required for realizing the function in the terminal device, wherein these devices are connected to one another to enable an intercommunication via an electric communication line.
The terminal device transmits device information of the terminal device and a request for acquiring a function desired by a user of the terminal device identified based on an instruction input operation implemented to the terminal device by the user to the distribution management device. The program corresponding to the function desired by the user is received from the program distribution device and the received program is executed.
The distribution management device designates the program necessary for realizing the function in the terminal device transmitting the acquisition request based on the function designated in the acquisition request received from the terminal device and the device information attached to the acquisition request and transmits a request for distributing the designated program to the program distribution device, and further transmits a request for the license for using the function standard required for realizing the function in the terminal device to the license management device.
The license management device transmits an authorization for using the function standard required for realizing the function in the terminal device to the program distribution device in response to the reception of the usage license request.
The program distribution device transmits the program required for realizing in the terminal device the function desired by the user to the terminal device only when the usage authorization is received from the license management device.
According to the present invention, the user of the terminal device can acquire the desired function and the function necessary for the desired information contents in the state in which the license for the usage of the function standard required for realizing the function in the terminal device is being properly managed by merely transmitting the requests for the desired information contents and function to the contents distribution device and the distribution management device. Therefore, a level of convenience for the user of the terminal device can be remarkably increased. Further, the distribution of the function can be more precisely managed.
Further, a charge for acquiring the function used for materializing the information contents (to be specific, program for realizing the function in the terminal device) and a charge for using the function standard required for realizing the function in the terminal device are added to a charge for acquiring the information contents when the required function is acquired, which are then collectively charged. Thereby, it becomes unnecessary for the user of the terminal device to be particularly aware of the payment of the function (program) acquiring charge and the function standard usage charge. Thus, the level of convenience for the user of the terminal device can be increased in terms of the payment as well.
In the same manner, the function (program) acquisition charge and the usage charge for the function standard required for realizing the function are simultaneously charged when the necessary function is acquired as described. Then, the user of the terminal device does not have to purchase the terminal device at a price already including the usage charge for the function standard. The level of convenience for the user of the terminal device can be also increased in this regard.
In the case of providing a plurality of program distribution devices and function standards (license management devices), introduction information of those devices may be transmitted to the terminal device allowing the user of the terminal device to select optional devices from the introduced devices. Accordingly, the user of the terminal device can have a choice for the program distribution device and the license management device, which further increases the level of convenience.
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SUMMARY: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a configuration for downloading information contents and a program used for materializing the information contents and a processing system for any charge generated in the download.
2. Description of the Related Arts
An advancement of a broadband communication technology in recent years has been facilitating the transmission/reception of information contents of various types (image, music and the like), whose too a large information volume had always been a bottleneck in a communication process. Further, it is now being realized to materialize all of required functions on software using a terminal device in response to an increasingly higher performance achieved in LSI. For example, when image data of MPEG4, which cannot be reproduced when the terminal device is in an initial state, can be reproduced by acquiring a reproduction function (reproduction program) of the MPEG4 in a download process or the like via the internet and installing the function in the terminal device. A part of such an extensible and flexible function-adding configuration is increasingly materialized in the reconfigurable DSP (Digital Signal Processor) and the like. As an example of a conventional technology relating to the present invention can be mentioned an invention relating to a method of distributing software to a terminal recited in U.S. Pat. No. 6,026,366 A of the Publication of the U.S. Patents.
In the function, which is thus optionally addable, various function standards are set in order to realize the function further, it is necessary to obtain a usage license from a management organization in charge of managing the distribution of the function standards in order to realize the function in the terminal device in the case of some of the functions having the function standards. To be specific, the usage license is obtained as a result of paying a usage charge to the management organization.
As the extensibility and flexibility in acquiring the functions are more enhanced, there is a strong demand for building a communication management system for handling transactions of acquiring the information contents and functions. Some functions subjected to the acquisition transactions are obtained based on a license obtained from a third party. For example, there is a license management organization which handles a license for the MPEG4 method used for compression and decoding of a moving image or the like, and an obligation to pay a license fee to them is generated even when a constitution for realizing the function (recording, reproduction and the like) is installed in the terminal device (instrument). If such a function is not installed in the terminal device in a shipment stage, it is a key issue how the license management (management of usage license) should be handled. It is important to carry out the license management because it becomes necessary to include the license fee in a currently available payment method, that is a sales price of the terminal device, if the management of the usage license is not handled in a proper manner, which consequently becomes a large burden for a user purchasing the terminal device in which the targeted function is not installed in the shipment stage and a bender who manufactures and sells the terminal device.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, a main object of the present invention is, in a communication management for handling transactions of acquiring information contents and functions, to properly acquire the information contents and the functions in the state in which a license for using a function standard required for realizing the function in the terminal device is being managed.
In order to solve any existing problem, the present invention comprises the following components. First, a constitution according to the present invention in a system basically adapted to transmit and receive the information contents is described.
The system according to the present invention comprises a terminal device comprising a hardware configuration capable of materializing optional information contents by adding a predetermined function thereto, a contents distribution device for distributing the information contents, a program distribution device for distributing a program for realizing the function used for the materialization in the terminal device of the information contents in the terminal device, and a license management device for managing a license for using a function standard required for realizing the function in the terminal device, wherein these devices are connected to one another to enable an intercommunication via an electric communication line.
The terminal device transmits device information of the terminal device and a request for acquiring information contents desired by a user of the terminal device identified based on an instruction input operation implemented to the terminal device by the user to the contents distribution device. The information contents desired by the user are received from the contents distribution device and the program required for the materialization of the desired information contents is received from the program distribution device. The information contents are materialized by means of the function acquired in the execution the received program.
The contents distribution device judges whether or not a new program for realizing the function for materializing the information contents in the terminal device transmitting the acquisition request is necessary based on the information contents required in the acquisition request received from the terminal device and the device information attached to the acquisition request. The contents distribution device transmits the information contents required in the received acquisition request to the terminal device when the new program is judged to be unnecessary. The contents distribution device designates the new program when it is judged to be necessary and transmits a request for distributing the designated program to the program distribution device, and further transmits a request for the license for using the function standard required for realizing the function in the terminal device to the license management device.
The license management device transmits an authorization for using the function standard required for realizing the function in the terminal device to the program distribution device and the contents distribution device in response to the reception of the usage license request.
The program distribution device transmits the program designated in the distribution request to the terminal device only when the usage authorization is received from the license management device.
In the case of demanding the new program in the terminal device, the contents distribution device transmits the information contents designated in the received acquisition request to the terminal device only when the usage authorization is received from the license management device.
Next, a constitution according to the present invention in a system basically adapted to transmit and receive the function is described.
The system according to the present invention comprises a terminal device comprising a hardware configuration capable of realizing an optional function on software, a program distribution device for distributing a program for realizing the function in the terminal device, a distribution management device for managing the distribution of the program, and a license management device for managing a license for using a function standard required for realizing the function in the terminal device, wherein these devices are connected to one another to enable an intercommunication via an electric communication line.
The terminal device transmits device information of the terminal device and a request for acquiring a function desired by a user of the terminal device identified based on an instruction input operation implemented to the terminal device by the user to the distribution management device. The program corresponding to the function desired by the user is received from the program distribution device and the received program is executed.
The distribution management device designates the program necessary for realizing the function in the terminal device transmitting the acquisition request based on the function designated in the acquisition request received from the terminal device and the device information attached to the acquisition request and transmits a request for distributing the designated program to the program distribution device, and further transmits a request for the license for using the function standard required for realizing the function in the terminal device to the license management device.
The license management device transmits an authorization for using the function standard required for realizing the function in the terminal device to the program distribution device in response to the reception of the usage license request.
The program distribution device transmits the program required for realizing in the terminal device the function desired by the user to the terminal device only when the usage authorization is received from the license management device.
According to the present invention, the user of the terminal device can acquire the desired function and the function necessary for the desired information contents in the state in which the license for the usage of the function standard required for realizing the function in the terminal device is being properly managed by merely transmitting the requests for the desired information contents and function to the contents distribution device and the distribution management device. Therefore, a level of convenience for the user of the terminal device can be remarkably increased. Further, the distribution of the function can be more precisely managed.
Further, a charge for acquiring the function used for materializing the information contents (to be specific, program for realizing the function in the terminal device) and a charge for using the function standard required for realizing the function in the terminal device are added to a charge for acquiring the information contents when the required function is acquired, which are then collectively charged. Thereby, it becomes unnecessary for the user of the terminal device to be particularly aware of the payment of the function (program) acquiring charge and the function standard usage charge. Thus, the level of convenience for the user of the terminal device can be increased in terms of the payment as well.
In the same manner, the function (program) acquisition charge and the usage charge for the function standard required for realizing the function are simultaneously charged when the necessary function is acquired as described. Then, the user of the terminal device does not have to purchase the terminal device at a price already including the usage charge for the function standard. The level of convenience for the user of the terminal device can be also increased in this regard.
In the case of providing a plurality of program distribution devices and function standards (license management devices), introduction information of those devices may be transmitted to the terminal device allowing the user of the terminal device to select optional devices from the introduced devices. Accordingly, the user of the terminal device can have a choice for the program distribution device and the license management device, which further increases the level of convenience.
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7741804 | FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to electricity generating and charging devices, and more specifically to human powered electricity charging devices.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The portability of many electronic devices is determined eventually by the life span of their independent power sources; usually these power sources are in the form of rechargeable battery cells. As batteries remain the weakest link in consumer electronics, batteries with longer lives, as well as more efficient ways to charge batteries are constantly being developed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention discloses an integrated device comprising three components. The first component is mechanical transmission means for converting a cycling linear movement of the input cord pulled out by a user into a unidirectional rotational motion. The second component is an axial flux alternator driven by the mechanical transmission means for producing an electrical alternating current in its stator packed on a board. The third component is a charging control module packed on said board configured to convert effectively non-stable alternating current produced by the axial field alternator into the required output DC current for charging electronic device.
In embodiments, the mechanical transmission means comprise a chain of at least two serially-connected mechanical units: a cord coiled around a revolving element (drum) which is secured to it by one end, and to be pulled by its second end; a clutch providing unidirectional transmission of applied torque on said rotors.
In embodiments, the mechanical transmission means further comprise speed multiplication means such as speed-up gear couples, speed-up chain transmission, speed-up belt transmission, and the like which are further connected mechanically in series with the drum and the clutch.
In embodiments, the mechanical transmission means comprise a unit which is connected in parallel to the drum. Said unit comprising a torsion spring (e.g. spiral spring) with one fixed end and with the second end connected to the drum.
In embodiments, the alternator comprises a stationary central plate (stator) containing a planar winding. The winding may be single-phase, with identical coils circularly distributed around a rotational axis. The alternator further comprises two identical rotors allocated concentrically with said winding on both sides of said central plate and facing each other. The number of coils corresponds to the number of poles of the rotors.
In embodiments, the planar winding is produced by any appropriate method that results in embedding the winding into the stator. These methods may include magnet wire reeling, copper stamping, copper etching, fabrication as multilayered printed circuit board (PCB), and the like.
In embodiments, the winding is made as a multilayered printed circuit board with a plurality of coils built from planar spiral-like conductor loops in every layer, interconnected throughout the layers to form a substantially multi-layer spiral inductor.
In embodiments, the rotors are configured to rotate together around axis of said planar winding. Each of the rotors comprise a periodical heteropolar axially magnetized magnetic system with a definite pole number, made either as a plurality of permanent magnet pieces or as a single-piece multi-pole permanent magnet down. Said magnetic systems face each other and are oriented accordingly to form a common magnetic field crossing said planar winding.
In embodiments, the back plane side of each said magnetic system is in the form of a planar thin soft magnetic disk (back yoke) closing the magnetic field. Said rotors may furthermore include on their radial periphery retainers to secure said magnetic systems and for increasing inertia.
In embodiments, the charging control module is located on an extension of the stator. It is fed by alternating currents produced by said winding, and functions as a rectifier with optional voltage and current regulation, intermittent electrical energy accumulator (e.g. capacitor, battery, etc.) and state-of-charge (SOC) monitoring. The output is connected to DC consumers.
Upon operation, a user pulls out the cord of the mechanical transmission, causing the rotors to rotate around the axle, which is mutual with the winding axle. The rotation causes a sinusoidal-like change in the magnetic flux crossing each and every coil. As a result, an electrical alternating-voltage is generated in each and every coil. The coils are operatively connected to each other to achieve a required voltage level between the terminals. The alternating voltage is supplied to the electronic unit, where it is rectified, optionally stabilized and converted to direct current as required to charge rechargeable batteries, such as batteries of consumer electronics products (cellular phones, lap top computers and portable device accessories).
Simultaneously with the above described processes, the torsion spring of the mechanical transmission is engaged until the user ceases to pull the cord. Following the pulling phase completion, the cord is released; the drum is rotated back, being driven by the engaged torsion spring; thus, it recoils the cord and returns to the initial position.
At the same time, the output unit of the mechanical transmission and the rotors continue to rotate, since the clutch stops delivery of torque from the mechanical transmission and disconnects it mechanically from the alternator.
Because of the output power consumption and dissipative losses, the alternator speed decreases, and the user repeats the pulling-out phases to keep the alternator speed within desirable limits. To complete the operation, the cord is released and it returns to the initial position.
In some embodiments, to enhance the system efficiency the transmission unit comprises a speed multiplication mechanism that increases the speed of rotors rotation
In some embodiments, the charger is packed as a slim-shape device for conversion of human mechanical energy into electric energy to feed an electronic (electric) device and/or to charge accumulators (batteries).
In some embodiments, the alternator fits into the back of a cellular phone and integrates into the casing thereof.
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SUMMARY: FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to electricity generating and charging devices, and more specifically to human powered electricity charging devices.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The portability of many electronic devices is determined eventually by the life span of their independent power sources; usually these power sources are in the form of rechargeable battery cells. As batteries remain the weakest link in consumer electronics, batteries with longer lives, as well as more efficient ways to charge batteries are constantly being developed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention discloses an integrated device comprising three components. The first component is mechanical transmission means for converting a cycling linear movement of the input cord pulled out by a user into a unidirectional rotational motion. The second component is an axial flux alternator driven by the mechanical transmission means for producing an electrical alternating current in its stator packed on a board. The third component is a charging control module packed on said board configured to convert effectively non-stable alternating current produced by the axial field alternator into the required output DC current for charging electronic device.
In embodiments, the mechanical transmission means comprise a chain of at least two serially-connected mechanical units: a cord coiled around a revolving element (drum) which is secured to it by one end, and to be pulled by its second end; a clutch providing unidirectional transmission of applied torque on said rotors.
In embodiments, the mechanical transmission means further comprise speed multiplication means such as speed-up gear couples, speed-up chain transmission, speed-up belt transmission, and the like which are further connected mechanically in series with the drum and the clutch.
In embodiments, the mechanical transmission means comprise a unit which is connected in parallel to the drum. Said unit comprising a torsion spring (e.g. spiral spring) with one fixed end and with the second end connected to the drum.
In embodiments, the alternator comprises a stationary central plate (stator) containing a planar winding. The winding may be single-phase, with identical coils circularly distributed around a rotational axis. The alternator further comprises two identical rotors allocated concentrically with said winding on both sides of said central plate and facing each other. The number of coils corresponds to the number of poles of the rotors.
In embodiments, the planar winding is produced by any appropriate method that results in embedding the winding into the stator. These methods may include magnet wire reeling, copper stamping, copper etching, fabrication as multilayered printed circuit board (PCB), and the like.
In embodiments, the winding is made as a multilayered printed circuit board with a plurality of coils built from planar spiral-like conductor loops in every layer, interconnected throughout the layers to form a substantially multi-layer spiral inductor.
In embodiments, the rotors are configured to rotate together around axis of said planar winding. Each of the rotors comprise a periodical heteropolar axially magnetized magnetic system with a definite pole number, made either as a plurality of permanent magnet pieces or as a single-piece multi-pole permanent magnet down. Said magnetic systems face each other and are oriented accordingly to form a common magnetic field crossing said planar winding.
In embodiments, the back plane side of each said magnetic system is in the form of a planar thin soft magnetic disk (back yoke) closing the magnetic field. Said rotors may furthermore include on their radial periphery retainers to secure said magnetic systems and for increasing inertia.
In embodiments, the charging control module is located on an extension of the stator. It is fed by alternating currents produced by said winding, and functions as a rectifier with optional voltage and current regulation, intermittent electrical energy accumulator (e.g. capacitor, battery, etc.) and state-of-charge (SOC) monitoring. The output is connected to DC consumers.
Upon operation, a user pulls out the cord of the mechanical transmission, causing the rotors to rotate around the axle, which is mutual with the winding axle. The rotation causes a sinusoidal-like change in the magnetic flux crossing each and every coil. As a result, an electrical alternating-voltage is generated in each and every coil. The coils are operatively connected to each other to achieve a required voltage level between the terminals. The alternating voltage is supplied to the electronic unit, where it is rectified, optionally stabilized and converted to direct current as required to charge rechargeable batteries, such as batteries of consumer electronics products (cellular phones, lap top computers and portable device accessories).
Simultaneously with the above described processes, the torsion spring of the mechanical transmission is engaged until the user ceases to pull the cord. Following the pulling phase completion, the cord is released; the drum is rotated back, being driven by the engaged torsion spring; thus, it recoils the cord and returns to the initial position.
At the same time, the output unit of the mechanical transmission and the rotors continue to rotate, since the clutch stops delivery of torque from the mechanical transmission and disconnects it mechanically from the alternator.
Because of the output power consumption and dissipative losses, the alternator speed decreases, and the user repeats the pulling-out phases to keep the alternator speed within desirable limits. To complete the operation, the cord is released and it returns to the initial position.
In some embodiments, to enhance the system efficiency the transmission unit comprises a speed multiplication mechanism that increases the speed of rotors rotation
In some embodiments, the charger is packed as a slim-shape device for conversion of human mechanical energy into electric energy to feed an electronic (electric) device and/or to charge accumulators (batteries).
In some embodiments, the alternator fits into the back of a cellular phone and integrates into the casing thereof.
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