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[ "FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method and to an apparatus for adaptive progressive scan conversion.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION There are different algorithms for conversion of video signals from interlaced to progressive (non-interlaced) scanning.", "But either the picture quality or the noise performance are not good enough with respect to the amount of hardware used.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is one object of the invention to disclose a method for improved proscan conversion.", "This object is reached by the method disclosed in claim 1.", "It is a further object of the invention to disclose an apparatus which utilizes the inventive method.", "This object is reached by the apparatus disclosed in claim 11.", "For convenience of discussion, hereafter the term "algorithm"", "is used to refer to either the "method"", "of the invention or the "apparatus"", "of the invention.", "The motion adaptive algorithm for conversion of luminance signals from interlace to progressive scanning presented here has been tested on 50 Hz signals and delivers a high picture quality and has good noise performance.", "A simpler algorithm, such as vertical averaging, may be used for the color difference signals.", "The `algorithm` (as noted above, meaning "method"", "or "apparatus") adaptively interpolates the missing lines in the interlace signal.", "The original lines are left untouched.", "Each interpolated pixel is the result of a soft switch between pure interframe interpolation, which is the more suitable for areas without moving detail, and interpolation using the "Diag-3W"", "algorithm, which is the more suitable for moving areas.", "The "Diag-3W"", "algorithm is already disclosed in EP-A-92400762, but is described below for completeness.", "The soft switch coefficient is calculated using a normalized comparison between two estimates of the likely error resulting from each of the two kinds of interpolation.", "To limit the occurrence of wrong decisions due to noise or to certain structures in the picture, the decision is spread horizontally, vertically and temporally, but only over a very small area so that the decision remains local to the pixel being interpolated.", "Throughout this application mention is made of a `reference algorithm` which is described in detail.", "Possible variations to this algorithm are also mentioned at each stage of the description and it is intended that the present patent application should cover all these variations.", "In principle the inventive method comprises adaptive progressive scan conversion for interlaced lines, wherein for calculating the samples of the missing lines for each sample (X) a spatial error estimate (E v ) is calculated from spatially and temporally adjacent pixels (A-C, F-H) of adjacent fields and a temporal error estimate (E t ) is calculated from spatially and temporally adjacent pixels (A, F;", "B, G;", "C, H) of adjacent fields.", "The spatial error estimate (E v ) and the temporal error estimate (E t ) are combined to form a normalized error estimate (E n ).", "The normalized error estimate controls a soft switch (456, 461, 462) which mixes accordingly a spatially interpolated estimate value (F v ) and a temporally interpolated estimate value (F t ) for said sample (X) to generate the final value for the sample.", "The spatially interpolated estimate value (F v ) is calculated from spatially adjacent pixels (D, E) of the current field and the temporally interpolated estimate value (F t ) is calculated from temporally adjacent pixels (B, G) of adjacent fields.", "Advantageous additional embodiments of the inventive method are resulting from the respective dependent claims.", "In principle the inventive apparatus for adaptive progressive scan conversion of interlaced lines (T) calculates sample values of the missing lines for each sample (X) and comprises a vertical error circuit (311-322, 34-38) in which from spatially and temporally adjacent pixels (A-C, F-H) of adjacent fields a spatial error estimate (E v ) is calculated.", "A temporal error extimate (E t ) is calculated by a temporal error circuit (221-223, 23-28) from spatially and temporally adjacent pixels (A, F;", "B, G;", "C, H) of adjacent fields.", "A a soft switch processor (401) combines spatial error estimate (E v ) and the temporal error estimate (E t ) to form a normalized error estimate (E n ).", "A spatial interpolation circuit (451) calculates a spatially interpolated estimate value (F v ) from spatially adjacent pixels (D,E) of the current field.", "A temporal interpolation circuit (452) calculates a temporally interpolated estimate value (F t ) temporally adjacent pixels (B,G) of adjacent fields.", "A a soft switch (456, 461, 462), controlled by the normalized error estimate, mixes accordingly the spatially interpolated estimate value (F v ) and the temporally interpolated estimate value (F t ) for the sample (X) to generate the final value for the sample for application to a line speedup circuit (463) for generating the progressive scan output signal (Y out ) from the interlace lines (T) and the sample values (X).", "Advantageous additional embodiments of the inventive apparatus are resulting from the respective dependent claims.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING Preferred embodiments of the invention are described with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a delay circuit for used with temporal and vertical error circuits in an embodiment of the invention;", "FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a temporal error circuit utilizing signals from the delay circuit of FIG. 1 for generating temporal error signals for use in the interpolation circuit of FIG. 4 embodying the invention;", "FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a vertical error circuit utilizing signals from the delay circuit of FIG. 1 for generating vertical error signals for use in the interpolation circuit of FIG. 4 embodying the invention;", "and FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an interpolation circuit embodying the invention utilizing the signals provided by the delay circuit of FIG. 1, the temporal error circuit of FIG. 2 and the vertical error circuit of FIG. 3 for providing adaptive progressive scan conversion of an interlaced video signal.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION In the following description the lines involved are denoted by letters according to the letters A to H and T in FIG. 1. In FIG. 1, the incoming luminance signal Y in passes through a 313-line delay 11 and a 312-line delay 12 and through a first 1-line delay 13 and a second 1-line delay 14.", "The output signal of delay 11 passes through a first 1/2-line delay 15 and a second 1/2-line delay 16.", "The output signal of delay 12 passes through a third 1-line delay 17 and a fourth 1-line delay 18.", "At the output of delays 18, 17, 12, 16, 15, 11, 14, 13 and at the input of delay 13 the lines or signals with the respective indices A, B, C, D, T, E, F, G and H are available.", "The following table marks the corresponding positions within the vertical-temporal plane: TABLE 1______________________________________A F D vertical ↑B X G →temporal EC H______________________________________ Individual pixels are usually denoted using a suffix giving the horizontal position, the current position being `n`.", "The position X of the current pixel corresponds to output T of FIG. 1. Interpolation Filters: The two interpolation filters, between which the soft switching mentioned above is made according to the decision criterion described below, are as follows: In the reference algorithm, the spatial interpolation F v is the result of the Diag-3W algorithm: ##EQU1## k=value of i for which S i is a minimum.", "##EQU2## In a simpler version of the algorithm, generally pure vertical interpolation F.sub.", "v =(D.", "sub.", "n +E.", "sub.", "n)/2 or any other spatial interpolation algorithm, could be used in place of Diag-3W.", "The temporal interpolation is F.sub.", "t =(B.", "sub.", "n +G.", "sub.", "n)/2.", "Decision Criterion: In order to select the relative weights of F v and F t in the interpolation, at first estimates of vertical and temporal interpolation errors are made: E v =min {|2B i -A i -C i |, |2G i -F i -H i |}, i=n-1, n, n+1 E t =K*max {|A i -F i |, |B i -G i |, |C i -H i |}, i=n-1, n, n+1 where K is a weighting factor whose value is `1` in the reference algorithm.", "Each of the six components of E v is a measure of the error that would result from simple vertical averaging, which can be regarded as a safe estimate of the error that would result from Diag-3W.", "The nine components of E t are pure frame differences, which give a measure of the error that would result from pure temporal interpolation.", "Because that error is more likely to be visible, the maximum is taken.", "The use of the minimum of six values for E v and the maximum of nine values for E t provides limited horizontal and temporal spreading of the decision and biases it towards spatial interpolation in areas that are likely to be moving.", "In another version of the algorithm, the second lowest and second highest values are used, rather than the minimum and maximum, in order to improve noise immunity.", "The temporal error circuit of FIG. 2 receives at its inputs A-C and F-H the current pixels corresponding to the equation for the temporal error.", "In a first subtractor 211 the value of pixel A is subtracted from the value of pixel F. In a second subtractor 212 the value of pixel B is subtracted from the value of pixel G. In a third subtractor 213 the value of pixel C is subtracted from the value of pixel H. The output signals of subtractors 211 to 213 pass a first 221, a second 222 and a third 223 absolute value circuit, respectively.", "In a first maximum value circuit 23 the maximum of the output signals of circuits 221 and 222 are calculated.", "In a second maximum value circuit 24 the maximum of the output signals of circuits 23 and 223 are calculated.", "The output signal of circuit 24 passes through a first 27 and a second 25 one-clock delay (clock period related to subsequent pixels).", "From the input and output signal of delay 25 the maximum is calculated in a third maximum value circuit 26, from the output signal of which and the input signal of delay 27 a further maximum is calculated in a fourth maximum value circuit 28, which outputs the temporal error estimate E t .", "The vertical error circuit of FIG. 3 receives at its inputs A-C and F-H the current pixels corresponding to the equation for the vertical error.", "In a first adder 311 the value of pixel A is combined with the value of pixel C. The output signal is subtracted in a first subtractor 321 from the doubled (e.g., by shifting) value of pixel B. In a second adder 312 the value of pixel F is combined with the value of pixel H. The output signal is subtracted in a second subtractor 322 from the doubled (e.g., by shifting) value of pixel G. The output signals of subtractors 321 and 322 pass a first 331 and a second 332 absolute value circuit, respectively.", "In a first minimum value circuit 34 the minimum of the output signals of circuits 331 and 332 is calculated.", "The output signal of circuit 34 passes through a first 37 and a second 35 one-clock delay (clock period related to subsequent pixels).", "From the input and output signal of delay 35 the minimum is calculated in a second minimum value circuit 36, from the output signal of which and the input signal of delay 37 a further minimum is calculated in a third minimum value circuit 38, which outputs the vertical error estimate E v .", "In this particular implementation, the calculation of the vertical and temporal errors E v and E t uses only the 6 most significant bits of the sample values, which means that the line memories 14 and 18 producing samples A and F need only store to 6-bit accuracy because these samples are not used in the interpolation itself.", "In the reference algorithm, the absolute values are not true absolutes but have an error of `1` on negative numbers because they are calculated by selectively inverting the two's-complement representation of the argument according to the sign bit.", "Filter Selection: The two error measures E v and E t are used to select between the corresponding two interpolation filters F v and F t as follows.", "First, an intermediate decision criterion E n is calculated: ε ##EQU3## where, in the reference algorithm, P=1/4.", "This value was found as reasonable result in case E t =E v .", "The term `1` is added to avoid dividing by zero in case max {E.", "sub.", "t +E.", "sub.", "v }=0.", "E n is then limited to the range [0,1): ##EQU4## where ε represents one least significant bit in the representation of E n .", "In the reference algorithm, E'", "n is then passed through a linear horizontal filter to obtain the soft switch control value S n : ##EQU5## wherein (h i , i=-4, .", ", 4)=(1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1)/16 in the reference algorithm but could be any horizontal filter with approximately similar coefficients.", "The final result is then X=C.", "sub.", "v F.sub.", "v +C.", "sub.", "t F.sub.", "t, where the spatial coefficient C v =S n and the temporal coefficient C.sub.", "t =1-C.", "sub.v. In FIG. 4 the errors E v and E t are combined in a soft switch processor 401 to make the normalized error E, which is again expressed to 6-bit accuracy.", "In processor 401 the errors are combined in an adder 414 and E v is subtracted in a subtractor 411 from E t .", "The output signal of adder 414 and the value `1` are fed to a maximum value circuit 413 the output signal of which is used in a divider 412 for dividing the output signal of subtractor 411.", "Subsequently, in an adder 421 the value P=1/4, at input 403 is added, resulting in output signal E n .", "The output signal of adder 421 passes through a maximum value circuit 422 receiving value `0` at its second input 405 and through a minimum value circuit 423 receiving value `63/64` at its second input 404.", "After this limiting to the range [0,1), the result E'", "is filtered in a horizontal filter 402, in this case using a technique in which the filter is implemented as the average of a 9-tap average and a 7-tap average.", "The output signal of circuit 423 passes through a six-clock delay 431 and a two-clock delay 432 and is fed to a subtractor 433 in which the output of delay 431 is subtracted from E'", "and is fed to a subtractor 434 in which the output of delay 432 is subtracted from E'.", "The output of subtractor 433 is connected to an adder 441 in which its one-clock delayed (delay 442) output signal is added, too.", "The output of subtractor 434 is connected to an adder 443 in which its output signal is added one-clock delayed (delay 444), too.", "The output signals of delay 442 and adder 443 are combined in an adder 445 which also divides by `16` (e.g. shift operation).", "The filtering result S, expressed to 6-bit accuracy in the reference algorithm, is the soft switch control signal for mixing the relative proportions of the spatial interpolation 451 (e.g. Diag-3W) and the temporal interpolation.", "Samples D and E are input to a circuit 451 for spatial interpolation, the output signal of which is delayed appropriately in a three-clock-delay 453.", "Samples B and G are averaged in an averager 452, the output signal of which is delayed appropriately in a five-clock-delay 454.", "The output of delay 454 is subtracted in a subtractor 456 from the output of delay 453 and fed to an adder 462.", "The output signal of subtractor 456 becomes multiplied in a multipier 461 by value S, the output of which is combined in adder 462 to the output of delay 454, resulting in the interpolated output sample value X. Finally, the interpolated signal X is combined with the suitably delayed input signal T (FIG.", "1) in a line speedup memory 463 using standard techniques to make a signal having twice the line scanning rate of the input.", "Due to the use of a combination of vertical and temporal error measures to form a balanced decision between the two corresponding modes of interpolation, no motion detector is required which would take only the temporal error into account.", "Advantageously, the horizontal low pass filtering of the soft switch control signal E'", "minimizes the occurrence of wrong decisions while retaining good flicker reduction properties on horizontal edges.", "The invention may be used in TV receivers or VCR's or any other display units.", "The numbers given can easily be adopted to different TV standards or input signal characteristics.", "The invention has the following advantages: near-perfect progressive interpolation of static areas;", "gradual rolloff to spatial interpolation in moving areas;", "paucity of visible defects;", "hardware tractability." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention The present invention is directed to a double echo sequence and to a magnetic resonance apparatus for the implementation of the double echo sequence.", "Description of the Prior Art Magnetic resonance technology is a known technique for, among other things, acquiring images of the inside of the body of an examination subject.", "In a magnetic resonance apparatus, rapidly switched gradient fields that are generated by a gradient system are superimposed on a static, basic magnetic field that is generated by a basic field magnet system.", "The magnetic resonance apparatus also has a radio-frequency system that radiates radio-frequency signals into the examination subject for triggering magnetic resonance signals, and picks up the generated magnetic resonance signals, from which magnetic resonance images are produced.", "In an image acquisition mode, the magnetic resonance apparatus is controlled on the basis of a sequence executed in a central control system of the magnetic resonance apparatus such that, among other things, the gradient fields are switched at the proper time with defined intensity, the radio-frequency signals are emitted at the proper time, and the magnetic resonance signals are picked up at the proper time.", "A multitude of different sequences are known in magnetic resonance technology, with magnetic resonance images having different imaging properties being able to be generated with the various sequences.", "A double echo sequence includes a gradient echo and a spin echo, and is employed often in orthopedics, for example for generating images of the knee of a patient, and is known under the acronym DESS ( D ouble E cho S teady S tate).", "Further details about the double echo sequence are disclosed, for example, by European Application 0 288 861 and in the article by H. Bruder et al.", ", “A New Steady-State Imaging Sequence for Simultaneous Acquisition of Two MR Images with Clearly Different Contrasts”, Magnetic resonance in Medicine 7 (1988) pages 35-42.", "The double echo sequence corresponds to a combination of a refocused gradient echo sequence, which is known, among other things, by the acronym FISP ( F ast I maging with S teady State P recision and a sequence wherein a spin echo based on a refocusing partial effect of each radio-frequency signal is utilized and that is known, among other things, by the acronym PSIF.", "The acronym PSIF is a reversal of the order of the letters of the acronym FISP since the pattern of radio-frequency signal and gradient of the PSIF sequence approximately corresponds to a FISP sequence implemented in reverse.", "The FISP sequence is distinguished among gradient sequences by comparatively strong magnetic resonance signals since the longitudinal as well as the transverse magnetization, held in an equilibrium state are utilized for imaging.", "Magnetic resonance images having a dominant T 1 /T 2 contrast can thereby be generated with the FISP sequence.", "By contrast, the magnetic resonance images generated with the PSIF sequence exhibit a strong T 2 weighting.", "The double echo sequence supplies two three-dimensional (for example) datasets, one of the datasets belonging to the gradient echoes and one to the spin echoes.", "A combination of the two datasets then yields a corresponding dataset, and thus a magnetic resonance image of the double echo sequence.", "The article by E. M. Haacke et al.", ", “A Comprehensive Technical Review of Short TR, Fast, Magnetic resonance Imaging”, Reviews of Magnetic resonance in Medicine, vol.", "3, no. 2, 1991, pages 53-170, a variant of the PSIF sequence, which is called ROAST ( R esonant O ffset A veraging in the ST eady State) wherein at least one sub-region of a region to be imaged that flows during the image acquisition, for example slowly flowing blood, can experience such a pronounced dephasing that this sub-region supplies to signal contribution to the magnetic resonance image.", "It is also known that a number of artifacts can appear in the magnetic resonance image given an imaged region wherein flow phenomena, for example an arterial blood flow, occur.", "The two most striking effects are a reduction of the magnetic resonance signal as a consequence of an incoherent addition of phases of the individual spins within a picture element, and the formation of a number of ghost images as a consequence of the pulsating blood flow during the heart cycle.", "Since both effects exhibit a proportionality to the first time moment of the gradient fields that are utilized, the aforementioned artifacts can be reduced by means of a flow compensation, by setting the first moment to zero.", "For example, a triple gradient pulse instead of a bipolar gradient pulse is utilized in a slice selection direction and frequency coding direction.", "For this purpose, for example, a unipolar gradient pulse is replaced by a bipolar gradient pulse in the phase-coding direction.", "The reason for the differences in the flow compensation between the slice selection gradient and the frequency-coding gradient between the slice selection gradient and the phase-coding gradient is that the phase coding is configured for producing a finite 0 th moment, in contrast to which the frequency coding and the slice selection are not configured in this manner, but instead are intentionally designed usually as bipolar gradient pulses without flow compensation.", "This flow compensation is therefore also referred to in the literature as gradient moment rephasing.", "gradient motion refocusing or gradient moment cancellation.", "This is explained in greater detail in the article by L. R. Frank et al.", ", “Elimination of Oblique Flow Artifacts in Magnetic resonance Imaging”, Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 25 (1992), pages 299-307.", "The topic of flow compensation is addressed in the article by G. A. Laub et al.", ", “MR Angiography with Gradient Motion Refocusing”, Journal of Computer Assisted Tomography 12 (3), 1988, pages 377-382.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an improved double echo sequence with a gradient echo and a spin echo as well as a magnetic resonance apparatus for the implementation of such a method, so that a high insensitivity to flow phenomena is achieved with an optimally low complexity of the sequence.", "This object is achieved in accordance with the invention in a method wherein a double echo sequence having a gradient echo and a spin echo is executed, with a flow compensation in at least one direction for the gradient echo.", "With targeted use of the effect described by E. M. Haacke et al.", ", that the magnetization in view of the spin echo is nearly completely destroyed at locations of a strong pulse-like flow, and thus no artifact-generated contribution to the spin echo and ultimately to the magnetic resonance image of the double echo sequence is supplied at these locations, a motion-compensating gradient switching is only realized in view of the gradient echo, a high insensitivity to flow phenomena is advantageously achieved with a reasonably uncomplicated gradient pattern.", "Compared thereto, a flow compensation for the spin echo as well would result in a clearly more complex gradient pattern given an insensitivity that is not any higher, or barely higher, which would have a negative influence due, among other things, to a longer measuring time and a higher power demand in the gradient system.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a sketch of a magnetic resonance apparatus for executing the inventive method.", "FIG. 2 illustrates a radio-frequency signal and gradient pattern of a double echo sequence for generating a three-dimensional dataset with a flow compensation in readout direction.", "FIG. 3 illustrates a radio-frequency signal and gradient pattern of a double echo sequence for generating a three-dimensional dataset with flow compensation in all three directions.", "FIG. 4 illustrates a radio-frequency signal and gradient pattern of a double echo sequence for generating a two-dimensional dataset with flow compensation in the slice selection direction and the readout direction.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows a magnetic resonance apparatus thereby comprises a basic field magnet system 11 for generating a basic magnetic field and a gradient coil system 12 for generating gradient fields.", "The magnetic resonance apparatus also has an antenna system 14 that emits radio-frequency signals into an examination subject for triggering magnetic resonance signals and picks up the magnetic resonance signals that are produced.", "The magnetic resonance apparatus also has a displaceable support mechanism 15 on which the examination subject, for example a patient 19 to be examined, is placed.", "For controlling currents in the gradient coil system 12 on the basis of a sequence, the gradient coil system 12 is connected to a central control system 16 .", "For controlling the radio-frequency signals to be emitted according to the sequence as well as for the further-processing and storing of the magnetic resonance signals picked up by the antenna system 14 , the antenna system 14 is likewise connected to the central control system 16 .", "For controlling a displacement of the support mechanism 15 , for example in order to position the knee of the patient 19 in an imaging volume 18 of the apparatus as the region to be imaged, the support mechanism 15 is also connected to the central control system 16 .", "The central control system 16 is connected to a display and operating device 17 via which inputs of an operator are supplied to the central control system 16 , for instance the desired sequence type and sequence parameters.", "Among other things, the generated magnetic resonance images are also displayed at the display and operating device 17 .", "As an exemplary embodiment of the invention, FIG. 2 shows a radio-frequency signal and gradient pattern of a double echo sequence for generating a three-dimensional dataset with a flow compensation exclusively in a readout direction R. For explaining the double echo sequence, the magnetic resonance apparatus shown in FIG. 1 shall be referenced as an example.", "In accordance with the radio-frequency signal and gradient pattern of the double echo sequence, the antenna system 14 emits a first radio-frequency signal α+ into the examination subject simultaneously with a gradient pulse GV 1 activated in a first phase-coding direction S. The gradient pulse GV 1 has the function of selecting a volume or slice thickness to be further spatially resolved, for example the region of a knee of the patient 19 , for the stimulus effect of the radio-frequency signal α.", "Following thereupon, a triple gradient pulse comprising the gradient pulses GR 1 , GR 2 and GR 3 is activated in the readout direction R. During the gradient pulse GR 3 , a gradient echo signal S+ is acquired by the antenna system 14 during a time duration identified with a bold-face line and is entered into a first dataset that is stored in the central control system 16 .", "The triple gradient pulse effects the formation of the gradient echo signal S+ as well as a flow compensation of flow phenomena occurring in the readout direction R, so that artifacts are avoided in the appertaining image of the dataset.", "During the duration of the gradient pulses GR 1 and GR 2 , a gradient pulse GS 1 in the first phase-coding direction S and a gradient pulse GP 1 in a second phase-coding direction P are activated for phase coding, so that a three-dimensional spatial resolution of the region to be imaged is achieved.", "After the gradient pulse GR 3 , a further gradient pulse GR 5 is activated in the readout direction R for the acquisition of a spin echo signal S−.", "The spin echo signal S− results from a radio-frequency excitation (not shown) that precedes the radio-frequency signal α+ in time, the magnetic resonance signal excited as a result thereof experiencing a corresponding refocusing by means of the radio-frequency signal α+.", "During the gradient pulse GR 5 , the spin echo signal S− is acquired by the antenna system 14 during a time duration that is again indicated with a bold-face line and is entered in a second dataset that is likewise stored in the central control system 16 .", "In practice, the gradient pulses GR 3 and GR 5 are activated, for simplicity, as one gradient pulse by adding the gradient time area GR 4 .", "After the acquisition of the spin echo signal S− has ended, a gradient pulse GS 2 in the first phase-coding direction S, a gradient pulse GR 6 in the readout direction R and a gradient pulse GP 2 in the second phase-coding direction P are activated for a complete refocusing.", "The above-described pattern sequencing during a repetition time TR is then repeated until all measured data have been acquired for the selected, three-dimensional topical resolution, whereby the gradient pulses GS 1 and GP 1 in conjunction with the refocusing gradient pulses GS 2 and GP 2 belonging to them are incremented or, respectively, de-incremented with respect to their gradient intensity from repetition to repetition.", "Further, the radio-frequency signal is transmitted with an alternating operational sign from repetition to repetition, so that a radio-frequency signal α − shown in FIG. 2 comprises a 180° phase offset compared to the temporally preceding radio-frequency signal α + .", "A gradient pulse GV 2 activated during the transmission of the radio-frequency signal α − corresponds to the gradient pulse GV 1 applied when transmitting the radio-frequency signal α + .", "A dataset belonging to the double echo sequence is combined from the three-dimensional datasets that are completely occupied with data.", "The first dataset results from measured data of the gradient echo signals S+ and the second dataset S− results from measured data of the spin echo signals S−.", "The magnetic resonance images produced from this double echo sequence dataset is displayed at the display and operating device 17 .", "As a further exemplary embodiment of the invention, FIG. 3 shows a radio-frequency signal and gradient pattern for a double echo sequence with a flow compensation in all three directions.", "Compared to the radio-frequency signal and gradient pattern shown in FIG. 2 , additional gradient pulses GS 0 and GP 0 are also utilized in the two phase-coding directions for a complete flow compensation.", "The bipolar gradient pulse that thus arises and includes the gradient pulses GS 0 and GS 1 thus produces a flow compensation in the first phase-coding direction S at the point in time at which the gradient echo signal S+ has its maximum.", "The same applies to the second phase-coding direction P. Otherwise, that described for FIG. 2 applies.", "As a further exemplary embodiment of the invention, FIG. 4 shows a radio-frequency signal and gradient pattern for a double echo sequence for generating a two-dimensional dataset with a flow compensation in a slice selection direction Z and the readout direction R. Compared to the radio-frequency signal and gradient pattern shown in FIG. 2 , a slice selection direction Z in FIG. 4 replaces the first phase-coding direction S and a sole phase-coding direction X replaces the second phase-coding direction P. The discussion with regard to FIG. 2 about the second phase-coding direction P and its gradient pulses GP 1 and GP 2 applies correspondingly in FIG. 4 for the phase-coding direction X and the gradient pulses GX 1 and GX 2 .", "Further, the rest of that set forth for FIG. 2 applies correspondingly for FIG. 4 .", "Given the radio-frequency signal and gradient pattern of FIG. 4 , a first radio-frequency signal α+′ is transmitted in the slice selection direction simultaneously with a slice-selective gradient pulse GZ 1 for the excitation of a corresponding slice.", "The gradient pulses GZ 2 and GZ 3 are activated immediately following the gradient pulse GZ 1 .", "The gradient pulses GZ 1 , GZ 2 and GZ 3 form a triple gradient pulse that produces a corresponding flow compensation for the slice selection direction Z. After the signal acquisition has been completed, a gradient pulse GZ 4 is activated for a refocusing in the slice selection direction Z. In the repetitions of the pattern sequencing with the repetition time TR, the radio-frequency signal is transmitted with an alternating operational sign from repetition to repetition for the acquisition of all data for the slice corresponding to FIG. 2 , so that a radio-frequency signal α−′ shown in FIG. 4 has a 180° phase offset compared to the temporally preceding radio-frequency signal α + ′.", "A gradient pulse GZ 1 ′ activated during the transmission of the radio-frequency signal α − ′, thereby corresponds to the gradient pulse GZ 1 applied when transmitting the radio-frequency signal α + ′.", "The pattern of FIG. 4 can be correspondingly repeated for further slices, for example slices neighboring the aforementioned slice.", "Compared to the generation of a three-dimensional dataset described in FIG. 2 , it is not necessary for slices that are allocated to edge regions of the three-dimensional dataset and that are not to be consulted for a diagnosis, to be acquired together with the slices of diagnostic interest, so that a shorter measurement time results.", "Further, fewer phase-coding artifacts occur given the slice-by-slice acquisition corresponding to FIG. 4 compared to the generation of a three-dimensional dataset corresponding to FIG. 2 .", "In another embodiment, a flow compensation is also provided in the phase-coding direction X in the pattern of FIG. 4 , similar to the pattern of FIG. 3 .", "In yet another embodiment, a centric phase coding can be utilized instead of the linear phase coding shown in FIG. 4 wherein the gradient pulses GX 1 and GX 2 of the phase-coding direction X are switched in steps from a minimum value to a maximum value or, respectively, vice versa.", "In centric phase coding, a magnetic resonance signal, with which a central row of a k-space matrix belonging to the dataset is filled, is acquired following one or more preparation radio-frequency signals as a result of a first radio-frequency signal, for example the radio-frequency signal α + ′, and a gradient pulse in the phase-coding direction X that has an amplitude corresponding to a step height of the phase coding.", "In repetitions following thereupon, the gradient pulse—for filling further rows—is applied with an amplitude corresponding to the operational sign-inverted step height, corresponding to double the step height, corresponding to double the operational sign-inverted step height, to three times the step height, etc.", "This is advantageous because the middle rows of the k-space matrix, which, as known, are critical for the image contrast, are acquired immediately with the largest possible transverse magnetization and, thus, high signal strength.", "After a few repetitions, the longitudinal magnetization settles onto a dynamic equilibrium value during which the other rows are then filled.", "Although modifications and changes may be suggested by those skilled in the art, it is the intention of the inventor to embody within the patent warranted hereon all changes and modifications as reasonably and properly come within the scope of his contribution to the art." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a transmission network comprising a plurality of optical signal transmission lines which can be connected to one another via optical mixers, particularly for the purpose of data exchange in computer systems.", "Description of the Prior Art In a network of the type generally set forth above, the optical mixers are usually realized as optical star couplers.", "According to the present state of the art, such an optical star coupler can only be produced with relatively few inputs and outputs, cf.", ", for example, Elektronik 4/1981, pp. 63-70;", "Dr. H. H. Witte "Optische Datenbusse fur Messund Regelaufgaben".", "If one employs optical star couplers in local networks, there can be a requirement that, for example, up to 1000 subscribers (computer nodes in case such a network is employed in computer systems) are connected over a distance of approximately 1000 m, which corresponds to 1000 or more input/output pairs.", "Since optical star couplers, respectively, optical mixers, cannot be manufactured with that many input/output lines given known manufacturing techniques, such large networks cannot be directly constructed with such star couplers.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The object of the present invention is to provide a network with a multitude of optical signal transmission lines which can be connected to one another via optical mixers, particularly for data exchange in computer systems, which comprises an optical or, respectively, opto-electrical circuit arrangement which admits of the connection to a correspondingly large plurality of subscribers.", "The above object is achieved in a network of the type generally set forth above which is characterized in that, for the purpose of expanding the connection capacities of the optical mixers to form a large network, series connections of such optical mixers are provided.", "Such series connections of optical mixers in such networks result in signal transmission paths which are identical to one another.", "No signal transmission paths of a different type are present in the overall network.", "The present invention offers the advantage that networks of practically any desired size can be created.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Other objects, features and advantages of the invention, its organization, construction and operation will be best understood from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, on which: FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of a first exemplary embodiment of a multi-stage, fully meshed switching network constructed in accordance with the present invention;", "FIG. 2 is a schematic representation of a further exemplary embodiment of a switching network having active elements inserted in the intermediate lines;", "FIG. 3 is a schematic representation of a further exemplary embodiment of a switching network in which an individual control is respectively assigned to the single active elements;", "FIG. 4 is a schematic representation of an exemplary embodiment of a switching network having active elements inserted in the intermediate lines and with a control disposed at a central location;", "FIG. 5 is a schematic representation of still a further exemplary embodiment of a switching network, similar to the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 4, however, with a different advantageous arrangement and connection of the central control;", "and FIG. 6 is a schematic representation of a further exemplary embodiment of a switching network, similar to the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 5, in which, however, only an active element with an appertaining control is required due to the introduction of further switching network stages.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS As briefly set forth above, FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a two-stage switching network K'.", "Optical star couplers 1K 1 .", "mK 1 , 1K 2 .", "mK 2 are employed in the arrangement of FIG. 1 as optical mixers.", "For the purpose of expanding their connection capacities for the formation of a large network in the form of a complete bundle known from switching engineering, the optical mixers, namely the star couplers, are connected in series in the manner illustrated.", "The start couplers are disposed in such a manner that a disposition of m star couplers 1K 1 .", "mK 1 is provided in a light signal output group.", "Each of n respective light signal outputs of each of the star couplers 1K 1 .", "mK 1 is connected via an individual light wave guide LWL to the input of an opto-electrical signal receiver E assigned thereto.", "A further arrangement of m star couplers 1K 2 .", "mK 2 is provided in a light signal input group.", "Each of n respective light signal inputs of each of the star couplers 1K 2 .", "mK 2 of the light signal input group is connected via an individual light wave guide LWL to the output of an electro-optical signal transmitter S assigned thereto.", "Moreover, each of m respective light signal inputs of the star couplers 1K 1 .", "mK 1 of the light signal output group is connected to one of m light signal ourputs of the star couplers 1K 2 .", "mK 2 of the light signal input group individually assigned thereto in such a manner that a complete bundle occurs with a respective connection of each electo-optical signal transmitter S to each opto-electrical signal receiver E via two respective star couplers 1K 1 .", "mK 1 ;", "1K 2 .", "mK 2 connected in series.", "Each LWL circuit begins at a subscriber, for example, a computer node, at the transmitter S with a transmission lead, successively traversing two star couplers, for example, the star couplers 1K 2 and 1K 1 , and ends with a receiving lead at the receiver E of the same subscriber.", "All LWL circuits are identically and symmetrically constructed.", "When a subscriber transmits a message, then the appertaining star coupler of the light signal input group distributes the message to all star couplers of the light signal output group.", "Proceeding from there, the message arrives at the receivers E of all subscribers.", "In addition to the possibility of disseminating the messages, the switching network K'", "also retains all other properties of a simple star coupler, for example, a favorable volume dynamic range and the advantage of a purely passive element.", "The attenuation of a LWL circuit of a switching network K'", "increases in comparison to the attenuation of a simple star coupler by a factor which corresponds to the plurality of switching network stages within the switching matrix K'", "when star couplers with the same ratio of inputs to outputs (n:m) are compared.", "A star coupler K is non-directional regarding the message transmission, i.e. the side n or the side m can be liberally viewed as an input side or an output side.", "When a star coupler has n input and m outputs, then n·m subscribers can be achieved with a two-stage switching network K'.", "In this case, 2·m star couplers are required for the switching network K'.", "The lowest expense arises when star couplers K with as many inputs n as possible are employed.", "Given the smallest expansion, the switching network K'", "can comprise two star couplers 1K 1 and 1K 2 .", "The inputs or, respectively, outputs, which are not required for the intermediate lines remain unconnected.", "If the switching network K'", "is to be expanded for a large number of subscribers, then adds further pairs of star couplers, for example, 2K 1 and 2K 2 according to FIG. 1. Advantageously, such an expansion is also possible during operation of the appertaining system.", "An advantageous further feature of the invention provides that series connections of optical mixers or, respectively, star couplers, are provided which exhibit at least one further group of optical mixers between the light signal input group and the light signal output group.", "In this manner, a further enlargement of the overall switching network can be achieved by simple means.", "Another feature of the invention provides that respective, individually active opto-electronic circuits AE are included, cf.", "FIG. 2, in the individual connections operating as intermediate lines of a complete bundle, the circuits AE being inserted between the appertaining light signal inputs 1 .", "m of the light signal output group and the appertaining light signal outputs 1 .", "m of the light signal input group.", "These active opto-electronic circuits AE are signal amplifiers for compensating the attenuation losses which arise due to the series connection of optical mixers or, respectively, star couplers, insofar as these attenuation losses would be disruptive in the overall system.", "According, to an advantageous further feature of the invention, the active opto-electronic circuits AE respectively contain an opto-electrical signal receiver E'", "and an electro-optical signal transmitter S', cf.", "FIGS. 4 and 5.", "It is advantageously provided that the electro-optical signal transmitters S can be switched on and off.", "Moreover, the opto-electrical signal receivers E'", "advantageously respectively have an individual indicator (not illustrated) which perceives a signal flow.", "Another advantageous feature of the invention provides that a respective, common indicator I be assigned to the opto-electrical signal receivers E'", "respectively assigned to a star coupler of the light signal input group, cf.", "FIG. 4. Such an indicator can directly or indirectly control the electro-optical signal transmitter S', i.e. switch it to be active or passive.", "Another further feature of the invention provides that an individual control stage ST AE is assigned to each opto-electronic circuit AE, cf.", "FIG. 3. Advantageously, however, a common, central control ST, cf.", "FIGS. 4 and 5, is assigned to the active opto-electronic circuits AE instead of a respective individual control.", "A respective, appertaining electro-optical signal transmitter S'", "is only switched on which the appertaining indicator or, respectively, the common indicator recognizes a signal arriving from the appertaining light signal output of the light signal input group as being unfalsified.", "This fact is of particular significance since access conflicts occur in a network of the type on which the invention is based when two or more subscribers have access to the network simultaneously.", "In such a case, the signals proceeding from the individual subscribers S would be mixed and, accordingly, falsified.", "According to a further feature of the invention, however, it is provided that the central control ST functions to such effect that as many individual connections are maximally through-connected simultaneously as a light signal input group or, respectively, the light signal output group contains star couplers, but respectively only a single connection to one and the same star coupler of the light signal output group.", "It is thereby attained that falsifications of information flow are avoided.", "It is also provided according to another advantageous feature of the invention that the central control ST can exercise a switching function which is known per se.", "As already explained, FIG. 6 illustrates another exemplary embodiment of the switching network K', similar to the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 5, in which, however, only a single active element AE with an appertaining control ST is required due to the insertion of further switching network stages K 3 and K 4 .", "In summary, it should be pointed out that, given a network according to the present invention in which a switching network K'", "is constructed with star couplers, the ratio of the number of inputs to the number of outputs can be freely selected.", "Such a switching network K'", "retains the property of an individual star coupler, if one does not consider the increased attenuation caused by the series connection of star couplers.", "The switching network K'", "can be advantageously housed in a housing, whereby the attenuation of the intermediate lines remains negligible due to the short line arrangement which is thereby occasioned.", "Although we have described our invention by reference to particular illustrative embodiments thereof, many changes and modifications of the invention may become apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.", "We therefore intend to include within the patent warranted hereon all such changes and modifications as may reasonably and properly be included within the scope of our contribution to the art." ]

[ "The present invention relates to a universal bracket design for attachment of solenoids to a variably actuated valve system.", "BACKGROUND Variable valve hydraulically actuated valve systems are known in the art.", "An example system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,839,400, wherein a multi-cylinder internal combustion engine has two intake valves for each cylinder which can be uncoupled from the respective tappets by drawing fluid under pressure out of a chamber interposed between each tappet and the respective valve.", "The system is a fully variable hydraulic valve control module utilizing individual solenoid valves.", "U.S. Pat. No. 5,839,400 is incorporated by reference as though fully set forth herein.", "In hydraulically actuated valve systems, such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,056,136, the solenoid valves are assembled to the external surface of the housing of the system using a cold forming attachment process, such as swaging or clinching.", "As such cold forming attachment is used, restrictions on type of material that would accommodate for cold forming are needed.", "Orientation of the solenoid oil galleries within the actuator housing are essential to the proper functioning of the system, as such, precise positioning of the solenoid valves is required during the attachment process.", "Once installed, the solenoid valves are not removable or replaceable, therefore, in the event of a solenoid failure during assembly or in operation, the entire actuator would need to be replaced.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Certain terminology is used in the following description for convenience and descriptive purposes only, and is not intended to be limiting to the scope of the claims.", "The terminology includes the words specifically noted, derivatives thereof and words of similar import.", "The present invention relates to a universal orientation bracket design for attaching or securing solenoids to a housing of a hydraulically actuated variable valve system.", "The bracket has at least one attachment flange attached to a cupped or arched main body portion with an upper and lower surface.", "The main body portion, in turn, is made of at least two side walls connected with an upper cross member and at least one opening or gap between the side walls to allow for orientation of the solenoid valve, and accommodating the solenoid connector.", "The lower cupped surface of said main body is shaped in such a way as to accept, retain and orient a solenoid valve.", "The particular shape of the bracket and the configuration and orientation of the arched main body, flanges and side walls, as to the associated housing and to each other, will necessarily depend on the needs of any particular application, and will be designed to suit a particular solenoid valve design.", "An additional embodiment of the present invention is that the bracket provides for correct orientation of solenoids in several directions depending on the attachment orientation to the hydraulically actuated valve system housing.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS The above mentioned and other features and advantages of the embodiments described herein, and the manner of attaining them, will become apparent and be better understood by reference to the following description of at least one example embodiment in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.", "A brief description of those drawings now follows.", "FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the bottom of a hydraulically actuated valve system, including the bracket and associated solenoid attached to the housing according to one embodiment of the invention.", "FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the top of an hydraulically actuated valve system, including the bracket and associated solenoid attached to the housing according to one embodiment of the invention.", "FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the bottom of the bracket design for a hydraulically actuated valve system according to one embodiment of the invention.", "FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the top of the bracket design for a hydraulically actuated valve system according to one embodiment of the invention.", "FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the side of the bracket design for a hydraulically actuated valve system according to one embodiment of the invention.", "FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the top of a hydraulically actuated valve system, showing a partially exploded assembly view of a solenoid and bracket.", "FIG. 7 is a side view of a hydraulically actuated valve system.", "FIG. 8 is a cross section of a hydraulically actuated valve system taken along line A-A of FIG. 7 .", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Identically labeled elements appearing in different ones of the figures refer to the same elements but may not be referenced in the description for all figures.", "The exemplification set out herein illustrates at least one embodiment, in at least one form, and such exemplification is not to be construed as limiting the scope of the claims in any manner.", "FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a hydraulic valve actuation system 1 .", "Hydraulic valve actuation system 1 comprises housing 2 , pumps 4 slidably mounted along an axis substantially directed at 90 degrees with respect to the axis of a brake or piston 5 , in turn, in line with a valve stem (not shown), solenoids 6 , and orientation bracket 10 .", "The details of construction and operation of hydraulic valve actuation system 1 , pumps 4 and brakes 5 are not described and shown herein.", "Solenoid 6 is oriented and fixed in position on housing 2 such that solenoid 6 is in line with an oil gallery 20 (see FIG. 8 ).", "As seen from this perspective view of the bottom of actuation system 1 , bracket 10 comprises mounting flange 11 , sidewall 12 , second sidewall 13 , upper cross member 14 and cupped lower surface 15 .", "Solenoid 6 is seated within lower cupped surface 15 , solenoid main body shoulder 9 contacting stepped surface 17 of bracket 10 (see FIG. 3 ) and oriented by sidewalls 12 and 13 .", "Fasteners 30 are inserted through holes 16 in flange 11 and into housing 2 .", "In this example embodiment, a gap H is maintained between flange 11 and the surface of housing 2 , as, in this example embodiment, the surface of housing 2 is curved or angled, making proper seating of flange 11 on surface of housing 2 difficult.", "Stepped surface 17 of bracket 10 (see FIG. 3 ) seats on shoulders 9 of solenoid 6 , and fasteners 30 extend through flange hole 16 and into housing mounting hole 31 , maintaining gap H in this example embodiment.", "Brackets 10 ′ are identical in shape and configuration to brackets 10 , but mounted in a different orientation on housing 2 to accommodate for required solenoid 6 location within housing 2 or to avoid interference of housing fastener hole 31 with oil galleries and mounting surfaces (not shown) of housing 2 .", "See FIG. 7 .", "FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the top of actuation system 1 .", "Pumps 4 and solenoid connector 7 , which is an extension from the main body of solenoid 6 , are shown.", "Brackets 10 are shown, comprising mounting flange 11 , sidewall 12 , second sidewall 13 , upper cross member 14 and cupped lower surface 15 .", "FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the bottom of bracket 10 , comprising mounting flange 11 , mounting flange fixation hole 16 , sidewall 12 , second sidewall 13 , upper cross member 14 , cupped lower surface 15 , and stepped surface 17 .", "Gaps G and G′ are shown between sidewalls 12 and 13 .", "FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the top of bracket 10 , comprising mounting flange 11 , mounting flange fixation hole 16 , sidewall 12 , second sidewall 13 , upper cross member 14 and cupped lower surface 15 .", "A gap G′ is shown between sidewalls 12 and 13 .", "FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the top of bracket 10 , comprising mounting flange 11 , mounting flange fixation hole 16 , sidewall 12 , second sidewall 13 , upper cross member 14 and cupped lower surface 15 .", "A gap G is shown between sidewalls 12 and 13 .", "Although at least one gap is needed between sidewalls 12 and 13 to accommodate for solenoid connector 7 (see FIG. 2 ), a second gap may be designed in order to accommodate a particular solenoid 6 or bracket 10 orientation on housing 2 to allow for multiple retention orientations of bracket 10 and solenoid 6 on housing 2 .", "FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the top of hydraulically actuated valve system 1 , showing a partially exploded assembly view of bracket 10 and solenoid 6 .", "Solenoid 6 in this example embodiment comprises a rounded main body portion 8 , shoulder 9 and connector 7 .", "Body 8 of solenoid 6 slides into cupped lower surface 15 of bracket 10 , shoulder 9 contacts and seats on stepped surface 17 and is oriented by side walls 12 and 13 .", "Bracket 10 and retained solenoid 6 are fastened to housing 2 using fasteners 30 , inserted through flange holes 16 and into retention holes 31 in housing 2 .", "In this example embodiment, gap H (see FIGS. 1 and 2 ) is maintained between flange 11 and housing 2 , as the surface of housing 2 is curved and contains multiple porting and mounting features.", "As can be more clearly seen in FIG. 7 , bracket 10 may be oriented in several ways without changing the design of bracket 10 , to accommodate for a required orientation of solenoid 6 within housing 2 .", "Retention holes 31 must be moved to accommodate for shifting the orientation of bracket 10 .", "In this example embodiment, bracket 10 is in a shallow “C”", "configuration and there are gaps G and G′ between sidewalls 12 and 13 on opposite ends of bracket 10 .", "This configuration allows for bracket 10 to be reversed into the orientation of bracket 10 ′, maintaining the geometry of bracket 10 and accomplishing multiple orientation configurations and retention of solenoid 6 .", "As bracket 10 is reversed in orientation on housing 2 , connector 7 extends through gap G′ rather than G, and solenoid 6 is correctly position into housing 2 , as per any particular system design requirement.", "FIG. 8 shows a cross section taken along line A-A of FIG. 7 , showing solenoid 6 and connector 7 oriented into oil gallery 20 of housing 2 , with the aid of bracket 10 .", "In the foregoing description, example embodiments are described.", "The specification and drawings are accordingly to be regarded in an illustrative rather than in a restrictive sense.", "It will, however, be evident that various modifications and changes may be made thereto, without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the present invention.", "In addition, it should be understood that the figures illustrated in the attachments, which highlight the functionality and advantages of the example embodiments, are presented for example purposes only.", "The architecture or construction of example embodiments described herein is sufficiently flexible and configurable, such that it may be utilized (and navigated) in ways other than that shown in the accompanying figures.", "Although example embodiments have been described herein, many additional modifications and variations would be apparent to those skilled in the art.", "It is therefore to be understood that this invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described.", "Thus, the present example embodiments should be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive.", "LIST OF REFERENCE SYMBOLS 1 Hydraulic Valve Actuation System 2 Housing 4 Pump 5 Piston or Brake 6 Solenoid 7 Solenoid Connector 8 Solenoid Body 9 Solenoid Shoulder 10 Orientation Bracket 10 ′ Orientation Bracket 11 Mounting Flange 12 Side Wall 13 Side Wall 14 Upper Cross Member 15 Lower Cupped Surface 16 Flange Hole 17 Stepped Surface 20 Oil Gallery 30 Fasteners 31 Housing Fastener Hole" ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention concerns adducts of lignosulfonate and unsaturated fatty amines.", "More particularly, it is related to a hydrophobized lignosulfonate and a process for making the same by reacting lignosulfonate with an aldehyde and certain unsaturated fatty amines.", "As used herein, the term "lignin"", "has its normal connotation, and refers to the substance which is typically recovered from alkaline pulping black liquors, such as are produced in the kraft, soda and other well-known alkaline pulping operations.", "The term "sulfonated lignin", as used in this specification, refers to the product which is obtained by the introduction of sulfonic acid groups into the lignin molecule, as may be accomplished by reaction of the lignin with sulfite or bisulfite compounds, so that lignin is rendered soluble in water.", "As used herein, the term "sulfite lignin"", "refers to the reaction product of lignin which is inherently obtained during the sulfite pulping of wood, and is a principal constituent of the spent sulfite liquor.", "The term "lignosulfonate"", "encompasses not only the sulfite lignin, but also the sulfonated lignin herein above described.", "The reaction of lignosulfonate and an unsaturated fatty amine using an aldehyde as a crosslinker is one example of a Mannich reaction.", "The Mannich reaction is described in detail in Blicke, Organic Reactions 1, 303-341 (1942).", "Aminoalkylation of phenolic materials, such as lignosulfonate, is a special case of the Mannich reaction and has been described in numerous textbooks.", "For example, see March, Advanced Organic Chemistry: Reactions, Mechanisms and Structure, McGraw-Hill (1968), P[.", "].424.", "Lignin Mannich amines were disclosed as early as 1956 by Ball, Jr. in U.S. Pat. No. 2,863,780.", "The Ball, Jr. patent reveals a Mannich amine made by reacting kraft lignin with certain low molecular weight water soluble amines, and the utility of the Mannich amine as a corrosion inhibitor in hydrochloric acid solutions.", "Several U.S. patents have been subsequently issued for other lignin amines.", "For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,784,493, Giguere et al.", "discloses an amine lignosulfonate made by reacting spent sulfite liquor with formaldehyde and certain water-soluble amines, selected from the group consisting of alkylamine, cycloaliphatic amines, alkanolamines, and di- and polyethylene amines, at a pH of 6.5 to 7.0.", "Rachor et al.", "in U.S. Pat. No. 3,912,706 discloses a composition of matter comprising reaction products of lignosulfonate or kraft lignin, a secondary amine of from 2 to 8 carbon atoms, and a aldehyde, crosslinked with polyoxyalkylene, and the use of said composition as a flocculating agent.", "In the specification of the Rachor et al.", "patent, it is stated that the lignin obtained from some sulfite pulping processes may first need to be desulfonated to improve the flocculating efficiency.", "Ludwig in U.S. Pat. No. 4,017,475 reveals an aminoalkylated hydroxyphenylated lignosulfonate prepared by reacting a hydroxyphenylated lignosulfonate with an aldehyde and ammonia or a primary or secondary amine having from 1 to 22 carbon atoms.", "Said hydroxyphenylated lignosulfonate is a condensation product of sulfite lignin and phenol, cresol, xylenol, resorcinol, catechol, hydroquinone or naphthol.", "Probably because of the reduced water solubility of the hydroxyphenylated lignosulfonate (relative to unmodified lignosulfonate), the amination of said lignosulfonate is done in an organic solvent (such as 95% ethanol) according to the specification of the Ludwig patent.", "This is particularly true when long-chain alkylamines (e.g. octadecylamine and N-methyl-N-octadecylamine) are employed.", "The Ludwig products are classified as a cationic lignin as illustrated by the solubility characteristics of the products.", "The aminoalkylated hydroxyphenylated lignosulfonate has a limited water solubility at a pH between about 3 and 10, but is soluble at a pH below 3 and above 10.", "Fatty acids are derivatives of certain plant oil and animal fat.", "The compositions of fatty acid products commonly used in commerce vary according to the source.", "Major fatty acid sources and their compositions are listed below: __________________________________________________________________________ Palm Coconut Palm Kernel Tall Beef Soybean Oil Oil Oil Oil Tallow Lard Oil__________________________________________________________________________Saturated Acids:Caproic Acid 0.5% 0.5%Capriylic Acid 8% 5%Capric Acid 7% 5%Lauric Acid 48% 50% 0.1%Myristic Acid 17% 2% 15% 3% 1%Palmitic Acid 9% 42% 7% 7% 29% 26% 6.5%Stearic Acid 2% 4% 2% 20% 11.5% 4.2%Unsaturated Acids:Palmioleic Acid 0.2% 0.5% 1% 2%Oleic Acid 6% 43% 15% 44% 42% 58% 33.6%Linoleic Acid 2% 9% 1% 37% 2% 3.5% 52.6%Linolenic Acid 2.3%__________________________________________________________________________ Fatty acids are hydrophobic oils, practically insoluble in water.", "Fatty acid-derived amines (fatty amines) are also oily, and water-insoluble.", "There is no viable chemical process in the prior art for reacting lignosulfonate and said fatty acids or amines in aqueous media.", "Tall oil is a by-product of the kraft pulping operation and amine derivatives thereof are particularly good materials for reacting with lignosulfonates which are also obtained as by-products of pulping processes.", "It is, therefore, a general object of this invention to provide a reaction product of lignosulfonate and unsaturated fatty amines.", "Another object of this invention is to provide an effective process for reacting lignosulfonate and unsaturated fatty amines in an aqueous solution.", "A further object of this invention is to provide a lignosulfonate/fatty amine adduct that has unique performance characteristics and significant utilities.", "Other objects, features and advantages of this invention will become evident from the following detailed description of the invention.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The product of this invention is prepared by reacting a lignosulfonate containing about 2 to 8 percent by weight of organic sulfur, with 0.05 to 2.0 millimoles, per gram of lignosulfonate, of an unsaturated fatty amine of 18 to 20 carbon atoms, and with 0.5 to 2.5 millimoles, per gram of lignosulfonate, of an aldehyde such as formaldehyde.", "The most satisfactory process for making the product of the invention comprises forming an aqueous solution of lignosulfonate at a solids concentration of 20% to 40%, preferably 30% to 35%;", "adjusting the pH of the solution to between 10 to 12, preferably 10.5 to 11.5, with an alkali or an alkanolamine, or to a pH below 5, preferably between 1 and 5;", "mixing the alkaline or acidic lignosulfonate solution with a specified quantity of fatty amine to form a homogeneous mixture;", "adding the aldehyde and finally heating the mixture at a temperature of 25° C. to 100° C., preferably 50° C. to 75° C., for a period of one to 24 hours.", "The unsaturated fatty amines employed herein are derivatives of ammonia in which one or two of the hydrogens have been substituted by a long hydrocarbon chain containing from 18 to 20 carbons, and 1 to 3 unsaturated double bonds.", "These include palmioleyamine, oleylamine, linoleylamine and linolenylamine.", "Depending on the fatty source, i.e. whether the fatty amine is derived from plant oil or animal fat, most commercial unsaturated fatty amine products are blends of fatty amines of C 18 to C 20 chain length and containing one, two or three unsaturated (double) bonds at various ratios.", "For the most satisfactory results, the product of the invention is made from lignosulfonate and tall oil fatty amine that contains about 44% oleic amine (one double bond) and 37% linoleic amine (two double bonds).", "Although other fatty amine products can also be used, they may contain too much saturated fatty amines and need to be purified to increase the content of the unsaturated fatty amines.", "For the purpose of this invention, any fatty amine products employed for making adducts of the invention should not contain saturated fatty amines in excess of 50% by weight of the amine product solids.", "Saturated fatty amines are not sufficiently reactive with lignosulfonate to produce a homogeneous solution, and too large a quantity of saturated fatty amines in a fatty amine product will cause the separation of a lignosulfonate/fatty amine reaction medium into two layers (aqueous and oily phases).", "Mixed fatty amines are readily purified by steam distillation to obtain a product of desired degree of unsaturation.", "Unsaturated fatty amines can be differentiated from the saturated counterparts by their lower boiling point.", "Mixed fatty amines may also be purified by decantation due to the difference in the melting points of saturated and unsaturated fatty amines.", "In especially preferred embodiments of the method for producing lignosulfonate-fatty amine adducts according to this invention, the addition sequence of fatty amine and aldehyde (e.g. formaldehyde or furfural) to the aqueous solution of lignosulfonate is specific in that amine addition is always followed by that of the aldehyde.", "Furthermore, for the optimal reaction to occur, the blend of lignosulfonate and fatty amine needs to be vigorously agitated to produce a homogeneous mixture prior to the addition of the aldehyde.", "By homogeneous it is meant that no fatty amine oil layer separates or no oil globules are observed immediately upon stopping the agitation.", "For the Mannich reaction to occur, the pH of the lignosulfonate solution may be adjusted to between 10 and 12, to ionize the phenolic hydroxyl groups in the lignin.", "The pH adjustment is conveniently done with sodium, ammonium or potassium hydroxide.", "However, whenever the addition of inorganic compounds is not desirable, an alkanolamine may be used instead.", "The alkanolamines contemplated include monoethanolamine and diethanolamine.", "Alternatively, the pH of the lignosulfonate solution may be adjusted to a pH below 5, preferably between 1 and 5, with mineral acids such as sulfuric, hydrochloric and phosphoric acids.", "The concentration of lignosulfonate is of great importance because it determines the extent of reaction between the fatty amine and the lignosulfonate.", "High concentration favors the reaction.", "However, too high a concentration may give rise to gelling of the reaction medium upon addition of the fatty amine.", "The optimal concentration of lignosulfonate employed herein is between 20% and 40%.", "The unique properties of the invention product includes its improved ability to reduce the interfacial tension of certain oil/water systems to enhance emulsification of oil- and asphalt-water mixtures, and to render paper and certain textile fibers impermeable to water.", "The product of the instantly claimed invention is thus distinct from the prior art Mannich lignin amines for the following reasons: (1) it is a reaction product of lignosulfonate and unsaturated fatty amines;", "(2) it is produced by an improved process operable in aqueous media;", "and (3) the product is water soluble at neutral and alkaline pH's.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Exemplary of the efficacy of the present invention are the following examples, wherein all parts and percentages are on a weight basis, unless specified otherwise.", "EXAMPLE ONE This example illustrates the actual reaction between lignosulfonate and an unsaturated fatty amine.", "Thus, 100 parts of a commercially available lignosulfonate from Reed Lignin Inc., Lignosol X50L, were reacted with 6 parts of formaldehyde and from 5 to 54 parts of oleylamine at a concentration of approximately 35% solids.", "The resultant products were extracted with 200 parts of chloroform (CHCl 3 ) to remove unreacted oleylamine.", "The purified adducts were analyzed for the nitrogen (N) and methoxyl (OCH 3 ) contents, and also by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy.", "Table One presents the data showing the linear correlation between oleylamine dosage and N/OCH 3 ratio, or amine signal strength in NMR spectra.", "The results are evidence of the actual incorporation of the fatty amine into the lignosulfonate according to the method of the invention.", "TABLE ONE______________________________________Analytical data of lignosulfonate/oleylamine adducts.", "NMRDosage Signal Ratio*Sample No. (parts) % OCH.", "sub[.", "].3 N/OCH.", "sub[.", "].3 Aromatic Amine______________________________________1 0 9.93 0 0.44 02 5 7.65 0.031 0.40 0.253 10 8.08 0.05 0.40 0.434 16 7.95 0.088 0.44 0.625 26 6.85 0.15 0.44 0.966 37 6.29 0.21 0.44 1.27 54 5.42 0.32 0.42 2.16______________________________________ *Note: NMR signal ratio is obtained by dividing the aromatic signal or amine signal strength by the methoxyl signal strength.", "EXAMPLE TWO This example demonstrates the difference in reactivity of saturated and unsaturated fatty amines toward lignosulfonate.", "Thus, 100 parts of a lignosulfonate commercially available from Reed Lignin Inc., namely, Lignosol NSX-135, was dissolved in 185 parts of water and the pH of the solution was adjusted to 10.5 with monoethanolamine.", "At ambient temperature (23° C.), 20 parts by weight of oleylamine were added to the lignosulfonate solution under vigorous stirring.", "After 30 minutes, 6 parts of formaldehyde were added by portions over a period of 10 minutes.", "The mixture was then heated to 65° C. and maintained at that temperature for 16 hours.", "Upon cooling, the solution stayed homogenous and no oil layer could be detected.", "A separate reaction cook was carried out using a saturated counterpart of oleylamine (C 18 ), namely, stearylamine, in the same manner as described above.", "Upon cooling, the reaction mixture eventually separated into two layers after 10 hours.", "Estimation indicated that the top oil layer (unreacted stearylamine) accounted for about 90% (or 18 parts) of the fatty amine initially added to the lignosulfonate.", "In a separate experiment, C 12 saturated fatty amine (laurylamine) was used.", "Again, about 85% unreacted fatty amine floated to the top of the reaction medium upon cooling the reaction mixture.", "EXAMPLE THREE The oleylamine/Lignosol NSX-135 adduct of Example Two was evaluated for water repellancy in the following manner: 5 grams of the adduct solids were dissolved in 45 milliliters of water to make up a 10% solution.", "Three Whatman No. 41 filter papers (9 cm.", "diameter) were soaked in the solution for 30 seconds and blotted on paper towels to drain excess solution.", "The filter papers were then dried in an oven at 150° C. for two hours.", "Upon cooling, the papers were rinsed with tap water and dried again in the oven at 105° C. Water repellancy of the treated filter papers was determined by the time needed for 25 milliliters of 25° C. water to pass through them completely.", "A blend of oleylamine/Lignosol NSX-135 was prepared in a similar manner as in Example Two except no formaldehyde was added.", "The blend was used to treat the filter papers and the water repellancy determined.", "Table Two shows the results for Whatman No. 41 filter paper, cotton fabric and kraft pulp.", "The adduct of the invention exhibits water repellant characteristics whereas a simple blend of lignosulfonate and fatty amine lacks the "water-blocking"", "capacity.", "A kraft wrapping paper is included for comparison.", "The kraft paper shows some water repellancy as it contains resin.", "TABLE TWO______________________________________Impermeability of paper and cotton fabric.", "Time for 25 ml.", "water to pass paper and fabricMaterial Adduct Blend______________________________________Whatman No. 41 Paper Longer than 3 days 4 minutesKraft Pulp Longer than 3 days 1.5 minutesCotton Fabric 103 minutes 3.5 minutesFor Comparison/ 11.5 hoursKraft Wrapping Paper______________________________________ EXAMPLE FOUR An effective asphalt emulsion stabilizer as revealed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,293,459 is a composition comprising a partially desulfonated lignosulfonate together with nonionic and anionic emulsifying agents.", "A nonionic emulsifying agent commonly used is ethoxylated nonophenol and an effective anionic emulsifier is dodecylbenzene sulfonate.", "An adduct of the present invention was found to be an effective substitute for dodecylbenzene sulfonate.", "A partially desulfonated lignosulfonate (79 parts), Lignosol SFL from Reed Lignin Inc., was used to formulate with an adduct (Sample 7, Example One) of the invention (5.5 parts) and ethoxylated nonophenol (15.5 parts).", "Asphalt emulsions produced from 1% of the formulation and about 65% Asphalt 85-100 employing an industrial Charlotte Mill, were found to be satisfactory and passed ASTM D244-77 tests.", "Table Three shows the test results.", "TABLE THREE______________________________________Asphalt Test/ASTM D244-77 InventionTest Formulation ASTM Standards______________________________________Sieve Test (%) 0.01 0.1 maximumCement Mixing Test (%) 0.02 2.0 maximum5-Day Settlement (%) 2.1 5.0 maximumCoating of Aggregate good --Bleeding/Stripping no______________________________________ EXAMPLE FIVE A commercially available fatty amine product tradenamed Kemamine P-989D, from Witco Chemical Corp.", ", Memphis, TN, having the following composition, was used for preparing the invention product: saturated fatty amines/4% C 14 , 14% C 16 and 10% C 18 ;", "unsaturated fatty amines/65% C 18:1 , 7% C 18:2 (all percentages by weight of solids).", "The symbol C 18:1 denotes a fatty amine of 18 carbon atoms and one double bond, and C 18:2 denotes a fatty amine of 18 carbon atoms containing two double bonds.", "Thus, 50 parts of lignosulfonate, Lignosol NSX-135 from Reed Lignin Inc., in 92 parts of water, were pH adjusted to 10.5 with sodium hydroxide.", "Under vigorous stirring, 5 parts of Kemamine were added to the lignosulfonate solution.", "After 30 minutes, various amounts of formaldehyde (3 to 7.5%) were added and the resultant mixtures heated at 65° C. for 16 hours.", "Upon cooling, all of the mixtures were found to be homogeneous and no oil layer separation was observed.", "EXAMPLE SIX This example illustrates the importance of pH in affecting the condensation between the lignosulfonate and the fatty amine.", "Thus, 350 parts of a lignosulfonate, Lignosol NSX-135, were dissolved in water to make up a 33% solution.", "The solution was adjusted to various pH's with sodium hydroxide or sulfuric acid.", "35 parts of oleylamine were added to the solution and the mixture was stirred until it became homogeneous.", "Formaldehyde (10.5 parts) was then added and the mixture heated at about 65° C. for 16 hours.", "To measure the extent of each reaction, the resultant mixture was diluted to a concentration of one gram per liter and the pH was adjusted to 10.", "Transmittance value of the diluted reaction mixture was determined at 600 nanometers on a spectrophotometer.", "The clarity of each reaction mixture was also visually observed.", "Based on the data presented in Table Four, it is clear that the condensation of a fatty amine and lignosulfonate can best be accomplished at a pH below 5 or above 10.", "TABLE FOUR______________________________________pH of Reaction MixtureREACTION CLARITYMIXTURE TRANSMITTANCE OF REACTIONpH at 600 nm (%) MIXTURE______________________________________1.5 92 Clear2.5 94 Clear3.5 93 Clear5 93 Clear6 87 Turbid7 85 Turbid8 85 Turbid9 85 Turbid10 93 Clear10.5 94 Clear11 94 ClearUnmodified 96 ClearLignosulfonate(Lignosol NSX-135)______________________________________ Various modes of carrying out the invention are contemplated as being within the scope of the following claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which is regarded as the invention." ]

[ "CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/152,708, entitled WIRELESS COMMUNICATOR JACKET WITH MULTIPLE OPERATIONAL STAGES, filed on Feb. 15, 2009 by inventors Itay Sherman and Yohan Cohen.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to miniature wireless communicators that operate in conjunction with jacket devices.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Miniaturization of electronic devices poses many challenges for efficiency and cost-effectiveness of mechanical design, circuit design and signal processing.", "Among these challenges is the challenge of developing and manufacturing devices with small connectors that are reliable and that use a limited number of pins.", "SUMMARY OF THE DESCRIPTION Aspects of the present invention relate to a miniature modular wireless communicator, such as a cell phone module, that interoperates with a variety of jackets.", "When attached to or inserted in the jacket, the communicator provides each jacket with wireless communication capabilities, and the jacket provides the communicator with a user interface.", "Embodiments of the present invention include inexpensive jackets with very simple functionality.", "These simple jackets have a display screen, a keypad, an optional backlight for the keypad, and an optional vibrator.", "The simple jackets may also have a serial NOR flash memory.", "The simple jackets have jacket IDs, which are used by the communicator to identify the jackets.", "Embodiments of the present invention also include jackets with complex functionality.", "Because of their low cost, users can generally afford to purchase a variety of distinct jackets, each having a unique look &", "feel, with a unique shape, a unique casing, a unique display screen and a unique keypad.", "Designers may create business jackets, party jackets, glitzy jackets, formal jackets, outdoors jackets, sports jackets, travel jackets, ethnic jackets, club jackets, student jackets, collector jackets, humorous jackets, theme jackets, souvenir jackets, celebrity jackets, custom ordered jackets, and more.", "And users can change jackets at will, and dress up their cell phones according to occasion and personal taste.", "Low cost jackets also afford marketing opportunities, whereby jackets are branded and used as marketing collateral and distributed for free.", "Clearly the success of the “jacket”", "business depends on the ability to inexpensively manufacture the jackets.", "In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, a digital interface uses 12 connector pins for simple jacket identification and for keypad decoding.", "Some of the communication lines through the connector pins are used for general purpose I/O, and run directly to the keypad.", "Embodiments of the present invention use the 12 pins in a very efficient way to enable four operational stages, and transitions therebetween.", "The four stages include: Stage 1: Initial Type Detection—determining whether the jacket is a simple type of jacket or a complex type of jacket.", "Stage 2: Complex Jacket—12-pin communication bus for a designated protocol.", "Stage 3: Simple Jacket Identification—identifying a jacket ID.", "Stage 4: Normal Keypad Decode—decoding a 4×5 keypad array and controlling activation of a backlight for the keypad and activation of a vibrator.", "There is thus provided in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention a method of communication between a modular wireless communicator and a jacket device that is connected to the modular wireless communicator via a connector that connects a plurality of signal transmission lines, the jacket device including a keypad for operating the modular wireless communicator, including receiving a multi-bit signal over multiple signal transmission lines, one bit of which indicating whether the jacket device includes a serial NOR flash memory, if the jacket device includes a serial NOR flash memory, then reading a jacket ID from the serial NOR flash memory, if the jacket device does not include a serial NOR flash memory, then reading the jacket ID from other bits of the multi-bit signal, receiving jacket keypad signals over multiple signal transmission lines, and decoding the jacket keypad signals based on the jacket ID.", "There is additionally provided in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention a communication system including a modular wireless communicator including a connector for connecting the communicator to any one of a plurality jacket devices via a plurality of signal transmission lines, a controller, communicatively coupled with the connector, for receiving signals, over multiple transmission lines, that identify a jacket device that is connected to the communicator, and for receiving signals, over multiple transmission lines, generated by keypad presses from the identified jacket device, and a modem, communicatively coupled with the controller, for transmitting data over the air in response to the keypad presses, and a plurality of jacket devices, each jacket device including a keypad for receiving user input via keypad presses, and a connector, communicatively coupled with said keypad, for connecting the jacket device to said communicator via the plurality of signal transmission lines.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The present invention will be more fully understood and appreciated from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the drawings in which: FIG. 1 is an illustration of a modular wireless communicator and a jacket therefor, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;", "FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of the modular wireless communicator of FIG. 1 , in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;", "FIG. 3 is an illustration of the jacket of FIG. 1 , in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;", "FIG. 4 is a simplified block diagram of the jacket of FIG. 1 , in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;", "FIG. 5 is a high level circuit diagram for a first jacket, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;", "FIG. 6 is a high level circuit diagram for a second jacket that includes a serial NOR flash memory, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;", "FIG. 7 is a simplified flowchart of a method for jacket identification, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;", "and FIG. 8 is a connector pinout table for an implementation of a communicator that is connected to a jacket, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION Aspects of the present invention relate to a miniature modular wireless communicator, such as a modular cell phone, and a jacket device.", "The communicator attaches to the jacket, or inserts partially or entirely inside the jacket.", "When attached to or inserted in the jacket, the communicator and jacket interoperate—the communicator providing the jacket with wireless communication capabilities, and the jacket providing the communicator with a user interface.", "Embodiments of the present invention enable manufacture of jackets at very low cost.", "Users can afford to buy a variety of jackets, which in turn enables an entire market for cell phone jacket design.", "Reference is now made to FIG. 1 , which is an illustration of a modular wireless communicator 100 and a jacket 200 , in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.", "Reference is also made to FIG. 2 , which is a simplified block diagram of modular wireless communicator 100 , in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.", "FIG. 1 shows stages of attaching communicator 100 to jacket 200 .", "As shown in FIG. 2 , communicator 100 includes a cellular base band modem 110 , a connector 120 for connecting the communicator to jacket 200 , a power amplifier 130 with an RF interface 135 that is connected to an antenna 140 , a memory 150 , a subscriber identity module (SIM) card 180 , and an FPGA controller 190 .", "Modem 110 controls the wireless communication functionality of communicator 100 .", "Controller 190 executes programmed instructions that control the data flow between communicator 100 and jacket 200 via signal lines that pass through connector 120 .", "Optionally, communicator 100 may include a user interface 160 , and a power management subsystem 170 that charges a battery 175 .", "Reference is now made to FIG. 3 , which is an illustration of jacket 200 , in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.", "Reference is also made to FIG. 4 , which is a simplified block diagram of jacket 200 , in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.", "FIG. 3 shows five perspective views of jacket 200 .", "As shown in FIG. 4 , jacket 200 includes a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) controller 210 , a connector 220 for connecting the jacket to communicator 100 , a memory 250 storing a jacket ID 255 , a user interface 260 including a display screen 261 , a keypad 262 , a backlight 263 for keypad 262 , and a vibrator 264 , and a power management subsystem 270 and battery 275 .", "In one embodiment of the present invention, jacket ID 255 is a 4-bit code.", "User interface 260 may optionally include additional components (not shown) such as a microphone, a headset audio jack, an earpiece, and a mono speaker or stereo speakers.", "In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, communicator 100 interoperates with a variety of jackets 200 , some of which are standalone devices, and some of which are only operable in conjunction with communicator 100 .", "Some jackets, such as the jacket shown in FIG. 3 , have only a screen, a keypad, an optional backlight for the keypad, and an optional vibrator.", "Such jackets are referred to herein as “simple”", "jackets.", "Simple jackets may include a serial NOR flash memory.", "Other jackets have more functionality, and are referred to herein as “complex”", "jackets.", "Communicator 100 may also interoperate with peripheral devices, in addition to jackets 200 .", "One of the many challenges in developing and manufacturing communicator 100 is the requirement of miniature size and reliable connection to jackets 200 .", "As such, communicator 100 is pin-limited.", "In one implementation of the present invention, a 12-pin interface is used to provide both a full communication bus for complex jackets, and an interface for jacket identification and keypad decoding for simple jackets.", "The 12 interface pins provide multiplexed functionality for four operational stages.", "Functionality switches according to transitions from a current stage to a next stage, as described in detail hereinbelow.", "Reference is now made to FIG. 5 , which is a high level circuit diagram for a first jacket, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.", "Reference is also made to FIG. 6 , which is a high level circuit diagram for a second jacket that includes a serial NOR flash memory 250 , in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.", "Components of communicator 100 are shown to the right of connector 120 / 220 , and components of jacket 200 are shown to the left of connector 120 / 220 .", "As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 , connector 120 / 220 uses 4 pins (pins 26 - 29 ) for keypad columns, 5 pins (pins 18 - 21 and 24 ) for keypad rows, one pin for activating backlight 263 , one pin for activating vibrator 264 , and one additional pin connected to a level shifter 111 .", "A single pin (pin 14 ) is used to control an N-channel FET transistor, which turns backlight 263 on and off.", "Similarly, a single pin (pin 17 ) is used to control another N-channel FET transistor, which turns vibrator 264 on and off.", "The pin (pin 23 ) connected to level shifter 111 is used for hardware recognition.", "TABLE I describes four operational stages for these jackets, and transitions therebetween.", "TABLE I Operational Stages and Transitions Therebetween Stage Functionality 1.", "Initial Type Detection Controller 190 senses voltage on one of the pins.", "Jacket 200 uses a pull-up or a pull-down resistor to indicate the type of jacket (simple or complex), via a level shifter 111.", "For a complex jacket 200, proceed to Stage 2.", "For a simple jacket 200, proceed to Stage 3.", "Complex Jacket If jacket 200 is a complex jacket, the 12 pins are used as a communication bus with a designated protocol.", "In one implementation the pins are used as follows: Clock In/Out, Data Bus 0-7, Management Bus In/Out 3.", "Simple Jacket Identification If jacket 200 is a simple jacket, controller 190 drives a logical ‘1’ to identification circuitry that is muxed over lines that are used for keypad analysis.", "If the most significant bit (MSB) of the code is ‘1’, then jacket 200 includes a serial NOR flash memory (FIG.", "6), from which jacket ID 255 is read.", "If the MSB is ‘0’, then jacket 200 does not include a serial NOR flash memory (FIG.", "5), and the next 4 bits indicate the jacket ID 255.", "Proceed to Stage 4.", "Normal Keypad Decode Controller 190 performs matrix keypad decode for a keypad array 262 of 4 × 5 buttons, which requires 4 + 5 = 9 signals.", "Two other lines are used to control activation of backlight 263 and vibrator 264.", "Regarding Stage 1, Initial Type Detection, when communicator 100 is connected to jacket 200 , the interrupt line (pin 22 ), which was in high state on communicator 100 prior to being connected to jacket 200 , is pulled down by a 1 kΩ resistor.", "This indicates to controller 190 that jacket 200 is now connected thereto.", "Subsequently controller 190 opens the VBAT_COMM switch towards jacket 200 .", "The 3V directed from communicator 100 to jacket 200 is disconnected at this Stage, to prevent false ID reading.", "In order to determine whether jacket 200 is a simple jacket or a complex jacket, controller 190 checks the VCC_COMM pin (pin 23 ).", "The VCC_COMM pin, on complex jackets, is 3V directed from jacket 200 to communicator 100 .", "On the side of jacket 200 , the VCC_COMM is generated by an LDO, and is cut from VBAT_COMM, which passes on connector 220 .", "On the side of communicator 100 , VCC_COMM is connected to a 1.8V bank, which is always on, and thus requires a 3V to 1.8V level shifter 111 along the way.", "As such, if controller 190 finds that the VCC_COMM pin is high (1.8V), then controller 190 identifies jacket 200 as being a complex jacket.", "If controller 190 finds that the VCC_COMM pin has no voltage, then controller 190 identifies jacket 200 as being a simple jacket.", "Regarding Stage 3, Simple Jacket Identification, reference is now made to FIG. 7 , which is a simplified flowchart of a method for jacket identification, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.", "At step 1005 controller 190 reads a 5-bit code of a detection signal.", "Specifically, referring to FIGS. 5 and 6 , the HW-R pin (pin 23 ) is set to high and drives the VCC_COMM/HW-R line.", "The VCC_COMM/HW-R passes to jacket 200 and drives 1-5 pull-up resistors located on the KBDI lines.", "These pull-up resistors generate a 5-bit code on the KBDI lines, which is sampled by controller 190 .", "This is the 5-bit code that is read at step 1005 .", "If the most significant bit (MSB) of the 5-bit code is ‘1’, as determined at step 1010 , then jacket 200 includes serial NOR flash memory 250 (as in FIG. 6 ), as indicated at step 1015 .", "At step 1020 the detection signal is switched, and used as a chip select (CS) signal for selecting between communicator 100 and serial NOR 250 .", "At step 1025 , some of the communication bus data lines are used to access serial NOR 250 and read the jacket ID 255 therefrom.", "At step 1030 , after content of serial NOR 250 is read, the CS is disabled and held at logical ‘1’.", "As such, the output of serial NOR 250 is put in tri-state, and thus blocked from interfering with keypad decode operations.", "The 3V switch on communicator 100 is opened, and feeds jacket 200 through pin 15 .", "Subsequently, at step 1035 controller 190 transitions to Stage 4, Normal Keypad Decode.", "If the MSB of the code is ‘0’, as determined at step 1010 , then jacket 200 does not include a serial NOR flash memory (as in FIG. 5 ), as indicated at step 1040 .", "At step 1045 the next four bits of the code read at step 1005 are used to identify the jacket ID 255 .", "At step 1050 , after identifying the jacket ID, the detection signal is disabled and held at logical ‘1’, thus blocking the identification data from interfering with keypad decode operations.", "The 3V switch on communicator 100 is opened, and feeds jacket 200 through pin 15 .", "Subsequently, at step 1035 controller 190 transitions to Stage 4, Normal Keypad Decode.", "The jacket ID identified at step 1025 or step 1045 , is used to identify the jacket's keypad, so that controller 190 is able to decode the keypad strokes.", "Regarding Stage 4, Normal Keypad Decode, keypad operation is generally divided into Idle State, and Flash Freeze.", "During “Idle State”, keypad scans are performed periodically.", "Any keypad press is immediately sampled by controller 190 .", "During “Flash Freeze”, the keypad is not scanned.", "When a keypad is pressed, controller 190 must be awakened and scan the keypad.", "All four KBDO lines in FIGS. 5 and 6 are pulled-up by resistors on the side of jacket 200 .", "When a key is pressed, at least one of the KBDI lines is pulled high, and an OR gate 221 output is initiated to high state.", "The output of OR gate 221 is connected to the interrupt line that goes to modem 110 .", "Modem 110 senses the interrupt line and awakens controller 190 from Flash Freeze.", "Once controller 190 is awakened, it begins scanning the keypad lines.", "It is noted that, typically, a standard keypad press is sufficiently long to generate a wakeup and a keypad scan without missing the keypad press.", "When communicator 100 is disconnected from jacket 200 , VBAT_JACKET drops immediately to 0V.", "VBAT_JACKET is connected to modem 110 via level shifter 113 .", "As such, an interrupt is used to notify controller 190 of jacket disconnection, instead of controller 190 having to regularly poll VBAT_JACKET.", "Implementation Details FIG. 8 is a connector pinout table for an implementation of a communicator that is connected to a jacket, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.", "The table of FIG. 8 corresponds to the circuit diagrams of FIGS. 5 and 6 .", "As such, pins 18 - 21 , 24 and 26 - 29 are connected to keypad 262 , pin 14 is connected to optional backlight driver 263 , pin 17 is connected to optional vibrator 264 , and pin 23 is used for hardware recognition.", "Power for backlight driver 263 and for vibrator 264 is taken from VBAT_COMM.", "In an alternate implementation, power for backlight driver 263 and for vibrator 264 is taken from VCC — 3V.", "In the foregoing specification, the invention has been described with reference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof.", "It will, however, be evident that various modifications and changes may be made to the specific exemplary embodiments without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.", "Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to newspaper delivery boxes of the type used on the outside of house or apartment doors.", "Boxes of this type are used to prevent the theft of newspapers or other delivered material and are generally mounted either on the front door or on an outside wall adjacent the front door.", "Boxes of this type are known in the prior art, for example in Canadian patents 884,747 (Fibus et al) and 1,203,787 (Dupuis).", "It is desirable to provide several features in such boxes.", "First, they should be easily lockable and unlockable, and second they should be capable of being simply and readily attached to the front door or outside wall.", "It is desirable to provide a box with a keyless locking system, and that is mountable without the use of screws or the like, for example by suspending the box from the front door knob.", "It is also desirable to provide a box that uses a minimum of material in its construction and is thus lightweight and inexpensive.", "Accordingly, the present invention is a newspaper delivery box comprising: (a) a lower body portion having a bottom and sides;", "(b) an upper body portion hinged to the lower portion having a one-way slot therein communicating with the interior of the lower portion, said slot being adapted to allow a newspaper or the like to be inserted into the lower portion but to substantially prevent removal thereof;", "(c) a lock adapted to lock together the upper and lower parts;", "(d) a tether fixed to the container and adapted to pass around and be firmly secured behind a closed door.", "In a preferred embodiment, the upper body portion is comprised of relatively thin top and side walls and a rigid bottom spaced apart from the top wall, and the slot is provided with side walls that taper inwardly and downwardly between the top and bottom walls, the lower end of the slot being sufficiently narrow to prevent removal of objects from within the box.", "The sidewalls and bottom of the lower body portion are relatively thin and are attached to a rigid top having an opening therein through which a newspaper may be inserted or removed.", "The lock in the preferred embodiment comprises a resilent hook extending downwardly from the rigid bottom of the upper body portion, the resilent hook biased towards a corresponding aperture within the rigid top of the lower body portion.", "The aperture communicates with a channel that extends the length of the top.", "The tether is slidably engaged within the channel.", "The tether is provided with a projection which when it is slid past the hook pushes it outside the aperture to unlock the top body portion.", "In the locked position, the tether extends inside the door to be looped over the inside knob, with the projection being behind the closed door.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention will now be described by way of a description of a preferred embodiment, wherein: FIG. 1 is an illustration of the invention mounted to an apartment door;", "FIG. 2 is a schematic view, in perspective, of the device in the open position;", "FIG. 3 is a schematic cross sectional view of the upper part of the device in the closed position;", "FIG. 4 is a cross sectional view of the upper part of an alternative from of the device in the closed position, not to scale, with the rigid frame panels enlarged for detail;", "FIG. 5 is a cross sectional view as in FIG. 4, showing the device in the open position;", "FIG. 6 is a side view of a portion of the tether, illustrating the lock releasing projection attached thereto;", "FIG. 7 is a side view of the lock releasing projection detached from the tether;", "FIG. 8 is a sectional view along lines VIII--VIII of FIG. 6. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to FIG. 1, a newspaper delivery box 1 of the present invention is mounted to an apartment door 2.", "A tether 3 comprising a flexible strap provided with a loop at one end thereof (not shown), extends from the box 1 around the backside of the door 2 and the loop is attached to an inside door knob (not shown) thereof to anchor the box.", "The tether 3 serves both to lock the box shut, as will be described below, and to prevent it from being removed from the door.", "Referring to FIG. 2, the box 1 is provided with upper and lower body portions 4 and 5, connected by a hinge 6 at the rear side of the box.", "Preferably, the upper and lower body portions are made of a thin resilient plastic, and the rear walls 7 and 8 of upper and lower body portions 4 and 5 comprise a single sheet, the hinge 6 being simply an exposed portion thereof.", "The upper and lower portions are provided as well with sides 9 and 10 respectively, front walls 15 and 16, and a top 17 and bottom 18 of the top portion and bottom portion respectively.", "The rear wall 8 of the lower part is provided with two keyhole shaped slots 19(a) and 19(b) of suitable size and shape to allow the box to be hung from a door knob.", "The slots 19(a) and (b) are each positioned adjacent an edge of the rear wall 8, to allow the box to be hung from a door knob positioned on the left or right hand side of the door.", "The box may as well be placed on the floor outside the door or hung from a separate knob fixed to the outside wall of the house or apartment.", "Rigid upper and lower frame members 25 and 26 comprise the bottom surface of the upper part and the upper surface of the bottom part, respectively.", "In the closed position, these frame members are spaced apart from each other, as shown in FIG. 4, to hinder a person from reaching through the slot to retrieve a newspaper from within the box.", "The frame members 25 and 26 are provided with communicating slots 28 and 29, respectively.", "The lower slot 29 has a widened part 30 to allow for hand retrieval of the paper when the box is opened.", "The rigid upper and lower frame members provide a rigid, non-deformable support for the upper and lower body portions respectively, and allow the body portions to be constructed of a lightweight flexible plastic and still retain their shape and remain secure against forceable entry.", "Referring to FIG. 3, the upper portion 4 is provided with a tapered elongate chute 35 that extends through the slots 28 and 29 and communicates with the interior of the lower portion 5.", "The chute 35 extends the full length of the slots 25 and 26.", "The chute 35 is comprised of side walls 36 that taper inwardly towards the bottom of the chute.", "The chute 35 is fabricated of a resilient material and its exposed lower edges are rounded, so as to provide a measure of safety in the event a child puts his or her fingers into the chute.", "The resiliency of the material and the rounded edges minimize the risk of injury to the childs fingers.", "Referring to FIGS. 4 and 5, the upper and lower frame members are provided with a lock 40, comprised of a latch 41 depending downwardly from the upper frame member 25, engagable with a slot 42 in the lower frame member 26.", "The latch 41 has an upwardly-angled hook 43 that engages a catch comprising the upper face 44 of the slot 42.", "The slot 42 has a lower face 45 that angles downwardly and rearwardly, and serves to maintain the hook 43 in the locked position.", "The latch 41 is formed of a resilient material and may be flexed rearwardly by the lock-releasing means described below, out of the channel 42 to release the hook 43.", "A guard 46 extends upwardly from the lower frame member 26, to prevent unwanted intruders from reaching into the chute and pulling the hook 43 out of the slot 42.", "The slot 42 communicates with a channel 50 extending the length of the lower frame member 26, the ends of the channel 50 being open at the sides of the frame member 26.", "The tether 3 is slidably engaged within the channel 50.", "The upper and lower frame members 25 and 26 are provided with a centering mechanism comprising a tongue 60 extending upwardly from the lower frame member, mating with a groove 61 within the upper frame member.", "A supplemental lock mechanism is provided, comprising extensions 62 and 63 extending from the upper and lower frame members respectively.", "Each extension is provided with an aperture 64.", "When the box is in the closed position, the apertures 64 are aligned.", "A padlock, not illustrated, may be inserted through the apertures.", "As illustrated in FIG. 6, the tether 3 is comprised of a flat flexible plastic web having holes 52 therethrough to engage various attachments, and reinforcing wires 55 at the edges thereof.", "A lock-releasing projection 51, illustrated at FIGS. 7 and 8 is connected to the tether 3.", "The projection 51 comprises first and second halves 54 and 55 that sandwich the tether 3.", "The two halves 54 and 55 are snap fitted to each other by multiple pins 56 extending from the second halve 55 through the holes 52 into a corresponding recess 57 within the first half 54.", "The projection 51 has a rounded nose 58 and a flared tail 59.", "As illustrated in FIG. 5, when the tether 3 is drawn through the channel 50 pass the hook 41, the projection 51 pushes the lip 43 of latch 41 out of the slot 43, and causes the latch 41 to release.", "In use, the container is either suspended from a door knob or simply left on the floor, and the top portion snapped shut.", "The free end of the tether is then looped around the inside door knob, and the apartment door closed on it with that portion of the tether having the lock-releasing projection 51 inside the door.", "Alternatively, the projection 51 may be positioned inside the channel 50, with the free end of the tether looped over the inside doorknob.", "If there is sufficient tension in the tether, the projection 51 cannot be moved sufficiently to disengage the lock 40 until the tether is detached from the doorknob.", "Once the door is closed, the projection cannot be pulled outside the door.", "A newspaper or other material may be inserted into the box through the chute 35.", "Once the newspaper is within the box it is virtually impossible for an intruder to remove it from the box, due to the narrowness of the slots 28 and 29 within the frame members 25 and 26.", "Further, the spacing between the frame members 25 and 26 provides rigid support to the lower narrow end of the chute 35 and prevents an intruder from manipulating his or her fingers within the slot sufficiently to grasp a newspaper within the box.", "With the present design, the walls of the upper and lower parts 4 and 6 may be molded of relatively thin flexible plastic.", "The upper and lower frame members 25 and 26 provide a rigid frame for the walls, and the structural strength of the box;", "if the frame members are made of a suitably rigid material, the remainder of the box may be made of relatively inexpensive thin material.", "The embodiment of the invention described herein is intended to be illustrative only of the invention, the full spirit and scope of which is set out in the appended claims." ]

[ "CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a Continuation of U.S. application Ser.", "No. 11/319,272, filed Dec. 29, 2005, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, which is a Continuation of U.S. application Ser.", "No. 10/601,862, filed Jun. 24, 2003, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION The polymorphic form A, as defined by powder x-ray diffraction, of 4-[6-acetyl-3-[3-(4-acetyl-3-hydroxy-2-propylphenylthio)propoxy]-2-propylphenoxy]butyric acid has high solubility and bioavailability compared to other crystalline forms.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Leukotrienes are metabolites of arachidonic acid through the 5′-lipoxygenase pathway and are important mediators of allergic response, such as that involved in bronchial asthma.", "Drugs that exert antagonistic effects on the leukotrienes are useful for the treatment of allergic diseases.", "The synthesis and biological activity of many phenoxyalkylcarboxylic acid derivatives, which are leukotriene antagonists, are described by Ohashi et al.", ", U.S. Pat. No. 4,985,585.", "The compounds were obtained in laboratory scale amounts by silica-gel column chromatography of the crude product mixtures.", "The solvent was evaporated to give either a pale yellow oil or colorless crystals and no deliberate effort was made to control crystal morphology.", "We have observed that 4-[6-acetyl-3-[3-(4-acetyl-3-hydroxy-2-propylphenylthio)propoxy]-2-propylphenoxy]butyric acid (1), which is Example 33 in Ohashi et al.", ", is orally active for treatment of asthma and allergic diseases and that the solid compound can crystallize into several distinct polymorphs when prepared in bulk.", "It has been discovered that the crystallization conditions, particularly temperature, is critically important for preparing the different polymorphs.", "We have also found that the solubility and the bioavailability of one of these polymorphs, identified as orthorhombic crystals (Form V in Table 1, and Form A in FIG. 6 ), is superior to the other polymorphs and thus form A offers improved solid formulations.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a pharmaceutical composition comprising a compound of formula (1) in a selected crystalline form: together with a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier or excipient, wherein the selected crystalline form is composed of polymorphic form A, substantially free of undesired polymorphs.", "By “substantially free”", "is meant that little or no undesired polymorphs are detectable by powder X-ray diffractometry (PXRD).", "Typically, the polymorphic purity is greater than 90% (defined by peak heights in the powder x-ray diffraction trace).", "Preferably, the desired crystalline form of the invention is at least about 95% of the polymorphic form A ( FIG. 6 ) as measured by relative peak heights in the region of 9° 2-theta.", "The present invention also provides a process for obtaining form A of the compound of formula (1) in at least about 90% purity with respect to other polymorphs.", "An exemplary crystallization process includes the steps of dissolving compound (1) in 5 to 10 parts by weight of warm ethanol and 1-10 parts of water, agitating the resulting suspension at 20-25° C. for 15-60 minutes and then cooling to 5-10° C. for an additional period of 1-4 hours, adding 5-15 parts of water, agitating the mixture at 5-10° C. for an additional 1-4 hours, and isolating crystals of compound (1) containing at least about 90% by weight of form A ( FIG. 6 ).", "Accordingly, a pharmaceutical composition is provided, which comprises a compound of formula (1) in solid form: together with a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier or excipient, provided that the compound of formula (1) is present in polymorphic Form A and is substantially free of other polymorphic forms.", "In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the compound of formula (1) is present as orthorhombic crystals.", "Also the invention can be made into the form of a tablet or capsule.", "Preferably, the composition of the invention gives rise to a PXRD pattern substantially as shown for polymorphic Form A in FIG. 6 .", "Moreover, it is preferable that at least about 90% of the compound of formula (1) is polymorphic Form A, as defined by PXRD peak heights around 9° 2-theta.", "The composition may further comprise lactose and microcrystalline cellulose.", "The tablet can have different weights, for example, between about 250 and about 500 mg.", "The present invention is also directed to isolated crystals of the compound of formula (1) in which the isolated crystals of compound (1) are present in polymorphic Form A and substantially free of other polymorphs.", "In a preferred embodiment the isolated crystals of compound (1) are present as orthorhombic crystals.", "The isolated crystals of compound (1) of the present invention preferably exhibit a PXRD pattern substantially as shown for polymorphic Form A in FIG. 6 .", "More preferably, the isolated crystals of the invention are at least about 90% polymorphic Form A, as defined by PXRD peak heights around 9° 2-theta.", "The invention also provides a composition having isolated crystals of compound (1), which composition contains at least about 90% of polymorphic Form A with respect to other polymorphic forms.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES FIG. 1 Powder X-ray Diffraction Pattern and DSC Chart of Form I FIG. 1 a DSC Chart of Form I FIG. 2 Powder X-ray Diffraction Pattern and DSC Chart of Form II FIG. 3 Powder X-ray Diffraction Pattern and DSC Chart of Form III FIG. 4 Powder X-ray Diffraction Pattern and DSC Chart of Form IV FIG. 5 Powder X-ray Diffraction Pattern and DSC Chart of Form V FIG. 6 X-ray diffraction patterns of three polymorphs.", "FIG. 7 .", "Schematic process for dry granulation FIG. 8 .", "Schematic process for wet granulation DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Ester (4) can be synthesized by reacting a phenol of formula (2): wherein R is an acid protecting group, such as methyl or ethyl, with the bromo compound of formula (3): in an organic solvent, for example acetone, methylethylketone, diethylketone or dimethylformamide.", "The reaction may be conducted from below room temperature up to the reflux temperature of the solvent, in the presence of an inorganic base, e.g., potassium carbonate or sodium carbonate.", "The addition of potassium iodide is also recommended.", "Analogues of compound (3) having alternative leaving groups, such as chloro and tosylate, may be used to effect the coupling reaction.", "Removal of the acid protecting group by alkaline ester hydrolysis and extractive work-up gives compound (1) as a white solid.", "Recrystallization of the white solid to give essentially pure form A crystals ( FIG. 6 ), (e.g., 90% or more, preferably at least 95%) can be accomplished by dissolving compound (1) in 5 to 10 parts by weight of ethanol at 25-40° C. to give a yellow to orange solution.", "The ethanol solution is charged with 1-10 parts of water and agitated at 20-25° C. for about 15-60 minutes and then at 5-10° C. for an additional period of 14 hours, preferably 2.0-3.0 hours, resulting in an off-white suspension.", "To this suspension is added 5-15 parts of water and the mixture is agitated at 5-10° C. for an additional 1-4 hours, preferably 1.5-2.0 hours.", "A solid, white to off-white product is isolated by vacuum filtration and the filter cake is washed with water and dried in a vacuum at 25-40° C. for 12-24 hours.", "Other recrystallization conditions are also able to produce form A, such as dissolving compound (1) in a lower alcohol (isopropanol), and cooling the solution form crystals.", "Therapeutic Formulations Pharmaceutical compositions containing the orthorhombic form of compound (1) may be formulated for oral administration with inert excipients, such as a starch binder excipient, alone or in combination with microcrystalline cellulose and a suitable lubricant.", "Other suitable excipients include polyvinylpyrrolidinone, gelatin, hydroxy cellulose, acacia, polyethylene glycol, mannitol, sodium chloride, sodium citrate or any other excipient known to those of skill in the art of pharmaceutical compositions.", "Excipients in tablets are generally classified according to their function, such as diluents (also called bulking agents and fillers), binders which hold the ingredients together in the compressed tablet, disintegrants which help facilitate the break-up of the tablet when placed in a fluid environment to release the active ingredient, and lubricants to improve the release of the compressed tablet from the die and punches.", "In addition, tablets may contain other substances intended to improve the tabletting process, such as flow additives, flavors, sweeteners and anti-oxidants.", "Tabletting and some capsule filling operations are based on the ability of certain powders to bind under compression.", "Compressed tablets may be prepared by wet granulation, dry granulation, or direct compression.", "The wet granulation process includes mixing the components in powder form, preparing the granulating binder solution, thoroughly mixing the components with the granulating binder solution to form a dough, coarse screening the mass through a sieve, drying, grinding, adding the lubricant and compressing the tablets from the resulting mixture.", "A preferred tablet formulation is a wet granulation containing polymorphic form A of compound (1) lactose regular, microcrystalline cellulose 101, crosscarmellose, magnesium stearate and purified water, coated with Opadry II white.", "The tablets should weigh from 100 mg to 1000 mg, preferably 250 mg to 500 mg.", "Dry granulation involves the steps of mixing the powder components, compressing the mixture into hard slugs, grinding the slugs into desired particle size, screening, adding other excipients if necessary, and compressing the mixture into tablets.", "The most economical tabletting method, direct compression, requires only two steps, mixing the dry components and compressing the mixture into tablets.", "Suitable direct compression binders include microcrystalline cellulose, compressible sugars, certain calcium salts, lactose and dextrose.", "Of these, microcrystalline cellulose is preferred.", "That excipient also displays good disintegration properties.", "Other good binders include calcium phosphates and compressible sugars.", "Calcium salt binders generally require the use of disintegrants.", "Mannitol and sorbitol have certain taste advantages, but they lack binding properties and require a disintegrant.", "The tablets typically exhibit a tablet hardness of greater than 2 kilopond (kp)/cm.", "sup[.", "].2, more preferably a tablet hardness of greater than 5, most preferably about 10 to about 20 kp/cm.", "sup[.", "].2 and a disintegration time of less than 30 minutes, more preferably less than 15 minutes as measured utilizing the standard USP disintegration test in water.", "The polymorphic form A of compound (1) may also be formulated in capsules.", "Solid carriers include starch, lactose, calcium sulfate, di-hydrate, teffa alba, magnesium stearate or stearic acid, talc, pectin, acacia, agar or gelatin.", "The carrier may also include a sustained release material such as glycerol monostearate or glycerol di-stearate, alone or with a wax.", "The amount of solid carrier varies but, preferably, will be between about 20 mg to about 1 gram per dosage unit.", "Encapsulation can be done in any suitable manner, typically by use of a polymer coating used for microencapsulation, enteric coatings, multiple coatings, and the like.", "The polymer coating may resist disintegration upon contact with the saliva but instantly release the compound upon contact with gastric juice in the stomach, in order to control the taste of the composition.", "Alternatively, the polymer coating may be one that resists rapid disintegration in the presence of gastric juice.", "Suitable coating polymers include biodegradable polymers such as polylactic acid, polygycolic acid, copolymers of lactic and glycolic acid, polyorthoesters, and polyanhydrides thereof.", "The compound also can be encapsulated by a polymer coating such as a polysaccharide (e.g., methyl or ethyl cellulose) or within a liposomal delivery system.", "Suitable methods of preparing compositions containing microencapsulated active ingredients are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,462,982, 4,710,384, 5,178,878, and 5,709,886.", "Preferably, the microencapsulated compounds have a mean particle size of about 50 microns to about 120 microns (e.g., about 70 microns to about 100 microns).", "Typical doses of compound (1) in tablets and capsules are from about 1.0 mg/kg to about 100 mg/kg.", "Administration intervals vary with the patient's age, weight and general condition.", "In general, the drug is administer from one to four times daily.", "EXAMPLES In general, tablets are formed utilizing a carrier such as modified starch, alone or in combination with 10% by weight of carboxymethyl cellulose (Avicel).", "The formulations are compressed at from 1,000 to 3,000 pounds pressure in the tablet-forming process.", "The tablets preferably exhibit an average hardness of about 1.5 to 8.0 kp/cm.", "sup[.", "].2, preferably 5.0 to 7.5 kp/cm2.", "Disintegration time varies from about 30 seconds to about 15 or 20 minutes.", "The following examples give specific embodiments of the invention but should not be construed as limiting its scope.", "Example 1 Synthesis of ethyl 4-[6-acetyl-3-[3-(4-acetyl-3-hydroxy-2-propylphenylthio)-propoxy]-2-propyl phenoxy]butyrate To a stirred mixture of ethyl 4-(6-acetyl-3-hydroxy-2-propylphenoxy)butyrate (1.6 g), potassium iodide (0.5 g) and potassium carbonate (1.45 g) in acetone (30 ml) was added drop wise a solution of 4-(3-bromopropylthio)-2-hydroxy-3-propylphenyl-ethanone (1.9 g) in acetone (10 ml) with heating to reflux.", "After refluxing six hours the mixture was cooled to room temperature and inorganic materials were separated by filtration.", "The filtrate was concentrated and the residue was separated and purified by silica-gel column chromatography (eluting with benzene:ethyl acetate=9:1) to give the title compound as crude crystals (2.1 g, 72.4%) which were recrystallized from ethanol to give colorless crystals, mp 65-66° C. Example 2 Synthesis of 4-[6-acetyl-3-[3-(4-acetyl-3-hydroxy-2-propylphenylthio)propoxy]-2-propylphenoxy]butyric acid To a mixture of ethyl 4-[6-acetyl-3-[3-(4-acetyl-3-hydroxy-2-propylphenylthio)propoxy]-2-propylphenoxy]butyrate (2.1 g) in ethanol (10 ml) was added a solution of sodium hydroxide (0.26 g) dissolved into water (10 ml).", "After heating on a hot water bath for 5 minutes, the mixture was cooled by adding ice-water and was made acidic by addition of hydrochloric acid, followed by extraction with ethyl acetate.", "The organic layer was washed with water, dried over sodium sulfate and concentrated.", "The resultant residue was separated and purified by silica-gel column chromatography (eluting with ethanol:methylene chloride=3:100) to give the title compound (1.3 g, 65.2%) as colorless crystals, mp 79-81° C. Example 3 Crystalline Polymorphism After re-crystallization with individual solvents, compound (1) was subjected to powder X-ray diffractometry, thermal analysis and determination of solubility in ether;", "thus an exploratory evaluation of the crystalline polymorphism was made.", "The results demonstrate that compound (1) is present in 5 different crystalline polymorphs.", "FIGS. 1-5 show the powder X-ray diffraction patterns and DSC for metastable crystal types I through V. Table 1 shows the preparatory procedures for types I through V and their solubility in ether.", "TABLE 1 Preparation of Crystalline Polymorphs and Their Solubilities in Ether Crystal Solubility form Preparatory procedures (mg/mL) I After compound (1) was heated and dissolved in a 4-fold 36.7 quantity of isopropyl ether, the resultant solution was allowed to cool at room temperature (crystallization took place in the vicinity of 40° C.).", "Alternatively, after the compound was heated and dissolved in a 5-fold quantity of acetonitrile, the resultant solution was maintained at 40° C. in an incubator.", "II After compound (1) was heated and dissolved in a 10-fold 40.5 quantity of acetonitrile, the resultant solution was cooled and agitated in an ice water bath.", "III After compound (1) was heated and dissolved in a 10-fold 35.3 quantity of acetonitrile, the resultant solution was maintained at 25° C. in an incubator.", "IV After compound (1) was heated and dissolved in a 5-fold 45.8 quantity of ethanol, a 2.5-fold quantity of water was added thereto while hot, which was then allowed to cool at room temperature.", "V After compound (1) was heated and dissolved in a 5-fold 47.6 quantity of ethanol, the resultant was cooled and agitated in an ice water bath, and a 2.5-fold quantity of water was added thereto while cold.", "Alternatively, compound (1) was heated and dissolved in a 3.5-fold quantity of isopropanol and the resulting solution was maintained at 0° C. in a refrigerator.", "Table 1 shows that the crystallization temperature was critically important in preparing the various crystalline polymorphs.", "When the bulk ingredient is prepared, crystallization takes place on a large scale and failure in controlling the exact temperature can result in a mixture of stable and metastable crystals, giving a larger variance in the physicochemical properties and bioavailability among production lots, against which precautions should be taken.", "Example 4 Bulk Crystallization Procedure for Obtaining Orthorhombic Polymorph, Crystal Type V (Form A) Off-white solid compound (1) 34 g was dissolved in 204 mL (6 parts wrt mass of dry filter cake) of ethanol (40° C.) giving a yellow to orange solution.", "With moderate agitation, the ethanol solution was charged with 43 mL (1.3 parts) of water.", "The reaction mixture was cooled to 20-25° C. and agitated at 20-25° C. for about 15 minutes and then at 10-15° C. for an additional period of 1-2 hours, appearing as an off-white suspension.", "To the resulting suspension was then charged 364 mL (10.7 parts) of water and the mixture was agitated at 5-10° C. for an additional 1-2 hours.", "A solid, white to off-white product was isolated by vacuum filtration.", "The filter cake was washed with 2×30 mL of water.", "The off white solid was dried in a vacuum at 35-40° C. for 24 hours.", "Example 5 Solubility data of compound (1) in ethanol/water (2:1) desired polymorphic form undesired monoclinic temperature V (form A) polymorph 22° C. 6.7 g/L 3.4 g/L 30° C. 15.7 g/L 6.1 g/L 40° C. 46 g/L 17.2 g/L Samples of compound (1) (5 g) were suspended in ethanol/water (2:1, 100 mL) and stirred for one hour at temperatures of 22° C., 30° C., and 40° C., respectively.", "The suspensions were filtered and the solids dried in a vacuum oven at room temperature overnight to give the insoluble material.", "The solubilities were calculated by subtractive means based on recovered material.", "Example 6 In general wet granulation tablets were prepared with a binding solution comprised of an aqueous solution of hydroxypropylcellulose.", "Granulation was performed with a high shear granulator, the resultant wet mass was fluid bed dried, milled, blended with extragranular excipients to aid disintegration, flow and compressibility, and subsequently tabletted on a tablet press.", "These core tablets were film coated to standardize appearance and to improve compliance (i.e. ease of swallowing).", "Excipients included, but were not limited to croscarmellose sodium, magnesium stearate, hydroxypropylcelluse, hydroxypropylmethylcellulose, lactose, glyceryl behenate, polyvinylpyrrolidine, mannitol, titanium dioxide and microcrystalline cellulose.", "Example 7 In general, the dry granulation formulation was formed by dry blending (in a tumble blender or high shear mixer) a portion of the binding, disintegration and lubrication powders.", "This dry powder blend was formed into granules through the use of a roller compactor equipped with an oscillating (shear) granulator.", "The ss mesh screen, gap width, gap force, roller speed and granulator speeds were defined to optimize the formulation physical parameters as apparent to those skilled in the art of pharmaceutical processing.", "Excipients included, but were not limited to croscarmellose sodium, magnesium stearate, hydroxypropylcelluse, hydroxypropylmethylcellulose, lactose, glyceryl behenate, polyvinylpyrrolidine, mannitol, titanium dioxide and microcrystalline cellulose.", "Example 8 Specific Formulation for Dry Granulation TABLE 3.4[.", "].1 Proposed initial formulation compositions for dry granulation prototyping Prototype 1 Prototype 2 No. Ingredient (mg/tablet) (mg/tablet) 1 Compound (1), Type V (Form A) 250 250 2 Lactose regular/fast flow 7.5 — 3 Microcrystalline cellulose PH101 31 31 4 Croscarmellose sodium 20 20 5 Hydroxypropylcellulose 80 — 6 Magnesium stearate 2.0 — 7 Hydroxypropylmethylcellulose 2910 8.0 — 8 Titanium Dioxide 1.0 — 9 Carnauba wax 0.5 0.5 10 Polyvinylpyrrolidone — 85 11 Mannitol — 3.5 12 Glyceryl behenate — 2.0 13 Opadry II (white) — 8.0 Total 400 mg 400 mg The dry granulation process is given in the chart in FIG. 7 .", "Example 9 Specific Formulations for Wet Granulation TABLE 3.4[.", "].2 Proposed initial formulation compositions for wet granulation prototyping Prototype 3 Prototype 4 No. Ingredient (mg/tablet) (mg/tablet) 1 Compound (1), Type V (Form A) 250 250 2 Lactose regular/fast flow 7.5 — 3 Microcrystalline cellulose PH101 32 32 4 Croscarmellose sodium 25 25 5 Hydroxypropylcellulose 25 — 6 Magnesium stearate 2.0 — 7 Hydroxypropylmethylcellulose 2910 7.0 — 8 Titanium Dioxide 1.0 — 9 Carnauba wax 0.5 0.5 10 Polyvinylpyrrolidone — 30 11 Mannitol — 3.5 12 Glyceryl behenate — 2.0 13 Opadry II (white) — 7.0 Total 350 mg 350 mg The wet granulation process is given in the chart in FIG. 8 .", "The preferred embodiments of the invention have been described above in detail.", "Various modifications and improvements thereto will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art.", "The foregoing examples are intended to be non-limiting and exemplary of the invention described in the foregoing specification and claimed below.", "Example 10 PXRD Analysis The samples were prepared by a normal front packing technique and run on a Siemens D5000 Diffractometer System.", "A high-resolution Cu-Kα-source was used, operating at 50 kV/35 mA.", "The secondary beam was monochromatized by a Kevex solid state detector.", "The step scan mode was used for data collection within the range of 2.5°-35° (2-theta).", "The obtained data were processed by Diffrac Plus™Software.", "The parts of the diffraction patterns of three different polymorphs are shown in FIG. 6 , determined as Form A (likely an orthorhombic structure, specified type V), Form B (I) and Form C (II) (both monoclinic lattices) are also shown.", "As on can see the top pattern is quite different from the other two.", "The differences are clearly marked with arrows above the top trace.", "Most of the single peaks on the upper pattern became doublets on the other two.", "This strongly suggests a structural transition with lowering of the overall symmetry.", "In order to find out some criteria for better distinguishing of these polymorphous, an attempt for indexing the unknown lattices was performed.", "The results reveal an orthorhombic lattice (top trace, Form A) and a monoclinic one (middle trace, Form B).", "The bottom trace (Form C) has also a monoclinic lattice very similar to that one of Form B, but with some missing reflections (marked with arrows) that could result from some structural differences.", "The structure of our Form A is very close to Form V in Table 1 and FIG. 5 , although there are some differences at the range 19-25° 2-theta.", "On the other hand, the diffraction patterns for polymorphous Form I and Form II match well with Forms B and C, as they all apparently show the splitting of the main reflections due to reducing the overall symmetry from orthorhombic to monoclinic.", "Because crystallographic characterizations of all five polymorphous described in Table 1 are difficult to reproduce, we will characterize the structural state of compound (1) in pharmaceutical samples only by means of its appearance as Form A, as defined by PXRD." ]

[ "[0001] This invention relates to a transmit/receive coil array for use in MR Imaging of the head of a patient which is provided with removable panels and is arranged primarily for Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) but can also be used with other stereotactic procedures including the positioning of needles for biopsies.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Deep brain stimulation is a surgical treatment involving the implantation of a medical device called a brain pacemaker, which sends electrical impulses to specific parts of the brain.", "DBS in select brain regions has provided remarkable therapeutic benefits for otherwise treatment-resistant movement and affective disorders such as chronic pain, Parkinson's disease, tremor and dystonia [0003] The deep brain stimulation system consists of three components: the implanted pulse generator (IPG), the lead, and the extension.", "The IPG is typically a battery-powered neurostimulator encased in a titanium housing, which sends electrical pulses to the brain to interfere with neural activity at the target site.", "The lead is typically a coiled wire insulated in polyurethane with four platinum iridium electrodes and is placed in one of three areas of the brain.", "The lead is connected to the IPG by the extension, an insulated wire that runs from the head, down the side of the neck, behind the ear to the IPG, which is placed subcutaneously below the clavicle or in some cases, the abdomen.", "The IPG can be calibrated by a neurologist, nurse or trained technician to optimize symptom suppression and control side effects.", "[0004] DBS leads are located in the brain according to the type of symptoms to be addressed.", "For non-Parkinsonian essential tremor the lead is placed in the ventrointermedial nucleus (VIM) of the thalamus.", "For dystonia and symptoms associated with Parkinson's disease (rigidity, bradykinesia/akinesia and tremor), the lead may be placed in either the globus pallidus or subthalamic nucleus.", "[0005] All three components are surgically implanted inside the body.", "Under local anesthesia, a hole about 14 mm in diameter is drilled in the skull and the electrode is inserted, with feedback from the patient for optimal placement.", "The installation of the IPG and lead occurs under general anesthesia.", "[0006] Stereotactic procedures and specifically Deep Brain Stimulation can benefit enormously with the use of Magnetic resonance as a guidance for both more accurate placing the needles for biopsies or guiding and placing the stimulation leads for the DBS procedure.", "Particularly for DBS procedures, there exists a limitation for the use of magnetic resonance during and after the implantation of the electrodes on the DBS procedure.", "This arises due to the heating of the leads which will occur in the transmit RF field necessary for MR Imaging.", "The heating of the leads must be maintained at a temperature less than a specified maximum in order to avoid over heating of tissue and consequential damage.", "[0007] For a DBS procedure three are in general three stages that Magnetic Resonance can be utilized as a guidance for the procedure.", "The first step is the placing the stereotactic frame on the patient's head that is bolted on the skull with four pins that are attached to the frame and to the skull of the patient.", "Then a stereotactic locating phantom is attached to the frame and the patient is ready for pre-operative imaging.", "The purpose of this phantom is to calibrate for any non-linearities and non-uniformities arising from the main magnetic field as well as the gradient.", "In addition, it provides additional information regarding image intensity correction from the B1 field of the RF transmit coil [0008] As a next step the patient, with the stereotactic frame and stereotactic locator phantom attached to the patient, is brought to an MR table.", "The DBS stereotactic frame and locator phantom are placed inside a Transmit/Receive quadrature head coil and a 3D MR image is obtained that include the fiducials on the frame locator phantom.", "An example of a suitable head coil is commercially available from Siemens, which can be used with Medtronic's MR compatible DBS leads for 1.5 T systems only.", "This image is utilized by the navigation software to guide the MER (Micro electro-recordings) to the required location accurately.", "However, there is a drawback on this procedure.", "The entire DBS operation relies on the images that were obtained before the operation started.", "The required accuracy of placing the electrodes at the required location is within few millimetres, or the entire procedure will be unsuccessful.", "The issue exists, during the intra-operative stage, when a burr-hole is opened on the skull and the brain shifts by few millimetres.", "At that stage, using the presently available coil configuration it is impossible to place back the locator phantom on the stereotactic frame.", "Thus it is not possible to obtain new set of 3D MRI images to be used as a new registration platform for the navigation software.", "For this reason it is not possible to capture the changes in the brain movement post burr-hole and accurately guide the MER to the required location and furthermore the accurate placement of the electrodes.", "[0009] Typically in imaging the patient with the DBS leads in place, the power output of the transmit coil must be limited to less than 0.1 Watts/kg utilizing the existing available head coil described above, in view of the presence of the metal of the DBS leads within the RF field and located in the brain which can cause unacceptable heating of the leads.", "Due to the restriction of the power that is allowed to be used when imaging DBS leads, it is impossible to obtain any good image quality at such low power levels.", "Some users resort to exceeding these limits and in rare instances this has resulted in the heating of the leads harming the patient or causing death.", "[0010] It will be appreciated that the head coil is large and a long distance away from the head so it requires more power to generate an MRI image with an acceptable SNR .", "[0011] U.S. Pat. No. 6,969,992 (Vaughan) issued Nov. 29 2005 to University of Minnesota discloses a parallel RF transceiver for an NMR system.", "An excitation and detection circuit has individually controllable elements for use with a multi-element RF coil.", "Characteristics of the driving signal, including, for example, the phase, amplitude, frequency and timing, from each element of the circuit are separately controllable using small signals.", "Negative feedback for the driving signal associated with each coil element is derived from a receiver coupled to that coil element.", "[0012] U.S. Pat. No. 7,525,313 (Boskamp) issued Apr. 28 2009 to GE discloses a system for a multi-channel MR transmission system including transmitting multiple radio frequency (RF) channels via an RF coil assembly.", "An RF coil assembly having a number of coil elements is configured to transmit a number of RF channels which is less than the number of coil elements thereof.", "Some implementations may use signal splitters for some or all of the RF channels to produce driving inputs for each coil element.", "By using more coil elements than RF channels, various embodiments may exhibit increased power efficiency and improved B1 uniformity.", "[0013] U.S. Pat. No. 6,982,554 (Kurpad) issued Jan. 3 2006 to GE discloses a system and method for operating transmit or transmit/receive elements in an MR system An array of series resonant transmit elements include individual control of RF current in all elements.", "The array adjusts scan homogeneity during a scan or prescan phase by adjusting amplitude and phase.", "The array also selectively excites areas of interest, thus avoiding major power dissipation and avoiding heating in the patient.", "[0014] The disclosures of the above documents are incorporated herein by reference.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0015] According to one aspect of the invention there is provided an apparatus for use in a stereotactic operating procedure comprising: [0016] a stereotactic head frame for attachment to a patient's head;", "[0017] a transmit/receive RF coil array fur use in generating an MR image of a head of a patient;", "[0018] the coil array being arranged for mounting on the stereotactic head frame;", "[0019] the coil array comprising a plurality of coil elements each for generating an RF field;", "[0020] the coil elements being arranged to be mounted at respective positions on the frame so as to be located at positions around the head of the patient;", "[0021] the coil elements being arranged to cooperate to generate an RF field within the head of the patient for imaging of the head;", "[0022] at least one of the coil elements being removable from the frame;", "a control system for generating signals for supply to the individual coil elements to generate the RF field;", "[0023] the control system being arranged to control the signals to the coil elements so as to generate a required RF field with all the coil elements in place and with one or more the coil elements removed.", "[0024] Preferably the coil element are modular so that they can be removed or placed back on the head frame as required.", "[0025] Preferably there are provided MR locator elements arranged to be mounted on the frame, each locator element being formed of a material which is compatible with MR imaging and is visible in an MR image and each includes an array of straight edges for defining predetermined lines in the image at predetermined locations for tuning the MR imaging system.", "[0026] That is the stereotactic locating elements are arranged to calibrate for any non-linearities and non-uniformities arising from a main magnetic field of the MR system as well as the gradient.", "That is the stereotactic locating elements are arranged to provide additional information regarding image intensity correction from the B1 field of the RF transmit coil.", "[0027] Preferably the locator elements are also modular and removable from the frame.", "[0028] Preferably the coil elements are arranged such that they can be mounted on the frame both with the locator elements in place and with the locator elements removed.", "[0029] Preferably each coil element is associated with a respective locator element.", "[0030] Preferably each coil element is mounted on an outer side of a respective locator element.", "[0031] Preferably each coil element is supplied with a signal from a respective channel and the control system is arranged to adjust the B1 sensitivity for each channel to ensure uniform B1 on the imaging area when one or more coil elements are removed Preferably the control system is arranged to adjust the B1 sensitivity for each channel to minimize power levels and to divert the RF field away from any metal leads at or within the patient's head.", "[0032] Preferably the coil elements are constructed to be sterilizable when removed.", "[0033] Preferably the control system is arranged to drive the RF signals to each of the coil elements with a single transmitter using a power splitter and/or a Butler matrix to adjust the phase and magnitude of B1.", "[0034] Preferably the coil elements form a Transceiver (transmit/receive) array that is connected to a set of RF power amplifiers that directly can drive the coils.", "[0035] Preferably the coil elements are dome shaped.", "That is the coil elements have an outer face and are tapered from the outer face toward the frame.", "[0036] Preferably the frame is generally rectangular with a plurality of side faces and the coil elements are arranged around the head on the frame each on a respective side of the frame.", "[0037] Preferably each of the coil elements comprises a support member removable from the frame and coil electrical components mounted on the support member.", "[0038] Preferably the control system comprises a multi-transmit evaluation software where the B1 field for each of the coil elements is evaluated and the total B1 field behavior is evaluated as well as the SAR and the phase and magnitude of the magnetic field B1 can be adjusted for each coil element such that the SAR is minimized and the B1 field is only focused on the area of interest.", "[0039] Preferably the control system is arranged such that in the case that there is not a direct feed from a set of transmit RF amplifiers, a power splitter or power divider is used [0040] Preferably the control system is arranged such that, where not all the coil elements are used, a 50 Ohm terminator is provided on the unused channels.", "[0041] Preferably the control system is arranged such that, where the number of transmit feeds is not directly proportional with the number of transmit elements on the coil elements, a Butler matrix is utilized to combine two or more channels to one of the coil elements.", "[0042] Preferably each channel of the transceiver array includes a T/R switch where it can be a transmit and receive channel.", "[0043] Preferably the Transmit and Receive signal for each coil elements on the transceiver are separated.", "[0044] Preferably there is provided a stereotactic guide member mounted on the head frame for guiding an insertion into the head of the patient, and a selected one or more of the coil elements is removable to allow the guide member to guide the insertion through that part of the frame from which the coil element is removed.", "[0045] Preferably the coil elements are removed to accommodate imaging during post bur-hole and intra-operational procedures.", "[0046] Preferably the guide member is arranged to insert a DBS component having supply leads and wherein the coil elements are removed so as to allow a post operational imaging procedure to determine if the DBS component has been placed accurately.", "[0047] Preferably during the post operational imaging procedure the transmit evaluation software is used so that SAR that does not exceed 0.1 W/kg.", "[0048] According to a second aspect of the invention there is provide a method for stereotactically inserting a component into the brain of a patient [0049] providing a stereotactic head frame for attachment to a patient's head;", "[0050] providing a stereotactic guide member mounted on the head frame for guiding an insertion into the head of the patient;", "[0051] providing a transmit/receive RF coil array fur use in generating an MR image of a head of a patient;", "[0052] the coil array being arranged for mounting on the stereotactic head frame;", "[0053] the coil array comprising a plurality of coil elements each for generating an RF field;", "[0054] the coil elements being arranged to be mounted at respective positions on the frame so as to be located at positions around the head of the patient;", "[0055] the coil elements being arranged to cooperate to generate an RF field within the head of the patient for imaging of the head;", "[0056] selecting at least one of the coil elements to be removed from the frame to allow access to the brain by the stereotactic guide member;", "[0057] with the coil element removed, carrying out an imaging procedure using the coil array;", "[0058] and generating signals for supply to the individual coil elements to generate the RF field arranged to generate a required RF field with said one or more the coil elements removed.", "[0059] Preferably the selected coil elements are removed to accommodate imaging during post bur-hole and intra-operational procedures.", "[0060] Preferably a DBS component having supply leads is inserted and a post operational imaging procedure is carried out to determine if the DBS component has been placed accurately.", "[0061] Preferably during the post operational imaging procedure the transmit evaluation software is used so that SAR that does not exceed 0.1 W/kg.", "[0062] In general therefore the arrangement provides a modular multi-transmit head coil that has an integrated MR locator as part of the coil structure is presented.", "The coil/locator has attached MR/CT compatible fiducials on it to correlated images pre-op, intra-op and post op.", "The coils patterns is a Transceive (transmit/receive) array that is attached directly to a set of a stereotactic locator frame and is connected to a set of RF power amplifiers that directly can drive the coils.", "[0063] The features of the invention include: Multi-transmit Head coil with modular elements that are domed shaped.", "The Elements are distributed around the head in a cubic fashion that is similar to the stereotactic locator box.", "each multi-transmit element consists of two primary components.", "An electrical one that includes each coil element of the transceiver while at the same structure a part of the fiducial or locator frame for the stereotactic application is part of it.", "A multi-transmit evaluation software, like XFDTD or FEA, where the B1 field for each of the Transceive arrays is evaluated and the total B1 field behavior is evaluated as well as the SAR.", "Then the phase and magnitude of the magnetic field B1 can be adjusted for each element such that the SAR is minimized and the B1 field is only focused on the area of interest.", "The modularized design allows all or parts of the coils to be used and connected to the RF amplifiers where allowing parts to be removed to accommodate imaging during post bur-hole and intra-operational procedures.", "[0068] Also the combination of all or part of the of the transceiver array coils can be utilized post operational procedure to determine if the DBS leads have been placed accurately.", "At the same time utilizing the transmit evaluation software a choice of Minimum SAR that does not exceed 0.1 W/kg) can be chosen with the appropriate combination of magnitude and phase of the B1 field for each element to ensure that we maintain safe limits for SAR.", "[0069] Alternative embodiments will include: In the case that there is not a direct feed from a set of transmit RF amplifiers, a power splitter or power divider can be used.", "During intra-operative procedures where not all the channels can be used, a 50 Ohm terminator on the unused channels can be considered.", "Also if the number of transmit feeds is not directly proportional with the number of transmit elements on the coils, a butler matrix can be utilized to combine two or more channels to one transmitter.", "Another option is that each channel of the transceiver array can have one T/R switch where it can be a transmit and receive channel Another option is that, the Transmit and Receive signal for each coil on the transceiver are separated [0074] The important features are as follows: Modularize the coils that can be removed or placed back based on the demand during pre-op, post burr-hole or intra-operative and post lead placement procedure Make the MR/CT localizer phantom as modular and part of the coil.", "Adjust the B1 sensitivity for each channel to ensure uniform B1 on the imaging area even if one or more elements are missing Adjust the B1 sensitivity for each channel to minimize SAR levels and strip the E-field away from the DBS leads Construct the coils to be sterilizable.", "Drive the coils with a single transmitter using a power splitter and/or a Butler matrix.", "To adjust the phase and magnitude of B1.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0081] One embodiment of the invention will now be described in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which: [0082] FIG. 1 is an isometric view of an apparatus for use in a stereotactic operating procedure including a stereotactic head frame for attachment to a patient's head and a stereotactic guide device carried on the frame of the type which can be used in the present invention.", "[0083] FIG. 2 is a an isometric view of the frame of FIG. 1 on which is mounted the locater elements and coil elements which cooperate with the frame to form the apparatus according to the present invention.", "[0084] FIG. 3 is an isometric view similar to that of FIG. 2 which some of the coil elements removed to allow access by the stereotactic guide device of FIG. 1 .", "[0085] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of the control system including separate control of each channel of the array.", "[0086] FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration of an 8 channel transmit system for the apparatus of FIG. 1 attached to a single RFPA (power amplifier) and utilizing a power divider for distributing the power to all channels.", "[0087] FIG. 6 is a schematic illustration of an 8 channel transmit system for the apparatus of FIG. 1 attached to 8 RFPAs for distributing the power to all channels.", "[0088] In the drawings like characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the different figures.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0089] An apparatus according to the present invention for use in a stereotactic operating procedure includes a head frame and guide device shown in FIG. 1 of a conventional nature.", "Such a device can be of the type manufactured by Elekta of Sweden for use with the stereotactically guided radiation knife system sold under the trademark “Gamma Knife.”", "The arrangement shown in FIG. 1 is the Leksell Stereotactic system and includes a stereotactic head frame 10 for attachment to a patient's head.", "The frame 10 is made up of four sides 10 A connected at corners 10 B for surrounding the head.", "The sides connect to clamp elements 11 with clamp pins 12 for engaging and connecting to the skull 13 of the patient.", "A stereotactic guide member 14 is mounted on the head frame 10 for guiding an insertion of a biopsy needle 15 or other device into the head of the patient.", "The arrangement shown is well known and widely used for many years so that further description is not required here.", "It suffice to say that the guide device 14 can be adjusted to required locations around the frame so as to guide the insertion into the required location through a burr hole formed in the skull at the required location.", "[0090] The frame 10 is also shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 with the sides 10 A arranged at right angles to form a generally cubic structure to surround the head of the patient.", "On the frame is mounted a transmit/receive RF coil array 16 fur use in generating an MR image of a head of a patient.", "The coil array 16 comprising a plurality of coil elements 16 A, 16 B, 16 C, 16 D and 16 E each for generating an RF field.", "The elements 16 A to 16 D are mounted on the four sides of the frame with the element 16 E shown only in phantom on the top or end of the frame.", "[0091] The coil elements are arranged to be mounted at the respective positions on the frame so as to forma a generally rectangular or cubic array at positions around the head of the patient.", "The coil elements are arranged to cooperate to generate an RF field within the head of the patient for imaging of the head.", "As shown, each coil element is formed with two loops 17 , 18 cooperating on a single mounting base 19 .", "The loops 17 , 18 are arranged to cover one side of the frame.", "The number of loops can be modified depending on the requirements of the designer of the phased loop array to be used on the frame.", "[0092] As shown in FIG. 3 , at least one of the coil elements is removable from the frame, that is in general each of the elements is individually removable with the operator being able to select the elements to be removed in the operation concerned.", "[0093] Thus in general, the coil elements are mounted at respective positions on the frame so as to be located at positions around the head of the patient.", "Prior to the operation, generally all of the five coil elements remain in place for the most effective and accurate imaging.", "[0094] For the stereotactic procedure, at least one of the coil elements is selected to be removed from the frame to allow access to the brain by the stereotactic guide member.", "The other coil elements remain in place for further imaging to be carried out.", "With the coil element removed, therefore an imaging procedure using the coil array is carried out.", "[0095] The control system for generating the RF signals is arranged for generating signals for supply to the individual coil elements to generate the RF field required for the imaging and is arranged to generate a required RF field with the coils all in place and with one or more the coil elements removed.", "Thus the selected coil elements are removed to accommodate imaging during post burr-hole and intra-operational procedures.", "[0096] The arrangement described herein is particularly effective for the DBS procedures previously described where imaging after formation of the burr hole is desirable to determine any brain shift.", "Also imaging after insertion of the DBS device is desirable to ensure the accurate location of the device taking into account any further movement or inaccuracy in the insertion.", "[0097] Thus in use the DBS device is inserted using the stereotactic guide member 14 mounted on the head frame for guiding the insertion into the head of the patient.", "In order to do this, a selected one or more of the coil elements is removed to allow the guide member to guide the insertion through that part of the frame from which the coil element is removed.", "That is the coil elements are removed to accommodate imaging during post bur-hole and intra-operational procedures.", "[0098] In order to prevent excess heating of the DBS leads during the post operational imaging procedure, the transmit evaluation software 70 ( FIG. 4 ) is used so that SAR that does not exceed 0.1 W/kg.", "Also the field is controlled to limit the transmission of the RF field to the area of the DBS leads.", "[0099] Each coil element has the base thereof formed as a rectangular panel covering the respective side.", "The coil elements are modular so that they can be removed or placed back on the head frame as required.", "[0100] There is also provided on the frame 10 a plurality of MR locator elements 20 arranged to be mounted on the frame.", "Thus each side of the frame has a respective locator element formed as a flat panel to be attached to the frame underneath the respective one of the coil elements 16 .", "Each locator element 20 is formed of a material which is compatible with MR imaging and is visible in an MR image.", "Each includes an array of straight edges 20 A, 20 B, 20 C for defining predetermined lines in the image at predetermined locations.", "These lines in the image are observed to see whether they are properly straight and properly located since any distortion will show up in the image allowing tuning of the MR imaging system.", "That is the stereotactic locating elements are arranged to calibrate for any non-linearities and non-uniformities arising from a main magnetic field of the MR system as well as the gradient.", "That is the stereotactic Locating elements are arranged to provide additional information regarding image intensity correction from the B1 field of the RF transmit coil.", "The operation of such locator elements, otherwise known as a locator box or locator phantom, is known to persons skilled in this art.", "[0101] The locator elements are modular and removable from the frame.", "The locator elements 20 are mounted on pins 21 carried on the frame.", "The coil elements are arranged such that they can be mounted on the frame both with the locator elements in place and with the locator elements removed.", "That is the coil elements can mount on holes 22 of the locator elements by studs on the coil elements on an outer side of a respective locator element or the coil elements can be mounted directly on the pins 21 by suitable receptacles so that the coil elements can be used with or without the locator elements.", "The mounting arrangements shown are only examples of suitable mechanical connections.", "When connected to its respective locator element, each coil element is associated with a respective locator element.", "The coil elements and the locator elements are constructed of suitable materials to be sterilizable when removed.", "The coil elements are dome shaped, that is, the base 19 of each of the coil elements has an outer face 19 A and is tapered at the side edges 19 B and 19 C from the outer face toward the frame.", "This construction brings the conductors of the coil as close as possible to the locator element inside the coil element.", "[0102] The MR control system 30 shown in FIG. 5 is of a conventional construction well known to persons skilled in the art and acts for controlling the imaging system and generating the necessary RF signals to supply to the RF coil elements.", "The control system is arranged to control the RF signals to the coil elements so as to generate a required RF field with all the coil elements in place and with one or more the coil elements removed.", "[0103] The control system includes a multi-transmit evaluation software where the B1 field for each of the coil elements is evaluated and the total B1 field behavior is evaluated as well as the SAR and the phase and magnitude of the magnetic field B1 can be adjusted for each coil element such that the SAR is minimized and the B 1 field is only focused on the area of interest.", "[0104] Each coil element is supplied with a signal from a respective channel and the control system is arranged to adjust the B1 sensitivity for each channel to ensure uniform B1 on the imaging area when one or more coil elements are removed.", "[0105] The control system is arranged to adjust the B1 sensitivity for each channel to minimize power levels and to divert the RF field away from any metal leads at or within the patient's head.", "[0106] The control system as shown in FIG. 5 is arranged to drive the RF signals to each of the coil elements with a single transmitter using a power splitter 40 and/or a Butler matrix to adjust the phase and magnitude of B1.", "[0107] Alternatively as shown in FIGS. 4 and 6 , the coil elements form a Transceiver (transmit/receive) array that is connected to a set of RF power amplifiers 50 that directly can drive the coils.", "[0108] Thus the control system is arranged such that, in the case that there is not a direct feed from a set of transmit RF amplifiers, a power splitter or power divider is used.", "The control system is arranged such that, where not all the coil elements are used, that is one or more is removed as set forth above, a 50 Ohm terminator 60 ( FIG. 6 ) is provided on the unused channels.", "[0109] The control system is arranged such that, where the number of transmit feeds is not directly proportional with the number of transmit elements on the coil elements, a Butler matrix is utilized to combine two or more channels to one of the coil elements.", "[0110] As shown in FIG. 4 each channel of the transceiver array includes a T/R switch 61 where it can be a transmit and receive channel.", "[0111] The Transmit and Receive signal for each coil elements on the transceiver are separated.", "[0112] Since various modifications can be made in my invention as herein above described, and many apparently widely different embodiments of same made within the spirit and scope of the claims without department from such spirit and scope, it is intended that all matter contained in the accompanying specification shall be interpreted as illustrative only and not in a limiting sense." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application is a continuation in part of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 07/954,786, filed Sep. 30, 1992, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,276,490, and entitled "Buried Electrode Drum for an Electrophotographic Print Engine".", "TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention pertains in general to electrophotographic print engines, and more particular, to the feeding mechanism for feeding paper to an electrostatic drum or transfer belt.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION When utilizing electrostatic gripping on a transfer drum or belt, the voltage is typically applied at such a level that adherence of the paper to the drum is adequate.", "However, if the voltage is reduced below a certain level, some difficulty exists in adhering the paper to the drum or transfer belt.", "This is due to the fact that the paper has a tendency to lay flat, whereas the drum or transfer belt has an arcuate surface.", "Of course, after the paper has been on the drum for a sufficient amount of time, it will conform to the shape of the surface.", "Unfortunately, high speed copiers at present do not allow the paper to reside on the drum for very long.", "In electrophotographic equipment, it is necessary to provide various moving surfaces which are periodically charged to attract toner particles and discharged to allow the toner particles to be transferred.", "At present, three general approaches have been embodied in products in the marketplace with respect to the drums.", "In a first method, the conventional insulating drum technology is one technology that grips the paper for multiple transfers.", "A second method is the semi-conductive belt that passes all the toner to the paper in a single step.", "The third technology is the single transfer to paper multi-pass charge, expose and development approach.", "Each of the above approaches has advantages and disadvantages.", "The conventional paper drum technology has superior image quality and transfer efficiency.", "However, hardware complexity (e.g., paper gripping, multiple coronas, etc.), media variability and drum resistivity add to the cost and reduce the reliability of the equipment.", "By comparison, the single transfer paper-to-paper system that utilizes belts has an advantage of simpler hardware and more reliable paper handling.", "However, it suffers from reduced system efficiency and the attendant problems with belt tracking, belt fatigue and handling difficulties during service.", "Furthermore, it is difficult to implement the belt system to handle multi-pass to paper configuration for improved efficiency and image quality.", "The third technique, the single transfer-to-paper system, is operable to build the entire toner image on the photoconductor and then transfer it.", "This technique offers simple paper handling, but at the cost of complex processes with image quality limitations and the requirement that the photoconductor surface be as large as the largest image.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention disclosed and claimed herein comprises a print engine for creating and transferring an image to an image carrier.", "The print engine includes a photoconductor member having a latent image carrying surface with at least a portion thereof being arcuate.", "An image system is operable to create a latent image on the photoconductor member.", "An arcuate transfer support member is disposed adjacent the photoconductor member to form a transfer nip therebetween such that the arcuate surface of the photoconductor member is a portion of the transfer nip.", "A flexible image carrier having an initial planar conformation is fed through a precurl feed device onto the image support member at an attachment point prior to the attachment nip.", "The precurl feed device is operable to apply a curvature bias to the image carrier such that the image carrier has an arcuate conformation associated therewith that is biased in the direction of curvature of the transfer support member.", "A decurl member is disposed on the opposite side of the transfer member from the precurl feed device to selectively extract the image carrier from the transfer support member after the image has been transferred thereto.", "A curvature bias is applied to the image carrier after extraction thereof, which curvature bias is opposite the curvature bias provided by the precurl feed device, such that the image carrier is substantially returned to the initial planar conformation.", "A control system controls the operation of the print engine to rotate the photoconductor member and image support member to effect a transfer of the latent image from the photoconductor member to the image carrier on the transfer support member as it passes through the transfer nip.", "In another aspect of the present invention, the photoconductor member and the image support member are cylindrical in shape with the image carrier comprising paper.", "The paper feed device is comprised of first and second rollers, each having a durometer that differs from the other.", "Pressure is applied to the first and second rollers such that one thereof deforms more than the other.", "As the paper is fed through the nip formed between the two rollers, it is biased such that an arcuate shape is applied thereto.", "In a further aspect of the present invention, as the paper exits the nip between the first and second rollers, it is attached at the attachment point to the surface of the image support member.", "This is effected through an electrostatic operation;", "Thereafter, the image carrier is maintained on the surface of the image support member by an electrostatic force.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS For a more complete understanding of the present invention and the advantages thereof, reference is now made to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which: FIG. 1 illustrates a perspective view of the buried electrode drum of the present invention;", "FIG. 2 illustrates a selected cross section of the drum of FIG. 1;", "FIG. 3 illustrates the interaction of the photoconductor drum and the buried electrode drum of the present invention;", "FIG. 4 illustrates a cutaway view of the electrodes at the edge of the drum;", "FIGS. 5a and 5b illustrate alternate techniques for electrifying the surface of the drum;", "FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrate the arrangement of the electrifying rollers to the edge of the drum;", "FIG. 8 illustrates a side view of a multi-pass-to-paper electrophotographic print engine utilizing the buried electrode drum;", "FIG. 9 illustrates a cross section of a single pass-to-paper print engine utilizing the varied electrode drum;", "FIG. 10 illustrates an alternate embodiment of the overall construction of the drum assembly;", "FIG. 11 illustrates another embodiment wherein a resilient layer of the insulating material is disposed over the aluminum core with electrodes disposed on the surface thereof;", "FIG. 12, illustrates another embodiment of the present invention wherein the core of the drum is covered by an insulating layer with a conducting layer disposed on the upper surface thereof;", "FIG. 13 illustrates another embodiment of the transfer drum;", "FIG. 14 illustrates another embodiment of the transfer drum construction;", "FIG. 15 illustrates another embodiment of the transfer drum construction;", "FIG. 16 illustrates another embodiment of the transfer drum;", "FIG. 17 illustrates an embodiment illustrating the interdigitated electrodes described above with respect to FIG. 15;", "FIG. 18 illustrates a detail of the physical layers in a section of the BED drum with the paper attached thereto;", "FIG. 19 illustrates a diagrammatic view of the paper layer, the film layer and the uniform electrode layer;", "FIG. 20 illustrates a schematic representation of the paper and film layers;", "FIG. 21 illustrates a schematic diagram of the overall operation of the transfer drum;", "FIG. 22 illustrates a cross sectional diagram of the structure of FIG. 19, when it passes under a photoconductor drum, which is in a discharge mode;", "FIG. 23 illustrates another view of the spatial difference between the photoconductor drum and the paper attach electrode disposed about the buried electrode drum;", "FIG. 24 illustrates a plot of simulated voltage vs.", "time for an arbitrary section of paper as it travels around the drum 48 four times in a four pass (i.e., color) print;", "FIG. 25 illustrates a simulated voltage vs.", "time plot of a single pass;", "FIG. 25a illustrates a graph of decay voltages;", "FIG. 26 illustrates a simulated voltage vs.", "time plot of a four pass operation;", "FIG. 27 illustrates a simulated voltage vs.", "time plot of a four pass operation;", "FIG. 27a illustrates an alternate simulated voltage vs.", "time plot of a four pass operation utilizing Mylar;", "FIG. 28 illustrates a simulated voltage versus time plot for an arbitrary section of paper as it travels around the drum four times during a four pass color print with no discharge before attack;", "FIG. 29 illustrates the operation of FIG. 29 with discharge;", "FIG. 30 illustrates a side-view of the overall electrophotographic printer mechanism;", "FIG. 31 illustrates a detail of the pre-curl device;", "FIG. 31a illustrates a detail of the pre-curl operation for the pre-curl rollers;", "FIGS. 32a and 32b illustrate devices to measure paper droop and curl;", "and FIG. 33 illustrates a view of the pre-curl rollers.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring now to FIG. 1, them is illustrated a perspective view of the buried electrode drum of the present invention.", "The buried electrode drum is comprised of an inner core 10 that provides a rigid support structure.", "This inner core 10 is comprised of an aluminum tube core of a thickness of approximately 2 millimeters (mm).", "The next outer layer is comprised of a controlled durometer layer 12 which is approximately 2-3 mms and fabricated from silicon foam or rubber.", "This is covered with an electrode layer 14, comprised of a plurality of longitudinally disposed electrodes 16, the electrodes being disposed a distance of 0.10 inch apart, center line to center line, approximately 0.1 mm.", "A controlled resistivity layer 18 is then disposed over the electrode layer to a thickness of approximately 0.15 mm, which layer is fabricated from carbon filled polymer material.", "Referring now to FIG. 2, them is illustrated a more detailed cross-sectional diagram of the buried electrode drum.", "It can be seen that at the end of the buried electrode drum, the electrodes 16 within electrode layer 14 are disposed a predetermined distance apart.", "However, the portion of the electrodes 16, proximate to the ends of the drum on either side thereof are "skewed"", "relative to the longitudinal axis of the drum.", "As will be described hereinbelow, this is utilized to allow access thereto.", "Referring now to FIG. 3, there is illustrated a side view of the buried electrode drum illustrating its relationship with a photoconductor drum 20.", "The photoconductor drum 20 is operable to have an image disposed thereon.", "In accordance with conventional techniques, a latent image is first disposed on the photoconductor drum 20 and then transferred to the surface of the buried electrode drum in an electrostatic manner.", "Therefore, the appropriate voltage must be present on the surface at the nip between the photoconductor drum 20 and the buried electrode drum.", "This nip is defined by a reference numeral 22.", "A roller electrode 24 is provided that is operable to contact the upper surface of the buried electrode drum at the outer edge thereof, such that it is in contact with the controlled resistivity layer 18.", "Since the electrodes 16 are skewed, the portion of the electrode 16 that is proximate to the roller electrode 24 and the portion of the electrode 16 that is proximate to the nip 22 on the longitudinal axis of the photoconductor drum 20 are associated with the same electrode 16, as will be described in more detail hereinbelow.", "Referring now to FIG. 4, there is illustrated a cutaway view of the buried electrode drum.", "It can be seen that the buried electrodes 16 are typically formed by etching a pattern on the outer surface of the controlled durometer layer 12.", "Typically, the electrodes 16 are initially formed by disposing a layer of thin, insulative polymer, such as Mylar, over the surface of the controlled durometer layer 12.", "An electrode structure is then bonded or deposited on the surface of the Mylar layer.", "In the bonded configuration, the electrode pattern is predetermined and disposed in a single sheet on the Mylar.", "In the deposited configuration, a layer of insulative material is disposed down and then patterned and etched to form the electrode structure.", "Although a series of parallel lines is illustrated, it should be understood that any pattern could be utilized to give the appropriate voltage profile, as will be described in more detail hereinbelow.", "Referring now to FIGS. 5a and 5b, there are illustrated two techniques for contacting the electrodes.", "In FIG. 5a, a roller electrode is utilized comprising a cylindrical roller 24 that is pivoted on an axle 26.", "A voltage V is disposed through a line 28 to contact the roller 24.", "The roller 24 is disposed on the edge of the buried electrode drum such that a portion of it contacts the upper surface of the controlled resistivity layer 18 and forms a nip 30 therewith.", "At the nip 30, a conductive path is formed from the outer surface of the roller electrode 24 through the controlled resistivity layer 18 to electrode 16 in the electrode layer 14.", "In this manner, a conductive path is formed.", "The electrodes 16 in the electrode layer 14, as will be described hereinbelow, are operable to provide a low conductivity path along the longitudinal axis of the buried electrode drum to evenly distribute the voltage along the longitudinal axis.", "FIG. 5b illustrates a configuration utilizing a brush 32.", "The brush 32 is connected through the voltage V through a line 34 and has conductive bristles 36 disposed on one surface thereof for contacting the outer surface of the control resistivity layer 18 on the edge of the buried electrode drum.", "The bristles 36 conduct current to the surface of the controlled resistivity layer 18 and therethrough to the electrodes 16 in the electrode layer 14.", "This operates identical to the system of FIG. 5a, in that the electrode 16 in the electrode layer 14 distributes the voltage along the longitudinal axis of the buried electrode drum.", "Referring now to FIGS. 6 and 7, there are illustrated perspective views of two embodiments for configuring the rollers.", "In FIG. 6, the buried electrode drum, referred to by a reference numeral 48, has two rollers 50 and 52 disposed at the edges thereof and a predetermined distance apart.", "The distance between the rollers 50 and 52 is a portion of the buried electrode drum 48 that contacts the photoconductor drum.", "A voltage V is disposed on each of the rollers 50 and 52 such that the voltage on the surface of the drum 48 is substantially equal over that range.", "A brush 51 is disposed on substantially the remaining portion of the circumference at the edge of the drum 48 such that conductive bristles contact all of the remaining surface at the edge of the drum 48.", "The electrode brush 51 is connected through a multiplexed switch 56 to either a voltage V on a line 58 or a ground potential on a line 60.", "The switch 56 is operable to switch between these two lines 58 and 60.", "In this configuration, one mode could be provided wherein the drum 48 was utilized as a transfer drum such that multiple images could be disposed on the drum in a multi-color process.", "However, when transfer is to occur, the switch 56 selects the ground potential on line 60 such that when the drum rotates past the electrode roller 52, the voltage is reduced to ground potential at the electrodes 16 that underlie the brush 51.", "FIG. 7 illustrates the drum 48 and rollers 50 and 52 for disposing the positive voltage therebetween.", "However, rather than the brush 51 that is disposed around the remaining portion at the edge of the drum 48, two ground potential electrode rollers 62 and 64 are provided, having a transfer region disposed therebetween.", "Therefore, an image disposed on the buried electrode drum 48 can be removed from the portion of the line between rollers 62 and 64, since this region is at a ground potential.", "Referring now to FIG. 8, there is illustrated a side view of a multi-pass-to-paper print engine.", "The print engine includes an imaging device 68 that is operable to generate a latent image on the surface of the PC drum 20.", "The PC drum 20 is disposed adjacent the buried electrode drum 48 with the contact thereof provided at the nip 22.", "Supporting brackets [not shown] provide sufficient alignment and pressure to form the nip 22 with the correct pressure and positioning.", "The nip 22 is formed substantially midway between the rollers 50 and 52, which rollers 50 and 52 are disposed at the voltage V. A scorotron 70 is provided for charging the surface of the photoconductor drum 20, with three toner modules, 72, 74 and 76 provided for a three-color system, this being conventional.", "Each of the toner modules 72, 74 and 76, are disposed around the periphery of the photoconductor drum 20 and are operable to introduce toner particles to the surface of the photoconductor drum 20 which, when a latent image passes thereby, picks up the toner particles.", "Each of the toner modules 72-76 is movable relative to the surface of the photoconductor drum 20.", "A fourth toner module 78 is provided for allowing black and white operation and also provides a fourth color for four color printing.", "Each of the toner modules 72-78 has a reservoir associated therewith for containing toner.", "A cleaning blade 80 is provided for cleaning excess toner from the surface of the photoconductor drum 20 after transfer thereof to the buried electrode drum 48.", "In operation, a three color system requires three exposures and three transfers after development of the exposed latent images.", "Furthermore, the modules 72-76 are connected together as a single module for ease of use.", "The buried electrode drum 48 has two rollers 53 and 54 disposed on either side of a pick up region, which rollers 53 and 54 are disposed at the positive potential V by switch 56 during the transfer operation.", "A cleaning blade 84 and waste container 86 are provided on a cam operated mechanism 87 such that cleaning blade 84 can be moved away from the surface of the buried electrode drum 48 during the initial transfer process.", "In the first transfer step, paper (or similar transfer medium) is disposed on the surface of the buried electrode drum 48 and the surface of drum 48 disposed at the positive potential V, and also for the second and third pass.", "After the third pass, the now complete multi-layer image will have been transferred onto the paper on the surface of the buried electrode drum 48.", "The paper is transferred from a supply reservoir 88 through a nip formed by two rollers 90 and 92.", "The paper is then transferred to a feed mechanism 94 and into adjacent contact with the surface of the drum 48 prior to the first transfer step wherein the first layer of the multi-layer image is formed.", "After the last layer of the multi-layer image is formed, the rollers 53 and 54 are disposed at ground potential and then the paper and multi-layer image are then rotated around to a stripper mechanism 96 between rollers 53 and 54.", "The stripper mechanism 96 is operable to strip the paper from the drum 48, this being a conventional mechanism.", "The stripped paper is then fed to a fuser 100.", "Fuser 100 is operable to fuse the image in between two fuse rollers 102 and 104, one of which is disposed at an elevated temperature for this purpose.", "After the fusing operation, the paper is feed to the nip of two rollers 106 and 108, for transfer to a holding plate 110, or to the nip between two rollers 112 and 114 to be routed along a paper path 116 to a holding plate 118.", "Referring now to FIG. 9, there is illustrated a side view of an intermediate transfer print engine.", "In this system, the three layers of the image are first disposed on the buried electrode drum 48 and then, after formation thereof, transferred to the paper.", "Initially, the surface of the drum is disposed at a positive potential by rollers 50 and 52 in the region between rollers 50 and 52.", "During the first pass, the first exposure is made, toner from one of the toner modules disposed on the latent image and then the latent image transferred to the actual surface of the buried electrode drum 48.", "During the second pass, a third toner is utilized to form a latent image and this image transferred to the drum 48.", "During the third pass, the third layer of the image is formed as a latent image using the second toner, which latent image is then transferred over the previous two images on the drum 48 to form the complete multi-layer image.", "After the image is formed, paper is fed from the tray 88 through the nip between rollers 90 and 92 along a paper path 124 between a nip formed by a roller 126 and the drum 48.", "The roller 126 is moved into contact with the drum 48 by a cam operation.", "The paper is moved adjacent to the drum 48 and thereafter into the fuser 100.", "During transfer of the image to the paper, two rollers 130 and 132 are provided on either side of the nip formed between the roller 126 and the drum 48.", "These two rollers 130 and 132 are operable to be disposed at a positive voltage by multiplexed switches 134 and 136 during the initial image formation procedure.", "During transfer to the paper, the rollers 130 and 132 are disposed at a ground voltage with the switches 134 and 136.", "However, it should also be understood that these voltages could be a negative voltage to actually repulse the image from the surface of the drum 48.", "Referring now to FIG. 10, there is illustrated an alternate embodiment of the overall construction of the drum assembly.", "The aluminum support or core layer 10 comprises the conductive layer in this embodiment, which aluminum core 10 is attached to a voltage supply 140.", "The voltage supply 140 provides the gripping and transfer function, as will be described hereinbelow.", "The voltage supply 140 is applied such that it provides a uniform application of the voltage from the voltage supply 140 to the underside of a resilient layer 142.", "The resilient layer 142 is a conductive resilient layer with a volume resistivity under 10 10 Ohm-cm.", "The layer 142 is fabricated from carbon filled elastomer or material such as butadiene acrylonitrile.", "The thickness of the layer 142 is approximately 3 mm.", "Overlying the resilient layer 142 is a controlled resistivity layer 144 which is composed of a thin dielectric layer of material with a thickness of between 50 and 100 microns.", "The layer 144 has a non-linear relationship between the discharge (or relaxation) time and the applied voltage such that, as the voltage increases, the discharge time changes as a function thereof.", "Overlying the layer 144 is a layer of support material 146, which is typically paper.", "The photoconductor drum 20 contacts the paper 146.", "Referring now to FIG. 11, there is illustrated another embodiment wherein a resilient layer 148 of an insulating material comprised of Neoprene is disposed over the aluminum core 10 with electrodes 14 disposed on the surface thereof.", "The electrodes 14 are disposed in a layer, each of the electrodes 14 comprised of an array of conductors separated by a predetermined distance.", "The electrodes 14 are covered by a gripping layer 150, similar to the controlled resistivity layer 144 in FIG. 10, the gripping layer 150 covered by a controlled resistivity layer with a surface resistivity of between 10 6 -10 10 Ohm/sq.", "The controlled resistivity layer 152 is fabricated from FLEX 200 and has a thickness of 75 microns.", "This is covered by the support layer 146.", "The distance between the electrodes 14 is defined by the following equation: ##EQU1## where V d is the allowable voltage droop between electrodes, i d is the toner transfer current;", "s is the spacing of the electrodes;", "r is the sum of the surface resistivity and volume resistance of the layer 150, and w is the overall length of the electrode, which is nominally the width of the drum 10.", "The voltage source 140 is connected to the electrodes 14, as described hereinabove, wherein a conductive brush or roller directly contacts an exposed portion of the electrodes on the edge of the drum or conducts through the upper conductive layers.", "Referring now to FIG. 12 there is illustrated another embodiment of the present invention wherein the core of the drum 10 is covered by an insulating layer 154 of a thickness 3 mm and of a material utilizing Neoprene, with a conducting layer 156 disposed on the upper surface thereof.", "The conductive layer 156 is connected to the voltage supply 140.", "This layer provides the advantage of separating the electrical characteristics of the material from the mechanical characteristics.", "This is covered by an insulative layer 158, similar to the gripping layer 144, with the paper 146 disposed on the upper surface thereof.", "Referring now to FIG. 13, there is illustrated another embodiment of the transfer drum.", "A voltage source 160 is connected to the core 10 and the core 10 then has a conductive resilient layer 162 disposed on the surface thereof.", "The electrodes 14 are disposed in a layer on the upper surface of the layer 162 with the voltage source 164 connected thereto through a conductive brush or such.", "The voltage supplies 160 and 164 are used to establish the uniform voltage on the underside of the resilient conductive layer 162 and a voltage profile on the top side.", "The benefit of this configuration is to provide a variable surface potential while maintaining a uniform gripping voltage source.", "A gripping layer 168 is disposed on the upper surface of the electrodes 14, similar to the gripping layer 158, which is then covered by the paper 146.", "Additionally, it is noted that by applying the voltage 164 that is different than the voltage of supply 160 (perhaps even 0), a voltage profile with a voltage minimum will be obtained at the entrance to the nip.", "This will reduce the pre-nip discharge for multiple transfer operation.", "This voltage minimum characteristic is also shown in FIG. 6a.", "Referring now to FIG. 14, there is illustrated another embodiment of the transfer drum construction.", "In this configuration, an insulating core 170 is provided, similar to the dimension of the core 10 but fabricated from insulating material such as polycarbonate.", "The electrode layer with electrodes 14 is then disposed on the surface of the insulating core 170 and the voltage source 140 connected thereto.", "A conducting resilient layer 172 is disposed on the surface of the electrodes 14 to a thickness of 3 mm and fabricated from butylacrylonitrile.", "A gripping layer 174, similar to the gripping layer 144 is disposed on top of the resilient layer 172, with the paper 146 disposed on the upper surface thereof.", "Referring now to FIG. 15, there is illustrated another embodiment of the transfer drum construction.", "The conducting layer 156 in FIG. 11 is removed such that a layer of interdigitated electrodes 176 can be utilized between the gripping layer 152 and the resilient layer 148.", "This resilient layer, as described above, is an insulating layer.", "The voltage source 140 is connected to the electrodes 176.", "The interdigitated electrodes increase the value of w in Equation 1, thus allowing a much higher value of r in Equation 1.", "The interdigitated electrodes are illustrated below in FIG. 17.", "Referring now to FIG. 16, there is illustrated another embodiment of the present invention.", "The core 10 has disposed thereon a first resilient layer 180, covered by the electrode layer having electrodes 14 disposed therein.", "The electrodes 14 are connected to a voltage source 140 through conductive brushes or the such.", "A second resilient layer 182 is disposed over the electrodes 14 with the paper 146 disposed on the surface thereof.", "The layer 180 can be a resilient layer that is resistive or insulative.", "The resilient layer 182 is resistive with a resistivity of less than 10 10 Ohms/cm.", "The advantage provided by this configuration is that the physical effects (i.e., nip pressure variations) of the electrode layer are reduced by enclosing the electrodes 14 in two resilient layers 180 and 182.", "Referring now to FIG. 17, there is illustrated an embodiment illustrating the interdigitated electrodes described above with respect to FIG. 15.", "The interdigitated electrodes each have a plurality of longitudinal arms 184 with extended or interdigitated electrodes 186 and 188 extending from either side thereof.", "Adjacent electrodes will have the interdigitated arms or electrodes 186 and 188 offset along the longitudinal arm 184 such that they will interdigitate with each other, thereby effectively increasing apparent "w"", "of Equation 1, such that the controlled resistivity layer can be at a higher resistivity to the point that it can be eliminated.", "Referring now to FIG. 18, there is illustrated a detail of the physical layers in a section of the BED drum 48 with the paper 146 attached thereto.", "An electrode strip 190 is disposed between a controlled durometer layer 192 and a controlled resistivity layer 194.", "The controlled durometer layer 192 represents the resilient layer 142 in FIG. 10 and subsequent figures.", "The controlled resistivity layer 194 represents the gripping layer 144 in FIG. 10.", "The controlled durometer layer 192 is disposed between the electrode strip layer 190 and the aluminum drum 10, the electrode strip layer 190 either comprising a plurality of electrodes in strips, as described above, or a single continuous layer.", "Referring now to FIG. 19, them is illustrated a diagrammatic view of the paper layer 146, the film layer 194 and the uniform electrode 196 layer, which comprises the electrode strip layer 190.", "A paper attach electrode 198 is provided, which is operable to contact the paper and dispose a potential thereon which, in the preferred embodiment, is ground.", "At the point the electrode 198 contacts the paper 146, a nip 200 is formed.", "Referring now to FIG. 20, there is illustrated a schematic representation of the layers 146, 174 and 196.", "A first capacitor 202, labelled C P , represents a paper layer 146, with a parallel resistor 204 labelled R P .", "The film layer 194 is represented by a capacitor 206 labelled C F , with a resistor 208 disposed in parallel therewith, labelled R F .", "The electrode layer 196 is represented by a resistance 210 labelled R E , which goes to a transfer/attach power supply.", "Referring now to FIG. 21, there is illustrated a schematic diagram of a simulator circuit capable of simulating the overall operation of the transfer drum 48.", "The schematic representation shows a switch 212 that is labelled K P which is the charge relay, which is operable to connect the upper surface of a paper layer 146, represented by the capacitor 206 and resistor 204, to ground when the switch 212 is closed.", "A attach/transfer voltage source 214 is provided, having the positive voltage terminal thereof connected to the most distal side of resistor 210 and essentially to the uniform electrode layer 197.", "The other side of the supply 214 is connected to ground.", "A switch 216 is provided which is labelled K F , which is operable to connect the positive side of the supply 2 14 to the top of the film layer 194.", "This is a discharge operation that will be described in more detail hereinbelow.", "When paper is first presented to the drum in the nip 200 for attachment, the charge distribution of FIG. 19 is illustrated wherein positive charges are attracted to the upper surface of the paper and negative charges attracted to the lower surface thereof.", "Similarly, the positive charges are attracted to the upper surface of the film layer 194 and negative charges attracted to the lower surface thereof, with positive charges attracted to the surface of the uniform electrode 196.", "This results in mirror images of equal and opposite charges formed at each interface boundary between the various layers 146, 194 and 196.", "With the dielectric layers, layers 146 and 194, most of these charges are just below the surfaces of the respective layers and cannot cross the interface boundary between the film.", "However, the charges are strongly attracted to each other and provide the attractive force which holds the paper on the drum.", "This attractive force is normal to the surface of the drum and directly bonds the paper layer 146 to the drum in that direction.", "Additionally, this normal force is operable for generating the frictional forces that secure the paper to the drum in the remaining two axis, preventing paper slip.", "The source charge for the paper attachment is the attach/transfer supply 214.", "The switch 212 represents the paper attach electrode 198.", "When a selection of paper enters the nip 200, the composite capacitor formed by the paper and film layers is charged in a manner similar to the charging of C P and C F as illustrated in FIG. 21 when the relay K P is closed.", "If the dwell time of a section of paper in the attach nip 200 is sufficiently long relative to the time constant of the resistor 210 (R E ) and the series connected pair capacitor C P and C F , this composite capacitor will charge to a voltage very nearly equal to that of the attach/transfer supply 214.", "Fully charging the paper film composite capacitor results in the maximum transfer of charge and therefore the generation of the maximum attractive or bonding force of the paper to the drum assembly.", "After the paper leaves the attach nip 200, the capacitance that is associated with the paper and film layers begins to discharge.", "The paper layer then discharges at a rate determined by its dielectric content and volume resistivity, with near complete discharge, i.e., to only a small voltage across the paper, occurring in less than 300 milliseconds.", "This discharge is similar to the discharge behavior of C P and R p in FIG. 21.", "The film layer also discharges at a rate determined by its dielectric constant and the volume resistivity (and other factors), but the time required is much longer than that of the paper.", "The film layer 194 may require more than 200 seconds for near complete discharge, and does so in a manner that is similar to the discharge characteristics of C F and R F in FIG. 4. The larger discharge time of the film layer 94 accounts for the ability of the transfer drum to grip paper much longer than the discharge time of the paper would indicate.", "Even though the voltage across the paper collapses relatively quickly, the trapped charges that were induced at the paper's surface are trapped at the paper surface by the residual voltage on the film layer.", "The trapped charges eventually migrate back into the bulk of the paper, but only after the film layer 194 has discharged significantly.", "Because of the large discharge time of the film layer 194, some mechanism to discharge the film completely between successive paper attach intervals is required.", "This function is simulated by the relay K F in FIG. 21.", "The actual discharge mechanism is very similar to the attach electrode 198 in FIG. 19, but the discharge electrode is held at the same potential as the electrode layer 196 to facilitate discharge.", "The discharge electrode is physically located upstream of the paper attach area and is in contact with the drum 48 only during the paper attach operation.", "With further reference to FIG. 21, the operation of the layered structure of FIG. 18 will be described in more detail as to its effect on the paper gripping operation.", "By way of the example, in the case where a very resistant paper or transparency material is utilized, the resistance of resistor 210 (R E ) is much less than the resistance of the paper R P , and the resistance of resistor 210 (R E ) is much less than resistor R F .", "The composite capacitor will charge to the applied voltage with the time constant R E C EQ , where: ##EQU2## If the time constant R E , C EQ is much less than the time constant T N , where T N is equal to the time that a section of paper is present in the nip attachment 200, then the voltage across the capacitor will very nearly reach the magnitude of the attach/transfer voltage of voltage supply 214 (V A ).", "The voltages across each of the components of the composite capacitor, C P and C F , are given by: V.sub.", "CP =V.", "sub.", "A (C.", "sub.", "F/ (C.", "sub.", "P +C.", "sub.", "F)) (3) V.sub.", "CF =V.", "sub.", "A (C.", "sub.", "P/ (C.", "sub.", "P +C.", "sub.", "F)) (4) For the actual paper and film layer of the drum, the analogous equations are: V.sub.", "P =V.", "sub.", "A (ε.", "sub.", "F/ ((t.", "sub.", "F /t.", "sub.", "P)ε.", "sub.", "P +ε.", "sub.", "F)=V.", "sub.", "CP (5) V.sub.", "F =V.", "sub.", "A(ε.", "sub.", "P/ ((t.", "sub.", "P /t.", "sub.", "F)ε.", "sub.", "F +ε.", "sub.", "F)=V.", "sub.", "CF (6) where: ε P =dielectric constant of the paper ε F =dielectric constant of the film t P =thickness of the paper t P =thickness of the film The magnitude of the gripping force is directly proportional to the amount of charge trapped at the paper/film interface and, to maximize it, the composite capacitance, C EQ , must be as large as possible.", "From Equation 2, it can be seen that, for a given paper, the largest value that the composite capacitance can have is C P .", "This occurs when C F is much greater than C P .", "Therefore, Equation 2 can be rewritten as: C.sub.", "EQ =Aε.", "sub.", "P ε.", "sub.", "F/ (t.", "sub.", "Fε.", "sub.", "P +t.", "sub.", "Fε.", "sub.", "P) (7) where A=area of the paper section in the nip.", "From this, it can be seen that, for a given paper with a dielectric constant of ε P and thickness t P , C EQ approaches a value of C P if the dielectric constant of the film is much greater than the dielectric constant of the paper, or the thickness of the film is much smaller than the thickness of the paper.", "Under these conditions, Equations 5 and 6 indicate that, during attach, most of the voltage will be developed across the paper, a desirable condition for good gripping.", "In the case where the resistance R E is substantially equal to the resistance of the paper R P , i.e., for very low resistance paper, the equations will differ somewhat.", "When the section of paper 146 enters the nip 200, both C P and C F will act as short circuits.", "However, if C P is much less than C F , C P begins charging to: V.sub.", "P =V.", "sub.", "A (R.", "sub.", "P/ (R.", "sub.", "P +R.", "sub.", "E)) (8) with a time constant of: (R.", "sub.", "E R.sub.", "P/ (R.", "sub.", "E +R.", "sub.", "P))C.", "sub.", "P (9) Then, if the time constant R E C F is much less than T N , and R P C F is much less than T N , C P will charge to V A with a time constant (R E +R P ) C F while C P completely discharges through R P .", "Equation 8 indicates that, to maximize the voltage across the paper, R E should be selected such that R E is much less than R P .", "Additionally, it is equally important that C F be selected such that C P is much less than C F .", "For the case where the resistance of the paper is much less than the resistance of the electrode layer 196 and much less than the resistance of the film, Equation 8 shows that very little voltage will be developed across the paper.", "Thus, only a very small gripping force will be generated.", "After the paper 146 is gripped onto the upper surface of the film layer 194, toner must then be transferred from the photoconductor to the paper.", "Since toner transfer efficiency is a function of applied voltage in the transfer nip, it is desirable that the dielectric composed of the paper and film layers have no memory of the attach operation (i.e., these layers would be fully discharged) as a section of the paper 146 enters the transfer nip, thus allowing complete and independent control of the transfer nip voltage.", "However, if the paper and film were fully discharged, they would not be electrostatically attached to the drum, an undesirable situation.", "Referring now to FIG. 22, them is illustrated a cross sectional diagram of the structure of FIG. 19, when it passes under a photoconductor drum 218 which is in a discharge mode, i.e., there is ground potential applied thereto.", "Toner particles 222 are disposed on the photoconductor drum 218 and have a negative charge placed thereon.", "This is a conventional transfer operation.", "When the paper 146 passes under the photoconductor drum 218, a transfer nip 220 is formed.", "Since the electrode layer 196 is a uniform electrode, the voltage of the layer 196 is that of the attach/transfer voltage source 214.", "This will result in a strong force of attraction at the film and paper interface, represented by a reference numeral 224.", "Referring now to FIG. 23, there is illustrated another view of the spatial difference between the photoconductor drum 218 and the paper attach electrode 198 disposed about the buried electrode drum 48.", "It can be seen that the distance between the paper attach electrode 198 and the photoconductor 218 requires a time T ATT for the paper to move from the paper attach nip 200 to the transfer nip 220.", "Additionally, the time for the paper to traverse the entire circumference of the drum 48 is the time T REV .", "Additionally, a discharge roller 201 is provided which is connected to ground for completely discharging the surface.", "Referring now to FIG. 24, there is illustrated a simulated voltage versus time plot for an arbitrary section of paper as it travels around the drum 48 four times in a four pass (i.e., color) print.", "The first transition to zero potential is caused by the paper attach electrode 198 contacting the drum and the paper passing into the paper attach nip 200, this represented by the relay 212 (K P ) in FIG. 21 closing.", "This is represented by a point 223.", "The paper will then move to the toner transfer nip 220, where the voltage will again go to a zero potential, as represented by a point 225, the time difference between points 223 and 225 being T ATT .", "This will be a toner transfer point.", "Then the paper traverses around the drum and the voltage will increase to a higher voltage level (relative to ground potential) at a point 226 after time T REV , at which time the paper will again arrive at the toner transfer nip 220 and the potential will again go to zero as represented by a point 228.", "Of course, the paper attach electrode 198 has been removed after the last portion of the paper was attached to the drum 48, in the first pass, this being a single pass.", "This will continue for three more passes up to a point 230.", "Each of the transitions at the transfer nip 220 are also represented by closure of the relay 214 in the simulation of FIG. 21.", "Because the surface of the photoconductor drum 218 is either discharged or at a low potential (relative to the applied transfer voltage of source 214), the photoconductor drum 218 performs much like the attach electrode 20 in an electrical sense.", "Although not discussed or shown in detail, the voltage of source 214 is stepped up slightly for each successive toner transfer to account for the thickness of the previous toner layer, this being a conventional operation.", "The surface of the paper is held at a zero potential for the entire time that it is in either the paper attach nip 200 or the transfer nip 220.", "During this time, the paper and film composite capacitor (C EQ ) becomes very nearly charged to the full potential of the attach/transfer source 214.", "Upon leaving either of these nips, the capacitance C EQ begins to discharge.", "The first portion of the discharge occurs between points 223 and 225 and is quite rapid, approximately 170 milliseconds, this due primarily to the paper discharging.", "This is equivalent to the capacitance C P discharging through the resistance R P and is illustrated in more detail in FIG. 25.", "In the second portion of the curve between points 225 and 228, and subsequent passes to point 230, it can be seen that the discharge is quite slow, wherein only a partial discharge is apparent.", "This is equivalent to the capacitance C.sub.", "F discharging through the resistance R F .", "In the preferred embodiment, the voltage on the electrode layer 196 is held at a constant voltage of 1500 volts for the curves of FIG. 24 and FIG. 25.", "The voltage available for transfer of toner is the difference between the voltage at the surface of the paper and ground potential, just before the paper enters the transfer nip 220.", "Thus, for a constant voltage on drum 48, the amount that the film layer discharges between each successive toner transfer pass (i.e., each revolution of the drum 48) determines the amount of voltage available for toner transfer.", "The amount of time available for the paper/film discharge after the paper is attached is the time T ATT for the first layer of toner.", "The amount of time available for the paper/film discharge is the time T REV , as illustrated in FIG. 23.", "This time is required for the subsequent layers of toner and, therefore, the voltage across the fihn layer 194 must not discharge to a level too low to maintain attraction, but it must discharge sufficiently to allow a voltage difference at the transfer nip 220.", "The film layer 194 should have a discharge time constant approximately equal to T ATT to minimize the effect of the residual voltage on the film layer during transfer of the first layer of toner, and yet reserve sufficient potential across the film to maintain gripping of the paper (if R F C F is much less than T ATT , gripping cannot be maintained).", "However, for the configuration illustrated in FIG. 23, T ATT =T REV/ 4 and gripping must be maintained for at least as long as T REV .", "This relationship suggests that the film layer should have a voltage dependant discharge time constant;", "that is, the RC time constant (or relaxation time constant) of the film should be small for high potentials and large for low potentials.", "A voltage dependent characteristic of this type would allow large potentials to be used for paper attach and toner transfer and allow a small but sufficient residual potential in the film layer for paper gripping maintenance.", "Because the residual would be small, effects of previous paper attach and toner transfer operations on those subsequent thereto would be minimized.", "It is well known that the discharge time constant or RC time constant for a capacitor or film layer is characterized by the equation: V=V.", "sub.", "o *ε-(t/RC) (10) where: V is the voltage across a film, V o is the initial voltage, t is time, C is the capacitance of the film, and R is the resistance of the film.", "The characteristic discharge time is that time that equals the product of RC, and so the exponential term is unity.", "Specifically the discharge time is given by the equation: t=RC (11) It is of particular importance that in the case of a preferred gripping layer the characteristics of the film do not behave according to the above equation.", "Specifically, the behavior of the film discharge time constant is a function of voltage as well as R and C, or more specifically R and/or C are a function of voltage and not constant for the film material.", "And more specifically, for the improved performance of the gripping layer, the discharge time for the film decreases with increasing voltage: V=V.", "sub.", "o *ε-(t/f(R,C,V)) (12) In this case, the exponent is a function that is dependent on V. This "nonlinear"", "behavior is important for the gripping layer to decay sufficient for transfer voltage and yet retain sufficient voltage for gripping.", "This is shown graphically in the graph of FIG. 25a.", "Note that the preferred nonlinear characteristic in the nonlinear decay curve is reflected in quicker initial discharge characteristics for good transfer and then a slowing to a higher value for improved gripping.", "Tables 1 and 2 illustrate discharge characteristics for two films whose dielectric contents are very nearly equal.", "The film associated with Table 1 is an extruded tube of Elf Atochem Kynar Flex 2800, a proprietary copolymer formed using polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and hexafluoropropolene (HFP).", "The average wall thickness was approximately 4 mils.", "The manufacturer's specification for the dielectric for the film is (9.4-10.6) ε o .", "The volume resistivity is specified as 2.2×10 14 Ohm-centimeters.", "The film associated with Table 2 was obtained from DuPont as cast 8.5"×11"", "sheets of Tedlar (TST20SG4), a polyvinyl fluoride (PVF) polymer.", "The average thickness was approximately 2 mils.", "The manufacture's specifications for the dielectric constant of the film is (8-9)ε o .", "The volume resistivity is specified as 1.8×10 14 Ohm-centimeters.", "TABLE 1______________________________________INITIAL SECONDS FOR DISCHARGE TOVOLTAGE V 3/4V V/2 0.37V V/4______________________________________1600 1.4 4.9 10.3 22.11400 1.7 5.1 12.8 27.31200 2.2 8.1 16.6 37.61000 2.9 9.6 19.8 41.0 800 5.3 16.8 32.1 54.9 600 8.2 26.4 45.9 78.9 400 12.4 39.4 64.5 105.8 200 13.3 43.9 74.9 123.8______________________________________ TABLE 2______________________________________INITIAL SECONDS FOR DISCHARGE TOVOLTAGE V 3/4V V/2 0.37V V/4______________________________________1600 4.1 13.4 22.8 39.41400 6.0 19.1 29.7 49.41200 7.2 21.3 36.1 59.61000 8.8 27.7 45.7 74.7 800 10.9 33.1 54.7 87.5 600 13.5 40.3 65.0 103.8 400 16.7 48.6 78.3 123.8 200 20.3 59.8 95.6 147.8______________________________________ The discharge time constant (R F C F ) measured for low starting voltages are very nearly equal and are in agreement with the manufacturers stated values for dielectric constant and volume resistivity.", "Each of the two films exhibit the voltage dependent discharge time constant.", "By comparing the discharge times in the 3/4V column, it can be seen that the film associated with Table 1 discharges faster at high voltages than does the film of Table 2.", "The response for Table 1 is illustrated in FIG. 26 and the response for the film of Table 2 is illustrated in FIG. 27.", "FIG. 27a illustrates a response for a film such as Mylar, which response illustrates that insufficient voltage is available for subsequent (multiple) passes.", "Film voltage is held at a constant 2200 volts for each type.", "The discharge characteristics of FIG. 26 are preferred.", "In the film of FIG. 27a, the film was manufactured by Apollo as a transparency material.", "Its chemical and electrical properties are unknown, but the dielectric constant approximates that of Mylar®, approximately 3ε o .", "The thickness is approximately 6 mils.", "Referring now to FIG. 28, there is illustrated a simulated voltage versus time plot for a sheet of paper as it travels around the drum four times during a four pass color print.", "The attach and transfer voltage transition shown in the center of the figure are for a single page of a multi-page print job.", "The voltage available for paper attach or toner transfer is the difference between the voltage at the surface of the paper and ground potential.", "In FIG. 28, it can be noted that the voltage available for paper attach is dependent on the voltage left on the film layer by the previous (and fourth toner layer) transfer.", "As a result, subsequent pages of a multi-page print job will not be gripped as firmly as the first page.", "This situation is remedied as illustrated in FIG. 29 by applying a discharge voltage with the relay 216 labelled K F to the upper surface of the film layer 194.", "The voltage is approximately 1500 volts in the attach operation in the nip 200 whereas the attach voltage in FIG. 28 is less than 750 volts.", "Referring now to FIG. 30, there is illustrated a side-view of the overall electrophotographic printer mechanism depicting an embodiment of the present invention utilizing a buried electrode drum 48 which utilizes a single electrode or multiple electrodes and the gripping layer described hereinabove with respect to FIGS. 10, et seq.", "The paper is fed from a paper tray 238 into an inlet paper path 240.", "Further, it can be routed from a manual exterior paper path 242.", "The paper is then routed between two rollers, a lower roller 244 and an upper roller 246, which provide a "pre-curl"", "operation, which will be described in more detail hereinbelow.", "The paper is then fed into the nip 200 between the attach electrode roller 198 and the drum 48, as described above.", "After the multiple images have been disposed on the paper for a color print, or a single image has been disposed on the paper for a black and white print, a stripper arm 248 is provided that is operable to rotate down about a pivot point 250 onto the surface of the drum 48 to extract or "strip"", "the paper from the surface of the drum 48, since the paper is electrostatically held to the drum 48.", "For multiple prints, the stripper arm 248 is rotated up away from the drum and the attach electrode roller 198 is also pulled away from the drum during the multiple passes.", "A cleaning roller 254 is provided which can be lowered onto the surface of the drum 48 for a cleaning operation after the paper has been stripped therefrom and prior to a new sheet being disposed thereon.", "Although not illustrated, a brush or roller similar to the roller 40 of FIG. 6A is utilized to supply voltage to the electrode layer.", "The rollers 244 and 246, as will be described in more detail hereinbelow, are utilized to place a "pre-curl"", "on the paper such that it curves upwards about the drum 48.", "This significantly lowers the voltage required in order to attach the paper with the attach electrode roller 198.", "If this is not utilized, a significantly higher voltage is required to properly grip paper or the paper will slip.", "It is necessary for the paper to go around at least one revolution before the paper relaxes onto the drum in the appropriate shape, after which the voltage could be lowered.", "However, by pre-curling the paper with the rollers 244 and 246, this is alleviated.", "This pre-curl operation is achieved by using slightly different durometers for the rollers 244 and 246.", "The fuser 100 incorporates two rollers 256 and 258, the roller 258 being the heated roller and the roller 256 being the mating roller to form a nip therebetween.", "When the stripper arm 248 strips the paper off of the surface of the drum 248, this paper is routed into the nip between the rollers 258 and 256.", "The durometers of the rollers 258 and 256 are selected such that the roller 256 is softer than the roller 258 and such that the paper will tend to curl around the roller 258, thus providing a "de-curl"", "to the paper to allow the paper to again flatten out.", "The durometer of the roller 256 is approximately 30 mms and the durometer of the roller 258 is approximately 40 mms.", "The paper is then forwarded to either a transfer path 260 or a transfer path 262.", "The transfer path 260 feeds to the nip between two rollers 264 and 266 for output onto the platform 118.", "The paper path 262 is routed to the nip between two rollers 268 and 270 for output to an external tray.", "In addition, as is well known in the art, the paper will tend to curl toward the surface of the fused toner, which is opposite the precurl direction.", "Therefore, fuser roller durometer need not fully compensate for the precurl operation.", "As shown in FIG. 30, toner module 72 is the three color module containing all the required components for development of the color electrostatic latent image on the photoconductor.", "It is shown as a single inseparable unit to facilitate user handling and is separate from the black module 78, so that the black materials can be handled identically to a black and white only print engine.", "Furthermore, the color module uses a mechanism to withdraw the developer brush such that the entire unit does not need to be moved, thereby reducing the space and power required to operate the unit.", "Referring now to FIG. 31, there is illustrated a detail of the pre-curl system.", "A bracket (not shown) is operable to hold a pivot pin 272 about which a pivoting arm 274 pivots.", "The arm 274 has attached to a distal end thereof the attach electrode roller 198, with a protruding portion 276 on the diametrically opposite side of the pin 272 from the attach electrode roller 198 operable to interface with a cam 278.", "The cam 278 is operable to pivot about a fixed pivot point 280 on the bracket (not shown) to pivot the arm 274.", "The arm 274 is operable to be pivoted into two positions, a first position wherein the attach electrode roller 198 contacts the drum 48, and the second position (shown in phantom line) which pulls the attach electrode roller 198 away from the drum.", "A discharge electrode 284 is pivoted about a pivot pin 286 and has an electrode brush 288 disposed on one end thereof.", "The discharge electrode 284 is operable to pivot in one position such that the electrode brush 288 contacts the surface of the drum 248 to provide a discharge operation prior to the surface of the drum rotating into contact with the nip 200 and, in the second position, to be pivoted away from the surface of the drum 48.", "The protrusion 290 on the rear portion of the electrode 284 is operable to interface with the protrusion 276 on the pivoting arm 274.", "The discharge electrode 284 is spring-loaded (not shown) such that it is biased toward the surface of the drum 48 to contact the drum 48, such that when the pivoting arm 274 pivots to move the protrusion 276 away from the protrusion 290, the electrode brush 288 will pivot into contact with the drum 48.", "When the pivoting arm 274 pivots counterclockwise to move the attach electrode 198 away from the surface of the drum 48, the protrusion 276 urges the protrusion 290 up and pivots the electrode 284 and the electrode brush 288 away from the surface of the drum 48.", "The discharge electrode 288 is connected to the same attach/transfer voltage supply, a supply 294, that the buried electrode layer of drum 48 is connected to.", "The paper is fed into a paper path 296, which paper path is comprised of two narrowing flat surfaces that direct the paper.", "The paper is directed to a nip 298 between the rollers 244 and 246.", "The roller 246 pivots about the pivot pin 272 and the roller 244 pivots about a slidable pin 300.", "The pin 300 slides in a slot 302 which is disposed in the bracket (not shown).", "The roller 244 has a durometer that is softer than the durometer of the soft roller 246 such that the paper will tend to roll around the roller 246.", "The size of the rollers 244 and 246 can be selected to determine the amount of pre-curl required.", "Further, the durometers of the two rollers 244 and 246 can also be selected in order to accommodate various thicknesses and weights of paper.", "In one embodiment, the durometer of roller 244 is 20 mms, and the roller 246 is a rigid material such as steel.", "As such, a given size relationship between the rollers 244 and 246 and a given durometer relationship therebetween for a set force therebetween will not necessarily insure the appropriate pre-curl.", "If the attachment voltage on the drum 48 is reduced to as low a level as possible, this pre-curl adjustment may be critical to insure that the paper adequately adheres to the surface of the drum 48 for all weights of paper.", "To facilitate an adjustment to this, the roller 244 has a collar 304 disposed on one end thereof that is rotatable with the roller 244 about pivot pin 300 and the collar 304 interacts with a lever 306.", "Lever 306 is pivoted at one end to a fixed pivot pin 308 and, at the other end, rests on the end of a piston 310.", "The piston 310 has a threaded end on the opposite end from the lever 306 which is threadedly engaged with a nut 310 that is secured in the frame.", "An adjustment wheel 312 is disposed about the piston 310 to allow hand adjustment thereof.", "In this manner, the pin 300 can be reciprocated within the slot 302.", "It should be noted that the pin 300 is biased downward against the lever by a spring attachment (not shown).", "Referring now to FIG. 31A, there is illustrated a detail of the pre-curl operation for the rollers 244 and 246.", "It can be seen that the paper is pre-curled by the deformation of the roller 244 such that the paper retains a memory of the curling operation.", "Thus, when the paper is fed to the attach nip 200, the paper will exhibit less of a normal force directed away from the surface of the drum 48.", "As shown in FIGS. 30 and 31, a mechanism comprised of a conductive roll is employed to urge the paper against the BED surface.", "Although this is the preferred embodiment, it is envisioned that a lower cost alternative would be to use the photoconductor itself as the initial member to urge the paper against the BED surface.", "This would eliminate the need for the moving member 274 as shown in FIG. 31.", "It has been noted that in order to grip paper to a drum or curved surface electrostatically, that the electrostatic gripping forces must be sufficient to overcome the inherent stiffness of the paper.", "Specifically, the greater the stiffness of the paper, the higher is the electrostatic gripping force and associated voltage to achieve that force.", "In order to use a single voltage to transfer and grip, the gripping voltage must be reduced for stiffer papers so that the transfer voltage exceeds the minimum voltage threshold for gripping.", "Numerous papers have been tested to determine their inherent stiffness and ability to be permanently curled in a hard/soft roller combination.", "As a result of this testing, it has been determined that there is a minimum threshold of paper deflection that must occur in a precurl system to ensure all materials will be adequately gripped onto the drum.", "Furthermore, in order to minimize unnecessary curl in paper, this threshold can be adjusted by a predetermined amount and still achieve satisfactory gripping.", "FIG. 32a shows a method to measure the permanent curl or set that occurs in paper after it has been run through the precurling apparatus as shown in FIG. 33.", "The angle of curl (θ c ) is used to determine the paper's curl characteristic.", "It was determined by measuring the height off a flat surface that the precurled paper rises.", "Conversely, some papers are inherently very flexible and do not require precurling to reduce the electrostatic gripping force.", "FIG. 32b shows a method to measure the stiffness (or flexibility) of the paper.", "In this method, the paper is allowed to droop unsupported over a fixed length and the angle of repose (droop angle) is measured (θ d ).", "If these angles are summed, then a figure of merit, M, is provided for paper where the value of M increases for papers that are easier to grip and require less precurl.", "The figure of merit, "M", is the sum of the paper's stiffness ("Droop Angle", θ d ) and its ability to be curled ("Curl Angle", θ c ): ##EQU3## Where k is a constant value determined to "normalize"", "a standard paper.", "The values Y c , X c , Y d , and X d are determined from measurements taken from the curl and droop experiments.", "Table 3 shows a chart of popular paper types in order of figure of merit.", "The figure of merit has been normalized to a value of 10 for a widely used paper type in laser printers.", "Tables 4 and 5 illustrate results of curl and droop experiments for the assortment of papers.", "TABLE 3______________________________________ Curl Droop Weight Y.sub.", "c X.sub.", "c Y.sub.", "d X.sub.", "dPaper Type (lb.) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) M______________________________________Paper Type 1 28 10.0 48.4 7.5 79.0 8.0Paper Type 2 20 9.3 46.8 9.5 78.0 8.5Paper Type 3 24 12.3 47.8 9.5 78.0 10.0Paper Type 4 21 12.7 49.6 9.5 78.0 10.0Paper Type 5 20 3.9 24.6 18.5 76.5 10.6Paper Type 6 18 12.6 53.8 15.0 77.0 11.3Paper Type 7 20 17.0 51.4 10.0 78.0 12.1Paper Type 8 18 1.7 12.4 27.5 74.0 13.4Paper Type 9 13 1.6 16.2 31.0 73.0 13.8______________________________________ TABLE 4______________________________________Large Roller Radius, R (mm): 12.5 12.5 12.5 12.5 12.5Small Roller Radius, r (mm): 5.0 5.0 5.0 5.0 5.0Roller Interference, d (mm): 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5Center-to-Center Dist, D (mm): 17.0 16.5 16.0 15.5 15.0Nip Angle, theta (deg): 8.6 12.0 14.5 16.5 18.2Nip Width, S (mm): 1.9 2.7 3.4 4.0 4.5______________________________________ TABLE 5______________________________________ Curl Angle + Droop Angle (deg)______________________________________theta/r (deg/mm): 1.7 2.4 2.9 3.3 3.6Paper TypePaper Type 1 5.4 12.0 17.1 20.3 23.3Paper Type 2 11.4 18.1 18.2 21.0 22.3Paper Type 3 10.2 14.8 21.4 24.1 24.1Paper Type 4 11.5 13.8 21.3 23.4 24.1Paper Type 5 23.6 21.3 22.6 22.8 22.6Paper Type 6 18.5 20.3 24.2 25.1 25.3Paper Type 7 10.9 19.0 25.6 27.1 26.7Paper Type 8 26.0 27.1 28.2 28.1 27.5Paper Type 9 29.4 29.3 28.6 29.6 30.6______________________________________ FIG. 33 illustrates the precurl configuration of a soft roller 300 and hard roller 302 that deflects paper through a subtended angle θ (nip angle).", "The radius of curvature, r, of the hard roller along with the nip angle, θ, as caused by the interference with the soft roller radius, R, determines the amount of curl.", "Tables 4 and 5 illustrate the result of the precurl function combined with the stiffness of the paper versus the nip angle by radius of curvature quotient for various paper types.", "It is interesting to note that the some materials show little change as a function of θ/r.", "This is due to the fact that these materials are observed to be very flexible and require no precurl to grip, (i.e., they are always above the threshold).", "Of particular interest is the fact that for good performance for all paper types tested a minimum threshold of 2.9 degrees per millimeter or 15 degrees curl plus droop angle is required.", "If it is desired to reduce or increase the amount of curl for different media then the appropriate θ/r can be determined by selecting the curl droop angle sum to be above 15 degrees.", "It should be noted that the threshold of cud plus droop may increase to the fourth power of the proportionately to the decrease of the radius of curvature.", "For example, the gripping threshold for a drum radius of 65 millimeters (the above threshold is for 70 millimeters) would increase by 34% (or (70/65) 4 ) to 20 degrees (3.3 degrees/mm for the stiffest material tested).", "Although the preferred embodiment has been described in detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION I. Field of the Invention The present invention is concerned with exchangeable filter elements for use in nuclear installations for the purification of airstreams or gas streams which contain toxic or radioactive dust.", "The invention is furthermore concerned with a method for the exchange and disposal of the filter elements.", "II.", "Description of the Prior Art In existing nuclear installations the operating air must be purified and materials which are dangerous to health, such as toxic or radioactive matter, must be separated therefrom.", "This is accomplished in special filter installations which are equipped with filter elements which remove suspended matter that is dangerous to health.", "A special problem with regards to environmental protection is the necessary exchange of the contaminated elements and their disposal.", "This must be accomplished without creating the danger of contamination especially for the personnel who are concerned with the exchange.", "The filter elements for suspended matter which were used for such purposes usually consisted of a filter layer for suspended matter which was formed by the folding of suitable paper in a zig-zag shape.", "This filter layer is mounted in a rectangular- or square-shaped frame and sealed with a sealant.", "These filter elements which consist of a frame and the filter medium are, for instance, inserted into a housing which is connected to an air duct where the circumferential edge of the rigid filter element frame is kept in tight contact by means of tightening devices with a tightening area located inside the housing, in such a way that the air which should be purified must necessarily pass the filter layer without bypass.", "In this case the filter element is introduced from the side, through an opening which is located in the housing, and which opening can be closed air tight by means of a door or a lid which can be flipped down.", "The exchange of the contaminated filter element is carried out by employing the so-called "protective bag technique".", "In this arrangement the filter element to be exchanged is pulled into a bag, which bag is connected to the housing and where the filter element is sealed in by sealing off the protective bag.", "For the introduction of a new filter element, a second protective bag is attached at the housing and the remainder of the first protective bag is pulled into the second protective bag, whereupon the new filter element can be introduced into the corresponding housing.", "The final disposal of the contaminated filter elements, which are sealed in the protective bag, is very expensive and time consuming because of the existing danger for the operating personnel and for the environment.", "The compaction of the filter elements is carried out employing impact mills, shredder installations and saws.", "Compacting presses are used to achieve an appropriate compacting.", "These operational steps are carried out in a protective atmosphere as distinguished from the breathing air.", "This is also necessary for the further handling and control of these machines.", "The remainder of the filter elements, which are very contaminated and which were treated in this way, must then be put into standardized, drum-shaped waste containers, which waste containers are then stored in inaccessable or protected places, such as subterranean storage places.", "Since the square-shaped known standardized filter elements do not fit into the waste containers or only partially fill these waste containers, they must be compacted, using the protective devices which were described above before they are put into these containers.", "Compacting is necessary in order to achieve optimum, economic utilization of the waste container volume for the purpose of cost reduction.", "After the compaction has been achieved the remainder of the contaminated filter elements are put into the drum-shaped waste container until the container is approximately filled.", "Then the waste containers are closed air tight and are transported to the final storage areas.", "In order to reduce the danger of damage to the protective bag by means of the rigid filter element frame and especially by means of the corners and edges of the rigid element frame, a rectangular or square filter cell with rounded edges is disclosed (West German Patent No. DBGM 6 608 707) where the filter element, which consists of filter paper which is folded in a zig-zag shape, is located in an inner frame.", "The frame may be reused.", "The filter is in a frame at the air entrance and at the air exit, tightly connected with the outer frame by means of a plastic seal and by means of an adhesive tape which is equipped with a tear string.", "In case of an exchange of the filter element, the outer frame with the filter element must be received in a sealed, protective bag, whereupon in the protective bag the filter paper element is released from the rigid outer frame by pulling off at the tear.", "When inside the protective bag, the filter element must be pulled out of the outer frame and the protective bag must be sealed off and separated from the outer frame.", "In this way the rigid outer frame, after it has been decontaminated, can again be used and can be equipped with a fresh filter element;", "however, the necessary decontamination of the outer frame is rather time consuming.", "In addition, even this compressible filter element must be compressed by means of breaking, cutting or sawing or pressing before it is put into the waste container, since it cannot be compressed in a simple manner.", "This necessitates, at first, storage of the filter elements in their safe conditions with the appropriate expense prior to the necessary compaction work and disposal work.", "For this filter element the treatment, which has been described above, is complicated, expensive and time consuming and necessitates extensive safety measures.", "III.", "Prior Art Statement In the opinion of the applicant, the above-mentioned prior art represents the most pertinent and relevant prior art of which applicant is aware.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention comprises a rigid outer frame and a compressible filter paper element which is received in the outer frame and removed from the outer frame in such a way that the filter element can be compacted.", "This may be accomplished by bending the individual filter bag into a small size so that it will exactly fit in the inner circumference of the waste container.", "It can be put into the waste container and be reduced in volume by means of a radial pressing motion directly at the place where the filter is changed and without endangering the environment.", "The rigid constructable frame, which receives the filter element, remains in the housing without having to be stored and decontaminated.", "In this way the structural frame can again be used, the necessary exchange time and exposure time at the filter for the operating personnel is reduced to a minimum and the costly preparation, which was necessary to date for the disposal of the filter, is substantially reduced.", "This problem is solved in accordance with the invention by using a filter element consisting of a plurality of V-shaped filter pockets which are individually located side by side.", "The flanges of these filter pockets, which surround their open side, are connected with each other in a removable or break-away fashion.", "The flanges of all V-shaped pockets are tightly enclosed by a common elastic material which will break under pressure, such as a mounting frame made from a pliable plastic.", "The mounting frame is inserted with its circumferential edge and by means of an embedded soft gasket tightly between the top of the receiving frame which is loosely inserted into the housing and the upper inner contact area of the housing.", "Due to the fact that the filter elements consist of separable V-shaped filter pockets, the filter elements can be pressed together sideways without a substantial effort after they have been received in a protective bag such that the pointed ends of the V-shaped filter layer come in contact with each other.", "In this way a circle-shaped object of variable size is formed, depending on the number of the V-shaped filter pockets, which circle-shaped object can be inserted in the drum-shaped receiving container.", "The circle-shaped object adapts itself to the inner circle-shaped circumference of the drum-shaped receiving container.", "If the number of the V-shaped filter pockets of the filter element is so large that a circular object is formed that does not correspond to the inner circumference of the waste container, one or more filter pockets can be broken off within the protective bag and can be located in the middle of the circle-shaped filter object.", "In order to facilitate a tightly fitting insertion into the waste container, the filter element that has been put into the waste container in this way and which has the dimensions of, for instance, 610±222 milimeters is reduced in its volume by approximately one third by means of pressure from a press in the direction of the opening of the container from top to bottom.", "In this way at least four filter elements, one on top of the other, can be put into a waste container of, for instance, 200 liter capacity and one after the other can be reduced in volume by means of pressure.", "In this way the filter elements will completely fill the continer and, after the filling of the waste container is completed, it can be closed gas tight in the usual manner.", "The upper mounting frame of the flexible filter element is equipped with a gasket and is positioned at the top of the loose, rigid structural receiving frame whereupon the tightening element of the filter housing, which is located below the structural receiving frame, can push and tighten the receiving frame against the tightening area of the housing.", "The tightening mounting frame of the V-shaped filter pockets of the filter element is positioned between the receiving and the tightening area of the housing.", "Since the toxic or radioactive matter is received in the suspended V-shaped filter pockets which are closed at the bottom, they cannot come in contact with the receiving frame.", "Thus, a decontamination of the receiving frame is not necessary for each exchange of the filter element but only for a general cleaning.", "The invention is furthermore characterized by the fact that the filter pockets show two layers of filter paper which are folded in a zig-zag fashion with a thickness of 10-40 milimeters.", "The folds are sealed and embedded with a sealant with their edges which form the open side of the pockets and which are closed at their opposite ends and which touch each other by a common edge, which is formed with an elastic sealant;", "and that the side areas of the filter pockets are closed with a sealant by means of a V-shaped support, which is filled with a plastic material and which V-shaped support consists of a perforated sheet of metal, expanded metal or cardboard or an elastic sheet of plastic or a similar material.", "The material is tightly embedded in the flange of the filter pocket which closes the edges of those filter pockets.", "Due to these provisions which are in accordance with the invention, the edges of the paper filter layers which form the sides of the filter pockets are embedded in plastic in their entire circumference in such a way that closed elastic and easily shapeable filter pockets result, the handling of which is not difficult even when it is done in a transparent bag.", "It is furthermore characterized that both sides of the filter layers of the filter pockets are equipped with a perforated protective cover made from a perforated sheet of metal or similar material, the edges of which protective cover are embedded by bending in the sealant of the flanges and the V-shaped support.", "The perforated protective covers on both sides of the filter layers of the filter pockets prevent damage to the sensitive paper filter layers due to touching during the manufacturing and the later handling of the filter elements during the exchange and, in addition, they serve to achieve a sufficient stiffness of the filter element without influencing the elastic shapability and removability from each other in a disadvantageous way.", "By means of the sealant strips which are located on the touching edges of the flanges of the filter pockets and which are, for instance, equipped with a known tear tape, the individual filter pockets can be separated from each other by operating the tear lines in such a way that, even in the case of a larger number of filter pockets of a connected filter element, an approximately circle-shaped object can be achieved by shaping inside the protective bag, which circle-shaped object is approximately in its circumference the inner circumference of the drum-shaped receiving container.", "The same is achieved by the V-shaped separating joints or grooves which are filled with an elastic sealant and which are located between the individual filter pockets.", "The invention is furthermore characterized by the fact that the structural receiving frame of the filter element is constructed in the shape of an open box, the frontal part of which open box is constructed in such a way that it can be flipped down like a hinge from top to bottom for the insertion of the filter element.", "The invention is furthermore characterized by the flipping of a side brace of the receiving frame which is made of structural metal.", "In this way the filter element can be inserted into the receiving frame without any effort and whereby its tightening edge contacts the upper circumventing edge of the closed structural receiving frame.", "After the insertion of the filter element, the side brace is again flipped back and is locked in position.", "The structural frame for the reception of the filter element remains always in the filter receiving housing during this operation.", "The method for the exchange and for the waste disposal of the filter element is carried out by employing the protective bag technique, which was described in the main conception;", "and it is characterized by the fact that, before the protective bag which contains the used filter element is put into the waste container, the filter element in the protective bag can be adapted to the inner circumference of the drum-shaped container by bending or breaking or tearing off the tear strings of all filter pockets or off individual filter pockets in such a way that it almost fills the container;", "and that subsequently the reduction of the volume of the filter element is achieved by vertical pressure exerted by a press directly in the waste container.", "However, the used filter element can directly, after putting it into the enclosing protective bag and before putting it into waste container, be shaped to form a circular object in such a way that it will fit to the inner circumference of the drum-shaped waste container, whereupon the reduction of the volume by means of a press can also be carried out in the waste container.", "Another characteristic of the method consists in the fact that the filter element with the receiving frame is pulled out of the housing into a protective bag.", "The filter element in the protective bag is pulled out of the receiving frame in a known fashion and is separated and sealed off from it and is disposed of;", "and that a new protective bag which contains a new filter element is attached to the housing.", "The remainder of the bag which contains the receiving frame is pulled off the housing, the filter element is inserted into the receiving frame and the receiving frame with the filter element together is again put into the housing.", "A part of the method which is modified and substantially simplified is characterized by the fact that the structural receiving frame, which is connected with the tightening device of the filter receiving housing, remains during the exchange of the filter element in the frame which can be flipped down and all the filter elements are exchanged employing the protective bag technique.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The attached drawings show examples of versions of the invention, and the following is shown: FIG. 1 is a schematic view of three filter pockets which are located side by side with sealant grooves or separating joints which are provided between these filter pockets;", "FIG. 2 is a cross-section of a finished filter element with a mounting frame which includes its filter pockets and with elastic plastic material which was put into the grooves or V-shaped joints;", "FIG. 3 is a view of a filter element which is constructed of five filter pockets and which is half way pulled out of the receiving frame and its receiving frame with shaped down frontal section;", "FIG. 4 is a view in accordance of FIG. 3 for a frame which was constructed of structural irons with an upper structural brace which is flipped to the side and with a filter element which is pulled out half way;", "FIG. 5 is a frontal view of the filter body which was formed by the receiving frame and the filter element and which was inserted into a filter housing where the filter receiving housing and the tightening device of the receiving housing which is located below the receiving frame is shown with a dotted line;", "FIG. 6 is a perspective, partial view of the filter element with its tightening upper mounting frame and the grooves or V-shaped separating joints between the filter pockets which are filled with sealant;", "FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a filter pocket in partially fractured view in order to show clearly the reinforced plastic sealant side parts with the arrangement of the filter layers in the form of pockets.", "FIGS. 8a through 8e are views of the exchange of a filter element during the exchange operation employing the protective bag technique;", "FIG. 9 is a modified view in accordance with FIG. 8, however, where the receiving frame remains in the housing and the frontal section is flipped down;", "and FIG. 10 is a schematic view of a filter element which was bent in the shape of a circle and broken, which filter element was put into the waste container and which filter element can be shaped by a vertical pressure from a press.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows three V-shaped filter pockets 2 which are located side by side, the open sides of which filter pockets 2 are each surrounded with a flange 4 where between each two adjacent pocket filters 2 a V-shaped groove or separating joint is formed.", "FIG. 2 shows a schematic view of a cross-section of a filter element 1 which was formed from the filter pockets 2 where the grooves or separating joints are shown with a plastic sealant material 7, and the filter element 1 is enclosed by a self-sealing mounting frame 5, which will be described later.", "FIG. 3 shows a filter element 1 which was formed of five filter pockets 2 with flanges 4, the enclosing mounting frame 5 and a box-shaped receiving frame 8 which is open at the top and the bottom and is equipped with side walls 9.", "One of the side walls 9 is shown in a flipped-down condition in order to insert the filter element 1 into the receiving frame 8.", "The mounting frame 5 of the filter element 1 contacts the upper perforated edge of the receiving frame 8 and, after completed insertion of the filter element 1 into the receiving frame 8, the side wall 9 is closed in the direction of the arrow.", "FIG. 4 corresponds with FIG. 3 except that a receiving frame 13 is constructed from structural irons 14 where one of the upper structural frame braces 15 is swung to the side in order to insert the filter element 1.", "Strips of sealant material, which are equipped with a tear string or adhesive tapes 6, are attached to the adjacent edges of the flange 4 of the filter pockets 2 in such a way that, by operating the tear string, the connection between adjacent filter pockets 2 can be released.", "After insertion of the filter element 1, the structural brace 15 is flipped back in the direction of the arrow such that the receiving frame 13 is closed again.", "FIG. 5 illustrates a receiving frame 8 with a filter element 1, which is inserted into it, and a filter element and receiving housing 10 which is shown by a dotted line.", "Below the receiving frame 8 a tightening device 11 for the housing 10 is located.", "The receiving frame and the self-tightening mounting 5 of the filter element 1 are lifted up and pressed towards the gasket of a known fluted test frame 12, by means of the upper edge of the receiving frame 8, by means of which fluted test frame 12 the tight contact of the mounting frame 5 of the pocket shaped filter element 1 with the housing 10 can be tested.", "FIG. 6 illustrates a perspective view of the filter element 1 wherein the side areas of the filter pockets 2 receive the filter layers 3.", "The open side of each filter pocket 2 is surrounded by a closed flange 4 where two adjacent flanges 4 form a groove or separating joint 7 which is filled with a plastic sealant material in such a way that the filter pockets 2 are tightly and elastically connected with each other at the circumference of the filter element 1.", "The self-sealing mounting frame 5 is attached by sealing with plastic material, which mounting frame 5 tightly surrounds the outer sides of the flanges 4 on both sides.", "FIG. 7 illustrates a perspective, fractured view of the filter pockets 2 and the filter layer 3 which are formed of filter paper 20 arranged in a zig-zag fashion.", "The filter layers 3 are located at both the V-shaped, tapered off sides of the filter pockets 2.", "Both sides are equipped with perforated protective covers 21 which prevent damage to the filter paper 20 from touching during handling.", "The V-shaped frontal sides of the filter pockets 2 are closed by supports 17, which supports 17 are equipped with a drain 18 which is made of plastic.", "Both of the longitudinal edges of the covers 21 are equipped with vertical areas 19 which are bent over and are in intimate contact with the sealant 18 of the support 17.", "The upper edge of the cover 21 is equipped with a folded over area 22 which is directed towards the outside and which folded over area 22 is in intimate contact with the self-sealing mounting frame 5.", "In this way, the filter pocket 2 will receive a sufficient stiffness which will not effect its deformability.", "FIG. 8 shows the exchange of a filter element 1.", "The opening of the housing 10, which is necessary for the exchange of the filter element 1, is equipped with a mounting ring 26 having multiple grooves.", "A transparent, plastic protective bag 23 is positioned on the mounting ring 26.", "After the opening of the housing 10, the filter element 1 and the corresponding receiving frame 8 are pulled off the housing 10.", "Then the receiving frame 8 is separated from the filter element 1 within the bag 23 as shown in FIG. 8b, and the part of the bag 23 which encloses the filter element 1 is disposed of as described above.", "Then another bag 24, which contains a new filter element 1, is put onto the mounting ring 26 and the remainder of the bag 23 which encloses the receiving frame 8 is pulled from the mounting ring into the bag 24, and the new filter element 1 is inserted into the receiving frame 23 as shown in FIGS. 8d and 8e.", "Then the new filter element 1 can be inserted into the filter receiving housing 10.", "The opening of the housing 10 can be closed and the protective bag 24 can be removed.", "FIG. 9 shows another method of the exchange of the filter element 1.", "Again a protective bag 25 is put onto the mounting ring 26 whereupon the filter receiving housing 10 is opened and the receiving frame 8, which remains in the housing 10 and which contacts the tightening device of the housing 10, is also opened and the contaminated filter element 1 is pulled into a protective bag 23, which is not shown, whereupon the bag 23 is sealed off and separated.", "Then another protective bag 25, which contains a new filter element 1, is put onto the mounting ring 26.", "The remainder of the bag, which is not shown, is removed and the new filter element 1 is inserted into the receiving frame 8, whereupon the receiving frame 8 and the wall of the housing 10 are closed.", "FIG. 10 shows a schematic view of a waste drum 27, as viewed from the top, into which the filter element 1 is inserted which was previously shaped to form a circle or which was separated in the protective bag 24 or 25.", "Before insertion of the filter element 1 into the waste container 27, a filter pocket 2 is, for instance, separated by application of pressure from both sides, and the filter element 1 is shaped in the way which is shown in FIG. 10 where the lower ends of the filter pocket 2 touch each other by means of bending away of the mounting frame 5 in such a way that the filter element 1 assumes an approximately half-circle shape which matches the inner circumference of the waste container 27.", "The separated filter pocket 2 can be inserted into the inner circle-shaped bend of the filter element 1, whereupon a second filter element 1, which has been shaped in a similar way, can be inserted next to the first filter element 1 into the waste container 27.", "Then the filter element 1 and filter pocket 2 are reduced by one-third of their original volume in the drum by being subjected to a vertical pressure by means of a press, whereupon further correspondingly shaped filter elements 1 can be inserted into the waste container 27 and can be reduced in their volume to such an extent that approximately four standard filter elements 1 with the dimensions 610×610×292 milimeters can be pressed completely into a 200 liter capacity standard waste container.", "After the waste container 27 is filled, it is closed and stored in a safe place.", "In this way the filter elements 1 can immediately, after insertion into the protective bag 24, be put into the waste container 27 and can be shaped or compacted without decontamination time or elaborate prior work, such as compaction or otherwise, by means of power saws, shredders and compacting presses which were necessary to date.", "A decontamination of the filter receiving frame 8 which remains in the housing is not necessary or is necessary only for a general cleaning, for reasons which were described above.", "In this way the filter receiving frame 8 can always remain in the housing 10 during the exchange in accordance with FIG. 9." ]

[ "CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a Divisional of U.S. application Ser.", "No. 13/583,441 filed on Sep. 7, 2012, which is a National Phase filing under 35 U.S.C. §371 of PCT/JP2011/055481 filed on Mar. 9, 2011;", "and this application claims priority to Application No. 2010-053517 filed in Japan on Mar. 10, 2010 under 35 U.S.C. §119;", "and this application claims priority to Application No. 2010-259124 filed in Japan on Nov. 19, 2010 under 35 U.S.C. §119;", "the entire contents of all are hereby incorporated by reference.", "TECHNICAL FIELD [0002] The present invention relates to a novel lactic acid bacterium, and a preparation containing, as an active ingredient, cells of the lactic acid bacterium or a treated product thereof.", "BACKGROUND ART [0003] Changes in the living environment such as the Westernized diet, changed home environment, lack of exercise, and high stress levels in recent years have led to a trend of annual increases in the numbers of individuals suffering from and at high risk of what are now called “national diseases”", "such as allergic diseases and lifestyle diseases.", "[0004] The number of individuals suffering from allergic diseases, particularly hay fever and atopic dermatitis disease, is ever increasing, and thus there is a strong desire for preventive and therapeutic measures against these diseases.", "[0005] Hay fever and atopic dermatitis are classified as the group I allergic diseases which start with the recognition of a substance introduced into the body as an allergen and subsequent induction of the production of IgE antibody.", "When the allergen is reintroduced, the allergen binds to IgE antibodies that have become bound to receptor molecules on mast cells and granulocytes.", "As a result, the mast cells and granulocytes excessively release chemical mediators such as histamine and leukotriene, which causes allergy symptoms such as asthma, dermatitis, and nasal discharge.", "[0006] For remedy of such allergic diseases, agents such as antihistamine agents and steroidal agents have been administrated as a symptomatic treatment.", "At present, however, side effects are seen with these drugs and there are also found safety issues regarding their methods of use and their long-term use.", "[0007] Hyperlipidemia which is one of the lifestyle diseases, is indicated by a neutral fat level exceeding the reference value, and may be caused by the accumulation of unfavorable lifestyle habits such as unbalanced diet, lack of exercise, alcohol drinking, and smoking.", "It is considered that effective methods for lowering the neutral fat level are diet therapy and exercise therapy, but it is difficult to patiently continue these therapies.", "For this reason, methods of lowering the neutral fat level without mental and physical pains are desired.", "[0008] Meanwhile, some of fermented foods produced using lactic acid bacteria have been drawing attention for their health effects such as intestinal regulation effects, immunostimulatory effects, and effects of preventing lifestyle diseases.", "For example, in the case of yogurt, the lactic acid bacteria cells used for fermentation and the milk peptides in the fermented milk have been reported to exhibit health effects as described above.", "The functions of lactic acid bacteria which are drawing attention today are the antiallergic function (Patent Literatures 1, 2), the neutral fat-lowering function (Patent Literatures 3, 4) and the like.", "[0009] In Patent Literature 2, Lactobacillus paracasei KW3110 (FERM BP-08634) is reported to have a particularly high antiallergic function, but there is no report that lactic acid bacteria belonging to the genus Pediococcus have an antiallergic effect.", "In addition, although Patent Literature 4 reports that lactic acid bacteria belonging to the genus Pediococcus have a neutral fat-lowering effect, the effect does not seem to be sufficient yet.", "[0010] Also, cocktails produced using functional lactic acid bacteria preparations are known to exhibit various health effects such as intestinal regulation effects when they are taken, but there are a few lactic acid bacteria preparations known to exhibit multiple functions.", "CITATION LIST Patent Literature [0011] Patent Literature 1: JP H09-2959 A [0012] Patent Literature 2: JP 3585487 B [0013] Patent Literature 3: JP H10-298083 A [0014] Patent Literature 4: JP H06-57657 B SUMMARY OF INVENTION Technical Problem [0015] The present invention aims to provide very safe lactic acid bacteria that have at least one of an antiallergic function, a blood neutral fat-lowering function, and an anti-autoimmune disease function.", "The present invention also aims to provide preparations which contain a lactic acid bacterium having at least one of an antiallergic function, a neutral fat-lowering function, an anti-autoimmune disease function and the like, or a component derived from the lactic acid bacterium.", "Solution to Problem [0016] The present inventors have made intensive studies to solve the above problems, and have found that specific lactic acid bacteria belonging to the genus Pediococcus and components derived from the lactic acid bacteria have at least one of an excellent antiallergic function, neutral fat-lowering function, and anti-autoimmune disease function, particularly both the antiallergic function and neutral fat-lowering function.", "Thereby, the present invention has been completed.", "[0017] That is, one aspect of the present invention is a strain of Pediococcus acidilactici R037 (accession number NITE BP-900) or a variant of the strain R037 having at least one of an antiallergic function, a neutral fat-lowering function, and an anti-autoimmune disease function.", "[0018] Another aspect of the present invention is a composition which includes cultured cells of the lactic acid bacterium or a treated product thereof.", "The composition can be used as a pharmaceutical product, health food, or dietary supplement for the prevention or amelioration of an allergy, the lowering of the blood neutral fat level, and/or the prevention or amelioration of an autoimmune disease.", "[0019] Yet another aspect of the present invention is an antiallergic agent including the composition preferably as an active ingredient.", "[0020] Yet another aspect of the present invention is a blood neutral fat-lowering agent including the composition preferably as an active ingredient.", "[0021] Yet another aspect of the present invention is an anti-autoimmune disease agent including the composition preferably as an active ingredient.", "[0022] Yet another aspect of the present invention is a food or drink product including the composition.", "[0023] Yet another aspect of the present invention is a method for treating at least one of an allergic disease, hypertriglyceridemia, and an autoimmune disease, the method including administering the composition to a subject.", "Advantageous Effects of Invention [0024] The present invention can provide a composition that contains very safe lactic acid bacterial cells or a treated product thereof.", "The composition of the present invention can be used as at least one of a preventive or ameliorative agent for an allergy, a neutral fat-lowering agent, and a preventive or ameliorative agent for an autoimmune disease which are against the diseases regarded as national diseases today.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS [0025] FIG. 1 is a view showing changes in the total dermatitis score of a mouse model of atopic dermatitis with and without administration of the lactic acid bacterium of the present invention.", "[0026] FIG. 2 is a view showing changes in the auricular thickness of a mouse model of atopic dermatitis with and without administration of the lactic acid bacterium of the present invention.", "DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS [0027] Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail.", "[0028] The lactic acid bacterium of the present invention, Pediococcus acidilactici R037 (hereinafter, also referred to as “the strain R037”), is a novel lactic acid bacterium isolated from fermented milk, and has been deposited with the Patent Microorganisms Depositary, Incorporated Administrative Agency National Institute of Technology and Evaluation (2-5-8 Kazusakamatari, Kisarazu-shi, Chiba, Japan) under the accession number NITE BP-900.", "[0029] The strain R037 has the following bacteriological characteristics, and has been identified to be a strain belonging to Pediococcus acidilactici.", "A. Morphological characteristics [0031] 1.", "Cell Form: Coccus [0032] 2.", "Gram stain: Positive [0033] 3.", "Sporulation: No [0034] 4.", "Motility: No B. Growing state on culture medium [0036] Colony morphology on MRS agar medium: White, circular, convex C. Physiological characteristics [0038] 1.", "Growth ability at 37° C.: Positive [0039] 2.", "Growth ability at 45° C.: Positive [0040] 3.", "Catalatic reaction: Positive [0041] 4.", "Fermentation of various carbohydrates (Positive: +, Negative: −) [0042] Arabinose: − [0043] Galactose: + [0044] Lactose: − [0045] Maltose: − [0046] Melezitose: − [0047] Ribose: + [0048] Xylose: + D. Chemotaxonomic characteristics [0050] The result of 16S rDNA sequence analysis shows that the base sequence of the strain R037 has an identity of 99.7% with that of Pediococcus acidilactici UL5.", "[0051] As described in the examples below, the strain R037 has not only an excellent antiallergic/anti-atopic dermatitis function, but also an excellent neutral fat-lowering function.", "[0052] The technical scope of the present invention encompasses not only the strain R037 but also variants thereof as long as they have equivalent functions, and the composition of the present invention may contain the variants in place of the strain R037.", "The variants are not particularly limited, and examples thereof include spontaneous variants, and variants obtained by artificially introducing mutations by known methods such as treatment with radiation or mutation-inducing substances.", "[0053] Any culture medium can be used to culture the strain R037 or variants thereof, as long as they can grow in the culture medium.", "Examples of the culture method include, but not particularly limited to, test tube culture, flask culture, and fermentation tank culture.", "For example, the MRS medium generally used for lactic acid bacteria culture may be used and ordinary lactic acid bacteria culture may be carried out in this medium under generally used conditions.", "[0054] The composition of the present invention contains cultured cells of the Pediococcus acidilactici R037 isolated from fermented milk, or a treated product thereof.", "The cells contained in the composition may be viable or dead (killed).", "Here, the viable cells refer to living lactic acid bacteria, and the dead (killed) cells refer to cells that have been subjected to a microbicidal treatment such as heat application, pressure application, and chemical treatment.", "[0055] The composition of the present invention may not only contain the whole cell, but also may contain a treated product of the cells instead as long as the treated product has an equivalent function.", "The treated product of the cells herein refers to a liquid material obtained by, for example, grinding, disrupting, or extracting the lactic acid bacterial cells;", "or a treated product that has been subjected to at least one treatment selected from concentration, conversion into a paste, drying (e.g. spray drying, freeze drying, vacuum drying, drum drying), and dilution;", "or a residue from the extraction of the lactic acid bacteria.", "[0056] Since the composition of the present invention containing the strain R037 of the present invention, a variant thereof, or a component derived from any of these lactic acid bacteria has an excellent antiallergic function, the composition can be used as an antiallergic agent.", "In a Th2-biased immune system, the antiallergic agent of the present invention functions to shift the immune response to antigen stimulation toward a Th1-type immune response, and can also limit the amount of production of IgE antibody.", "Accordingly, the antiallergic agent can prevent or ameliorate allergic diseases such as hay fever, atopic dermatitis, bronchial asthma, allergic rhinitis, and allergic conjunctivitis.", "[0057] The antiallergic function in the present invention can be evaluated by, for example, culturing splenocytes from ovalbumin (OVA)-immunized BALB/c mice in a medium supplemented with OVA and the test substance, and measuring the cytokines (IL-12, IL-4) in the culture supernatant, as described below in the examples.", "The test substance is considered to have an antiallergic function if IL-12 production by the splenocytes is induced and IL-4 production is inhibited in the medium with the test substance, compared with the amounts of cytokines IL-12 and IL-4 produced by the splenocytes cultured in a medium without the test substance.", "[0058] The antiallergic function can also be evaluated by administering the test substance orally to mice, immunizing the mice with OVA, and measuring the total IgE level in blood from these mice.", "The test substance is considered to have an antiallergic function if the total blood IgE level in these mice is reduced compared with that of mice not receiving the test substance.", "[0059] The anti-atopic dermatitis function can be evaluated by, for example, administering the test substance to a mouse model of atopic dermatitis (SPF Nc/Nga mice), and treating the mice with picryl chloride so that the mice can be sensitized and induced to develop atopic dermatitis, as described below in the examples.", "The test substance is considered to have an anti-atopic dermatitis function if the dermatitis score of these mice is lower than that of mice not receiving the test substance.", "[0060] The composition containing the strain R037, a variant thereof, or a component derived from any of these lactic acid bacteria has an excellent neutral fat-lowering function, and thus can be used also as a neutral fat-lowering agent.", "The neutral fat-lowering agent of the present invention lowers the neutral fat level in blood and controls the neutral fat concentration in blood serum to prevent or ameliorate lipid metabolism disorders and hypertriglyceridemia.", "[0061] The neutral fat-lowering function can be evaluated by, for example, measuring the neutral fat level in blood serum of a mouse model of type 2 diabetes (KK-Ay mice), as described below in the examples.", "The test substance is considered to have a neutral fat-lowering function if the neutral fat level in blood serum of the mice is lower than that of mice not receiving the test substance.", "[0062] The composition containing the strain R037, a variant thereof, or a component derived from any of these lactic acid bacteria has an excellent anti-autoimmune disease function, and thus can be used also as a preventive or ameliorative agent for an autoimmune disease.", "The autoimmune diseases mentioned herein refer to autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, and Crohn's disease.", "[0063] The composition of the present invention can be used as a food, a functional food, a dietary supplement, a feed (e.g. pet foods), an animal drug, or a pharmaceutical product.", "[0064] In the case that the composition of the present invention is consumed on an everyday basis as a food, the form of the food that contains the composition of the present invention is not particularly limited.", "Examples thereof include ordinary foods such as edible oil and fat compositions, cooking oils, spray oils, butters, margarines, shortenings, whipping creams, condensed milk products, whiteners, dressings, pickle liquids, breads, cakes, pies, cookies, Japanese confections, snack confections, fried confections, chocolate and chocolate confections, rice confections, rouxs, sauces, bastes, toppings, iced desserts, noodles, bakery mixes, fried foods, processed meat products, other processed food products (e.g., tofu, konjac food products), fish paste products, frozen foods (e.g., frozen entrees, frozen livestock food products, frozen agricultural foods), cooked rice, jams, cheeses, cheese foods, imitation cheese products, gums, candies, fermented milk products, canned goods, and beverages.", "[0065] The amount of the lactic acid bacterium or a component derived from the lactic acid bacterium is not particularly limited in the case that the composition of the present invention is used as a food.", "The amount may be, for example, 0.00001 to 100% by weight, preferably 0.001 to 50% by weight, and more preferably 0.1 to 30% by weight, of the food.", "[0066] In the case that the composition of the present invention is used as a functional food, a dietary supplement, a feed, or an animal drug, its dosage form is not particularly limited.", "Examples thereof include capsules, syrups, tablets, pills, powders, granules, drinks, injectables, transfusion fluids, nose drops, eye drops, suppositories, adhesive skin patches, and sprays.", "In formulation of a preparation, other pharmaceutically acceptable formulating agents, such as excipients, disintegrants, lubricants, binders, oxidation inhibitors, colorants, aggregation inhibitors, absorption promoters, dissolution auxiliaries, and stabilizers, can be suitably added.", "The preparation can be mixed into a compound feed or feed mixture, or can be suspended in drinking water before feeding.", "The composition of the present invention may also be just mixed with a feed before feeding.", "[0067] In these cases, the composition of the present invention is administered in a single dose or multiple doses such that the daily intake of the lactic acid bacterium or a component derived from the lactic acid bacterium by the target animal, regardless of its species, is preferably 0.01 to 1000 mg/kg body weight per day, and more preferably 0.1 to 500 mg/kg body weight per day.", "[0068] In the case that the composition of the present invention is used as a pharmaceutical product, its dosage form is not particularly limited.", "Examples thereof include capsules, syrups, tablets, pills, powders, granules, drinks, injectables, transfusion fluids, nose drops, eye drops, suppositories, adhesive skin patches, and sprays.", "In formulation of a preparation, other pharmaceutically acceptable formulating agents, such as excipients, disintegrants, lubricants, binders, oxidation inhibitors, colorants, aggregation inhibitors, absorption promoters, dissolution auxiliaries, and stabilizers, can be suitably added.", "The composition can also be prepared in the form of a dietary supplement (e.g. capsules, tablets) as a food with health claims (e.g. foods for specified health uses, foods with nutrient function claims) or a functional food (e.g. health foods, nutritional supplements), which may be labeled as a product for the prevention or amelioration of allergy symptoms, and/or the lowering of the neutral fat level.", "In these cases, the composition of the present invention is administered in a single dose or multiple doses such that the daily intake of the lactic acid bacterium or a component derived from the lactic acid bacterium by the target adult person is preferably 0.1 to 1000 mg/kg body weight per day, and more preferably 10 to 300 mg/kg body weight per day.", "[0069] The composition of the present invention can be administered to a subject so as to prevent or ameliorate an allergic disease such as allergic or atopic dermatitis.", "The subject in this case is not particularly limited, and can be exemplified by individuals with allergic symptoms (e.g. allergic disease patients, atopic dermatitis patients);", "individuals currently without allergic symptoms but with a potential risk thereof found as a result of a test such as an antibody test;", "and healthy persons or healthy animals that should be prevented from developing allergic or atopic dermatitis or the like disease.", "[0070] The composition of the present invention can be administered to a subject so as to lower the neutral fat level in blood.", "The subject in this case is not particularly limited, and can be exemplified by hypertriglyceridemia patients;", "individuals regarded as at high risk of hypertriglyceridemia because of their high neutral fat level as a result of a test such as a blood test;", "and healthy persons or healthy animals whose neutral fat level should be cared about because of their accumulation of unfavorable lifestyle habits.", "[0071] The composition of the present invention can be administered to a subject so as to prevent or ameliorate an autoimmune disease.", "The subject to receive the composition for the prevention or amelioration of an autoimmune disease can be exemplified by individuals suffering from the diseases described above as examples of autoimmune diseases;", "individuals currently without the symptoms but with a potential risk thereof found as a result of a test such as an antibody test;", "and healthy persons or healthy animals that should be prevented from developing these diseases.", "EXAMPLES [0072] Hereinafter, the present invention will be more specifically described based on the examples which, however, are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention.", "In the examples, the antiallergic function, anti-atopic dermatitis function, and neutral fat-lowering function were evaluated by the following methods.", "<Evaluation of Antiallergic Function>", "[0073] Splenocytes from a mouse model of allergy (male BALB/c mice) that had been immunized with OVA antigen were co-cultured with OVA and the test substance.", "The antiallergic function was evaluated based on whether IL-4 production was inhibited and IL-12 production was promoted by this co-culture.", "[0074] In addition, mice (male BALB/c mice) receiving the test substance orally were repeatedly immunized with OVA over a period of time, and the serum IgE was measured.", "The antiallergic function was then evaluated based on whether or not the increase in the serum IgE level in the mice receiving the test substance orally was inhibited compared with an increase with time in the serum IgE level in mice not receiving the test substance.", "<Evaluation of Anti-Atopic Dermatitis Function>", "[0075] Picryl chloride was applied to the back and footpads of a mouse model of atopic dermatitis (SPF male Nc/Nga mice) that received the test substance orally, so as to sensitize the mice.", "Then, picryl chloride was applied to the back of and the right and left auricles of the mice so as to induce the mice to develop atopic dermatitis.", "The dermatitis score and auricular thickness of the mice were recorded.", "The anti-atopic dermatitis function was evaluated based on whether or not the increase with time in the dermatitis score and auricular thickness of the mice receiving the test substance orally was inhibited compared with an increase with time in the dermatitis score and auricular thickness of mice not receiving the test substance.", "<Evaluation of Neutral Fat-Lowering Function>", "[0076] The neutral fat level in blood serum of a mouse model of type 2 diabetes (male KK-Ay mice) that received the test substance orally was measured.", "The neutral fat-lowering function was evaluated based on whether or not the increase in the neutral fat level in blood serum of the mice receiving the test substance orally was inhibited compared with an increase with time in the neutral fat level in blood serum of mice not receiving the test substance.", "(Preparations 1 to 4) Preparation of Different Lactic Acid Bacteria [0077] The lactic acid bacteria listed in Table 1 were each cultured for 48 hours in MRS medium (prepared by dissolving 52 g of MRS bouillon (Kanto Chemical Co., Inc.) in 1 L of water, and sterilizing the mixture by autoclaving for 15 minutes at 121° C.).", "After the culturing, the bacterial cells were collected by centrifugal separation, washed 3 times with sterilized water, dispersed in 20 ml of sterilized water, heated for 10 minutes at 80° C., and then freeze-dried, whereby freeze-dried cells 1 to 4 of the respective lactic acid bacteria were obtained.", "[0000] TABLE 1 Lactic acid bacterial strain added Preparation 1 Pediococcus acidilactici R037 (freeze-dried cells 1) (accession number: NITE BP-900) Preparation 2 Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp.", "lactis KR-188 (freeze-dried cells 2) (accession number: NITE P-396) Preparation 3 Enterococcus durans KR-211 (freeze-dried cells 3) (accession number: NITE P-397) Preparation 4 Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp.", "mesenteroides (freeze-dried cells 4) KLAB-2 (accession number: NITE P-393) Example 1 Measurement of Antiallergic Function of Lactic Acid Bacteria by In Vitro Test [0078] Five-week-old female BALB/c mice (from Charles River Japan) were used in this experiment after acclimation for one week.", "The BALB/c mice were intraperitoneally immunized with an antigen solution prepared by mixing 100 μg of OVA and 2 mg of aluminum hydroxide gel and diluting the mixture to 200 μL with physiological saline (primary immunization).", "After one week, the mice were intraperitoneally immunized again with the same amount of the antigen solution (secondary immunization).", "One week after the secondary immunization, the OVA-specific IgE antibody titer was measured by ELISA.", "The mice showing an increase in the antibody titer were taken as the mouse model of allergy.", "[0079] Splenocytes were prepared from the allergic model mice, and were then suspended in RPMI 1640 medium (product name: RPMI 1640, from SIGMA®) which contained 10% fetal bovine serum, to give 2.0×10 6 cells/mL.", "OVA (1 mg/mL) for antigen stimulation and the dried lactic acid bacterial cells 1 (1 μg/mL) prepared in Preparation 1 were added to the medium.", "The splenocytes were then cultured for 7 days in a 5% CO 2 incubator at 37° C. After the culturing, the IL-4 and IL-12 present in the supernatant were measured by ELISA (product name: QUANTIKINE®, from R&D SYSTEMS®) and the measured values were used in the evaluation.", "The results are summarized in Table 2.", "Reference Examples 1 to 3 Measurement of Antiallergic Function of Lactic Acid Bacteria by In Vitro Test [0080] The antiallergic function of mice for reference examples was measured in the same manner as in Example 1, except that one of the dried lactic acid bacterial cells 2 to 4 was used.", "The results are summarized in Table 2.", "Comparative Example 1 Measurement of Antiallergic Function of Lactic Acid Bacteria by In Vitro Test [0081] The antiallergic function of mice as a negative control was measured in the same manner as in Example 1, except that no lactic acid bacteria solution was added and PBS (−) was used.", "The results are summarized in Table 2.", "Reference Example 4 Measurement of Antiallergic Function of Lactic Acid Bacteria by In Vitro Test [0082] The antiallergic function of mice as a positive control was measured in the same manner as in Example 1, except that no lactic acid bacteria solution was added and 1 μg/mL of the immunostimulant PICIBANIL™ (Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.) which has an ability to activate Th1 was used.", "The results are summarized in Table 2.", "Reference Example 5 Measurement of Antiallergic Function of Lactic Acid Bacteria by In Vitro Test [0083] For comparison with Japanese Patent No. 3585487, dried lactic acid bacterial cells were prepared in the same manner as in Preparations 1 to 4, except that Lactobacillus casei L14 (Japan Dairy Technical Association, identical to Lactobacillus paracasei KW3110, FERM BP-08634), a lactic acid bacterium known as having antiallergic activity, was used in place of the lactic acid bacteria used in Preparations 1 to 4.", "Using the dried cells, the antiallergic function of mice as a positive control with the lactic acid bacterium was measured in the same manner as in Example 1.", "The results are summarized in Table 2.", "[0000] TABLE 2 (Unit: pg/ml) Lactic acid bacterial strain added IL-4 IL-12 Example 1 Pediococcus acidilactici R037 145.1 449.8 (freeze-dried cells 1) (accession number: NITE BP-900) Reference Example 1 Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp.", "lactis KR-188 73.9 334.0 (freeze-dried cells 2) (accession number: NITE P-396) Reference Example 2 Enterococcus durans KR-211 105.6 306.6 (freeze-dried cells 3) (accession number: NITE P-397) Reference Example 3 Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp.", "mesenteroides KLAB-2 39.6 356.5 (freeze-dried cells 4) (accession number: NITE P-393) Comparative Example 1 — 3584.9 — Reference Example 4 (Immunostimulant Picibanil) [1] 434.5 253.1 Reference Example 5 Lactobacillus casei L14 [2] 313.4 172.8 [1] Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., preparation which is not a lactic acid bacterium [2] Identical to Lactobacillus paracasei KW3110 (FERM BP-08634), identified by Japan Dairy Technical Association [0084] Table 2 shows the amounts of IL-4 production and IL-12 production by splenocytes from the allergic model mice in the case of co-culture with the lactic acid bacteria and OVA.", "In Comparative Example 1 using no lactic acid bacteria, the OVA-stimulated splenocytes from allergic model mice exhibited a strong Th2-type immune response in which IL-4 production was induced and the amount of IL-12 production was below the detection limit.", "In contrast, in Reference Example 4 using PICIBANIL™, the OVA-stimulated splenocytes from allergic model mice exhibited a Th1-type immune response in which IL-4 production was inhibited and IL-12 production was induced.", "In addition, in Reference Example 5 using Lactobacillus casei L14, the splenocytes exhibited a Th1-type immune response as in Reference Example 4.", "The splenocytes in Example 1 and Reference Examples 1 to 3 also exhibited inhibition of IL-4 production and induction of IL-12 production.", "In particular, the results in Example 1 show that the strain R037 activated the IL-12 production by about 2.5 times as much as that in Reference Example 5, and inhibited the IL-4 production to the extent of about half that in Reference Example 5, which indicates that the strain R037 has high antiallergic activity.", "Example 2 Measurement of Antiallergic Function of Preparation by In Vivo Test [0085] First, 0.05 parts by weight of the freeze-dried cells 1 of the strain R037 which had been prepared in Preparation 1 was thoroughly mixed with 0.45 parts by weight of an excipient (product name: PINEDEX #2™, from Matsutani Chemical Industry Co., Ltd.) to prepare a lactic acid bacteria preparation.", "An amount of 0.5 parts by weight of the prepared lactic acid bacteria preparation was mixed with 99.5 parts by weight of a powdered mouse feed (product name: CE-2, from Oriental Yeast Co., Ltd.) to provide a lactic acid bacteria preparation-supplemented feed that contained 0.5% by weight of the lactic acid bacteria preparation.", "[0086] Five-week-old female BALB/c mice (from Charles River Japan) were acclimated for one week.", "After that, administration of the lactic acid bacteria preparation-supplemented feed was started (ad libitum intake of the lactic acid bacterium at approximately 2.5 mg/day on average).", "One week after the start day (i.e. on Day 7), the mice were intraperitoneally immunized with an antigen solution prepared by mixing 100 μg of OVA and 2 mg of aluminum hydroxide gel and diluting the mixture to 200 μL with physiological saline.", "Immunization with the OVA antigen solution was similarly performed after 2 weeks (Day 14), after 4 weeks (Day 28), after 6 weeks (Day 42), and after 8 weeks (Day 56).", "In order to measure the total IgE level in blood, blood was collected from the mouse jugular vein after 3 weeks (Day 21), after 5 weeks (Day 35), after 7 weeks (Day 49), and after 9 weeks (Day 63).", "The serum was collected by centrifugal separation of the collected blood, and the total IgE level in the serum was measured using a YAMASA® IgE/EIA Kit (from Yamasa Corporation).", "The measured values are shown in Table 3.", "Reference Examples 6 to 8 Measurement of Antiallergic Function of Preparation by In Vivo Test [0087] The total IgE level in the collected serum was measured in the same manner as in Example 2, except that one of the freeze-dried lactic acid bacterial cells 2 to 4 (prepared in Preparations 2 to 4) was used in place of the freeze-dried bacterial cells of the strain R037.", "The measured values are shown in Table 3.", "Comparative Example 2 Measurement of Antiallergic Function of Preparation by In Vivo Test [0088] The total IgE level in the collected serum of mice as a negative control was measured in the same manner as in Example 2, except that a powdered mouse feed (product name: CE-2, from Oriental Yeast Co., Ltd.) was used without adding the lactic acid bacteria preparation, in place of the lactic acid bacteria preparation-supplemented feed.", "The measured values are shown in Table 3.", "Reference Example 9 Measurement of Antiallergic Function of Preparation by In Vivo Test [0089] For comparison with Japanese Patent No. 3585487, the total IgE level in the collected serum of mice as a positive control was measured in the same manner as in Example 2, except that a lactic acid bacteria-supplemented feed, which was prepared by mixing 99.925 parts by weight of the powdered mouse feed with 0.075 parts by weight of a health supplement containing Lactobacillus paracasei KW3110(product name: NOALE CAPSULE™, from Kirin Yakult Nextstage Co., Ltd.), was used in place of the lactic acid bacteria preparation containing the freeze-dried cells 1.", "The measured values are shown in Table 3.", "[0090] Here, no differences were seen in the mouse body weight and total amount of intake among the experiments in Example 2, Comparative Example 2, and Reference Examples 6 to 9.", "[0000] TABLE 3 (Unit: ng/ml) Lactic acid bacteria mixed into feed Day 0 Day 21 Day 35 Day 49 Day 63 Example 2 Pediococcus acidilactici R037 0 147 450 510 547 * (accession number: NITE BP-900) Reference Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp.", "lactis KR-188 0 161 434 695 637 * Example 6 (accession number: NITE P-396) Reference Enterococcus durans KR-211 0 124 293 509 720 * Example 7 (accession number: NITE P-397) Reference Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp.", "mesenteroides KLAB-2 0 155 561 784 790 * Example 8 (accession number: NITE P-393) Comparative — 0 172 773 1105 1443 Example 2 Reference Lactobacillus paracasei KW3110 0 105 481 618 706 * Example 9 (product name: Noale Capsule, from Kirin Yakult Nextstage Co., Ltd.) The asterisk * indicates that the value is significantly different from that of Comparative Example 2.", "[0091] The results of Table 3 show the following facts.", "The total blood IgE level in the positive control group (Reference Example 9) on Day 63 was lower than that in the negative control group (Comparative Example 2) receiving a feed not supplemented with the lactic acid bacteria preparation.", "The total blood IgE level in the mice receiving the lactic acid bacteria preparation-supplemented feed in Example 2 and Reference Examples 6 to 8 on Day 63 was also lower than that in the control group in Comparative Example 2.", "The results in Table 3 show that the preparation containing the freeze-dried cells 1 of the strain R037 in Preparation 1 had a particularly high antiallergic function, even compared with the preparation of Reference Example 9.", "Since the changes in the total IgE level in these experiments are considered to correspond to the changes in the OVA-specific IgE level, the results demonstrated that the composition of the present invention has an antiallergic effect.", "Example 3 Measurement of Anti-Atopic Dermatitis Function of Preparation by In Vivo Test [0092] An amount of 0.33 parts by weight of the freeze-dried cells 1 of the strain R037 prepared in Preparation 1 was mixed with 99.67 parts by weight of a powdered mouse feed (product name: CE-2, from CLEA Japan, Inc.) to prepare a lactic acid bacteria-supplemented feed that contained 0.33% by weight of the freeze-dried cells 1.", "[0093] Seven-week-old SPF male Nc/Nga mice (from Charles River Japan) were acclimated for one week.", "After that, administration of the prepared lactic acid bacteria-supplemented feed was started (ad libitum intake of the lactic acid bacterium at approximately 17 mg/day on average).", "One day after the start day (i.e. on Day 1), the mice were placed under isoflurane anesthesia and 150 μL of a PiCl sensitizing solution (5% (w/v) PiCl solution (solvent: ethanol/acetone=4:1)) was applied to the shaved abdomen of and the footpads of the mice.", "The induction of atopic dermatitis was performed 4 days (Day 5) after the sensitization, by applying 150 μL of a PiCl induction solution (0.8% (w/v) PiCl solution (solvent: olive oil)) to the back of and the right and left auricles (both inside and outside) of the mice.", "This operation for atopic dermatitis induction was repeated every week, 7 times in total.", "The conditions of the skin were observed twice a week from the day on which the sensitization was started (Day 1).", "Based on the clinical evaluation standards for human atopic dermatitis, five items, i.e., itching, erythema/hemorrhage, edema, excoriation/erosion, scaling/dryness, were graded as follows: no symptoms (0 points);", "mild (1 point);", "moderate (2 points);", "and severe (3 points).", "The sum of points was regarded as the total dermatitis score and was used for evaluation.", "The auricular thickness was also measured once a week using a micrometer from the test start day (Day 0).", "The determined total dermatitis scores are shown in FIG. 1 and the measured auricular thicknesses are shown in FIG. 2 .", "Comparative Example 3 Measurement of Anti-Atopic Dermatitis Function of Preparation by In Vivo Test [0094] The total score and auricular thickness of mice as a negative control were determined in the same manner as in Example 3, except that a powdered mouse feed (product name: CE-2, from CLEA Japan, Inc.) was used without adding the freeze-dried lactic acid bacterial cells.", "The results are shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 .", "[0095] Here, no differences were seen in the mouse body weight and total amount of intake between the experiments in Example 3 and Comparative Example 3.", "[0096] The results in FIGS. 1 and 2 show the following facts.", "The negative control group (Comparative Example 3) receiving a feed not supplemented with the lactic acid bacteria showed an increase in the total score and auricular thickness after the 4th atopic dermatitis induction.", "In contrast, the mouse group (Example 3) receiving a feed supplemented with the freeze-dried cells 1 of the strain R037 showed an inhibitory effect on the increase in the total score and auricular thickness;", "here, the increase was significantly inhibited on Day 34 and later regarding the total score, and on Day 35 and later regarding the auricular thickness.", "These results demonstrated that the composition of the present invention has an anti-atopic dermatitis function.", "Example 4 Measurement of Neutral Fat-Lowering Function of Preparation by In Vivo Test [0097] First, a lactic acid bacteria preparation was prepared by mixing 1.67 parts by weight of the freeze-dried bacterial cells 1 of the strain R037 (prepared in Preparation 1) and 33 parts by weight of an excipient (product name: PINEDEX #2™, from Matsutani Chemical Industry Co., Ltd.).", "The lactic acid bacteria preparation was suspended in distilled water so as to give a lactic acid bacteria preparation-admixed liquid having a concentration of 10% by weight.", "[0098] Eight-week-old male KK-Ay mice (from CLEA Japan, Inc.) were acclimated for two weeks on ad libitum intake of a mouse feed (product name: CE-2, from Oriental Yeast Co., Ltd.) and sterilized water.", "After that, the prepared lactic acid bacteria preparation-admixed liquid was forcibly administered every day using a plastic mouse-feeding needle and a 1-mL tuberculin syringe so that the amount of the liquid was 7.5 mL per kilogram of the mouse body weight per day (forcible administration of approximately 20 mg/day of the lactic acid bacteria).", "[0099] During the period of the experiment, a mouse feed (product name: CE-2, from Oriental Yeast Co., Ltd.) and sterilized water were freely available to the mice.", "After two weeks of forcible administration without interruption, blood serum was collected from blood from the mice, and the neutral fat level in the serum was measured using a neutral fat measuring kit (TRIGLYCERIDE E-TEST WAKO™, from Wako Pure Chemical Industries, Ltd.).", "The measured value is shown in Table 4.", "Comparative Example 4 Measurement of Neutral Fat-Lowering Function of Preparation by In Vivo Test [0100] The neutral fat level in the collected serum of mice as a negative control was measured in the same manner as in Example 4, except that distilled water without the lactic acid bacteria preparation was used in place of the lactic acid bacteria preparation-admixed liquid.", "The measured value is shown in Table 4.", "Reference Example 10 Measurement of Neutral Fat-Lowering Function of Preparation by In Vivo Test [0101] The neutral fat level in the collected serum of mice as a positive control was measured in the same manner as in Example 4, except that the lactic acid bacteria preparation-admixed liquid was replaced with a dilution obtained by diluting with distilled water Pioglitazone (from Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.) which is a drug that improves insulin resistance and acts to lower the neutral fat level in blood serum, to give a concentration of 0.4% by weight.", "The measured value is shown in Table 4.", "Reference Example 11 Measurement of Neutral Fat-Lowering Function of Preparation by In Vivo Test [0102] Freeze-dried cells were prepared in the same manner as in Preparation 1, using Pediococcus acidilactici JCM2032 (purchased from Independent Administrative Institution RIKEN BioResource Center) in place of the freeze-dried cells 1 of the strain R037.", "The neutral fat level in the collected serum was then measured in the same manner as in Example 4.", "The measured value is shown in Table 4.", "Reference Example 12 Measurement of Neutral Fat-Lowering Function of Preparation by In Vivo Test [0103] Freeze-dried cells were prepared in the same manner as in Preparation 1, using Pediococcus acidilactici JCM8797 (purchased from Independent Administrative Institution RIKEN BioResource Center) in place of the freeze-dried cells 1 of the strain R037.", "The neutral fat level in the collected serum was then measured in the same manner as in Example 4.", "The measured value is shown in Table 4.", "Reference Example 13 Measurement of Neutral Fat-Lowering Function of Preparation by In Vivo Test [0104] The neutral fat level in the collected serum was measured in the same manner as in Example 4, except that the lactic acid bacteria preparation-admixed liquid was replaced with a lactic acid bacteria suspension obtained by suspending in distilled water a health supplement containing Lactobacillus paracasei KW3110 (product name: NOALE CAPSULE™, from Kirin Yakult Nextstage Co., Ltd.) to give a concentration of 10% by weight.", "The measured value is shown in Table 4.", "[0105] No differences were found in the mouse body weight and total amount of intake among the experiments in Example 4, Comparative Example 4, and Reference Examples 10 to 13.", "[0000] TABLE 4 Neutral fat level in blood serum (mg/dl) Example 4 360.1 Comparative 596.6 Example 4 Reference 359.8 Example 10 Reference 495.2 Example 11 Reference 477.3 Example 12 Reference 463.3 Example 13 [0106] The results in Table 4 show the following facts.", "The neutral fat level in blood serum of the mice in Reference Example 10 (the mice were forcibly administered neutral fat-lowering Pioglitazone) was lower than the neutral fat level in blood serum of the mice in Comparative Example 4 (the mice were forcibly administered distilled water only), which confirmed the neutral fat-lowering effect of Pioglitazone.", "In addition, the serum neutral fat levels of the mice in Example 4 (the mice were forcibly administered the preparation prepared using the strain R037 in Preparation 1) and the mice in Reference Examples 11 to 13 were decreased similarly to that of the mice in Reference Example 10.", "In particular, the strain R037 in Preparation 1 showed an excellent serum neutral fat-lowering function.", "[0107] These results demonstrated that the preparation prepared using the lactic acid bacterium (strain R037) of Preparation 1 has a neutral fat-lowering effect and that this effect is better than those of the other lactic acid bacteria preparations." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention The invention relates to cathode ray beam deflection systems and more particularly to beam deflection amplifier systems employed in electromagnetic deflection systems.", "Description of the Prior Art One prior art deflection amplifier system of interest with respect to the present invention is disclosed in the J. M. Spencer U.S. Pat. No. 3,816,792 for a "Cathode Ray Tube High Speed Electromagnetic Deflection System", issued June 11, 1974, and assigned to Sperry Corporation.", "Spencer describes a deflection system including a differential input amplifier stage and a push-pull current controlling output stage which drives the deflection coil of the display system.", "A sampling resistor is connected in series with the beam deflection coil to provide a negative feed back voltage proportional to coil current for use in promoting linear operation of the system.", "One terminal of a capacitor is connected to the end of the beam deflection coil coupled to the input amplifier output terminal, while the other terminal of the capacitor is connected through a bidirectional switch to a potential source.", "The bidirectional switch consists of a transistor and a diode connected in parallel, each constituting a respective half of the switch and operative in respective halves of the cycle of resonant oscillation which occurs during the resonant retrace interval.", "When the deflection amplifier system is operating in the linear mode, the bidirectional switch is non-conducting and, therefore, the capacitor is effectively disconnected from the deflection coil.", "In the non-linear mode, the bidirectional switch functions to connect the capacitor conductively with the beam deflection coil;", "simultaneously, a second switch effectively disconnects, the coil-capacitor circuit from the input amplifier, whereby resonant current flow occurs between the beam deflection coil and the capacitor to effect the desired rapid, energy saving retrace.", "Other prior art of interest is discussed in the H. C. Hilburn U.S. Pat. No. 3,786,303 for a "Cathode Ray Tube Dual Mode Horizontal Deflection Control Amplifier", issued Jan. 15, 1974 and also assigned to Sperry Corporation.", "These prior art configurations, though they accomplish their objectives in an entirely satisfactory manner, have a common limiting defect, in that the fly-back capacitor shunts the deflection coil.", "This fact limits the operating band width of the circuit, increases the level of power dissipation, and increases the chances of unstable operation.", "While the arrangement of U.S. Pat. No. 3,816,792 did advantageously switch the fly-back capacitor out of the circuit cyclically, complexity and parts count were undesirably increased.", "Of course, the shunting effect of the capacitor was not fully removed.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides an efficient and a compact cathode ray beam deflection coil excitation system of simplified nature.", "Like the aforementioned Spencer circuit, a preamplifier stage is provided along with a current amplifying output stage which applies excitation of the beam deflection coil.", "In the invention, the flyback system is now integrated directly within the current amplifier stage.", "As will be further described, when operating in the non-linear resonant mode, a portion of that stage that is conducting current to the deflection coil will be abruptly decoupled from the deflection coil via a switch, such that the energy stored within the deflection coil will resonantly discharge through a serial connected capacitor to a power supply being used to return the fly-back current, thereby reducing the number of parts and improving performance with respect to the prior art.", "This integration also provides a hybrid deflection control system capable of both raster or stroke presentation.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a wiring diagram of the invention showing its electrical components and their interconnections.", "FIGS. 2a through 2e are graphs useful in explaining the operation of the invention.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 presents details of the novel cathode ray deflection amplifier for driving a corresponding deflection coil 73 of a cathode ray display tube 71.", "Cathode ray tube 71 is supplied in the usual manner from a suitable anode voltage power supply 72.", "Display tube 71 includes a cathode which may be fed with video signals from video source 74.", "Power supply 72 is additionally arranged to activate at least one prefocussing or control grid and a focussing electrode, in the usual manner.", "A deflection sweep wave generator 1 containing an internal fly-back drive pulse generator supplies the sweep wave voltage 80 of FIG. 2a via lead 2 to one input of a differential preamplifier 4, and fly-back drive synchronizing pulses such as those at 82 of FIG. 2c, which control the timing of sweep wave 80 and appear at terminal 3 for timing the operation of transistor 59.", "The sweep generator 1 may also supply the electron beam blanking pulses 83 of FIG. 2d for blanking the flow of beam current in the time t 3 to t 6 indicated in FIG. 2d when it is desired to prevent the beam from writing on the cathode ray tube phosphor.", "It will be understood that power supply 72 and apparatus for forming the blanking pulses form no essential part of the present invention so that they need not be dealt with in detail herein.", "One end of deflection coil 73 is coupled to ground through a current sampling resistor 70;", "resistor 70 provides a voltage proportional to current flowing through deflection coil 73, which voltage is fed back as a negative feed back signal via lead 5 to a second input of preamplifier 4, the inputs on leads 2 and 5 being poled as shown in FIG. 1. A first output terminal of preamplifier 4 is coupled via lead 6 to junction 12, where there is found a branching circuit from junction 12 via lead 8 to the base of transistor 21 and from junction 12 through resistor 9 to junction 23 and thence to the emitter of transistor 21.", "The collector of transistor 21 is coupled through junction 22 to voltage source +V 1 at terminal 20.", "Diode 26 is connected between junction 22 and junction 27 to junction 23.", "Connections are also made from junctions 23 and 27 by diode 24, which will be referred to as the fly-back diode, and junction 25 and by the capacitor 28, which will be referred to as the fly-back capacitor, and junction 29 to lead 50 for supply of deflection current to coil 73.", "A second output terminal of preamplifier 4, is coupled by lead 7 to junction 3, where there is found a branching circuit between junction 13 via lead 11 to the base of transistor 42 and from junction 13 through resistor 10 to junction 41 and thence to the emitter of transistor 42.", "The collector of transistor 42 is coupled to a source at terminal 43 of voltage -V 2 .", "Junction 41 is coupled to the source electrode 40c of a field effect transistor 40 and also to its substrate electrode 40b, while junction 25 is coupled to the drain electrode 40a thereof.", "The gate electrode 40d of transistor 40 is connected through junction 49, resistor 52, and junction 53 to a source of voltage +V 2 at terminal 51.", "Transistor 40 is of the n-channel, metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect type.", "It is a temperature stable, enhancement mode, metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET), having the source tied to the substrate, and is obtainable, for example, from International Rectifier's Semiconductor Division, 233 Kansas Street, El Segundo, Calif.", "90245.", "The gate electrode 40a of transistor 40 is also connected through terminal 49, Zener diode 55, a first winding 56 of a transformer 57 (poled as shown), and lead 44 to the terminal 41 of the emitter of transistor 42.", "The circuit is completed through resistor 52, junction 53, resistor 54, and the second transformer winding 58 (poled as shown).", "As noted, fly-back drive pulses applied to terminal 3 from sweep and fly-back drive pulse generator 1 are supplied to the base terminal of transistor 59 which is coupled to terminal 3;", "the collector of transistor 59 is coupled to the end of winding 58 opposite resistor 54, while its emitter is grounded.", "During the cathode ray beam sweep time t 1 to t 3 of wave 80 of FIG. 2a, transistor 59 is held non-conducting by the absence of fly-back drive pulse 82 of FIG. 2c on terminal 3.", "Transistor 40, however, is biased into its conducting state by the positive gate-to-source electrode voltage which consequently develops across Zener diode 55, due to the small bias current flowing from the +V 2 voltage source at terminal 51 through resistor 52, Zener diode 55, transformer secondary 58, and transistor 42, to the -V 2 power supply terminal 43.", "The secondary 58 of pulse transformer 57 behaves as a d.c. short circuit.", "As long as transistor 40 conducts, the invention operates as a conventional linear, or stroke, push-pull amplifier.", "The effects of the forward voltage drop across fly-back diode 24 and transistor 59 are adjusted for in a conventional manner by setting up appropriate bias voltages in the output stage of preamplifier 4, the output signals therefrom being in phase but displaced from each other by the aforesaid bias voltages.", "As a result, a minimum of cross-over distortion occurs at the output 50 of the amplifier system.", "At the start of time t 1 , waveform 80 is positive with respect to ground, and transistor 21 will be on, amplifying the sweep signal received from the preamp 4 via lead 6, and permitting current to flow from the +V 1 power supply at terminal 20, through transistor 21, diode 24, deflection coil 73 and resistor 70 to ground.", "Transistor 42 is biased to conduct current when the sweep generator output signal received from the preamp via lead 7 approaches zero volts at time t 2 , from the -V 2 power supply at terminal 43, through transistor 40, deflection coil 73, and resistor 70, to ground.", "At the start of the fly-back time t 3 , deflection current is flowing through transistor 42.", "Transistor 59 is made to conduct by a fly-back drive pulse applied at terminal 3 to its base electrode.", "The conduction of transistor 59 causes a voltage drop across the primary winding 58 of transformer 57 so that a corresponding rapid voltage change obtains across the transformer winding 56.", "This latter impulse pulls the gate-to-source voltage of transistor 40 negative causing it to become reverse biased, abruptly ending conduction therein.", "In this manner, the current path of the deflection wave 81 changes at time t 3 and a new current path is used.", "The current in coil 73 can no longer flow through transistor 42, and instead flows throgh fly-back capacitor 28 and diode 26 into the supply of +V 1 voltage at terminal 20.", "The sudden change in current generates a positive voltage pulse according to the equation: V=L(di)/(dt) where L=the deflection coil inductance, V=the voltage on the coil, di/dt=the change in deflection coil current with time.", "Consequently, a half cycle 85 (FIG.", "2e) of a resonant sinusoidal oscillation is initiated in the effective inductance of deflection coil 73 together with the capacitance of fly-back capacitor 28, and appears as a fly-back pulse on lead 50.", "As the current shown by waveform 81 in FIG. 2B flows through deflection coil 73, it will decrease in amplitude from the negative maximum reached at time t 3 , until it falls to zero volts at time t 4 , in correspondence with the fly-back pulse 85 peak, and reverses, thereby becoming positive.", "Reverse current will now flow from the +V 1 power supply at terminal 20 and through the transistor 21 and the fly-back capacitor 28 until the voltage across capacitor 28 rises to a point where it will forward bias diode 24 into conduction.", "Diode 24 thus acts as a clamping diode and prevents the current from ringing negatively.", "At this time, t 5 , transistor 59 is turned off by the ending of pulse 82 and transistor 40 is again biased into conduction.", "The operation of the invention becomes linear again, comparing the inputs on leads 2 and 5 to correct for any error between the voltage at the input of preamplifier 4 on lead 2 and across the sampling resistor 70 in the manner of a conventional amplifier using negative feed back.", "As long as transistor 40 remains conducting, the invention behaves as a linear or stroke type of amplifier.", "Thus, the invention desirably operates to convert the input drive voltage on lead 2 to a proportional current flowing through deflection coil 73.", "It is seen that the invention provides a simplified electron beam deflection control system of compact nature which permits hybrid operation with a reduced number of parts.", "The fly-back capacitor 28 does not shunt the yoke inductance 73 during linear operation so that operating bandwidth is increased and the cathode ray trace is sharper.", "The fly-back capacitor 28 is also desirably not switched in and out of circuit thus not requiring the additional switching circuits of the prior art.", "Furthermore, stability is improved because the fly-back capacitor 28 is no longer grounded, eliminating the potential of a typical emitter-follower parasitic oscillation problem.", "Quicker recovery after the fly-back interval is achieved without the use of appreciably higher power.", "While the invention has been described in its preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the words which have been used are words of description rather than of limitation and that changes within the purview of the appended claims may be made without departing from the true scope and spirit of the invention in its broader aspects." ]

[ "This application claims priority to and the benefit of the filing date of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/121,811, filed Feb. 27, 2015, which application is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.", "BACKGROUND The present disclosure relates to a system and method for creating a spatiotemporal image representation with information content that enables accurate and rapid processing.", "The disclosure finds particular application in connection with spatiotemporal (ST) image representation of a sequence of video images.", "However, it is to be appreciated that the present exemplary embodiments are also amendable to other like applications.", "In the computer vision community, spatiotemporal processing techniques have recently gained more attention.", "Different methods have been proposed and studied by researchers for various applications.", "Videos are usually viewed and processed by humans in a sequential mode, where each 2-D video frame (with 2 spatial dimensions) is played in a timely order.", "Traditional spatiotemporal representations of videos are usually obtained by stacking 1-D (spatial dimension) signals obtained from each 2-D video frame in their time orders.", "Therefore, the resulting 2-D ST images are composed by one spatial dimension and one time dimension.", "One traditional way to obtain the 1-D spatial dimension signals is to extract a row or column from the same location in each video frame, where the axis of the row or column becomes the spatial dimension.", "Successive frames yield successive extractions, which are time-order stacked to form a 2-D ST representation.", "Another known method for producing an ST representation from a video sequence projects (summarizes or averages) the whole or part of each 2-D video frame along one spatial dimension to reduce the image frame having 2-D spatial dimensions to a signal that is of one spatial dimension, and the sequence of 1-D signals resulting from the extractions are stacked to form the 2-D ST image.", "Many existing applications using spatiotemporal representation of videos are focused on characterizing camera motion.", "One approach is directed at how to extract motion velocity that corresponds to an orientation in spatiotemporal space using a set of quadratic pairs of linear filters.", "Examples consist of rigid patterns moving constantly in one direction with no background clutter.", "Other approaches have relied on different algorithms to estimate camera motion in the spatiotemporal domain.", "In one approach video tomography is used to extract lens zoom, camera pan and camera tilt information from a video sequence using the Hough transform to compute a linear camera model in the spatiotemporal images.", "A similar method analyzes a video sequence to characterize camera motion and involves determining a 2-D spatiotemporal representation wherein trace lines are determined by quantizing the 2-D spatiotemporal representation and finding boundaries between the quantized regions.", "Camera motion is then inferred by analyzing the pattern of the trace lines using Hough transforms.", "Some other attempts have been directed at trying to detect moving objects in a constrained situation, where objects usually move at a constant velocity in front of a static camera.", "These algorithms often involve detecting straight lines or planes by using the Hough transform.", "In one example, the gait patterns generated by walking humans are analyzed using XT (spatiotemporal) slices.", "The Hough transform is then used to locate the straight line patterns in XT slices.", "In another example, a perceptual organization-based method is used to describe the motion in terms of compositions of planar patches in the 3-D spatiotemporal domain.", "Yet another approach is directed at analyzing object motion in less constrained videos using spatiotemporal slices.", "This method involves using structure tensor analysis to first estimate the local orientation in each spatiotemporal slice.", "A 7-bin 2-D tensor histogram is then formed and the detected dominant motion is used as the background motion to reconstruct the background image in the spatial domain.", "Background subtraction is then used to roughly detect the foreground objects, and the results are further refined using color information.", "More recently, researchers have started to use spatiotemporal features which are obtained directly from 3-D video volume to assist action/activity/behavior detection and recognition.", "Other than applications in characterizing camera motion, detecting/tracking a moving object and representing local volume features, spatiotemporal related methods are also used in video stabilization, visual attention extraction, block matching, parked car detection and human counting, for example.", "Current spatiotemporal processing methods and applications use one or multiple spatiotemporal signals/images/slices and process them separately as shown in method 10 of FIG. 1 .", "Integrations may happen after each individual spatiotemporal processing.", "INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE The following references, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entireties are mentioned: U.S. application Ser.", "No. 14/805,608, filed Jul. 22, 2015, by Wu, et al.", ", entitled “Video-Based System and Method for Parking Occupancy Detection”;", "and, U.S. application Ser.", "No. 14/033,059, filed Sep. 20, 2013, by Wu, et al.", ", entitled “Methods and Systems for Efficiently Monitoring Parking Occupancy.”", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION The current spatiotemporal processing methods and applications that use one or multiple spatiotemporal signals/images/slices and process them separately may not be effective for certain applications.", "The present disclosure sets forth a system and method for creating a spatiotemporal image representation with information content that enables effective and accurate processing for several applications.", "This approach differs from traditional spatiotemporal methods in that the traditional approach processes the unfused slices separately.", "It has been found, however, that significant improvements in certain applications, such as detection, can be realized by fusing multiple slices/images prior to forming the new spatiotemporal representation.", "In accordance with one aspect, a method for processing a sequence of images comprises, some or all of the following steps, acquiring a sequence of images, the images related to each other by a common parameter, extracting multiple 1D signals from at least one image of the of the sequence of images, stacking the 1D signals to form multiple 1D signal vs common parameter stacks, applying a joint transform with at least two 1D signal vs common parameter stacks as input, and outputting at least one transformed signal vs.", "common parameter stack.", "In one embodiment, acquiring a sequence of images includes acquiring video comprising a plurality of temporally related images, wherein the common parameter is time.", "In another embodiment, acquiring a sequence of images includes acquiring a plurality of images of a physical location taken from a plurality of vantage points, at least two of the images including common features of the physical location, wherein the common parameter is space.", "Applying the joint transform can include using a multiple input, multiple output function, wherein the multiple inputs include multiple 1D signal vs common parameter stacks.", "The method can further comprise redefining at least one of the 1D signal vs common parameter stacks into RGB color channels, transferring the RGB color channels to HSV, and normalizing V to suppress global illumination fluctuation, performing temporal noise reduction on the at least one 1D signal vs common parameter stack, performing spatial noise reduction on the at least one 1D signal vs common parameter stack, performing preprocessing of the at least one 1D signal vs common parameter stacks, and/or generating a plurality of 1D signal vs common parameter stacks, each 1D signal vs common parameter stacks comprised of lines of data extracted from the same location in each image of the sequence of images.", "In accordance with another aspect, a system for processing a sequence of images is set forth.", "The system comprises a memory in communication with a processor configured to acquire a sequence of images, the images related to each other by a common parameter, extract multiple 1D signals from at least one image of the sequence of images, stack the 1D signals to form multiple 1D signal vs common parameter stacks, apply a joint transform with at least two 1D signal vs common parameter stacks as input, and output at least one transformed signal vs.", "common parameter stack.", "In one embodiment, the processor can be further configured to acquire video comprising a plurality of temporally related images, wherein the common parameter is time.", "In another embodiment, the processor can be further configured to acquire a plurality of images of a physical location taken from a plurality of vantage points, at least two of the images including common features of the physical location, wherein the common parameter is space.", "The processor can be further configured to apply the joint transform including using a multiple input, multiple output function, wherein the multiple inputs include multiple 1D signal vs common parameter stacks.", "The processor can be further configured to redefine at least one of the 1D signal vs common parameter stacks into RGB color channels, transfer the RGB color channels to HSV, and normalize V to suppress global illumination fluctuation, perform temporal noise reduction on the at least one 1D signal vs common parameter stack, perform spatial noise reduction on the at least one 1D signal vs common parameter stack, perform preprocessing of the at least one 1D signal vs common parameter stacks, and/or generate a plurality of 1D signal vs common parameter stacks, each 1D signal vs common parameter stacks comprised of lines of data extracted from the same location in each image of the sequence of images.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The patent or application file contains at least one drawing executed in color.", "Copies of this patent or patent application publication with color drawings will be provided by the Office upon request and payment of the necessary fee.", "FIG. 1 is a block diagram depicting a prior art spatio-temporal processing method;", "FIG. 2 is a block diagram depicting an exemplary spatio-temporal processing method in accordance with the present disclosure;", "FIG. 3 is an exemplary system for spatio-temporal image processing in accordance with the present disclosure;", "FIG. 4 is a block diagram depicting another exemplary spatio-temporal image processing method in accordance with the present disclosure;", "FIG. 5 is a block diagram depicting yet another exemplary spatio-temporal image processing method in accordance with the present disclosure;", "FIG. 6 is an exemplary image frame that can be processed in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure;", "FIG. 7( a ) is an exemplary output image of an image sequence processed in accordance with conventional techniques;", "and FIG. 7( b ) is an exemplary output image of an image sequence processed in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION The present disclosure will be described in connection with a computer vision system and method for a parking occupancy system.", "It should be appreciated, however, that the present disclosure is not limited to any particular application, and that aspects of the disclosure can be applied as a preprocessing step in many of the spatiotemporal related works mentioned above.", "That is, the present disclosure, although described in the context of a parking occupancy system, is not limited to a parking occupancy system.", "With reference to FIG. 2 , a method 40 to combine/integrate/fuse multiple spatiotemporal signals/images/slices and produce one or multiple integrated spatiotemporal signals/images/slices is illustrated.", "There are potentially many different ways to do the integration/fusion.", "One exemplary embodiment provides a fast and effective way to handle/stabilize illumination changes in the environment through the integration of the multiple spatiotemporal signals/images/slices.", "As illumination change is one major source of noise/variations in computer vision based applications, especially for outdoor videos.", "Aspects of the present disclosure will find broad applications in various vision algorithms/systems.", "FIG. 2 shows an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, which may be compared to the traditional spatiotemporal approach shown in FIG. 1 .", "The method 40 generally comprises the following steps: (1) Acquire a temporal (or other) sequence of image frames in process step 42 (i.e., video sequence);", "(2) Extract multiple 1D signals corresponding to different spatial positions/regions from at least 1 image frame from the temporal sequence of image frames in process step 44 ;", "(3) Stack the 1D signals extracted from image frames that correspond to different time periods to form multiple Signal vs.", "Temporal stacks in process step 46 ;", "(4) Apply a joint transform with at least two Signal vs.", "Temporal stacks as input and at least one Transformed Signal vs.", "Temporal Stack as output in process step 48 .", "It will be appreciated that, after process step 48 , the representation may be further processed according to the needs of a particular application.", "FIG. 3 illustrates a basic system 50 that includes a CPU 52 operatively connected to a memory 54 .", "Memory 54 contains an image acquisition module 56 and an image processing module 58 .", "It will be appreciated that the image acquisition module 56 is configured to acquire a sequence of images from an image source, such as images stored in memory 54 or received from a camera or other device.", "Image processing module 58 contains the image processing algorithm for processing the images in accordance with the present disclosure.", "It should also be appreciated that the CPU 52 and memory 54 can be a standalone system or can be integrated into an existing image processing system, such as imaging systems for monitoring parking areas as noted above.", "Turning to FIG. 4 , a more detailed block diagram 60 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.", "In process step 62 a temporal sequence of image frames (i.e., video sequence) is acquired.", "Spatiotemporal image representation and processing starts with a sequence of temporally (or other) related image frames, extracts spatial information from each frame or representative frames and stacks the information to form a representation of the set of video frames.", "The video frames can be acquired using any of a variety of video cameras, such as Red/Green/Blue (RGB), Near Infrared (NIR), Thermal, fisheye, monochromatic, etc.", ", for example.", "The image frames can be acquired directly from a camera or may be originally acquired by a camera, stored and extracted from storage for processing.", "Frame rates of video imaging can vary depending on the application, while many common cameras typically will operate at 30 frames/second.", "Videos or image sequences can be pre-processed for some purposes, such as lens distortion correction, noise reduction, contrast enhancement, shadow removal etc.", "This preprocessing is optional but can be useful in some applications to improve efficiency and/or accuracy detection.", "It should be appreciated that the frames need not be a temporal sequence acquired at a fixed temporal interval.", "The interval may be varied according to various events, such as events occurring in the video, lighting changes, and bandwidth capabilities of the camera and a possible network infrastructure.", "Varying the interval can provide certain advantages.", "For example, if there isn't any activity of motion detected in the video sequence, frames with no relevant activity can be ignored (e.g., not used for creating a stack).", "Eliminating frames without motion can prevent false detections in the stacked images.", "Also, it can save processing time, when processing the ST image.", "In some applications, it may be advantageous to have frames wherein lighting changes are evident, such as a cloud blocking the sun, shadows moving with the sun, street lights and other lights coming on.", "Having many frames around (before and/or after) such changes can allow those image changes to be better distinguished from events such as the change that occurs when a vehicle enters or exits a parking spot.", "Even more generally, the image frames may only be related in some way (e.g., other than temporally related).", "For example, the image frames could be a series of images taken along the length of a street, stadium, walkway, etc.", ", wherein the images are related as a sequence in space.", "Creating a stacked image from these types of frames does not create a literal spatio “temporal”", "image.", "The image is a stacked image, however, and can be processed in a similar manner to a typical ST image.", "Whereas a temporal stacking will give a representation of image activity (e.g., parking enters/exits) over time, a spatial stacking gives a representation of distance (e.g., vehicle presence over a long street).", "The spatial sequence could come from multiple cameras acquiring images along, for instance, a street.", "Or, a camera, such as a Pan Tilt Zoom (PTZ) camera could adjust view angles and zoom to give different views along a street in a sequence of video frames.", "As used herein, the term common parameter refers to the manner in which the images of a sequence of images are related.", "For example, images of a video sequence are temporally related, whereby time is the common parameter.", "In other sequences of images, space and/or proximity is the common parameter.", "In process step 64 , multiple 1D ( 1 dimensional) signals (e.g., vectros of data) corresponding to different spatial positions/regions from at least 1 image frame from the temporal sequence of image frames are extracted.", "In one embodiment, pixel values can be extracted from one or more video frames and signals are formed from the extracted values.", "In general, for example, the pixel values could come from one or more frames, and the signals could be the pixels values themselves or information extracted from the pixel values, such as median value within a neighborhood, difference between different pixels/regions, histogram, SIFT or some other image feature vector.", "The signal can be written as L i (x, y;", "t), where it is formed from pixel values at (x, y) ε R i , where R i denotes the specific region/location where the pixel values are used for obtaining this 1D signal over time t, for subsequent stack i. In subsequent steps this signal can be considered to simply have a spatial and temporal dependence (s, t), where s represents the spatial dependence (x, y).", "The extracted signals in spatiotemporal representations are often sampled from some of the lines in an image frame.", "The “lines”", "in an exemplary embodiment can be used to form signals that represent some generic geometric regions in an image frame, which can be of any form.", "That is, the geometric region doesn't have to be a row or column, or a straight angled line, it can also be a curve across the image.", "The thickness of the lines can be of any number of pixels.", "For example, the thickness can range from partial pixel, one pixel, and multiple pixels, or even to a whole image.", "The “line”", "could be a sparse sampling over a region.", "The sampled value along the lines could be original pixel value, color value, or other appropriate filtered or processed or extracted value, for example.", "In one embodiment, the signal L i (x, y;", "t) is a raster line of pixel values indexed by (x, y), taken at time t. In process step 66 , the 1D signals extracted from image frames that correspond to different time periods are stacked to form multiple Signal vs.", "Temporal stacks.", "In process step 68 , a joint transform is applied with at least two Signal vs.", "Temporal stacks as input.", "The joint transform generates at least one Transformed Signal vs.", "Temporal Stack as output, identified generally by reference numeral 70 .", "It should be appreciated that Multiple Signal vs.", "Temporal Stacks are fused or jointly transformed, such that information from more than one input stack is used to create an output stack.", "For example, fusing by F is denoted as: TSV k ( s,t )= F ( ST i ( L i ( s,t ))), for all stacks i fused by F Where, F is a multiple-input-multiple-output function which performs a fusion (joint transform) operation taken over multiple stacks (multiple i), and output multiple Transformed Signal Value Stack TSV k (s,t), s and t can denote spatial and temporal coordinates, respectively, but in general they are coordinates in the transformed space.", "Additional signal/image processing methods can be applied on the TSV stack or stacks for the particular applications, such as object or motion detection.", "In the system/method described above, the pixels from different regions are extracted from a temporal sequence of images, a stack is formed based on the temporal sequence, and information from the stacks is fused using some type of transform to produce transformed stacks.", "It should be appreciated that in an alternative embodiment this sequence can include performing the fusing before forming the stack, and then stacking the fused data.", "For example, the system method can be configured to extract pixels from different regions from one frame, fuse information from the different regions of the one frame using some type of transform to produce transformed regions, then stacking the transformed regions to form produced transformed stacks.", "In this configuration, the sequence includes one line.", "To get a longer sequence the fusing, then stacking sequence is followed for more than one frame.", "As such, aspects of the present disclosure are directed to both stacking then fusing as well as fusing then stacking.", "With reference to FIG. 5 , another exemplary embodiment, a joint chromatic transformation is performed using three ST images to reduce the illumination variations.", "The transformation can include the following steps: a redefinition is performed on the three image slices taken from the video at a Region of Interest (ROI) or the three spatiotemporal images (stacks) formed from these slices.", "The redefinition is performed by putting the three stacks/slices into respective RGB color channels.", "A combination of the stacks can be considered a color spatiotemporal image, where the color does not reflect the original pixel color in the video, but the difference between the three separate spatiotemporal images.", "The redefined three stacks can be written: ST ( L 1 ( x,y;t )= ST 1 ( s,t )= ST R ( s,t )→ R ( ST R ( s,t )) ST ( L 2 ( x,y;t )= ST 2 ( s,t )= ST G ( s,t )→ G ( ST G ( s,t )) ST ( L 3 ( x,y;t )= ST 3 ( s,t )= ST B ( s,t )→ B ( ST B ( s,t )) It should be appreciated that a combined RGB raster line in this stack will have a more neutral color when the pixel values are similar slice to slice, and will be more chromatic for pixels values in the slices that have greater difference.", "In addition, as lightness of a scene changes due to an ambient conditions such as sun angle, cloud cover, etc.", ", each of R, G and B will increase/decrease at similar rates.", "Hence, illumination changes will be reflected in the overall lightness of the combined RGB pixels, but will not significantly vary the color saturation or hue.", "The RGB image is transformed to a device independent color space having a lightness coordinate hue-saturation-value (HSV) and the V channel is normalized to suppress global illumination fluctuations and emphasize spatial differences through the chromatic variation.", "Note that transformations from, e.g., Cyan, Magenta, Yellow (CMY) to e.g., L*a*b*, HSL, Luv, .", "or other color spaces could alternatively be used.", "Methods including dimensionality reduction, contrast enhancement, noise reduction, etc.", "can also be applied at this step.", "Experimental Results FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrate an example of an image from an image sequence, and output results for the image sequence processed in accordance with the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 5 .", "In FIG. 6 , an outdoor on-street parking occupancy monitoring video frame is shown.", "For convenience, the video frame is not the original frame, but the geometrically transformed and cropped frame.", "However, the proposed method can be used on either unprocessed or processed videos.", "It will be appreciated that the image shown in FIG. 6 is part of a sequence of images.", "Raster lines are extracted from the image frame of FIG. 6 to form a stack.", "In this example, lines have been color coded to represent the color channels that will be used in their respective redefinition in accordance with the method of FIG. 5 .", "The top line is red, the middle line is green, and the bottom line is blue.", "For each of a plurality of image frames, these lines represent the geometric region sampled to produce the RGB stacks as previously described in connection with FIG. 5 .", "FIGS. 7( a ) and 7( b ) shows the visual difference between using and not using the fusion and normalization method disclosed in FIG. 5 .", "In testing the algorithm with and without applying a joint transform to the Signal vs.", "Temporal stacks on a video collection of 29 days long showed that this integration/fusion step (RGB to HSV) improves the performance by around 15% in terms of accuracy compared to the spatiotemporal processing without this step.", "It will be appreciated that variants of the above-disclosed and other features and functions, or alternatives thereof, may be combined into many other different systems or applications.", "Various presently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications, variations or improvements therein may be subsequently made by those skilled in the art which are also intended to be encompassed by the following claims." ]

[ "RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This invention claims priority of provisional application 60/476,747 filed June 6, 2003 and of provisional application 60/520,856 filed Nov. 17, 2003.", "[0002] This invention is related to the subject matter of U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,080,112 and 6,264,616.", "This invention is also related to the subject matter of application Ser.", "No. 10/818,806 filed Apr. 5, 2004.", "The disclosures of these patents and patent application are incorporated herein by reference.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] 2.", "Field of the Invention [0004] The subject invention provides an electrophysiological measure of the presence of cochlear hydrops in patients suspected of Meniere's disease.", "[0005] 3.", "Background [0006] This invention as made with government support under grants NIH NIDCD R01 DC 00043 and DC 003592 awarded by the National Institutes of Health.", "The government has certain rights in the invention.", "[0007] The major clinical diagnostic indicator of cochlear hydrops is hearing history.", "Cochlear hydrops is suspected if there is a fluctuating low-frequency hearing loss.", "Other popular older tests that have produced results of varying success are the glycerol test, the SP/AP (Summating Potential amplitude to compound Action Potential amplitude ratio) in electrocochleographic recordings, and, more recently, measures of cochlear traveling-wave velocities from derived-band Auditory Brainstem Responses (ABRs).", "Variations and combinations of these measures have also been investigated.", "[0008] The disadvantages of the currently used diagnostic methods include: (1) A fluctuating low-frequency hearing loss can occur in the absence of cochlear hydrops.", "(2) The glycerol test is not an independent test because it must rely on another measure, (e.g., the SP/AP ratio) to determine if it is positive.", "Thus, the test is only as good as the second test used to measure the change that occurs due to administration of glycerol.", "Moreover, if the glycerol is administered orally, it is extremely unpleasant for the patient, and if administered intravenously it becomes an invasive procedure.", "(3) The SP/AP ratio has been studied for a number of years and the results have varied greatly.", "Depending on the study, the sensitivity of the measure ranges from 50% and up.", "Other studies claim that the ratio change is due to changes in the AP value, whereas theoretically, changes due to cochlear hydrops should be in the SP value.", "While many studies can show a statistically significant difference for group or population data, the confidence of the diagnosis for a given individual is low due to overlap in the ratios for cochlear hydrops and non-hydrops populations.", "Moreover, the SP/AP ratio measures may require invasive transtympanic (needle through the eardrum) procedures for clear recordings.", "Even with transtympanic electrodes, due to the location of the recording electrode, these recordings are dominated by activity at the high-frequency end of the cochlea, whereas the diagnostic changes are more related to the low-frequency end of the cochlea.", "(4) The cochlear traveling wave measures have not been studied extensively and their sensitivity and specificity are unknown at this time.", "Also, these measures have been shown to be highly variable across individuals because other factors unrelated to the presence of cochlear hydrops may affect these measures.", "We are currently investigating this measure in an NIH-funded grant project.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0013] The present invention provides a procedure for diagnosing cochlear hydrops based, in part, on an analysis of the patient's auditory brainstem response (ABR) to stimuli.", "The patient's ABR to a broadband click stimulus is recorded.", "A plurality of masked ABR's are also recorded, wherein the stimulus is masked by high-pass noise with a plurality of high-pass cut-off frequencies.", "The latency difference between the wave V component in the unmasked click alone response and the undermasked wave V component of a low cut-off frequency high-pass response is then calculated.", "If an undermasked component is not present, the normal wave V component is used.", "The measured latency difference is combined with another measure, such as the wave V amplitude ratio.", "A distribution of the combined measure is then plotted for the population and a threshold established for diagnosing cochlear hydrops.", "Alternatively, the joint distribution of the individual measures may be used in situations where the individual measures are known to be independent.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0014] FIGS. 1A-1B illustrate derived-band ABRs for patients with normal hearing and Meniere's disease.", "[0015] FIGS. 2A-2D illustrate derived-band ABRs for a unilateral Meniere's disease patient.", "[0016] FIGS. 3A-3D illustrate derived-band ABRs for a bilateral Meniere's disease patient.", "[0017] FIGS. 4A-4B illustrate undermasking in a Meniere's disease ear vs.", "a normal ear.", "[0018] FIG. 5 compares wave V latency delay of an unmasked response between a population with normal hearing and a population with Meniere's disease.", "[0019] FIGS. 6A-6B illustrate undermasking in a patient with normal hearing.", "[0020] FIG. 7 compares wave V latency delay of an undermasked component between a population with normal hearing and a population with Meniere's disease.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0021] In the following description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention.", "[0022] However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced in other embodiments that depart from these specific details.", "In other instances, detailed descriptions of well-known methods and devices are omitted so as to not obscure the description of the present invention with unnecessary detail.", "[0023] The derived-band ABR approach consists of the simultaneous ipsilateral presentation of a broad-band click and high-pass filtered pink noise.", "A series of responses are recorded as the cut-off frequency of the high-pass noise is successively lowered from one run to the next in one octave steps (8.0, 4.0, 2.0, 1.0, 0.5 kHz).", "Successive subtraction of these high-pass masked responses results in a series of derived-band ABRs representing activity initiated from regions of the cochlea approximately one octave wide.", "For adequate masking, the sound pressure level of the pink noise must be nearly equivalent to the peak equivalent sound pressure level of the click.", "For example, when using ER-2 insert earphones, the amount of pink noise required to mask an 82 dB p.e. SPL (peak-equivalent Sound Pressure Level) click is about 81 dB RMS SPL.", "[0024] In work with patients diagnosed with Meniere's disease based on guidelines of the Committee on Hearing and Equilibrium (1994) that include symptoms consistent with the presence of cochlear hydrops, I have found that the amount of high-pass masking noise used to obtained the derived-band ABRs in normal-hearing and pure cochlear loss subjects, seems to be insufficient.", "[0025] This is demonstrated in FIGS. 1A-1B where a series of high-passed noise masked (not derived-band) responses are shown for a normal-hearing subject ( FIG. 1A ) and a patient diagnosed with Meniere's disease ( FIG. 1B ).", "Note that compared to the click alone and highest high-pass responses, the 500 Hz high-pass response is broader and the wave V latency is delayed in the normal-hearing subject.", "This is expected because most of the cochlea is masked and the response represents activity from below the 500 Hz region.", "For the Meniere's disease patient, wave V is not as broad and the latency is very short, comparable to the latency of wave V in the unmasked click alone and the higher high-pass responses.", "This is evidence that the activity from above the 500 Hz region has not been masked completely.", "Note that this “undermasking”", "effect is clearly seen in all of the Meniere's disease patient's lower high pass responses.", "The noise levels for these two cases were the same and were sufficient to mask normal-hearing and pure cochlear hearing loss individuals.", "[0026] FIGS. 2A-2D illustrate ABRs for a patient diagnosed with Meniere's disease (with symptoms consistent with the presence of cochlear hydrops) in the left ear.", "The high-pass responses for the left ear (left panels) show the undermasking effect whereas the high-pass responses for the right ear (non-Meniere's non-cochlear hydrops) show the typical normal pattern.", "[0027] Note the large and sharp wave V amplitude of the sum of the five high-pass responses for the left ear diagnosed as having Meniere's disease (heavy trace in FIG. 2A ).", "In comparison, the wave V of the sum of the high-pass responses for the right ear without Meniere's disease (heavy trace in FIG. 2C ) is broad and its amplitude is relatively small.", "In this patient, the amplitude ratio of the sum of the five high-pass noise masked responses to five times the unmasked click alone wave V amplitude is 0.903 for the Meniere's ear and 0.402 for the non-Meniere's ear.", "[0028] Also note that the latency delay between wave V of the unmasked click alone (point A) and wave V of the 500 Hz high-pass (point B) is minimal (less than 0.2 ms) for the ear with Meniere's disease ( FIG. 2A ) and rather long (over 4 ms) in the ear without Meniere's disease ( FIG. 2C ).", "Even in non-Meniere's subjects there can be an undermasked component, but its latency will still be longer than that seen in Meniere's disease ears with cochlear hydrops.", "[0029] FIGS. 2B and 2D compare the sum of the derived-band response to the click alone response for the ear with Meniere's and the non-Meniere's ear respectively.", "For the Meniere's ear, the sum is much smaller than the click alone response, whereas for the non-Meniere's ear, the sum is essentially equivalent to the click alone response.", "[0030] FIGS. 3A-3D illustrate an example of a patient diagnosed with bilateral Meniere's disease and cochlear hydrops.", "The undermasking pattern is evident for both ears.", "I hypothesize that this greater resistance to masking is a consequence of the changes in the mechanical properties of the basilar membrane induced by pressure exerted by the endolymphatic (cochlear) hydrops condition.", "[0031] While visual recognition of the undermasking is obvious as seen in FIGS. 1-3 , objective latency and amplitude measures of the high-pass noise masking ABR responses, amplitudes of sums of high-pass ABR and derived-band responses, as well as cross-correlation measures between these various waveforms, can be used for the assessment of cochlear hydrops.", "Some useful measures or variants of these measures are: (1) the wave V amplitude ratio of the sum of the five high-pass masking responses (large heavy traces in FIG. 2 ) to five times the unmasked click alone response, (2) the cross correlation between the response to the 500 Hz high-pass condition and the unmasked click alone response, (3) the latency difference between wave V of the unmasked click alone response and wave V of the 500 Hz high-pass response as determined by visual peak selection or by analyses of the peak in the cross-correlation function, and (4) the amplitude difference between the unmasked click alone response and the sum of the five derived-band responses.", "[0032] The presently preferred measure is measure (3) noted above.", "However, there is a problem in that there are two possible wave V peaks in the 500 Hz high-pass response that are not always present together.", "We have labeled the early latency wave V peak as the undermasked wave V component.", "If this peak occurs, we use this early component in our measure.", "If it does not exist, then we use the longer latency normal wave V peak.", "In either case, the latency difference between the unmasked click alone response and the 500 Hz high-pass masked response is shorter in the Meniere's disease ears than in the non-Meniere's disease ears.", "[0033] FIGS. 4A-4B illustrate the undermasking phenomenon as evidenced by the latency delay between wave V in the unmasked click alone response and wave V in the 500 Hz high-pass response.", "FIG. 4B presents the responses from a non-Meniere's disease ear.", "We determine the latency of wave V in the 500 Hz high-pass response, then the latency of wave V in the unmasked click alone response, and subtract the two to find the delay.", "We can then compare this delay to the delay we find in a Meniere's disease ear as shown in FIG. 4A .", "As is apparent, the latency delay is much shorter in the Meniere's disease ear.", "[0034] FIG. 5 illustrates the results from 39 normal-hearing non-Meniere's disease ears and 20 Meniere's disease ears.", "In this figure, the latency delay between wave V of the click alone response and wave V of the 500 Hz high-pass response is plotted on the x-axis and the cumulative percent is plotted on the y-axis.", "Given the greater degree of undermasking observed in Meniere's disease with cochlear hydrops, the wave V latency delay for the Meniere's disease ears is less than that for the non-Meniere's disease ears.", "Note the total separation between the distributions for the two populations tested: normal-hearing, non-Meniere's disease subjects and patients with Meniere's disease.", "All of the Meniere's disease results (filled circles) fall well below 0.6 ms (see arrow and dotted line) while all the normal-hearing, non-Meniere's disease results (open circles) fall well above 0.6 ms.", "So if we set our test criterion at 0.6 ms, we get 100% sensitivity and 100% specificity for these two populations.", "[0035] FIGS. 6A-6B present the responses from a normal-hearing, non-pathologic subject.", "An experienced analyst can see wave V (filled circles) moving out in time, just as it should in a non-Meniere's disease ear.", "But even for a well trained analyst, the peak of wave V on the 500 Hz response may be difficult to distinguish.", "In fact, if we look more closely at the 500 Hz high-pass response, we can see a peak in the response for each of the subject's ears that is only slightly delayed from the peak of wave V in the unmasked click alone response (open circles).", "Remember that the level of masking chosen was based on an average.", "This means that for some non-pathologic ears, the masking won't be enough and we'll see a peak in the 500 Hz high-pass response due to unmasked activity in the higher frequencies.", "This is what we call the undermasked wave V component of the response.", "If we use a latency delay of <0.6 ms as the criterion for Meniere's disease, note that even a mistaken choice of the undermasked peak in the response as wave V of the 500 Hz high-pass response will provide the correct diagnosis.", "[0036] FIG. 7 illustrates the results from 38 normal-hearing non-Meniere's disease ears and 20 Meniere's disease ears.", "In this figure, the latency delay between wave V of the click alone response and the undermasked component of the 500 Hz high-pass response is plotted on the x-axis and the cumulative percent is plotted on the y-axis.", "As for the wave V latency delay just described, due to the greater degree of undermasking observed in Meniere's disease with cochlear hydrops, the latency delay of the undermasked component for the Meniere's disease ears is less than that for the non-Meniere's disease ears.", "Although these two distributions are closer together compared to the distributions for the masked wave V latency delay in FIG. 5 , there is still a total separation between the non-Meniere's disease and Meniere's disease results.", "All of the Meniere's disease results fall below 0.3 ms while all the non-Meniere's disease results fall above 0.3 ms.", "So if we set our test criterion at 0.3 ms, we still get 100% sensitivity and 100% specificity for these two populations.", "[0037] The following are some other measures being examined that may be considered variants of the four measures enumerated above: (a) The amplitude of wave V when the 500 Hz high-pass response is subtracted from the unmasked click alone response, then this amplitude is divided by the amplitude of the unmasked click alone response.", "Subtracting the 500 Hz high-pass response from the unmasked click alone response is mathematically identical to the sum of the five derived-band responses noted in measure (4) above.", "Instead of looking at the amplitude difference noted in measure (4), we are taking a ratio of these amplitudes.", "(b) The ratio measure in (a) is multiplied by measure (3) above.", "The latency difference between wave V of the unmasked click alone response and the undermasked component of the 500 Hz high-pass response is used, if present.", "If the undermasked component is not present in the 500 Hz high-pass response, then the normal high-pass wave V is used.", "To avoid possible negative numbers in cases where the latency of the 500 Hz high-pass undermasked component is shorter than that of wave V in the unmasked click alone response, a constant (e.g., 1) is added to the latency difference before multiplying by the ratio.", "(c) The ratio of the wave V amplitude of the undermasked component (if present) in the 500 Hz high-pass response to that of the unmasked click alone response.", "[0041] The latency, amplitude and correlation measures described above are to be used to assess the presence of cochlear hydrops in patients suspected of having Meniere's disease.", "[0042] However, because of similar clinical symptoms, there is often a need to first rule out the presence of an acoustic tumor.", "Use of the Stacked ABR methodology for acoustic tumor evaluation is the subject of U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,080,112 and 6,264,616.", "This methodology uses the Stacked ABR amplitude measure to assess the presence of an acoustic tumor.", "To form the Stacked ABR, responses to clicks in the presence of high-pass masking noise at various cutoff frequencies must be collected.", "These responses are then successively subtracted to form derived-band responses that are then shifted and added together to form the Stacked ABR.", "To detect cochlear hydrops and Meniere's disease, the measures described above evaluate the degree of undermasking in the responses to the high-pass masking noise.", "Thus, while the measures for these two pathologies focus on different responses, the same set of data can be used for the assessment of both pathologies.", "That is, no additional data collection is required.", "[0043] Preliminary data suggest that there is very little overlap between non-Meniere's disease patients and patients who have been diagnosed with Meniere's disease on the basis of the stringent guidelines of the Committee on Hearing and Equilibrium (1994).", "Thus, measured values exceeding, for example, two standard deviations of non-Meniere's, normal-hearing individuals could be diagnostic for cochlear hydrops and Meniere's disease.", "[0044] This invention will provide a possible way to assess the presence of cochlear hydrops that is much easier for the clinician to use consistently, efficiently, and, most importantly, correctly in the diagnosis of Meniere's disease.", "The advantages of the measures in this invention are (1) it is a non-invasive procedure, (2) it is a relatively comfortable procedure, (3) it may be more sensitive in detecting the presence of cochlear hydrops, (4) it is relatively rapid and inexpensive.", "[0045] It will be recognized that the above-described invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics of the disclosure.", "Thus, it is understood that the invention is not to be limited by the foregoing illustrative details, but rather is to be defined by the appended claims." ]

[ "RELATED APPLICATIONS The present application is based on, and claims priority from, Taiwan Application Serial Number 92132453, filed Nov. 19, 2003, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.", "BACKGROUND 1.", "Field of Invention The present invention relates to an antenna.", "More particularly, the present invention relates to a chip antenna.", "Description of Related Art Many modern electronic devices, such as mobile telephones, computers, and network devices, are all provided with functions that communicate signals by wireless communications, following the great progress of the wireless communication science and technology.", "The main emitting and receiving devices used in wireless communication are signal transceivers and antennas configured thereon.", "Due to the modern electronic devices becoming lightweight, and small and thin in size, conventional antennas, like rod antennas, Yaki antennas, dish antennas and so on, no longer fill the characteristic requirements of new generation.", "Hence, a chip antenna is developed, which has meandered lines and a ceramic material with a designed dielectric constant, to miniaturize the size of the antenna.", "The chip antenna gradually becomes an indispensable element used in a communication product because of its small size and being directly and easily installed in the electronic devices.", "But the conventional chip antenna still has some drawbacks, such as a slightly large size, insufficient efficiency, and high manufacturing cost.", "The following descriptions uses several related patents to explain what drawbacks or functional imperfections exist in the prior circuit design or manufacturing processes of the conventional chip antenna.", "Taiwan Patent No. 479852: The patent discloses a chip antenna, which forms a conductive metal line on a tiny ceramic substrate following the design principle of microline antennas, to minimize the size and volume of the conductive metal line by the high dielectric constant of the ceramic substrate.", "The conductive metal line is just a flat conductive line with one single input port, not a complete antenna, which needs to associate with an external circuit to work.", "For example, the chip antenna needs to be installed on a circuit board and associated with an external circuit on the circuit board, thus functioning as an antenna, and the external circuit can be used to adjust the input impedance thereof.", "However, the chip antenna with a flat metal line does not substantially decrease the size or enhance the efficiency thereof.", "Taiwan Patent No. 419857: The patent discloses a surface adhered antenna.", "This type of antenna also follows the design principle of microline antennas.", "The lines of the input port and the radiation port are not connected to each other, and the input impedance of the antenna is adjusted by the induction coupling between their conductive lines, thus enhancing the performance of the antenna.", "However, the radiation line of the antenna is a simple, flat, meandered line, such as a simple L-shaped or U-shaped meandered line, which cannot effectively decrease the size of the antenna.", "Moreover, the antenna is a single meandered line with one single input port, the frequency band and bandwidth of which have a poor performance, and the antenna cannot be designed for antenna patterns with different polarizing directions.", "The applications of the antenna are thus restricted and cannot match varied situations.", "Taiwan Patent No. 480773: The patent discloses a chip meandered-lines antenna with multiple substrates.", "This type of antenna is a three-dimensional antenna structure, and the manufacturing method thereof uses a low temperature cofired ceramic (LTCC) process to manufacture the ceramic substrates.", "The ceramic material can be used to minimize the size of the antenna due to its high dielectric constant, but the LTCC process is very complicated.", "The radiation line of the antenna includes conductive powders positioned on green taps of the ceramic substrates by screen printing, and perforations are created on the ends of the corresponding lines on the adjacent substrates.", "Conductive materials are used to connect the lines on the upper and lower substrates, thus forming the required three-dimensional antenna structure.", "Finally, the three-dimensional antenna structure and the ceramic substrates are integrated into a single element by the LTCC process (at about 800° C.–900° C.).", "This line design of the type of antenna is based on flat, meandered lines.", "Several ceramic substrates having flat, meandered lines are prepared.", "The flat, meandered lines are then connected by perforating holes and electroplating the conductive material to fill them on the ceramic substrates, to form the three-dimensional line.", "Therefore, the three-dimensional antenna is composed of several flat, meandered lines, and is not easily designed for antenna patterns having a polarizing direction perpendicular to the substrate.", "In addition, the dielectric constant of the ceramic material usually is limited due to very few materials being suitable for the LTCC process, and the prior art therefore cannot use a ceramic material with a suitable dielectric constant according to different characteristic requirements.", "Taiwan Patent No. 495106: The patent discloses a chip antenna, which also is a three-dimensional antenna structure, and is manufactured by the above-described, complicated LTCC process.", "Several ceramic substrates having flat, meandered lines are prepared.", "The flat, meandered lines are then connected by perforating holes and electroplating the conductive material to fill them on the ceramic substrates, to form the three-dimensional line.", "But the line design of the patent is different from that of the former patent.", "The line design of the former patent is formed by connecting flat, meandered lines on several layers.", "The line design of this patent is a three-dimensional spiral line, in which conductive lines on every layer are connected to form the three-dimensional spiral structure.", "But, in whole, the chip antenna of this patent still is a single, meandered line having one single input port.", "This type of antenna has the same problems as the antenna of the former patent.", "Because the LTCC process is applied, the manufacturing method of the antenna is very complicated and the cost thereof is also very high.", "Moreover, the dielectric constant of the ceramic material usually is limited due to very few materials being suitable to the LTCC process, and the prior art therefore cannot choose the ceramic material with a suitable dielectric constant according to different characteristic requirements.", "In addition, the three-dimensional antenna is a horizontal and spiral antenna, and therefore it is not easily designed for the antenna patterns having polarizing direction perpendicular to the substrate.", "SUMMARY The conventional chip antennas function inefficiently.", "Moreover, the manufacturing process of the LTCC process is complicated and the cost thereof is very high, whose main drawbacks are the limited choices of the materials of conductive lines and ceramic substrate caused by the requirement of cofiring procedures, and the possible deformation of meandered lines caused by the sintered shrinkage of the ceramic substrates.", "Similar to those encountered in the complicated LTCC process, the drawbacks of most commercial chip antenna include high manufacturing cost, low freedom for radiation line design, long period and high cost for developing a product, and inefficient production.", "It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide a chip antenna, in which multiple meandered lines are designed with a single feed, which are folded into a three-dimensional antenna structure, to enhance the freedom of design and the performance of the three-dimensional antenna.", "It is another objective of the present invention to provide a chip antenna, in which the composite of a polymer and ceramic material encloses the meandered lines of the antenna body, to mitigate the firing shrinking of the ceramic substrate as well as the deformation of the lines during the prior LTCC process.", "It is still another objective of the present invention to provide a method for manufacturing a chip antenna, in which the meandered lines were formed by a continuous punching process to form a flat or three-dimensional antenna structure, and subsequently the composite of a polymer and dielectric ceramic powders was infiltrated or injected to enclose the meandered lines, thus effectively enhancing the performance of the chip antenna and reducing the manufacturing cost thereof.", "In accordance with the foregoing and other objectives of the present invention, a chip antenna is provided.", "The chip antenna comprises an antenna body and a package.", "The chip antenna has multiple meandered lines with a single feed.", "The package encapsulates the antenna body, with the packaging material be composed of polymer and ceramic powders, thus having a designed dielectric constant.", "The structure of the antenna body and the designed dielectric constant determines characteristics of the chip antenna, to satisfy the application characteristic requirements of the chip antenna.", "To manufacture the invention, an antenna body with a flat antenna structure is formed by continuously punching or etching an electrically conducting metallic sheet.", "Moreover, the antenna body can be folded by a punching procedure so as to form an antenna body with a three-dimensional antenna structure.", "In another aspect, the packaging of the invention, which encloses the antenna body, is also different from prior arts.", "The packaging of the invention comprises a polymer and ceramic powders, thus simplifying the manufacturing processes and reducing the cost thereof.", "Moreover, the selection of the polymer and the ceramic powders is diverse, and the filler's loading can be varied to obtain the required dielectric constant, which satisfies the characteristic requirements, minimizes the size and enhances the performance of the chip antenna.", "According to preferred embodiments of the invention, the multiple meandered lines are composed of a conductive material, such as copper, and are electrically connected and fold to form a three-dimensional antenna structure.", "The packaging material is a composite of polymer and ceramic powders, and the package is formed by infiltration, or injection molding.", "The meandered lines are arranged in at least one first direction and electrically connected in the second direction to form at least one meandered line set, and the meandered line set can be folded in the third direction to form a three-dimensional antenna structure.", "Moreover, when the chip antenna comprises multiple meandered line sets, the meandered line sets are electrically connected in series, or in parallel, or partially in series and partially in parallel, and have a single common feed.", "In addition, according to another preferred embodiment of the invention, the meandered lines are electrically connected to form a flat antenna structure.", "The invention designs the antenna structure as a horizontal antenna structure to satisfy the requirement for a thin antenna module, or designs the antenna structure as a vertical antenna structure to satisfy the requirement for a small antenna module.", "The antenna of the invention has the characteristics of having multiple meandered lines connected to a single feed, and having the multiple meandered lines being arranged in a three-dimensional structure, thus increasing the bandwidth and improving the antenna radiation patterns of the antenna, as well as providing the capability for multiple frequencies.", "Furthermore the invention reduces the area occupied by the antenna on the circuit board, decreases the coupling interferences with other adjacent elements, and also raises the freedom of design for multiple frequencies of the antenna.", "Additionally, the invention provides great flexibility and variety of antenna product design, and increases the adaptability in handling problems of manufacturers for market responses and requirements.", "The manufacturers therefore raise the competitiveness of the products by the invention, the characteristics of which are easily changed according to current trends and the market responses.", "It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are examples, and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with regard to the following description, appended claims, and accompanying drawings, where: FIG. 1A illustrates a schematic view of a flat antenna body of the first embodiment of the invention;", "FIG. 1B illustrates a schematic view of a three-dimensional antenna body formed by folding the flat antenna body in FIG. 1A ;", "FIG. 2A illustrates a schematic view of a flat antenna body of the second embodiment of the invention;", "FIG. 2B illustrates a schematic view of a three-dimensional antenna body formed by folding the flat antenna body in FIG. 2A ;", "FIG. 2C illustrates a schematic view of a chip antenna formed by encapsulating the three-dimensional antenna body in FIG. 2B with a packaging material;", "FIG. 3A illustrates a schematic view of a flat antenna body of the third embodiment of the invention;", "FIG. 3B illustrates a schematic view of a three-dimensional antenna body formed by folding the flat antenna body in FIG. 3A ;", "FIG. 4A illustrates a schematic view of the fourth embodiment of the invention;", "FIG. 4B illustrates a schematic view of the chip antenna of FIG. 4A installed on a circuit board;", "FIG. 4C illustrates a frequency response diagram of return loss of the chip antenna in FIG. 4A ;", "FIG. 5A illustrates a schematic view of the fifth embodiment of the invention;", "FIG. 5B illustrates a frequency response diagram of return loss of the chip antenna in FIG. 5A ;", "FIG. 6A illustrates a schematic view of the sixth embodiment of the invention;", "FIG. 6B illustrates a frequency response diagram of return loss of the chip antenna in FIG. 6A ;", "FIG. 7A illustrates a schematic view of the seventh embodiment of the invention;", "and FIG. 7B illustrates a frequency response diagram of return loss of the chip antenna in FIG. 7A .", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Reference will now be made in detail to the present preferred embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.", "Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the description to refer to the same or like parts.", "An antenna body is enclosed in a packaging material comprising a polymer and ceramic powders to form a chip antenna.", "Meandered lines are formed by continuously punching or etching a metallic sheet, which are either further folded or not, and then are packed with the composite material.", "The kinds and the quantities of the ceramic powders and the polymer of the packaging material are adjustable to change the dielectric constant of the packaging material, which thus raises the flexibility of product design.", "Therefore, the chip antenna increases the bandwidth and optimizes the antenna patterns of the antenna, and also improves efficiency and lowers the cost of the manufacturing process.", "The first and second embodiments explain how the flat antenna bodies form different three-dimensional antenna bodies by folding in different folding manners.", "The First Embodiment: FIG. 1A illustrates a schematic view of a flat antenna body of the first embodiment of the invention, and FIG. 1B illustrates a schematic view of a three-dimensional antenna body formed by folding the flat antenna body in FIG. 1A .", "As illustrated in FIG. 1A , a flat antenna body 100 a comprises multiple meandered lines 102 arranged in a direction 124 , and the meandered lines 102 are electrically connected in series to form a meandered line set 132 .", "The meandered line set 132 can be formed by punching a conductive sheet, such as continuously punching a copper sheet, or by etching a conductive sheet.", "Next, the meandered line set 132 is folded in a direction perpendicular to the direction 124 , i.e. the direction 122 .", "As illustrated in FIG. 1B , the meandered line set 132 is folded with respect to a folding line 112 , thus forming a three-dimensional antenna body 100 b .", "The three-dimensional antenna body 100 b is a horizontal antenna structure, which is thin, thus satisfying the requirement for a thin antenna module.", "The Second Embodiment: The second embodiment explains another three-dimensional antenna body, in which the folding direction thereof is different from that of the first embodiment.", "FIG. 2A illustrates a schematic view of a flat antenna body of the second embodiment of the invention, FIG. 2B illustrates a schematic view of a three-dimensional antenna body formed by folding the flat antenna body in FIG. 2A , and FIG. 2C illustrates a schematic view of a chip antenna formed by encapsulating the three-dimensional antenna body in FIG. 2B in a packaging material.", "As illustrated in FIG. 2A , a flat antenna body 200 a comprises multiple meandered lines 202 arranged in a direction 124 , and the meandered lines 202 are electrically connected in series to form a meandered line set 232 .", "The major difference between the first and the second embodiments is their folding directions of their meandered lines, and thus, their radiating properties.", "In the second embodiment, the meandered line set 232 is punched and folded in the direction 124 .", "As illustrated in FIG. 2B , the meandered line set 232 is folded with respect to a folding line 212 , thus forming a three-dimensional antenna body 200 b .", "The three-dimensional antenna body 200 b is a vertical antenna structure, thus satisfying the requirement for a small antenna module.", "Finally, a composite material having a designed dielectric constant, which is, for example, a polymer mixed with ceramic powders in this embodiment, is used to form a package 206 to encapsulate the three-dimensional antenna body 200 b , thus completing a chip antenna 230 .", "The package 206 is formed by infiltration or injection molding.", "The manufacturing process of the embodiment is different from the LTCC process used for manufacturing the conventional chip antenna.", "The antenna structure of the conventional chip antenna is formed by forming lines on the ceramic green taps by screen printing or photolithography, and then performing the LTCC process.", "The firing of the ceramic green taps generates volume reduction so as to increase the possibility of the lines being deformed, and is not easily controlled.", "Additionally, the feed to meandered lines of the conventional chip antenna can be made only on the surface of the antenna.", "The manufacturing process of the embodiment is totally different from the prior arts.", "The antenna body of the embodiment is formed by punching or etching, and the dimensions of the meandered lines is easily controlled and the manufacturing cost is reduced.", "The antenna body is encapsulated directly in the embodiment, without shrinkage and deformation caused by the firing process used in the conventional LTCC process.", "Furthermore, as illustrated in FIGS. 2A and 2B , an feed line 204 a can be preserved while punching the meandered line set 232 and the subsequent three-dimensional antenna body 200 b .", "The feed line 204 a is then processed to be a lead 204 b of the chip antenna 230 .", "Hence, the lead of the chip antenna of the embodiment is easily manufactured.", "The Third Embodiment: The third embodiment describes an antenna body with different sets of meandered lines.", "The meandered lines of different sets can be applied with different folding manners, such as folding lengths and angles, to form a three-dimensional antenna body.", "FIG. 3A illustrates a schematic view of a flat antenna body of the third embodiment of the invention, and FIG. 3B illustrates a schematic view of a three-dimensional antenna body formed by folding the flat antenna body in FIG. 3A .", "As illustrated in FIG. 3A , a plurality of the first meandered lines 302 are arranged in a direction 122 , and the first meandered lines 302 are electrically connected in series to form a first meandered line set 332 .", "A plurality of the second meandered lines 304 are arranged in a direction 122 , and the second meandered lines 304 are electrically connected in series to form a second meandered line set 334 .", "The first meandered line set 332 and the second meandered line set 334 are electrically connected in the direction 124 to form a flat antenna body 300 a. Next, the flat antenna body 300 a is punched and folded in the direction 124 .", "As illustrated in FIG. 3B , the flat antenna body 300 a is folded with respect to a folding line 312 , thus forming a three-dimensional antenna body 300 b .", "The three-dimensional antenna body 300 b is a horizontal antenna structure, and the folding lengths of the first and second meandered line sets 332 and 334 may not be the same.", "The Fourth Embodiment: The fourth embodiment illustrates a flat and double meandered antenna body with a long and narrow structure, which is intended to decrease the actual area occupied by the antenna on a circuit board (including the antenna body and needed clearance).", "FIG. 4A illustrates a schematic view of the fourth embodiment of the invention, and FIG. 4B illustrates a schematic view of the chip antenna of FIG. 4A installed on a circuit board.", "As illustrated in FIG. 4A , a chip antenna 400 comprises a flat antenna body 402 and a package 406 .", "The flat antenna body 402 has two meandered line sets.", "As illustrated in FIG. 4B , the chip antenna 400 uses an input port 412 to connect electrically to a transmission microstrip lines 410 .", "The transmission microstrip lines 410 can be electrically connected to the chip antenna 400 and other elements on a circuit board 420 .", "Because the conducting film on the circuit board 420 near the antenna typically need to be etched off, and thus no other elements can be located there, the flat antenna body 402 with the long and narrow structure can decrease the actual area occupied by the antenna on the circuit board 420 .", "FIG. 4C illustrates a frequency response diagram of return loss of the chip antenna in FIG. 4A .", "The x-axis of the diagram represents the return loss of the antenna in dB, and the y-axis of the diagram represents the frequency of the antenna in MHz.", "In this embodiment, the relative dielectric constant, ε τ , of the packaging material 406 is 12.", "Referring to FIG. 4C , a frequency range of the −10 dB return loss of the chip antenna 400 is between about 2396 MHz and 2486 MHz, and a bandwidth thereof is about 90 MHz, which are suitable for 2.4 GHz ISM wireless communication (e.g. IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g and Bluetooth communications).", "The Fifth Embodiment: The fifth embodiment explains a three-dimensional chip antenna, in which an antenna body has three meandered line sets, and the three meandered line sets are operated in coordination to satisfy the requirements of large bandwidth and omni-directional antenna patterns.", "FIG. 5A is a schematic view of the fifth embodiment of the invention.", "A chip antenna 500 comprises a three-dimensional antenna body 502 and a package 506 .", "The three-dimensional antenna body 502 has three different meandered line sets 502 a , 502 b and 502 c .", "The chip antenna 500 uses an feed 512 to connect electrically to a transmission microline 510 .", "FIG. 5B illustrates a frequency response diagram of return loss of the chip antenna in FIG. 5A .", "The x-axis of the diagram represents the return loss of the antenna in dB, and the y-axis of the diagram represents the frequency of the antenna in MHz.", "In this embodiment, the relative dielectric constant, ε τ , of the packaging material 506 is 26, and the area occupied by the chip antenna 500 is less than 25 mm 2 .", "Referring to FIG. 5B , a frequency range of the −10 dB return loss of the chip antenna 500 is between about 2305 MHz and 2555 MHz, and a bandwidth thereof is about 250 MHz, which are suitable for 2.4 GHz ISM wireless communication.", "The Sixth Embodiment: The sixth embodiment explains a three-dimensional chip antenna, and an antenna body thereof is assembled with several meandered line sets.", "Moreover, this embodiment also illustrates that the chip antenna has the function of two frequencies or multiple frequencies.", "FIG. 6A is a schematic view of the sixth embodiment of the invention.", "A chip antenna 600 comprises a three-dimensional antenna body 602 and a packaging material 606 .", "In the three-dimensional antenna body 602 , several different meandered line sets 602 a , 602 b , 602 c , 602 d , 602 e and 602 f are electrically connected with a trunk 608 .", "The chip antenna 600 uses a feed 612 to connect electrically to a transmission microline 610 .", "The meandered line sets 602 a , 602 b , 602 c , 602 d , 602 e and 602 f , besides being formed by punching or etching separately and then electrically connecting to the trunk 608 individually, can be formed integrally as an continuous structure and then electrically connected to the trunk 608 .", "Next, the integrated meandered line sets 602 a , 602 b , 602 c , 602 d , 602 e and 602 f are divided into separated and independent meandered line sets, after being encapsulated with the packaging material 606 .", "FIG. 6B illustrates a frequency response diagram of return loss of the chip antenna in FIG. 6A .", "The x-axis of the diagram represents the return loss of the antenna in dB, and the y-axis of the diagram represents the frequency of the antenna in MHz.", "In this embodiment, the relative dielectric constant, ε τ , of the packaging material 606 is 15, and the area occupied by the chip antenna 600 is less than 12 mm 2 .", "Referring to FIG. 6B , a frequency range of the −10 dB return loss of the chip antenna 600 is between about 2385 MHz and 2590 MHz, and a bandwidth thereof is about 205 MHz, which are suitable for 2.4 GHz ISM wireless communication.", "The volume of the chip antenna 600 is small, especially suitable for used in the portable wireless communication products.", "Moreover, a frequency range of the −10 dB return loss of the chip antenna 600 , between about 5500 MHz and 6500 MHz, also exists.", "Therefore, the chip antenna of the embodiment can provide the functions of two frequencies or even multiple frequencies, under proper design.", "The chip antenna of the invention, with either a flat antenna body or a three-dimensional antenna body, can have the function of multiple frequencies by varying the structure and parameters of the antenna body, such as line spacing, line width, meandered line type, and dielectric constant of the packaging material.", "This means that the chip antenna of the invention can have multiple frequency bands, to satisfy the requirement of multiple frequencies.", "The Seventh Embodiment: The seventh embodiment explains a flat chip antenna, in which an antenna body has different meandered line sets electrically connected to each other, and has the function of multiple frequencies.", "FIG. 7A is a schematic view of the seventh embodiment of the invention.", "A chip antenna 700 comprises a flat antenna body 702 and a packaging material 706 .", "The flat antenna body 702 has two different meandered line sets.", "The chip antenna 700 uses a feed 712 to connect electrically to a circuit board.", "FIG. 7B illustrates a frequency response diagram of return loss of the chip antenna in FIG. 7A .", "The x-axis of the diagram represents the return loss of the antenna in dB, and the y-axis of the diagram represents the frequency of the antenna in MHz.", "As illustrated in FIG. 7B , the chip antenna 700 of the embodiment has less return losses in frequency bands at 2.4 GHz, 6 GHz and 7.4 GHz, and is a flat chip antenna with the function of multiple frequencies.", "It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention.", "In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present invention cover modifications and variations of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of patent application Ser.", "No. 10/935,937, filed Sep. 8, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,096,884, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1.", "Field of the Invention [0003] This invention relates to check valves.", "More particularly, this invention relates to check valves having presettable and adjustable cracking pressures.", "[0004] 2.", "Description of the Background Art [0005] Presently, there exist many types of check valves designed to allow the flow of a fluid such as a gas in one direction but to block or “check”", "the flow of the fluid in the opposite direction.", "The amount of fluid force required to open the poppet of the valve in the un-checked direction is often referred to as the cracking pressure.", "Typically, the cracking pressure of a check valve is determined by the spring constant of the internal spring which constantly urges the poppet into a sealing position until unseated therefrom once the cracking pressure is attained.", "[0006] A predetermined cracking pressure of a check valve is desired when check valves are used in conjunction with inflatable articles such as life vests and life rafts.", "Specifically, a check valve having a predetermined cracking pressure allows the inflatable to be inflated by means of a gas cartridge or the like to assure that the inflatable is inflated to a preset internal pressure.", "Thus, by allowing excess gas to be exhausted, over-capacity gas cartridges can be employed to inflate the inflatable to ensure that the inflatable is fully inflated to a preset internal pressure in all environments.", "[0007] Whereas in some applications a preset cracking pressure is desired, in other applications it is desirable to have a check valve with a variable cracking pressure.", "A check valve with a variable cracking pressure may be desired, for example, in an inflatable device such as a life vest to achieve a certain amount of buoyancy or when a certain rigidity is desired.", "Further, in still other applications such as when transporting an inflatable, it is desirable to be able to “lock”", "the check valve from opening irrespective of the amount of cracking pressure in the inflatable.", "Finally, it may be desirable in still other applications to be able to manually open the check valve to quickly “dump”", "air from an inflatable.", "Thus, there presently exist various needs in the check valve industry for a check valves with fixed cracking pressures, with variable cracking pressures, with a locking feature and/or with a dumping feature.", "[0008] Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide an improvement which overcomes the aforementioned inadequacies of the prior art devices and provides an improvement which is a significant contribution to the advancement of the check valve art.", "[0009] Another object of this invention is to provide a check valve having an increased flow rate.", "[0010] Another object of this invention is to provide a check valve having a structure composed of a minimal number of parts to increase its reliability while decreasing cost of manufacture and assembly.", "[0011] Another object of this invention is to provide a check valve having a design that equalizes the sealing force of the poppet around its entire periphery to assure that the check valve is cracked uniformly about the periphery of the poppet.", "[0012] Another object of this invention is to provide a check valve with a fixed cracking pressure.", "[0013] Another object of this invention is to provide a check valve with a with a variable cracking pressure.", "[0014] Another object of this invention is to provide a check valve with a locking feature to prevent cracking of the check valve irrespective of the pressure exerted that would otherwise crack valve open.", "[0015] Another object of this invention is to provide a check valve with a manual dumping feature that allows the valve to be manually cracked open.", "[0016] The foregoing has outlined some of the pertinent objects of the invention.", "These objects should be construed to be merely illustrative of some of the more prominent features and applications of the intended invention.", "Many other beneficial results can be attained by applying the disclosed invention in a different manner or modifying the invention within the scope of the disclosure.", "Accordingly, other objects and a fuller understanding of the invention may be had by referring to the summary of the invention and the detailed description of the preferred embodiment in addition to the scope of the invention defined by the claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0017] For the purpose of summarizing this invention, this invention comprises a check valve having a simple design with fewer parts than conventional prior art check valves to achieve increased reliability while reducing manufacturing and assembly costs.", "The check valve of the invention further achieves an increased flow rate upon cracking due to its simplistic yet ingenious design.", "[0018] Finally, the poppet of the check valve of the invention cooperates with a conical spring to assure that it seals uniformly around its entire periphery facilitating more uniform cracking pressure about its entire periphery.", "[0019] In another embodiment of the check valve of the invention, the cracking pressure is adjustable by means of a threaded adjustable plate which cooperates with the conical spring to reduce the length thereof and thereby increase the amount of force exerted by the spring onto the poppet into sealing engagement, thereby increasing the cracking pressure.", "[0020] In still another embodiment, the check valve of the invention comprises a removable locking key that engages the poppet to preclude it from cracking open irrespective of the cracking pressure exerted on it that would otherwise crack the valve open.", "[0021] In a further embodiment, the check valve of the invention comprises a manual dump plate including a tether with a pull handle coupled to the spring that cracks the poppet open by releasing the spring force that otherwise would force it closed, thereby unseating it from its seat upon pulling of the handle of the tether.", "The manual dump plate allows manual cracking of the valve open to dump the air from the inflatable device irrespective of low cracking pressure in the inflatable that would otherwise be insufficient to crack the valve open.", "[0022] The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the more pertinent and important features of the present invention in order that the detailed description of the invention that follows may be better understood so that the present contribution to the art can be more fully appreciated.", "Additional features of the invention will be described hereinafter which form the subject of the claims of the invention.", "It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the conception and the specific embodiment disclosed may be readily utilized as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present invention.", "It should also be realized by those skilled in the art that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0023] For a fuller understanding of the nature and objects of the invention, reference should be had to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which: [0024] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the first embodiment of the check valve of the invention;", "[0025] FIG. 2 is a perspective view, partially cut-away, of the first embodiment of the invention;", "[0026] FIG. 3 is a diametrical cross-sectional view of the first embodiment of the invention;", "[0027] FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the second embodiment of the check valve of the invention;", "[0028] FIG. 5 is a diametrical cross-sectional view of FIG. 5 along lines 5 - 5 ;", "[0029] FIG. 6 is a partial diametrical cross-sectional view of the second embodiment but with an alternative manner for centering the conical spring to assure uniform sealing of the poppet;", "[0030] FIG. 7A is a diametrical cross-sectional view of the check valve of the invention having a locking key to lock the valve closed and prevent it from opening irrespective of the cracking pressure exerted on it;", "[0031] FIG. 7B is an exploded view of FIG. 7A ;", "[0032] FIG. 7C is a perspective view of the locking key of FIG. 7A ;", "[0033] FIG. 7D is a top plan view of the cap showing the notches formed in the slotted hole that receives the locking key;", "[0034] FIG. 8A is an exploded view of the check valve of the invention having a manual dump plate to allow opening of the poppet of the valve irrespective of the cracking pressure exerted on it thereby allowing the dumping of air in the inflatable to which the valve is installed;", "[0035] FIG. 8B is an exploded perspective view of the manual dump plate and poppet.", "[0036] Similar reference characters refer to similar parts throughout the several views of the drawings.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT [0037] In one embodiment, the check valve 10 of the invention comprises a body 12 having an upper body 12 U and a lower body 12 L threadably coupled together by complementary respective threads 12 T. A cap 14 is coupled to the upper body 12 U. Cap 15 comprises a plurality of flow openings 16 about its periphery allowing internal fluid such as air to flow in the direction of arrows 18 through the body 12 to then be exhausted from the check valve 10 via openings 16 as shown by arrows 20 .", "[0038] Body 12 may be connected about an opening in an inflatable, shown in phantom by reference numeral 22 , through the use of a complementary flanges 24 of the upper and lower bodies 12 U and 12 L that sealingly capture the edge 26 of the opening in the inflatable 22 as the bodies 12 U and 12 L are tightly threaded together.", "Alternatively, the lower body 12 L may comprise a heat-sealable flange 24 that is sealed about the edge 26 of the opening in the inflatable 22 .", "Representative heat-sealable flanges are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,219,190, 4,015,622, 4,927,397 and 6,009,895, the disclosures of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein.", "[0039] As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 , check valve 10 of the invention comprises a poppet 30 having an annular groove 32 in which is positioned an annular O-ring 34 that seats on an annular seat 36 formed at the end of the lumen 38 of the upper body 12 U. [0040] The poppet 30 includes a generally concave portion 46 having an upstanding protrusion 42 extending from the inside center thereof.", "Protrusion 42 comprises four interior webs 42 W positioned at 90 degree intervals and forming a semi-spherical outer configuration.", "Poppet 30 further comprises three exterior webs 44 positioned at 120 degree intervals and being slightly tapered inwardly from the lumen 38 of the body 12 .", "[0041] Cap 14 comprises a plurality of tabs 14 T that snap into corresponding slots formed in the outer periphery of the cap 12 to securely retain the cap 14 into position.", "Cap 14 further comprises a plurality of downwardly extending legs 14 L, such as three positioned at 120 degree intervals, to entrain and center the poppet 30 therebetween.", "The legs 14 L coupled with the exterior webs 44 assure that the poppet 30 may reciprocate upwardly within cap 14 without tilting sideways out of alignment where it might otherwise potentially jam.", "[0042] Finally, the check valve 10 of the invention comprises a conical spring 50 having its uppermost largest diameter coil 50 L captured by an annular step 14 S formed in the underside of the cap 14 .", "The lowermost smallest diameter coil 50 S is dimensioned to be appreciably less in diameter than the outer diameter of the protrusion 42 such that when the coil 50 S is seated thereon, poppet 30 is allowed to pivot universally in all directions.", "The ability of the poppet 30 to pivot universally by virtue of the protrusion 42 pivoting within the coil 50 S, assures that the O-ring 34 of the poppet 30 will be forced into sealing engagement with the annular seat 36 in a highly uniform manner about its entire periphery.", "Consequently, uniform cracking of the poppet 30 about its entire periphery is achieved.", "[0043] Referring now to FIGS. 4 and 5 , the second embodiment of the check valve 10 of the invention comprises a similar body 12 with a cap 14 having flow openings 20 allowing fluid flow 18 to flow through the valve 10 in the unchecked flow direction.", "Similarly, the second embodiment of the check valve 10 of the invention comprises a conical spring 50 entrained between the cap 14 and a poppet 30 to urge its O-ring 34 in sealing engagement with the annular seat 36 .", "[0044] The poppet 30 further includes exterior webs 44 which prevent the poppet from becoming canted with the lumen 38 .", "However, due to the specific configuration of the cap 14 , in the second embodiment, the downward depending legs 14 L of the cap 14 of the first embodiment need not be included since the annular groove 32 moves in alignment with the lumen 52 of the cap 14 .", "[0045] In the second embodiment, poppet 30 similarly includes an upstanding center protrusion 42 with four webs 42 W forming an outer semi-spherical configuration on which is seated the lowermost smaller diameter coil 50 S of the spring 50 .", "[0046] Unlike the first embodiment, the second embodiment of the check valve 10 comprises an adjustable plate 60 having a center boss 62 with external threads 64 for threaded engagement with a threaded hole 66 formed in the center of the cap 14 .", "Boss 62 may be provided with a hex indentation 63 for receiving a hex or other tool.", "[0047] Plate 60 extends in a somewhat planar configuration from the boss 62 to a position between the uppermost larger diameter spring coil 50 L and the underside of cap 14 .", "Upon rotation of the boss 62 in a clockwise direction, plate 60 is caused to move inwardly to further compress the conical spring and thereby increase the cracking pressure of the check valve 10 .", "The outer periphery of the plate 60 may be provided with radial protuberances 60 P to engage into openings 20 and provide indexing of the plate 60 as the plate 60 is rotated to adjust the cracking pressure.", "The protuberances 60 P may be of the same width as the openings 20 or, if smaller, may be asymmetrically positioned to provide accurate indexing.", "[0048] FIG. 6 illustrates an alternative embodiment for free-floating of the poppet 30 to assure uniform annular indexing of its O-ring 34 on annular seat 36 .", "Specifically, protrusion 42 is configured to achieve a conical apex point for universal engagement into a corresponding center seat 72 formed in a balance plate 70 .", "The balance plate 70 assures that only a central force is exerted onto the poppet 30 thereby achieving uniform annular sealing.", "[0049] The various views of FIG. 7 illustrate the check valve 10 of the invention incorporating a locking key 70 for fixedly locking the poppet 30 in its sealed, closed position seated on the annular seat 36 to thereby prevent the poppet 30 from cracking open irrespective of the internal pressure that would otherwise crack the poppet 30 against the force of the spring 50 .", "[0050] The locking key 70 comprises a generally circular cylindrical neck portion 72 and handle portion 74 , preferably integrally formed together such as by injection molding.", "The neck portion 72 of the locking key 70 is designed to fit within a slotted hole 78 formed in the center of the cap 14 (see FIG. 7D ) to engage the center protrusion of the poppet 30 and then held from any upward movement by manually turning the neck portion 72 via its handle portion 74 , thereby fixedly locking the poppet 30 into its closed position.", "[0051] More particularly, the neck portion 72 comprises one or more locking protrusions 76 extending radially outward from the surface of its neck portion 72 in axial alignment with respective slotted notch(es) 78 N formed in the edge of the slotted hole 78 .", "Preferably, two notches 78 N are diametrically positioned across the hole 78 to form opposing notches 78 N. Likewise, preferably the locking protrusions 76 are correspondingly diametrically opposed on the neck portion 72 to thereby respectively fit into the opposing notches 78 N of the slotted hole 78 .", "[0052] It should therefore be evident that the outer diameter of the neck portion 72 is appreciably less than the inner diameter of a slotted hole 78 to fit therein whereas the outer diameter of the opposing protrusions 76 is appreciably less that the inner distance between the opposing notches 78 N. [0053] Once the neck portion 72 is inserted into the hole 78 and turned approximately 90 degrees, the locking protrusions 76 move from within the notches 78 N to the underside of the cap 14 about the periphery of the hole 78 .", "In this locked position, the neck portion 72 is locked in place and is prevented from any further axial movement relative to the hole 78 .", "[0054] The handle portion 74 preferably comprises a comfortable grip for a person's thumb and forefinger thereby facilitating insertion of the locking key into the hole 78 and then turning of the locking key 70 to fixedly lock it in the hole 78 .", "One comfortable grip may comprise a generally flat tapered design with a rounded top edge that is comfortable to grip by a person's thumb and forefinger.", "Further, the handle portion 74 may be marked with appropriate directional arrows to urge insertion and corresponding legends such as “LOCK.”", "[0055] The bottom end 80 of the neck portion 72 of the locking key preferably comprises a shallow axial blind hole 82 of a diameter sufficient to receive the upstanding protrusion 42 of the poppet 30 therein.", "Correspondingly, the length of the neck portion 72 preferably comprises a length sufficient to engage and exert a slight force onto the upstanding poppet protrusion 42 as the key 70 is inserted into the hole 78 and locked by twisting.", "Correspondingly, since the upstanding protrusion 42 is now locked from any further axial movement, the poppet 30 is locked in its seated potion on the annular seat 36 and the valve 10 is fixedly locked closed and cannot open irrespective of the cracking pressure that may be exerted on it.", "[0056] The locking key 70 may be removed by rotating it via its handle portion 74 until the locking protrusions 76 are again aligned with the notches 78 N whereupon the key 70 may be removed from the hole 78 altogether.", "[0057] Referring now to FIG. 8 , the check valve 10 of the invention may include a manual dump feature that allows manual cracking of the valve open to dump the air from the inflatable device irrespective of low cracking pressure in the inflatable that would otherwise be insufficient to crack the valve open.", "[0058] More specifically, as shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B , the manual dump feature comprises a dump plate 90 including a tether 92 with a pull handle 94 .", "The dump plate 90 comprises a thin disk-shaped configuration with a hollow center boss 96 having a center hole 98 .", "The tether 92 is coupled to the dump plate 90 by threading it through the center hole 98 and tying a knot 100 in its end.", "After tying the knot and pulling the tether 92 , the knot 100 is pulled into the hollow center boss 96 .", "[0059] As shown in FIG. 8A , during assembly, the dump plate 90 is positioned between the poppet 30 and the spring 50 , with the tether 92 extending through the center of the spring 50 and then through a center hole 102 in the cap 14 .", "The pull handle 94 is then fixedly connected to the end of the tether 92 .", "[0060] Upon pulling of the pull handle 92 , an upward force is exerted onto the dump plate 90 which in turn causes the spring 50 to compress between the underside of the cap 14 and the dump plate 90 .", "Once the spring is compressed, it no longer exerts any force on the poppet 30 .", "The poppet 30 is therefore is unseated from its annular seat 36 (i.e., it is free floating).", "The inflatable is therefore “dumped”", "of any air since any air pressure within the inflatable is sufficient to move the poppet 30 significantly upwardly to allow such air to freely escape through the check valve 10 .", "[0061] The present disclosure includes that contained in the appended claims, as well as that of the foregoing description.", "Although this invention has been described in its preferred form with a certain degree of particularity, it is understood that the present disclosure of the preferred form has been made only by way of example and that numerous changes in the details of construction and the combination and arrangement of parts may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.", "[0062] Now that the invention has been described," ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to the medical treatment of patients who have an obstructed airway by means of tracheostomy or cricothyrotomy.", "Under emergency circumstances, all physicians and other medical personnel, no matter what their specialty, are expected to know how to protect and maintain a patient's airway.", "Even under non-emergency circumstances, an anesthesiologist, for example, must maintain the airway, ventilation, and oxygenation of a patient who has been rendered unconscious by the doctor or another health care professional by use of sedatives, hypnotics, or other agents.", "These responsibilities have extended even to such health care professionals as dentists, podiatrists, and emergency medical technicians- persons who may witness an allergic reaction in a patient brought on by use of drugs or remedies which have been administered.", "The typical methods of maintaining a patient's airway are by anatomical positioning, clearing the passageway of foreign materials, positive pressure mask ventilation, oral/nasal airways, or oral/nasal approach to tracheal intubation.", "Following failure of all of the typical methods of ventilation, the last method of resort is transtracheal intubation via formal tracheostomy or cricothyrotomy.", "These procedures, though infrequently required, are recommended for use as a last means method.", "See, Clinics of Anesthesiology, Tunstall and Sheikh, 1986.", "In many patients, establishment of the airway may be formidable due to morphological anomalies, such as a large tongue, excessive soft tissue or tracheal displacement.", "Inabilities of the patient to extend the head and neck or to open the mouth wide enough contribute to the difficulty of maintaining the airway, as do other morphological anomalies or physiological events such as floppy epiglottis or laryngospasm.", "Even the use of formal tracheostomy presents inherent problems.", "Tracheostomy requires instrumentation which may not be available in emergency situations.", "Additionally, given the time constraints involved in an emergency, a tracheostomy may yield to the more expedient procedure of cricothyrotomy.", "Circothyrotomy, considered by many to be the preferred method of establishing an airway after other methods have failed, is achieved by transtracheal intubation via a percutaneous puncture through the cricothyroid membrane into the trachea.", "Methods for performing transtracheal intubation have been disclosed in the prior art.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,677,978 to Melker describes a method for establishing a transtracheal airway.", "However, by its design, the method is inherently ineffective in that once the percutaneous placement of the needle is made, the needle and syringe are removed so that a guide wire can be placed through the catheter;", "this feature of the method significantly increases the risk that the tube has not been properly placed in the trachea, and subsequent placement of the wire through the catheter may result in the wire being threaded into the subcutaneous tissues, or be unable to be threaded at all.", "The system is also of a design which requires the user to look away momentarily to grasp other pieces of the instrument, movement which greatly impedes the quick and accurate placement of the device.", "Other devices exist on the market which have drawbacks similar to those described above.", "In particular, these devices are complex, difficult to use and manipulate and often requiring instructions.", "It requires the practitioner to look away during placement of the device which greatly increases the chance of improper establishment of the airway.", "Even devices on the market which are composed of a simple curved metal needle with attached blade and syringe present problems in placement.", "In use, the hollow needle of the device may be properly placed, but the tip of the blade may be improperly positioned in the back wall of the trachea.", "Also, if the patient moves, coughs, or begins to choke in a gagging response, the blade may act as a scalpel causing severe damage.", "The invention herein presents a new and more easily utilized apparatus for achieving cricothyrotomy which overcomes many of the problems encountered with the other methods enumerated above.", "Ideally, a transtracheal device should be designed for rapid and easy placement, with a high rate of success in establishing and maintaining the patient's airway, while being safe to use, easily utilized by all practitioners regardless of level of expertise, and should be concentrically and concisely designed.", "The invention herein fulfills these objectives, and therefore presents a new and useful device in relation to the prior art.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is designed to facilitate transtracheal intubation via percutaneous puncture through the cricothyroid membrane.", "It comprises a curvilinear hollow metal needle with a sharp blade-like surface at the distal end for penetration of the cricothyroid membrane, a hollow-barreled syringe means, and a plunger, slideably disposed within the syringe, to the distal end of which is attached a flexible stylet.", "The curved needle is inserted through the membrane.", "The placement of the blade in this design allows the practitioner to hold the device in close proximity to the patient, enabling the user to exercise fine control of the needle.", "The curvature of the needle allows the syringe component to be free of possible disturbance by movement of the patient's chin.", "Once placed, the plunger of the syringe is retracted to aspirate a small amount of air.", "Assured that the needle placement is correct, the plunger is then advanced through the syringe simultaneously advancing the stylet out of the needle into the trachea.", "Thereafter, a final airway catheter which is in an over-the-needle position is threaded down the needle and subsequently over the stylet into the trachea.", "The needle and stylet are then removed leaving the airway in place.", "The airway has a threaded means at the proximal end to which airway modification devices or tubes may be attached, and is tapered at its distal end to facilitate unencumbered insertion.", "The final airway catheter may be composed of rigid, semi-rigid or flexible plastic or other synthetic material which has a sufficient quality of rigidity to prevent kinking.", "The airway may also be composed of a "memory"", "material which will cause it to assume a predetermined shape when not being manipulated in relation to the stylet or needle.", "In a modification to the preferred embodiment, the stylet is not attached to the distal end of the plunger.", "In this embodiment, the stylet is comprised of a hollow tube through which air may be aspirated both before and after the stylet has been advanced into the trachea.", "All other aspects of airway placement and withdrawal of the integrated device are as described for the preferred embodiment.", "In another embodiment of this device, the syringe is a "double-barrelled"", "design tapering at the distal end to form one common chamber to which the metal needle attaches.", "Slideably disposed within one barrel is the plunger, and the other barrel maintains the stylet.", "When retracted, the plunger causes air to be aspirated through the metal needle via the common chamber.", "A gasket at the proximal end of the stylet barrel prohibits air from being spirated from the outside.", "The stylet is actuated by a lever, attached to the proximal end of the stylet, which passes through and is slideable disposed along the length of the barrel of the syringe housing the stylet.", "When the lever is manually pulled toward the proximal end of the device, the stylet moves through the metal needle;", "when the lever is advanced down the stylet barrel of the syringe, the stylet simultaneously advances through the needle and protrudes out the distal end of the needle.", "With any of these embodiments, a dilator may be placed over the needle followed by the non-metal airway over the dilator.", "The dilator apparatus allows the use of a smaller needle and stylet, and allows for the use of a larger final airway.", "The dilator has a tapered distal end which reduces resistance to advancement of the apparatus into the trachea.", "Further, with any of the embodiments described, a metal needle may be used which has a hollow conduit integrally manufactured into the inside wall of the needle.", "The conduit runs the length of the needle and allows for the use of a stylet which is of substantially the same diameter as the inner diameter of the needle.", "The conduit in the needle thus provides a means for aspirating air from the trachea when the plunger is retracted.", "Alternatively, a stylet may be used which is hollow and which allows aspirated air to pass through into the syringe.", "This new apparatus may be used in either emergency situations or as an elective means of establishing an airway.", "Though the embodiment disclosed is optimally used in high flow (jet) oxygenation and/or anesthesia, the airway established by the apparatus has the ability to be used in low flow oxygenation and/or anesthesia either by continuous or discontinuous positive pressure changes.", "Indeed, many experts in the field have shown that transtracheal oxygenation at greater than four liters per minute flow, via an 18 gauge needle or catheter, can sustain acceptably normal oxygenation in anesthetized patients who have otherwise obstructed airways.", "Further, it has been shown that constant low pressure flow, constant "machine"", "pressure limit flow, or high flow "jet"", "ventilation through a percutaneous 14 gauge needle catheter can satisfactorily accomplish oxygenation of the patient.", "The present invention meets the optimal requirements desired in a transtracheal intubation device because the integral design allows accurate and quick placement of the device without having to reach for other parts.", "The combination of the IV needle and the syringe-type design, familiar to all health care practitioners, makes the device easy to understand and use.", "These and other advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following discussion.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a partially cross-sectioned view of the embodiment where the plunger and stylet are attached;", "FIG. 2 is a partially cross-sectioned view of the embodiment where the plunger and stylet are separate from one another;", "FIG. 3 is a partially cross-sectioned view of the double-barrelled syringe embodiment;", "FIG. 4 is a display of the separate components of all the embodiments;", "FIG. 5 is an enlarged cross-section of the modified metal needle illustrating the internal conduit;", "FIG. 6 is a further embodiment of the device in which the needle, stylet, and airway are without attachment to a syringe;", "FIG. 7 is a partially cross-sectioned view of the device illustrating placement through the cricothyroid membrane;", "FIG. 8 is a partially cross-sectioned view of the device illustrating advanced placement of the device in the trachea;", "FIG. 9 is a partially cross-sectioned view of the device illustrating advancement of the stylet through the needle;", "FIG. 10 is a partially cross-sectioned view of the device illustrating placement of the airway;", "and FIG. 11 is a partially cross-sectioned view of the device illustrating removal of the needle, stylet, and syringe, leaving the airway in place.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The single-barrel embodiment of the device is illustrated in FIG. 1 in which the stylet 10 is attached to the bottom surface 11 of the plunger 12, which is slideably disposed within the syringe 13.", "When the plunger is being pulled to the fully retracted position so as to cause aspiration of air from the trachea, the stylet is completely retracted within the needle and air is allowed to pass around the stylet and into the barrel of the syringe.", "When the plunger is at a position half way through the syringe, the device is said to be loaded.", "As illustrated by the "loaded position"", "in the center of FIG. 1, the final airway 14 is in the over-the-needle position (the curvilinear needle being disposed inside the airway), and the tip of the needle 15 with the blade 16 is extended beyond the end of the airway.", "As shown, the needle is preferably curved, but the needle may be of varying curvature, or it may be straight.", "As the plunger is advanced forward, the stylet is propelled through the needle 15, and the distal end of the stylet 17 extends out from the end of the needle, into the trachea.", "In FIG. 2 an alternative embodiment is illustrated in which the stylet 20 is not attached to the plunger 21, and the stylet, therefore, does not move when the plunger is retracted for aspiration of air.", "It should be noted that the stylet is withdrawn into the needle.", "In this position air is allowed through the stylet and into the syringe by withdrawal of the plunger.", "As the plunger is advanced past the "loaded position", the stylet is propelled through the needle 22 and the distal end of the stylet 23 extends past the needle into the trachea.", "FIG. 3 illustrates the double-barrel embodiment of the syringe, generally at 30.", "The plunger 31 is slideably disposed within one barrel of the syringe, and the stylet 32 is slideably disposed within the other barrel of the syringe.", "The distal end of the syringe narrows to become a single opening 33 to which is attached the needle (disposed within the airway) and airway 34.", "As the plunger is retracted, aspirated air passes up through the metal needle and in through the opening of the syringe 33.", "A gasket 35 at the distal end of the stylet barrel slideably disposed about the stylet disallows any aspiration of air from the stylet barrel.", "The stylet is actuated by a lever 37 attached to the proximal end of the stylet and extends through the wall of the stylet barrel, moving up and down the length of the barrel through a slit therein.", "Again, as the stylet is advanced forward by movement of the lever 37 in a downward fashion, the stylet advances through the needle and out into the trachea.", "FIG. 4 illustrates the component parts of the various embodiments.", "The plunger with attached stylet 40 is shown separated from the single barrel syringe 41.", "The separated plunger 42 and hollow stylet 43 are also illustrated.", "The double-barrel syringe with plunger 44 is illustrated beside the stylet 45 with actuating lever 46.", "The metal curvilinear needle 47 with blade at the distal end is illustrated, as are the final airway 48 and dilator 49.", "The integrated configuration of each of these component parts is illustrated at 50 in which the airway 51 is slideably disposed upon the dilator 52 which is slideably disposed upon the needle 53 through which the stylet 54 extends.", "It should be noted that the ultimate size of the invention, in any embodiment, may vary to accommodate use in any size patient, from child to adult.", "FIG. 5 is a cross-section view of the modified metal needle 60 into one wall of which has been manufactured a hollow conduit 61.", "When the stylet 62 is in the retracted position, aspirated air enters the end of the needle and is carried through the conduit into the syringe (not shown).", "When the stylet 63 is propelled forward through the metal needle and into the trachea, the conduit is blocked.", "A further embodiment of the device is illustrated in FIG. 6 in which the needle 70 and overlying airway 71 are not attached to a syringe.", "The stylet 72 is manually advanced through the needle and into the trachea.", "In this embodiment, aspiration of air is impossible, but the other principles relating to the placement of the device without a syringe are as stated above for other embodiments.", "Placement of the device during a transtracheal intubation episode is illustrated in FIGS. 7 through 11 using the double-barrel embodiment of the invention.", "In FIG. 7 the needle has been inserted into the neck of the patient and the blade of the needle is poised over the cricothyroid membrane ready for insertion into the trachea.", "In FIG. 8 the needle is advanced into the trachea, and the plunger of the device is retracted for aspiration of air to assure correct placement.", "In FIG. 9, the stylet is advanced, as indicated by the arrow direction, and the stylet 80 is shown extended past the needle into the trachea.", "The airway 81 is advanced into the trachea guided by the stylet as illustrated in FIG. 10.", "Finally, the integral device, including stylet, needle and syringe means, is removed from the patient leaving the airway in place within the trachea.", "It is understood that the particular process of the invention described herein is preferred.", "Obviously, numerous additional modifications and variations of the present process are possible in light of the above teachings such as intravenous use, intraplural or intraabdominal or urological use.", "It is therefore to be understood that within the scope of the appended claims, the process may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described herein." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates generally to thermal piston engines, and more particularly to structural and conceptual improvements that increase the efficiency of such engines.", "The regenerative thermal engine of this invention combines unique components to achieve high efficiencies and low engine weights in compact, structurally and thermally integrated units.", "The primary object of this invention is to device adiabatic engines which are capable of operating at high pressures and temperatures utilizing the total expansion of the generated gases without the size and weight customarily associated with such engines.", "Further, the use of exotic materials such as ceramics which add to the expense and complexity of such engines is not necessary in the thermal engines devised, enabling a flexibility in the choice of competing materials for construction of highly efficient but low cost engines.", "The superior characteristics of the piston engine have numerous applications, with both the military and commercial applications in transport and power generation well known.", "Numerous developmental paths are available for reducing specific fuel consumption, and for reducing the size and weight of the engine.", "Many of these paths, however, lead to undersized power plants of high complexity and cost.", "In designing a high temperature, adiabatic engine, major problems are involved in selection of materials and design of structures capable of withstanding both high temperatures and pressures.", "Formulation of systems that can effectively and fully utilize the expanded pressure spectrum without thermal losses, particularly those losses associated with cooling local zones of high temperature, is a major challenge.", "In order to effectively utilize the runout thermal energy of the resulting working agent in a compact unit, it is necessary to integrate select components which can most efficiently operate under conditions of low, medium or high pressures.", "A complete utilization of the thermal energy developed in the combustion process can be accomplished only in the case of an effective harnessing of the total expansion of the combustion gases, from the highest pressure of the cycle to the lowest pressure of the ambient air, exhausting the working gases at the lowest temperature possible.", "However, a super-long expansion in the cylinders of a reciprocating piston engine is possible only in very large engines with very low rotations.", "In such engines as the Sulzer and the Burmeister and Wain navel engines, in which the ratio of stroke to bore reach 3-4, thermal efficiencies exceed 53%.", "In the 720° rotation of the crank shaft during the thermal cycle of a four stroke engine, the evolution of the pressure in the time of the intake, compression, combustion-expansion and exhaust, define various perioids of low pressure, medium pressure, and high pressure.", "The low and medium pressure periods of the cycle cover 80%-90% of the cycle.", "Only 10-20% of the cycle or 70% of the 720° cycle rotation is associated with the high pressure period of final compression, combustion and initial expansion.", "Despite the very short duration of the high pressure periods (10-20% of cycle time) engines are constructed to withstand this maximum pressure throughout the 720° rotation cycle.", "The mass of metal and high strength structure is wasted during the rest of the cycle in which only medium and low pressure is encountered.", "As a result of this factor, actual engines are big, heavy, expensive and inefficient.", "In a basic embodiment of an engine capable of effective utilization of the full spectrum of expansion pressures is an integrated rotary-reciprocal compound engine which develops an equivalent compression ratio to the long stroke engines described.", "The low and medium pressure are developed in the rotary component and include 40% of the cycle in a rotocompressor for compression and 40% in a rotoexpander for expansion.", "The high pressures are developed in final compression and initial expansion in the reciprocal piston component.", "Conventional engines are limited in peak pressure to approximately 150 bars.", "This level establishes a practical limit for compression ratios including supercharged engines.", "Thermal efficiency rises with increases in the compression ratio, but the limited peak pressure for conventional engines limits thermal efficiency.", "Peak pressure is limited in principle by friction, particularly by friction forces associated with the side thrust of the piston against the cylinder liner from the angular oscillation of the connecting rod, and, inertia, particularly inertial forces associated with the increase in size and weight of moving parts designed to accommodate increased peak pressures.", "These adverse factors have in the past defined the limit of evolution of conventional engines.", "The unique engine designs described herein include features that resolve the problems described and enable increased peak pressures to be achieved in compact lightweight engines.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The engine embodiments described in this invention integrate select designs and components to achieve the conditions for optimizing engine operating parameters.", "The engine embodiments combine features for adiabatic performance and full spectrum usage of generated high pressures and temperatures for maximum power and minimum weight.", "To achieve adiabatic performance, the cylinder walls and, if desired, all the hot surfaces of the combustion chamber are constructed with a regenerative liner comprising a series of angularly disposed fins and air spaces.", "The air spaces between fins form cells into which compressed air is circulated on the intake stroke and released on the expansion stroke.", "The piston is displaced from the regenerative liner and sealing is provided by the staggered labyrinth of the fin and air space structure.", "Preferably, high peak pressures are achieved by combining a medium pressure, positive displacement rotary component with a high pressure reciprocal component.", "The rotary-reciprocal compound engine of this invention accommodates high pressures in a single-cylinder reciprocator component and accommodates medium pressures in a positive-displacement rotary component.", "Because the regenerative jacket can withstand high temperatures and pressures, it is a preferred component in the high-pressure, high temperature engine embodiments that follows.", "The reciprocator component includes low mass pistons with short dual connecting rods coupled to counterrotating crank shafts that as a unit eliminate side thrust of the piston and hence the thrust associated friction of conventional engines.", "The result is a small component which provides rotary compression and expansion for 80-90% of the total engine displacement and reciprocal compression and expansion for 10-20% of the engine displacement.", "The reciprocator and rotor are interconnected by a gear box with a transmission rotio adapted for optimum volumetric efficiency.", "The rotary-reciprocal compound engine in one embodiment is characterized by a monocylinder having a single piston connected to two splayed connecting rods each connected to a separate crankshaft in combination with a positive rotary compressor-expander of a screw type or epitrochoidal type similar to a Wankel engine.", "This embodiment defines a three stage pressure evolution with a low pressure, rotocompressor stage, a high pressure reciprocator stage, and a medium pressure rotorexpander stage.", "The total thermal cycle of such engine defines a superlong compression-expansion cycle characterized by a very high efficiency.", "A similar embodiment is constructed with a reciprocator component having an efficient uniflow scavenging process in a single cylinder with opposed pistons, each piston similarly connected to two connecting rods and counter-rotating, crank shaft mechanisms.", "Intergrating a Comprex® pressure wave converter between the rotor component and the reciprocator component, or between the reciprocator component and another expander further enhances the efficiency.", "For a super power regime, the excess air existing in the combustion gases from the reciprocator component can be used in an afterburner chamber in which the working fluid can be reheated and further expanded in subsequent stages of the engine.", "Finally in a wholly integrated system of a rotary-reciprocal, compound engine a thermoenergetic cascade can be developed from selectively connecting or disconnecting the following components: low pressure rotocompressor high pressure reciprocator medium pressure rotoexpander intercombustion chambers Comprex wave converters intercooler and recuperators turbocharger.", "The thermoenergetic cascade can operate partially, energetically based on an intercombustion chamber producing combustion gases only for the rotary component with the reciprocator component disconnected.", "Similarly the cascade can operate partially, energetically based on the reciprocator component with the rotary component disconnected.", "By use of a compound rotary-reciprocal engine, peak pressures can be rised from 150 atm to 180 or 200 atm.", "Because of the extremely high combustion temperatures involved, the cylinder chamber of the reciprocator component preferably utilizes the recuperative regenerator previously described to achieve adiabatic engine performance.", "These and other features will become apparent from a consideration of the various exemplar embodiments shown in the drawings and described in the detailed description of the preferred embodiments.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a cross sectional view, partially fragmented of a reciprocal engine with a regenerator lining.", "FIG. 2 is an enlarged partial cross sectional view of the regenerator lining for the combustion chamber of the engines disclosed.", "FIG. 3 is a cross sectional view of a compound rotary-reciprocal engine with an opposed piston reciprocator unit and a supercharger.", "FIG. 4 is a schematic view of a typical pressure curve for a four stroke engine.", "FIG. 5 is a cross sectional view of an embodiment of the combustion and drive section of a convertible 2 to 4 stroke engine with dual interconnected pistons and a connected combustion chamber.", "FIG. 6 is a schematic view of a compound reciprocal rotary screw engine.", "FIG. 7 s a cross sectional view of the combustion and drive section of a single piston, dual crank engine component.", "FIG. 8 is a cross sectional view of the engine component of FIG. 7 in combination with a rotary component.", "FIG. 9 is a cross sectional view of the combustion and drive section of an opposed piston dual crank engine component.", "FIG. 10 is a cross sectional view of the engine component of FIG. 9 in combination with a rotary component.", "FIG. 11 is a cross sectional view of an alternative arrangement of the engine component of FIG. 9 in combination with a rotary component.", "FIG. 12 is a schematic illustration of a compound rotary-reciprocal engine with an intermediate pressure wave supercharger.", "FIG. 13 is a schematic illustration of a compound rotary-reciprocal with an intermediate intercombustor.", "FIG. 14 is a schematic illustration of a compound rotary-reciprocal engine with an intermediate intercombuster and auxiliary turbocharger.", "FIG. 15 is a schematic illustration of a compound rotary-reciprocal engine with an intermediate pressure wave supercharger and auxiliary turbocharger.", "FIG. 16 is a schematic illustration of a compound rotary-receiprocal engine with an intermediate pressure wave supercharger, intercombuster and an auxiliary turbocharger.", "FIG. 17 is a schematic illustration of a compound rotary-reciprocal engine with an intermediate pressure wave supercharger, intercombuster, auxiliary pressure wave supercharger and turbocharger.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The thermal engines of this invention utilize several novel components in various combinations to achieve superior performance.", "When the various components are integrated into the ultimate rotary-reciprocal compound engine designs described, peak pressures and temperatures heretofore unachieveable in a reciprocal engine are developed.", "The combined components form a unit with a staged expansion to recover maximum work for improved engine efficiencies.", "Referring to FIG. 1, a reciprocal engine 1 is shown with a unique piston and cylinder arrangement to enable use of a novel cylinder liner 2 for the combustion chamber.", "The liner 2 forms a regenerative jacket which receives and releases compressed air during the engine cycle to dynamically insulate the walls of the cylinder 3.", "In FIG. 1, an outer engine block 4 is constructed with a working cylinder 3 and a piston 6 reciprocal in the cylinder 3.", "The piston 6 is connected to a conventional connecting rod 7 and crank 8.", "A conventional head 9 and monovalve assembly 10 (shown in part) cap the cylinder 3.", "The block has peripheral air intake ports 5 which are exposed when the piston 6 is in the retracted position shown.", "Combustion gases exhaust through the nono-valve assembly, which with additional valving may supplement air intake at an appropriate time in a preferred two-cycle operation of the engine.", "The piston is of differential design having an enlarged cap 11 coupled to a central cross-head 12 which is guided in a low temperature guide cylinder 13 in the block 4.", "The size of the scavenging ports at the base of the combustion chamber 3 are controlled by a sliding valve 14 which can completely close the ports for operation of the engine in a four stroke mode.", "The enlarged cup 11 is fabricated from a strong, high temperature tolerant material such as stainless steel.", "The cap 11 is constructed with a depending lip 15 that overlaps a projection of the guide cylinder 13 to form a complex sealing passage during the down stroke.", "In the up stroke the piston cap never contacts the novel cylinder liner 2, which is constructed with a series of fins 16 and grooves 17 as shown in the enlarged fragmentary view of FIG. 2. The cylinder liner 2 is a regenerative cell system that in part functions as a staggered labyrinth sealing system and in part as a thermal regenerator.", "In its functions as a thermal regenerator, the liner or regenerative jacket 2 operates by a process based on the penetration, intake and compression inside the cell 18 of freshly cooled, high pressure air, supplied by an intercooled supercharging system (not shown) during the scavenging process.", "In the compression stroke, a part of this air is accumulated and pressurized inside the regenerator cells 18, formed as the piston passes the grooves 17 between the fins 16.", "The rising piston 6 creates a pressure wave that is increasing.", "Low pressure admission air in the chamber is forced into the cells of the regenerator.", "Because each cell has an incrementally increasing pressure, leakage by the advancing edge of the piston is soon absorbed by a lower cell in the pressure cascade.", "The trapped air absorbs the thermal energy accumulated in the walls of the regenerator jacket from the previous power stroke.", "The accumulated compressed and heated air in the cells 18 forms an active counter-pressure againt the combustion gases escaping during the power stroke.", "At the same time in the expansion stroke, the compressed air accumulated inside the cells 18 expands toward the cylinder space, generating a dynamic, concentric-radial and centripetal flow, which forms an envelope of air surrounding the hot gases, creating a pneumatic insulation between the hot gases and the walls.", "The heat radiated from the hot gases is in general the principal source of heat transfer to the cylinder walls.", "Another effect, perhaps the most important, is the expansion of the compressed air, which on being further heated possess a higher enthalpy, thereby recovering the energy accumulated in the regenerated cell system.", "This compressed and preheated air is an ideal additive to the combustion process.", "The air is supplied from the walls of the working cylinder 2 in the final stage of combustion when the concentration of oxygen is reduced.", "The radial injection of the air to the combustion gases has an additional turbulent effect for aiding complete combustion.", "Finally, the air and the regenerative cells together form an ideal insulating and an adiabatic shield against the transfer of thermal energy which is normally lost through the cooling system.", "Because the piston 6 is a perfect cylindrical body, without contact with the hot wall zone of the cylinder, lubrication and oil can be completely avoided, including all associated mechanical losses.", "The piston is guided in the bottom zone of the cylinder, which is a conventional cylinder liner.", "The bottom zone is lubricated by an air and solid suspension, composed of micro-particulates of graphite and MOS2 (which are injected between the contact surfaces).", "The same air and solid micro-particulate suspension in injected into all of the roller bearings, assuring lubrication and removal of the heat generated in the bearings.", "The recollection of the micro-particulates is assured by a group of auxiliary cyclone traps (not shown).", "The air that is partially expanded and heated by this process is returned to the intercooler of the high stage supercharger for recompression to a final pressure.", "Alternately, the bottom zone of the cylinder and bearings can be lubricated by conventional means.", "In the exemplar of FIG. 1 , the engine is a high temperature fuel injected engine with a conventional fuel injector 20 and with unique auxiliary liquid injection nozzles 21 for adding an injected cooling fuel or water in a thermal cogeneration process.", "In all the applications of the regenerative jacket 2 a cogeneration thermal process may be added.", "This process injects a cooling fluid (methanol, liquid NO2, liquified gases, or water) through an injection system which comprises a series of spaced nozzles 21 around the crown 22 of the combustion chamber which direct an arcuate spray 23 down the walls of the regenerator during the brief period that the piston is rising in its compression stroke.", "A liquid injector 24 feeds the nozzles with liquid, usually water in a measured timed pulse.", "Preferably, as shown in FIG. 20, the liquid is preheated by circulating in a helicoidal passageway 25 between the regenerative jacket or liner 2 and the wall 26 of the block 1.", "In embodiments employing a cogenerator using water injection, the fine droplets of water in the spray are directed at the walls of the regenerator and are swept into the cells with the packing air.", "The high velocity spray mist is drawn into the regenerative cells which cover the walls of the combustion chamber by action of the increasing chamber pressure as the piston rises.", "In the cells the water is vaporized cooling the fins and the vaporized water is released as superheated steam along with the compressed air during the power stroke thereby confining the peak temperature gases of the combustion at the center of the chamber.", "The heating, evaporating and the super-heating process is accomplished in the brief time in which the piston is near the top dead point.", "The flushing of this superheated steam or additional combusted cooling fluid after the peak combustion time occurs as an admixture to the regular combustion gases as the piston descends.", "In the case of steam, there is associated a Rankine cycle with the regenerative, thermal cycle.", "The homogeneous mixture of combustion gases, superheated steam, and the preheated air expanded from the regenerative cells, comprises the final working fluid that drives the piston and any exhaust-powered, auxiliary or integrated component as described with relation to the other engine embodiments.", "Referring to the engine embodiment of FIG. 3, the regenerative thermal engine shown comprises a rotary-reciprocal compound engine with a two stroke, opposed piston component 88 coupled to a rotary piston component 92.", "The compound engine includes a turbocharger 97 and two intercoolers 96 and 98 between the air compression stages.", "The opposed piston arrangement of the reciprocator component 88 is similar in construction to the engine embodiment of FIG. 1. Opposed differential pistons 6 drive two crank shafts 81 coupled to the pistons by connecting rods 82.", "Replacing the head and valve assembly of the FIG. 1 embodiment is a simple side mounted fuel injector 89.", "A compound liner 42 includes a central segment 44 comprising the regenerator 2 and end segments 45 forming scavenging port 5 and exhaust ports 91.", "The rotary piston component 92 is a roto-compound system composed of a compressor stage 93 and an expander stage 94.", "The compressor stage 93 receives precompressed air from the compressor side of the turbocharger 97, which is cooled by the intercooler 98.", "The precompressed and cooled air is further compressed by the positive displacement compressor stage of the rotary component 92.", "After cooling by the second intercooler 96, the compressed air passes flap valve 95 and enters the reciprocator component 88 through intake ports 5.", "The entering air under medium compression is further compressed by the united compression stroke of the two opposed pistons 6 to a substantially higher than usual compression.", "Fuel injected through an injector 89 ignites in the small core chamber between the piston heads and generates the extremely high pressures herebefore unattainable in piston engines.", "Because the single combustion chamber is centralized, stresses are localized and confined to a cylindrical structure, a configuration best able to withstand the extraordinary high pressures generated.", "The piston cap 11 is of special construction and fabricated from a high strength material such as stainless steel, and is coupled to the central cross-head 12 which reciprocates in the low temperature cylinder guide 13 of the engine block 4.", "The short connecting rods 82 and heavy duty cranks 81 absorb the high energy thrust of the pistons 40 and enable a high torque, high r.p.m. operation.", "Cooling of the cylinder walls by the regenerator is accomplished as explained with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.", "The expanding combustion gases exhaust through ports 91 and enter the expander stage 94 of the roto-compound system powering the rotary component 92.", "The positive displacement rotary component 92 is an epitrochoidal-type similar in type to the Wankel engine.", "While it has certain attributes of relative efficiency due to its low inertia, rotary operation, it is not effective at high pressures and temperatures because of sealing problems.", "However, it is ideally suited to accept the partially expanded gases from the high pressure reciprocator component because of its volumetric efficiency.", "The rotary component is coupled to the reciprocator component in the proper ratio of rotation for a volumetric exchange that assures a high pressure ratio for the supercharging and a high expander ratio for exhaust gases.", "The rotary component 92 is provided with a ceramic or an insulated rotative piston 99 and is lubricated and cooled by a graphite/MoS2 dry lubricant supplied pneumatically, to the gear and bearing mechanism.", "The absence of oil and friction between the rotor, piston and the epitrochoidal case prevents any excessive wear at high rotational speeds.", "Sealing is assured by auto adjusting material of Teflon® type impregnated with graphite and MoS2 on the tips 99.1 of the triangular rotary piston 99.", "The same material is provided for the lateral sealing 100.", "As noted in the summary of the invention, the unification of the medium pressure rotary component with the high pressure reciprocator component enables a high peak pressure to be developed with only the engine structure in the high pressure zone being necessarily designed to withstand such high peak pressures.", "This intimate integration enables a substantial reduction in engine size and weight to achieve a desired power output.", "FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of the typical pressure curve over a 720° crank shaft rotation in a four stroke engine.", "As illustrated only a small band of 70° is associated with pressure exceeding 37 atm and over half of the remaining cycle pressure is less than 6 atm.", "By staging the components in an integrated unit that is volumetrically balanced, with each component constructed to withstand those pressures and temperatures within its operating range, a boost in the peak pressure can be obtained at the same time a reduction in size and weight is accomplished.", "For example, a low pressure range can be efficiently handled by a supercharger, a medium pressure range by a positive displacement rotary device, and the high pressure range handled by a specially designed reciprocal piston device.", "An efficient thermoenergetical cascade following the pressure curve can be developed by an integrated engine incorporating these examplar devices.", "In the FIG. 5 embodiment, the regenerative thermal engine shown is a convertible four and two stroke device having, a twin arrangement of pistons 50 with permanent dynamic balance.", "The pistons have a common and symmetrical cycle, by the fact that they are provided with a central, common combustion chamber 101, connected with two tangential channels 102 to cylinders.", "The two piston mechanisms are connected by a strap 103, which takes the opposed side thrust produced by the two counter-rotating crankshafts 81.1 and 81.2.", "Both counter-rotating crankshafts are geared outside in a 1/1 ratio, assuring perfect symmetry and synchronism of both movements.", "This arrangement totally avoids any side thrust between the piston and the cylinder walls, excluding a major source of mechanical losses, and allows a close tolerance to be maintained between the pistons 50 and the regenerator 2.", "In the schematic view of FIG. 6, the regenerative thermal engine of FIG. 5 is associated with a conventional screw compressor 103 and a screwexpander 104, connected directly on both crankshafts of the mechanism in permanent dynamic balance.", "The counter rotating shafts of the balanced crank mechanism are ideal for a compound screw device of the type made by Lisholm.", "The high compressed air is inter-cooled in a heat exchanger 105, and the exhaust gases are transported through the pipe 106 from the cylinder head to the screwexpander 104.", "The screwexpander 104, is provided with ceramic counter-rotating rotors and sealed by auto-adjusting elements made from Teflon® impregnated with graphite +MoS2.", "Referring to FIGS. 7 and 8 the concepts for balanced engine operation disclosed with reference to FIG. 5, are combined in an advanced compound, rotary-reciprocal engine 108.", "While the engine embodiment of FIGS. 7 and 8 and the subsequent advanced design embodiments are particularly devised to incorporate the regenerator liner disclosed herein (since such designs advantageously eliminate piston side thrust) the constructions have independent merit and may incorporate other exotic liners, particularly liners demanding that piston and cylinder wall contact be wholly eliminated.", "The following embodiments, particularly the schematic arrangements disclosed in FIGS. 12-17, disclose variations of integrated components that are configured to achieve a thermal energetical cascade following as closely as practicable idealized pressure curves of the type described with reference to the schematically illustrated curve of FIG. 4, but with substantially elevated peak pressures and temperatures.", "In a compound rotary-reciprocal engine of FIG. 12 a single cylinder 110 contains a single reciprocating piston 111.", "While the piston is shown with external grooves 107 for labyrinth sealing or ring sealing in conjunction with a high temperature cylinder liner 53, it is to be understood that the combustion chamber design is particularly suited for incorporation of the regenerator liner 2 as hereinabefore described.", "The large bore, short stroke reciprocator component of the compound engine is designed for high pressure and includes two connecting rods 112 connecting the single piston 111 to two counterrotating, balanced crank shafts 113.", "The single cylinder 110 has a torrodial adiabatic combustion chamber 114 with a central fuel injector 115.", "The cylinder has staggered exhaust ports 116 and scavenging ports 117.", "The counter-rotating gears interconnect the two crankshafts in a symmetrical and synchronous movement.", "The offset intermediate gear 119, engaging one of the crankshaft gears, integrates the rotary component with the reciprocator component.", "As shown in FIG. 8, the epitrochoidal compressor-expander 92 is integrally coupled to the reciprocator component.", "The compressor-expander 92 supplies the combusted chamber of the reciprocal pistons with compressed air, and is simultaneously driven by the partially expanded exhaust gases in the manner previously described.", "Referring to the engine embodiment of FIG. 9 a super compact, high pressure reciprocator component 125 is shown.", "Utilizing the dual rod concept of the embodiment of FIGS. 7 and 8, an opposed piston, single chamber reciprocator is formed with large bore, short stroke features of the prior embodiment.", "In this embodiment opposed pistons are arranged in a single combustion chamber 120 with a central liner 122 that preferably is an adiabatic regenerator 2 of the type described.", "At opposed ends of the combustion chamber are exhaust ports 123 and scavenging ports 124.", "The dual pistons 111 each have a specially formulated adiabatic cap 121 that preferably comprises a regenerator with cell means such as a micropore structure for absorbing and releasing compressed air and/or pass through liquids and vapors for surface cooling of the piston cap 121 and the preignition chamber 54 formed by the recessed contour in the cap.", "Because the engine embodiment of FIG. 9 is most effectively operable at extremely high pressures, it is primarily suited as a high-pressure-range component to a compound engine, particularly one integrating a rotary component such as the screw of FIG. 6 or preferably the roto-compressor expander of FIGS. 3 and 8.", "One arrangement of this compact engine unit is show in FIG. 10 which is particularly sized and adapted for use for general applications, where the output shafts can be connected to an appropriate gear box or transmission for separate independent operation.", "The connection of the reciprocator component 125 above the rotary component 92 is convenient for efficient gas flow, particularly where additional intermediate or auxiliary components are combined to enhance the basic unit.", "The direct connection connects the compressed air exit port 126 and the combusted gas intake port 127 of the rotary component 92 with the respective intake manifold 128 and exhaust manifold 129 of the reciprocator component 125.", "A metallic flap valve 95 insures one way passage of compressed gases.", "A second arrangement of the compact engine is the front and back positioning shown in FIG. 11.", "The enlarged rotary component 92 with respect to the reciprocator component 125 is particularly useful in reduced atmosphere conditions or where low pressure turbocharging is restricted.", "The basic unit of the compound rotary-reciprocal engine can as noted include enhancements to enhance efficiency as illustrated in the schematic illustrations of the FIGS. 12-17.", "In the schematic of FIG..", "12 the reciprocator component 125 has an intervening connection with the rotary component 92.", "The pressure wave supercharger 130 provides additional compression to the air from the rotary component before entry to the reciprocator component and has a tendency to buffer or smooth pressure pulsing from the periodic positive displacement cycling of both the reciprocal and rotary components.", "The compression side has intercoolers 96 between the rotary component and the supercharger and the reciprocator component.", "While the particular design of the reciprocator component is the unit of FIG. 11, including the regenerator liners, the combination is intended to include such engine component without exotic liners or other such engine components disclosed herein with reference to this or the following figures.", "similarly, the rotary component shown is identified as the epihoitroidal type, but described herein, but may also comprise the compound screw compressor-expanded previously described or other positive displacement rotary compressor expander of the type disclosed.", "In the schematic of FIG. 13, the reciprocator component 125 is connected to the rotary component 92 with an intervening intercombustion chamber 131 with a compressed air by-pass circuit 132 with a control valve 133 for regulating supplemental air to the intercombustion chamber 131.", "A thermal recuperator 140, insures that the added thermal energy to the exhaust gases is recovered in the air-gas supply 134.", "The fuel supply 135 may also include a preheater 136 to recover waste energy of the exhaust.", "In the schematic of FIG. 14, a turbocharger 141 has been added to the thermodynamic cascade of the arrangement of FIG. 13.", "The turbocharger effectively utilizes the low pressure expansion gases prior to exhaust through recuperator 140, to perform low end compression of the intake air.", "An intercooler 96 is similarly provided to the compressed air to reduce the volume and temperature added by the compression.", "In the schematic of FIG. 15, a Comprex® pressure wave supercharger 130 has been installed between the reciprocated component 125 and the rotary component 92 essentially combining the arrangements of FIG. 12 and FIG. 14 without the intercombustor.", "In the schematic of FIG. 16 the intercombuster has been added, which is a bypass circuit 143 that allows use of the rotary component or the reciprocator component independent of the other.", "In the schematic of FIG. 17 an additional pressure wave supercharger 130 has been installed between the turbocharger 141 and the positive displacement rotary component 92 to boost compression and smooth the pressure pulsing of the rotary component 92.", "Power for driving the wave guide supercharger 130 are extracted from the combined output drive train of the rotary and reciprocal components which both produce positive mechanical work.", "Each component in the above described thermo-energetical cascade is designed and constructed for performance with the specific range of its operation.", "Thus only the reciprocator component is designed to withstand peak pressures.", "The rotary component and other auxiliary and intermediary components are specifically designed for their respective lower pressure operations.", "While in the foregoing embodiment of the present invention have been set forth in considerable detail for the purposes of making a complete disclosure of the invention, it may be apparent to those of skill in the art that numerous changes may be made in such detail without departing from the spirit and principles of the invention." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device, and more particularly to a reflection type liquid crystal display device that can also function as a transmission type device.", "Description of Related Art A liquid crystal display device (LCD) is widely used as a planar display device for a variety of portable computers and portable televisions.", "Liquid crystal display devices are classified into two types according to their use of a light source.", "One type is a transmission type liquid crystal display device, which uses a backlight provided on the back face of a liquid crystal panel as a light source.", "The other type is a reflection type liquid crystal display device, which uses an external light source such as sunlight or an indoor lamp.", "It is difficult to decrease the volume, weight and power consumption of a transmission type LCD because of the presence of the backlight which is used as a light source.", "For a reflection type liquid crystal display device, the volume, weight and power consumption are low, because the reflection device need not use the backlight.", "However, if an external environment is dark, the reflection type liquid crystal display device cannot be used.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a transmission-reflection type liquid crystal display device that substantially obviates one or more of the problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.", "In order to overcome the problems of the related art, an object of the present invention is to provide a transmission-reflection type liquid crystal display device which can be driven as a reflection type as well as transmission type.", "Another object is to provide a transmission-reflection type liquid crystal display device which has good color purity (e.g., calorimetric purity, which is defined by the 1996 Photonics Dictionary as “Ratio, to the luminance of a test color, of the luminance of the spectrum color that matches the test color when mixed with white light.”).", "The transmission-reflection type liquid crystal display device according to the present invention can be driven as a transmission type or reflection type display automatically or by user selection, depending on variations in an external environment.", "A cholesteric liquid crystal color filter is added to a conventional absorptive color filter and has a high color purity, so that overall color properties of a liquid crystal display device are improved.", "In accordance with the purpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described, in one aspect the invention includes a transmission-reflection type liquid crystal display device, including a first transparent substrate;", "a second transparent substrate;", "a liquid crystal layer between the first transparent substrate and the second transparent substrate;", "a linear polarizer on the second transparent substrate;", "a cholesteric liquid crystal circular polarizer provided on the first transparent substrate;", "and a cholesteric liquid crystal color filter provided on the first transparent substrate in order to be situated between the cholesteric liquid crystal circular polarizer and the liquid crystal layer.", "In another aspect, the invention includes a liquid crystal display device capable of transmitting light from a backlight and reflecting ambient light, including a lower transparent substrate;", "an upper transparent substrate;", "a liquid crystal layer between the lower transparent substrate and the upper transparent substrate;", "a linear polarizer on the upper transparent substrate;", "a λ/4 phase shift plate between the linear polarizer and the liquid crystal layer;", "and a cholesteric liquid crystal color filter proximate to the lower transparent substrate to selectively reflect ambient light and to transmit light from the backlight.", "In another aspect, the invention includes a liquid crystal display device capable of transmitting light from a backlight and reflecting light from a front of the device, including a polarizing layer;", "a phase shifting layer adjacent to the polarizing layer;", "a filter layer to selectively reflect light from the front of the device and to transmit light from the backlight;", "and a liquid crystal layer between the phase shifting layer and the reflecting layer.", "It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate one embodiment of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention.", "FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a transmission-reflection type liquid crystal display device according to the present invention.", "FIG. 2 A and FIG. 2B show the progress of light, when the liquid crystal display device according to the present invention acts as a reflection type display.", "FIG. 3 A and FIG. 3B show the progress of light, when the liquid crystal display device according to the present invention acts as a transmission type display.", "For convenience of description, like reference numerals in the figures denote like elements.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Hereinafter, a transmission-reflection type liquid crystal display device according to the present invention is described in detail referring to the drawings.", "As shown in FIG. 1, a liquid crystal display device according to the present invention includes a first transparent substrate 2 and a second transparent substrate 6 where a plurality of pixel regions are defined.", "A liquid crystal layer 4 is located between the first transparent substrate 2 and the second transparent substrate 6 .", "A linear polarizer 8 and a λ/4 phase shift plate 7 (λ is a wavelength of light) are provided on an external side of the second transparent substrate 6 .", "A transparent common electrode 10 and an absorptive color filter 9 are provided on the inner side of the second transparent substrate 6 .", "A left-handed cholesteric liquid crystal right-handed circular polarizer 1 is provided on the external side of the first transparent substrate 2 and causes visible light to become right-handed circular polarized.", "A transparent pixel electrode 3 and left-handed cholesteric liquid crystal color filter 5 are provided on the inner side of the first transparent substrate 2 .", "The left-handed cholesteric liquid crystal color filter 5 provided on the first transparent substrate 2 and the absorptive color filter 9 provided on the second transparent substrate 6 are divided into red, green and blue regions corresponding to each pixel region.", "A color filter having permeability in a range of 50%˜80% is used as the absorptive color filter 9 which is used in a reflection type liquid crystal display device.", "In the left-handed cholesteric liquid crystal color filter 5 , a red region includes a left-handed cholesteric liquid crystal having pitch p R =λ/n, where λ R is a wavelength range corresponding to red, n:an average index of refraction of an extraordinary ray and an ordinary ray), a green region includes a left-handed cholesteric liquid crystal having pitch p G =λ G /n, where λ G is a wavelength range corresponding to the color green, and is as defined above.", "A blue region includes a left-handed cholesteric liquid crystal having pitch p B =λ B /n, where λ B is a wavelength range corresponding to the color blue, and n is as defined above.", "Therefore, in the cholesteric liquid crystal color filter 5 , the red region reflects left-handed circularly polarized light component's corresponding to red color visible light;", "the green region reflects left-handed circularly polarized light component corresponding to green color visible light;", "and the blue region reflects a left-handed circularly polarized light component's corresponding to blue color visible light.", "In this case, a cholesteric liquid crystal color filter 5 is formed by one filter layer or by two or more layers.", "The transparent pixel electrode 3 provided on a cholesteric liquid crystal color filter 5 is formed from a transparent conductive material like ITO (Indium Tin Oxide), which is laminated and then patterned on every pixel region.", "In this case, although not illustrated in the drawings, the transparent pixel electrode 3 is electrically insulated from transparent pixel electrodes of another pixel regions, and it is also connected to a thin film transistor (TFT, not shown in the drawings) formed in every pixel region.", "The thin film transistor functions as a switching element which transmits a pixel voltage to the transparent pixel electrode 3 .", "When the pixel voltage is transmitted to the transparent pixel electrode 3 , the pixel voltage is across the liquid crystal layer 4 situated between the transparent pixel electrode 3 and the transparent common electrode 10 .", "The arrangement of liquid crystal molecules is controlled by the pixel voltage.", "The plurality of pixel regions are defined by multiple gate lines and data lines (not shown in the drawings) which intersect each other on the first transparent substrate 2 .", "The left-handed cholesteric liquid crystal right-handed circular polarizer 1 includes a left-handed cholesteric liquid crystal having a pitch p=λ/n, where λ is a visible wavelength, and n is an average index of refraction of an extraordinary ray and an ordinary ray.", "That is, the cholesteric liquid crystal includes all pitches in a range of (380 nm˜800 nm)/n.", "The right-handed circular polarizer 1 reflects only left-handed circularly polarized components in visible light, and the other components pass through the right-handed circular polarizer 1 .", "In other words, the right-handed circular polarizer 1 transmits only right-handed circularly polarized components.", "The liquid crystal layer 4 is oriented to introduce a phase shift of λ/2 into visible light which passes through the liquid crystal layer 4 when there is no voltage across the layer.", "The step of the liquid crystal is determined by the two orientation layers (not shown in the drawings) respectively adjacent to each upper and lower face of the liquid crystal layer.", "Hereinafter, when the liquid crystal display device according to the present invention is operated as a reflection type device, its operation is described referring to FIG. 2 A and FIG. 2 B. When a pixel voltage is not connected to the transparent pixel electrode 3 , as shown in FIG. 2A, only components with a polarization axis parallel to that of linear polarizer 8 in the incident rays pass inward through the linear polarizer 8 .", "The linearly polarized light passes through the λ/4 plate 7 becomes right-handed circular polarized.", "Then the right-handed circularly polarized light passes through the liquid crystal layer 4 and becomes left-handed circular polarized.", "The left-handed circularly polarized light is reflected from the cholesteric liquid crystal color filter 5 and passes through the liquid crystal layer 4 , to become right-handed circular polarized.", "Then the light passes through the λ/4 plate 7 and becomes linearly polarized, having a parallel polarization direction to the polarization axis of the linear polarizer 8 .", "Therefore, the light passes through the linear polarizer 8 unchanged, so that bright image e.g., (white or the color dictated by the filters 5 and 9 ) is displayed.", "For convenience of explanation, the filtering effect of the cholesteric liquid For convenience of explanation, the filtering effect of the cholesteric liquid crystal color filter 5 will not be described hereinafter.", "However, in practice only a color of the pertinent region in the cholesteric liquid crystal color filter 5 where the light is reflected is displayed.", "The filtering effect in the cholesteric liquid crystal color filter 5 will be disregarded.", "In the present invention, the cholesteric liquid crystal color filter 5 functions to increase the color purity of the absorptive color filter 9 .", "Also, a color shift according to viewing angle which can be generated from the cholesteric liquid crystal color filter 5 is prevented by the absorptive color filter 9 .", "When a pixel voltage is connected to the transparent pixel electrode 3 , as shown in FIG. 2B, only components with a polarization axis parallel to that of linear polarizer 8 in the incident rays pass inward through the linear polarizer 8 .", "The linearly polarized light passes through the λ/4 plate 7 and becomes right-handed circular polarized.", "Then, the right-handed circularly polarized lights passes through the liquid crystal layer 4 unchanged and enters the cholesteric liquid crystal color filter 5 .", "The right-handed circularly polarized incident rays pass through the cholesteric liquid crystal color filter 5 and the right-handed circular polarizer 1 unchanged.", "As a result, dark image (e.g., black) is displayed at the linear polarizer 8 .", "Hereinafter, when the liquid crystal display device according to the present invention is operated as a transmission type display, such operation is described referring to the FIG. 3 a and FIG. 3 B. When a pixel voltage is not connected to the transparent pixel electrode 3 , as shown in FIG. 3A, light generated from a backlight (not shown in drawings), which confronts the right-handed circular polarizer 1 , enters the right-handed circular polarizer 1 .", "Only the right-handed circularly polarized components of the visible light in the incident rays pass through the right-handed circular polarizer 1 .", "The right-handed circularly polarized light passes through the cholesteric liquid crystal color filter 5 unchanged and then passes through h the liquid crystal layer 4 , thereby becoming left-handed circular polarized.", "The left-handed circularly polarized light passes through the λ/4 plate 7 to become linearly polarized in a perpendicular direction to a polarization axis of a linear polarizer 8 .", "As a result, the light is intercepted by the linear polarizer 8 so that a dark image (e.g., black) is displayed.", "When a pixel voltage is connected to the transparent pixel electrode 3 , as shown in FIG. 3B, light generated from the backlight enters the right-handed circular polarizer 1 .", "Only the right-handed circularly polarized components of the visible light in the incident rays pass through the right-handed circular polarizer 1 .", "The right-handed circularly polarized light passes through the cholesteric liquid crystal color filter 5 and the liquid crystal layer 4 unchanged.", "This light also passes through the λ/4 plate 7 , so that it becomes linearly polarized in a parallel direction to the polarization axis of the linear polarizer 8 .", "Therefore, the light passes through the linear polarizer 8 unchanged, so that a bright image (e.g., white) is displayed.", "In this case, the absorptive color filter 9 plays a role of a color filter, and any color shift according to viewing angle which can be generated from the cholesteric liquid crystal color filter 5 is prevented by the absorptive color filter 9 .", "The cholesteric liquid crystal color filter 5 is formed on the transparent pixel electrode according to the above explanation, but the color filter 5 can be provided at all positions between the liquid crystal layer 4 and the circular polarizer 1 .", "For example, the color filter 5 can be provided above the thin film transistor and the transparent pixel electrode 3 .", "Also, the absorptive color filter 9 is provided on the second substrate 6 but it can be formed on the first substrate 2 .", "The transmission-reflection type liquid crystal display device according to the present invention can be driven as a transmission type or reflection type display by selection of users, depending on an external environment.", "Further, the cholesteric liquid crystal color filter 5 having a high color purity is added to the conventional absorptive color filter 9 , so that the color purity of the liquid crystal display device is improved.", "Many different embodiments of this invention may be made without departing from the spirit and scope thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the specific embodiments thereof except as defined in the appended claims." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims the benefit of the filing date of U.S. provisional application No. 61/125,447, filed on Apr. 25, 2008 as the teachings of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention This invention relates generally to the field of communication systems and, more particularly, to session security protocol for a wireless communication system.", "Description of the Related Art Evolution-Data Optimized (EVDO) is a telecommunications standard for the wireless transmission of data through radio signals, typically for broadband Internet access.", "The EVDO protocol is a member of the CDMA2000 family of standards.", "The CDMA2000 family of standards are defined in “CDMA2000 High Rate Packet Data Air Interface Specification,” 3GPP2 C.S0024-B, Version 2.0, March 2007 (referred to herein as “3GGP2 C.S0024-B v2.0”), the teachings of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.", "FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a portion of a typical CDMA network 100 .", "Access network 102 controls one or more base transceiver stations (BTSs) 104 .", "Access terminal 106 communicates wirelessly with BTSs 104 .", "Access network 102 , BTSs 104 , and access terminal 106 utilize a time value known as the CDMA system time.", "Typically, BTS 104 and access network 102 use the time from the global positioning system (GPS) to generate their CDMA system time.", "Access terminal 106 typically gets its CDMA system time value from BTS 104 via an over-the-air broadcast message.", "Communications between access network 102 and access terminal 106 is organized into several channels, e.g., traffic channel, access channel.", "The traffic channel carries rate-paying data, e.g., a communication between the access terminal and another access terminal.", "The access channel is used for communications between access terminal 106 and access network 102 when a traffic channel is not in use.", "The access channel is used primarily for call setup, i.e., authentication of the terminal and assignment of a traffic channel.", "Communications over a channel are in the form of packets.", "A packet typically comprises a header, a payload, and a trailer.", "Packets are processed as they travel from source to destination, e.g., encapsulated/de-encapsulated.", "The CDMA2000 family of standards defines the processing of packets using a seven-layer model.", "FIG. 2 is a diagram of the seven-layer model 200 used in CDMA2000.", "When a packet is sent by a source, the packet starts at application layer 214 , and is processed by stream layer 212 , session layer 210 , connection layer 208 , security layer 206 , medium access control (MAC) layer 204 , and physical layer 202 .", "When a packet is received by a destination, the packet traverses the same seven layers, beginning with physical layer 202 , and ending with application layer 214 .", "Security layer 206 performs several security-related functions, including the encryption and decryption of packets, and the authentication of packets.", "Security layer 206 utilizes four protocols: (i) the key-exchange protocol, (ii) the authentication protocol, (iii) the encryption protocol, and (iv) the security protocol.", "Three of the four security-layer protocols are important to this discussion: the security, key-exchange, and authentication protocols.", "Generic Security Protocol Two security-protocol variants are specified in 3GGP2 C.S0024-B v2.0: the default security protocol (section 8.3) and the generic security protocol (section 8.4).", "The default security protocol does not provide any services, but merely transfers packets between the authentication protocol and the MAC layer.", "The generic security protocol's function is to generate crypto-synchronization (cryptosync) values for use by the other security-layer protocols.", "When a packet is being processed for transmission, the generic security protocol calculates cryptosync values based on the current CDMA system time.", "When a received packet is being processed, the generic security protocol calculates cryptosync values based on (i) the current CDMA system time and (ii) the information provided in the generic security protocol header of the received packet.", "A cryptosync is a changing, common, external factor to an encryption process that causes the ciphertext for a particular plaintext to change with time.", "A common encryption process is the SHA-1 Secure Hash Algorithm, defined in Federal Information Processing document FIPS 180, the teachings of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.", "SHA-1 is a one-way function that takes a given plaintext and computes a 160-bit, nearly-unique ciphertext, i.e., hash, of that plaintext, where it is computationally impractical to derive the plaintext from its hash.", "One typical use of SHA-1 is authentication.", "For example, assume that nodes A and B share a unique, secret key.", "If node A wants to prove to node B that it is in fact node A without broadcasting the plaintext of its secret key, node A can create an SHA-1 hash of its copy of the secret key and send it to node B. Node A is the initiator.", "Node B then creates an SHA-1 hash of its copy of the unique key, and compares the two hashes.", "Node B is the responder.", "If the hashes match, then the initiator, i.e., node A, is authenticated.", "SHA-1 will always generate the same hash for the same specific plaintext.", "Therefore, if node C intercepts the hash sent from node A to node B, node C can use that hash to masquerade as node A to node B. This is known as a replay attack.", "To prevent replay attacks, a cryptosync is typically included in the plaintext.", "For example, node A and node B have synchronized clocks which increment every second.", "Node A concatenates its copy of the secret key with the clock time (the cryptosync) to yield a plaintext.", "Thus, the plaintext changes every second, and, consequently, the computed SHA-1 hash of that plaintext will change every second.", "Node A sends its computed SHA-1 hash to node B. Node B concatenates its copy of the secret key with its clock time to create a plaintext, and compares the hash of that plaintext to the hash it received.", "If the hashes match, then the sender is authenticated as node A. Node C has at most a second in which to intercept node A's sent hash and pass itself off as node A. Otherwise, node B's clock will increment, and the hashes will not match.", "A system that uses clock cryptosyncs, e.g., CDMA2000, typically makes allowance for a specified discrepancy between initiator and responder cryptosyncs.", "The specified discrepancy typically takes into account (i) the maximum computation and transmission delay and (ii) the maximum synchronization error.", "Computation and transmission delay CTDelay is the absolute-time duration between (i) when the initiator computes its cryptosync and (ii) when the responder computes its cryptosync.", "CTDelay includes all the time required to, e.g., calculate the hash, further process the packet for transmission, transmit the packet, process the received packet for delivery to the security layer, etc.", "Synchronization error is the discrepancy between the sender's clock and the receiver's clock.", "Thus, if a system has a maximum possible CTDelay of two seconds, and a maximum possible synchronization error of one second, then allowance is typically made for the cryptosyncs to differ by at least three seconds and still be considered equal.", "In order to make this allowance, the CDMA generic security protocol calculates two cryptosync values: Cryptosync and CryptosyncShort.", "Cryptosync is the 64-bit CDMA system time of the device computing Cryptosync, in units of 80 ms.", "CryptosynchShort is the 16 least-significant digits of Cryptosync.", "As is discussed in greater detail below, the CDMA system uses these two values to calculate the responder's Cryptosync, i.e., Cryptosync(RR), such that Cryptosync(RR) will be equal to the initiator's Cryptosync, i.e., Cryptosync(IR), as long as Cryptosync(IR) is (i) no greater (later) than the system time of the receiver at the moment of Cryptosync(RR) calculation, and (ii) no more than 1.45 hours less (earlier) than the system time of the receiver at the moment of Cryptosync(RR) calculation.", "SHA-1 Authentication Protocol The authentication protocol comprises two variants: the default authentication protocol and the SHA-1 authentication protocol.", "The default authentication protocol is a null protocol, providing no services and simply relaying, unaltered, any packets which it receives.", "The SHA-1 authentication protocol (3GPP2 C.S0024-B v2.0, section 8.8) defines a procedure (the access-channel authentication procedure) for authenticating an access-channel, MAC-layer packet by creating a message digest (i.e., an SHA-1 hash) of the data within the packet, and sending the message digest along with the packet data.", "The SHA-1 authentication protocol is initiated by the access terminal, and thus the access terminal is referred to as the initiator, abbreviated IR.", "Likewise, the access network is referred to as the responder, abbreviated RR.", "FIG. 3 is a flowchart of conventional access-channel authentication procedure 300 .", "Processing begins at step 302 and continues to step 304 where the access terminal generates two values: Cryptosync(IR) and CryptosyncShort(IR).", "Specifically, procedure 300 gets these values from the generic security protocol.", "The generic security protocol generates these two values according to the following Equations (1) and (2): Cryptosync(IR)=SystemTime(IR) (1) CryptosyncShort(IR)=Cryptosync(IR)[15:0] (2) where SystemTime(IR) is the 64-bit CDMA system time of the access terminal.", "Next, at step 306 , the access terminal creates a plaintext, i.e., the IR message bits, from several inputs, including (i) a secret session key SKey shared by the access terminal and access network, and (ii) Cryptosync(IR).", "Next, at step 308 , the access terminal creates a 160-bit SHA-1 hash from the IR message bits, and stores the 64 least-significant bits of the hash as the IR hash.", "Next, at step 310 , a packet is sent to the access network containing, inter alia, (i) the 64-bit IR hash (i.e., the access-channel packet-authentication code (ACPAC)) and (ii) CryptosynchShort(IR).", "Next, at step 312 , the access network receives the packet send by the access terminal, and extracts the IR hash and CryptosynchShort(IR).", "Next, at step 314 , procedure 300 asks the generic security protocol to generate Cryptosync(RR), which the generic security protocol does according to the following Equation (3): Cryptosync ⁡ ( RR ) = ( SystemTime ⁡ ( RR ) - ( ( SystemTime ⁡ ( RR ) ⁡ [ 15 ⁢ : ⁢ 0 ] - CryptosyncShort ⁡ ( IR ) ) ⁢ mod ⁢ ⁢ 2 16 ) ) ⁢ mod ⁢ ⁢ 2 64 ( 3 ) where SystemTime(RR) is the 64-bit CDMA system time of the access network.", "The net effect of Equation (3) is that Cryptosync(RR) will be set equal to Cryptosync(IR) as long as Cryptosync(IR) is (i) no greater than SystemTime(RR) and (ii) no more than 2 16 (or 65,536) less than SystemTime(RR).", "Stated another way, Equation (3) will set the Cryptosync(RR) equal to Cryptosync(IR) as long as Cryptosync(IR) is (i) no later than SystemTime(RR) and (ii) no earlier than SystemTime(RR) less 65,536×80 ms, or 1.45 hours.", "If either of these conditions is violated, then procedure 300 will fail.", "These two conditions are called the cryptosync constraints.", "Next, at step 316 , the access network creates a plaintext, i.e., the RR message bits, from several inputs, including (i) a secret session key SKey shared by the access terminal and access network and (ii) Cryptosync(RR).", "Next, at step 318 , the access network creates a 160-bit SHA-1 hash from the RR message bits, and sets the RR hash equal to the 64 least-significant bits of the calculated SHA-1 hash.", "Next, at step 320 , the access network compares the IR hash to the RR hash.", "If the two hashes match, then procedure 300 results in success (i.e., the access-channel packet is authenticated and the payload of the access-channel packet is forwarded to the encryption protocol);", "otherwise, procedure 300 results in failure (i.e., the access-channel packet is not authenticated and is dropped).", "DH Key-Exchange Procedure There exist two variants of the key-exchange protocol: a default key-exchange protocol and a Diffie-Hellman (DH) key-exchange protocol.", "The default key-exchange protocol is null, i.e., it performs no services.", "The DH key-exchange protocol, defined in section 8.6 of 3GPP2 C.S0024-B v2.0, specifies a procedure, i.e., the DH key-exchange procedure, whereby the access network and the access terminal calculate a shared, secret key SKey that will be used for subsequent authentication and encryption.", "The key-exchange procedure is typically performed when the access terminal wishes to establish a new session with the access network, e.g., after the access terminal is turned on.", "The DH key-exchange procedure comprises two sequential sub-procedures.", "In the first sub-procedure, the access terminal and the access network each calculate SKey.", "Specifically, the access terminal and the access network each calculate an ephemeral public key and send the ephemeral public key to the other.", "Then, access terminal and access network each calculate a value for SKey based in part on the ephemeral public key received from the other.", "The access terminal and the access network should both arrive at the same value for SKey.", "The second sub-procedure of the DH key-exchange procedure is to verify that, in fact, the access terminal and the access network have calculated the same value for SKey.", "This second sub-procedure, with several minor differences, is the same process as process 300 of FIG. 3 .", "One difference is that the access network is now the initiator, and the access terminal is the responder.", "Furthermore, some of the inputs used to create the IR and RR message bits in steps 306 and 316 are different, and the IR and RR hashes generated in steps 308 and 318 are the entire 160-bit SHA-1 hashes, and not the 64 least-significant bits of the SHA-1 hashes.", "Yet further, the DH key-exchange protocol does not refer to the cryptosync values as Cryptosync and CryptosynchShort, but, instead, as TimeStampLong and TimeStampShort.", "Lastly, the DH key-exchange procedure does not rely on the generic security protocol to calculate TimeStampLong(IR), TimeStampShort(IR), TimeStampLong(RR), and TimeStampShort(RR), but, instead, calculates those values itself.", "(From this point forward, the term Cryptosync will refer to both Cryptosync and TimeStampLong, and the term CryptosynchShort will refer to both CryptosynchShort and TimeStampShort.) Despite these differences, the same equations used by the generic security protocol to calculate the four cryptosync values, e.g., Equations (1), (2), and (3), above, can be used by the DH key-exchange protocol.", "When used in the access-channel authentication procedure, Equation (3) requires that the CDMA system time of the access terminal at the moment of cryptosync calculation be less (earlier) than the CDMA system time of the access network at the moment of cryptosync calculation.", "When used in the DH key-exchange procedure, Equation (3) requires the opposite, i.e., that the access network time be earlier than the access terminal time.", "Together, these equations would appear to require absolute synchronization between access terminal and access network.", "Otherwise, one or both of the procedures will fail.", "However, the processing and transmission that takes place between those two calculations introduces a measurable delay called the computation and transmission delay CTDelay.", "Furthermore, as discussed above, CDMA assumes that the CDMA system times of the access network and BTSs in a typical network are synchronized using the global positioning system (GPS), and that the access terminal is getting its CDMA system time from the BTS.", "As a result, CDMA system time is tightly synchronized throughout a GPS-enabled CDMA system—so tightly synchronized, in fact, that any discrepancy between the CDMA system times of the access network, BTS, and access terminal is far smaller than CTDelay.", "Thus, in such GPS-enabled systems, meeting the combined constraints of the two procedures is not a concern.", "Another consequence of the assumption of GPS synchronization is that BTS units typically are designed to get their system time from GPS, and not from the access network.", "However, it sometimes occurs that a BTS temporarily loses GPS signal.", "It also sometimes occurs that some BTSs never have access to GPS signals, e.g., when a BTS is deployed in a tunnel or subway.", "In these situations, it is typical for the CDMA system time of the BTS to diverge from the CDMA system time of the access network.", "Since the access terminal gets its CDMA system time from the BTS, if the BTS is out of sync with the access network, the access terminal will also be out of sync with the access network.", "If the difference between the access terminal and access network system times is greater than CTDelay, then either or both of the DH key-exchange procedure or the access-channel authentication procedure will fail.", "Depending on how the system is configured, those failures may result in access terminal users being unable to access the system.", "One possible solution to this dilemma is to modify BTS units so that they get their system time from the access network.", "However, this can be a costly hardware and software modification.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In one embodiment, the invention is a first node for a communication system comprising the first node and a second node.", "In a first communication procedure, the first node derives a first cryptosynchronization value (e.g., TimeStampLong(IR)) and a second cryptosynchronization value (e.g., TimeStampShort(IR)) based on first node system time (e.g., SystemTime(IR)) and a cryptosynchronization adjustment value (e.g., x).", "The first node generates an initiator message digest based on the first cryptosynchronization value.", "The first node transmits the initiator message digest and the second cryptosynchronization value to the second node.", "The second node generates a third cryptosynchronization value (e.g., TimeStampLong(RR)) based on (i) the second cryptosynchronization value received from the first node and (ii) second node system time (e.g., SystemTime(RR)).", "The second node generates a responder message digest based on the third cryptosynchronization value.", "The second node compares (i) the initiator message digest received from the first node and (ii) the responder message digest to determine whether the first communication procedure fails.", "In another embodiment, the invention is a first node for a communication system comprising the first node and a second node.", "In a second communication procedure, the second node derives a fourth cryptosynchronization value (e.g., CryptoSync(IR)) and a fifth cryptosynchronization value (e.g., CryptoSyncShort(IR)) based on second node system time (e.g., SystemTime(IR)).", "The second node generates an initiator message digest based on the fourth cryptosynchronization value.", "The second node transmits the initiator message digest and the fifth cryptosynchronization value to the first node.", "The first node generates a sixth cryptosynchronization value (e.g., CryptoSync(RR)) based on (i) the fifth cryptosynchronization value received from the second node, (ii) first node system time (e.g., SystemTime(RR)), and (iii) and a cryptosynchronization adjustment value (e.g., x).", "The first node generates a responder message digest based on the sixth cryptosynchronization value.", "The first node compares (i) the initiator message digest received from the second node and (ii) the responder message digest to determine whether the second communication procedure fails.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Other aspects, features, and advantages of the invention will become more fully apparent from the following detailed description, the appended claims, and the accompanying drawings in which like reference numerals identify similar or identical elements.", "FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a portion of a typical CDMA network 100 .", "FIG. 2 is a diagram of the seven-layer model 200 used in CDMA2000.", "FIG. 3 is a flowchart of conventional access-channel authentication procedure 300 .", "FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an implementation of access network 102 of FIG. 1 according to one embodiment of the present invention.", "FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an implementation of access terminal 106 of FIG. 1 according to one embodiment of the present invention.", "FIG. 6 is a flowchart of authentication procedure 600 according to one embodiment of the present invention wherein the cryptosync adjustment is performed by the processor (e.g., 402 of FIG. 4 or 502 of FIG. 5 ) on the initiator.", "FIG. 7 is a flowchart of authentication procedure 700 according to one embodiment of the present invention wherein the cryptosync adjustment is performed by processor on the responder.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION Certain embodiments of the present invention are methods for calculating either or both of Cryptosync(IR) and Cryptosync(RR) such that the cryptosync constraints of the communication system are satisfied, e.g., in a CDMA2000/EVDO system, Cryptosync(IR) will be (i) no greater (later) than SystemTime(RR) at the moment Cryptosync(RR) is calculated and (ii) less than SystemTime(RR) at the moment Cryptosync(RR) is calculated by no more than 16,535, regardless of differences between the system times of initiator and responder.", "Hence, using these methods, DH key-exchange and access-channel authentication procedures will succeed as long as the differences between the system times of initiator and responder is less than a pre-set time adjustment described below.", "In one embodiment of the present invention, the initiator adds or subtracts a cryptosynchronization adjustment value x to/from SystemTime(IR) to compute a Cryptosync(IR) value that satisfies the cryptosync constraints.", "In another embodiment of the present invention, the responder adds or subtracts a cryptosynchronization adjustment value x to/from SystemTime(RR) so as to yield a value for Cryptosync(RR) that satisfies the cryptosync constraints.", "In yet another embodiment, both initiator and responder adjust their respective system times so as to yield values for Cryptosync(IR) and CryptoSync(RR) that satisfy the cryptosync constraints.", "FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an implementation of access network 102 of FIG. 1 according to one embodiment of the present invention.", "Access network 102 comprises processor 402 , clock 404 , and one or more BTS transceivers 406 .", "Access network 192 uses BTS transceivers 406 to communicate with one or more base-station transceivers (e.g., 104 of FIG. 1 ).", "Clock 404 generates the access network system time.", "FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an implementation of access terminal 106 of FIG. 1 according to one embodiment of the present invention.", "Access terminal 106 comprises processor 502 , clock 504 and BTS transceiver 506 .", "Access terminal 106 communicates with one or more base-station transceivers (e.g., 104 of FIG. 1 ) using BTS transceiver 506 .", "Clock 504 generates the access terminal system time.", "FIG. 6 is a flowchart of authentication procedure 600 according to one embodiment of the present invention wherein the cryptosync adjustment is performed by the processor (e.g., 402 of FIG. 4 or 502 of FIG. 5 ) on the initiator.", "In FIG. 6 , steps 602 , 606 , 608 , 610 , 612 , 614 , 616 , 618 , 620 , and 622 are analogous to steps 302 , 306 , 308 , 310 , 312 , 314 , 316 , 318 , 320 , and 322 of FIG. 3 , respectively.", "Step 604 , however, differs from step 304 in that CryptoSync(IR) is adjusted by the initiator so as to satisfy the cryptosync constraints.", "If procedure 600 is the SHA-1 authentication procedure, then the access terminal is the initiator, and it is the generic security protocol which typically calculates CryptoSync(IR).", "Thus, the processor on the access terminal (e.g., 502 of FIG. 5 ) might execute a modified version of the generic security protocol that adjusts CryptoSync(IR).", "For example, Equation (1) used by the generic security protocol could be modified to yield the following Equation (4): Cryptosync(IR)=SystemTime(IR)− x (4) where x is a cryptosynchronization adjustment value.", "Alternatively, the SHA-1 authentication procedure itself might be modified to adjust the CryptoSync(IR) and/or CryptosyncShort(IR) values after receiving those values from the generic security protocol.", "FIG. 7 is a flowchart of authentication procedure 700 according to one embodiment of the present invention wherein the cryptosync adjustment is performed by processor on the responder.", "In FIG. 7 , steps 702 , 704 , 706 , 708 , 710 , 712 , 716 , 718 , 720 , and 722 are analogous to steps 302 , 304 , 306 , 308 , 310 , 312 , 316 , 318 , 320 , and 322 of FIG. 3 , respectively.", "Step 714 , however, differs from step 314 in that CryptoSync(RR) is adjusted by the responder so as to satisfy the cryptosync constraints.", "Thus, for example, if procedure 700 is part of the DH key-exchange protocol, then the access terminal is the responder, and it is the DH key-exchange protocol itself which calculates CryptoSync(RR) and CryptosyncShort(RR).", "Thus, the DH key-exchange protocol might be modified to adjust CryptoSync(RR).", "For example, Equation (3) used by the DH key-exchange protocol could be modified to yield the following Equation (5): Cryptosync ⁡ ( RR ) = ( SystemTime ⁡ ( RR ) - x - ( ( ( SystemTime ⁡ ( RR ) - x ) ⁡ [ 15 ⁢ : ⁢ 0 ] - CryptosyncShort ⁡ ( IR ) ) ⁢ mod ⁢ ⁢ 2 16 ) ) ⁢ mod ⁢ ⁢ 2 64 ( 5 ) where x is a cryptosynchronization adjustment value.", "The cryptosynchronization adjustment value x for a given network is set by the operator of the network so as to satisfy the cryptosync constraints of the network.", "Typically, the network operator will select a value for x that is greater than the expected maximum difference between the BTS/access terminal that does not have accurate timing and the access network system time.", "Thus, for example, assume a network wherein the access-terminal cryptosync values for a particular exchange and the access-network time cryptosync values for the same exchange differ from each other by up to 1 second.", "The 1-second discrepancy is not a problem if Cryptosync(IR) is 1 second less (earlier) than the Cryptosync(RR);", "the Cryptosync(IR) can be up to 1.45 hours less (earlier) than Cryptosync(RR) and the procedure will still succeed.", "However, if Cryptosync(IR) is greater (later) than Cryptosync(RR) by any amount, the procedure will fail.", "Thus, at the very least, the operator of the network will set x to 1 second.", "Assuming the access network is performing the adjustment, and that the access network is the responder (e.g., during the SHA-1 authentication procedure), the access network will add the cryptosynchronization adjustment value x to its SystemTime(RR) values when computing Cryptosync(RR).", "Thus, at one extreme, if Cryptosync(IR) is 20 ahead of SystemTime(RR), adding 1 second to SystemTime(RR) will result in SystemTime(RR) being equal to Cryptosync(IR).", "At the other extreme, if Cryptosync(IR) is 1 second behind SystemTime(RR), adding 1 second to SystemTime(RR) will result in SystemTime(RR) being 40 seconds greater (later) than Cryptosync(IR), well within the 1.45 hour limit.", "Conversely, if the access network is the initiator (e.g., during the DH key-exchange procedure), the access network will subtract cryptosynchronization adjustment value x from its SystemTime(IR) values when computing Cryptosync(IR).", "One advantage of these embodiments of the present invention is that they require minimal changes to the security-layer protocols.", "Furthermore, embodiments of the present invention can be implemented by updating only a subset of the devices in a network.", "In a typical CDMA2000/EVDO system, e.g., system 100 of FIG. 1 , where a single access network might communicate with thousands of access terminals, it makes practical sense to implement embodiments of the present invention on the access network.", "Specifically, in those operations where the access network is the initiator, the access network will execute process 600 of FIG. 6 .", "In those operations where the access network is the responder, the access network will execute process 700 of FIG. 7 .", "As a result, no modifications will be required for the access terminals, which can execute prior-art, unmodified CDMA2000/EVDO processes.", "Although embodiments of the present invention have been described in the context of EVDO/CDMA2000 systems, the present invention is not so limited.", "Embodiments of the present invention can be envisioned for any process where the success of a process requires that two calculated time values be within a certain range of each other.", "The present invention can be embodied in the form of methods and apparatuses for practicing those methods.", "The present invention can also be embodied in the form of program code embodied in tangible media, such as magnetic recording media, optical recording media, solid state memory, floppy diskettes, CD-ROMs, hard drives, or any other machine-readable storage medium, wherein, when the program code is loaded into and executed by a machine, such as a computer, the machine becomes an apparatus for practicing the invention.", "The present invention can also be embodied in the form of program code, for example, whether stored in a storage medium, loaded into and/or executed by a machine, or transmitted over some transmission medium or carrier, such as over electrical wiring or cabling, through fiber optics, or via electromagnetic radiation, wherein, when the program code is loaded into and executed by a machine, such as a computer, the machine becomes an apparatus for practicing the invention.", "When implemented on a general-purpose processor, the program code segments combine with the processor to provide a unique device that operates analogously to specific logic circuits.", "Unless explicitly stated otherwise, each numerical value and range should be interpreted as being approximate as if the word “about”", "or “approximately”", "preceded the value of the value or range.", "It will be further understood that various changes in the details, materials, and arrangements of the parts which have been described and illustrated in order to explain the nature of this invention may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention as expressed in the following claims.", "The use of figure numbers and/or figure reference labels in the claims is intended to identify one or more possible embodiments of the claimed subject matter in order to facilitate the interpretation of the claims.", "Such use is not to be construed as necessarily limiting the scope of those claims to the embodiments shown in the corresponding figures.", "It should be understood that the steps of the exemplary methods set forth herein are not necessarily required to be performed in the order described, and the order of the steps of such methods should be understood to be merely exemplary.", "Likewise, additional steps may be included in such methods, and certain steps may be omitted or combined, in methods consistent with various embodiments of the present invention.", "Although the elements in the following method claims, if any, are recited in a particular sequence with corresponding labeling, unless the claim recitations otherwise imply a particular sequence for implementing some or all of those elements, those elements are not necessarily intended to be limited to being implemented in that particular sequence.", "Reference herein to “one embodiment”", "or “an embodiment”", "means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment can be included in at least one embodiment of the invention.", "The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment”", "in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments necessarily mutually exclusive of other embodiments.", "The same applies to the term “implementation.”" ]

[ "CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application claims the priority of Application Ser.", "No. P 41 39 663.4, filed Dec. 2, 1991, in the Federal Republic of Germany, the subject matter of which is incorporated herein by reference.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention is based on a semiconductor laser having a branched cavity layer.", "Such a semiconductor laser is disclosed in Electronics Letters, Feb. 15, 1990, Vol. 26, No. 4, pages 243-244.", "It is monolithically integrated on an n-doped indium phosphide substrate.", "The underside of the substrate is called the base surface.", "Above a plane that is coplanar with the base surface, there extends a cavity layer of indium gallium arsenide phosphide (InGaAsP).", "It is branched and, when seen from the top, has the shape of a "Y".", "The top view surface of the cavity layer may also have a different shape, for example the shape of a cross.", "Significant is that the cavity layer is contiguous.", "This can be described in the sense of a topological definition in that the top view surface of the cavity layer can be considered to be a "singly contiguous region"", "since it is not composed of several pieces, but of a single piece having a single edge.", "The cavity layer lies on the planar surface of an n-doped buffer layer of indium phosphide that extends above the indium phosphide substrate.", "Further layers are provided above the cavity layer.", "Above the buffer layer, these layers and the cavity layer form a mesa which has been produced by etching.", "In the plane that is coplanar with the base surface, the mesa as well as the cavity layer have a Y shape.", "Such a laser with a branched cavity layer is provided according to the above-mentioned publication as an electrically controllable light source for optical communications transmission systems.", "In particular, if its metal layer extending above the cavity layer is subdivided into several electrodes so that cavity layer regions are created which can be controlled by means of different operating currents, such a laser is distinguished by its emission wavelength being tunable over a very wide wavelength range.", "This characteristic is of major importance for use as an electrically controllable light source as advocated in the publication.", "Bistable components are gaining increasing significance for optical transmission.", ""Bistable"", "here means that, if actuated in the same manner, that is, with the same current or the same voltage, the component may assume two different states, that is, it emits light of a low or high intensity or light of a first wavelength or light of a second wavelength, depending on the manner in which the actuation state under observation has been realized.", "Bistable components are suitable for use as optical switches or memories in wavelength multiplex switching systems and in optical data processing systems.", "The publication IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, Vol. 2, No. 9, September 1990, pages 623-625, discloses a DFB [distributed feedback] semiconductor laser composed of two segments and operated as a wavelength bistable memory.", "It can be set and reset within 450 picoseconds by means of electrical pulses.", "The DFB semiconductor laser in each case emits light at one of two wavelengths which are spaced from one another by 0.9 nm.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a method with which semiconductor lasers equipped with a branched cavity layer can be employed as optical switches and memories.", "This is accomplished by changing charge carrier density in at least one separately controllable region.", "Modifications are disclosed in the dependent claims.", "In the novel operating mode as a wavelength bistable component, the semiconductor laser can be employed, for example, as a multiplexer or demultiplexer component or as an optical sample and hold member.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention will now be described in greater detail with reference to embodiments thereof that are illustrated in the drawings in which: FIG. 1 depicts a prior art semiconductor laser equipped with a branched cavity layer;", "FIG. 2 depicts the wavelength of the light signal emitted by the semiconductor laser as a function of the current flowing through one of its regions;", "and FIG. 3 is a clock pulse diagram to explain an application in which the semiconductor laser is controlled electrically and optically.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows a prior art semiconductor laser that is equipped with a branched cavity layer.", "It includes a substrate 2 of n-doped indium phosphide.", "Above it lies a buffer layer 3 likewise composed of n-doped indium phosphide.", "Part of the buffer layer forms the lowermost layer of a mesa 4 which, when seen from the top, has the shape of a Y. Mesa 4 has several layers.", "It includes a cavity layer 41 of indium gallium arsenide phosphide.", "This cavity layer is covered by a covering layer 42 of p doped indium phosphide.", "Above it lies a contact layer 43 of p + doped indium gallium arsenide.", "On the side of mesa 4 and above the surface of buffer layer 3 where it is not covered by layer 41, a layer of semi-insulating indium phosphide 5 is provided in order to provide electrical insulation and optical wave guidance in mesa 4.", "The upper surface of this layer 5 forms a plane with the upper surface of contact layer 43.", "Layer 5 is covered by a protective layer 6 of silicon dioxide, contact layer 43 is covered by a metal layer 7.", "Three troughs 44, 45 and 46 are etched into metal layer 7 and mesa 4, dividing the laser into four regions 8, 9, 10 and 11.", "According to the illustration in FIG. 1, troughs 44, 45 and 46 may also extend into covering layer 42, but not into cavity layer 41, depending on the optical coupling intended to be established between regions 8 to 11.", "In each one of regions 8 to 11, metal layer 7 forms a first electrode.", "A second electrode is formed in each region 8 to 11 by a metal layer 12 that is applied underneath substrate 2.", "During operation of semiconductor laser 1, a current that can be fixedly set or varied in each case flows from the metal layer 7 of each one of regions 8 to 11 through the respective region 8 to 11 to metal layer 12 which serves as ground contact.", "This direction of current flow should be considered as the forward direction of the respective region of the laser.", "Cavity layer 41 may have a quantum well layer structure in its cross section, as disclosed, for example, in Appl.", "Phys.", "Lett.", "Vol. 39 (10), Nov. 15, 1981, pages 786-788.", "Or it may have a different layer structure.", "The layer structure is not significant for the present invention.", "If the cavity layer 41 of semiconductor laser 1 has the composition In 0 [.", "].62 Ga 0 [.", "].38 As 0 [.", "].82 P 0 [.", "].18, the semiconductor emits light in a wavelength range around 1520 nm.", "If cavity layer 41 has a composition In 0 [.", "].57 Ga 0 [.", "].43 As 0 [.", "].73 P 0 [.", "].27, the semiconductor emits light in a wavelength range around 1300 nm.", "In both cases, the wavelength range can be tuned to at least ±20 nm by varying the operating current.", "Semiconductor laser 1 may also be constructed as a GaAlAs/GaAs semiconductor laser;", "such a structure is disclosed, for example, in Appl.", "Phys.", "Lett.", ", Vol. 52, No. 10, Mar. 7, 1988, pages 767-769.", "Mesa 4 and thus cavity layer 41 may be constructed not only in the form of a "Y"", "as shown in FIG. 1 but, for example, also in the shape of a cross, as it is also disclosed in that publication.", "For each one of regions 8 to 11, it is possible to define a transparency current and a laser threshold current in that each region can be considered to be an individual Fabry-Perot laser that could be operated independently of the other regions.", "The transparency current is understood to mean the current required to make the region transparent for light of the wavelength that it would emit itself if it were in the laser active state.", "The laser threshold current is understood to mean the current flowing through the region under observation at which the region becomes laser active and emits coherent light.", "The term light is here and hereinafter understood to mean any optical radiation even if its wavelength lies outside of the visible range.", "A first example of the novel method for operating the semiconductor laser shown in FIG. 1 will now be described.", "Region 11 of the semiconductor laser is operated above its laser threshold current, that is, a current of, for example, 60 mA flows through it.", "The currents flowing through regions 8 and 9 have a current intensity between, for example, 10 and 40 mA;", "thus, the regions are transparent.", "For switching purposes it is sufficient if, at certain times, only one of regions 8 and 9 is transparent.", "For example, a current that lies between a current I 1 =4 mA and a current I 5 =25 mA flows through region 10.", "FIG. 2 shows how, in the above-described operating mode of the semiconductor laser, the emission wavelength of the semiconductor laser of FIG. 1 varies as a function of a current I flowing through region 10.", "If the current intensity is varied, beginning with a current intensity of I 0 which lies below I 1 , in that it is permitted to rise, the wavelength λ 1 of the light emitted by semiconductor laser 1, as shown in FIG. 2, changes suddenly to a wavelength λ 2 at a current intensity I 2 which lies between 20 and 25 mA.", "I 2 will hereinafter be called the "upper current threshold".", "If one now reduces the current intensity in the reverse direction, for example, beginning with a current intensity I 3 that lies above I 2 , the wavelength λ remains equal to wavelength λ 2 even below I 2 and changes to wavelength λ 1 only after the current intensity falls below a lower current threshold I 1 which lies, for example, at 4 mA.", "Thus, between the lower current threshold I 1 and the upper current threshold I 2 , the emission wavelength of the semiconductor laser may have two different values, depending on which starting value and which rise are used to change the current intensity of the current flowing through region 10.", "The curve of FIG. 2 thus shows the hysteresis behavior of a state typical for bistable components as a function of a control value, with the state here being the emission wavelength and the control value being the current I flowing through region 10.", "If, thus, an electrical signal, whose current intensity is at least 4 mA, rises to a value of 25 mA or more and then drops again to a value of 4 mA, is applied to region 10, the semiconductor laser will alternatingly generate light of wavelength λ 1 or λ 2 .", "Wavelength λ 1 is, for example, 1559 nm, wavelength λ 2 is 1565 nm, that is, a wavelength difference of several nanometers can be realized.", "Physically, the change in wavelengths that can be realized in the above-described operating mode is based on a change in the effective refractive index for the laser modes propagating in the branching region of the cavity layer.", "The wavelength bistability is thus based on a dispersive effect caused by the change in the current.", "As an alternative to the above-described operating mode, the semiconductor laser can also be operated as follows.", "An operating current lying above the laser threshold current is permitted to flow through region 11 so that region 11 becomes laser active.", "An operating current which causes the respective region to act as a saturable absorber for light generated in region 11 is permitted to flow through one of regions 8, 9 or 10, while the other two regions of regions 8, 9 and 10 are supplied with such an operating current that makes them transparent for the light generated in region 11.", "A region acts as a saturable absorber if a voltage is applied across it that is directed opposite to the forward direction or at least no current flows through it in the forward direction.", "For example, region 10 is operated as a saturable absorber by way of a fixed bias while simultaneously regions 8 and 9 are operated by means of suitable fixed currents so that they are in the transparency state.", "If the current flowing through region 11 is now varied, this changes the absorption state of saturable absorber 10 and thus the effective resonator length, which ultimately changes the wavelength of the emitted light.", "This change of the wavelength of the emitted light also exhibits hysteresis behavior so that a wavelength bistable operating mode corresponding to the wavelength behavior shown in FIG. 3 results.", "This type of wavelength bistability is called absorptive bistability.", "In this operating mode, the changed absorption state of the saturable absorber causes the intensity of the emitted light to be changed simultaneously with the wavelength.", "The change in intensity here occurs analogously to the wavelength change shown in FIG. 2. Because of the new operating mode, component 10 can also be employed as a bistable-intensity opto-electronic component.", "Regardless of whether the resulting bistability is a dispersive bistability, as in the first described operating mode, or an absorptive bistability as in the second described operating mode, both operating modes have the following in common: in one of the semiconductor regions (in the first case in region 10 and in the second case in region 11) a change in current changes the charge carrier density in such a way that the semiconductor laser emits light at a first wavelength or at a second wavelength.", "A multitude of practical applications are conceivable in which it would be useful to operate the semiconductor laser of FIG. 1 according to the method of the invention as a bistable opto-electronic component.", "For example, the semiconductor laser according to the present invention may be used as a component in a demultiplexer.", "If, for example, two electrical signals S'", "and S"", "are multiplexed with one another and each one of the two signals S'", "and S"", "is given an address at the start, as this is the case, for example, in digital signals that are transmitted in packets, with each packet being preceded by an address that determines the destination of the data packet, the two digital signals could initially be converted in such a way that their current fluctuates within current thresholds I 1 and I 2 and the addresses preceding the digital signals can be replaced by a short current pulse which, in the case of an address preceding a signal, has a current intensity I 0 , that is, a current pulse which falls below the lower current threshold I 1 , and the address preceding the second digital signal can be replaced by a current pulse of current intensity I 3 , that is, a current pulse which exceeds the upper current threshold I 2 .", "If now an electrical multiplex signal that is modified in this manner is used to actuate region 10 of the semiconductor laser according to the first operating mode described above, the semiconductor laser emits a corresponding optical multiplex signal, with the signal S'", "contained therein having the wavelength λ 1 and the signal S"", "contained therein having the wavelength λ 2 .", "Because of their different wavelengths, both signals can now be separated from one another by optical means.", "Another aspect of this operating mode is that the semiconductor component is employed as an electrical-optical transducer, with the wavelength of the resulting optical signal being controllable by a control pulse which precedes the electrical signal that modulates the changeable current.", "Conversely, the semiconductor laser can also be employed according to the method of the invention in such a way that it acts as a multiplexer component.", "The signals to be multiplexed are then modified in such a way that their current intensity fluctuates between I 1 and I 2 and one signal is preceded by a control pulse that falls below I 1 while the other signal is preceded by a control pulse that exceeds I 2 .", "If one now actuates the region 10 of a semiconductor laser according to FIG. 1 with the one signal and the region 10 of a second corresponding semiconductor laser with the other signal, the first electrical signal is converted into a light signal at wavelength λ 1 and the second electrical signal is converted into a light signal at wavelength λ 2 .", "Both light signals can then be transmitted in wavelength multiplex over one optical waveguide.", "Since there thus exists the option to control, by means of a suitable control pulse, whether the light signal has the wavelength λ 1 or the wavelength λ 2 , it is also possible to control whether an optical switching element, that is able to emit light at a first wavelength at another output than light at a second wavelength, is to emit a signal S'", "or a signal S"", "at a certain output.", "A third embodiment of the method according to the invention will now be described.", "In the above described embodiments, the charge carriers required for laser operation were generated solely by current injection into one of regions 8 to 11.", "Instead it is also possible to control the change in charge carriers in the region that produces bistable wavelength exclusively by the influx of light into at least one of the regions 8, 9 or 11, with the light having a higher energy than the light emitted by the semiconductor laser.", "It is also possible to control the changes in the charge carriers in a region partially by current injection and partially by light radiation.", "For example, light at a wavelength of 800, 1300 or 1530 nm can be radiated into a semiconductor laser which emits light at a wavelength of 1560 nm.", "The light to be radiated in itself may again be generated by a semiconductor laser.", "A useful application will now be described for a change in charge carriers that can be controlled by current injection and by the simultaneous radiation of light.", "In this case, a current flows through region 10, for example, whose intensity alternates between current intensity I 0 (see FIG. 2) and current intensity I', where I'", "is just greater than the lower current threshold I but smaller than the upper current threshold I 2 .", "The top line of FIG. 3 shows such a current curve which, as will be described below, serves as the clock pulse.", "A light signal at a wavelength of λ 0 is radiated as data signal D into one of regions 11, 8 or 9, for example into region 11.", "Wavelength λ 0 is shorter than wavelengths λ 1 and λ 2 so that it permits the generation of charge carriers in region 10.", "The light signal representing a data signal D is intensity modulated so that it alternates, corresponding to the data signal it represents, between a high intensity and a lower intensity (e.g., intensity 0).", "The higher intensity of the light signal is selected in such a way that the number of charge carriers produced by it in region 10 is lower than the number resulting if the charge carriers are produced solely by a current flowing through region 10, with the current intensity of the current flowing through region 10 lying above I 2 , for example, at I 3 .", "The higher intensity of the light signal is thus not sufficient to bring the semiconductor laser into the state in which its emitted light has the wavelength λ 2 .", "If, however, together with such an influx of light, region 10 encounters a current that has an intensity I'", "(FIG.", "2) between I 1 and I 2 and thus would be insufficient on its own to bring the semiconductor laser into the state of an emission wavelength λ 2 , the joint action of light and current brings the semiconductor laser into this state.", "Thus, for the described application, a current I of the alternating current intensities I 0 and I'", "shown in FIG. 3 is caused to flow through region 10 as a clock pulse and a light signal D is introduced into region 11, while the remaining conditions are as follows: a fixed pre-conduction current causes region 11 to be operated in the laser active state while regions 8 and 9 are operated in the transparency state, likewise by way of fixed operating currents.", "Under these conditions, the semiconductor laser emits light at wavelength λ 2 from regions 8 and 9 so long as the light signal does not have the low intensity and the clock signal the current intensity I 0 .", "In the example shown in FIG. 3, the emission wavelength thus changes at the point in time t 3 given on the time axis, since at this point in time not only does the light signal have the low intensity but the current I also goes back to its lower value I 0 .", "The emission wavelength will jump back to wavelength λ 2 only if the light signal has the higher intensity again and the current I has the higher current intensity I'.", "If one assigns the logic value 1 to data signal D in FIG. 3 if the light intensity of the optical signal representing it has the higher value and the logic value 0 if the light intensity has the lower value, and if one assigns the logic value 1 to the emitted light signal if its wavelength equals λ 2 and the logic value 0 if its wavelength equals λ 1 , the following becomes evident from FIG. 3. At times t 1 , t 2 and t 3 , at which current I, that is the clock pulse, has a negative edge, the emitted light signal has the same logic value as the data signal, namely the logic value 1 at t 1 , the logic value 1 at t 2 , and the logic value 0 at t 3 .", "If one considers times t 1 , t 2 and t 3 as the sampling moments for the data signal as determined by the clock pulse, the semiconductor laser operated according to the above-described method can be considered to be a sample and hold member for a data signal present in the form of an optical signal.", "The hold time is here at least as long as the width of the clock pulses, since the emission wavelength is able to jump back from λ 1 to λ 2 no earlier than with the positive clock pulse edge of current I. It is of course also possible to employ the data signal as a control current for region 10 and to employ a clock pulse in the form of a correspondingly intensity modulated light signal that is conducted into region 11.", "In this case, an electrical data signal would be sampled by a succession of optical clock pulses.", "In both cases, an optical signal appears at the output whose wavelength at the sampling times marked by the clock pulse has a logic value that corresponds to the data signal.", "It will be understood that the above description of the present invention is susceptible to various modifications, changes and adaptations, and the same are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalents of the appended claims." ]

[ "DESCRIPTION Background of the Invention It has long been known in the art of sewing machine construction that two different types of work supporting surfaces may be provided, each best suited to accommodate a different form of work piece;", "that is, a flat bed best accommodating planar work pieces, and a cantilevered bed, variously referred to as a cylinder bed, free arm or tubular bed, more conveniently accommodating cylindrical work pieces.", "It is known to provide a tubular bed sewing machine with a bed extension adapted to augment the tubular bed work supporting surface when flat work pieces are to be attached and which is detachable from the sewing machine and must be stored separately when tubular articles are to be sewn.", "The present invention pertains to a type of bed extension referred to as "convertible bed"", "in which work supporting elements may be shifted selectively into parallelism with the tubular bed work supporting surface defining flat bed configuration but which need not be detached from the sewing machine when shifted out of such flat bed mode.", "In known convertible bed constructions the work supporting elements are shiftably supported directly on portions of the machine frame which are integral with the tubular bed.", "As a result, high degree of accuracy is required in manufacture of the frame including costly machining steps and the like, which impair the cost effectiveness of such prior convertible bed constructions.", "SUMMARY OF THIS INVENTION A mounting bracket is provided for supporting a cylinder bed extension relatively to a sewing machine frame with provision for universal adjustment of the cylinder bed extension not only to provide for parallelism with the work supporting surface of the tubular bed, but also to provide for uniform close spacing of the extension adjacent to the tubular bed work supporting surface.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS With the above and additional objects and advantages in view, as will hereinafter appear, this invention will now be described with reference to a preferred embodiment illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which: FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a sewing machine bed, a mounting bracket for a convertible bed extension, and the extension with portions of the bed and of the bracket broken away to expose fastening and adjusting means therefore in accordance with this invention, FIG. 2 is an end elevational view of the sewing machine bed bracket, and convertible bed extension of FIG. 1 illustrated in a position in which the extension augments the flat bed mode, FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the assembled bed, mounting bracket, and bed extension taken substantially along line 3--3 indicated on the bed extension shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the assembled mounting bracket and bed extension taken substantially along line 4--4 indicated on the bed extension shown in FIG. 1. DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring to the drawing, 11 indicates generally the bed segment of a sewing machine frame which includes a base portion 12 from which a tubular bed portion 13 is cantilevered.", "As illustrated in FIG. 2, the sewing machine frame may also include a sewing head 14 arranged above the tubular bed and carrying stitch forming instrumentalities such as a presser device 15 and an endwise reciprocating thread carrying needle 16 for cooperation with other stitch forming mechanisms (not shown) in the tubular bed in the formation of stitches.", "The tubular bed 13 when not augmented by any lateral extension is ideally suited to accommodate cylindrical work pieces such as sleeves, trouser legs and the like.", "FIGS. 1 and 2 also illustrate a convertible bed extension device indicated generally at 21 and including a standard 22 to which a bed extension plate 23 is pivotally secured.", "Although the construction of the pivotal support for the bed extension plate may be of any known form, a preferred form as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 involves the provision of a "U"", "shaped wire pintle member 24 secured to the standard 22 as by a clamp member 25 and fastening screw 26, with the extremities of the pintle member each being pivotally embraced between a pillow block 27 formed beneath the bed extension plate 23 and a spring clip 28 secured by a screw 29 beneath the pillow block 27.", "The bed extension plate 23 as shown in FIG. 2 may include a leaf spring latch 30 secured beneather the bed extension plate by a screw 31 and engageable in a recess 32 in the tubular bed to retain the free edge of the extension plate in raised position contiguous to the work supporting surface of the tubular bed.", "Referring to FIG. 1, the means by which the convertible bed device is supported on the sewing machine bed will now be described.", "Adjacent to the tubular bed 13 and toward the rear thereof, the base portion 12 of the bed is formed with a projection 41.", "The projection is formed with substantially vertical front and rear surfaces 42 and 43 and at the juncture of the rear surface 42 with the base portion 12 of the bed a raised rectangular block 44 is provided.", "In a recess 45 formed beneath the projection 41 two spaced cylindrical bosses 46, 47 depend, each formed with a threaded hole 48 for accommodation of respective fastening screws 49 and 50.", "Fitted loosely within the recess 45 is a generally rectangular mounting bracket 51 which extends from the projection 41 substantially parallel to the tubular bed 13.", "At one extremity the upper surface of the mounting bracket 51 is formed with spaced limbs 52, 53 having height somewhat less than that of a main body portion 54 located at the opposite extremity.", "Between limbs 52 and 53, a web 55 is formed in which apertures 56 and 57 are arranged, the apertures being aligned, respectively, with the threaded holes 48.", "The aperture 56 preferrably accommodates the fastening screw 50 snuggly, while aperture 57 is of considerably larger diameter than that of the fastening screw 49 to provide for a degree of rotational adjustment of the mounting bracket 51 about the axis of the fastening screw 50.", "This clearance between the aperture 57 and fastening screw 49 provides for a degree of horizontal adjustment of the main body portion 54 of the mounting bracket along the path illustrated by the arrow A in FIG. 1 which serves, as will be apparent from the ensuing description, as a means for adjusting the clearance "a"", "between the bed extension plate 23 and the tubular bed 13 as illustrated in FIG. 2. Accommodated between the limbs 52 and 53 of the mounting bracket 51 and above the web 55 thereon is a threaded nut 58 into which a set screw 59 is threaded.", "The set screw passes through a clearance hole 60 in the web 55 so that it is accessible from beneath.", "The set screw 59 by being turned to bear more or less against the underside of the recess 45 in the projection 41 regulates the extent to which the web 55 may be drawn toward the boss 46 by the fastening screw 49.", "Stated otherwise, the set screw 59 influences a vertical adjustment of the free extremity of the mounting bracket 51 about the location of the fastening screw 50 along a path illustrated by the arrow B in FIG. 1. This adjustment serves, as will be apparent from the ensuing description as a means for minimizing any difference "b"", "in elevation as between the bed extension plate 23 and the tubular bed 13, as shown in FIG. 2. The convertible bed extension device indicated generally at 21 may be rigidly attached by any conventional means to the mounting bracket 51 as to partake of the positional adjustment thereof.", "A preferred form of interengagement is illustrated in the drawings which provides for ready removal of the bed extension device so that in its place any one of a variety of ancillary attachments such as work shifting embroidery attachments, buttonhole attachments and the like (not shown) may be inserted.", "In accordance with the preferred form of the interengagement between parts, the standard 22 of the convertible bed device is made hollow so as slidably to accommodate both the projection 41 and the mounting bracket 51 within its interior.", "Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, which show the cross-sectional relationship of parts adjacent to the inboard and outboard extremities of the convertible bed device, respectively, the preferred form of interengagement between parts will be described.", "As shown in FIG. 3, the interior of the standard 22 of the convertible bed device is formed with a narrow recess 70 into which the rectangular block 44 on the projection 41 is snuggly accommodated.", "The block 44 is preferably enlarged slightly to provide localized contact between the parts;", "although the recess 70 might be constricted to provide the same results.", "At the lower edges, the walls of the standard 22 are thickened inwardly as at 71 and 72 to provide localized contact with the front and rear surface 42 and 43 of the projection 41.", "Since the points of localized contact between the standard 22 and the projection 41 are located adjacent to the fastening screw 50 about which all movement of the mounting bracket 51 occurs, a minimum of interference will arise should the position of the mounting bracket have to be adjusted.", "The three spaced points of localized contact 70, 71 and 72 provide for maximum constraint against tilting of the convertible bed device about an axis parallel to its length.", "At the outboard extremity of the convertible bed device, as shown in FIG. 4, the walls of the standard 22 are thickened inwardly as at 75 and 76 to provide localized contact with front and rear sidewalls 77 and 78, respectively, of the main body portion 54 of the mounting bracket.", "A spring retainer 79 secured as by a screw 80 beneath the standard 22 engages a web 81 formed beneath the main body portion 54 of the mounting bracket to maintain the standard and mounting bracket interengaged as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, and also to deter accidential disengagement of the convertible bed device from the mounting bracket.", "When the bed extension plate 23 is raised and retained by seating of the spring latch 30 in recess 32 to maintain such raised position augmenting the work supporting surfaces of the tubular bed, the spring latch 30 will also further deter removal of the convertible bed device from the mounting bracket.", "It is understood that the present disclosure relates to a preferred embodiment of the invention which is for purposes of illustration only, and that various modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention The present invention relates to earth-boring bits of the rolling cutter variety.", "Specifically, the present invention relates to the cutting structure and cutting elements of earth-boring bits of the rolling cutter variety.", "Background Information The success of rotary drilling enabled the discovery of deep oil and gas reserves.", "The rotary rock bit was an important invention that made that success possible.", "Only soft formations could be commercially penetrated with the earlier drag bit, but the original rolling-cone rock bit invented by Howard R. Hughes, U.S. Pat. No. 939,759, drilled the hard caprock at the Spindletop field, near Beaumont Texas, with relative ease.", "That venerable invention, within the first decade of this century, could drill a scant fraction of the depth and speed of the modern rotary rock bit.", "If the original Hughes bit drilled for hours, the modern bit drills for days.", "Bits today often drill for miles.", "Many individual improvements have contributed to the impressive overall improvement in the performance of rock bits.", "Rolling-cutter earth-boring bits generally employ cutting elements to induce high contact stresses in the formation being drilled as the cutters roll over the bottom of the borehole during drilling operation.", "These stresses cause the rock to fail, resulting in disintegration through near-vertical penetration of the formation material being drilled.", "When cutters are offset, their axes do not coincide with the geometric or rotational axis of the bit and a small component of horizontal or sliding motion is imparted to the cutters as they roll over the borehole bottom.", "While this drilling mode prevails on the borehole bottom, it is entirely different in the corner and on the sidewall.", "The corner is generated by a combined crushing and scraping or shearing action, while the borehole wall is produced in a pure sliding and scraping (shearing) mode.", "In the corner and on the sidewall of the borehole, the cutting elements have to do the most work and are subjected to extreme stresses, which makes them prone to break down prematurely, and/or wear rapidly.", "Recently, there has been a general effort to introduce the improved material properties of natural and synthetic diamond or super-hard materials into earth-boring bits of the rolling-cutter variety.", "Super-hard materials have been used in fixed-cutter or drag bits to good effect for many years.", "Fixed-cutter bits employ the shearing mode of disintegration discussed above almost exclusively.", "Although diamond and other super-hard materials possess excellent hardness and other material properties, they generally are considered too brittle for most cutting element applications in rolling-cutter bits, an exception being the shear-cutting gage inserts discussed above.", "Recent attempts to introduce diamond and similar materials into rolling cutter bits have relied on a diamond layer or table secured to a substrate or backing material of fracture-tough hard metal, usually cemented tungsten carbide.", "The substrate is thought to supplement the diamond or super-hard material with its increased toughness, resulting in a cutting element with satisfactory hardness and toughness, which diamond alone is not thought to provide.", "One problem with the diamond/substrate inserts is the tendency of the diamond or super-hard material to delaminate from the substrate.", "The cause of this delamination is thought to be forces acting parallel to the interface between the diamond layer or table and the substrate superimposed on the high residual stresses at this interface.", "These stresses shear the diamond table off of its substrate.", "Several attempts have been made to increase the strength of the interface.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,604,106, to Hall et al.", "discloses a transition layer interface that gradually transitions between the properties of the super-hard material and the substrate material at the interface between them to resist delamination.", "Although this method appears to yield satisfactory results, it requires expensive and time-consuming fabrication techniques.", "Other patents, such as commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,351,772, Oct. 4, 1994 to Smith, provide a non-planar interface between the diamond table and substrate.", "U.S. Pat. No. 5,355,969 to Hardy et al.", "is another example of the non-planar interface between the super-hard and substrate.", "At any rate, most attempts to incorporate diamond or other super-hard materials into the cutting structures of earth-boring bits of the rolling-cutter variety employ a non-diamond substrate material in addition to the super-hard material.", "A need exists, therefore, for earth-boring bits of the rolling-cutter variety having super-hard cutting elements that are relatively easily manufactured with a satisfactory combination of material properties.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is a general object of the present invention to provide an earth-boring bit having super-hard cutting elements with satisfactory material properties.", "These and other objects of the present invention are achieved by providing an earth-boring bit having a bit body and at least one bearing shaft depending inwardly and downwardly from the bit body.", "A cutter is mounted for rotation on each bearing shaft and includes a plurality of cutting elements arranged in circumferential rows.", "The circumferential rows include a gage row on the outermost surface of each cutter and several inner rows on each cutter inward of the gage row.", "At least one of the cutting elements in one circumferential row is formed fully or predominantly of super-hard material.", "The cutting element comprises a cutting end projecting from the surface of the cutter and generally cylindrical base secured in a socket in the cutter.", "The cutting end of the cutting element is formed entirely or predominantly of super-hard material and the base may be formed entirely or predominantly of super-hard material.", "According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the super-hard cutting element may be a heel or inner-row element secured to the cutter end and inner circumferential row.", "According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the super-hard cutting element may be a gage-row element secured to the cutter in the gage row.", "According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the super-hard trimmer cutting element has a chisel-shaped cutting end.", "According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the super-hard gage-row, cutting element has a frusto-conical cutting end.", "According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the super-hard material is selected from the group consisting of polycrystalline diamond, thermally stable polycrystalline diamond, natural diamond, and cubic boron nitride.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an earth-boring bit according to the present invention.", "FIG. 2 is an elevation view of a super-hard cutting element for the heel or inner rows of an earth-boring bit according to the present invention.", "FIG. 3 is an elevation view of a super-hard cutting element for the gage rows of an earth-boring bit according to the present invention.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the figures, and particularly to FIG. 1, an earth-boring bit 11 according to the present invention is illustrated.", "Bit 11 includes a bit body 13, which is threaded at its upper extent 15 for connection into a drillstring.", "Each leg or section of bit 11 is provided with a lubricant compensator 17 to adjust or compensate for changes in the pressure or volume of lubricant provided for the bit.", "At least one nozzle 19 is provided in bit body 13 to spray drilling fluid from within the drillstring to cool and lubricate bit 11 during drilling operation.", "Three cutters, 21, 23, 25 are rotatably secured to a bearing shaft associated with each leg of bit body 13.", "Each cutter 21, 23, 25 has a cutter shell surface including an outermost or gage surface 31 and a heel surface 41 immediately inward and adjacent gage surface 31.", "A plurality of cutting elements, in the form of hard metal or super-hard inserts, are arranged in generally circumferential rows on each cutter.", "Each cutter 21, 23, 25 has a gage surface 31 with a row of gage elements 33 thereon.", "A heel surface 41 intersects each gage surface 31 and has at least one row of heel inserts 43 thereon.", "At least one scraper element 51 is secured to the cutter shell surface generally at the intersection of gage and heel surfaces 31, 41 and generally intermediate a pair of heel inserts 43.", "The outer cutting structure, comprising heel cutting elements 43, gage cutting elements 33, and a secondary cutting structure in the form of chisel-shaped trimmer or scraper elements 51, combine and cooperate to crush and scrape formation material at the corner and sidewall of the borehole as cutters 21, 23, 25 roll and slide over the formation material during drilling operation.", "According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, at least one, and preferably several, of the cutting elements in one or more of the rows is formed predominantly of super-hard material.", "FIG. 2 is an elevation view, partially in section, of a super-hard cutting element 51 according to the present invention.", "Cutting element 51 comprises a generally cylindrical base 53, which is secured in an aperture or socket in the cutter by interference fit or brazing.", "Cutting element 51 is a chisel-shaped cutting element that includes a pair of flanks 55 that converge to define a crest 57.", "Chisel-shaped cutting element is particularly adapted for use as a trimmer element (51 in FIG. 1), a heel element (41 in FIG. 1) or other inner-row cutting element.", "A chisel-shaped element is illustrated as an exemplary trimmer, heel, or inner-row cutting element.", "Other conventional shapes, such as ovoids, cones, or rounds are contemplated by the present invention.", "FIG. 3 is an elevation view, partially in section, of a super-hard gage-row insert 33 according to the present invention.", "Gage-row insert 33 comprises a generally cylindrical body 35, which is provided at the cutting end with a chamfer 37 that defines a generally frusto-conical cutting surface.", "The intersection between cutting surface 37 and flat top 39 defines a cutting edge for shearing engagement with the sidewall of the borehole.", "Both chisel-shaped element 51 and gage insert 33 are formed predominantly of super-hard material.", "The term "super-hard material,"", "as used herein, includes natural diamond, polycrystalline diamond, thermally stable polycrystalline diamond, cubic boron nitride, the material resulting from chemical vapor deposition (CVD) processes known as "thin-film diamond,"", "or "amorphic diamond,"", "and other materials approaching diamond in hardness and having material properties generally similar to diamond.", "All super-hard materials have measured hardness in excess of 3500-5000 on the Knoop scale and are to be distinguished from merely hard ceramics, such as silicon carbide, tungsten carbide, and the like.", "The predominantly super-hard material insert is usually formed at high pressure and temperature conditions under which the super-hard material is thermodynamically stable.", "This technique is conventional and known by those skilled in the art.", "For example, a insert may be made by forming a refractory metal container or can to the desired shape, and then filling the can with super-hard material powder to which a small amount of metal material (commonly cobalt, nickel, or iron) has been added.", "The container then is sealed to prevent any contamination.", "Next, the sealed can is surrounded by a pressure transmitting material which is generally salt, boron nitride, graphite or similar material.", "This assembly is then loaded into a high-pressure and temperature cell.", "The design of the cell is dependent upon the type of high-pressure apparatus being used.", "The cell is compressed until the desired pressure is reached and then heat is supplied via a graphite-tube electric resistance heater.", "Temperatures in excess of 1350° C. and pressures in excess of 50 kilobars are common.", "At these conditions, the added metal is molten and acts as a reactive liquid phase to enhance sintering of the super-hard material.", "After a few minutes, the conditions are reduced to room temperature and pressure.", "The insert is then broken out of the cell and can be finished to final dimensions through grinding or shaping.", "According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, at least the cutting ends of elements 51, 31 are formed entirely of super-hard material.", "All super-hard materials contain at least traces of other materials.", "For instance, polycrystalline diamond employs cobalt as a binder during its formation process and cobalt remains in the material.", "As used herein, the term "entirely of"", "super-hard material is intended to include these traces of material other than super-hard material.", "The term "predominantly of"", "super-hard material is intended to exclude layers of super-hard material over substrates that comprise most of the volume of the element.", "It may be desirable to provide a cutting element formed entirely of super-hard material with a portion of the element formed of a less wear-resistant and more easily formed material.", "For example, a 0.063 inch layer of conventional cemented tungsten carbide may be provided on the base of the cylindrical body of the element (opposite the cutting end) to protect the super-hard material while the element is press or interference fit into its aperture or socket in the cutter.", "Such a layer of hard metal may also be provided where a portion of the element requires tumbling, grinding, or other finishing operations.", "Such a layer of non-super-hard material is encompassed within the meaning of "predominantly super-hard material.", """, "Such a layer of non-super-hard material should constitute not more than about 10-20% by volume of the cutting element.", "The earth-boring bit according to the present invention possesses a number of advantages.", "A primary advantage is that the earth-boring bit is provided with more efficient and durable cutting elements.", "The invention has been described with reference to preferred embodiments thereof.", "It is thus not limited, but is susceptible to variation and modification without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention." ]

[ "FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] This invention relates in general to calibration of optical measurement systems and, more particularly, to optical references for calibration, and calibration techniques that use optical references.", "BACKGROUND [0002] Optical systems have been developed that are used to make optical measurements.", "For example, a spectrophotometer is an optical system than can be used to measure the level of transmission or absorption of a sample material with respect to a number of different wavelengths of radiation.", "A spectrophotometer has a radiation source that transmits radiation along a path of travel to a radiation detector.", "During operational use, the sample under test is positioned optically between the source and the detector, along the path of travel.", "Radiation from the source that is traveling along the path of travel must pass through the sample, and the detector measures the intensity of received radiation, which represents the amount of radiation that is able to pass through the sample.", "The accuracy of optical measurements provided by such a system depends on the accuracy of the calibration of the system.", "[0003] It is relatively simple to calibrate a spectrophometer for a transmissivity of 0% and/or a transmissivity of 100%.", "In particular, it is easy to completely block the radiation beam, or to leave it completely unblocked.", "However, radiation detectors are typically nonlinear, and in fact there may be differences in the nonlinearity of equivalent detectors that in theory should be identical.", "Consequently, calibrating for only 0% and/or 100% is not sufficient.", "It is desirable to perform calibration for one or more different levels of transmissivity that are between 0% and 100%.", "This can improve the accuracy of the calibration, for example by an average of a factor of ten.", "[0004] A related consideration is that radiation detectors are not always spatially uniform.", "For example radiation impinging on one portion of the detector may produce a different measurement than if that same radiation were to impinge on a different portion of the same detector.", "[0005] To calibrate for a level of transmissivity between 0% and 100%, a traditional approach is to insert a stationary optical reference (or several successive stationary references) between the source and detector.", "Each such optical reference has a known transmissivity.", "One known type of optical reference is a filter with a known transmissivity, typically a neutral density filter.", "However, filters of this type work only for particular wavelength ranges.", "Further, materials in the filter may gradually deteriorate and change performance, due to handling, exposure and/or aging.", "Care must be taken to avoid abrading, scratching or otherwise altering the filter.", "Moreover, contaminates from the air can accumulate on the filter, altering performance.", "Cleaning the surface of the filter to remove contaminates may alter the performance of the filter.", "[0006] A different type of known optical reference is made from a material that is well characterized.", "For example, the optical reference may be a piece of calcium fluoride (CaF 2 ).", "This type of reference can be more stable than a neutral density filter, but is still subject to some of the same problems.", "Further, only a limited selection of transmissivity levels may be available.", "For example, in the visible spectrum, there are very few materials having a transmissivity in the 0% to 70% range.", "[0007] Thus, although existing optical references and calibration techniques have been generally adequate for their intended purposes, they have not been satisfactory in all respects.", "For example, existing optical references used for calibration are not always durable, stable and highly accurate, and cannot always be obtained for every desired level of transmissivity.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0008] A better understanding of the present invention will be realized from the detailed description that follows, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, in which: [0009] FIG. 1 is diagrammatic view of an apparatus that is a spectrophotometer embodying aspects of the invention, and that includes a detector calibration reference.", "[0010] FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic sectional view, taken along the section line 2 - 2 in FIG. 1 .", "[0011] FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic fragmentary sectional view, taken along the section line 3 - 3 in FIG. 2 .", "[0012] FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic fragmentary sectional view similar to FIG. 3 , but showing part of a detector calibration reference that is an alternative embodiment of the detector calibration reference in the embodiment of FIGS. 1-3 .", "[0013] FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic exploded perspective view of a detector calibration reference that is an alternative embodiment of, and can be substituted for, the detector calibration reference in the embodiment of FIGS. 1-3 .", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0014] FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view of an apparatus that is a spectrophotometer 10 , and that embodies aspects of the invention.", "The spectrophotometer 10 includes a base 12 .", "A radiation source 16 of a known type is fixedly supported on the base 12 , and emits a beam of radiation that propagates along a path of travel 18 .", "The beam includes radiation having a range of different wavelengths.", "[0015] A radiation detector 26 of a known type is fixedly supported on the base 12 , at a location that is spaced optically from the source 16 , and that is at an end of the path of travel 18 remote from the source 16 .", "A control unit 28 controls the source 16 , and receives signals from the detector 26 .", "[0016] A support 31 is fixedly provided on the base 12 .", "During normal operation, a sample 33 can be removably and stationarily supported on the support 31 .", "The sample 33 is shown in broken lines in FIG. 1 , because the focus of the present discussion is calibration of the spectrophotometer 10 , and the sample 33 is not present during calibration.", "During normal operation, radiation from the source 16 propagates along the path of travel 18 to the sample 33 .", "A portion of that radiation will be absorbed and/or reflected by the sample.", "The rest of the radiation will pass through the sample 33 , and continue along the path of travel 18 to the detector 26 .", "For each of a number of different wavelengths, the detector 26 measures the amount of radiation at that wavelength arriving at the detector, which represents the level of transmissivity of the sample 33 for that particular wavelength.", "[0017] In order to ensure that measurements taken with the spectrophotometer 10 are accurate, the spectrophotometer must be periodically calibrated in relation to a known reference.", "It is relatively straightforward to calibrate for transmissivity levels of 0% and 100%.", "For 100%, radiation is allowed to travel from the source 16 along the path of travel 18 to the detector 26 , without encountering or passing through any physical structure.", "For 0%, the source 16 can be turned off, or a not-illustrated part that is completely non-transmissive can be provided along the path of travel, for example in place of the sample 33 .", "But it is desirable to calibrate for more than just a transmissivity of 0% and/or a transmissivity of 100%.", "This is because the detector 26 is nonlinear, and in fact the nonlinearity may differ from one detector 26 to another detector that in theory should be identical to the detector 26 .", "As explained earlier, the traditional calibration approaches for transmissivities between 0% and 100% have been adequate for their intended purposes, but have not been completely satisfactory.", "The spectrophotometer 10 therefore includes some additional structure that is provided for the purpose of calibration.", "[0018] In more detail, a motor 51 of a known type is fixedly supported on the base 12 .", "In the disclosed embodiment, the motor 51 is a stepper motor, but it could alternatively be any other suitable type of motor.", "The motor is controlled by the control unit 28 .", "The motor 51 has a shaft 52 that rotates about an axis 53 .", "The axis 53 extends approximately parallel to the path of travel 18 .", "A detector calibration reference 61 is fixedly mounted on the shaft 52 , for rotation therewith.", "FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic sectional view of the shaft 52 and the calibration reference 61 , taken along the section line 2 - 2 in FIG. 1 .", "[0019] As discussed above, the axis 53 in the disclosed embodiment extends approximately parallel to the path of travel 18 .", "however, it would alternatively be possible for the axis 53 to extend at an angle to the path of travel 18 .", "For example, the detector 26 may emit a small amount of heat, and where the detector 26 is used to measure infrared radiation, it is desirable that the calibration reference 61 not take heat emitted by the detector 26 and reflect that heat directly back to the detector 26 .", "If the axis 53 is oriented at an angle to the path of travel 18 , so that side surfaces of the calibration reference 61 are not perpendicular to the path of travel 18 , then the calibration reference 61 will reflect heat from the detector 26 in a direction other then directly back to the detector 26 .", "[0020] In the disclosed embodiment, the calibration reference 61 is made of a material that fully blocks radiation from the source 16 .", "In the disclosed embodiment, the calibration reference 61 is made from a material that is non-transmissive to radiation (0% transmissive), and in particular is made from a metal such as steel.", "However, it could alternatively be made from any other suitable material.", "As evident from FIGS. 1 and 2 , the calibration reference 61 is a platelike circular disk.", "The calibration reference 61 has two openings 71 and 72 extending axially therethrough, on diametrically opposite sides of the shaft 52 .", "In the disclosed embodiment, the calibration reference 61 has two openings 71 and 72 .", "However, it would alternatively be possible to have only one opening, or to have more than two openings.", "In FIG. 2 , the opening 72 has edges 76 and 77 on opposite sides thereof, and the edges 76 and 77 each extend radially with respect to the shaft 52 .", "In addition, the opening 72 has inner and outer edges 78 and 79 , each of which is an arc concentric to the shaft 52 .", "The distance between the edges 78 and 79 is greater than the width of the beam of radiation produced by the source 16 .", "The opening 71 has a configuration that is identical to that of opening 72 , and the opening 71 is therefore not separately described here in detail.", "[0021] FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic fragmentary sectional view taken along the section line 3 - 3 in FIG. 2 .", "As shown in FIG. 3 , an optional anti-reflection coating of a known type is provided on the edges of the opening 72 , and on adjacent portions of the calibration reference 61 .", "For simplicity and clarity, the coating 86 has been omitted in FIGS. 1 and 2 .", "The coating 86 is made of a known material, and a similar coating would be provided in the region of the opening 71 .", "In fact, the entire calibration reference 61 could be coated.", "During calibration of the system 10 of FIG. 1 , the coating 86 prevents the edges 76 and 77 of the openings from reflecting light into the detector 26 .", "[0022] FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic fragmentary sectional view similar to FIG. 3 , but showing part of a detector calibration reference 161 that is an alternative embodiment of the detector calibration reference 61 of FIGS. 1-3 .", "The calibration reference 161 is generally identical to the calibration reference 61 , except for differences that are discussed below.", "The calibration reference 161 has an opening 172 that is generally equivalent to the opening 72 except that, adjacent each of the radially extending edges 176 and 177 , the calibration reference 161 tapers in thickness in a direction toward the opening 172 .", "The edges 176 and 177 each have a shape that is referred to figuratively as a knife edge, although of course neither edge is actually as sharp as a knife.", "The tapering thickness adjacent these knife edges is an alternative technique for minimizing undesired reflections from the regions adjacent the edges 176 and 177 .", "[0023] With reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 , during calibration the motor 51 effects rotation of the calibration reference 61 .", "When the path of travel 18 is aligned with either one of the openings 71 or 72 , radiation from the source 16 will travel through that opening and reach the detector 26 .", "When neither of the openings 71 and 72 is aligned with the path of travel 18 , the opaque material of the calibration reference 61 will completely block the radiation from the source 16 , so that none of the radiation reaches the detector 26 .", "[0024] With reference to FIG. 2 , it can be seen that radiation from the beam will be blocked during about 90% of the angular movement of the calibration reference 61 , and will be passing through one or the other of openings 71 and 72 during the other 10% of angular movement.", "With reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 , the motor 51 rotates the calibration reference 61 at a sufficiently high speed so that the radiation beam is chopped or interrupted at a frequency significantly higher than the sampling frequency of the detector 26 , for example an order of magnitude higher.", "Stated differently, the radiation beam is chopped or interrupted with a frequency having a period that is much shorter than the sampling interval or response time of the detector 26 .", "To avoid a beating effect, the calibration reference 61 should not be rotated at a speed that interrupts the beam at a direct multiple of the measurement frequency of the detector 26 .", "But if the speed of rotation of the calibration reference 61 is sufficiently high, the likelihood of a beating effect becomes negligible.", "[0025] Since the calibration reference 61 is rotated at relatively high speed, the detector 26 effectively sees an average of all the radiation passing through the rotating calibration reference 61 , rather than alternating bursts of 0% and 100% radiation.", "Stated differently, the level of the average depends on the relative circumferential lengths of the openings 71 and 72 and the solid regions between these openings.", "In the case of the calibration reference 61 , approximately 90% of the radiation emitted by the source 16 will be blocked by the calibration reference 61 , while the other 10% will pass through the openings 71 and 72 , and ultimately reach the detector 26 .", "By altering the size of the openings and/or the number of openings in the calibration reference 61 , the calibration reference 61 can be set to provide any desired transmissivity between 0% and 100%.", "At the completion of the calibration process, the motor 51 is stopped in a position where the shaft 52 is stationary, and holds the calibration reference 61 in a position where radiation from the source 16 passes through one of the two openings 71 and 72 , without contacting any portion of the calibration reference 61 .", "Alternatively, the calibration reference 61 could be removed from the shaft 52 .", "[0026] The calibration reference 61 shown in FIGS. 1-3 provides an optical reference for a selected but fixed level of transmissivity, such as 10%.", "In order to provide a different level of transmissivity, the calibration reference 61 would be detached from the shaft 52 of the motor 51 , and replaced with a different calibration reference that is effectively identical to the calibration reference 61 , except that it would have openings with a configuration and/or size different from the openings 71 and 72 .", "[0027] FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic exploded perspective view of a detector calibration reference 261 that is an alternative embodiment of, and can be substituted for, the detector calibration reference 61 of FIGS. 1-3 .", "The calibration reference 261 includes two circular plates 263 and 264 .", "The plate 263 is fixedly secured to the motor shaft 52 , and the plate 264 is rotatably supported on the shaft 52 , so that it can be pivoted in relation to the plate 263 .", "The plate 263 has two openings 271 and 272 that are generally similar to the openings 71 and 72 in FIG. 2 , except that the openings 271 and 272 each have a circumferential length that is significantly longer than the circumferential length of the openings 71 and 72 .", "The plate 264 has similar openings 273 and 274 .", "[0028] The plate 264 has an arcuate slot 282 that is concentric to the axis 53 of the motor shaft 52 , and that has an angular length of approximately 90°.", "A screw 281 has a threaded shank that is slidably received within the slot 282 , and that engages a threaded opening 283 provided in the calibration reference 263 .", "If the screw 281 is tightened, the plate 264 is forced against the plate 263 , so that friction prevents relative rotation of the plates 263 and 264 .", "If the screw is 281 is loosened slightly, the plate 264 can be rotated with respect to the plate 263 , while the shank of the screw slides within the slot 282 .", "This permits variation of the amount of overlap between the openings 271 and 273 , and the amount of overlap between the openings 272 and 274 .", "This has the effect of varying the effective size of the openings through the overall calibration reference 261 .", "[0029] Not-illustrated indicia can be provided along the circumferential edges of the two plates 263 and 264 .", "The indicia on one plate can be selectively aligned with indicia on the other plate to identify relative rotational positions of the plates 263 and 264 that would, for example, provide 5% transmissivity, 10% transmissivity, 15% percent transmissivity, and so forth.", "After the plates have been positioned so as to provide a desired level of transmissivity, the screw 281 can be tightened in order to releasably hold the two plates in that position.", "[0030] The disclosed calibration references each limit the beam of radiation mechanically, such that calibration is not based on a sample that is referenced to a measurement previously made by a different optical device.", "The disclosed calibration references can be manufactured to great accuracy, thereby providing much more accurate reference values.", "Further, The disclosed calibration references can be readily manufactured to provide any desired level of transmissivity from 1% to 99%.", "In addition, the disclosed calibration references are not limited to particular wavelength ranges, but can be used for virtually any wavelength ranges of interest.", "Also, the disclosed calibration references are each made of metal, and are thus more durable than existing references.", "Scratches and/or contamination do not affect the performance of the disclosed calibration references, and the disclosed calibration references are not affected by temperature variations.", "Although the disclosed calibration references are discussed in association with a spectrophotometer, they can alternatively be used for calibrating other types of optical instruments.", "[0031] Although selected embodiments have been illustrated and described in detail, it should be understood that a variety of substitutions and alterations are possible without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention, as defined by the claims that follow." ]

[ "CLAIM OF PRIORTY [0001] This application claims priority based on Provisional Application Ser.", "No. 60/563,729 filed Apr. 20, 2004, and having the same title and inventor.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1.", "Field of the Invention [0003] A low profile universal joint is used in connection with socket wrench sets that enables application of force to a fastener at an angle off the axis of rotation of the fastener by turning a wrench handle such as ratchet or breaker bar.", "The low profile universal joint enables the locking of a socket to the universal joint and the release of the socket by selectively retracting the circumferential sleeve, accomplished in a length equivalent to the length of a non-locking universal joint.", "[0004] 2.", "Description of Related Art [0005] Releasing ratchet handles, locking socket wrench extensions and a few locking universal joints are known.", "The ends for locking extensions have been adapted to universal joints having a length significantly greater than standard universal joints, such as shown in FIG. 4 .", "This prior art feature provides a disadvantage in compactness.", "[0006] Locking solutions have generally included three locking pins which must be depressed with a probe, hand-held pin or other device as used for many years in impact tools, central axis tapered pins and surface channel control bars.", "[0007] The typical control bar solutions on extensions, including short bodies pinned to longer extensions include the Nickipuck family of patents, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,480,511, 4,768,405, 4,805,549, 4,938,107 and 5,042,332.", "[0008] These patents are incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.", "[0009] The prior art non-locking universal joint shown in the drawings is typical of a high quality socket drive tool, and for a ⅜″ drive socket set has a length “Lpa”", "of about 1⅝″ and a width “Wpa”", "of about 11/16″, or a ratio of about 2.4.", "Other prior art non-locking socket drive tools have L/W ratios of up to about 3.", "[0010] Other prior art includes alternatives showing locking universal joints, but all these appear to have central pins and are believed to be neither as compact as, nor as functional in locking and retaining sockets as the present disclosure.", "SUMMARY OF INVENTION [0011] A socket driving universal joint combines a number of features.", "[0012] The universal joint has semi-automatic locking.", "A locking sleeve and mechanism permits selective releasing of a fastener driving member such as a socket.", "In addition to locking and releasing, the universal joint limits the angle of skew of the driving, male end from the axis of the driven, female end.", "Nevertheless the universal joint has adequate flexibility to impart driving torque under load with resistance to flexibility to avoid loss of directional control while attaching and detaching a socket to a fastener.", "The tension spring and stressed clevis arm arrangement provides improved performance in fatigue resistance.", "This is accomplished in a compact length through the use of a universal coupling member with overlapping pin screw holes.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0013] FIG. 1 is an elevational view of a universal joint.", "[0014] FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the universal joint.", "[0015] FIG. 3 is an exploded elevational view of the universal joint.", "[0016] FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a standard, non-locking Universal joint.", "DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0017] A locking universal joint 10 receives rotative force from a ratchet handle (not shown) applied to a female driven end 11 , the torque being transmitted through the universal joint 10 to a driving male end 14 .", "In end 14 , slide key 16 positively locks the socket S in place by displacing lock ball 18 transversely.", "Manually actuated release sleeve 20 moves the slide key 16 against a lock spring 22 urges the slide key 16 upward, against intermediate ball 24 in turn applying load on lock ball 18 .", "[0018] Coupling member 26 is tensioned by large tension spring 28 and small tension spring 30 against a floating saddle and spring stop 32 which seats on driven end 11 .", "[0019] Driving member or male end 14 has a body 40 with left and right clevis arms 42 , 44 defining a coupler receiving area between them.", "A ratchet receiving receptacle 45 will receive the common square drive or alternative drives such as hex or spline, star, Torx or other similar configurations.", "While direct receipt of a drive handle is contemplated, one of ordinary skill will understand that various combinations of socket drive tools can be used at various stages—thus the Universal joint could be between two extensions, between a drive handle and an extension, between an extension and a socket, as well as the simple drive handle—Universal joint—socket arrangement.", "Each arm 42 , 44 has a threaded pin aperture 46 , 48 .", "Saddle 30 will actually be rotated from the view shown for clarity in FIG. 3 so that projection 50 fits in and spans receptacle 45 .", "[0020] Spring seat 52 receives springs 26 , 28 .", "Springs 26 and 28 are coil springs that fit within one another in a telescoping fashion to use the fatigue resistance of coil springs in a compact arrangement.", "Prior art typically applies tension in universal joints with fatigue prone lock washer style springs.", "[0021] Universal coupling member 24 has left and right bosses 60 , 62 and front and rear bosses 64 , 66 , defining lands 68 , 70 between them.", "The terminology with respect to these members, left, right, front and rear is used with reference to the drawings, it being understood the member rotates in use and the orientation changes.", "Thus, the terminology is only used with reference to the drawings and is not intended to limit the invention.", "Springs 26 , 28 bear on land 68 .", "Within bosses 60 , 62 are pin receiving apertures 72 , 74 .", "Within bosses 64 , 66 are apertures 76 , 78 .", "Set screws 80 , 82 are received in threaded apertures 46 , 48 and continue projecting inwardly threadily connecting apertures 72 , 74 .", "The threads cut in the respective apertures 46 , 72 and 48 , 74 are synchronized when cut to provide a continuous spiral path taking into account intolerances between the respective members.", "Additionally, rotation of the universal joint 10 about the axis of the screws and apertures will actually tighten the threaded assembly flexing arms 42 , 44 slightly.", "The floating nature of saddle 30 thereby provides a fatigue resistant structure.", "The flexing of arms 42 , 44 thus provides an additional resistance to the universal joint falling off the central axis, thus easing operation such as when a mechanic attempts to attach a drive socket in a remote area.", "[0022] Sleeve 20 has an interior wall 90 relieved to provide a groove 92 .", "Wall 90 closely conforms to the surface of driving member male end 12 .", "Slide key 16 is formed substantially in an inverted “T”", "shape.", "[0023] Slide key 16 has a vertical control bar structure 100 and a transverse actuator structure 102 .", "Control bar structure 100 has a ramp 104 that directly contacts intermediate ball 106 .", "Ball 106 transmits force between retainer ball 18 and control bar structure 100 .", "Outer wall 108 will, when the device is in a locked position bear on an interior wall of a socket.", "Notch 110 will engage the edge of a socket to permit pushing the socket on the device to retract the locking mechanism.", "Thus, the socket can be placed on the device without retracting the sleeve 20 .", "This operation is described in greater detail in the Nickipuck patents cited above and incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.", "[0024] Actuator 102 has two opposed arms 112 , 114 connected by a transverse cross piece 116 defining thereunder a spring ram 118 that receives spring 22 .", "Stops 120 , 122 provide limitation of motion when in the assembled condition and the locked condition by providing surfaces upon which arms 42 , 44 abut when the universal joint is deflected to a maximum of 45°.", "As force transmission through the universal joint is generally ineffective past about 45°, it is a typical design flaw in standard universal joints that the universal joint can bend to an extreme angle whereby it is neither easy for an operator to align sockets nor is it feasible for the operator to transmit torque.", "All surfaces and arms are formed and arranged with this limitation in mind.", "[0025] Driving member or male end 12 has a body 130 and clevis arms 132 , 134 .", "Arms 132 , 134 have threaded apertures 136 , 138 that receive set screws 140 , 142 in the same manner at arms and apertures 42 , 44 , 46 , 48 and the connection to threaded aperture 76 , 78 and flexing of arms 132 , 134 is affected in the same manner.", "[0026] At the end of body 130 is a projecting drive member 144 .", "Drive member 144 and body 130 are formed with channel 146 in which control bar portion 100 moves and is guided in channel 146 to engage and disengage ball 18 through ball 106 .", "Channel 146 intersects transverse actuator channel 148 so that arms 112 , 114 being engaged in slot 92 to permit the longitudinal movement of control bar portion 100 .", "[0027] Sleeve 20 being circular and corresponding closely to the diameter of body 130 must actually be distorted out of round to receive arms 112 , 114 .", "The elastic properties of the material then permit sleeve 130 to return to the circular configuration for assembly.", "As the aforementioned components are assembled, tension springs 150 , 152 are received in apertures 153 located just inside arms 132 , 134 .", "Springs 150 , 152 bear directly on bosses 64 , 78 to provide additional tension tending to urge the axes of members 12 , 24 and 14 into a straight alignment.", "As discussed above, this provides assistance to the operator in permitting better control and “aiming”", "of a drive socket to the line with the fastener in a difficult to reach location.", "[0028] Universal coupling member 24 is formed with the axes of apertures 72 , 74 and 76 , 78 perpendicular.", "The spacing of the axes is such that at the diameter of the apertures and set screws, there would be an overlap of the respective cylinders defined by the extended diameters.", "Thus, by comparison to prior art universal joints using pins, a much closer spacing of the axes 72 , 74 and 76 , 78 can be accomplished.", "Should pins have been used, the pins would interfere with one another because their outer surfaces would overlap.", "The use of set screws, therefore, enables a much closer spacing.", "p Thus, the length L of the low profile locking universal joint relative to width W can be a ratio of less than three, optimally about 2.66 or less.", "Compared to prior art which considers a ratio of 5 to be advantageous, the instant invention is far superior.", "[0029] While the present invention has been disclosed and described with reference to a single embodiment thereof, it will be apparent, as noted above that variations and modifications may be made therein.", "It is also noted that the present invention is independent of the particular tools used to impart rotational force and the particular tools driven, being not limited to those tools.", "It is, thus, intended in the following claims to cover each variation and modification that falls within the true spirit and scope of the present invention." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Two basic approaches have been used in the past to obtain high production rates in the commercial hanking and packaging of precut lengths of insulated wire and other relatively flexible materials.", "The first involves a multi-station turret type of machine which is loaded and performs a winding operation at one station (or between the first and second station), a fastening operation at a second station and ejection of the finished package at a third station.", "In this technique, several winding heads are mounted on a rotatable turret.", "The turret indexes and stops at each station, dwelling long enough to allow an already wound and fastened package to be ejected at the third station while another wound cord is fastened at the second station and a fresh cord is being loaded and wound at the first station.", "It is apparent that this technique allows various operations to be performed simultaneously on different cords at different stations, thereby yielding maximum production rates.", "The second approach to obtain optimum production rates with a simpler and less expensive machine which is quickly adjustable to accommodate a very wide range of package configurations is detailed in the Hanscom U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,770,183, 3,480,219 and 3,480,220.", "In this technique, a single winding station and a single fastening station are affixed to a basic machine frame.", "An automatic hand is used to transfer the package from the winding to the fastening station which hand simply picks up the wound bundle, transfers and deposits it at the fastening station, and returns for the next transfer cycle.", "This approach obviously allows simultaneous loading and winding, transfer, fastening, and ejection operations and is therefore very efficient.", "The simplicity of the machine makes it relatively inexpensive and widely adjustable.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A packaging mechanism having arms or the like which press the package down against a receiving surface or support upon which the package rests while the fastening of the package in hank form occurs.", "In a specific embodiment, hold down arms are operated by a bell crank lever and one of the legs of this bell crank lever is pressed down by a vertically reciprocating part of the machine with which it is to be attached and in turn resiliently moves the hold down means into package pressing position.", "A hook engages the bell crank lever momentarily while the tieing occurs and then a cam lifts the hook which holds the bell crank lever in down position to release it and permit a resilient means to move the bell crank lever to initial position and permits the hold down means to move upwardly to release position after which the cycle is repeated.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a fragmental perspective view of the machine showing the package being transferred to binding position;", "FIG. 2 is a similar view with mechanism holding the package to be bound;", "FIG. 3 is a side elevation of the hold down mechanism in raised position;", "FIG. 4 is a side elevation looking at the opposite side of the machine from the view of FIG. 1;", "FIG. 5 is a top plan view.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, 10 designates the base of the mechanism from which there arises an upright stand which is shown in two parts 11 and 12 welded to the base 10 and joined together by a plate 13 at their upper ends.", "The package engaging means is designated generally 15 and comprises a pair of arms 16, 16'", "spaced from each other a suitable distance to engage the package at spaced locations.", "The arms 16, 16'", "are mounted upon a rotatable shaft 17 which extends through and is journaled in upright stand 12.", "The arms 16, 16'", "are free to rock to one side of the stand 12.", "A cross brace 18, spaced from the shaft 17, supports the arms in this spaced relation as shown perhaps best in the top plan view of FIG. 5. The hold down arms 16, 16'", "which extend at one side of the support 12 are rotationally connected to a second arm 19 (FIG.", "4) which extends downwardly and at an angle to the arms 16, 16'", "for a purpose to be presently described.", "A bell crank lever designated generally 20 (see FIG. 4) is pivoted on a shaft 23 which extends through the upright stand portion 11 and comprising legs 21 and 22.", "Leg 21 extends into a location beneath a vertically reciprocating part 25 of the machine (see FIGS. 2 and 4) with which this mechanism is to operate, so that this part 25 may engage a roller 26 on the free end of the leg 21 and swing the bell crank lever 20 about its pivot 23.", "The bell crank lever arm 22 is resiliently attached to the second arm 19 by means of a rod 27 attached as at 28 to the free end of the second arm 19 and which is free to slide through a tube 29 pivotally attached as at 30 to the leg 22, a coil spring 31 being inserted between the tube 29 and the base of rod 27 so that these two parts are resiliently connected and will allow some compression through the action of spring 31 as the bundle or package is engaged by spaced arms 16, 16'.", "The leg 22 is also connected by rod 35 pivotally attached as at 36 to the leg 22 and which will slide through a tube 37 on the upright stand portion 12.", "A spring 38 will permit the rod 35 to slide through the tube 37 against the action of the spring 38 and will force the leg 22 and the bell crank lever clockwise to return to the up position shown in FIG. 4 if there is no pressure upon the roller 26 so that it may rise.", "When the bell crank lever is depressed by some vertically moving part such as 25, it will be rocked clockwise (FIG.", "3) to bring the arms 16, 16'", "down against the package and a latch 40 having a hook portion 41 and a beveled end 42 will slide over a roller 43 on the end of the leg 22 and hold the bell crank lever and hold down arms within depressed position, while the tieing action on the package engaged is performed.", "A spring 44 (FIG.", "3) holds this latch in down position but as the bell crank roller 43 engages the bevel 42 of the latch, the latch will lift and roller 43 will slide under and be hooked by the portion 41.", "Latch 40 is mounted on a shaft 45 extending from one side of upright 12 and on the other side of the upright stand 12 there is an arm 46 which is fixed to the shaft 45 and extends from the shaft substantially parallel with the latch 40.", "Arm 46 carries a roller 47 (FIGS.", "3 and 5) at its free end or at its end distant from its pivoting shaft and a cam 48 on the horizontally rotating disc 49 which has one revolution for each package engaged (and might be tied to a gear such as gear 46 in FIG. 3 of Hanscom U.S. Pat. No. 2,770,183) will swing the latch upwardly to release the latch once each revolution or once each completion of the tieing of the package, and permit spring 38 to raise the bell crank lever by action on the leg 22 to raised position and at the same time raise the hold down arms 16, 16'", "through the resilient connection 27 to 31 to the raised position for the discharge of the completed package from the machine and the insertion of a newly wound package into the machine for tieing.", "FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate the manner in which the hold down arms can operate in conjunction with a mechanism which is available for hanking electric cords and the like.", "For example, if one tries to hank an S cord, that is an electrical cord which has two or three conductors and an outer jacket consisting of a rather stiff neoprene sleeve, the entire cord is one which is stiff and does not lend itself well to being wrapped with an automatic tieing machine.", "For example, as seen in FIG. 1, the transfer arm is bringing a hanked electrical cord from a previous winding operation by way of gripping fingers over into a tieing station which is generally indicated by the numeral 60.", "In FIG. 2 the electrical cord has been dropped in between guides at the tieing station and the arms 16, 16'", "have lowered themselves to engage the cord set, compress it and hold it down against a support.", "As previously explained, the arms will hold the cord set or other bundle against the platform with automatic adjustment for the size of the bundle, inasmuch as the spring 31 will take up the differential and maintain the arms 16, 16'", "in downward urgence with sufficient compression so that now, the arms that are utilized to wrap tie around the cord set can come into operation and suitably place a tie around the wire bundle as more fully disclosed in Hanscom U.S. Pat. No. 2,770,183 above referred to (see FIGS. 8 and 13).", "After fastening the cord set, or the like, the arms compressing the cord set will release the package and an ejector at the wrapping station 60 will push the packaged cord set out of position into a receptacle (not shown)." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention The invention relates to manhole cover supports and in particular to a separate ring placed within an existing manhole to raise the height of the manhole cover to compensate for added roadway pavement.", "More particularly the invention relates to a manhole cover support ring mounted within an existing manhole frame opening by a toggle mechanism which expands the ring outwardly into clamping engagement with the manhole cover frame.", "Description of the Prior Art Most underground facilities such as sanitary and storm sewers, utility conduits and the like have manhole openings to provide access thereto.", "These manholes usually are located in the street or roadway and consist of an inverted bell-shaped metal frame mounted on top of a brick or concrete base structure.", "This metal frame has an internal ledge for supporting the manhole cover so that the top of the cover is level with the top of the frame and surrounding roadway pavement.", "Problems arise quite frequently in the resurfacing of roadways in that a layer of pavement is placed on the existing pavement resulting in the manhole cover being below the top surface of the new pavement causing a depression in the roadway.", "It is quite difficult and expensive to raise the existing manhole frame sufficiently to compensate for the added pavement.", "Various devices have been constructed which enable an existing manhole cover to be raised to the level of the new pavement surface without raising the existing manhole frame.", "Examples of these devices are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,517,871, 3,218,943, 3,773,428, and 3,891,337.", "Some of these prior art devices, although apparently providing the desired results, are expensive to manufacture due to the number of machining and forming operations required for their fabrication.", "Likewise, these devices achieve their adjustment and/or clamping engagement with the manhole frame by a threaded screw mechanism which in time may become loose due the continuous vibration caused by passing vehicles.", "These screw mechanisms become corroded preventing removal of the elevating ring should their removal be required in the future.", "Most known devices use an expanding mechanism which protrudes into the I.D. of the manhole, thereby reducing the actual I.D. as well as creating a work and safety hazard for workmen climbing into and out of the manhole opening.", "No manhole cover support ring of which I am aware uses an internal peripherally mounted toggle mechanism for expanding the support ring outwardly into clamping engagement with the edges of the manhole frame concentric to the manhole opening.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Objectives of the invention include providing a manhole cover support ring formed relatively inexpensively of a flat strip of metal and a strip of rectangular bar stock which is welded on the lower end of the strip, both of which then are formed into a circular configuration with a gap existing between the adjacent spaced ends, and in which a toggle mechanism is mounted on and operatively engageable with the spaced end portions of the ring to forcibly expand the ring outwardly into engagement with the sides of an existing manhole opening frame;", "providing such a support ring in which the toggle mechanism is moved from open to closed position by a single blow of a hammer when installing the ring in an existing manhole, and in which the support ring can be moved from closed to open position by use of a screwdriver or other level bar which snaps the mechanism past center for removing the support ring;", "providing such a support ring in which the toggle mechanism is easily adjusted to regulate the limits of outward expansion of the ring so as to compensate for and accommodate minor variations in manhole opening sizes and irregularities of roundness;", "providing such a support ring which is less susceptible to loosening due to vibrations of passing vehicles than most known prior devices, and in which the amount of vertical height adjustment of the cover can be varied easily by changing the size of either the flat metal strip or bar components;", "providing such a support ring in which the expansion mechanism lies within the periphery of the ring without any components protruding into the I.D. of the manhole opening thereby eliminating a work hazard and maintaining the effective I.D. of the manhole opening;", "and providing a manhole cover supporting ring which is relatively inexpensive, which eliminates difficulties heretofore encountered with prior devices, achieves the stated objectives simply, effectively and efficiently, and solves problems and satisfies existing needs.", "These objectives and advantages are obtained by the ring construction for supporting a manhole cover in an elevated position within a manhole frame, the general nature of said ring construction may be stated as including circular ring means having inwardly projecting manhole cover supporting ledge means and upwardly extending flange means, the ring means being split at least at one point on its periphery forming a pair of spaced end portions;", "toggle means mounted on the ring means and extending between and operatively engageable with the spaced end portions for expanding the ring means outwardly to force the flange means into abutting engagement with a manhole frame;", "the ring means including a generally vertically extending flange and a bar mounted on the lower end of the flange and projecting inwardly therefrom to form the cover supporting ledge means;", "the toggle means including a pair of levers each having first and second ends, said first ends being operatively engageable with a respective spaced end portion of the ring means, and the second ends being operatively engaged with each other and movable generally radially between open and closed positions.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Preferred embodiments of the invention -- illustrative of the best modes in which applicant has contemplated applying the principles -- are set forth in the following description and shown in the drawings and are particularly and distinctly pointed out and set forth in the appended claims.", "FIG. 1 is a top plan view of the improved manhole cover support ring;", "FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary top plan view of the toggle mechanism shown in open position of the improved support ring of FIG. 1;", "FIG. 3 is a top plan fragmentary view similar to FIG. 2 showing the toggle mechanism in closed position;", "FIG. 4 is an elevational view of the toggle mechanism looking in the direction of arrows 4--4, FIG. 3;", "FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken on line 5--5, FIG. 3;", "FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken on line 6--6, FIG. 3;", "FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken on line 7--7, FIG. 2;", "FIG. 8 is a fragmentary top plan view similar to FIG. 2 showing another type of toggle mechanism (in open position) for use with the support ring of FIG. 1;", "FIG. 9 is a fragmentary top plan view similar to FIG. 8 showing the toggle mechanism in closed position;", "FIG. 10 is an elevational view looking in the direction of arrows 10--10, FIG. 9;", "and FIG. 11 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view of the improved manhole cover support ring mounted on an existing manhole frame.", "Similar numerals refer to similar parts throughout the drawings.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS First Embodiment The improved manhole cover support ring is indicated generally at 1 and is shown in FIG. 1. Ring 1 includes as its main components a generally vertical flange 2, a lower manhole cover support bar 3 and a toggle mechanism, indicated generally at 4.", "Flange 2 is formed of a relatively flat metal strip, with bar 3 being formed from bar stock preferably having a rectangular cross-sectional configuration.", "Bar 3 is attched by welds 5 to the bottom portion of flange 2 (FIG.", "5).", "Flange 2 and bar 3 are formed into a circular configuration before or after being welded together as shown in FIG. 1, with bar 3 lying inwardly or inside of the periphery of flange 2.", "The length of bar 3 is shorter than that of flange 2.", "This arrangement provides a greater separation or gap 6 between spaced ends 7 and 8 of bar 3 than the separation or gap 11 between spaced ends 9 and 10 of flange 2 when flange 2 and bar 3 are formed into their circular configuration.", "Enlarged gap 6 provides sufficient space for mounting of toggle mechanism 4 as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, and still provide support for a manhole cover by means of toggle mechanism 4.", "Manhole frames used by most cities and municipalities have a predetermined size opening so that the required diameter size of ring 2 is known at time of construction.", "In the event the particular manhole opening in which ring 1 is to be used varies from a standard size, the diameter of ring 1 can be changed accordingly by varying the lengths of flange 2 and bar 3.", "Flange 2, when assembled with bar 3 preferably extends slightly outwardly from a true vertical position, as shown in FIG. 5, and forms a frusto conical configuration.", "In accordance with one of the main features of the invention, toggle mechanism 4 is mounted on bar 3 and extends across gap 6 between the spaced ends 7 and 8.", "Mechanism 4 (FIGS.", "2, 3 and 4) includes a pair of levers, indicated generally at 13 and 14.", "Levers 13 and 14 consist of threaded rods 15 and 16, one end of which are formed with eyelets 17 and 18 with the other ends having threads 19 and 20 formed therealong, respectively.", "Sleeves 21 and 22 are adjustably mounted on the swinging ends of rods 15 and 16 by engagement of rod threads 19 and 20 with threaded bores 23 and 24 formed in sleeves 21 and 22, respectively.", "Sleeves 21 and 22 preferably have rectangular or square cross-sectional configurations, as shown in FIG. 7, and may be formed from a bar stock similar to bar 3.", "Levers 13 and 14 are pivotally mounted on the spaced ends 7 and 8 of bar 3 by placement of eyelets 17 and 18 within slots 25 and 26 formed therein.", "Slit sleeves or roll pins 27 and 28 extend through holes 29 and 30 formed in bar ends 7 and 8, respectively, and through eyelets 17 and 18 to form the pivot pins.", "Levers 13 and 14 are adapted to swing in a generally radial direction with respect to the center point of ring 1 between the open position of FIG. 2 and the closed position of FIG. 3. The outer end of lever 13 is formed with a concave recess 32 with a half round projection 33 being formed on the other end of lever 14.", "Projection 33 has a smooth curved convex configuration complementary to concave recess 32 of lever 13.", "Convex projection 33 may be a half portion of round bar stock which is cut to the desired length and secured by a weld 34 to the outer end of lever 14, or may be a single burned out piece or machined convex projection.", "FIG. 11 shows a portion of improved support ring 1 mounted within a usual manhole opening 47.", "A usual manhole consists of an annular frame 35 (only a portion of the top being shown in FIG. 11) which has a cylindrical outer surface 36 and an annular horizontal manhole cover supporting ledge 37.", "Ledge 37 terminates in an upwardly outwardly extending conical wall 38 which is connected with outer surface 36 by an annular horizontal top surface 39.", "The top surface 40 of the original roadway pavement 41 is level with top surface 39 of manhole frame 35, which also will be level with the top surface 42 of a manhole cover 43 when cover 43 is supported on horizontal ledge 37.", "Ring 1 is shown placed in clamped position on manhole frame 35 (FIG.", "11) with a new layer of pavement 44 being shown placed on original pavement 41.", "Bar 3 rests upon and is supported by manhole frame ledge 37 with flange 3 being in clamped contact with conical wall 38 of manhole frame 35.", "A rubber or synthetic annular gasket 45 is placed on top surface 46 of bar 3 to dampen vibration and reduce chatter before placement of manhole cover 43 on ring 1.", "The vertical height of bar 3 generally will be equal to the thickness of new pavement layer 44 so as to raise the manhole cover this amount vertically above existing manhole frame ledge 37, as shown in FIG. 11.", "When installing ring 1, all dirt, rust and debris is removed from ledge 37 and conical wall 38 of manhole frame 35.", "Ring 1 is placed within manhole opening 47 which is defined by frame wall 38, with toggle mechanism 4 being in the open position of FIG. 2. Levers 13 and 14 are forcibly struck at their junction in an outwardly radial direction which pivots the levers radially outwardly on split sleeves 27 and 28 about imaginary pivot points 27a and 28a to the closed position of FIG. 3. Convex projection 33 will slidably pivot within concave recess 32 of lever 13 when levers 13 and 14 swing between open and closed positions, which movement will expand flange 2 radially outwardly into engagement with conical wall 38 of manhole frame 35.", "An imaginary pivot point 33a at the end of lever 14 adjacent the junction with lever 13 will move across an imaginary centerline 48 which extends between pivot points 27a and 28a of sleeves 27 and 28.", "In the event a sufficiently tight clamping fit is not achieved, toggle mechanism 4 is moved to the open position of FIG. 2 by a simple prying action of a screwdriver or lever to move the swinging ends of levers 13 and 14 radially inwardly beyond centerline 48.", "Either sleeves 21 or 22, or both, then are adjusted by rotation on rods 15 and 16.", "After adjustment the levers are placed in the position of FIG. 2 and restruck with a hammer, whereupon the lever swinging ends move radially outwardly to the closed position of FIG. 3. Sleeves 21 or 22 will contact flange 2 to limit their movement beyond centerline 48, as shown in FIG. 3, to prevent loosening of expanded flange 2.", "After the desired clamping engagement is achieved between flange 2 and conical frame wall 38, gasket 45 is placed on top surface 46 of bar 3 and manhole cover 43 is placed thereon in a usual manner with its top surface 42 now being level with the top surface of new pavement layer 44 (FIG.", "11).", "If desired, gasket 45 may be bonded to top surface 46 of bar 3 and to the top surfaces of lever sleeves 21 and 22 during fabrication.", "Second Embodiment A modified form of the invention is shown in FIGS. 8, 9 and 10 and is indicated generally at 49.", "The main feature of this second embodiment is a modified toggle mechanism indicated generally at 50.", "Modified ring 49 includes a generally vertical flange 51 and a manhole cover support bar 52 which are similar to flange 2 and bar 3 of support ring 1.", "Toggle mechanism 50 includes a pair of levers 53 and 54 with lever 53 being similar to levers 13 and 14 of toggle mechanism 4.", "Lever 53 includes a threaded rod 55 having an eyelet 56 at one end and an adjusting sleeve 57 at its other end.", "Lever 53 is pivotally mounted on end 58 of bar 52 by a split sleeve or roll pin 59 as are levers 13 and 14.", "Eyelet 56 is located within a slot 60 formed in bar end 58 (FIG.", "10).", "The outer end of adjusting sleeve 57 is formed with a slot 61 for pivotally mounting lever 54 therein by a split sleeve 62.", "Sleeve 62 extends through an opening 63 formed in the end of lever 54 and through a pair of aligned holes 64 formed in the end of lever sleeve 57.", "The free or swinging end of lever 54 is formed with a concave recess 66 which slidably pivots about a generally complementary convex projection 67 formed on end 68 of bar 52.", "The operation of toggle mechanism 50 is similar to that of mechanism 4, discussed above.", "An imaginary pivot point 65 formed at the pivotal connection of levers 53 and 54, moves across an imaginary centerline 69 when moving between the open and closed positions of FIGS. 8 and 9.", "Centerline 69 extends between imaginary points 70 and 71, in which point 71 is the imaginary point about which concave surface 66 slidably pivots when contacting convex projecting surface 67.", "SUMMARY Support ring constructions 1 and 49 may have a rectangular shape if desired in which a pair of toggle mechanisms 4 or 50 are located at a pair of split locations on opposite sides of the rectangular frame.", "The rectangular frame would be formed of a vertical flange and cover supporting bar similar to flanges 2 and 51 and bars 3 and 52, described above and shown in the drawings.", "However, since most manhole frames and the openings formed thereby are circular, the two embodiments shown will be the usual construction used for most applications.", "Likewise, toggle mechanisms 4 and 50 could consist of a pair of levers similar to lever 54.", "Each lever would have a concave surface formed on one end which is adapted to engage convex projections formed on the spaced ends of a split ring.", "The two levers would be pivotally joined at a common end similar to toggle mechanism 50, as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9.", "This toggle mechanism would be a separate component and not attached to the manhole support ring.", "Also, if desired, one of the levers of this mechanism could have an adjustable sleeve similar to that of levers 21 and 22 of FIGS. 2 and 3.", "Since pins 27, 28, 59 and 62 are of a split sleeve configuration, they provide a very slight amount of compression thereto.", "This compression reduces the amount of inward movement of the ring which occurs after the toggle levers move beyond center to maintain a tight clamping action between the ring flange and the vertical surface of the manhole frame.", "Another of the important features of ring constructions 1 and 49 is the location of toggle mechanisms 4 and 50 completely within the periphery of the rings when in closed position, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 9.", "This arrangement maintains the effective I.D. of the support rings and eliminates any hazardous protusions into the manhole opening as present in some prior art constructions.", "When rings 1 and 49 are installed in an existing manhole, as shown in FIG. 11, the existing I.D. of the manhole opening is unchanged.", "Lever sleeves 21, 22, 57 and lever 54 preferably are formed of a bar stock similar to that of bars 3 and 52, whereby their top surfaces lie in the same horizontal plane as the top surfaces of bars 3 and 52, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 10.", "This arrangement provides a nearly continuous support for manhole cover 43 even across the gaps formed by the spaced ends of bars 3 and 52.", "Several types of existing manhole frames have a semicircular inwardly projecting member which will interfere with any support ring placed thereon.", "This problem is eliminated easily by regulating the gap between the spaced ends of flange 51 to permit the frame projection to extend therein.", "A concave recess or indentation is formed in lever 54 which is complementary to the manhole frame projection.", "The principle of operation and construction of such a modified support ring is the same as that of ring construction 49, and therefore, is not shown in detail.", "Accordingly, the improved manhole support ring provides a construction which is formed of a few relatively inexpensive and readily available components which are assembled by a usual welding procedure;", "provides such a construction using a toggle mechanism for expanding the ring outwardly into secure clamping engagement with an existing manhole frame without reducing the effective I.D. of the manhole opening;", "and provides a construction which is simplified, effective and safe in operation;", "which eliminates difficulties existing in the art, and which achieves the stated objectives and solves problems that have existed in the art.", "In the foregoing description, certain terms have been used for brevity, clearness and understanding;", "but no unnecessary limitations are to be implied therefrom beyond the requirements of the prior art, because such terms are used for descriptive purposes and are intended to be broadly construed.", "Moreover, the description and illustration of the invention is by way of example, and the scope of the invention is not limited to the exact details shown or described.", "Having now described the features, discoveries and principles of the invention, the manner in which the manhole cover support ring is constructed and used, the characteristics of the construction, and the advantageous, new and useful results obtained;", "the new and useful structures, devices, elements, arrangements, parts and combinations, are set forth in the appended claims." ]

[ "FIELD OF INVENTION The invention relates to a method of and an apparatus for preventing accidents during operation of manually-operated machine tools with a rotatable toolbit, in particular, hammer drills, by interrupting the transmission of motion from a drive motor of the machine tool to the toolbit, dependent on the operational condition of the toolbit which is sensed by a rotational motion sensor.", "During an operation of manually-operated machine tools, particularly such powerful machine tools as drill hammers, the accidents which may be caused by the rotating toolbit, such as an injury of a hand or damage to a ladder, a scaffold and the like, are prevented by rapid blocking of the toolbit.", "However, rapid increase of the reaction torque of the machine tool presents a serious problem.", "Of a plurality of prior art publications directed to the solution of this problem, two publications can be named as examples, EP-A-0150 669 and WO-DE 88-00109.", "The first publication, EP-A-0150 669, discloses providing, in the machine tool housing, of a closed small container containing an electrically conductive liquid mass, specifically mercury, which is interspersed by a magnetic field of a permanent magnet.", "Upon a more or less jerky rotation of the housing about the spindle axis, as a result of an action of the reaction torque, a relative movement takes place between the conductive liquid and the container or the permanent magnet which is fixed in the container and which induces voltage in the conductive mass.", "This voltage which appears, for example, when a predetermined threshold value is exceeded, is sensed and is used for releasing a coupling which connects the drive motor with the toolbit, and the release of which interrupts the transmission of the drive motion from the electric motor to the toolbit.", "The second publication, WO-DE-88 0-0109, discloses a device operable on a similar principle, namely, the use of rotational motion sensors which are fixed in or on the housing and which sense a magnitude of a rotational path, and/or an angular speed, and/or an angular acceleration of a pivotal movement of the manually-operated machine tool.", "Dependent on a predetermined criterium, the sensor signal actuates a respective coupling or clutch which interrupts the transmission of the drive motion from the electric motor to the toolbit.", "As a rotational motion sensor, according to this publication, a spring-loaded mechanical inertial switch is used which acts directly on the clutch.", "The drawbacks of the solutions, which are disclosed in the above-discussed two publications, consist in that during the operation of the machine tool, for example, in this case a drill hammer, in a cement mass, the unhomogeneous composition may trigger a false actuation of the safety coupling.", "These, as well as all of the other known solutions, are based on a passive evaluation of the accident signal, in particular, when the motion sensor and the actuator are part of a single unit and when a pure mechanical or electromechanical principle is used for preventing accidents.", "Accordingly, an object of the invention is providing in a manually-operated machine tool with a rotatable toolbit means for preventing accidents, which is based on a better difference criterium between allowable and dangerous reaction moments that could result in an accident.", "Another object of the invention is providing means which would enable an early actuation of safety or interrupting means, so that the safety of the operation with the machine tool with a rotatable toolbit is substantially increased.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION These and other objects of the invention, which will become apparent hereinafter, are achieved by providing a method of preventing accidents during operation of a manually-operated machine tool having a rotatable toolbit and a drive motor for driving the toolbit, which includes the step of determining an operational condition of the tool with a rotational motion sensor, selecting a time constant, calculating, on a basis of a rotational motion signal generated by the sensor, a maximum forecast rotational angle at an end of a time period determined by the selected time constant, and interrupting transmission of drive motion from the drive motor to the rotatable toolbit as soon as the calculated, forecasted rotational angle exceeds a value of the maximum allowable rotational angle.", "Thus, the invention is based on an idea of an advanced forecast of a future behavior of the machine tool so that appropriate counter measures can be undertaken before the machine tool attains a too large rotational pulse, when an accident can no longer be prevented.", "According to the invention, as a rotational motion sensor, an angular acceleration sensor such as a micromechanical acceleration meter with a very short response time, is used.", "When the sensor-generated measurement signal exceeds a predetermined reference value, it is converted by double integration over a time period, determined by a time constant, into a forecast or expected rotational angle.", "The double integration is advantageously effected with limiting the used band width.", "To reduce the influence of low and/or high frequency disturbances which are always present, the used band width has a lower limiting frequency of 0.5-10 H z and an upper limiting frequency of 100-1000 H z .", "As interrupting means according to the invention, an electromagnetic friction coupling is used.", "However, a multiple-disc coupling as well as a claw coupling can be used for interrupting the transmission of the drive motion from the electric motor to the rotating toolbit.", "By diverse measures, by research and by practical experience, it was determined that for a desired interruption, dependent on the type of machine tool used, the decoupling time lies within the range of 5-20 milliseconds.", "The decoupling can, and as a rule, is connected with a simultaneouls cut-off of a current flow to the electrical motor.", "For small machine tools with relatively light rotors, instead of a coupling, a quick-action brake can be used, again, in connection with simultaneous current cut-off.", "The safety means is generally actuated when a forecast rotational angle calculated on a basis of a rotational motion signal sensed by the sensor, exceeds a predetermined maximum allowable rotational angle, for example, 40°-75°, from a momentary actual angle of the toolbit.", "An arrangement for preventing accidents during operation of a manually-operated machine tool having a rotatable toolbit and a drive motor for driving the toolbit, includes means for interrupting transmission of the drive motion from the drive motor to the toolbit, a rotational motion sensor for determining an operational condition of the toolbit, computer means for calculating, on a basis of a rotational motion signal generated by the sensor, a maximum forecast rotational angle at an end of a time period determined by a selected time constant, and an output interface for transmitting to the interrupting means an actuation signal generated by the computer means when the calculated, forecasted rotational angle exceeds a pre-determined maximum allowable rotational angle.", "The calculation means, e.g., computer means, preferably includes band width limiting filter means with above-indicated limiting frequencies.", "As a rotational motion sensor or sensors, angular acceleration sensors, in particular a micromechanical acceleration meter, angular speed sensors, or torque sensors, can be used.", "According to the present knowledge, angular acceleration meters or sensors with a response time usually of less than one millisecond, is preferred.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The objects and features of the present invention will become more apparent and the invention itself will be best understood, from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment when read with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a basic arrangement according to the present invention for forecasting a need for an action to prevent an accident that may be caused by a rotating toolbit;", "FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a hammer drill, taken as an example of a manually-operated machine tool, in which the essential elements of the arrangement of FIG. 1 are shown with marked rectangles;", "FIG. 3 is an operational block diagram for effecting an advanced signal evaluation with the use of acceleration meters as sensors;", "FIG. 4 is a diagram of a transfer function when band limiting integrators are used in the arrangement of FIG. 3;", "FIG. 5 is a source code flow chart for signal evaluation with a microprocessor;", "and FIG. 6 is an analog circuit diagram for effecting executive routine, according to the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT An arrangement for an advanced prevention of accidents by an immediate blocking of a rotating toolbit of a manually-operated machine tool, in particular of a hammer drill, and an algorithm and an evaluation circuit therefor, according to the present invention, will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings.", "As shown in FIG. 1, an operational condition of a manually-operated machine tool M can be monitored with at least one sensor, such as an angular acceleration sensor 1a, which can be formed by an accelerator meter, angular speed sensor 1b, a path meter (translational sensor) ets.", ", or a torque sensor 1n.", "The sensor signals are transmitted through an input interface 2, which can be formed as analog-to-digital convertor, ets.", ", to an electronic evaluation unit which may be formed as a microprocessor, a microcontroller based on a discreet circuit technique, a signal processor or the like, and which includes a pattern-or control-based alogorithm that predicts an operational condition of the machine in response to signals received from a sensor or sensors 1a-1n.", "A tested example of such a pattern-based alogorithm will be discussed in more detail below.", "When a potential accident is detected, the evaluation unit or controller 3 transmits command signals through an output interface 4 to one or more actuators 5a-5n, for example, to a coupling 5a which interrupts the drive path between the drive motor 7 and the tool holder or tool 8, to a circuit breaker 5b and/or brake 5n.", "These actuators prevent a predicted or precalculated damage event from occurring, in particular a damage event which may be caused by the rotating toolbit.", "As soon as the machine tool is transferred into a condition which is safe for the machine tool operator, it can again be actuated by the operator.", "In the example of an arrangement shown in FIG. 2, a combination of an inertial angular acceleration sensor 1 with an integrated amplifier, a programmed microcontroller 3 with an analog-to-digital converter, a digital interface 2, a digital-to-analog interface 4, a semiconductor circuit breaker 6, and an electromagnetic coupling 5 is used.", "A jerky reaction about the axis 9, which occurs in operation by a sudden blocking of the toolbit according to the invention, should be limited in accordance with calculations, to a non-dangerous rotational angle of typically less than 60°.", "The angular acceleration about the axis 9 is detectable by the angular acceleration sensor 1 whose autodynamics, in view of the problem solved, should be sufficiently rapid with a response time typically less than one millisecond.", "The use of such angular acceleration sensors are known for example, in micromechanical devices, and the sensors are usually available on the market.", "They are usually available in a form of a differential condensator, in which the middle electrode of the condensator is formed as a pendulum mass of a B-meter that can be directly built into the measuring circuit.", "An amplified signal of the sensor 1 is transmitted, through the analog-to-digital interface 2, to the microcontroller 3 and is processed there according to the evaluation algorithm, which will be discussed in detail further below.", "The evaluation algorithm is basically shown in FIG. 3 and serves to predict the behavior of the machine M in response to a signal from the sensor.", "The input filter 10, formed as a low-pass filter, serves for reducing of high-frequency disturbances.", "After a double integration with integrators 11 and 12, initialized at suitable points of time, based on the sensor signal, a constant acceleration of an expected rotational angle by actual time t, plus a pre-set or pre-settable time period τ is calculated.", "This so-called predictable or Look-Ahead time constant τ should be so selected that, on one hand, sufficient time remains for taking necessary safety measures and, on the other hand, a reliable forecast is made.", "As soon as the forecasted rotational angle exceeds a predetermined allowable maximum rotational angle, a respective actuator, which is provided with an amplifier, is actuated by microcontroller 3 through the output interface 4, which is provided with a digital-to-analog converter.", "The actuator actuates the circuit breaker 6, formed as a high-speed semi-conductor circuit breaker 6, which interrupts the flow of current to the drive motor 7 of the machine M, and on the other hand, turns off the coupling 5, which breaks the drive path between the rotor of the drive motor 7 and the remaining elements of the drive path from the drive motor rotor to the toolbit 8.", "Thereby, it is achieved that no additional electrical energy is supplied to the machine tool, on one hand, and on the other hand, it is insured that a kinetic energy, which is already accumulated in the rotor of the drive motor 7, is not used for an undesirable rotation of the toolbit 8.", "In the case when angular speed sensors are used, the mathematical basis of the inventive idea, Look-Ahead idea, consists in double integration in the interval t (actual time)--(t+τ).", "Based on constant simulated acceleration u(t), with the use of actual values of a rotational angle ψ(t) and the angular speed ω(t) as initial parameters.", "The following equation serves for calculating u(t): ##EQU1## The acceleration u(t) is measured with angular speed sensor 1 and is compared, for example, with a constant preset acceleration value u(φ).", "Under these conditions, within the time interval t-(t+τ), the assumption u(t)=u(φ) is valid.", "Therefrom follows: ##EQU2## The more the precalculated estimation ζ(t+τ) approaches the true rotational angle ψ(t+τ), the better the obtained equation comes true for the accelaration u(t).", "In this regard, it is very important to reduce the influence of low and/or high frequency disturbances which are always present.", "In a practically tested embodiment of the invention, in the block diagram of FIG. 3, the integrators 11 and 12 are formed as band-limiting integrators, i.e., at low frequencies the amplification of these elements is limited to a finite value.", "This is important, because slow hand movements of an operator which are always present during normal operation and which should not result in an emergency turn-off of the machine, should not be transmitted to the integrators 11 and 12.", "In addition, the band-limiting integrators 11 and 12 eliminate the switching-off drift, in a case when the acceleration sensor 1 is characterized by a quasi-statical behavior in which a pieso-electrical acceleration sensor is used as sensor 1.", "The mathematical description of a band-limiting integrator is usually made by using its transfer function: ##EQU3## where the parameter T I is obtained from the equation ##EQU4## where ω u indicates the frequency which the integrated parameter should attain.", "Usually, when a manually-operated drill is used, very large acceleration values are obtained with likewise very high frequencies.", "In order that these very high values do not lead to an erroneous actuation of the safety arrangement (circuit breaking, coupling release), it is necessary to filter out the signals exceeding an upper cut-off frequency ω o .", "This band width limitation of the input signal from the sensor 1 is effected with the low-pass filter 10 shown in FIG. 3. The scaled complex transfer function, which is determined by a logarithm of the rotary frequency ω within a band range used, according to the present invention, is schematically shown in FIG. 4. The band is defined by limits ω u and ω o , which are different according to the invention.", "For a manually-operated drill, as an example, the following values are used: 0.5 H Z<", "ω u <10 H Z 100 H Z <ω o <1000 H Z The corresponding values for other types of manually-operated machine tools are easily determined by operators in an obvious manner experimentally.", "The execution of the signal evaluation according to the diagram of FIG. 3 can be effected with a microprocessor equipped with appropriate software (see FIG. 5) or by using an analog electronic circuit (see FIG. 6).", "FIG. 5 shows a flow chart of a time-controlled interrupt-service routine for calculation of a discreet system equation, which is given in block 20 (Field 1) of the inventive, Look-Ahead, circuit including the necessary filter, e.g., a low-pass filter.", "This flow chart is executed periodically, within a fixed interval.", "The discreetization must ensue for a selected interval.", "In Block 21 (Field 30), the variables are stored.", "In Block 22 (Field 31), the analog-to-digital converter of the analog-to-digital interface 2 for processing an acceleration signal, is actuated.", "As soon as the analog-to-digital converter is closed, the signal is read-in into the computer (controller 3).", "In Block 23 (Field 32), a part which directly depends on the input signal, is added to the value calculated in the preceding step.", "This calculated value y is monitored in Block 24 (decision field 33) for determining whether it exceeds a positive and/or negative threshold and, if necessary, the actuator, in particular coupling 5, is open (Block 25, Field 34).", "In Blocks 26 and 27 (Fields 35 and 36), variables for the next step in accordance with the given condition and the already calculated part "temp"", "of the signal y, are calculated.", "In Block 28 (End Field 37), a feedback is processed in a background program in which different other functions are carried out, until a next interruption for effecting a further calculation cycle is initiated.", "The electronic circuit diagram of FIG. 6 for effecting the executive routine according to the block diagram of FIG. 3, will now be briefly described.", "A voltage signal, corresponding to the actual acceleration, is supplied to the input J1 and then, via a low-pass filter U1, to the first band-limiting integrator U2 (integrator 11 in FIG. 3), and thereafter to the second band-limiting integrator U3 (integrator 12 in FIG. 3).", "The predetermined time constant in a predetermined manner is evaluated in an adjustable RC-module.", "The output signals of the low pass filter U1, the integrators U2 and U3 are summarized in a summing amplifier U4 by means of series resistors to provide an evaluation signal.", "The output signal of the summing amplifier U4 is supplied, on one hand, to an output J2 and, on the other hand, to comparators and U10, which monitor whether a positive maximum or a negative maximum is exceeded, where the negative maximum can be preset with an inverse amplifier U7.", "The output signals of the comparators U9 and U10 set two flip-flops FF1 and FF2, each of which is formed of two NAND-elements.", "The output signals of the flip-flops FF1 and FF2 are shown by light-emitting diodes LED D1 and LED D2.", "In addition, the output signals of the flip-flops FF1 and FF2 are used for switching of the coupling 5.", "The solution, according to the present invention, in comparison with known solutions for preventing accidents caused by a rotating tool of a manually-operated machine tool, has an advantage consisting in that by means of an evaluation algorithm implemented advantageously in a microprocessor, or by means of a forecast evaluation, a future behavior of the machine tool can be predicted, and safety measures can be undertaken before the machine would be provided with a too large rotational pulse when an accident cannot be prevented any longer.", "Thanks to a high-speed evaluation logic, the operator's intent can be correctly interpreted and a desired operational condition can be quickly reinstated after a detection of a potential accident and the execution of necessary preventive measures.", "A particular advantage consists in that a continuous or periodic self-test can be easily executed by using an appropriate program, as well as in a precise actuation and an aging-independent release behavior.", "For implementing the invention, the following elements are necessary: An acceleration sensor (piezo-electrical, piezo-resistive, inertial, connected into and/or integrated as a part of a microelectronic circuit);", "An evaluation unit, either an analog unit formed by operational amplifiers, diodes, ets.", ", (see FIG. 6) or a digital unit formed by a microprocessor based on an execution of corresponding process steps (FIGS.", "1 and 5);", "and One or several actuators for breaking the connection between the drive motor and the toolbit (e.g., an electro-magnetic friction coupling), preferably connected with a circuit breaker.", "Though the present invention was shown and described with reference to preferred embodiments, various modifications thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art and, therefore, it is not intended that the invention be limited to the disclosed embodiments and/or details thereof, and departures can be made therefrom within the spirit and scope of the appended claims." ]

[ "BACKGROUND [0001] A virtual private network (“VPN”) is a private communications network that is typically used by organizations or businesses to communicate confidentially over a public network.", "VPN traffic can be carried over the Internet or other public network atop standard protocols.", "VPN traffic can also be carried over a private network maintained by a service provider under the terms of a service level agreement (“SLA”).", "Using a VPN, data may be transmitted across secured and encrypted private channels between two points.", "[0002] Similarly, tunneling is a method of transmitting data through a public network in such a way that the routing nodes of the public network are unaware that the transmission is part of a private network.", "Tunneling is typically accomplished by encapsulating the private network data and protocol information within the public network protocol data so that the tunneled data is not available to anyone examining the transmitted data frames.", "Tunneling enables public networks to be used to carry data on behalf of users as though they had access to a private network.", "[0003] The complexity of computer applications and the ability to establish tunnels and/or VPN connections through a portion of such applications may be challenging to a typical user.", "For example, the user may be unaware that a particular application would benefit from a secure network connection.", "Additionally, efficiently managing multiple secure network connections, each affording a different level and type of security, could prove challenging to the average user.", "SUMMARY [0004] One embodiment is a method for providing an overlay filter in a computer capable of at least one secure network connection for use by at least one user application of the computer.", "The method comprises establishing a first secure network connection;", "launching a first application via the first secure network connection;", "and presenting on a display of the computer a visual representation, the visual representation illustrating that the first application is using the first secure network connection and comprising a first overlay area corresponding to the first secure network connection, wherein a first icon representing the first application is displayed within the first overlay area.", "[0005] Another embodiment is a computer program product for providing an overlay filter in a computer capable of at least one secure network connection for use by at least one user application of the computer.", "The computer program product comprises computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for establishing a first secure network connection;", "launching a first application via the first secure network connection;", "and presenting on a display of the computer a visual representation, the visual representation illustrating that the first application is using the first secure network connection and comprising a first overlay area corresponding to the first secure network connection, wherein a first icon representing the first application is displayed within the first overlay area.", "[0006] Yet another embodiment is a system for providing an overlay filter in a computer capable of at least one secure network connection for use by at least one user application of the computer.", "The system comprises means for launching a first application via a first secure network connection and means for presenting on a display of the computer a visual representation.", "The visual representation illustrates that a first application is using the first secure network connection and comprises a first overlay area corresponding to the first secure network connection, wherein a first icon representing the first application is displayed within the first overlay area.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0007] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a computer in which one embodiment of an overlay filter may be implemented.", "[0008] FIG. 2 illustrates one embodiment of a visual display of the overlay filter of FIG. 1 .", "[0009] FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the operation of an embodiment of the overlay filter of FIG. 1 .", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0010] To better illustrate the advantages and features of the invention, a particular description of several embodiments will be provided with reference to the attached drawings.", "These drawings, and other embodiments described herein, only illustrate selected aspects of the invention and do not limit the invention's scope.", "Further, despite reference to specific features illustrated in the example embodiments, it will nevertheless be understood that these features are not essential to all embodiments and no limitation of the scope of the invention is thereby intended.", "Any alterations and further modifications in the described embodiments, and any further applications of the principles of the invention as described herein are contemplated as would normally occur to one skilled in the art.", "Furthermore, some items are shown in a simplified form, and inherently include components that are well known in the art.", "Further still, some items are illustrated as being in direct connection for the sake of simplicity and clarity.", "Despite the apparent direct connection, it is understood that such illustration does not preclude the existence of intermediate components not otherwise illustrated.", "[0011] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a conventional computer system 100 in which an overlay filter in accordance with one embodiment may be implemented.", "As shown in FIG. 1 , the computer system 100 includes a central processing unit (“CPU”) 102 , main memory 104 , mass storage 106 , a display subsystem 107 , and other I/O subsystems, collectively designated by reference numeral 108 , all interconnected via one or more buses, collectively represented in FIG. 1 by a bus 110 .", "In one embodiment, as will be described in greater detail herein, an overlay filter module 112 comprising computer program instructions for implementing the overlay filter of one embodiment is installed on the computer 100 .", "The computer 100 further includes one or more network cards, such as a network card 114 , for enabling the computer 100 to communicate with other computers or servers (not shown) via one or more networks, such as the Internet 116 .", "[0012] As will be described in greater detail below, in one embodiment, the overlay filter provides a simple way for a user to organize and visually distinguish applications for which a secure network connection is desirable or necessary, to launch applications using a secure or non-secure network connection, to layer secure network connections, and to quickly determine what type of connection is being used by each application running on the user's computer.", "[0013] As computer networks and connections continue to evolve, so to do the security issues associated with such networks and connections.", "Additionally, security solutions are beginning to be used in combination to ensure that a connection is secure.", "For example, an application may use an Secure Sockets Layer (“SSL”) VPN to connect to a network and then use a tunnel to a secure box.", "Clearly, this is a complex issue and one that is not easily understood by the average computer user.", "[0014] The filter overlay enables application security to be organized based on the requirements of the application itself.", "For example, browsers could be implemented with no security, e-mail applications would require a simple SSL VPN connection and code repositories would first require a full VPN connection and then a tunnel to the server where it is stored.", "A simple filter puts the application and types into the respective connection types and helps make the user's computer ultra-secure.", "[0015] An enterprise environment could use the overlay filter to enforce security protocols for all applications on the desktops selectively.", "As a result, employees are not required to run through a VPN connection for all of their network connections, but the applications that carry sensitive data would automatically run through secure network connections.", "Additionally, there may be multiple types of connections that would work even in restricted networks with firewalls and closed ports.", "[0016] FIG. 2 illustrates a visual representation 200 of the overlay filter such as would be displayed on the display subsystem 107 of the computer 100 ( FIG. 1 ).", "As shown in FIG. 2 , the visual representation 200 includes multiple overlays 202 a - 202 c , each of which defines a display area of the representation 200 and corresponds to a type of network connection.", "In the illustrated embodiment, the overlay 202 a corresponds to an SSL VPN, the overlay 202 b corresponds to a Tunnel, and the overlay 202 c corresponds to a non-secure network connection.", "The fact that overlay 202 b lies completely within the overlay 202 a indicates that the Tunnel connection is layered on the SSL VPN connection.", "In one embodiment, each of the overlays 202 a - 202 c is tinted a different color so as to further visually distinguish among them.", "[0017] Application icons displayed within an area defined by an overlay represent an application that is implemented using the secure network connection to which the overlay corresponds.", "For example, application icons 208 a and 208 b displayed within the overlay 202 a visually indicate to a user that the applications represented by the icons 208 a , 208 b (such as an email application and an IM application) effect network communications using the SSL VPN.", "Similarly, the application icon 210 displayed within the overlay 202 b visually indicates to the user that the application represented by the icon 210 (such as a development editor and source code repository) utilize the SSL VPN and Tunnel network connections.", "The application icon 212 displayed within the overlay 202 c visually indicates to the user that the application represented by the icon 212 (such as a web browser) utilizes a non-secure network connection.", "[0018] Each of the overlays and area also has associated therewith a file icon 214 a - 214 c , respectively, for enabling a user to launch applications using the corresponding connection.", "Preferably, clicking on one of the icons 214 a - 214 c displays a list of applications for which the corresponding network connection is required or recommended.", "From that list, the user may launch one or more of the listed applications.", "Additionally, icons may be dragged from the desktop into the appropriate overlay 202 a - 202 c to launch the corresponding application using the corresponding network connection.", "[0019] In one aspect, after an application has been launched, the entire window and/or tool bar of the application may be tinted (preferably the same color of the overlay in which the applications icon is displayed) to indicate the type of secure network connection in use by the application.", "In another aspect, the icons and program menus may provide a visual indication (such as a color box displayed in association with the icon displayed on the desktop or tinting of the font of the program menu item for the application) of the type of network connection to be used for the corresponding application.", "It will be noted that this visual indication may represent a suggested configuration (i.e., the indicated connection is prefererable for the application) or a mandatory configuration (i.e., the indicated connection must be used for the application).", "[0020] FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the operation of the overflow filter in accordance with one embodiment.", "In step 300 , responsive to launch of the overflow filter, the various secure and non-secure network connections are established.", "Alternatively, these connections may already have been established by alternative means, in which case step 300 may involve merely determining what connections have been established or may be eliminated altogether.", "In step 302 , which may occur substantially simultaneously with or subsequent to step 300 , a visual representation (such as that shown in FIG. 2 ) of the overlay filter is presented on the display.", "The configuration of the visual representation presented in step 302 will reflect the available network connections, represented by overlays, as illustrated in FIG. 2 .", "At this point, or at some time subsequent to this point, the user may layer connections (as illustrated in FIG. 2 , in which the Tunnel connection is overlaid on the SSL VSN connection) using the visual representation.", "[0021] Once the visual representation has been displayed in step 302 , the user may launch applications using the secure network connections in any of a variety of manners, such as by dragging and dropping the application into the overlay area corresponding to the desired connection.", "In step 304 , each time an application is launched, the icon therefore is displayed in the corresponding area of the visual representation.", "In this manner, the user is able to determine at-a-glance what network connections are being used for what applications.", "[0022] While the preceding description shows and describes one or more embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.", "For example, various steps of the described methods may be executed in a different order or executed sequentially, combined, further divided, replaced with alternate steps, or removed entirely.", "Moreover, the various steps may be initiated manually by a user or other actor or automatically in response to other steps or conditions.", "In addition, various functions illustrated in the methods or described elsewhere in the disclosure may be combined to provide additional and/or alternate functions.", "Therefore, the claims should be interpreted in a broad manner, consistent with the present disclosure." ]

[ "BACKGROUND [0001] 1.", "Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to computer software packages.", "More specifically, the present invention relates to compiling and packaging third-party software programs from a public domain collection and making the software packages available to customers.", "[0003] 2.", "Related Art [0004] Many computer users are beginning to use open-source software as an alternative to proprietary software that is distributed through conventional means.", "[0005] The FreeBSD group maintains a collection of computer source code that has been contributed by many individuals and is know as the FreeBSD ports collection.", "Currently, there are approximately four thousand packages available, which include such software as operating systems, text editors, web browsers, e-mail programs, and other useful packages.", "[0006] Typically, a user downloads the various source files, makes any desired modifications to the source code, and then compiles and links the source code into executable files, which are installed into a library on a computing device.", "Some vendors have created systems that download all of the ports and create executable files for all of the various packages, which will run on a specific type of computing device.", "Note that a port is computer source code that can be compiled for any of a number of different computing devices.", "[0007] Programmers associated with the FreeBSD group have developed a number of open-source scripts that are used to build FreeBSD software packages in parallel, using multiple machines across a network.", "Using these scripts, the system creates daily builds of the entire FreeBSD ports collection and makes the resulting packages part of a “daily snapshot”, which includes the FreeBSD operating system, ports collection and all packages made from these ports.", "[0008] Vendors desiring to make available a customized version of the FreeBSD ports can use the FreeBSD scripts to build the packages.", "However, these scripts have many drawbacks, including inadequate documentation to fully set up and maintain the system, awkward and possibly insecure uses of the network file system (NFS) and secure shell (SSH), and lack of a central management tool or console application to control and monitor the build process.", "[0009] Moreover, the FreeBSD scripts rely on a single computing device to do job dispatching in order to assign a port build to a specific computing device.", "One or more additional computing devices actually build the ports.", "Furthermore, under the FreeBSD scripts, a single computing device cannot be used to perform the entire process of job dispatching and port building.", "[0010] What is needed is a method and apparatus for building customized versions of ports collections, such as the FreeBSD ports collection, while eliminating the drawbacks listed above.", "SUMMARY [0011] One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for building software packages.", "This system operates by receiving files from a remote repository as each port is being built.", "Next, the system creates a batch file for each software package to be built, wherein the batch file specifies instructions for creating an executable file for each software package.", "These batch files are assigned to a plurality of queues such that the workload is divided substantially equally across the queues.", "During processing of the batch files, each queue is served by a virtual server from a plurality of virtual servers, wherein the plurality of virtual servers resides within one computing device, and wherein each virtual server of the plurality of virtual servers can provide essentially all services of a complete computing device.", "Finally, the system stores the executable file for each software package in a directory structure, wherein a user can select a software package for use.", "[0012] In one embodiment of the present invention, the system customizes the collection of source files.", "After customizing the collection of source files, the system copies the collection of source files to a local repository.", "[0013] In one embodiment of the present invention, the system generates an index of software packages to be built.", "Additionally, the system includes packages within the index upon which the software package depends.", "[0014] In one embodiment of the present invention, the system builds packages upon which the software package depends prior to building the software package.", "[0015] In one embodiment of the present invention, the batch file is assigned to a queue in the plurality of queues such that each queue of the plurality of queues has a substantially equal workload.", "[0016] In one embodiment of the present invention, the system associates the queue with a specific virtual server, wherein the specific virtual server receives batch files from the queue associated with the specific virtual server only.", "[0017] In one embodiment of the present invention, the system checks the directory structure to determine if the software package has already been built prior to building the software package.", "If the software package has already been built, the system does not build the software package a second time.", "[0018] In one embodiment of the present invention, the system additionally creates a new index of software packages in the directory structure for use by the user.", "[0019] In one embodiment of the present invention, the plurality of virtual servers can reside on multiple computing devices.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES [0020] [0020 ]FIG. 1 illustrates computing devices coupled together in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.", "[0021] [0021 ]FIG. 2 illustrates the internal details of portbuilder 124 from FIG. 1 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.", "[0022] [0022 ]FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the process of making the ports collection available to a user in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.", "[0023] [0023 ]FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the process of a user installing and registering software packages in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0024] The following description is presented to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use the invention, and is provided in the context of a particular application and its requirements.", "Various modifications to the disclosed embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments and applications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.", "Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and features disclosed herein.", "[0025] The data structures and code described in this detailed description are typically stored on a computer readable storage medium, which may be any device or medium that can store code and/or data for use by a computer system.", "This includes, but is not limited to, magnetic and optical storage devices such as disk drives, magnetic tape, CDs (compact discs) and DVDs (digital versatile discs or digital video discs), and computer instruction signals embodied in a transmission medium (with or without a carrier wave upon which the signals are modulated).", "For example, the transmission medium may include a communications network, such as the Internet.", "[0026] Computing Devices [0027] [0027 ]FIG. 1 illustrates a number of computing devices coupled together in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.", "FreeBSD server 100 , client computing device 104 , firewall 116 , internal server 118 , portbuilder 124 , portserver 114 , and the computing device hosting customer's vserver 112 may include any type of computer system, including, but not limited to, a computer system based on a microprocessor, a mainframe computer, a digital signal processor, a personal organizer, a device controller, and a computational engine within an appliance.", "[0028] External network 108 and internal network 122 can generally include any type of wire or wireless communication channel capable of coupling together computing nodes.", "This includes, but is not limited to, a local area network, a wide area network, or a combination of networks.", "In one embodiment of the present invention, external network 108 includes the Internet.", "[0029] FreeBSD server 100 includes concurrent versioning system (CVS) repository 102 .", "CVS repository 102 includes the source code and development files for the FreeBSD operating system and associated ports used by the CVS.", "CVS repository 102 may also be mirrored at other sites on the Internet.", "CVS repository 102 is maintained and updated as code developers submit new software to the FreeBSD group.", "[0030] Internal server 118 copies, or mirrors, CVS repository 102 into CVS repository copy 120 at regular intervals, say twice per day.", "This is accomplished by sending appropriate messages across internal network 122 , through firewall 116 , across external network 108 to FreeBSD server 100 .", "In response, FreeBSD server 100 returns a copy of the files in CVS repository 102 via the reverse path.", "[0031] Firewall 116 allows messages from internal network 122 to pass to external network 108 .", "However, firewall 116 allows only expected messages to pass from external network 108 to internal network 122 .", "Thus, firewall 116 protects computing devices coupled to internal network 122 from attack by an entity on external network 108 .", "[0032] Portbuilder 124 builds FreeBSD operating system and the various ports.", "Included in portbuilder 124 are virtual servers 126 and file system 128 .", "During operation, modifications may be made to any file within the system to effect local modifications to the FreeBSD operating system or any of the various ports.", "Next, portbuilder 124 copies CVS repository copy 120 to file system 128 .", "[0033] Virtual servers 126 include a plurality of virtual servers, which act as servers for building the FreeBSD operating system and the various ports as discussed below in conjunction with FIGS. 2 and 3.", "Each of virtual servers 126 is configured to act as an independent computing device even though they may all be contained within a single computing device such as portbuilder 124 .", "In an alternate embodiment of this invention, virtual servers 126 may be distributed across several computing devices.", "The optimal number of virtual servers can be determined empirically so that each virtual server has a continuous stream of jobs and the number of virtual servers does not create significant overhead because of continual task switching.", "In one embodiment of this invention, there are four virtual servers within virtual servers 126 .", "[0034] Network operations center 110 includes customer's vserver 112 .", "Customer's vserver 112 is one of a plurality of virtual servers within a computing device.", "Each customer or user has use of a virtual server, which gives the illusion of a dedicated computing device to the customer or user.", "[0035] Portserver 114 is typically hosted on a different computing device locally coupled to customer's vserver 112 .", "The executable operating system and port files are transferred to portserver 114 from file system 128 as described below in conjunction with FIG. 3. A customer or user can access the executable files from portserver 114 as described below in conjunction with FIG. 4. [0036] Client computing device 104 allows the customer, user 106 , to log on to customer's vserver 112 and to use the services provided to user 106 .", "[0037] The Portbuilder [0038] [0038 ]FIG. 2 illustrates the internal details of portbuilder 124 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.", "Portbuilder 124 includes file system 128 , virtual servers 126 , batch request generator 214 , and queues A-D 216 , 218 , 220 , and 222 .", "[0039] File system 128 includes modified copy 200 , index 202 , batch files 204 , database 206 , new index 208 , packages 210 , and distribution files 212 .", "The system copies CVS repository copy 120 into modified copy 200 .", "Local modifications and enhancements are typically made and stored in CVS repository 102 .", "However modifications and enhancements can also be made to the source code files within modified copy 200 .", "After any desired modifications have been made, portbuilder 124 creates index 202 , which contains a listing of all of the files that need to be compiled and linked to build packages 210 .", "Included in index 202 is a listing of other packages upon which each package depends.", "[0040] Batch request generator 214 uses index 202 to create batch files 204 .", "Each batch file in batch files 204 contains the instructions for creating a package.", "These instructions include which files to compile, where the files are located, and how to generate the executable files for the package.", "Batch request generator 214 also designates which queue to use to process each batch file.", "[0041] Portbuilder 124 uses database 206 to maintain data about the files and packages within the system, and what class of installation and support is assigned for each package.", "The installation and support classes are assigned to the packages within packages 210 to control access by user 106 .", "The support and install classes are used to control which customers have access to the packages.", "Customers who pay for more services are given more access to the packages.", "As higher levels of access are purchased by user 106 , more packages are made available to user 106 .", "[0042] New index 208 is created using data within database 206 and includes information about which packages have been built and are available.", "Appended to each entry in new index 208 are the fields indicating the support class and install class for each package and whether the package is being made available to customers.", "[0043] The packages that have been built are stored in packages 210 .", "In addition to storing the built packages, packages 210 is used to keep track of whether a package has already been built.", "If a package is already stored within packages 210 , virtual servers 126 will not rebuild it.", "[0044] Distribution files 212 store the source code files downloaded from the Internet.", "These files can be received in a format known as a .", "tar file.", "After receipt, portbuilder 124 unpacks the .", "tar file into separate source files and instruction files for building a package.", "[0045] Portbuilder 124 distributes batch files 204 to queues A-D 216 , 218 , 220 , and 222 .", "As mentioned above, the optimal number of queues and the number of servers within virtual servers 126 can be determined empirically, and can be more than four or less than four.", "A queue, such as queue A 216 , provides batch files from batch files 204 to an associated server, such as server A 224 within virtual servers 126 .", "[0046] Virtual servers 126 includes servers A-D 224 , 226 , 228 , and 230 .", "A virtual server, say server A 224 , receives a batch file from its associated queue.", "This batch file contains instructions on how to build a package, and where the source files for the package are located.", "Dependencies are calculated by a script that reads the batch file and then generates the dependencies from index 202 .", "Server A 224 also uses the same script to determine if the package has already been built.", "If so, server A 224 proceeds to the next batch file.", "If the package has not already been built, server A 224 retrieves the source files from distribution files 212 and creates the package using the instructions within the batch file.", "Upon completion, server A 224 stores the completed package in packages 210 .", "[0047] Building the Packages [0048] [0048 ]FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the process of making the ports collection available to a user in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.", "A periodic process, not shown, copies CVS repository 102 to CVS repository copy 120 such that CVS repository copy 120 always contains an up-to-date copy of the FreeBSD operating system and ports collection.", "During operation, portbuilder 124 copies CVS repository copy 120 , including any modifications, across internal network 122 to modified copy 200 within file system 128 ( 302 ).", "[0049] After the CVS repository 120 has been copied, portbuilder 124 creates index 202 of modified copy 200 of the CVS repository ( 306 ).", "Batch request generator 214 uses index 202 to create batch files 204 ( 308 ).", "[0050] Next, portbuilder 124 loads batch files 204 to queues A-D 216 , 218 , 220 , and 222 ( 312 ).", "[0051] Servers A-D 224 , 226 , 228 , and 230 within virtual servers 126 use the batch files from their associated queue and files from distribution files 212 to build the packages ( 314 ).", "After each package has been built, portbuilder 124 stores the package within packages 210 ( 316 ).", "[0052] After all of the packages have been built and are available in packages 210 , portbuilder 124 creates new index 208 including the support class, install class and whether the package is provided ( 320 ).", "[0053] Finally, portbuilder 124 moves packages 210 and new index 208 to portserver 114 ( 322 ).", "[0054] Installing the Packages [0055] [0055 ]FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the process of a user installing and registering software packages in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.", "The system starts when user 106 uses client computing device 104 to connect across external network 108 to customer's vserver 112 within network operations center 110 ( 402 ).", "[0056] User 106 then accesses an install program on customer's vserver 112 ( 404 ).", "This install program accesses portserver 114 which returns a list of packages available to user 106 based on the user's level of access ( 406 ).", "[0057] Next, user 106 selects the packages to be loaded from the available packages within portserver 114 ( 408 ).", "Finally, portserver 114 loads and registers the selected packages within customer's vserver 112 ( 410 ).", "[0058] The foregoing descriptions of embodiments of the present invention have been presented for purposes of illustration and description only.", "They are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the present invention to the forms disclosed.", "Accordingly, many modifications and variations will be apparent to practitioners skilled in the art.", "Additionally, the above disclosure is not intended to limit the present invention.", "The scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention This invention relates to personal care products, and, more particularly, to skin and hair care compositions containing a high purity adduct of castor oil and a cyclic carboxylic acid anhydride, which provides a substantive skin feel for the user, and to a method for making such useful adducts with no free acid anhydride therein.", "Description of the Prior Art Reaction products of castor oil and dehydrated castor oil with maleic anhydride have been disclosed in the literature.", "However, they usually involve other components in the reaction mixture which are present to provide the product with suitable properties for use, for example, as hardening agents for epoxy resins, or for leather fat liquoring, or as emulsifiers for the polymerization of vinyl chloride and other aqueous polymer compositions, and as lubricants for rolling mills.", "For example, SU 445688, published Feb. 26, 1975, described paint compositions containing the reaction product of castor oil and maleic anhydride having a substantial amount of free maleic anhydride, particularly, about 1-4%;", "and DE 3202408, published Aug. 4, 1983, disclosed the use of castor oil and cyclic anhydride adducts as flexibilizing agents for epoxy resins.", "Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a high purity adduct of castor oil and a cyclic carboxylic acid anhydride characterized by the absence of free acid anhydride, and a process for making such advantageous adduct, which is carried out with no significant side reactions.", "Another object of the invention is to afford personal care products, particularly for skin care, which provide a highly substantive skin feel, as well as moisturization benefits, and hair care, particularly hair conditioning, in both leave-on and rinse-off applications, which products include a high purity adduct of castor oil and carboxylic acid anhydride having no free acid anhydride.", "These and other objects and features of the invention will be made apparent from the following description thereof.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention herein provides a high purity adduct of castor oil and a cyclic carboxylic acid anhydride characterized by the absence of free acid anhydride therein.", "The mole ratio of anhydride to castor oil in the high purity adduct is in the range of 0.5:1 to 2.5:1, with 1:1 being the preferred ratio.", "The adduct is made by a process which is carried out with no significant side reactions, including (a) reacting castor oil and cyclic carboxylic acid anhydride at a temperature of 75-120° C. for 4 to 24 hours, and then (b) continuing the reaction at room temperature for at least 1 week to react any remaining acid anhydride.", "Preferably step (a) is carried out at about 100° C. for about 6-8 hours, and (b) is carried out at room temperature for about 1-2 weeks.", "Preferably, the product of (a) is held at 50-80° C. for 24 hours while drumming the batch, as it decreases the time required for step (b).", "The product of such a process is the desired high purity, 1:1 adduct with no free acid anhydride detectable by ordinary gas chromatography (GC).", "The adduct of the invention finds commercial application in personal care products, which are suitable for both leave-on and rinse-off modes of application.", "These include skin care cleansing and treatment products, which provide the user with a substantive skin feel and moisturization benefits;", "and in hair conditioning compositions.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Castor oil is one of three triglycerides that contain principally one fatty acid;", "it is about 90% ricinoleic acid, or 12-hydroxyoleic acid.", "The other two are tung oil, which is about 80% eleostearic acid, and oiticica oil, which is about 80% licanic acid.", "The hydroxyl group of the ricinoleic acid reacts like a typical secondary alcohol, i.e. it can be eliminated or esterified.", "Elimination is a dehydration reaction which gives rise to about a 60:40 mixture of non-conjugated-to-conjugated linoleic acid isomers in the product, which is called dehydrated castor oil and sold as a drying oil.", "The conjugated linoleic acid residues are suitable for a Diels-Alder reaction with dienophiles such as maleic anhydride, maleic acid or fumaric acid.", "Both dehydration and Diels-Alder reactions are considered undesirable side reactions in this invention.", "Crosslinking is another undesirable side reaction, which becomes significant in the temperature range of 125-150° C. Esterification of castor oil can occur by reaction with an anhydride.", "When the anhydride is cyclic, e.g. maleic or succinic anhydride, the carboxylic acid group formed during the reaction remains attached in the product.", "At any given temperature, an equilibrium is established between starting materials and product where the higher the temperature, the more starting materials are observed.", "For example, at 100° C., the equilibrium concentration of maleic anhydride in such a reaction is 1% of the starting amount.", "At room temperature, the equilibrium is far on the side of the desired product;", "however the reaction time is inordinately long.", "In this invention, reaction between castor oil and cyclic carboxylic acid anhydride is suitably run at about 75-120° C., preferably at about 100° C. for maleic anhydride and 120° C. for succinic anhydride.", "The reactions reach 98-99% conversion in 6-8 hours.", "Upon cooling slowly and standing for a day or two at room temperature, the conversion is >99%, and after 1 week or longer, it is quantitative, i.e. no free acid anhydride can be detected by GC.", "This reaction cannot be forced to completion by holding it for a longer time at 100° C., or by increasing the temperature, owing to the presence of a significant back-reaction.", "Furthermore, if the reaction temperature is increased, undesirable crosslinking is observed in the product, which is detected by size-exclusion chromatography (SEC).", "Eventually, the ester is eliminated to afford a partially dehydrated castor oil and carboxylic acid, which in the case of maleic acid can undergo the Diels-Alder reaction, as described above.", "Crosslinking is observed at about 125-150° C. and the Diels-Alder reaction at about 150-170° C. Accordingly, the reaction with maleic anhydride can be run at 120° C. for 4 hours with negligible crosslinking;", "however, the amount of free acid anhydride present at 120° C. is higher (about 1.5-2%) than at 100° C. (about 0.8-1.2%), and the time required for its disappearance at room temperature is correspondingly much longer.", "Thus, a reaction temperature of about 75-120° C. is considered suitable, for a reaction time of about 4 to 24 hours;", "however, a temperature of about 100-120° C., depending on the carboxylic acid anhydride, is much preferred, for an initial reaction time of about 6-8 hours and a subsequent room temperature reaction time of about 1-2 weeks.", "The invention will now be illustrated by the following examples, in which Examples 1-3 describe the process for making the high purity adducts of the invention, and Examples 4-5 describe skin care compositions containing such adducts.", "EXAMPLE 1 A 2-I, four-neck round bottom flask is fitted with a heating mantle/temperature controller, agitator, nitrogen inlet tube, vacuum/atmospheric take off tube, and cold water condenser.", "The flask is charged with 1000.0 g (1.066 mol) of castor oil and 104.5 g (1.066 mol) (1:1 mole ratio) of maleic anhydride.", "The agitation is started and the air is evacuated from the system by applying full vacuum from a mechanical oil pump.", "After 5 minutes, the system is isolated from the vacuum pump and nitrogen is admitted to bring the pressure back to atmospheric.", "This evacuation-filling procedure is repeated two more times.", "A nitrogen sweep of 0.1 cubic foot per hour is set and the batch is quickly heated to 100° C. This temperature is held for 6-8 hours, until GC of two consecutive samples shows a conversion of 98.0% or higher.", "The batch is filtered at about 70-90° C. and allowed to cool to room temperature slowly over several hours.", "After 1-2 days, the conversion is 99.0% or higher and after 1-2 weeks, it is >99.9%, i.e. no free maleic anhydride is detectable by GC.", "EXAMPLE 2 The apparatus described in Example 1 is charged with 150.0 g (0.16 mol) of castor oil and 16.0 g (0.16 mol) of succinic anhydride.", "The system is purged with nitrogen as described in the previous example and quickly heated to 120° C. After 4-6 hours, the conversion is 98-99% and the batch is filtered at 70-90° C. It is allowed to cool slowly to room temperature, where the conversion is 100% within 1-2 days.", "EXAMPLE 3 The apparatus described in Example 1 is charged with 150.0 g (0.16 mol) of castor oil and 42.6 g (0.16 mol) of 2-dodecen-1-ylsuccinic anhydride (1:1 mole ratio).", "The system is purged with nitrogen as described in the first example and quickly heated to 120° C. After 8-12 hours, the conversion is 98-99% and the batch is filtered at 70-90° C. It is allowed to cool slowly to room temperature, where the conversion is >99.9% within 24 weeks.", "EXAMPLE 4 TABLE 1 SKIN MOISTURIZER Phase Ingredient Formulation A Formulation B A Deionized Water 63.7 65.7 Versene ® NA 0.1 0.1 Stabileze ® QM 0.2 0.2 B Ceraphyl ® 230 4.0 4.0 Ceraphyl ® 494 6.0 6.0 Ceraphyl ® 368 10.0 10.0 Cerasynt ® 840 2.0 2.0 Cerasynt ® 945 6.0 6.0 C Deionized Water 5.0 5.0 10% NaOH solution 0.5 0.5 D Adduct of Ex.", "1 2.0 0.0 E LiquaPar Optima 0.5 0.5 Total 100.0 100.0 Preparation: Combine water and Verse NA of phase A with stirring at room temperature.", "Slowly add Stabileze QM with stirring.", "Begin heating phase A to 70-75° C. with stirring.", "Combine ingredients of phase B, heat to 70-75° C. with stirring.", "When both phases have reached target temperature, add phase B to phase A with stirring.", "When addition is complete and mixture appears uniform, slowly add phase C. Once uniform, remove heat and maintain stirring.", "If present, add phase D at 50° C. Add phase E at 40° C. Continue stirring to room temperature.", "Moisturization Measurement: Identical amounts of Formulation A and Formulation B were applied to the right and left forearm of a volunteer and rubbed in.", "Measurements were made using a Skincon 200, which measures conductance, on both sites and adjacent untreated sites as a function of time.", "The greater the conductance, the greater the moisturization.", "The differences between treated and untreated sites were significant as was the difference between Formulation A and B showing that the adduct of the invention gives a substantial moisturization benefit from its formulation.", "TABLE 2 Time Control A Formulation Control B Formulation (min) (μ-mho) A (μ-mho) (μ-mho) B (μ-mho) 10 8 45 12 31 20 10 31 6 24 30 10 27 13 23 40 8 37 6 22 50 15 28 11 26 60 7 27 11 24 70 17 28 17 23 80 15 21 15 25 90 16 36 15 30 110 8 29 11 24 130 6 19 6 20 160 7 17 5 11 180 9 18 7 13 220 9 19 7 13 EXAMPLE 5 TABLE 3 BODY WASH Phase Ingredient Amount (%) A Deionized Water 5.7 Versene ® NA 0.1 Gafquat ® 755N 1.5 Standopol ® ES-3 32.0 Monamid ® CMA 5.0 Softigen ® 767 6.0 Glycerin 6.0 Citric Acid 0.1 Stepan Mild LSB 24.1 B Soybean Oil 9.0 Palmitic Acid 4.5 Adduct of Ex.", "1 5.0 C Germaben ® II-E 1.0 TOTAL 100.0 Preparation: Combine deionized water, Versene® NA, Gafquat® 755N and Standopol® ES-3 at room temperature.", "Begin heating to 50° C. and add Monamid® CMA.", "Add remaining Phase A ingredients and heat to 70-75° C. Stir to uniformity after the addition of each ingredient.", "Combine ingredients of Phase B, heat to 70-75° C. and stir until uniform.", "Add Phase B to Phase A with stirring at 70° C. When batch appears uniform, turn off heat and continue stirring.", "Add Phase C at 40° C. Stir until room temperature.", "Moisturization measurements were made using a Skincon® 200 after washing the forearm with both water and the body wash formulation.", "TABLE 4 Time (min) Water (μ-mho) Body Wash (μ-mho) 0 9 11 20 46 61 40 17 54 60 20 55 80 24 52 100 17 42 120 17 41 140 18 34 180 16 41 210 20 31 240 19 38 270 18 37 300 22 36 330 19 36 360 21 34 In summary, the high purity adducts of castor oil and cyclic carboxylic acid anhydrides, are characterized by the absence of free acid anhydride therein, and advantageous use in personal care products, such as skin care and hair care products.", "In such skin care compositions as body washes, a significant moisturization effect is achieved in both leave-on and rinse-off modes of application.", "When the invention has been described with particular reference to certain embodiments thereof, it will be understood that changes and modifications may be made which are within the skill of the art.", "Accordingly, it is intended to be bound only by the following claims, in which:" ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In the use of textbooks to learn the subject matter of a specific field of knowledge, students often find that they need additional help to understand the material that is presented in the textbooks.", "For example, textbooks currently available will usually explain a given principle in a few pages written by a professional who has an insight in the subject matter that is not shared by students.", "The explanations are often written in an abstract manner which leaves the students confused as to the application of the principles.", "The explanations given are not sufficiently detailed and extensive to make the student aware of the wide range of applications and different aspects of the principle being studied.", "The numerous possible variations of principles and their applications are usually not discussed, and it is left for the students to discover these for themselves while doing exercises.", "Accordingly, the average student is expected to rediscover that which has been long known and practiced, but not published or explained extensively.", "In textbooks the examples usually following the explanation of a topic are too few in number and too simple to enable the student to obtain a thorough grasp of the principles involved.", "The explanations do not provide sufficient basis to enable a student to solve problems that may be subsequently assigned for homework or given on examinations.", "The examples are presented in abbreviated form which leaves out much material between steps, and requires that students derive the omitted material themselves.", "As a result, students find the examples difficult to understand--contrary to the purpose of the examples.", "Examples, are furthermore, often worded in a confusing manner.", "They do not state the problem and then present the solution.", "Instead, they pass through a general discussion, never revealing what is to be solved for.", "Examples, also, do not always include diagrams/graphs, wherever appropriate, and students do not obtain the training to draw diagrams or graphs to simplify and organize their thinking.", "Students can learn the subject only by doing the exercises themselves and reviewing them in class, to obtain experience in applying the principles with their different ramifications.", "When reviewing the exercises in classrooms, instructors usually request students to take turns in writing solutions on the boards and explaining them to the class.", "Students often find it difficult to explain in a manner that holds the interest of the class, and enables the remaining students to follow the material written on the boards.", "The remaining students seated in the class are, furthermore, too occupied with copying the material from the boards, to listen to the oral explanations and concentrate on the methods of solution.", "From the preceding conditions faced by students, it is understandable that students will often require study aids to supplement the class materials, usually in the form of textbooks, in order to help them understand the subject matter to be learned.", "Study aids are often in the form of booklets which summarize the essential facts and theorems dealt with in a textbook.", "Study aids can also be in the form of problem solving books which contain a large number of solved problems dealing with the various topics presented in the textbook.", "Other study aids are in the form of laminated charts which provide a quick review for summary of the important materials in the textbook.", "Heretofore, however, such study aids were usually found at locations quite remote from the textbooks for which the study aids were intended.", "For example, the textbooks may be stored on one floor of a bookstore, whereas the study aids could be stored on another floor or in the basement of the bookstore building.", "As a result, students were often unaware of the availability of study aids that could be used in conjunction with their textbooks to learn the subject matter more effectively.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an arrangement for displaying study aids directly with textbooks, so that students can avail themselves of the study aids at the time that they pick a textbook from a stack of textbooks to purchase for a class.", "Another object of the present invention is to provide a display arrangement that is simple in construction, economical to fabricate, and is compact so that it requires little space in a bookstore.", "A further object of the present invention is to provide a display arrangement of study aids in conjunction with textbooks, that makes it unnecessary for students to go through study aids in different subjects before finding the study aids that are of their interest.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an elevational front view and shows an arrangement of textbooks with study aids in the form of booklets, in accordance with the present invention;", "FIG. 2 is another embodiment of FIG. 1 and shows study aids in the form of books that are substantially as thick as the textbooks;", "FIG. 3 is a further embodiment of FIG. 1 and shows study aids in the form of laminated charts;", "FIG. 4 is a bottom view of a holder for the study aids;", "FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along line A--A in FIG. 4;", "FIG. 6 is a further embodiment of FIG. 1 and shows an arrangement with the placement of additional textbooks;", "FIG. 7 is a front view of another embodiment of the holder for study aids, as shown in FIG. 1;", "FIGS. 8, 9, 10, and 11 are front views of still further embodiments of the holder for the study aids;", "FIG. 12 is an arrangement by which the holder for the study aids may be securely shipped.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring to the drawings, FIG. 1 shows a holder for the study aids and textbook arrangement, in which the holder has a horizontal plate-shaped member 10 and two vertical plate-shaped members or struts 11.", "Support ed by the member 10 are a plurality of textbooks 12 resting on the member 10.", "Confined by the vertical members 11, are a plurality of booklets 13, each of which summarize the subject matter presented in the textbooks.", "Thus, the booklets 13 contain the essentials described in the textbooks.", "The vertical members 11 rest on a base member 14 which may be in the form of a shelf in a bookstore, for example.", "At the front side of the member 10, there is mounted a sign 15 providing a description of the study aids.", "In FIG. 2 the booklets 13 are replaced by substantially heavier books 16 which contain numerous solved problems to enable students to understand better the subject matter presented in the textbooks.", "FIG. 3 shows an embodiment in which laminated charts 17 are used as study aids instead of the booklets 13.", "These laminated charts serve to also summarize the subject matter of the textbooks.", "A stack of laminated charts can be used together with a stack of booklets 13 within the confines of the vertical members 11.", "Thus, the open space defined by the vertical members 11 and the horizontal member 10 can be used to store or hold partly the laminated chart 17 and partly the booklets 13, one on top of the other.", "FIG. 4 shows the study aids holder when viewed from the bottom.", "In addition to the vertical members 11, is a third vertical member 18 at the back side of the holder.", "This vertical member 18 prevents the study aids that are inserted through the front of the holder, from dropping out at the back of the holder.", "The vertical members 11 and 18 can be secured to the horizontal member 10 through screws 19 pas sing into openings 20 that may be in the form of counter bores.", "At the same time, the member 10 can also be glued onto the vertical members 11 and 18, or a similar adhesive may be used for this purpose.", "FIG. 6 is display arrangement in which stacks of textbooks are located on both sides of the holder for the study aids.", "Thus, the study aids are located between stacks of textbooks 12 on both sides of the holder, in addition to a stack of textbooks resting on top of the holder and supported by the member 10.", "FIG. 7 illustrates a holder for the study aids, in which the member 10 is cantilevered on the vertical member 11.", "In this arrangement, only one vertical member 11 is needed.", "The vertical member 11 is, in turn, secured to the base member 14 at the bottom end of the member 11.", "FIG. 8 shows a configuration in which the members 21 supporting the horizontal plate-shaped member 10 are at an angle with respect to the member 10, as well as to the base member 14.", "FIG. 9 is a display configuration for the study aids in which only one member 21 is used and on which the plate-shaped member is cantilevered.", "FIG. 10 is a display arrangement in which members 22 support the member 10 at an angle with respect to the member 10, and to the base member 14.", "Thus, whereas the members 22 form an angle that is less than 90 degrees on the inside with respect to the member 10, FIG. 8 shows the arrangement in which the supporting members 21 form an angle that is greater than 90 degrees with respect to the member 10.", "FIG. 11 shows an arrangement in which the members 11 are secured at their bottom ends to a plate-shaped member 23.", "This plate-shaped member 23 rests, in turn, on the base member 14.", "FIG. 12 is an arrangement in which a shipping container is included to wrap around the holder for the study aids for the purpose of protecting the holder during shipment together with the study aids inserted into the holder.", "In this manner, the recipient to whom the holder is shipped, can simply remove the wrapper around the holder, without requiring any tools or instruments to cut or remove the wrapper 24, and place the holder in the desired location with the study aids inserted into the holder prior to shipment.", "After removing the wrapper 24 which is simply folded about the holder, textbooks may be placed on top of the holder, as previously described.", "In referring to FIG. 4, it may be seen that the members 11 and 18 are positioned inward from the outer edges of the member 10.", "The spacing of members 11 and 18, in this manner, on the member 10 permits greater tolerances in the fabrication and assembly of the display unit.", "Accordingly, the members 18 and 11 need not be precisely flush with the outer edges of the member 10, so that simplified manufacture of the display unit is made possible.", "The holder for the study aids, in accordance with the present invention, furthermore, need not be any larger than the textbook itself, so that the holder occupies no more space than a textbook.", "This is an important feature in bookstores that have space limitations.", "The structural members of the holder may be made of wood, plastics, or metal, for example.", "These structural members may be finished on their surfaces with a hard laminate such as formica.", "The back member 18, on the other hand, may remain unfinished, since it is not visible when located in place with study aids inserted and textbooks resting on the holder.", "The bottom surfaces of the members 11 and 18 may either remain unfinished, or they may be finished surfaces that are smooth so as to prevent scratching of the base member on which the struts 11 rest.", "Particle board may also be used for the structural members of the holder.", "Booksellers are challenged on how to display the study aids with the textbooks but consume minimal additional shelf space for the study aids since the textbooks themselves require a great deal of shelf space that is often in short supply in the bookstore.", "A feature of the present invention is to integrate the textbooks with study aids without consuming additional shelf space for the study aids but rather use the air space above the shelf.", "The present invention achieves this by allowing the textbooks to be stacked above the study aids thereby taking advantage of the air space above the shelf without using additional physical shelf space." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is the U.S. National Stage of International Patent Application No. PCT/CN2011/071740 filed on Mar. 11, 2011, which claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 20101024871.6 entitled “Method, System and Apparatus for Selecting Data Plane Tunnel according to the Status of User Equipment”", "filed in the Patent Office of the People's Republic of China on Mar. 12, 2010, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to the field of communication technology, in particular to a method, a system and an apparatus for selecting a data plane tunnel according to the status of User Equipment (UE).", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In the prior art of LIPA (Local IP Access)/SIPTO (Selected IP Traffic Offload), an LGW (Local Gateway) is additionally arranged in the existing H(e)NB (Home evolved NodeB) system.", "When the LIPA/SIPTO is enabled, the LGW and H(e)NB may realize the uplink and downlink data transmission via a direct tunnel.", "FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of the LIPA/SIPTO architecture in the prior art.", "In such architecture, when a UE initiates a request for LIPA to an MME (Mobility Management Entity) possibly through a special APN (Access Point Name) or a special Attach type, the MME will select an LGW for serving the UE, in which case the minimum granularity of the LIPA is PDN (Packet Data Network) Connection.", "Furthermore, the MME may also enable the HeNB to serve as the SIPTO according to the network status and the UE-requested service type, and shows L-GW via a special APN or a special identifier that the connection is used for SIPTO, in which case the minimum granularity of the SIPTO is PDN Connection level.", "If a UE is in an idle status, that is, the UE has undergone the S1 Release procedure, the Direct Tunnel shall be in inactive state and the LGW will initiate the SGW (Serving Gateway) to send a paging message via the S5/S8-U tunnel when downlink data is available.", "If a UE is in a connected status, that is, the UE has initiated a Service Request procedure, the MME will inform the HeNB of the S5 PGW TEID (LGW allocated) via an S1-MME interface, and then the HeNB will store the TEID (Tunnel Identifier) in a radio bearer context, as shown in FIG. 2 .", "In this case, the LGW and the HeNB may realize the data transmission via a Direct Tunnel: for the downlink data, the LGW needs to find out the corresponding S5 PGW TEID first through EPS (Evolved Packet System) Bearer binding, and then sends a data package which shall contain the information of S5 PGW TEID to a direct tunnel;", "after receiving the package, the HeNB needs to find out the corresponding E-RAB (Radio Access Bear) Context and Radio Bearer according to the S5 PGW TEID in the package and then sends it to the UE;", "for the uplink data, the HeNB needs to confirm whether the E-RAB context contains the information of S5 PGW TEID.", "If yes, it will send the data to the LGW via a Direct Tunnel.", "In the process of realizing the objects of the present invention, at least the following problems existing in the prior art were found: in the prior art, the HeNB determines whether to enable a Direct Tunnel according to the existence of S5 PGW TEID in E-RAB context.", "For the downlink data, the LGW also needs to determine whether to to enable a direct tunnel according to some identifier.", "If the UE is in a connected status, that is, the UE has undergone the Service Request or UE Requested PDN Connectivity procedure, the LGW needs to select a direct tunnel;", "if the UE is in an idle status, that is, the UE has undergone the S1 Release procedure, the LGW needs to select the S5/S8-U Tunnel in order to initiate the SGW to send a Paging message when downlink data arrives.", "However, the LGW in the prior art doesn't know the status of the UE, so it can't determine when to enable the Direct Tunnel or the S5/S8-U Tunnel.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The embodiments of the present invention provide a method, a system and an apparatus for selecting a data plane tunnel according to the status of a User Equipment (UE), which aims to solve the disadvantages existing in the prior art that the LGW can't determine whether to select the Direct Tunnel or S5/S8-U Tunnel due to its failure to know the status of the UE.", "In order to achieve these goals, the present invention puts forward a method for selecting a data plane tunnel according to the status of the User Equipment (UE) on the one hand, comprising the following steps: an LGW sets a tunnel identifier status of the LGW according to the instruction of a SGW, and selects a data plane tunnel according to the tunnel identifier status.", "On the other hand, the present invention puts forward a system for selecting a data plane tunnel according to the status of a User Equipment (UE), comprising an SGW and an LGW, wherein, the SGW is used for determining the status of the UE and whether a connection is used for LIPA/SIPTO, and instructs the LGW;", "the LGW is used for setting a tunnel identifier status of the LGW according to the instruction of the SGW, and selecting a data plane tunnel according to the tunnel identifier status.", "Additionally, the present invention puts forward an LGW, comprising a setting module and a tunnel selection module, wherein, the setting module is used for setting a tunnel identifier status according to the instruction of the SGW, and the tunnel selection module is for selecting a data plane tunnel according to the tunnel identifier status.", "Further more, the present invention puts forward a method for selecting a data plane tunnel according to the status of a UE, comprising the following steps: when the UE is in an idle status, the LGW enables the S5/S8-U tunnel;", "when the UE is in a connected status, the LGW enables the Direct Tunnel.", "The present invention selects an appropriate data plane tunnel by setting a tunnel identifier in an LGW, and proposes a method for controlling the setting/clearing of the tunnel identifier, therefore the present invention enjoys comprehensive functions and may make up the disadvantages of LIPA/SIPTO architecture in the prior art.", "Other additional aspects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments or understood from the practice of the present invention.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The aforesaid and/or additional aspects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent and easy to understand from the disclosure of the preferred embodiments of the present invention hereinbelow with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein, FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the LIPA/SIPTO architecture in the prior art;", "FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of TEID allocation in the prior art;", "FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the UE Requested PDN Connectivity or Attach procedure when the UE is in a Connected status described in the embodiment I of the present invention;", "FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of Service Request procedure when the UE is in a Connected status described in the embodiment I of the present invention;", "FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of the S1 Release procedure when the UE is in an Idle status described in the embodiment I of the present invention;", "FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of the UE Requested PDN Connectivity or Attach procedure when the UE is in an Connected status described in the embodiment II of the present invention;", "FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of the Service Request procedure when the UE is in a Connected status described in the embodiment II of the present invention;", "FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of the S1 Release procedure when the UE is in an Idle status described in the embodiment II of the present invention;", "FIG. 9 is a systematic structure diagram of the selection of data plane tunnel according to the UE status described in an embodiment of the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The embodiments of the present invention are described in details hereinbelow.", "The examples of the embodiments are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, throughout which the same or similar symbols denote the same or similar components or those with the same or similar functions.", "It is to be understood that the disclosure of the embodiments with reference with the accompanying drawings are illustrative and exemplary of the present invention, which is not intended or to be constructed to limit the present invention.", "In the embodiments of the present invention, each UE is additionally arranged with a tunnel identifier in an LGW.", "When the UE is in an Idle status, the identifier is set as disabled;", "when the UE is in a Connected status, the identifier is set as enabled.", "If the identifier is set as disabled, the LGW will select the S5/S8-U Tunnel;", "conversely, the LGW will select a Direct Tunnel, so as to realize the selection of a data plane tunnel according to the UE status.", "In the embodiments of the present invention, the controlling over the selection of a data plane tunnel may be realized by controlling the tunnel identifier in the LGW.", "It is to be noted that the following embodiments are only preferred embodiments of the present invention, which doesn't mean that the present invention can only be realized through the following embodiments.", "Those skilled in the art may make equivalent changes and modifications to the following embodiments without departing from the substance or scope of the present invention, and such changes and modifications shall also be included in the scope of the present invention.", "Embodiment I In the embodiment I, as there is no UE context available for an SGW, an MME needs to inform the SGW by adding IE (Information Elements) in the GTPC (GPRS Tunneling Protocol for Control Plane) message (such as Create Session Request message), indicating the PDN Connection is being established via LIPA/SIPTO, thus enabling the SGW to inform the PGW of how to select a data plane tunnel.", "This embodiment is applied in occasions where the status of the UE is not changed frequently, which may reduce the resource usage and maintenance operation of the SGW.", "If the UE is in a Connected status, The UE Requested PDN Connectivity or Attach procedure is as shown in FIG. 3 , wherein, the steps 1 , 4 , 5 , 6 ˜ 12 and 14 ˜ 16 which relate to the prior art will not be described herein and may be referred to the protocol TS23.401 5.10.2, while the steps relating to the embodiments of the present invention are described in details hereinbelow.", "Step 2 ˜ 3 : if the system informs the LGW with a special identifier, that is, the connection (to be established) is used for LIPA/SIPTO, the special identifier needs to be contained in the Create Session Request message.", "If the system informs the LGW with a special APN, the LGW needs to determine whether the connection is used for LIPA/SIPTO, in which case, the PGW used in LIPA/SIPTO connection is an LGW.", "Step 5 a : if the UE requests for LIPA connection or the SIPTO connection is detected by the network, the LGW will set the tunnel identifier of the connection as enabled, indicating that the LGW uses a Direct Tunnel.", "Step 13 : after determining whether the connection is an LIPA or SIPTO Connection according to the PDN Connection context, the MME will add an LIPA or SIPTO connection establishment identifier in the Modify Bearer Request message, informing the SGW that the PDN Connection serves the LIPA/SIPTO.", "Step 13 a : this step is optional.", "If this step occurs, the SGW will forward the LIPA/SIPTO connection establishment identifier in the Modify Bearer Request message.", "If the tunnel identifier of the PDN Connection in the LGW is disabled, it needs to be set as enabled.", "The Service Request procedure is as shown in FIG. 4 , wherein, the steps 1 ˜ 7 , 10 , 11 and 12 which relate to the prior art will not be described herein and may be referred to the protocol TS23.401 5.3[.", "].4, while the steps relating to the present invention are described in details hereinbelow.", "Step 8 : after determining whether the connection is an LIPA or SIPTO connection according to the PDN Connection context, the MME will add an LIPA or SIPTO connection establishment identifier in the Modify Bearer Request message, informing the SGW that the PDN Connection serves the LIPA/SIPTO.", "Step 9 : if an LIPA or SIPTO connection establishment identifier is contained in the Modify Bearer Request message received by the SGW, the SGW will forward the Modify Bearer Request message containing the LIPA/SIPTO connection establishment identifier to the PGW, indicating that the UE is in a an idle status.", "Step 11 a : after receiving and then sending the Modify Bearer Request message containing the LIPA/SIPTO connection establishment identifier, the LGW will set the tunnel identifier as enabled, indicating a Direct Tunnel will be used for the connection.", "If the UE is in a connected status: The S1 Release procedure is as shown in FIG. 5 , wherein, the steps 1 and 3 ˜ 6 which relate to the prior art will not be described herein and may be referred to the protocol TS23.401 5.3[.", "].5, while the steps relating to the present invention are described in details hereinbelow.", "Step 2 : In the Release Access Bearer Request message, to distinguish the PDN Connection serving the LIPA/SIPTO from the ordinary PDN Connection, the MME needs to add an LIPA/SIPTO identifier in the default bearer ID of the PDN Connection.", "Step 7 a : after receiving a Bearer ID containing an LIPA/SIPTO connection removal identifier, the SGW will send the connection removal identifier to a corresponding PDN Connection via the Modify Bearer Request message, and then conduct the step 2 corresponding to the existing protocol TS23.401 5.3[.", "].5.", "Step 7 b : after receiving the LIPA/SIPTO connection removal identifier, the LGW will set the tunnel identifier as disabled, indicating the S5/S8-U Tunnel is used for the connection, and will send the Modify Bearer Response message to the SGW.", "In the aforesaid embodiment, if the system informs the LGW with a special identifier, the special identifier needs to be contained in the Create Session Request message.", "Similarly, to indicate the necessity of LIPA/SIPTO connection in the Modify Bearer Request message, an identifier is also needed, therefore, an identifier may be added in the IE “Indication Flags”, as shown in the following table: Bits Octets 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1 Type = 77 (decimal) 2 to 3 Length = n 4 Spare Instance 5 DAF DTF HI DFI OI ISRSI ISRAI SGWCI 6 LS UIMSI CFSI CRSI P PT SI MSV 7 to (n + 4) These octet(s) is/are present only if explicitly specified The identifier contained in the Create Session Request message indicates whether an LIPA/SIPTO connection is established.", "If the bit is 1, it shows that the connection is an LIPA/SIPTO connection;", "if the bit is 0, it shows that the LIPA/SIPTO connection is not used.", "The identifier contained in the Create Session Request message is only enabled in an LIPA/SIPTO connection, in which case if the tunnel identifier is 1, it shows that the existing LIPA/SIPTO connection is being used, the UE is in a connected status, and the LGW will enable a Direct Tunnel;", "if the tunnel identifier is 0, it shows that the existing LIPA/SIPTO connection is not available at present, the UE is in an idle status and the LGW will enable the S5-U Tunnel.", "In the Service Request procedure, the SGW forwards the identifier transparently.", "In the S1 Release procedure, the LIPA/SIPTO identifier contained in the Release Access Bearer Request message received by the SGW is for determining the PDN Connections needing to send the Modify Bearer Request message with the LS identifier bit being 0.", "Similarly, in the S1 Release procedure, to enable the SGW to distinguish the PDN Connection serving the LIPA/SIPTO from the ordinary PDN Connection, the LIPA/SIPTO identifier contained in the Release Access Bearer Request message is required, which may be added in the EBI to indicate the PDN Connections to which the default bearer belongs and that are using the LIPA/SIPTO, as shown in the following table: Bits Octets 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1 Type = 73 (decimal) 2 to 3 Length = n 4 Spare Instance 5 Spare (all bits set to 0) LS EPS Bearer ID (EBI) 6 to These octet(s) is/are present only if explicitly specified (n + 4) An LS identifier bit is added.", "If the bit is 1, it shows the PDN Connection to which the default bearer belongs is an LIPA/SIPTO connection;", "if the bit is 0, it shows that the PDN Connection to which the default bearer belongs is not an LIPA/SIPTO connection.", "An identifier is needed in the PDN Connection context of the LGW, indicating whether the Direction Tunnel or the S5-U Tunnel is used for the LIPA/SIPTO connection, as shown in the following table: For each PDN Connection within the APN: NOTE: The following entries are repeated for each PDN connection within the APN.", "IP Address(es) IPv4 address and/or IPv6 prefix X PDN type IPv4, IPv6, or IPv4v6 X Direct Tunnel Indicate whether Direct tunnel shall be used to indicator transport LIPA/SIPTO data.", "S-GW Address in The IP address of the S-GW currently used for X Use (control sending control plane signalling.", "plane) S-GW TEID for S-GW Tunnel Endpoint Identifier for the S5/S8 X S5/S8 (control interface for the control plane.", "(For GTP-based plane) S5/S8 only).", "S-GW Address in The IP address of the S-GW currently used for X Use (user plane) sending user plane traffic.", "(For PMIP-based S5/S8 only).", "S-GW GRE Key for Serving GW assigned GRE Key for the S5/S8 X downlink traffic interface for the user plane for downlink traffic.", "(user plane) (For PMIP-based S5/S8 only).", "P-GW IP address P-GW IP address for the S5/S8 for the control X for S5/S8 (control plane signalling.", "plane) P-GW TEID for P-GW Tunnel Endpoint Identifier for the S5/S8 X S5/S8 (control control plane interface.", "(For GTP-based S5/S8 plane) only).", "P-GW Address in The IP address of the P-GW currently used for X Use (user plane) sending user plane traffic.", "(For PMIP-based S5/S8 only).", "P-GW GRE Key for PDN GW assigned GRE Key for the S5/S8 X uplink traffic (user interface for the user plane for uplink traffic.", "plane) (For PMIP-based S5/S8 only).", "MS Info Change The MME and/or SGSN serving the UE Reporting support support(s) procedures for reporting User indication Location Information and/or User CSG Information changes.", "MS Info Change Denotes whether the MME and/or the SGSN Reporting Action is/are requested to send changes in User Location Information and/or User CSG Information changes for this bearer.", "For User CSG Information, this field denotes separately whether the MME/SGSN are requested to send changes in User CSG Information for (a) CSG cells, (b) hybrid cells in which the subscriber is a CSG member, and (c) hybrid cells in which the subscriber is not a CSG member, or any combination of the above.", "BCM The negotiated Bearer Control Mode for GERAN/UTRAN.", "Default Bearer Identifies the default bearer within the PDN X connection by its EPS Bearer Id.", "The default bearer is the one which is established first within the PDN connection.", "(For GTP based S5/S8 or for PMIP based S5/S8 if multiple PDN connections to the same APN are supported).", "EPS PDN Charging The charging characteristics of this PDN Characteristics connection e.g. normal, prepaid, flat-rate and/or hot billing.", "If the Direct Tunnel indicator is enabled, it shows that the LGW uses a Direct Tunnel for LIPA/SIPTO data transmission;", "if the indicator is disabled, it shows the LGW enables the S5-U Tunnel.", "Embodiment II In the embodiment II, a SGW mainly adopts the LIPA/SIPTO identifier included in the context of PDN connection to indicate whether PDN connection is using LIPA/SIPTO when establishing a PDN connection, thus enabling the SGW to inform the PGW of how to select a data plane tunnel.", "This embodiment is applied in occasions where the status of the UE is changed frequently, which may reduce the to quantity of information in the signaling message.", "If the UE is in a connected status: The UE Requested PDN Connectivity or Attach procedure is as shown in FIG. 6 , wherein, the steps 1 , 4 , 5 , 6 ˜ 16 relate to the prior art, which will not be described herein and may be referred to the protocol TS23.401 5.10.2, and the steps relating to the present invention are described in details hereinbelow.", "Step 2 : an identifier of MME is included in the Create Session Request, which indicates that the PDN Connection is used for LIPA/SIPTO.", "After SGW receives the identifier, an LIPA/SIPTO identifier is added in the PDN Connection Context to indicate that the PDN Connection is used for LIPA/SIPTO.", "Step 3 : Serving GW sends the Create Session Request to a PGW.", "If the PDN Connection is used for LIPA/SIPTO, the PGW is an LGW.", "If the system informs the LGW with a special APN, the LGW needs to determine whether the connection is used for LIPA/SIPTO, or an identifier for LIPA/SIPTO connection establishment is included in the Create Session Request.", "Step 5 a : When the LGW receives the identifier for LIPA/SIPTO connection to establishment, the LGW sets the tunnel identifier of the UE as enabled, indicating that the LGW uses a Direct Tunnel.", "Step 13 a : this step is optional.", "If this step occurs, the SGW checks the PDN Connection context of the received Modify Bearer Request (the PDN Connection has an LIPA/SIPTO identifier at this moment), and sends the Modify Bearer Request with an identifier for LIPA/SIPTO connection establishment to the PGW.", "If the tunnel identifier of PDN Connection in the LGW is disabled, it is necessary to set it as enabled.", "The Service Request procedure is as shown in FIG. 7 , wherein, the steps 1 ˜ 8 , 10 , 11 , 12 relate to the prior art, which will not be described herein and may be referred to the protocol TS23.401 5.3[.", "].4, and the steps relating to the present invention are described in details hereinbelow.", "Step 9 : if the PDN Connection of Modify Bearer Request received by SGW has an LIPA/SIPTO identifier, the SGW sends a Modify Bearer Request with an identifier for LIPA/SIPTO connection establishment to the PGW, indicating that the UE is in a Connected status.", "Step 11 a : upon receiving the identifier for LIPA/SIPTO connection establishment included in the Modify Bearer Request and sending a Modify Bearer Response, the LGW sets the tunnel identifier enabled, indicating that Direct Tunnel is used for this connection.", "When the UE is in an idle status: S1 Release procedure is shown in FIG. 8 , wherein, steps 1 ˜ 16 relate to the prior art, which will not be described herein and may be referred to the protocol TS23.401 5.3[.", "].5, and the steps relating to the present invention are described in details hereinbelow.", "Step 7 a : upon receiving the default bearer ID list in the Release Access Bearer Request message, the SGW finds out whether an LIPA/SIPTO identifier is included in the PDN Connection corresponding to each Default Bearer ID, if yes, sends a Modify Bearer Request to the corresponding LGW with an identifier for LIPA/SIPTO connection teardown, and then processes in accordance with step 2 in existing protocol TS23.401 5.3[.", "].5.", "Step 7 b : upon receiving the identifier for LIPA/SIPTO connection teardown, the LGW sets the tunnel identifier disabled, indicating that S5/S8-U Tunnel will be used for this connection, and sends a Modify Bearer Response to the SGW at the same time.", "In the embodiment II, if the system informs the LGW with a special identifier, the special identifier needs to be included in the Create Session Request.", "Similarly, to indicate whether LIPA/SIPTO connection should exist in the Modify Bearer Request, an identifier also needs to be included, thus an indication can be added in IE “Indication Flags”", "as shown in the table hereinbelow: Bits Octets 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1 Type = 77 (decimal) 2 to 3 Length = n 4 Spare Instance 5 DAF DTF HI DFI OI ISRSI ISRAI SGWCI 6 LS UIMSI CFSI CRSI P PT SI MSV 7 to (n + 4) These octet(s) is/are present only if explicitly specified The identifier is included in the Create Session Request to indicate whether to establish LIPA/SIPTO connection, and 1 bit indicates that it is LIAP/SIPTO connection while 0 bit indicates that it is not LIAP/SIPTO connection.", "The identifier included in the Modify Bearer Request is effective only in LIPA/SIPTO connection.", "If the tunnel identifier is 1, the existing LIPA/SIPTO connection is in use and the UE is in a connected status;", "if the tunnel identifier is 0, the existing LIPA/SIPTO connection is not in use for the time being and the UE is in an idle status.", "In the Service Request procedure, the SGW checks whether the LIPA/SIPTO identifier is included in the PDN Connection of Modify Bearer, if yes, the SGW sets the LS identifier bit as 1 in the Modify Bearer Request sent to the LGW.", "In the S1 Release procedure, the SGW finds out whether the LIPA/SIPTO identifier is included in the PDN Connection corresponding to each default bearer ID in the Release Access Bearer, if yes, sends a Modify Bearer Request to the corresponding LGW and sets the LS identifier bit as 0 in the message.", "Identifiers are necessary to be added in the context of PDN Connection of the LGW to indicate which tunnel to be used for LIPA/SIPTO connection, direct tunnel or S5-U tunnel.", "The added identifiers are as shown in the table hereinbelow: For each PDN Connection within the APN: NOTE: The following entries are repeated for each PDN connection within the APN.", "IP Address(es) IPv4 address and/or IPv6 prefix X PDN type IPv4, IPv6, or IPv4v6 X Direct Tunnel Indicate whether Direct tunnel shall be used to indicator transport LIPA/SIPTO data.", "S-GW Address in The IP address of the S-GW currently used for X Use (control sending control plane signalling.", "plane) S-GW TEID for S-GW Tunnel Endpoint Identifier for the S5/S8 X S5/S8 (control interface for the control plane.", "(For GTP-based plane) S5/S8 only).", "S-GW Address in The IP address of the S-GW currently used for X Use (user plane) sending user plane traffic.", "(For PMIP-based S5/S8 only).", "S-GW GRE Key for Serving GW assigned GRE Key for the S5/S8 X downlink traffic interface for the user plane for downlink traffic.", "(user plane) (For PMIP-based S5/S8 only).", "P-GW IP address P-GW IP address for the S5/S8 for the control X for S5/S8 (control plane signalling.", "plane) P-GW TEID for P-GW Tunnel Endpoint Identifier for the S5/S8 X S5/S8 (control control plane interface.", "(For GTP-based S5/S8 plane) only).", "P-GW Address in The IP address of the P-GW currently used for X Use (user plane) sending user plane traffic.", "(For PMIP-based S5/S8 only).", "P-GW GRE Key for PDN GW assigned GRE Key for the S5/S8 X uplink traffic (user interface for the user plane for uplink traffic.", "plane) (For PMIP-based S5/S8 only).", "MS Info Change The MME and/or SGSN serving the UE Reporting support support(s) procedures for reporting User indication Location Information and/or User CSG Information changes.", "MS Info Change Denotes whether the MME and/or the SGSN Reporting Action is/are requested to send changes in User Location Information and/or User CSG Information changes for this bearer.", "For User CSG Information, this field denotes separately whether the MME/SGSN are requested to send changes in User CSG Information for (a) CSG cells, (b) hybrid cells in which the subscriber is a CSG member, and (c) hybrid cells in which the subscriber is not a CSG member, or any combination of the above.", "BCM The negotiated Bearer Control Mode for GERAN/UTRAN.", "Default Bearer Identifies the default bearer within the PDN X connection by its EPS Bearer Id.", "The default bearer is the one which is established first within the PDN connection.", "(For GTP based S5/S8 or for PMIP based S5/S8 if multiple PDN connections to the same APN are supported).", "EPS PDN Charging The charging characteristics of this PDN Characteristics connection e.g. normal, prepaid, flat-rate and/or hot billing.", "When the Direct Tunnel indicator is enabled, it indicates that the LGW transports LIPA/SIPTO data with Direct Tunnel;", "when the indicator is disabled, it indicates the LGW transports the data with S5-U Tunnel.", "FIG. 9 is a systematic structure diagram of the selection of data plane tunnel according to the UE status described in an embodiment of the present invention.", "This system comprises a SGW 100 for determining the status of the UE and whether a connection is used for LIPA/SIPTO and instructing the LGW 200 , and the LGW 200 for setting a tunnel identifier status of the LGW 200 according to the instruction of the SGW 100 , and selecting the data plane tunnel according to the tunnel identifier status Wherein, when the UE is in an idle status, the tunnel identifier is disabled and the LGW 200 selects S5/S8-U Tunnel;", "when the UE is in a connected status, the tunnel identifier is enabled and the LGW 200 selects the Direct Tunnel.", "In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, this system also includes the MME 300 used for informing the SGW 100 through an indicator included in the Create Session Request when determining that the connection to be established is used for LIPA/SIPTO, which will then inform the LGW 200 .", "The LGW 200 sets the tunnel identifier as enabled.", "In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the system also includes the MME 300 used for adding an identifier for LIPA/SIPTO connection establishment to the Modify Bearer Request when determining that the connection is LIPA/SIPTO connection according to the context of the PDN Connection, to inform the SGW 100 of that the PDN Connection is used for LIPA/SIPTO service, which will then inform the LGW 200 of the same, and then the LGW 200 sets the tunnel identifier as enabled.", "In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the LGW 200 comprises a setting module 210 used for setting a tunnel identifier status according to the instruction of the SGW, and a tunnel selection module 220 for selecting a data plane tunnel according to the tunnel identifier status.", "Wherein, when the UE is in an idle status, the tunnel identifier is disabled and the tunnel selection module 220 selects S5/S8-U Tunnel;", "when a UE is in a connected status, the tunnel identifier is enabled and the tunnel selection module 220 selects the Direct Tunnel.", "The present invention selects an appropriate data plane tunnel by setting a tunnel identifier in the LGW, and proposes a method for controlling the setting/clearing of the tunnel identifier, therefore the present invention enjoys comprehensive functions and may make up the disadvantage of LIPA/SIPTO architecture in the prior art.", "Though the embodiments of the present invention have been presented and described, those skilled in the art may make various changes, modifications, replacement and transformations without departing from the substance or scope of the present invention, which is defined by the appended claims and equivalents.", "With the description of the preferred embodiments hereinabove, those skilled in the art can clearly understand that the present invention can be realized with the aid of software and necessary commonly used hardware platforms, or the aid of hardware of course, but the former is a preferred embodiment in most cases.", "Based on this understanding, the technical proposal of the present invention or the part contributing to the prior art can be reflected in the form of a software product, which is saved in a memory medium comprising instructions to enable a computer, which could be a personal computer, a server or a network device, to carry out the methods for each embodiment of the present invention.", "Those skilled in the art can understand that the drawings are only schematic drawings of a preferred embodiment, and the module or procedure in the drawings is not necessarily a must for the embodiments of the present invention.", "Those skilled in the art can understand that the modules in the device of the embodiments can be distributed in the device of the embodiments according to the description of the embodiments, and can be placed in a or more device(s) different from the embodiment after corresponding changes as well.", "The aforesaid modules of the embodiment can be incorporated into a module or further split into multiple modules." ]

[ "This application claims the benefit of the Korean Application No. P2003-49753 filed on Jul. 21, 2003, which is hereby incorporated by reference.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1.", "Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a personal video recorder (PVR), and more particularly, to a personal video recorder and control method thereof, by which functions of recording, editing (mixing), and playing back a video from a digital video display device are provided.", "[0003] 2.", "Discussion of the Related Art [0004] Generally, such an encoder as MPEG (moving picture experts group) is used in home appliances field including digital TV, digital camcorder, and the like to reduce both storage and transfer capacities of digital video or audio.", "Specifically, in digital TV and set-top box (STB), the digital storage system using such a digital storage medium as HDD and DVD (digital versatile disc) is used instead of the analog storage system using conventional VTR (video tape recorder).", "[0005] The digital camcorder needs an encoder having a complicated standard of MPEG series and should include both encoder and decoder.", "Lately, a simple compression encoding standard is provided to overcome problems of the MPEG-series encoder that has to perform computation of motion estimation and compensation.", "The encoding standard of the digital camcorder is disclosed in ‘International standard CEI/IEC 61834-2, Recording—Helical-scan digital video cassette recording system using 6.35 mm magnetic tape for consumer use (525-60, 625-50, 1125-60 and 1250-50 systems)—Part 2: SD format for 525-60 and 625-50 systems’ and is generally called DV (digital video) format.", "[0006] The conventional PVR function is limited to storing a TV program corresponding to another channel on mainly viewing one specific program, viewing a TV program stored in HDD via time-shift function, or storing/playing back digital TV signals in/from HDD.", "Demand for a PVR device equipped with processing and storing functions of various video input signals such as a digital camcorder, digital camera, and the like is raised.", "For this, instead of preparing or combining the respective chips meeting various types, a system price reduction and system integration enhancement via one unified video decoding chip are more efficient.", "[0007] Recently, according to the tendency of the HDD capacity increase and price reduction, user's need for storing several video tapes taken by a camcorder in HDD as one file or storing to keep a series or weekend dramas of a broadcasting station into one file is raised.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0008] Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a personal video recorder and control method thereof that substantially obviate one or more problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.", "[0009] An object of the present invention is to provide a PVR system and control method thereof, which is appropriate for recording, editing (mixing), replaying videos of various video appliances such as a digital camcorder as well as a digital broadcasting video.", "[0010] Additional advantages, objects, and features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned from practice of the invention.", "The objectives and other advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.", "[0011] To achieve these objects and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, a personal video recorder according to the present invention includes a decoder selecting at least one of a plurality of reception video streams to decode the selected video stream, a PVR engine reading a first index file including video features and addresses of previously stored video streams, the PVR engine generating a second index file including video features and addresses of the selected video stream, the PVR engine links the first and second index files to each other to combine the previously stored video stream and the selected video stream, and a storage means for storing the video streams and the index files corresponding to the video streams.", "[0012] Preferably, the decoder transforms the selected video stream into a packetized elementary stream (PES).", "[0013] Preferably, the PVR engine includes a video feature extractor receiving the decoded video stream from the decoder to extract the video feature from the decoded video stream and an index/search engine generating the second index file including the extracted video feature and the addresses of the selected video stream to link the first and second index files to each other.", "[0014] More preferably, the index/search engine includes a download control unit appending a time stamp indicating a reception time of the selected video stream to the selected video stream, a stream mixer generating the second index file to link the first and second index files to each other according to a user's command, and a conditional access system scrambling the selected video stream for copy prevention.", "[0015] Preferably, the video features include at least one selected from the group consisting of video size and video type.", "[0016] Preferably, the PVR engine records a first or last address of the selected video stream in the first index file to link the first and second index files and another last or first address of the previously stored video stream in the second index file.", "[0017] Preferably, the PVR engine detects a program clock reference (PCR) as a reference clock information from the selected video stream.", "[0018] More preferably, the PVR engine compensates a difference between a value of the program clock reference of the selected video stream and a value of the program clock reference of the previously stored video stream.", "[0019] Preferably, the PVR engine changes/sets up a combining sequence of the selected and previously stored video streams according to a user's command.", "[0020] Preferably, the personal video recorder further includes a user interface providing a recording setup menu including a list of the previously stored video streams and storage option buttons to a user.", "[0021] Preferably, the personal video recorder further includes a DV (digital video) processing unit transforming a DV-formatted video stream inputted from an external device into an MPEG-formatted video stream to provide the transformed video stream to the decoder.", "[0022] More preferably, the DV processing unit includes an interface transforming the DV-formatted video stream into a DIF (digital interface formatted) video stream, a DV decoder separating the DIF video stream into a video DIF signal and an audio DIF signal, and an MPEG encoder transforming the video DIF signal into an MPEG-formatted video stream.", "[0023] In another aspect of the present invention, a method of controlling a personal video recorder includes a step (a) of reading a first index file including video features and addresses of previously stored video streams from a storage means and generating a second index file including another video features and addresses of reception video streams, a step (b) of linking the first and second index files to combine the previously stored video stream and the reception video stream, and a step (c) of storing the video streams and the index files corresponding to the video streams in the storage means.", "[0024] Preferably, the step of generating the second index file includes the steps of extracting the video feature of the reception video stream and allocating the address of the reception video stream.", "[0025] Preferably, the method further includes the steps of appending a time stamp indicating a reception time of the reception video stream to the corresponding reception video stream and scrambling the corresponding reception video stream for copy prevention.", "[0026] Preferably, the video features include at least one selected from the group consisting of video size and video type.", "[0027] Preferably, the step (b) further includes the step of recording a first or last address of the reception video stream in the first index file to link the first and second index files and another last or first address of the corresponding previously stored video stream in the second index file.", "[0028] Preferably, the method further includes the steps of detecting a program clock reference (PCR) as a reference clock information from the reception video stream, comparing a value of the program clock reference of the reception video stream to a value of the program clock reference of the previously stored video stream, and compensating a difference between the two program clock reference values.", "[0029] Preferably, the step (b) includes the step of changing/setting up a combining sequence of the reception and previously stored video streams according to a user's command.", "[0030] Preferably, the method further includes the step of displaying a recording setup menu including a list of the previously stored video streams and storage option buttons.", "[0031] Preferably, the method further includes the step of transforming the reception video stream into an MPEG-formatted video stream.", "[0032] More preferably, the step of transforming the reception video stream includes the steps of transforming the reception video stream into a DIF (digital interface formatted) video stream, separating the DIF video stream into a video DIF signal and an audio DIF signal, and transforming the video DIF signal into the MPEG-formatted video stream.", "[0033] It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description of the present invention are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0034] The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate embodiment(s) of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principle of the invention.", "In the drawings: [0035] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a PVR system according to the present invention;", "[0036] FIG. 2 is a detailed block diagram of an index/search engine in FIG. 1 ;", "[0037] FIG. 3 is an exemplary diagram of a recording setup menu for recording a video or broadcast program according to the present invention;", "[0038] FIG. 4 is a diagram of a relation between TS mixer and HDD according to the present invention;", "and [0039] FIG. 5 is a structural diagram of an index file according to the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0040] Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.", "Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.", "[0041] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a PVR (personal video recorder) system according to the present invention, in which a PVR of the present invention includes a video processing unit 100 implemented by one chip.", "[0042] Referring to FIG. 1 , the video processing unit 100 includes a DV processing unit 110 , a PVR engine 130 , a TS decoder 120 , an MPEG decoder 140 , and a memory control unit 150 .", "[0043] The DV processing unit 110 transforms a video signal of DV format inputted via digital camcorder into a transport stream (TS) of MPEG compression format.", "The DV processing unit 110 includes an IEEE1394 reception interface unit 111 receiving to convert a video signal of DV format to a signal of DIF (digital interface format), a DV system decoder 112 separating the DIF signal into a video DIF signal and an audio DIF signal, and an MPEG encoder 113 encoding the video DIF signal into an MPEG-2 transport stream format as a digital TV standard to output to the TS decoder 120 .", "[0044] The TS decoder 120 receives various signals.", "For instance, the TS decoder 120 receives a digital TV MPEG transport stream signal provided via TV tuner and demodulator (not shown in the drawing), a DV transport stream signal provided via IEEE1394 port and the DV processing unit 110 , a playback transport stream signal provided via HDD 300 and the PVR engine 130 , etc.", "The TS decoder 120 selects at least one MPEG transport stream of digital TV MPEG transport stream, MPEG transport stream from the DV processing unit 110 , and playback MPEG transport stream and then decodes the selected MPEG transport stream into a packetized elementary stream (hereinafter abbreviated PES).", "The MPEG video decoder 140 decodes a video PES outputted from the TS decoder 120 by MPEG decoding algorithm.", "Moreover, the TS decoder 120 outputs at least one of the digital TV MPEG transport stream and the MPEG transport stream from the DV processing unit 110 to the PVR engine 130 .", "[0045] In case that a user intends to view a video, the TS decoder 120 selects one user-demanding transport stream from the digital TV transport stream, DV transport stream, and playback transport stream, decodes the selected transport stream into a video PES, and then outputs the video PES to the MPEG decoder 140 .", "In case that a user intends to record a video, the TS decoder 120 selects one of the digital TV transport stream and the DV transport stream to output to the PVR engine 130 .", "Simultaneously, the TS decoder 120 decodes the selected transport stream into PES and then outputs the PES to the PVR engine 130 .", "Video display and record may be performed simultaneously or separately.", "[0046] The PVR engine 130 stores the video transport stream in the HDD 300 and enables to synthesize the video transport stream with a previously stored transport stream.", "And, the PVR engine 130 enables to search the video transport stream stored in the HDD at any time and to perform various trick plays.", "The PVR engine 130 receives the digital TV MPEG transport stream or DV MPEG transport stream via the TS decoder 120 and then stores it in the HDD 300 or edits the received transport stream.", "Moreover, the PVR engine 130 searches data stored in the HDD 300 and provides the data of an MPEG transport stream format to the TS decoder 120 to play back a recorded video.", "The PVR engine 130 includes a video feature extractor (VFE) 131 and an index/search engine 132 .", "The VFE 131 detects video features such a video type and volume included in the video PES from the video PES outputted from the TS decoder 120 and then provides the detected video features to the index/search engine 132 .", "The video features include header information included in the video PES such as sequence header, picture header, and the like and the video volume and type extracted from macroblock informations.", "When the transport stream outputted from the TS decoder 120 is stored in the HDD 300 , the index/search engine 132 sets up a storage location of the transport stream according to a request of a user interface (UI) 400 and edits the video included in the transport stream.", "Moreover, the index/search engine 132 controls a search and playback of the video transport stream stored in the HDD 300 .", "[0047] And, the memory control unit 150 controlling data input/output is provided between the video processing unit 100 and the external memory 200 .", "SDR (single data rate) SDRAM or DDR (double data rate) SDRAM is used as the external memory 200 for example.", "[0048] FIG. 2 is a detailed block diagram of the index/search engine 132 in FIG. 1 .", "[0049] Referring to FIG. 2 , a download control unit 201 receives the transport stream outputted from the TS decoder 120 and then appends a time stamp to the received transport stream.", "The time stamp indicates a time at which the transport stream is received.", "When the transport stream is stored in the HDD 300 , the download control unit 201 appends the time stamp to the transport stream to prevent a decoding error of the MPEG video decoder 140 due to overflow or underflow of an MPEG decoder buffer (not shown in the drawing).", "Moreover, the download control unit 201 controls a reception bit rate of the received transport stream.", "[0050] A TS mixer 202 receives the transport stream from the download control unit 201 and a user's command from the user interface 400 .", "The TS mixer 202 adds the transport stream provided by the download control unit 201 to another transport stream corresponding to a specific program stored in the HDD 300 .", "[0051] A conditional access system (hereinafter abbreviated CAS) 203 scrambles the transport stream to prevent the transport stream outputted from the TS mixer 202 from being copied and descrambles the transport stream read from the HDD 300 .", "[0052] An interface 204 controls a signal and data input/output between the CAS 203 and the HDD 300 .", "The interface 204 is an IDE (integrated derive electronics) or EIDE (enhanced integrated drive electronics) interface.", "The IDE interface 204 is a sort of interface connecting the HDD 300 and a personal computer (PC).", "The PC is mostly connected to a large capacity storage device such as HDD, CD-ROM drive, tape driver, etc.", "In the present invention, the IDE interface 204 is used for connecting the PVR engine 130 within a video decoding chip to the HDD 300 .", "[0053] An upload control unit 205 outputs a playback video stream to the TS decoder 120 while maintaining a precise bit rate by referring to the time stamp appended to the playback video stream read from the HDD 300 .", "In outputting the playback video stream to the TS decoder 120 , the upload control unit 205 removes the time stamp from the playback transport stream and then outputs it to the TS decoder 120 by byte unit.", "[0054] In order to display a DV-formatted video signal provided from a digital camcorder on a screen or to store it in the HDD 300 , the corresponding video signal should be transformed into an MPEG-2 TS video stream of digital TV standard.", "For this, the DV-formatted video signal photographed by the digital camcorder is inputted to the IEEE1394 reception interface 111 of the DV processing unit 110 via the IEEE1394 port, and the inputted video signal is transformed into a video signal of DIF (digital interface format) to be provided to the DV decoder 112 .", "The DV decoder 112 parses the header information of the DIF signal to separate the corresponding DIF signal into a video DIF signal and an audio DIF signal and then provides the video DIF signal to the MPEG encoder 113 .", "After having encoded the video DIF signal by a digital TV MPEG transport stream format, the MPEG encoder 113 outputs the encoded signal to the TS decoder 120 to display the encoded signal on a screen or to store the encoded signal in the HDD 300 .", "[0055] In order to record, reserve to record, or time-shift a video or broadcast program, the TS decoder 120 selects the transport stream corresponding to PID (program identifier) of the video or broadcast program requested to record by a user from the received transport streams only and then outputs the selected transport stream to the index/search engine 132 of the PVR engine 130 .", "Simultaneously, the TS decoder 120 decodes the selected transport stream into PES to extract video features and then outputs the PES to the video feature extractor (VFE) 131 .", "The transport stream provided to the TS decoder 120 to be recorded is at least one of a transport stream of a digital TV broadcast signal received via public wave, cable, or satellite and a DV transport stream.", "[0056] In order to display a video or broadcast program, the TS decoder 120 just decodes the transport stream corresponding to PID of the program requested by a user among the received transport streams into PES and then outputs the corresponding PES to the MPEG decoder 140 .", "The transport stream provided to the TS decoder 120 to be displayed is at least one of a transport stream of a digital TV broadcast signal received via public wave, cable, or satellite, a DV transport stream, and a transport stream stored in the HDD 300 .", "The transport streams provided to the TS decoder 120 have the same format following the MPEG standard.", "[0057] The VFE 131 of the PVR engine 130 extracts header informations (e.g., sequence_header, picure_header) and macroblock informations (e.g., DC, motion vector information) from the video PES provided by the TS decoder 120 and then analyzes the features for the video transport stream from the informations.", "And, the TS mixer 202 generates an index file based on the analyzed video feature informations.", "The index file includes a volume (size) of the transport stream and information associated with a type of picture included in the transport stream.", "And, the index file is related to the features for video contents to support editing, fast forward play, reverse play, shot detection, scene segmentation, intelligent playback, and the like of the video or broadcast program stored in the HDD 300 .", "[0058] When the video transport stream is stored in the HDD 300 , the index/search engine 132 sets up a storage location of the transport stream according to a request of the user interface (UI) 400 and edits the video included in the transport stream.", "[0059] Owing to the recent HDD capacity increase and price reduction, needs for storing several moving pictures taken by a camcorder in one electronic file on the HDD 300 or storing a series or weekend drama of a broadcasting station in one electronic file to keep instead of storing them per date are raised.", "Hence, the TS mixer 202 adds the video or broadcast program that is being recorded to the former video or broadcast program previously stored in the HDD 300 .", "[0060] If a user selects a recording or a reserved recording, the user interface 400 displays a recording setup menu, as shown in FIG. 3 , on a TV screen.", "The user decides whether to add the received video or broadcast program to the previous video or program stored in the HDD 300 or to store the received video or broadcast program in a new program file using the recording setup menu.", "[0061] For instance, if a user selects an ‘ADD’ button, a file list of the videos or broadcast programs stored in the HDD 300 , as shown in FIG. 3 , shows up on a screen.", "If the user selects a specific one of the videos or broadcast programs from the file list, an index file associated with the selected video or broadcast program file is provided to the TS mixer 202 from the HDD 300 .", "Subsequently, the TS mixer 202 adds the received video or broadcast program to the previously stored video or broadcast program based on the index file and then includes the corresponding two videos or broadcast programs in one file.", "The TS mixer 202 synthesizes the two videos or broadcast programs based on location information included in the index file such as an address.", "The transport stream outputted via the TS mixer 202 is scrambled in the CAS 203 to be prevented from being copied and is stored with a previous program file name selected by the user in the HDD 30 .", "[0062] If a user selects a ‘New’ button, an image for receiving a new video or program file name from the user is displayed on the screen and the recorded video or program is stored with the new file name inputted by the user.", "If a new file name is automatically generated or inputted by the user, the transport stream outputted from the TS mixer 202 is scrambled by the CAS 203 to be prevented from being copied and is stored with the new file name in the HDD 300 .", "[0063] FIG. 4 is a diagram of a relation between the TS mixer 202 and the HDD 300 for synthesizing two transport streams.", "[0064] Referring to FIG. 4 , a PCR(program clock reference)/PID(program identifier) detector 401 receives a transport stream TS#3 from the download control unit 201 and detects a transport packet including a first program clock reference (PCR) and a first program identifier (PID) from the received transport stream TS#3.", "The program clock reference (PCR) includes a reference clock information of the transport stream TS#3, and the program identifier (PID) includes information for identifying a video or broadcast program included in the transport stream TS#3.", "In order to set a picture-I of the received transport stream TS#3 to a first picture, the PCR/PID detector 401 detects a transport packet having the first PCR and PID from the picture-I.", "[0065] A DI (discontinuity indicator) inserter 402 sets a DI (discontinuity indicator) signal of the transport packet detected to prevent a video discontinuity to ‘ 1 ’.", "The DI inserter 402 receives the transport packet having the PCR and PID from the PCR/PID detector 401 , compares a PCR value included in a stored transport stream TS#1 to a PCR value included in the received transport stream TS#3, and compensates a difference between the two compared PCR values to enable to play the two videos or broadcast programs that will be combined without discontinuity.", "[0066] An index linker 403 links two corresponding index files Index#1 and Index#3 to synthesize the two transport streams TS#1 and TS#3.", "For instance, the index linker 403 includes information of a last storage location (address) of the transport stream TS#1 in the index file Index#3 and information for a first storage location (address) of the transport stream TS#3 in the index file Index#1.", "The addresses of the two transport streams TS#1 and TS#3 stored in the HDD 300 need not to be sequential.", "Yet, the two videos or broadcast programs included in the synthesized two transport streams TS#1 and TS#3 are continuously displayed according to the address information included in the two index files Index#1 and Index#3.", "Optionally, the index linker 403 enables to change/set up a sequential order of the index files Index#1 and Index#3 according to a user's order.", "[0067] FIG. 5 is a structural diagram of the linked two index files Index#1 and Index#3.", "[0068] Referring to FIG. 5 , two index files include a volume or size of two synthesized videos or broadcast programs, picture type (S, I, P, B) of each transport packet, absolute address of each transport packet stored in the HDD 300 , and information about presence or non-presence of link of index files (presence or non-presence of next index, presence or non-presence of previous index).", "Besides, the index file Index#1 includes information of a next index link address that is a first storage location (address) of the transport stream TS#3, and the next index file Index#3 includes information of a previous index link address that is a last storage location of the transport stream TS#1.", "[0069] Once the index file Index#1 and the next index file Index#3 are linked to each other, the next index link address is recorded in the index file Index#1 and the previous index link address is recorded in the index file Index#3.", "For example of FIG. 4 , the next index link address is a start absolute address of the next transport stream TS#3 stored in the HDD 300 , and the previous index link address is a last absolute address of the previous transport stream TS#1.", "A program file name of the transport stream TS#3 is equal to that of the transport stream TS#1.", "Hence, if the program file name of the transport stream TS#1 is selected in playing the corresponding video or broadcast program, the transport streams TS#1 and TS#3 are recognized as one program to be played back.", "In doing so, a sequence of reading the transport streams stored in the HDD 300 may be reverse to a sequence of the downloading process or can be decided according to a user's request.", "The index/search engine 132 enables to change/set up a display sequence of the recorded videos or broadcast programs according to a user's command.", "[0070] Referring to FIG. 3 , if a user selects a program file Program#1 from a playable program file list, the index/search engine 132 reads the corresponding transport stream from the HDD 300 by referring to the index file Index#1 of the selected program file Program#1.", "In doing so, the transport streams TS#1 and TS#3 are sequentially read by the index file Index#1.", "The CAS 203 descrambles the transport streams TS#1 and TS#3 if the read transport streams TS#1 and TS#3 are scrambled and then outputs them to the upload control unit 205 .", "The upload control unit 205 transfers the transport streams TS#1 and TS#3 to the TS decoder 120 while keeping a precise bit rate by referring to time stamps appended to the descrambled transport streams TS#1 and TS#3.", "This is to prevent a decoding error from occurring due to overflow or underflow of the MPEG decoder buffer.", "In doing so, the time stamps are removed from the transport streams TS#1 and TS#3 to be transferred to the TS decoder 120 .", "Namely, the time stamps are just referred to in playback.", "The TS decoder 120 decodes the inputted playback transport streams TS#1 and TS#3 into PES to output to the MPEG decoder 140 .", "[0071] Meanwhile, a structure of the index file is characterized in facilitating to link to a transport stream newly added to another sector within the HDD 300 via link address as well as in facilitating to find to upload a specific transport stream within the HDD 300 for such a trick play as a fast forward play, fast backward play, reverse play, and the like.", "[0072] As mentioned in the foregoing description, the PVR apparatus having the index file structure according to the present invention enables to add a new program to a previous program.", "Moreover, in synthesizing at least two programs within the HDD into one or simulatenously storing two transport streams in the HDD, the corresponding programs or transport streams are stored in another sector within the HDD and can be simply recognized as one via index link.", "[0073] Accordingly, the PVR system and method of editing a recorded program according to the present invention have the following advantages or effects.", "[0074] First of all, the present invention enables to efficiently support storage, editing, search, and the like within the HDD for the videos of digital camcorder DV format as well as the digital TV program via one unified video decoding chip, thereby enabling to reduce a system price and to raise system integration.", "[0075] Secondly, the present invention supports an editing function of adding a real-time bit stream stored in the HDD to a specific previous video stream and facilitates to diversify playback, trick play, and the like of the stored video contents.", "Thus, the present invention provides various video services and enables to enhance an additional value of the digital video recorder.", "[0076] Finally, the present invention is essential to digital TV or video recorder applied fields, thereby providing a digital video decoder of high performance for video contents storage and search using HDD and reinforcing digital TV technical competition with other companies.", "[0077] It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention.", "Thus, it is intended that the present invention covers the modifications and variations of this invention provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents." ]

[ "[0001] This application claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/739,549, filed Dec. 19, 2012, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by this reference.", "[0002] The present invention generally relates to syringes for introducing medicaments and more specifically relates to syringes for introducing dermal fillers for enhancement or tissue reconstruction purposes.", "BACKGROUND [0003] Additives can provide a number of benefit when added to soft tissue fillers, for example, hyaluronic acid-based dermal fillers such as those marketed under the tradename Juvederm®, available from Allergan, Inc. Additives, such as anesthetics for example, when combined with dermal fillers or when introduced during a dermal filler injection procedure, may substantially improve patient comfort.", "Other additive, such as vitamins and antioxidants, may provide other clinical benefits when introduced into skin during the injection procedure.", "Certain commercial dermal fillers, such as Juvederm XC, for example, include anesthetics, specifically lidocaine, as an ingredient in the product.", "[0004] Conventionally, additives that are not already included as an ingredient of a dermal filler product, are sometimes introduced prior to or after dermal filler injection, using a separate syringe.", "In certain cases the filler and the additive cannot be mixed until a few minutes prior to the injection, for example, in cases where mixing of the two fluid will cause instability or degradation of one or the other.", "[0005] There is a need for methods and devices that facilitate mixing of a dermal filler with an additive immediately prior to injection therefore into skin.", "SUMMARY [0006] Accordingly, assemblies, devices and methods are provided for mixing additive with dermal filler compositions prior to or concurrently with injection of the dermal filler/additive mixture into skin.", "[0007] The present invention generally relates to a syringe assembly that is designed to mix and dispense a first injectable fluid and an additive.", "The first injectable fluid is stored in a syringe and the other is stored or immobilized in a syringe accessory hereinafter referred to as an insert, connectable to the syringe.", "[0008] In one aspect of the invention, a syringe assembly is provided.", "The assembly generally comprises a syringe having a barrel for containing a fluid, for example a dermal filler, to be introduced into a body, a plunger slidably disposed in the barrel, and a distal portion defining a fluid flow path.", "The syringe further comprises a luer connector disposed at the distal portion of the syringe.", "The assembly further comprises an insert, coupled to the luer connector, comprising an additive containment member in line with the fluid flow path.", "[0009] In one embodiment, the insert is removably coupled to the luer connector.", "For example, the insert may comprise a housing having a portion, for example, a proximal portion, that is couplable with the luer connector and a distal portion couplable with a needle or cannula hub.", "In use, the insert is coupled to the syringe such that the additive containment member is located in line with a flow of dermal filler being ejected from the syringe, for example, by means of the plunger.", "As the dermal filler material passes by the containment member, additive within the containment member becomes drawn into the dermal filler and is combined therewith.", "Mixing of dermal filler and additive can be enhanced by provision of structure, for example, a mixing chamber, as a part of the assembly, for example, in the insert distal to, downstream, or adjacent the containment member.", "[0010] In some embodiments, the additive containment member comprises a matrix disposed in the housing and containing the additive to be introduced into the body in conjunction with the fluid, for example, dermal filler, contained in the barrel.", "In one embodiment, the matrix is a cylindrical body disposed along an inner wall of the insert.", "The matrix may be saturated with the additive, or the additive may otherwise be contained in or by the matrix.", "The matrix may be a fiber material, a sponge-like material or other suitable material that will temporarily contain an additive, but which will release the additive when a flow of the dermal filler is passed through or in contact with the matrix.", "[0011] The additive may be any additive that will provide beneficial property when combined with a dermal filler, and may be provided in any suitable form.", "For example, the additive may be one or more of a anesthetic, a vasoconstrictor, an antioxidant, an enzymatic degradation inhibitor, and an antibiotic.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0012] The present invention may be more thoroughly appreciated and/or the advantages and features thereof better understood, with reference to the following Detailed Description, when considered in conjunction with the accompanying Drawings of which: [0013] FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional, exploded view of a syringe assembly in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;", "[0014] FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of an insert of the syringe assembly shown in FIG. 1 ;", "and [0015] FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a portion of the syringe assembly including insert shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 , as the assembly is being used to inject a dermal filler and additive.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0016] Turning now to FIG. 1 , a dermal filler syringe assembly is shown generally at 10 .", "The assembly 10 generally comprises a syringe 12 having a barrel 14 for containing a fluid, for example a dermal filler, to be introduced into a body, for example, skin, a plunger 16 slidably disposed in the barrel 14 , and a distal portion 18 defining a fluid flow path 20 , and a luer connector 22 disposed at the distal portion 18 of the syringe 12 .", "The assembly 10 further comprises an insert 30 , coupled, for example, removably coupled, to the luer connector 22 .", "The insert 30 comprises an additive containment member 32 in line with the fluid flow path 20 .", "[0017] In the embodiment shown, the insert 30 comprises a housing 36 including a proximal portion 38 couplable with the luer connector 22 and a distal portion 42 couplable with a needle or cannula hub 44 .", "More specifically, insert 30 includes additive containment lumen 45 and flange 46 that engages threads of luer connector 22 .", "Housing 36 further includes threaded portion 50 circumscribing at least a portion of additive containment lumen 45 , as shown.", "Threaded portion 50 is couplable to a hub 44 of a standard needle/cannula assembly 52 .", "The coupling arrangement between syringe 12 , needle/cannula assembly and insert 30 of this exemplary embodiment may be more clearly understood with reference to FIG. 3 .", "[0018] Turning now to FIGS. 2 and 3 , the additive containment member 32 may comprise any suitable element or material that effectively holds the additive to be mixed with the dermal filler fluid.", "For example, the additive containment member 32 may comprise a matrix 56 disposed in the housing 36 and containing an additive 58 to be introduced into the body in conjunction with a fluid contained in the barrel 14 .", "The matrix may be an absorbent material, for example, cotton or synthetic fiber material, or a porous sponge-like material such as a polyurethane foam, which is saturated with the additive.", "The matrix 56 may be in the form of a cylindrical, annular body disposed along an inner wall of the insert 30 , as shown.", "[0019] In one embodiment, the matrix 56 comprises an erodible or dissolvable polymer combined with the additive.", "When dermal filler 60 passes through passageway defined by insert 30 , polymer/additive 58 is eroded from the matrix 46 and mixed into the dermal filler.", "To facilitate combining of the additive with the dermal filler, the insert 30 may include a mixing chamber 66 , for example, located distal to matrix 46 .", "Matrix 46 may be shaped to define portion of mixing chamber 66 .", "For example, matrix 46 may include tapered distal annular surface 68 , shown most clearly in FIG. 2 .", "[0020] Referring now briefly to FIG. 3 , the assembly 10 of the invention operates generally as follows.", "When fluid, for example, dermal filler 60 , is passed through the syringe barrel 14 by means of the plunger 16 , additive 58 contained within the additive containment member 32 will be taken up in the flowing derma filler 60 and a mixture 33 of dermal filler/additive will be ejected from syringe 12 .", "[0021] Release of the additive and incorporation into the filler stream (see arrows, FIG. 3 ) may be accomplished by the combined action of convective mass transport, in that the viscous flow of the filler at the interface with a thin layer of the additive solution immobilized on the surface of the matrix 56 , results in shear stress transfer and flow.", "Also, the additive may be diffused into the dermal filler by diffusive release, in that the additive in solution form is removed from the surface of the matrix, and is rapidly replaced by fresh additive solution diffusing out from the bulk of the saturated matrix.", "At the same time, the soft matrix may be compressed as the overall volume of the fluid it holds is reduced and as pressure is exerted by the filler.", "The matrix may be made of a material that is substantially impermeable to the filler, for example, due to its small porosity.", "The concentric flow of the additive solution relative to the filler is sustained by the rapid interchange between convective mass transport and diffusive release from the bulk of the matrix.", "[0022] The additive may be any one of an anesthetic, a vasoconstrictor, an antioxidant, an enzymatic degradation inhibitor, and an antibiotic.", "The additive may be in any suitable form that allows release of the additive into the dermal filler flow.", "[0023] Although the injectable fluid has been primarily described herein as an injectable dermal filler, it should be appreciated that the assembly 10 can be configured to be effective to introduce any two or more injectable fluids.", "For example, the assembly 10 can be used to introduce a first injectable fluid and the additive, which may be referred to hereinafter as a second injectable fluid.", "[0024] The injectable fluids (e.g., the first injectable fluid or the second injectable fluid) are generally any biocompatible materials that when combined provide a benefit to the patient.", "These biocompatible materials include, but are not limited to, dermal fillers, for example, hyaluronic acid-based dermal fillers (e.g., Juvederm™ XC (Allergan, Irvine, Calif.)), hydrogels (i.e., superabsorbent natural or synthetic polymers), encapsulated and/or cross-linked biomaterials, silicones, glycosaminoglycans (e.g., chondroitin sulfate, dermatin sulfate, dermatin, dermatin sulfate, heparin sulfate, hyaluronic acid, o-sulfated hyaluronic acid), polysaccharides (e.g., chitosan, starch, glycogen, cellulose), collagen, elastin, local anesthetics (e.g., Benzocaine, Chloroprocaine, Cyclomethycaine, Dimethocaine/Larocaine, Propoxycaine, Procaine/Novocaine, Proparacaine, Tetracaine/Amethocaine, Amino amides, Articaine, Bupivacaine, Carticaine, Cinchocaine/Dibucaine, Etidocaine, Levobupivacaine, Lidocaine/Lignocaine, Mepivacaine, Piperocaine, Prilocalne, Ropivacaine, Trimecaine), drugs, bioactive agents, antioxidants, enzyme inhibitors (e.g., anti-hyaluronidase), vitamins, minerals, water, saline, light curable or light activated materials, vaccines, and pH curable or pH activated materials.", "Other biocompatible materials not mentioned above are also considered within the scope of the present invention.", "[0025] The additive, or second injectable fluid, may comprise, for example, any bioactive agent which provides a benefit to the patient, or one which facilities delivery of the first injectable fluid (e.g., to reduce extrusion force and/or viscosity).", "Additional bioactive agents may include anti-proliferatives including, but not limited to, macrolide antibiotics including FKBP-12 binding compounds, estrogens, chaperone inhibitors, protease inhibitors, protein-tyrosine kinase inhibitors, leptomycin B, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma ligands (PPARγ), hypothemycin, nitric oxide, bisphosphonates, epidermal growth factor inhibitors, antibodies, proteasome inhibitors, antibiotics, and anti-inflammatories.", "Drugs can also refer to bioactive agents including anti-proliferative compounds, cytostatic compounds, anti-inflammatory compounds, anti-fungal agents, steroids, chemotherapeutic agents, analgesics, antibiotics, protease inhibitors, statins, nucleic acids, polypeptides, growth factors and delivery vectors including recombinant micro-organisms, liposomes, and the like.", "Combinations of additional bioactive agents are also within the scope of the present invention.", "[0026] Unless otherwise indicated or otherwise clearly contradicted by context, combinations of the above-described elements in all possible variations thereof are contemplated to be included within the scope of the invention." ]

[ "This is a divisional of application Ser.", "No. 08/119,387 filed on Sep. 13, 1993, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,352,431, which is a divisional of application Ser.", "No. 07/952,992 filed on Sep. 29, 1992, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,271,924.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an imaging agent for diagnosis, in particular, to an imaging agent for diagnosis containing a polynuclear type metal complex compound.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION (Diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid)gadolinate (hereinafter abbreviated as to "DTPA-Gd") is the only one practical pharmaceutical which is presently known as a nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (hereinafter sometimes abbreviated as MRI) agent for diagnosis [JP-A 58-29718] and it is considered that the use thereof as an imaging agent for diagnosis in the brain or spinal regions has been almost established.", "Since, however, DTPA-Gd is complexed, the relaxivity showing the image display index is lower (about 1/2) than that of Gd itself.", "Therefore, it is necessary to compensate this lowered relaxivity by increasing the dose.", "In addition, DTPA-Gd is rapidly excreted into the urine after administration [Hiroki Yoshikawa et al.", ", Gazoshindan, 6, pages 959-969 (1986)], and this is very disadvantageous for imaging of several parts of the body by reflecting them in blood stream (blood vessel distribution, blood stream distribution, distribution volume, permeation and the like in a lesion) with a single injection of the pharmaceutical.", "Further, such rapid excertion also makes distribution properties of DTPA-Gd disadvantageous.", "For solving the above-described problems (improvement in the relaxivity), some attempts at polynuclearization by repetition of mononuclear complex are described in JP-A 63-41468, JP-A 2-196776 and the like.", "Since, however, the poly-nuclearization is limited at best to di-nuclearization or tri-nuclearization, remarkable improvement in relaxivity can not be recognized.", "Thereafter, the use of a polynuclear type metal complex compound obtained by introducing a plurality of metal complexes into a carrier polymer material as an imaging agent for diagnosis used as has been investigated.", "As a result, a MRI agent for diagnosis the carrier of which is human serum albumin (abbreviated as "HSA") [Ogan, M. D., et al.", ", Invest.", "Radiol.", ", 22, pages 665-671 (1987)], dextran [Brash, R. C., et al.", ", Radiology, 175, pages 483-488 (1990)], starch [JP-A 61-501571], polylysine [JP-A 64-54028] or the like has been proposed and succeeded in improvement of relaxivity.", "These polymer polynuclear type metal complex compounds are localized in blood vessel for a constant period of time from immediately after administration and have the common distribution properties as retention in blood vessel for a relatively long period of time, which also improves the rapid excretion and penetration properties of DTPA-Gd.", "However, the polymer carriers which can be a backbone for these polynuclear type metal complexes, regardless of a natural or synthetic material, is a heterogeneous compound the molecular weight of which has no mono-dispersion and is dealt with as an average value having a certain distribution width.", "Therefor, there is a problem that pharmaceutical uniformization can not be attained.", "For this reason, it is very difficult to control the number of metal ion to be introduced at constant and, therefore, heterogeneity arises inevitably in the objective physicochemical properties.", "Further, since all of the above-described polymers have the molecular weight more than tens of thousands, they have an unnecessarily long retention time in blood such as from ten and a few hours to a few days and have problems on biological acceptability as retention in the body, antigenicity and the like.", "OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION The main object of the present invention is to provide an imaging agent for diagnosis comprising a polynuclear type metal complex compound which can solve the above-described problems in the known imaging agents for diagnosis containing a polymer polynuclear type metal complex compound.", "Namely, the main object of the present invention is to provide an image agent for diagnosis having a plurality of metal ions which are stably introduced in the desired number, good homogeneity, good solubility, physiologically acceptability and suitable retention time in blood for image diagnosis.", "This object as well as other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings.", "BRIEF EXPLANATION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a MRI showing a transverse view of the chest region including the heart of a rat sacrificed at 1 hour after administration of a (galactosamino-pentamer)-[1-(p-isothiocyanatebenzyl)-diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid]gadolinate (abbreviated as "GPEN-DTES-Gd") solution.", "FIG. 2 is a MRI showing a transverse view of the chest region including the heart of a rat sacrificed at 1 hour after administration of DTPA-Gd (MAGNEVIST®).", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to accomplish the above-described objects, the present inventors studied extensively.", "As a result, it has been found that a polynuclear type metal complex compound having as a backbone a chitosan-oligosaccharide or galactosamino-oligosaccharide and has a clinically effective retention in blood.", "For example, the present inventors have investigated in vitro or in vivo relaxivity and contrast effect of a polynuclear type metal complex compound GPEN-DTES-Gd, wherein 1-(p-isothiocyanatebenzyl)-DTPA (abbreviated as to "DTES") [Martin, W. B., et al.", ", Inorg.", "Chem.", ", 25, pages 2772-2781 (1986)] is chemically bonded as a bifunctional ligand to galactosamino-pentamer (abbreviated as "GPEN") and Gd is coordinated therewith as a metal ion.", "As a result, it has been confirmed that T 1 relaxivity in water (magnetic field intensity: 6.35T, 25° C.) is remarkably increased to 7.6 (mM.", "S) -1 , being about two times that of DTPA-Gd.", "Further, it has been confirmed that the contrast effects (magnetic field intensity: 1.5T, T 1 weighted imaging by spin echo method) in the heart of a rat at 1 hour after administration is enhanced by about 1.8 times that of DTPA-Gd imaged under the same conditions.", "Furthermore, GPEN-DTES-In-111 labeled with a radioactive metal ion, In-111, has half-life period in blood of about 55 minutes in the distribution test in rats.", "This half-life period in blood is sufficiently longer than that of DTPA-In-111, and shows good retention in blood.", "The present invention has been completed based on these findings and provides an imaging agent for diagnosis comprising a compound composed of a polynuclear type compound of the formula I or II: ##STR2## wherein each X is a hydrogen atom or a bifunctional ligand, at least one of them are a bifunctional ligand and each of m and n is an integer of 1 to 6, and at least one metal ion being coordinated with at least of one bifunctional ligand moiety, said metal ion being selected from the group consisting of metal ions having the atomic number of 21-29, 31, 32, 37-39, 42-44, 49 and 56-83.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The term "polynuclear type"", "as used herein means a structure wherein a plurality of metal ions are introduced therein via a complexing agent per unit molecule.", "The compound used as a backbone for polynuclearization in the present invention is an amino oligosaccharide, more particularly, a chitosanoligosaccharide or galactosamino-oligosaccharide.", "In particular, an oligomer having the repetition number of component monosaccharide of 3 to 6 (m or n is 1 to 4 in the formula I or II) is advantageously used.", "The chitosanoligosaccharide is an oligosaccharide wherein D-glucosamine monomers are bonded through β-1,4 bond.", "The chitosanoligosaccharide to be used can be obtained, for example, by hydrochloric acid-hydrolyzing or enzymatically degrading chitosan prepared from natural crab shell.", "On the other hand, the galactosamino-oligosaccharide has a structure wherein D-galactosamine monomers are polymerized through α-1,4 bond.", "The galactosamino-oligosaccharide to be used can be obtained, for example, by hydrolyzing natural polygalactosamine produced by imperfect fungi, Paecilomyces with an acid or enzyme.", "Since both chitosan and galactosamino-oligosaccharide are a reactive molecule having a high reactive amino group at 2-position in the component monosaccharide, the complicated derivation is not required for bonding with a ligand.", "As a result, a reaction with a bifunctional ligand can be completed in a single step.", "Respective oligosaccharides are fractionated in high purity by chromatography according to the degree of polymerization and these oligosaccharides having uniform molecular weight are commercially available.", "Therefore, the number of bifunctional ligands and metal ions to be introduced can be precisely controlled and it is possible to prepare a pharmaceutically homogenous polynuclear type metal complex compound.", "In addition, both of them have high compatibility with the living body and physiological acceptability.", "As the bifunctional ligand, there can be used linear or cyclic polyaminopolycarboxylic acids having a cross-linking chain moiety which can bond to the amino group at 2-position of the amino oligosaccharide as a backbone.", "The preferred bifunctional ligand is a ligand having as a coordinating partial structure the skeleton of DTPA or derivative thereof, or the skeleton of 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid (abbreviated as "DOTA") or a derivative thereof.", "As the reactive group in the cross-linking chain part of bifunctional ligand which can bond to the amino group at 2-positional, i.e., the reactive functional group, active halogen, alkoxyester, succinimidiester, isothiocyanate, acid anhydride and the like are preferred.", "More particularly, there are 1-(p-isothiocyanatebenzyl)-DTPA [Martin, W. B., et al.", ", Inorg.", "Chem.", ", 25, pages 2772-2781 (1986), DTPA anhydride, 2-(p-isothiocyanatebenzyl)-1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid [U.S. Pat. No. 4,678,667] and the like.", "The bond between the amino-oligosaccharide and the bifunctional ligand can be formed according to a per se known method.", "For example, a reaction of the bifunctional ligand having as the cross-linking chain terminal an acid anhydride [Hnatowich, D. J., et al.", ", Int.", "J. Appl.", "Rad.", "Isot.", ", 33, pages 327-332 (1982)], isothiocyanate [Esteban, J. M., et al.", ", J. Nucl.", "Med.", ", 28, pages 861-870 (1987)], alkoxyester [Washburn, L. C., et al.", ", Nucl.", "Med.", "Biol.", ", 18, pages 313-321 (1991)] or active halogen [Fourie, P. J., et al.", ", Eur.", "J. Nucl.", "Med.", ", 4, pages 445-448 (1979)] with the amino-oligosaccharide can be carried out according to the description in the above cited known publications.", "In the present invention, the metal ion is selected from the group consisting of metal ions having the atomic number of 21-29, 31, 32, 37-39, 42-44, 49 and 56-83 depending upon a particular use of image diagnosis.", "When the polynuclear type metal complex of the present invention is used for MRI diagnosis, the metal ion must be paramagnetic and is selected from the ions of the atomic number of 26 and lanthanide having the atomic number of 57-70.", "The metal ion is preferably an ion of Gd, Dy, Tb, Ho, Er or Fe.", "When used for X-ray diagnosis, the metal ion is selected from the lanthanide element ions having the atomic number of 57-70 and the ions of the element having the atomic number of 56, 76, 82 and 83.", "The metal ion is preferably an ion of Bi, Pb or Os.", "For radiation diagnosis, the metal ion must be radioactive and is suitably the radioactive metal ion such as Co, Cu, Ga, Ge, Sr, Y, Tc, In, Sm, Gd, Yb, Re or Ir.", "As the metal ion, there can be used a metal itself or inorganic compound thereof (for example, chloride, oxide).", "Complexation can be carried out by a conventional method.", "In the polynuclear type metal complex compound thus obtained, at least one, preferably, two or more bifunctional ligands are chemically bonded to chitosan-oligosaccharide or galactosamino-oligosaccharide and the metal ions are bonded to this coordinating moiety through a complexing bond.", "The polynuclear type metal complex compound can be formulated into an imaging agent for diagnosis in any suitable dosage form by mixing with any suitable pharmaceutically acceptable additive according to a conventional method-and, preferably, formulated into an imaging agent for diagnosis in a solution form by dissolving it in a physiologically acceptable aqueous solvent.", "When the polynuclear type metal complex compound of the present invention is used for imaging agent for diagnosis, the dose to be used is selected depending upon a particular use of image diagnosis.", "For example, for MRI diagnosis, the dose is generally 0.0001 to 10 mmol/kg, preferably, 0.005 to 0.5 mmol/kg in terms of the metal ion.", "For X-ray diagnosis, the dose is 0.01 to 20 mmol/kg, preferably, 0.1 to 10 mmol/kg in terms of the metal ion.", "Further, for radiation diagnosis, the dose is 370-18500 MBq in terms of radioactivity.", "Usually, the imaging agent is administered intravenously and, in some cases, can be administered orally or intra-arterially.", "The retention in blood of the polynuclear type metal complex compound of the present invention is in a clinically effective range (half-life period in blood of 0.5 to 5 hours).", "Thus, it is possible to suitably combine the imaging agent with a particular MRI apparatus having a different magnetic field intensity by appropriately selecting the polymerization degree of the amino oligosaccharide.", "For example, in the case of low magnetic field intensity MRI apparatus, the use of the imaging agent for diagnosis having a relatively long retention time in blood is preferred in order to improve the collection efficacy of proton relaxation effect by the imaging agent.", "In addition, the polynuclear type metal complex compound of the present invention has the advantage of having the higher contrast efficacy per unit dose.", "For example, when Gd is contained as the metal ion, the shortening effect of the relaxation time per molecule is superior to that of DTPA-Gd, the polynuclear type metal complex compound can be used advantageously as a MRI diagnostic agent.", "This improves the detection efficacy in an another sense in the diagnosis by low magnetic field MRI apparatus having a low collection efficacy of proton relaxation effect, resulting in the shortening of the imaging time.", "Further, when the same contrast effect as that of DTPA-Gd in an apparatus having the same magnetic field intensity is required, the polynuclear type metal complex compound of the present invention can be administered in a smaller dose than DTPA-Gd and, therefore, becomes more advantageous in view of safety.", "To the contrary, at the same dose, the polynuclear metal complex compound of the present invention provides more informations about the living body than DTPA-Gd, resulting in the improvement in the clinical usefulness.", "Therefore, the present invention can provide the imaging agent having suitable retention in blood, matching with the magnetic field intensity of a MRI apparatus and imaging conditions, as well as effective contrast effect.", "Further, since the polynuclear type metal complex compound of the present invention shows the suitable retention in blood, the evaluation of the blood vessel distribution image (vascularity) becomes possible.", "Therefore, the imaging agent for diagnosis of the present invention can image the blood vessel without pulse sequence which is particularly necessary for recently remarkably advanced MR angiography, and the agent is also useful as a diagnostic imaging agent for intravenous injection.", "Since the polynuclear type metal complex compound of the present invention has good solubility in water, the compound itself can be prepared as a solution containing the compound in a high concentration.", "Accordingly, a solubilizer is not necessarily required upon preparation of the solution.", "In addition, the metal complex compound of the present invention is a polynuclear compound and, therefore, can decrease the total molality in the preparation of a solution in comparison with the mononuclear compound, which results in the decrease in osmotic pressure.", "These alleviate the load to volume of the circulatory system or body fluid equilibrium upon administration in the living body, which,resulting in advantage in the safety.", "As described herein above, the imaging agent of the present invention comprises the polynuclear type metal complex wherein a plurarity of metal ions are chemically bonded thereto via a plurality of the bifunctional ligands which are chemically bonded to the chitosan-oligosaccharide or galactosamino-oligosaccharide.", "By using this novel and special polynuclear type metal complex compound, image diagnosis such as MRI diagnosis, X-ray diagnosis, radiation diagnosis and the like can be efficiently carried out.", "The following Examples and Tests further illustrate the present invention in detail but are not to be construed to limit the scope thereof.", "The abbreviations used in Examples and Tests mean as follows: GPEN: galactosamino-pentamer CHEX: chitosan-hexamer GTRI: galactosamino-trimer CPEN: chitosan-pentamer DTPA: diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid DTES: 1-(p-isothiocyanatebenzyl)-diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid DOTA: 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid ICB-DOTA: 2-(p-isothiocyanatebenzyl)-1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid.", "Example 1 Synthesis of GPEN-DTES GPEN (0.39 g;", "0.43 mmol) was dissolved in 0.1M phosphate buffer (pH 7.0) (2 ml) and DTES (0.70 g;", "1.3 mmol) was added thereto.", "10N Aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide was added thereto to adjust pH to about 12, and the mixture was reacted at room temperature for 24 hours with stirring.", "To the reaction mixture was added 7N hydrochloric acid to neutralize to obtain crude GPEN-DTES.", "A portion of the reaction mixture (50 μl) was taken out and 0.1M citrate buffer (pH 5.9) (100 μl) and a solution (50 μl) of indium chloride (In-111) were admixed with the reaction mixture.", "The ratio of GPEN-DTES-In-111 and DTES-In-111 was determined by thin layer chromatography and it was confirmed that 1.4 molecules of DTES were bonded per GPEN molecule.", "The above reaction mixture was concentrated and purified by preparative thin layer chromatography (silica gel) to obtain GPEN-DTES (0.24 g).", "Proton-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrum (solvent/D 2 O, 270 MHz): 2.10-3.37 ppm (10H, m, CH 2 ), 3.49-4.55 ppm, 4.88-5.59 ppm (m, CH, CH 2 and NH), 4.22 ppm(1H, bs, N-CH), 7.07-7.40 ppm (4H, m, benzene ring) Infrared absorption (IR) spectrum (KBr tablet): 810 cm -1 (CH of benzene ring), 1100 cm -1 (OH), 1400 cm -1 (CH 2 ), 1590 cm -1 (COOH) Example 2 Synthesis of GTRI-DTES GTRI (6.4 mg;", "0.01 mmol) was dissolved in 0.1M phosphate buffer (pH 7.0) (1 ml) and DTES (17.4 mg;", "0.03 mmol) was added thereto.", "10N Aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide was added thereto to adjust pH to about 12, and the mixture was reacted at room temperature for 24 hours with stirring.", "To this reaction mixture was added 7N hydrochloric acid to neutralize to obtain crude GTRI-DTES.", "A portion of the reaction mixture (50 μl) was taken out and 0.1M citrate buffer (pH 5.9) (100 μl) and a solution (50 μl) of indium chloride (In-111) were admixed with the reaction mixture.", "The ratio of GTRI-DTES-In-111 and DTES-In-111 was determined by thin layer chromatography and it was confirmed that 3 molecules of DTES were bonded per GTRI molecule.", "The above reaction mixture was concentrated and purified by preparative thin layer chromatography (silica gel) to obtain GTRI-DTES (11.0 mg).", "Proton-NMR spectrum (solvent/D 2 O, 270 MHz): 2.20-3.58 ppm (10H, m, CH 2 ), 3.58-4.63 ppm, 4.95-5.65 ppm (m, CH, CH 2 and NH), 4.30 ppm (1H, bs, N-CH), 7.15-7.45 ppm (4H, m, benzene ring) IR spectrum (KBr tablet): 810 cm -1 (CH of benzene ring), 1070 cm -1 (OH), 1400 cm -1 (CH 2 ), 1625 cm -1 (COOH) Example 3 Synthesis of CPEN-DTPA CPEN (0.08 g;", "0.08 mmol) was dissolved in water (2 ml) and 4N aqueous solution (1.2 ml) of sodium hydroxide was added thereto.", "DTPA anhydride (0.57 g;", "1.59 mmol) was added thereto immediately, and the mixture was reacted at room temperature for 3 hours with stirring to obtain crude CPEN-DTPA.", "A portion of the reaction mixture (0.2 ml) was taken out and 0.1M citrate buffer (pH 5.9) (0.2 ml) and a solution (0.025 ml) of indium chloride (In-111) were admixed with the reaction mixture.", "The ratio of CPEN-DTPA-In-111 and DTPA-In-111 was determined by thin layer chromatography and it was confirmed that 4.5 molecules of DTPA were bonded per CPEN molecule.", "The above reaction mixture was concentrated and purified by preparative thin layer chromatography (silica gel) to obtain CPEN-DTPA (0.08 g).", "Proton-NMR spectrum (solvent/D 2 O, 270 MHz): 2.0 ppm (H, s, CH 2 ), 3.1-3.3 ppm (m, CH 2 ), 3.4-3.6 ppm (m, CH 2 ), 3.8 ppm(4H, s, CH 2 ) IR spectrum (KBr tablet): 1090 cm -1 (OH), 1400 cm -1 (CH 2 ), 1600 cm -1 (COOH) Example 4 Synthesis of CPEN-(ICB-DOTA) CPEN and ICB-DOTA are dissolved in 0.1M phosphate buffer (pH 7.0), and the solution is reacted at room temperature while maintainig pH at 12 to obtain CPEN-(ICB-DOTA).", "Example 5 Preparation of GPEN-DTES-Gd solution GPEN-DTES (0.30 g;", "0.18 mmol) was dissolved in distilled water (2 ml).", "Gadolinium chloride hexahydride (0.06 g;", "0.17 mmol) was added thereto and the mixture was reacted at room temperature with stirring to obtain GPEN-DTES-Gd.", "The absence of free Gd was confirmed by a color developing reaction using Xylenol Orange as a pigment indicator.", "Gd concentration (ICP emission analysis): 75.1 mM Example 6 Synthesis of Gd complex Gd complex of the relevant compound is obtained by the same manner as that described in Example 5 except that GPEN-DTES is substituted by GTRI-DTES, CPEN-DTPA and CPEN-(ICB-DOTA).", "Example 7 Preparation of GPEN-DTES-In-111 solution GPEN-DTES (10 mg) was dissolved in distilled water (0.5 ml) and 0.1M citrate buffer (pH 5.9) (1 ml) was added thereto.", "A solution (0.5 ml;", "148 MBeq) of indium chloride (In-111) was admixed to obtain GPEN-DTES-In-111.", "Its radiochemical purity was 100%.", "Example 8 Synthesis of CHEX-DTPA-Bi CHEX-DTPA (0.45 g;", "0.13 mmol) synthetized according to the same manner as that described in Example 3 was dissolved in distilled water (30 ml).", "Bismuth chloride (0.28 g;", "0.88 mmol) was added thereto, pH was adjusted to about neutral by addition of 4N aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide.", "The mixture was reacted at 60° C. for 18 hours with stirring.", "The insoluble materials were filtered off and the filtrate was purified through a desalting apparatus (manufactured by Asahikasei K. K., Japan).", "The purified solution was concentrated and dried to obtain CHEX-DTPA-Bi (0.54 g).", "The absence of free Bi was confirmed by a color developing reaction using Xylenol Orange as a pigment indicator.", "IR spectrum (KBr tablet): 1070 cm -1 (OH), 1393 cm -1 (CH 2 ), 1458 cm -1 (CONH), 1582 cm -1 (COO - ) Quantitative analysis of Bi (ICP emission analysis): 0.11 g Test 1 Relaxivity of GPEN-DTES-Gd and GTRI-DTES-Gd (in vitro test) An appropriate amount of GPEN-DTES-Gd and GTRI-DTES-Gd were dissolved in distilled water.", "The relation to water proton exposed to these compounds was determined as a proton relaxation time (T 1 and T 2 , msec) at room temperature (24° to 26° C.) using NMR (6.35T, manufactured by Nihondenshi K. K., Japan).", "Respective relaxation times are shown in Tables 1 and 2.", "TABLE 1______________________________________Relaxation time of GPEN-DTES-GdConcentration (mM) T.sub[.", "].1 (msec) T.sub[.", "].2 (msec)______________________________________2.3 55 260 3275 2208______________________________________ TABLE 2______________________________________Relaxation time of GTRI-DTES-GdConcentration (mM) T.sub[.", "].1 (msec) T.sub[.", "].2 (msec)______________________________________2.9 46 260 3275 2208______________________________________ GPEN-DTES-Gd (2.3 mM) shortened remarkably the T 1 value of water about 60 times and the T 2 value of water 85 times.", "And GTRI-DTES-Gd (2.9 mM) shortened remarkably the T 1 value of water about 70 times and the T 2 value about 85 times.", "The relaxivity on T 1 and T 2 [each R 1 and R 2 , (mM.", "S) -1 ] were calculated based on the values in Tables 1 and 2.", "The results are shown in Table 3.", "TABLE 3______________________________________Relaxivity of GPEN-DTES-Gd and GTRI-DTES-GdCompound R.sub[.", "].1 (mM · S).", "sup.", "-1 R.sub[.", "].2 (mM · S).", "sup.", "-1______________________________________GPEN-DTES-Gd 7.6 16.2GTRI-DTES-Gd 7.4 13.1DTPA-Gd 3.9 4.8______________________________________ GPEN-DTES-Gd and GTRI-DTES-Gd have good in vitro relaxation effect and the effect is predominantly higher than that of DTPA-Gd (also shown in Table 3) which is mononuclear complex, determine according to the same manner.", "The results clearly show the effectiveness of GPEN-DTES-Gd and GTRI-DTES-Gd.", "Test 2 Relaxation time of GPEN-DTES-Gd in blood in mouse after intravenous administration (ex vivo test) GPEN-DTES-Gd (Gd concentration: 75 mM) (0.025 mmol/kg in terms of Gd) was administered to a thiopental anesthetized ICR female mouse (body weight: 44 g) through the tail vein.", "At 15 minutes after administration, the blood was taken from the aorta descendence, and the relaxation time (T 1 , msec) of the blood at room temperature (24° to 26° C.) was determined with a 6.35T NMR apparatus (manufactured by Nihondenshi K. K., Japan).", "As a control, blood was taken from the aorta descendence of a thiopental anesthetized ICR female mouse (body weight: 55 g) and, according to the same manner, the relaxation time was determined.", "The results are Table 4.", "TABLE 4______________________________________Relaxation time of GPEN-DTES-Gd in bloodAdministered compound T.sub[.", "].1 in blood (msec)______________________________________GPEN-DTES-Gd 769control 1769______________________________________ T 1 relaxation time of GPEN-DTES-Gd in blood is about 2.3 times effect compared with that of the control mouse and it has been found that the relaxation time of the blood is effectively shortened.", "Test 3 Contrast enhancement of the heart in rat at 1 hour after intravenously administration of GPEN-DTES-Gd (in vivo test) A solution of GPEN-DTES-Gd (Gd concentration: 75.1 mM) (0.094 mmol/kg in terms of Gd) was administered to a thiopental anesthetized Sprague-Dawley female rat (214 g, 9-weeks old) through a cannula fixed to femoral vein.", "At 1 hour after administration, the animal was sacrificed by administration of pentobarbital solution (1 ml) through the above cannula, fixed at prone position in the magnetic field of a MRI spectrometer.", "MRI measurement (transverse sectional view) of the chest region including the heart was carried out.", "As a control, DTPA-Gd (MAGNEVIST®) was administered to a Sprague-Dawley female rat (body weight: 204 g, 9-weeks old) through a cannula fixed at femoral vein (0.1 mmol/kg) and the measurement (transverse sectional view) of the chest region including the heart was carried out as described above.", "The apparatus was SIGMA (manufactured by GE, U.S.A.) with magnetic field intensity of 1.5T and, as an imaging coil, a 26 cm φbird-cage type head QD coil was used.", "Imaging was carried out according to spin echo method of T 1 weighted (TR/TE, 600/30 msec) under the condition of 10 mm in slice thickness, a resolution of 256×128.", "The signal intensity from the rat to which GPEN-DTES-Gd was administered was found to be about 1.8 times higher than that of the rat to which MAGNEVIST® was administered when comparing the signal intensity from the same part of the heart.", "The superiority in retention in blood of GPEN-DTES-Gd over that of DTPA-Gd together with the dose of Gd demonstrated the advantages of the present invention.", "Test 4 Radioactivity distribution in blood and urine after intravenous administration of GPEN-DTES-In-111 (in vivo test) Sprague-Dawley female rats (three rats/mesurement time) (body weight: 110 to 130 g) were anesthetized with thiopental and GPEN-DTES-In-111 solution prepared in Example 7 was administered through the tail vein (50 μl/rat).", "The animals were sacrificed by dehematization at 0.25, 0.5, 1, 3, 6 and 24 hours after administration.", "The blood and bladder were removed and the radioactivity was measured.", "The radioactivity distribution ratio in blood and urine at each measurement time are shown in Table 5.", "TABLE 5______________________________________Radioactivity distribution ratio ofGPEN-DTES-In-111 in blood and urineTime (hr) Blood (%/dose) Urine (%/dose)______________________________________ 0.25 4.63 ± 1.65 51.23 ± 1.400.5 2.63 ± 0.86 66.07 ± 3.451.0 2.72 ± 0.40 77.13 ± 3.363.0 1.92 ± 1.06 81.43 ± 6.236.0 0.67 ± 0.35 87.04 ± 4.6824.0 0.16 ± 0.12 90.12 ± 3.57______________________________________ As seen from the results in Table 5, the half-life period of GPEN-DTES-In-111 in blood was about 55 minutes and was found to be clinically effective retention in blood.", "Since excretion into the urine was good, there was no problem of residence in the body." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application claims the priority benefits of German Application No. 10 2010 000 094.9-14 filed Jan. 15, 2010.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION For the manufacture of pressure cans or beverage cans or similar hollow metallic bodies generally a metal sheet as base material is used which then is formed in several steps to the desired body.", "This transformation procedure comprises several deforming steps which are generally performed one after the other.", "Only in this way is it possible to achieve the desired high transformation grades.", "WO 2008/067522 A1, for example, discloses a production line for the manufacture of beverage cans from round disc shaped metal shred blanks.", "Those blanks are first transferred in respective transformation equipment into a cup-shape.", "The cup-shaped interim unfinished blanks are then transported to further transformation machines which produce from the cup-shaped interim blanks the desired can bodies.", "For this kind of manufacturing expensive special automatic equipment is required.", "Furthermore, special automatic manufacturing equipment is known which are called Cuppers which produce cup-shaped interim blanks starting with a sheet metal strip.", "With the punching out of circular sections for forming cups waste is generated which must be disposed of.", "This is an additional problem for the operator.", "WO 2009/052608 A1 proposes to perform the transformation of a planar metal plate into a can body in two steps in a single tool.", "The tool comprises two draw punches which move in opposite directions and are arranged coaxially relative to each other.", "The result is an invert-draw process which demands high requirements regarding the transformability of the material used.", "It is the object of the application to provide an arrangement and a method for an efficient and reliable manufacture of can bodies.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION For the manufacture of can bodies as they are needed for the manufacture of aerosol cans or beverage cans, a special tool 2 is provided which combines the manufacture of the cup as well as the transformation of the cup into a can body into a single tool 3 .", "The process is based on preferably round metal sheets which are first drawn in a first draw-stretching step of the tool 2 into cups and then are draw-stretched in a second draw-stretch process, the further draw- and slide-down-stretch to form can bodies.", "The drawing arrangements are the same in both operating steps.", "The tools required therefore are simple sturdy tools providing for a simple sturdy manufacturing process.", "The tool according to the invention combines the transformation of a planar metal sheet to a cup and the transformation of the cup into a can body in a two-step procedure in a single tool.", "This on one hand eliminates the need for providing separate automatic manufacturing equipment for manufacture of the cups and, on the other hand the draw-stretch procedure following the manufacture of the cup.", "Since with the tool according to the invention and the method according to the invention no invert-draw procedure is used, a simple and reliable manufacturing process is provided.", "It is particularly advantageous to use the invention in the production of can bodies of materials which tend to strain harden.", "The manufacture of the cup and the subsequent stretch-draw process for the manufacture of the cup body occur time wise so close together that the transformation-based heating of the cup generally remains sufficient for the following stretch-draw procedure.", "Strain hardening occurrences as they may happen on the way from a cup manufacturing device to the stretch drawer are not possible or minimized.", "This helps in providing a robust and reliable manufacturing process.", "The concept according to the invention permits furthermore, a clear separation between movable and stationary tool parts.", "The movable draw plungers are both assigned to a movable tool part, for example, an upper tool.", "The respective canister molds and counter-support surfaces are in the stationary tool part, for example, a bottom tool.", "In this way, the respective position and/or force control of each draw punch can be optimally adjusted considering a suitable press concept.", "The travel and, respectively force control of the draw punch may, when necessary, be performed by components of the press, which reduces tool costs.", "In this way expensive, possibly controllable springs, hydraulic arrangements, pneumatic arrangements, control drives, etc can possibly be omitted.", "The actions of these components can be assigned with the concept of the present invention to the press and in this way realized by the press.", "Even if a large tool set for the manufacture of different cans needs to be stored this represents no particularly large expenditures.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Further features of embodiments of the invention are disclosed in the following drawings, exemplary of the invention, in which: FIG. 1 shows a machine for the manufacture of can bodies with a tool according to the invention in a highly schematic representation;", "FIG. 2 shows the tool according to FIG. 1 in a highly schematic vertical cross-sectional view after insertion of the metal sheet;", "FIG. 3 shows the tool as shown in FIG. 1 during the deep-draw procedure for making the cup;", "FIG. 4 shows the tool as shown in FIG. 3 with the cup finished;", "and, FIG. 5 shows the tool as shown in FIGS. 2-4 during the stretch-slide drawing.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION FIG. 1 shows a transformation machine 1 which includes a tool 2 for the manufacture of can bodies.", "The tool 2 comprises a lower tool part 3 which is fixed in the transformation machine 1 and an upper tool part 4 which is supported so as to be linearly movable toward, and away from, the lower tool part 3 .", "The tool parts 3 , 4 may be arranged—as shown—vertically on top of one another but, if expedient, they may also be arranged in any other spatial orientation for example in side-by-side relationship or one behind the other.", "In the exemplary embodiment the direction of movement of the upper tool part 4 is vertical.", "However, the direction of movement may be oriented in any other suitable spatial orientation.", "The upper tool part 4 is provided with a drive arrangement 5 which activates the various components of the upper tool part 4 in a suitable manner or applies forces thereto.", "FIG. 4 shows the tool 2 in a more detailed representation.", "As shown, the upper tool part 4 comprises several parts which are arranged concentric with regard to a center axis 6 , that is a first extrusion punch 7 , a second extrusion punch 8 and a downholder ring 9 .", "The first extrusion punch 7 is tubular.", "At its lower front face a pressure ring 10 may expediently be arranged which is particularly wear-resistant and, in its slide friction properties, tuned to the material to be worked.", "The first extrusion punch 7 is connected to a part of the drive arrangement 5 which is suitable to move the extrusion punch 7 in the direction of the center axis 6 in a position-controlled manner.", "Furthermore, the drive arrangement 5 is preferably so designed that the activation of the extrusion punch 7 can be switched from a position controlled operation to a force-controlled operation.", "The first extrusion punch 7 is provided with a downholder ring 9 which is connected to the first extrusion punch 7 by way of corresponding tensioning means, for example, a spring arrangement 11 and pressure studs 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 (see FIG. 1 ) in order to generate a defined force indicated in FIG. 2 by arrows 16 .", "The second extrusion punch 8 which also is part of the upper tool part 4 is arranged in the interior of the first extrusion punch 7 so as to be moveable there along the center axis 6 .", "Its lower front face 17 is shaped preferably in accordance with the desired inner shape of the bottom of the can body to be formed.", "The lower tool part 3 includes several parts which are shown in FIG. 2 for simplicity reasons as a single part.", "The lower tool part 3 is provided at its side facing the upper tool part 4 with a preferably planar surface 17 for supporting a metal sheet 18 which is preferably in the form of a round disc.", "The surface 17 forms the counter-support surface for the downholder 9 .", "Concentrically with the center axis 6 a stepped through-passage 19 is formed in the lower tool part 3 .", "Starting at the surface 17 the passage 19 first has a diameter which is greater then the outer diameter of the first extrusion punch 7 .", "At a step 20 the through passage 19 diameter becomes smaller than the outer diameter of the first extrusion punch 7 , but is still larger than the outer diameter of the second extrusion punch 8 .", "When the extrusion punch 7 moves into the through passage 19 , it defines with the passage wall an annular gap whose width is apparent from the following description of operation of the device.", "When the second extrusion punch 8 moves into the smaller diameter lower part of the through passage 19 it defines with the passage wall again an annular gap whose width will also be apparent from the following description of operation.", "The same is true for the distance between the step 20 and the surface area 17 .", "With the tool 2 described above, can bodies are manufactured as follows: For the manufacture of a can body, first the metal sheet 18 is placed onto the surface 17 so that it is centered relative to the center axis 6 and the tool 2 is then closed.", "To this end, the upper tool part is moved toward the lower tool part.", "The downholder ring 9 is then seated on the metal sheet 18 and presses it against the counter support surface 21 with a controlled force.", "The counter support surface 21 is herein that part of the surface 17 which extends immediately around the through passage 19 .", "With further downward movement of the first extrusion punch 7 , the first punch is seated with its pressure ring 10 on the metal sheet 18 and draws into the through-passage 19 in a deep draw procedure.", "This procedure of drawing the cup is shown in FIG. 3 .", "During the drawing of the cup by the first extrusion punch 7 , the rim 22 of the metal sheet 18 slides below the downholder ring 9 inwardly in a controlled manner.", "By the deep-draw procedure a cup with a cylindrical wall 23 and a flat bottom 24 is formed.", "FIG. 4 shows the tool 3 after completion of deep-draw procedure.", "The downholder ring 9 is now no longer functional.", "The first draw punch 7 has moved the cup formed far into the through-passage 19 that the bottom 24 has arrived at the step 20 .", "The pressure ring 10 presses from within onto the bottom 24 and as a result, the bottom 24 against the step 20 .", "At this state, the first extrusion punch 7 changes its function from a draw function to a downholder function.", "To this end, the respective drive of the extrusion punch 7 may be so designed that it can assume different modes of operation.", "For example, the first extrusion punch 7 may be controlled during the drawing procedure on the basis of a travel distance or for example on a position basis.", "This can be done by way of a suitable transmission depending on a drive or also via position controlled drives.", "When the bottom 24 abuts the step 20 , the drive of the extrusion punch 7 switches, for example, to a force controlled operation.", "This can be achieved with a mechanical drive by the provision of suitable spring means arranged in the force transmission path, if needed force-controllable or switchable spring means.", "Alternatively, a force detection and force control may be used if suitable drives are provided.", "During a position-controlled operation, the respective punch is moved by a drive (for example servo drive) in accordance with a predetermined travel distance-time curve.", "During force-controlled operation a force is applied to the punch corresponding to a predetermined force or a predetermined force graph.", "At the latest when the first extrusion punch 7 and the bottom 24 have arrived at the step 20 , the second extrusion punch 8 advances in the same direction as did earlier the now resting first extrusion punch 7 (that is here downwardly).", "The movement of the second extrusion punch 8 may also have been started earlier, wherein however the second extrusion punch 8 does not come in contact with the bottom 24 during the deep drawing of the cup.", "But now the second extrusion punch 8 abuts the bottom 24 and starts the stretch-drawing procedure which is shown in FIG. 5 .", "Herein the first, force-controlled extrusion punch 7 acts as a downholder which permits a controlled sliding of the cup material into the annular gap between the second extrusion punch 8 and the narrower part of the through-passage 19 .", "In this second drawing procedure, the desired can body is formed.", "The wall thickness of the can body is reduced in the process and adjusted to the desired value.", "The direction of the operating stroke of the first extrusion punch 7 is the same as the direction of the operating stroke of the second extrusion punch 8 .", "The extrusion punches 7 and 8 are therefore moved running in the same direction.", "The first and the second drawing procedure occur therefore also in the same direction, that is in the same tool time wise one after the other and unidirectionally.", "During further drawing and stretching the can body is guided through draw rings 25 , 26 which are arranged in the wall of the through-passage 19 on top of one another in axially spaced relationship.", "The annular gap formed between the draw rings and the draw punch 8 determines the wall thickness of the can body to be formed.", "The draw rings 25 , 26 calibrate the outer diameter of the can body.", "The procedure is called “abstrecken”", "draw-stretching.", "The manufacture of the can occurs in a two-step process.", "In the first drawing step, the first extrusion punch 7 is active whereas the second extrusion punch 8 is inactive that is it does not act on the material of the can body.", "In a second drawing step, the first extrusion punch 7 acts as a downholder, whereas the second extrusion punch 8 is active and effects the further drawing and draw-stretching.", "As shown in the two-step drawing procedure, the material of the metal sheet 18 is guided in a zigzag path.", "From a horizontal orientation which is determined by the surface 17 , the material first moves in a vertical direction parallel to the center axis 6 , so as to form the cylinder wall.", "From there, the material flows in a quasi Z-shaped path that is in a right-left bend over the step 20 in order to form the can wall.", "Invert processes wherein the wall material is bent twice in the same direction are avoided.", "LIST OF REFERENCE NUMERALS 1 transformation machine 2 tool 3 lower tool part 4 upper tool part 5 drive arrangement 6 center axis 7 first extrusion punch 8 second extrusion punch 9 downholder ring 10 pressure ring 11 spring arrangement 12 pressure pins 13 - 15 16 arrow 17 surface 18 metal sheet 19 through-passage 20 step 21 counter surface 22 rim 23 wall 24 bottom 25 upper draw ring 26 lower draw ring" ]

[ "TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to an arm for supporting a sensor, preferably a microphone, where the arm is provided, at one end, with an anchorage for fixing on to equipment worn by a user, for example, a hearing protector, and where the sensor is disposed at the opposing end of the arm.", "BACKGROUND ART [0002] The use of breathing masks is prevalent in many different fields, both military and civilian, such as in aeronautics, rescue services, diving, in different types of industrial environments where hazardous products are used, etc.", "Despite the use of a breathing mask, there are still requirements on two-way communication, for which reason the person wearing the breathing mask must be able, via communication equipment, to communicate with someone in the ambient surroundings.", "[0003] Often, breathing masks are combined with other types of equipment, for example, personal (safety) equipment, such as hearing protectors, safety helmets or the like.", "In such cases, it is normal that the safety equipment is provided with a microphone boom which is located in the region of the user's mouth and can thereby receive sound signals.", "However, such a solution cannot, as a rule, be used together with a breathing mask, since the microphone will be located on the outside of the breathing mask, where the possibility to receive sound is impaired.", "The relationship will be the same if the personal equipment consists of a headset.", "[0004] It is previously known in the art to position a microphone interiorly in a breathing mask.", "See, for example DE 1 083 662 (B).", "This document shows a full mask, which, in the material of the mask, has leads embedded which, on the inside of the mask, may be connected via a terminal to a microphone positioned inside the mask.", "On the outside of the mask, there is a corresponding terminal, to which may be connected a suitable lead to some form of communication equipment.", "[0005] A breathing mask of this type can not be used easily in combination with any other type of safety equipment, where a microphone is already integrated.", "[0006] Further, there is naturally a certain risk of leakage in the passages which are required for it to be possible to lead out the electric signals of the microphone to the outside of the breathing mask and there be connected to communication equipment.", "[0007] DE 10 2007 006 732 A1 discloses a breathing mask in which a microphone is disposed.", "According to this publication, there are no through-passages for electric leads, but the microphone signals are transmitted in wireless mode via radio to a receiver on the outside of the breathing mask.", "[0008] EP 1 484 087 A1 shows a breathing mask where a conductor or conduit runs from the inside of the breathing mask to the outside of the mask.", "The conductor or conduit is provided on the outside of the breathing mask with an accommodation space in which a microphone may sealingly be slid into position, the microphone being disposed on a microphone boom which in its turn is mounted on some form of safety equipment.", "Naturally, there are also leakage risks in this case.", "Further, the possibility of freely combining a breathing mask with optional personal (safety) equipment is extremely limited.", "[0009] It is therefore desirable to provide an arm for supporting a sensor that may be secured on to personal (safety) equipment such as a headset, strapping, hearing protector, safety helmet etc.", ", such that it can be used alone or in combination with a breathing mask without risk of leakage.", "[0010] The present invention aims to address the above problem by providing a sensor support arm, adapted for use with a breathing mask such that the arm is extendable underneath a sealing surface of a breathing mask and adaptable at one end for fixing on to equipment worn by a user, having a sensor disposed at an opposing end positionable in the interior of a breathing mask, and having lead connections necessary for the sensor extending along the arm, the arm having a greater width than thickness and comprising a flexible material such that it is flexible about both longitudinal and transverse axes, wherein the arm is provided with a substantially planar side.", "[0011] By providing a sensor support arm that has a greater width than thickness, that is at least flexible about both longitudinal and transverse axes, and has a substantially planar side that can seal against the sealing surface of the mask, the arm can be used alone or in combination with a breathing mask without risk of leakage.", "Furthermore the lead connections necessary for the sensor extend along the arm such that they do not contribute to the risk of mask leakage.", "[0012] Preferably, an arm where the substantially planar side of the arm is turned to face towards the sealing surface.", "Preferably, an arm that includes an arched side and more preferably, where the arched side has tapering edge portions.", "[0013] Preferably, an arm that is strip shaped and/or where the width is greater than fives times its thickness.", "An arm that includes a flexible material that is yieldable and elastic.", "An arm where the sensor comprises a microphone and/or where the end adaptable for fixing to the equipment is arranged to allow pivotal adjustment of the arm.", "[0014] Preferably, an arm that is provided with coating that realises adhesion and/or an arm that is freely self-supporting.", "[0015] The present invention aims to provide a breathing mask having sealing surfaces formed to seal around the nose and mouth of a wearer, comprising a freely self-supporting sensor support arm that extends under a sealing surface of the breathing mask and is adaptable, at one end, for fixing on to equipment worn by a user and has a sensor disposed at an opposing end positionable in the interior of the breathing mask, with lead connections necessary for the sensor extending along the arm, the arm having a greater width than thickness and comprising a flexible material such that is flexible about both longitudinal and transverse axes, wherein the arm is provided with a substantially planar side.", "[0016] Preferably.", "a breathing mask where the arm includes an arched side and more preferably, where the arched side has tapering edge portions.", "[0017] Preferably, a breathing mask where, in use, the substantially planar side of the arm is turned to face towards a sealing surface of the mask.", "A breathing mask where the arm includes a flexible material that is yieldable and elastic and/or where the end of the arm adaptable for fixing to the equipment is arranged to allow pivotal adjustment of the arm.", "[0018] Preferably, a breathing mask where the arm is provided with coating that realises adhesion.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS [0019] By way of example only, an embodiment of the present invention will now be described in greater detail hereinbelow, with reference to the accompanying drawings.", "In the accompanying drawings: [0020] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a person wearing both a breathing mask and hearing protector;", "[0021] FIG. 2 shows the person according to FIG. 1 seen more from above, the breathing mask having been lifted away from the nose/mouth of the wearer;", "[0022] FIG. 3 shows the person according to FIGS. 1 and 2 , now completely divested of breathing mask;", "[0023] FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the arm according to the present invention;", "and [0024] FIG. 5 is a cross section through the arm illustrated in FIG. 4 .", "DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT [0025] An embodiment of the present invention will be described hereinbelow as applied to a hearing protector, but it will be obvious to the skilled reader of this specification that it may just as well be applied to any optional personal (safety) equipment, such as a headset, a safety helmet, strapping for optional purposes, etc.", "[0026] The present disclosure also has for its object to design the arm intimated by way of introduction so that it will be simple and economical in manufacture and robust in use.", "[0027] FIG. 1 shows in perspective from the side a part of the head of a person wearing a breathing mask 1 and a hearing protector 2 .", "For the sake of simplicity, certain parts have been omitted, such as the crown strap of the hearing protector 2 , its hood fixings and strapping relating to the breathing mask.", "The hearing protector 2 is of the type which has two hoods 3 with integrated communication equipment, inter alia, including a loudspeaker disposed interiorly in the hood.", "[0028] The breathing mask 1 has an outer casing 4 on which at least one filter 5 is disposed and through which the wearer of the breathing mask breathes.", "As an alternative to a filter, it is also possible to provide the breathing mask with supply lines for a suitable breathing gas.", "[0029] It will be apparent from FIG. 2 that the breathing mask, in addition to the outer casing 4 , has inner surfaces functioning as sealing surfaces 6 , which are soft and resilient and which are formed to seal around the mouth and nose of the wearer of the breathing mask.", "In such instance, these sealing surfaces are so resilient that they can adapt in shape to the face of the wearer readily and with completely tight sealing abutment.", "[0030] It will be apparent from FIG. 1 that there is an arm 7 secured on the hood, the arm having a lead or conductor 8 which is provided with a suitable terminal 9 which connects the lead 8 to some suitable communication equipment.", "In the illustrated case the lead 8 connects to the communication equipment of the hood 3 .", "[0031] The arm 7 extends to the interior of the breathing mask 1 and has a sensor 10 which, in the embodiment illustrated here, is a microphone for taking up sound.", "Examples of other sensors that may be used include temperature, pressure or gas sensors for the metering or establishing a physical or organic magnitudes, for example temperature or the composition of breathing gases, breathing rate, etc.", "[0032] The arm 7 is manufactured from a flexible, somewhat resilient and possibly elastic material, for example a rubber or plastic quality which however may not be so flimsy that the arm droops down under its own weight.", "The material in the arm 7 or a reinforcing or rigidifying means disposed therein is thus sufficiently rigid for the arm to be freely self-supporting in an extended state, that is when the arm is unloaded and extended to it's fullest extent, and thus be reliably able to be positioned in the region in front of or at the side of the wearer of the hearing protector.", "Further, the material in the arm is so resilient that the arm can be bent at least somewhat both about longitudinal and about transverse bending axes.", "[0033] The arm 7 is, as is best apparent from FIGS. 4 and 5 , strip-shaped with a “flat”", "cross section and has a considerably greater width than thickness.", "Preferably, its width, that is from top to bottom in FIG. 5 , is at least five times its thickness, that is from the left-hand side to the right-hand side in FIG. 5 , but it may be ten times greater than its thickness.", "The exact proportions between width and thickness are immaterial, as long as the arm does not cause such major deformations, in particular sudden transitions, in the sealing surfaces 6 and the skin of the wearer of the breathing mask such that the sealing tightness capabilities are jeopardised.", "[0034] If the material in the arm consists of a plastic or rubber material, this may be given directed properties by a suitably formed reinforcement, for example a textile reinforcement.", "In certain cases, in particular if the plastic or the rubber material in the arm is very soft, it may be appropriate to embed a flexible and possibly resilient metal reinforcement in the cross section of the arm.", "In such instance, it is important however that such a reinforcement must not extend appreciably outside the outer contour of the cross section.", "In addition, the flexibility of the arm should not be overly affected, since both the arm and its cross section must to some degree be able to be bent in order to be able to follow the contours of the skin of the wearer of the breathing mask.", "[0035] In order to improve the seal against both the skin and the sealing surfaces 6 of the breathing mask, the surface of the arm 7 may be provided with coating which realises adhesion, which is tacky or which is very soft, for example a soft silicon or rubber material.", "[0036] It will be clearly apparent from FIG. 5 that the cross section of the arm is not of uniform thickness but that it has tapering edge portions 11 along opposing longitudinal sides, where the material thickness in a direction from the central region 12 of the arm out towards the opposing edges tapers to nothing or to a very slight thickness.", "In the unloaded state of the arm, the tapering edge portions may be triangular, but may also have an arcuate surface, in which event the arching possibly extends in over the central region 12 so that the left-hand side of the cross section in FIG. 5 will be convex.", "The convex side may therefore, for example be defined by an arc of a circle, an arc of an ellipse, etc.", "[0037] The arm 7 has one side 13 which, in the unloaded state of the arm, is substantially planar, that is generally flat, but which, by mechanical action, may be arched about both longitudinal and transverse axes.", "On use of the arm, this substantially planar side 13 faces away from the skin of the user of the arm.", "This implies that the substantially planar side 13 will be turned to face towards the sealing surfaces 6 of the breathing mask 1 when the arm, as is apparent from FIG. 1 , extends in under the breathing mask so that the microphone 10 of the arm will be located interiorly, that is in the interior of the mask.", "It has been proven that the skin of the wearer is as a rule so resilient that it can tightly close around and seal against the arched side of the arm while the sealing surfaces 6 of the breathing mask more readily seal against the substantially planar side 13 .", "[0038] It has also proved to be important that the microphone 10 is mechanically disconnected from (contact free) the outer casing 4 of the breathing mask since otherwise the outer casing would be able to transmit external noise to the microphone 10 .", "[0039] In FIG. 5 , it is further shown that the “arched or convex”", "side of the arm is provided with a film 14 which has on its surface or internally electric leads for electric connection of the microphone 10 to the communication equipment of the hood 3 .", "Wired leads may also be employed and be embedded in the material of the arm 7 .", "[0040] It will be apparent from FIG. 4 that the end of the arm facing away from the microphone 10 , has an anchorage 15 for securing the arm on the hood 3 of the hearing protector 2 .", "However, the anchorage 15 may also be designed to secure the arm on some other type of equipment, for example strapping or webbing, a safety helmet, a visor or some similar type of equipment.", "[0041] The anchorage 15 is formed in such a manner that it offers adjustment possibilities (pivotal) of the arm 7 about at least two different axes.", "In the embodiment illustrated here, these axes lie at right angles in relation to one another.", "This adjustment possibility could, for example in FIG. 3 , entail that the arm 7 may be pivoted in the vertical direction so that the microphone 10 is raised or lowered.", "The pivoting about the second axis implies that the arm in its entirety can be swivelled out sideways or more or less inwards in front of the mouth of the wearer." ]

[ "RELATED PATENT APPLICATION This patent application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/865,509, entitled “Halo Lighting Fixture,” filed Nov. 13, 2006, the complete disclosure of which is hereby fully incorporated herein by reference.", "TECHNICAL FIELD The invention relates generally to recessed lighting fixtures and more particularly to a insulation contact housings for a recessed lighting fixture.", "BACKGROUND A recessed lighting fixture is a light fixture that is installed in a hollow opening in a ceiling.", "A typical recessed lighting fixture includes hanger bars fastened to spaced-apart ceiling supports or joists.", "A plaster frame extends between the hanger bars and includes an aperture configured to receive a lamp housing or “can.”", "A bottom edge of an installed can should be flush with a bottom edge of the ceiling.", "Thus, the bottom of the installed lighting fixture is mounted flush with the visible surface of the ceiling, and the body of the lighting fixture projects into the space above the ceiling.", "Because these recessed fixtures are in contact with, or very close to, the ceiling and joists the temperature of the portions of the fixture that will come into contact with any flammable materials must be maintained below acceptable levels.", "Standards have been created that set forth the acceptable temperature levels for different portions of the recessed fixture.", "Typically, those portions of the recessed fixture in contact with or very close to the ceiling or joists must maintain a temperature at those contact points that is below ninety degrees Celsius.", "For recessed lighting fixtures that will come into contact with insulation, called insulation contact or “IC”", "fixtures, the portions of the fixture that are in contact with the insulation also must be maintained below these acceptable temperature levels.", "Furthermore, for IC recessed fixtures, the can cannot directly vent thermal energy into the area above the ceiling.", "Conventional fixtures have included many methods to distribute thermal energy to prevent the recessed fixture from having a temperature above acceptable levels.", "For instance, some conventional recessed fixtures have a can that is “closed”", "at the top and open at the bottom to direct the thermal energy downward below the ceiling and into the room environment.", "Other conventional recessed fixtures improved on this by placing a domed top on the can to increase the surface area of the can for the dispersion of thermal energy that is not directed down and out of the can.", "Unfortunately, for many lamps having higher wattage output (and therefore higher levels of thermal energy) a closed can is not able to adequately disperse the thermal energy and maintain a temperature below the acceptable level, especially at the top of the can and along the trim where it contacts the ceiling.", "To overcome this problem, some conventional recessed fixtures replaced the closed can with an “open”", "can, having openings at both the top and the bottom of the can.", "Furthermore, since the thermal energy could not be directly vented into the ceiling, an air-tight housing was placed around the portion of the can above the ceiling level.", "While the open can recessed fixture provided improved thermal characteristics, by drawing the thermal energy up through the can and into the housing through convection and radiation, for higher wattage lamps, the top of the housing typically reached temperature levels that were still above the acceptable level because an inordinate amount of thermal energy was directly transmitted to the top of the housing through convection in the open can.", "Conventional methods for solving this problem include making the housing big enough such that it has sufficient surface area to distribute the heat and maintain the exterior surfaces below the acceptable levels.", "However, larger housings take up larger spaces in the ceiling area, are bulkier to install and are generally not favored.", "Furthermore, in many residential applications, one or more dimensions of the housing are restricted based on the distance between the joists or the distance between the ceiling and the roof structure.", "Therefore, a need exists in the art for recessed lighting fixtures using higher wattage lamps to safely and efficiently distribute thermal energy and maintain exterior surfaces below acceptable levels.", "In particular, a need exists in the art for cost-efficient systems and methods for providing IC recessed lighting fixtures capable of efficiently distributing thermal energy while maintaining exterior surfaces of the fixture below acceptable levels in a housing having a relatively small volume.", "SUMMARY The invention provides an apparatus and system for efficiently distributing thermal energy in an IC recessed lighting fixture having a high watt lamp and a standard-sized housing.", "In certain aspects of the invention, the recessed light fixture can include a plate-shaped plaster frame.", "The plaster frame can include a hole extending through the plate of the plaster frame.", "A portion of a can light can be slidably inserted through the hole in the plate of the plaster frame.", "The can light can include openings along the top and bottom of the can that come together and define a channel or passageway through the can.", "A lamp can be positioned within the can for providing illumination.", "A housing can be placed along the plaster frame and around a portion of the can that extends up through the hole in the plate of the plaster frame.", "The housing can include wall members extending upward from the plaster frame and a ceiling member coupled to the upper portion of the wall members.", "The housing can also including a second plate that is placed between the ceiling of the housing and the plate of the plaster frame and is positioned within the housing.", "In an alternative aspect of the invention, the recessed light fixture can include a horizontal bottom panel for the plaster frame.", "The bottom panel can include a hole extending vertically through the bottom panel of the plaster frame.", "An open-ended can may be dimension so that at least a portion of the can fits through the hole in the bottom panel of the plaster frame.", "The open-ended can may include openings along the top and bottom of the can, an outer wall, and a hollow core that extends from the top to the bottom opening and defines a channel or passageway through the can.", "A lamp assembly can include a fifty watt lamp and can be positioned within the can for providing illumination for an area near the fixture.", "A housing can be placed along and coupled to the bottom panel of the plaster frame and around a portion of the can that extends up through the hole in the bottom panel of the plaster frame.", "The housing can include several wall panels that extend upward from the bottom panel of the plaster frame and a second horizontal panel that is attached to the wall panels along the upper portion of each wall panel.", "The housing can also include a heat deflection panel positioned within the housing and above the top opening of the can between the bottom panel and the second horizontal panel.", "The heat deflection panel can be placed in a spaced-apart orientation in relation to the second horizontal panel.", "In certain other aspects of the invention, the recessed light fixture can include a first horizontal panel acting as a bottom panel for the plaster frame.", "The bottom panel can include a hole extending vertically through a portion of the first horizontal panel.", "An open-ended can may be cylindrically shaped and coupled to the first horizontal panel.", "The can may be positioned such that a portion of the can extends though the hole in the first horizontal panel and a second portion extends below the first horizontal panel.", "The can may also be dimension so that at least a portion of the can fits through the hole in the first horizontal panel.", "The open-ended can includes openings along the top and bottom of the can, an outer wall and a hollow core that extends from the top to the bottom opening and defines a channel or passageway through the can.", "The opening along the bottom of the can may be three inches in diameter.", "A lamp assembly can include a fifty watt lamp and can be positioned within the channel of the can.", "A housing can be placed along and coupled to the first horizontal panel of the plaster frame and around a portion of the can that extends up through the hole in the first horizontal panel of the plaster frame.", "The housing can include a substantially horizontal ceiling panel and several wall panels that extend downward from and are coupled to the ceiling panel along the upper portion of each wall panel.", "The housing can also include a heat deflection panel positioned within the housing and above the top opening of the can between the bottom panel and the second horizontal panel.", "The heat deflection panel can be placed in a spaced-apart orientation in relation to the second horizontal panel.", "The fixture can also include a trim assembly that is coupled to the can.", "The trim assembly can include a portion that is placed adjacent to a bottom lip of the can and a gasket can be placed between the trim assembly and the bottom lip of the can to prevent light and heat loss.", "These and other aspects, objects, features, and advantages of the invention will become apparent to a person of ordinary skill in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of illustrated exemplary embodiments, which include the best mode of carrying out the invention as presently perceived.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS For a more complete understanding of the exemplary embodiments of the present invention and the advantages thereof, reference is now made to the following description in conjunction with the accompanying figures in which: FIG. 1 is a perspective, exploded view of components of a recessed light fixture housing, according to certain exemplary embodiments;", "FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional side view of the recessed light fixture housing, according to certain exemplary embodiments;", "and FIG. 3 is a perspective top view of the recessed light fixture housing, according to certain exemplary embodiments.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS The present invention is directed to space-saving and cost-efficient systems and methods for providing a recessed housing for use with a recessed lighting fixture in an insulation contact (“IC”) installation environment.", "In particular, the invention is directed to an improved recessed housing having a smaller profile for use with a fifty watt lamp fixture.", "Turning now to the drawings, in which like numerals indicate like elements throughout the figures, exemplary embodiments of the present invention are described in detail.", "FIG. 1 is a perspective, exploded view of a plaster frame 102 , an open-ended can 104 , a trim assembly 106 , a lamp assembly 108 , a gasket 110 , an outer housing 112 and a doubler panel 116 of a recessed light fixture housing 100 , according to certain exemplary embodiments.", "FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional, side view of the assembled plaster frame 102 , open-ended can 104 , trim assembly 106 , lamp assembly 108 , gasket 110 , outer housing 112 , and doubler panel 116 of FIG. 1 , according to certain exemplary embodiments.", "FIG. 3 is a perspective top view of the plaster frame 102 , outer housing 112 , a pair of hanger bars 305 and a junction box 310 , according to certain exemplary embodiments.", "With reference to FIGS. 1-3 , the hanger bars 305 are configured to be mounted between spaced supports or joists (not shown) within a ceiling 205 , 210 .", "For example, each end 315 , 320 of the hanger bars 305 can be fastened to vertical faces of the supports or joists by nailing or other fastening means, including but not limited to screws or spikes integral with the end 315 , 320 of the hanger bar.", "In certain exemplary embodiments, each end 315 , 320 of the hanger bar 305 can include integral fasteners for attaching the hanger bar 305 to the supports or joists, substantially as described in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 10/090,654, entitled “Hanger Bar for Recessed Luminaires with Integral Nail,” the complete disclosure of which is hereby fully incorporated herein by reference.", "The distance between supports or joists can vary to a considerable degree.", "Therefore, in certain exemplary embodiments, the length of each hanger bar 305 is adjustable.", "Each hanger bar 305 includes two inter-fitting members that are configured to slide adjacent to one another to provide a desired length of the hanger bar 305 .", "A person of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the present disclosure will recognize that many other suitable means exist for providing adjustable length hanger bars 305 .", "For example, in certain alternative exemplary embodiments, one or more of the hanger bars described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,105,918, entitled “Single Piece Adjustable Hanger Bar for Lighting Fixtures,” the complete disclosure of which is hereby fully incorporated herein by reference, may be utilized in the light fixture housing 100 of FIG. 1 .", "Each hanger bar 305 is releasably coupled to the plaster frame 102 of the light fixture housing 100 .", "The plaster frame 102 extends between the hanger bars 305 and includes a generally flat plate 102 a with upturned edges 102 b .", "In certain exemplary embodiments, the plaster frame 102 can take the form of several shapes including, but not limited to the shapes of a parallelogram, square, rectangle or other geometric shapes known to those of ordinary skill in the art.", "In one exemplary embodiment, the plaster frame 102 has a rectangular shape.", "The plaster frame 102 is typically made of a metallic material, for example steel, and the material used to manufacture the plaster frame 102 can be selected for its ability to wick thermal energy from the can 104 and the lamp assembly 108 .", "The flat plate 102 a of the plaster frame 102 can rest on a top surface 210 of the ceiling or be positioned adjacent to and substantially parallel with the top surface 210 of the ceiling.", "A junction box 310 is mounted to the top surface of the flat plate 102 a .", "In certain exemplary embodiments, the junction box 310 is a box having insulated wiring terminals and knock-outs for connecting external wiring (not shown) to a lamp assembly 108 disposed within the can 104 of the light fixture 100 .", "The plaster frame 102 includes a generally circular aperture 102 c sized for receiving the can 104 .", "In certain exemplary embodiments, the aperture 102 c has a diameter of between three and four inches.", "The aperture 110 c provides an illumination pathway for the lamp 115 .", "A person of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the present disclosure will recognize that, in certain alternative exemplary embodiments, the aperture 102 c can have a different, non-circular, shape that corresponds to an outer profile of the can 104 .", "The can 104 has a generally cylindrical shape and includes a first aperture 104 a positioned along the top of the can 104 and a second aperture 104 b positioned along the bottom of the can 104 .", "A channel is provided through the inside of the can 104 connecting the first 104 a and second 104 b apertures.", "The can 104 is slidably engaged to the plaster frame 102 through the circular aperture hOc by positioning at least a portion of the can 104 through the circular aperture 102 c , as shown in FIG. 2 .", "A trim assembly 106 is coupled to the can 104 .", "In certain exemplary embodiments, the trim assembly 106 can include fasteners 107 for releasably coupling the trim assembly 106 to the can 104 by slidably inserting the trim assembly 106 through the second aperture 104 b of the can 104 and hooking or fastening the fasteners 107 to one or more notches (not shown) along the interior surface of the can 104 .", "A person of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the present disclosure will recognize that many other suitable means exist for coupling or releasably coupling the trim assembly 106 to the can 104 including, but not limited to, adhesive, screws, and tabs and slots.", "In certain exemplary embodiments, the trim assembly 106 includes a first annular surface 109 and a second annular surface 111 .", "The first annular surface 109 has an outer diameter substantially equal to the inner diameter of the can 104 , such that the first annular surface 109 may slidably engage and be positioned within the can 104 .", "The first annular surface 109 can also have a substantially cylindrical shape and connected openings along the top and bottom of the first annular surface defining a passage therethrough.", "In these exemplary embodiments, the fasteners 107 are coupled along the interior or exterior surface of the first annular surface 109 .", "In certain exemplary embodiments, the second annular surface 111 has an internal diameter substantially equal to the internal diameter of the first annular surface 109 and an outer diameter greater than the outer diameter of the first annular surface 109 .", "In certain exemplary embodiments, as shown in FIG. 2 , when assembled, the top side of the second annular surface 111 is positioned adjacent the bottom side of the can 104 .", "In certain exemplary embodiments, the trim assembly 106 is constructed of die cast aluminum.", "The exemplary light housing 100 also includes a lamp assembly 108 disposed within and coupled to the trim assembly 106 and positioned within the can 104 as shown in FIG. 2 .", "The lamp assembly 108 includes an electrical connection (not shown) to the junction box 310 for providing electrical power to the lamp assembly 108 .", "The lamp assembly 108 also includes a lamp 115 for illuminating a portion of the area below the light housing 100 .", "In certain exemplary embodiments the lamp 115 is a fifty watt lamp.", "In these exemplary embodiments, the lamp 115 can be more specifically described as a fifty watt MR16 lamp.", "The exemplary light housing 100 further includes a gasket 110 having a substantially annular shape.", "The gasket 110 is typically disposed between the top side of the second annular surface 111 and the bottom side of the can 104 .", "The gasket 110 can be configured to provide additional air tightness and prevent light-loss between the trim assembly 106 and the can 104 .", "In certain alternative exemplary embodiments, the gasket 110 can be omitted.", "In such embodiments, the form-fitting relationship between the top side of the second annular surface 111 and the bottom side of the can 104 limits thermal and light loss between the can 104 and the trim assembly 106 .", "The exemplary light housing 100 also includes an outer housing 112 releasably coupled to the plaster frame 102 .", "A person of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the present disclosure will recognize that many suitable means exist for coupling the outer housing 112 to the plaster frame 102 including, but not limited to, placing tabs 113 positioned along the bottom side of the outer housing 112 through slots (not shown) in the plaster frame 102 .", "The outer housing 112 includes four vertical panels 112 a , 112 b , 112 c , and 112 d and a top panel 112 e .", "Each of the four vertical panels 112 a , 112 b , 112 c , and 112 d is coupled along its respective top edge to an edge of the top panel 112 e .", "In certain exemplary embodiments, vertical panels 112 a and 112 c are parallel to one another and vertical panels 112 b and 112 d are parallel to one another.", "In an alternative embodiment, the four vertical panels 112 a , 112 b , 112 c , and 112 d , and the top panel 112 e can be an integral housing stamped or formed from a single piece of material.", "In certain exemplary embodiments, the outer housing 112 is made from a metallic material, such as aluminum.", "More specifically, the outer housing 112 can be made from 3004 aluminum.", "In certain exemplary embodiments, one of the vertical panels 112 a can include an aperture 114 .", "In these exemplary embodiments, the aperture 114 is generally shaped to substantially match the shape of the junction box 310 and is positioned adjacent to the junction box 310 , such that the junction box 310 abuts against the aperture 114 and limits heat dissipation through the aperture 114 .", "In certain exemplary embodiments, the outer housing 112 has a width substantially equal to nine inches, a height substantially equal to seven inches, and a depth substantially equal to eleven inches.", "In certain alternative embodiments, the outer housing 112 has a width substantially equal to twelve inches, a height substantially equal to five and one-quarter inches and a depth substantially equal to thirteen inches.", "In certain other alternative embodiments, the outer housing 112 has a volume of less than nine hundred cubic inches.", "A person of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the present disclosure will recognize that the outer housing 112 can alternatively be designed in several different shapes other than the box-shape as described herein to suit the intended purpose and specific geometries of the particular installation site.", "The exemplary light housing 100 also includes a doubler panel 116 .", "In certain exemplary embodiments, the doubler panel 116 is a flat or substantially flat plate with downturned or upturned (not shown) edges.", "In certain exemplary embodiments, the doubler panel 116 can take the form of several alternative shapes and will typically have a planar geometry that matches the horizontal planar geometry of the outer housing 112 .", "In one exemplary embodiment, the doubler panel 116 has a rectangular shape and dimensions that are substantially equal to the internal dimensions of the horizontal cross-section of the outer housing 112 .", "The doubler panel 116 is typically made of a metallic material, such as aluminum.", "More specifically in certain exemplary embodiments, the doubler panel 116 is made of 3004 aluminum.", "The doubler panel 116 is slidably coupled to the interior of the outer housing 112 .", "A person of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the present disclosure will recognize that many suitable means exist for coupling or releasably coupling the doubler panel 116 to the outer housing 112 including, but not limited to, adhesives, screws, rivets, and the like.", "The doubler panel 116 can also include one or more tabs 118 positioned along the periphery of the doubler panel 116 and extending above the flat plate of the doubler panel 116 .", "As shown in FIG. 2 , the tabs 118 can contact the bottom surface of the top panel 112 e and define the separation between the flat plate of the doubler panel 116 and the top panel 112 e. The exemplary doubler panel 116 also includes a generally circular aperture 120 positioned on the substantially flat plate of the doubler panel 116 .", "In certain exemplary embodiments, the aperture 120 in the doubler panel 116 is offset from the aperture 102 c in the plaster frame 102 .", "The aperture 120 is typically smaller than the aperture 102 c in the plaster frame 102 .", "The aperture 120 provides access to a thermal sensor (not shown) coupled to the bottom side of the top panel 112 e inside the outer housing 112 .", "The thermal sensor is electrically coupled in series with and between the electrical supply in the junction box 310 and the lamp assembly 108 .", "The aperture 120 also typically has an access panel 117 that covers the aperture 120 when access to the thermal sensor is not occurring.", "The access panel 117 can slide, rotate, flip or otherwise can be easily adjustable from an open to a closed position over the aperture 120 .", "If the thermal sensor senses a temperature that is above an allowable level, either through misuse or improper installation of the housing 100 or because a lamp 115 having a wattage that is above the rated wattage for the housing 100 , the sensor will prevent the power supply from reaching the lamp assembly 108 .", "In certain exemplary embodiments, the allowable temperature level is ninety degrees Celsius.", "Furthermore, in certain exemplary embodiments the rated wattage for the housing 100 is fifty watts.", "In certain exemplary embodiments, when assembled, the light fixture housing 100 provides improved thermal conductivity over prior IC housings and allows for the use of a fifty watt lamp 115 with an outer housing 112 having a much smaller surface area for heat dispersion purposes.", "When power is supplied and the lamp 115 is activated, the lamp 115 emits infrared light though the first aperture 104 a and the second aperture 104 b of the can 104 .", "The exemplary aluminum can 104 being open on both ends creates a boundary around the lamp 115 , draws the thermal energy away from the lamp 115 , and drives the thermal energy from the lamp 115 up into the outer housing 112 and away from the ceiling surface 210 .", "The thermal energy then contacts the doubler panel 116 , which improves the ability of the panels 112 a , 112 b , 112 c , 112 d , and 112 e to conduct heat.", "Without the doubler panel 116 , the thermal energy would go directly towards the top panel 112 e (which is an exterior surface) due to radiation and convection caused by the open can 104 and the thermal temperatures for a fifty watt lamp at the top panel 112 e would exceed the allowable maximum.", "Thermal testing is typically conducted on recessed IC housing light fixtures to determine the temperature levels of the exterior of the fixture 100 .", "If the surface of the fixture 100 exceeds ninety degrees Celsius during operation the fixture 100 is considered to be outsider the permitted range.", "The temperature requirements are designed to prevent the fixture 100 from starting a fire at the point where the trim 106 contacts the ceiling 205 , where the plaster frame contacts the ceiling 210 or where the remaining portions of the fixture 100 (including the outer housing 112 ) contact the insulation or joists.", "During recessed thermal testing, multiple temperature sensors are applied to the fixture 100 and power is supplied to the lamp 115 for a time interval of at least seven and one-half hours.", "At the end of the time interval, the maximum temperature reading at each sensor is determined.", "If any sensor along an exterior surface has a reading that is greater than ninety degrees Celsius, the fixture 100 fails the test.", "Multiple recessed thermal tests have been conducted to determine the thermal performance characteristics of certain exemplary light fixture housings 100 having the mechanical and structural features described above.", "The testing was completed on the light fixture housing 100 with several different trim types, each having different mechanical designs and different thermal characteristics.", "The following table summarizes the recessed thermal testing results of certain exemplary light fixture housings having mechanical structures substantially similar to the light fixture housing 100 with a second aperture 104 b in the can 104 that is three inches in diameter: IC Light Fixture Housing 100;", "Recessed Thermal Testing Results Lamp angle Trim in (degrees Can Plaster contact Can Thermal off Watt- side ground with top pro- Trim down age bottom at wood wood center tector Style angle) (W) (° C.) (° C.) (° C.) (° C.) (° C.) 3001 0 50 78 83 85 83 87 3001 15 50 79 86 88 84 88 3002 15 50 70 68 73 74 79 3002 0 50 69 62 70 74 78 3003 0 50 68 67 73 72 78 3003 35 50 72 72 79 76 80 3004 35 50 67 61 68 71 76 3004 0 50 66 59 65 70 75 3005 0 50 62 60 62 66 70 3006 0 50 74 79 84 80 86 3006 25 50 76 80 86 81 87 3007 0 50 73 54 61 79 84 3008 0 50 72 51 66 78 83 3009 45 50 58 56 60 60 63 3009 0 50 59 55 59 62 65 As illustrated in the above table, the exemplary light fixture housing 100 successfully maintained an exterior temperature below ninety degrees Celsius when using a fifty watt lamp regardless of the type of trim assembly 106 used with the fixture 100 or the angle of disposition of the lamp 115 during the testing period.", "The results above for the light fixture housing 100 were unexpected.", "Typically, the light fixture housing 100 would need an outer housing 112 having a much larger surface area and internal volume thirty percent larger in order to dissipate the thermal energy sufficiently over the exterior of the fixture 100 without the exterior of the fixture 100 reaching a temperature over ninety degrees Celsius.", "Although specific embodiments of the invention have been described above in detail, the description is merely for purposes of illustration.", "It should be appreciated, therefore, that many aspects of the invention were described above by way of example only and are not intended as required or essential elements of the invention unless explicitly stated otherwise.", "Various modifications of, and equivalent steps corresponding to, the disclosed aspects of the exemplary embodiments, in addition to those described above, can be made by a person of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention defined in the following claims, the scope of which is to be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass such modifications and equivalent structures." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION a. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to photographic cameras of a type of using film cartridges, and more particularly to a device for preventing the double exposure and faulty winding up of a film in this type of camera.", "B. Description of the Prior Art In a conventional camera of this type, a member which will work to lock a release button when a film cartridge is mounted in a predetermined position on a camera body and to unlock the release button when the cartridge is taken out of the camera body, and a member which will work to unlock the release button when a film has been completely wound up and to lock the release button again when photographing ends are provided separately and therefore there have been defects that the structure is complicated and troubles are likely to occur and that the structure is so complicated as to be disadvantageous in making the camera small.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, a primary object of the present invention is to provide a photographic camera of a type of using film cartridges which is so formed that the locking and unlocking of a release button may be controlled by a single member cooperating with a film so that the structure may be simplified and no trouble may occur.", "Another object of the present invention is to provide a photographic camera wherein the operating stroke of a release button is small and the release button can be lightly pressed.", "These and other objects of the present invention will become more apparent during the course of the following detailed description and appended claims.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a plan view of a device embodying the present invention when no film cartridge is fitted;", "FIG. 2 is the same plan view as FIG. 1 when a film cartridge is fitted;", "FIG. 3 is a plan view when a film has been completely wound up;", "and FIG. 4 is a partial side view as seen on line IV -- IV in FIG. 1. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to the drawings, reference numeral 1 represents a base plate forming a part of a camera body having rising walls 1a, 1b and 1c for defining the fitting position of a later described film cartridge 27.", "Numeral 2 represents a cocking plate slidably mounted on said base plate 1 and having a bent portion 2a, ratchet teeth 2b and a rack portion 2c.", "Numeral 3 represents a spring pulling said cocking plate 2 rightward.", "Numeral 4 represents a lock lever rotatably supported on the base plate 1 and having a pawl portion 4a engageable with the ratchet teeth 2b.", "Numeral 5 represents a spring for biasing the lock lever 4 counterclockwise.", "Numeral 6 represents a sector gear rotatably supported on the base plate 1 and meshed with the rack 2c of the cocking plate 2.", "Numeral 7 represents a ratchet wheel rotatably supported on the base plate 1 and concentrically with the sector gear 6.", "Numeral 8 represents a ratchet lever rotatably supported on the sector gear 6 and having a pawl portion 8a engageable with the ratchet wheel 7.", "Numeral 9 represents a spring for biasing the ratchet lever counterclockwise.", "Numeral 10 represents a gear supported on the base plate 1 so as to be rotatable coaxially and integrally with the ratchet wheel 7.", "Numeral 11 represents a ratchet wheel rotatably supported on the base plate and having a pinion 11a meshing with the gear 10.", "Numeral 12 is a setting member slidably mounted on the base plate 1, having a cam surface 12a and a projection 12b which is located in the track of the bent portion 2a of the cocking plate 2 and arranged so as to be engageable at the left end with the lock lever 4.", "Numeral 13 represents a spring pulling the setting member 12 rightward.", "Numeral 14 represents a lock lever rotatably supported on a bracket 1d raised from the base plate 1, having a pin 14a which can contact said bracket 1d and arranged so as to be engageable at one end with the right end of the setting member 12.", "Numeral 15 (in FIG. 4) represents a spring for biasing the lock lever 14 clockwise in FIG. 4. Numeral 16 represents a release member mounted slidably vertically in FIG. 4 on a bracket 1e raised from the base plate 1 as clearly shown in FIG. 4 and having a bent portion 16a engageable with the lock lever 14.", "Numeral 17 (in FIG. 4) represents a spring for biasing said release member 16 upward in FIG. 4. Numeral 18 represents a control lever rotatably supported on the base plate 1 and having a pin 18a, pin 18b engaging with the cam surface 12a of the setting member 12, ratchet portion 18c engageable with the ratchet wheel 11, end surface 18d and hook portion 18e.", "Numeral 19 represents a spring for biasing the control lever 18 counterclockwise.", "Numeral 20 represents a lock control lever rotatably supported on the base plate 1, engaging in one end portion with a pin 18a of the control lever 18 and having a bend 20a formed in the other end portion.", "Numeral 21 represents a spring for biasing said lock control lever 20 clockwise.", "Numeral 22 represents a lock member rotatably supported on the base plate 1 and concentrically with the lock control lever 20 and locatable at one arm end in the moving track of the release member.", "Numeral 23 represents a spring connected between the lock control lever 20 and lock member 22.", "Numeral 24 represents a sensing lever supported slidably and rotatably on the base plate 1, having in one end portion a bend 24a engageable alternately with the end surface 18d and hook portion 18e of the control lever 18 and formed in the other end portion to be like a knife edge.", "Numeral 25 represents a spring for biasing said sensing lever 24 counterclockwise.", "Numeral 26 represents a stopper fixed on the base plate 1 so as to limit the counterclockwise rotation of the sensing lever 24.", "Numeral 27 represents a well known cartridge which can be fitted in a predetermined position on the base plate 1 by the walls 1a, 1b and 1c as shown by the chain line in FIG. 3 and has an unexposed film containing portion 27a, film guiding portion 27b and exposed film containing portion 27c.", "Numeral 28 represents a film contained in the film cartridge 27, having well known perforations 28a engageable with the knife-shaped tip portion 24b of the sensing lever 24 formed on the side edges and fixed at one end to a shaft 27a'", "set rotatably in the center portion of the containing portion 27a and at the other end to a shaft 27c'", "set rotatably in the center portion of the containing portion 27c.", "Numeral 29 represents a film winding gear secured to the rotary shaft 27c'", "projected out of the film cartridge 27 and engageable with the gear 10 when the film cartridge 27 is mounted in the position in FIG. 3. In the above mentioned device, the spring 5 biasing the lock lever 4 counterclockwise is stronger than the spring 3 biasing the cocking plate 2 rightward.", "Further, the operating stroke of the cocking plate 2 and the gear ratio of the sector gear 6 or gear 10 and the film winding gear 29 are so designed that, when the cocking plate 2 moves from the position in FIG. 1 to the position in FIG. 3, the film 28 may be wound up by one frame within the film cartridge 27.", "The operation of the above mentioned device shall be explained in the following.", "FIG. 1 shows the case that the film cartridge 27 is not mounted on the base plate 1 and the device is not cocked.", "When the film cartridge 27 is mounted on the base plate 1 as shown in FIG. 2 in this state, the part of the film 28 present within the film guiding portion 27b of the film cartridge 27 will push the tip portion 24b of the sensing lever 24 to move the sensing lever 24 upward.", "By this movement of the sensing lever 24, the control lever 18 will be rotated clockwise against the spring 19 from the position in FIG. 1 to the position in FIG. 2 and, at the same time, the lock control lever 20 will be rotated counterclockwise against the spring 21.", "As a result, the lock member 22 will be rotated counterclockwise from the position in FIG. 1 to the position in FIG. 2 so that the tip portion may enter the track of the release member 16.", "Therefore, the release member 16 will be locked so as to be unable to be pushed.", "After the film cartridge 27 is thus mounted, when the cocking plate 2 is moved leftward by operating a film winding lever provided on camera body not illustrated, first the sector gear 6 will be rotated counterclockwise.", "In such case, the pawl portion 8a of the ratchet lever 8 will be kept engaged with the tooth of the ratchet wheel 7 and therefore, with the counterclockwise rotation of the sector gear 6, the ratchet wheel 7 will be rotated also counterclockwise and the gear 10 will be also rotated counterclockwise integrally with it.", "Therefore, the ratchet wheel 11 and film winding gear 29 will be also rotated clockwise at the same time and the film 28 contained in the film cartridge 27 will be wound up by the shaft 27c'", "and therefore will be moved leftward within the film guiding portion 27b.", "While the cocking plate 2 is moving leftward, the bent portion 2a will contact the projection 12b of the setting member 12 and will move said member leftward against the spring 13.", "In the case of this movement of the setting member 12, the cam surface 12a will pass over the pin 18b of the control lever 18 and therefore said control lever 18 will be rotated slightly clockwise.", "When the cam surface 12a passes over the pin 18b, the control lever 18 will return to the position in FIG. 2. When the cocking plate 2, that is, the setting member 12 has moved leftward by a predetermined stroke, the film 28 will be wound up by one frame, the tip portion 24b of the sensing lever 24 will engage in the corresponding perforation 28a and, on the other hand, the lock lever 14 will engage at the left end with the right end of the setting member 12 so that the setting member 12 may be locked in the position in FIG. 3. After the tip of the tip portion 24b of the sensing lever 24 engages in the perforation 28a of the film 28 as described above, the sensing lever 24 will be rotated clockwise against the spring 25 in the final step of the movement of said film 28 by one frame and therefore the bent portion 24a will disengage from the end surface 18d of the control lever 18.", "Therefore, the control lever 18 will be rotated counterclockwise by the spring 19, the pin 18a will release the pressing of the lock control lever 20, the pin 18b will come to be positioned on the right side of the cam surface 12a and the ratchet portion 18c will engage with the ratchet wheel 11 and will lock the gears 11a and 10 and ratchet wheel 7.", "The control lever 18 in this state is shown in FIG. 3. On the other hand, when the pressing is released by the pin 18a, the lock control lever 20 will rotate clockwise following the counterclockwise rotation of the control lever 18 and, at the same time, the lock member 22 will be also rotated clockwise and will retreat from the track of the release member 16.", "By the way, when the setting member 12 has moved leftward by the predetermined stroke, that is, when the film 28 has been wound up by one frame, the lock lever 4 will be rotated clockwise by the setting member 12, the pawl portion 4a will be disengaged from the ratchet tooth 2b of the cocking plate 2, therefore, the cocking plate 2 will be returned to the position in FIGS. 1 and 2 by the spring 3, at the same time, the ratchet lever 8 will idle for the ratchet wheel 7 and therefore the sector gear 6 will also rotate clockwise to return to the position in FIGS. 1 and 2.", "The film 28 contained in the film cartridge 27 will be completely wound up as described above.", "In this process, a shutter not illustrated will be also cocked.", "When the release member 16 is pushed down in this state, the lock lever 14 will be rotated counterclockwise in the position in FIG. 4 by the bent portion 16a and will therefore disengage at the left end from the right end of the setting member 12.", "Therefore, the setting member 12 will be returned to the position in FIG. 2 from the position in FIG. 3 by the spring 13.", "Therefore, the lock lever 4 will be returned to the position in FIG. 2. At this time, the cam surface 12a will push the pin 18b, therefore the control lever 18 will be rotated clockwise against the spring 19, the pin 18a will rotate the lock control lever 20 counterclockwise, the ratchet portion 18c will disengage from the ratchet wheel 11 and the hook portion 18e will engage with the bent portion 24a of the sensing lever 24 to pull said sensing lever 24 upward and disengage the tip portion 24b from the perforation 28a of the film 28.", "Therefore, at the same time as the tip portion 24b disengages from the perforation 28a, the sensing lever 24 will be rotated counterclockwise by the spring 25 until it contacts the stopper 26, the end surface of the tip portion 24b will come into contact with the film part in which the perforation 28a is not present, the bent portion 24a will contact the end surface 18d of the control lever 18 and said control lever 18 will be stationary in the position in FIG. 2. With the counterclockwise rotation of the lock control lever 20, the lock member 22 will again enter the track of the release member 16.", "When the film cartridge 27 is taken out of the base plate 1 in this state, the sensing lever 24 will move to the position in FIG. 1 from the position in FIG. 2 and, at the same time, the control lever 18 will also rotate slightly counterclockwise.", "Therefore, the lock member 22 will again deviate out of the track of the release member 16 so that the release member 16 may be pressable.", "As evident from the above explanation, in any case, unless the film 28 within the film cartridge 27 is in the right winding position, the release member 16, that is, the shutter button will not be able to be pressed.", "Therefore, the double exposure and faulty winding up of the film can be perfectly prevented." ]

[ "CROSS REFERENCE TO A RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 60/421,460 filed Oct. 25, 2002.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The subject invention pertains generally to lawn mower apparatus, and in particular relates to an apparatus and a technique for quickly opening a lawn mower chute.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Power operated lawn mowers typically have a shroud with depending sides that extend over and surround the rotating cutter blades within the shroud.", "Typically, the shroud is fitted with a discharge chute through which the cut grass exits to be either passed to a collection container for later disposal, or is deposited on the lawn in the form of mulch.", "In certain areas, however, it is imprudent to leave the discharge chute open;", "such situations exist when the lawn mower is being used near buildings or around people, as small stones or other dangerous objects may be discharged at a relatively high velocity, causing damage or injury.", "[0004] To counter this problem, the prior art has developed a number of techniques for permitting the discharge chute to be alternately opened and closed in a relatively rapid manner.", "Examples of such prior art arrangements are disclosed below.", "As more fully explained herein, these arrangements suffer from various drawbacks.", "[0005] U.S. Pat. No. 4,135,351 to Akgulian discloses a rotary lawnmower grass mulcher assembly having a mower housing and a discharge opening covered by a pair of plates having air holes there through.", "The air holes are offset between the two plates, which allows for the discharge of air while maintaining the grass clippings in the mower housing for mulching.", "[0006] U.S. Pat. No. 4,45,312 to Cartner discloses a mower head with movable guard for an articulated boom assembly attached to a mow tractor.", "The movable guard may be opened via a hydraulic means for allowing the mower blade to cut saplings and the like.", "[0007] U.S. Pat. No. 5,040,364 to Deegan discloses a lawnmower having a selectable discharges means.", "The lawnmower described comprises a cutting deck having a plurality of discharge exit ports, each covered with a closure means.", "Each closure means is connected to a control lever, which operates to open and close the closure means via a cable attachment.", "[0008] U.S. Pat. No. 5,048,279 to Badawey et al.", "discloses a leaf mulcher for use with a rotary blade power lawnmower.", "The leaf mulcher comprises a screen, which covers the outlet of the lawnmower.", "The screen is offset to provide a space between the outlet and the screen thereby allowing a portion of the grass clippings to escape from outlet without passing through the screen.", "[0009] U.S. Pat. No. 5,133,175 to Dumbrell discloses a safety flap for power-operated lawnmower the apparatus remains in the closed position due to the force of gravity.", "[0010] U.S. Pat. No. 5,284,007 to Poe et al.", "discloses a mulching and shredding attachment for the use on a lawnmower or lawn vacuum, which is held in place by a bracket comprising a lever and a clevis pin.", "Removal of the pin allows for the apparatus to be engaged or disengaged.", "[0011] U.S. Pat. No. 5,657,620 to Thagard et al.", "discloses a device for mowing, cutting and mulching.", "The device is generally attached to a tractor power drive, and comprises a shroud mechanism that may be mechanically opened.", "When the shroud mechanism is mechanically opened it exposes the cutting means for removing brush and saplings.", "[0012] Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,826,417 to Evans discloses an operator control deflector plate for the discharge chute of a riding lawnmower.", "The deflector plate comprises a series of air holes large enough to allow the passage of grass, however, small enough to prevent the passage of objects sufficient to cause physical injury or property damage.", "The device may be selectively opened by a lever mechanism mounted to the lawnmower cutting deck.", "[0013] Despite these prior art efforts, there remains a need for discharge chute opening and closing apparatus that is rugged and operates to quickly move the cover for the discharge chute between the open and closed positions.", "All documents and publications cited are incorporated by reference to the extent not inconsistent with the explicit teachings set forth herein.", "BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0014] It is an object of the present invention to provide a discharge chute opening and closing apparatus for lawn mowers that is rugged, reliable and operates to quickly open and close the discharge chute.", "[0015] The discharge chute opening and closing apparatus for lawn mowers comprises, in combination, the following: a vertical bar fixedly attached to a pivot bar, rotatably mounted between first and second pivot stanchions;", "a pivot arm fixedly attached to said pivot arm at a first end and engaged with a cam pin at a second end;", "a cam plate comprising a cam pin and a drive pin rotatably attached to a third pivot stanchion;", "a lift plate rotatably attached to the third pivot stanchion and fixedly attached to a chute cover being operably engaged by the cam and drive pins;", "a second lift plate fixedly attached to a fourth pivot stanchion further comprising a spring attachment;", "a spring attached at a first end to the spring attachment of the lift plate and attached at a second end to a spring mounting bracket wherein the spring assists in maintaining the position of the chute cover.", "[0016] The vertical bar has a first end defining a handle and a second end fixedly attached to a pivot bar for translating torque from the operator to the pivot bar.", "When engaged by the user, the handle operates to open and close the chute cover.", "The pivot bar is rotatably disposed between a first pivot stanchion and a second pivot stanchion and is further attached to a generally horizontal pivot arm.", "Movement of the vertical handle translates to movement of the pivot arm.", "[0017] The horizontal pivot arm has a first end attached to the pivot bar and a second end comprising a crank plate.", "The crank plate further defines an aperture that receives a a first end of a cam pin.", "Movement of the pivot arm translates torque to the cam pin, which is fixedly attached through and causes rotation of a cam plate.", "The cam plate is rotatably attached to a third pivot stanchion and comprises a cam pin and a drive pin.", "As the cam plate is rotated about its axis, a second end of the cam pin engages and raises a first lift plate attached to the chute cover door.", "[0018] The chute cover door fixedly attached to the first lift plate and a second lift plate wherein the second lift plate is rotatably attached to a fourth pivot stanchion.", "When closed, the chute cover door is generally in a substantially vertical position.", "When opened, the chute cover door is opened past the horizontal position to allow for the unimpeded discharge of grass clippings.", "[0019] The opposite movement of the handle generally closes the apparatus.", "The pivot arm essentially pushes down on the cam pin and the cam plate is rotated in an opposite direction.", "As the cam plate rotates the drive pin engages the lift plate and pushes the lift plate forward wherein gravity or an attached spring operates to complete the closing process.", "[0020] By way of example, the apparatus may further comprise a spring attached between the second lift plate and a spring mount to facilitate the opening of the chute door.", "The spring can be mounted to provide constant tension between the lift plate attached to the chute door and the spring mount attached to the cutting deck.", "When the apparatus closed, the spring can operate to maintain the chute cover in the closed position.", "When the chute cover apparatus is opened, the spring can operate to maintain the chute cover in the open position.", "[0021] The apparatus may include a staybar that allows for the partial opening of the apparatus when in operation.", "The staybar can be attached to a lift plate and provide structural support therefore.", "The staybar can comprise a design having an offset center of gravity that allows the staybar to maintain an upright position as the apparatus is opened slowly.", "The staybar can maintain this upright position until the chute cover reaches a critical angle, then the staybar will rotate allowing for the chute cover to fully close.", "Such a feature is particularly helpful when a partial discharge of grass clippings is desired.", "[0022] In a further embodiment the apparatus can comprise a stop bolt attached to an end of the pivot arm to prevent the pivot arm from over rotating and becoming disengaged from the cam pin.", "[0023] In another embodiment a limiting means may be installed to prevent the chute cover from over rotating and causing damage to the components.", "In a preferred embodiment the limiting means comprises a shock pad made from a resilient material such as rubber, nylon, plastic or the like for eliminating or reducing the wear caused by two metal parts coming into abrupt contact with one another.", "[0024] Further objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent by reference to the following detailed disclosure of the invention and appended drawing wherein like reference numbers refer to the same feature, component, or element.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0025] [0025 ]FIG. 1 is a top plan view of the discharge chute opening and closing apparatus according to the present invention, fitted to the shroud of a lawn mower;", "[0026] [0026 ]FIG. 2 is a rear perspective view of the apparatus shown in accordance with the present invention.", "[0027] [0027 ]FIG. 3 is a side perspective view of the apparatus according to the present invention, with the chute cover removed.", "[0028] [0028 ]FIG. 4 is a side plan view of a pivot upright assembly of the present invention.", "[0029] [0029 ]FIG. 5 is a front plan view of a pivot upright assembly of the present invention.", "[0030] [0030 ]FIG. 6 is a side fragmentary view of the chute cover assembly of the present invention.", "[0031] [0031 ]FIG. 7 is a side plan view of the staybar of the present invention.", "[0032] [0032 ]FIG. 8 is a front sectional view of the staybar/lift plate assembly of the present invention.", "[0033] [0033 ]FIG. 9 is a side fragmentary view illustrating a one-quarter opened chute cover assembly.", "[0034] [0034 ]FIG. 10 is a side fragmentary view illustrating a half opened chute cover assembly.", "[0035] [0035 ]FIG. 11 is a side fragmentary view illustrating a fully opened chute cover assembly.", "[0036] [0036 ]FIG. 12 is a side fragmentary view illustrating a one-quarter closed chute cover assembly.", "[0037] [0037 ]FIG. 13A is a side fragmentary view of the cam plate/lift plate assembly of the present invention in the closed position.", "[0038] [0038 ]FIG. 13B is a front fragmentary view of the pivot arm assembly of the present invention in the closed position.", "[0039] [0039 ]FIG. 14A is a side fragmentary view of the cam plate/lift plate assembly of the present invention in the partially opened position.", "[0040] [0040 ]FIG. 14B is a front fragmentary view of the pivot arm assembly of the present invention in the partially opened position.", "[0041] [0041 ]FIG. 15A is a side fragmentary view of the cam plate/lift plate assembly of the present invention in the partially opened position.", "[0042] [0042 ]FIG. 15B is a front fragmentary view of the pivot arm assembly of the present invention in the fully opened position.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0043] Referring now to FIG. 1, an opening and closing lawnmower chute cover apparatus is illustrated and generally designated by the reference numeral 10 .", "[0044] The apparatus 10 is designed for use with a lawn mower having a shroud 12 with an upper, generally horizontal surface 11 and a generally vertical depending skirt 13 .", "The shroud 12 includes a chute opening 14 (shown by dotted line in FIG. 1) along a side 16 in the skirt 13 .", "The opening and closing apparatus 10 is fitted along an area 18 of the shroud upper surface 11 which extends generally parallel with the chute opening 14 .", "[0045] The apparatus 10 is provided with a chute cover 20 which comprises a first chute cover portion 22 extending across and generally parallel with the area 18 and a second portion 24 extending generally vertically over the chute opening 14 and parallel with side 16 , when the chute cover 20 is in the closed position, as depicted in FIG. 1. [0046] The apparatus 10 comprises a first plate 26 having opposing ends 28 , 29 , a second plate 30 having opposing ends 32 , 34 and an extension plate 38 having opposing ends 40 , 44 .", "As depicted in the drawings, the first plate 26 lies along the upper shroud surface 11 in the area 18 generally parallel with the side 16 , the second plate 30 lies generally perpendicular to the side 16 along the shroud surface 11 and the extension plate 38 is fitted at its first end 40 via fastener 42 to the second end 29 of plate 26 , with the second end 44 of extension plate 38 extending angularly away from the side 16 along shroud surface 11 .", "It will of course be understood by those skilled in the art that the plates 26 , 30 and 38 may be formed of a unitary plate member.", "The plates 26 , 30 and 38 are attached to the shroud 12 via fasteners, such as fasteners 36 and 42 .", "[0047] In accordance with the present invention, the apparatus 10 comprises at least four pivot uprights 46 , 48 , 50 and 52 .", "The first pivot upright 46 is fixed to and extends generally vertically from the proximal end 32 of the second plate 30 and the second pivot upright 48 is fixed to and extends generally vertically from the second end 34 of the second plate 30 .", "The third vertical upright 50 is attached along the second plate 30 in spaced relation to the first upright 46 , and rearwardly with respect to the side 16 of shroud 12 , as shown in FIG. 1. The fourth pivot upright 52 is attached to the distal end 44 of the extension plate 38 .", "[0048] Referring next to FIGS. 4 and 5, with specific reference to pivot upright 50 , each pivot upright 46 , 48 , 50 and 52 includes a stanchion 54 atop which is affixed a bearing support member 56 into which is fitted a generally circular bearing 58 with a central bore 60 .", "It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the construction details of the pivot uprights 46 , 48 , 50 and 52 are all identical to that shown specifically with reference to pivot upright 50 in FIGS. 2 and 3.", "Each of which is adapted to rotatably support a cylindrical shaft that is rotatable about a central axis 62 extending through the opening 60 in the corresponding pivot upright.", "[0049] Referring again to FIG. 1, the pivot uprights, 46 , 48 fixed to the opposing ends of plate 30 rotatably support a main pivot bar 64 having a first end 66 which is pivotally secured with the first pivot upright 46 and a second, distal end 68 which is pivotally secured with the second pivot upright 48 , so that the main pivot bar 64 is rotatably suspended between uprights 46 and 48 above the surface of the plate 30 .", "The positioning of the main pivot bar 64 is maintained at the respective ends 66 and 68 thereof via lock nuts 70 (at end 66 ) and bolt 72 welded to pivot arm 102 near end 104 , and lock nut 76 (at end 68 ) and bolt 74 welded to pivot bar 64 at end 68 , together with corresponding threads on those ends.", "Similarly, as shown on the right side of FIG. 1, pivot upright 50 has associated lock nuts 78 , 80 pivotally supporting pivot rod 82 , and pivot upright 52 has associated lock nuts 84 , 86 which hold in place pivot rod 88 .", "Rods 82 and 88 together with associated hardware are described in greater detail below.", "[0050] Turning again to the construction details of the apparatus 10 associated with the second plate 30 , an upstanding bracket 90 is fixed to the upper surface of the second plate 30 and extends above the main pivot bar 64 so as to support a shock pad 92 above the main pivot bar 64 .", "As is evident from FIG. 2, the shock pad 92 supports the chute cover 20 by engaging the first portion 22 when the chute cover 20 is in an open position.", "[0051] With continuing reference to FIG. 1, a brace 94 is fixed along the main pivot 64 and has a generally vertical handle 96 fixed thereto at a proximal, lower end 98 of the handle.", "As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the upper, distal extremity 100 of the handle 96 can be used by an operator to effectuate a rotation of the main pivot bar 64 , which in turn effectuates rotation of pivot arm 102 about its proximal end 104 which is, in turn, fixed to the main pivot bar 64 in abutting relationship with bolt 72 associated with pivot upright 46 .", "At the same time, the opposing, distal end 106 of pivot arm 102 is rotated away from the area 18 of shroud surface 11 .", "A cam plate assembly including cam plate 112 and crank plate 108 are cooperatively attached with the distal end 106 of the pivot arm 102 , so as to effectuate the raising and lowering of lift plate 114 .", "Lift plate 114 is fixed at a first end 116 to the first portion 22 of chute cover 20 , and at the opposing end 118 is pivotally mounted along shaft 88 associated with pivot upright 52 .", "Therefore, when the upper extremity 100 of the handle 96 is moved in a direction generally parallel with the direction of the side 16 and chute opening 14 , the main pivot bar 64 is rotated in the manner described above so as to lift the distal end 106 of the pivot arm 102 , thereby effectuating the raising or lowering of the cover 20 .", "The cover 20 is shown in the closed position in FIG. 1;", "when raised to the open position, the first surface 22 of the cover 20 rests upon the shock pad 92 .", "[0052] Turning now to FIGS. 6 and 3, the apparatus 10 is shown in a closed position.", "As can be seen from FIG. 6, the spring 120 is attached at a first end 132 to an extension 147 of the pivot point 131 of the staybar 125 and at a second end 134 to the spring mounting bracket 122 .", "When in the closed position, the spring 120 operates under tension to pull the chute cover 20 closed, thus maintaining its position.", "This is caused by the spring 120 being attached to a point 133 on the lift plate 124 that is lower than the lift plate pivot point 135 .", "As the chute cover 20 begins to open, as depicted in FIG. 9, the spring 120 begins to stretch.", "As the chute cover 20 is opened further, as depicted in FIG. 10, the spring 120 is under its highest tension as the lift plate 124 passes the apex of the rotation about the lift plate pivot point 135 .", "As the pivot point 131 of the staybar 125 passes the apex of the lift plate 124 rotation, the spring 120 , under tension acts to now pull the chute cover 20 to an open position.", "At this point, the spring 120 operates to maintain the chute cover 20 in an open position, as depicted in FIG. 11.", "The chute cover 20 will remain in the open position until such time as the handle 100 is moved in the opposite direction to effectuate the closing of the chute cover 20 .", "[0053] As is shown in FIG. 11, the first chute cover portion 22 comes to a rest at a shock pad 92 that operates to limit the rotation of the chute cover 20 .", "The shock pad is attached to an upstanding bracket 90 and can comprise a resilient material to reduce the amount of wear caused by abrupt metal-to-metal contact.", "[0054] Referring next to FIG. 7, the staybar 125 comprises a lower end 129 and an upper end 127 .", "The pivot point 131 of the staybar 125 passes through the upper portion of the lower end 129 .", "Because of the configuration of the staybar 125 , its center of gravity C ensures that the staybar 125 maintains the appropriate of the chute cover 20 .", "[0055] When the apparatus 10 is partially engaged by the operator, the position of the staybar 125 is changed and the staybar 125 moves from an angled resting position, as depicted in FIG. 6, to an upright position, wherein the lower end 129 of the staybar 125 is generally flat against the surface 11 of the second plate 30 .", "In this position the staybar 125 , through its connection 133 with the lift plate 124 maintains the chute cover 20 in a partially opened position.", "[0056] To reset the staybar 125 , the chute cover 20 should be fully opened.", "When the chute cover is 20 is sufficiently opened, the stop pin 136 engages the upper end 127 of the staybar 125 and rotates it in the same direction as the chute cover 20 .", "When the center of gravity C rotates over and beyond the pivot point 131 of the staybar 125 , the upper end 127 of the staybar 125 rotates entirely over as a result of gravity.", "At this point, the staybar 125 is reset and when the operator closes the chute cover 20 , the chute cover 20 will close entirely.", "[0057] Referring now to FIG. 8, the staybar 125 and lift plate 124 assembly is shown.", "Through the lift plate 124 and staybar 125 pivot point 131 passes a through bolt 139 held in place by a first lock nut 141 , spaced by washers 143 and secured by a pair of jam nuts 145 A, 145 B. The through bolt 139 is extended beyond the jam nuts 145 A, 145 B and further comprises a spring attachment point 147 and a second lock nut 149 .", "[0058] Turning next to FIG. 9, as the chute cover 20 is opening, the pivot arm 102 is activated by handle 96 that actuates crank plate 108 by engaging the cam pin 110 , as depicted in FIGS. 13A and 13B.", "At rest the pivot arm 102 is in a generally horizontal position.", "When rotated about the pivot arm axis 150 , the distal end 106 of the pivot arm 102 is elevated.", "The crank plate 108 attached to the distal end 106 of the pivot arm 102 engages the cam pin 110 on a first side through the aperture 109 .", "As the pivot arm 102 is raised, the crank plate 108 , in combination with the cam pin 110 , operates to rotate the cam plate 112 about the cam plate pivot point 88 .", "[0059] As the cam plate 112 rotates, a second end of the cam pin 110 engages the lift plate 114 , attached to the chute cover 20 , and causes the lift plate 114 to rotate about pivot rod 88 , as depicted in FIGS. 14A and 14B.", "Once the actual centerline of the spring 120 passes above the center of pivot rod 88 , the tension of spring 120 continues the rotation of lift plate 114 until the chute cover 20 is completely open and contacts shock pad 92 .", "It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the pivot arm 102 moves the chute cover 20 only to a rotation position where the spring attachment 147 passes the apex of rotation the center line of the pivot rod 82 , and the spring 120 then completes the chute cover 20 opening process;", "otherwise, the chute cover 20 could only be fully opened as a result of the inertial moment of the chute cover rotation as a result of travel limitations of the pivot arm 102 .", "[0060] It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the over rotation of the pivot arm 102 will cause the cam pin 110 to exit the aperture 109 and disengage from the crank plate 108 .", "To limit rotation of the pivot arm 120 , stop bolts 155 may be attached the pivot arm 102 , thereby decreasing the occurrence of detachment.", "[0061] With continuing reference to FIG. 9, also note that when the chute 20 is partially open, the staybar 125 is rotated due to its offset center of gravity C. When the chute 20 is opened slowly, the staybar 125 rotates into the position shown in FIG. 9, holding the chute cover 20 in a partially open position, permitting the vertical handle to be released while the staybar 125 is in this position.", "[0062] Reference is now made to FIG. 10;", "as the chute is rotated by the handle 96 to the position shown, the center line force of the spring has moved above the pivot point of the chute cover 20 , and spring tension completes the chute cover 20 opening, as described above, without force being exerted on the handle 96 .", "The position of the staybar 125 during that continued movement control is continued until the chute cover 20 is fully opened, as shown in FIG. 11.", "[0063] Next referring to FIG. 12, the closing operation of the apparatus 10 will now be described.", "The pivot arm 102 , when actuated by handle 96 , actuates crank plate 108 by engaging the cam pin 110 of cam plate 112 , causing rotational movement of the cam plate 112 until the cam pin 130 contact lift plate 114 and rotates it about the center line of pivot point 88 , as depicted in FIGS. 15A and 15B.", "Rotation continues until the centerline of the spring 120 passes below the apex of the rotation about the pivot point 82 ;", "thereafter, spring tension continues the rotation of the lift plate 124 until the chute cover 20 is closed.", "As indicated in FIG. 12, the staybar 125 stays in the rotated position due to the inertia and the center of gravity C of the staybar 125 .", "It will be noted that in the closing operation, the pivot arm 102 has travel limitations and relies upon the tension of the spring 120 to complete the closing of the chute 20 (i.e., the center line of the spring 120 must pass below the center of pivot point 82 in order to complete the closing of the chute 20 ).", "[0064] Inasmuch as the preceding disclosure presents the best mode devised by the inventor for practicing the invention and is intended to enable one skilled in the pertinent art to carry it out, it is apparent that methods incorporating modifications and variations will be obvious to those skilled in the art.", "As such, it should not be construed to be limited thereby but should include such aforementioned obvious variations and be limited only by the spirit and scope of the following claims." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] The present application is a divisional application of pending U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 12/904,467, filed Oct. 14, 2010, which application claims priority from, and the benefit of, U.S. Provisional Application Ser.", "No. 61/304,964, filed Feb. 16, 2010, the contents of each of which are incorporated herein by reference.", "BACKGROUND [0002] The present disclosure relates to continuous feed printers, and more particularly, to a portable label or thermal printer having a selectively adjustable, asymmetrically damped media centering assembly.", "[0003] Portable or desktop printers are often used in commercial settings, e.g., in warehouses, in industrial and manufacturing environments, by shipping services, in vending machine routes, in the vending and gaming industries, and in retail establishments for ticket printing and inventory control.", "Ideally, portable printers weigh only a few pounds and are small enough to be easily carried during use and/or easily attached to a buckle or a harness-type device.", "This enables the user to print labels or receipts on demand without having to retrieve a printed label from a printing station.", "Because the printer is portable, the printer may include a power source, such as a disposable or rechargeable battery, and may additionally communicate with a host terminal or network connection via a wireless interface, such as a radio or optical interface.", "A portable printer may utilize sheet-fed media, or, more popularly, continuous-feed media, e.g., rolls of paper, labels, tags, and the like.", "Portable printers commonly employ direct thermal transfer techniques, whereby thermochromic media passes over a thermal print head which selectively heats areas of the media to create a visible image.", "Also popular are thermal transfer printers which employ a heat-sensitive ribbon to transfer images to media.", "[0004] A continuous feed printer is particularly suitable for printing onto stock material which may include, but is not necessarily limited to, labels, receipts, item labels, shelf labels/tags, ticket stubs, stickers, hang tags, price stickers, and the like.", "Label printers may incorporate a media supply of “peel away”", "labels adhered to a coated substrate wound in a rolled configuration.", "Alternatively, a media supply may include a plain paper roll suitable for ink-based or toner-based printing.", "Continuous media is typically supplied in rolls, and is available in a wide range of widths.", "The roll media may be wound around a generally tubular core which supports the roll media.", "The core may have a standard size, or arbitrarily-sized inner diameter.", "In use, the media is drawn against a printing head, which, in turn, causes images to be created on the media stock by, e.g., impact printing (dot matrix, belt printing), by localized heating (thermal transfer printing), inkjet printing, toner-based printing, or other suitable printing methods.", "[0005] Portable or thermal printers may be designed for use with one type of printing media or one particular size of print media, e.g., 2-inch label stock or 3-inch label stock.", "Other portable printers may be configurable to accommodate different media types and sizes.", "Such printers may include a media centering mechanism which is designed to accommodate roll media of varying widths and/or core diameters.", "The media centering mechanism may include opposing support members configured to engage the media roll core.", "A media centering mechanism typically includes first and second support members that are generally biased towards each other to secure the media roll.", "Movement of the first and second support members may be synchronized by one or more gears or belts such that, when a support member is moved a distance from the centerline of the media roll, the other support member moves a corresponding distance in the opposing direction from the centerline of the media roll.", "[0006] Many of the media centering mechanisms associated with portable printers are not particularly versatile or convenient to use, and may employ various spring-loaded elements that are intended to accommodate media of various types and sizes.", "As a result, even though certain portable printers may accommodate media of various sizes, to load such media a user must manipulate the spring-loaded members and other mechanical elements using both hands.", "Such spring-loaded elements can suddenly snap into position with considerable force, which may result in an unpleasant user experience, damage to the print media, and even damage to the printer itself.", "SUMMARY [0007] The present disclosure is directed to a portable printer having an asymmetrically-damped media centering mechanism.", "The mechanism allows a user to open the spring-loaded media support members with ease, but, upon release, damping is provided to the media support members to cause the retraction thereof to occur at slower, controlled rate.", "In this manner, the disclosed media centering mechanism may facilitate easier media loading (including one-handed loading), may provide an improved user experience, and may prevent damage to the print media and/or to the printer.", "[0008] The dampening mechanism includes a damping gear, and a pivoting arm having at least one idler gear wherein the pivoting arm pivots between at least a first, non-damped position and a second, damped position in response to movement of a media support member.", "The damping gear includes a rotational resistance element, such as, without limitation, damping grease, a frictional mechanism, a regenerative braking mechanism, a magnetic braking mechanism, a centrifugal governor, and combinations thereof and/or of other suitable rotational resistance elements now or in the future known.", "The idler gear cooperates with one or more drive elements associated with the media support member, such as without limitation, a rack and pinion drive and/or a belt drive.", "The pivot arm is arranged such that, when a media support member is moved toward an open position, the drive element causes the pivot arm to move into the non-damped position wherein the idler gear on the pivot arm is disengaged from the damping gear, thus allowing free movement of the media support member.", "When the media support member moves toward the closed position, the pivot arm moves into the damped position wherein the idler gear on the pivot arm engages the damping gear, which in turn slows the motion of the drive element and media support member.", "In this manner, asymmetrical damping is achieved whereby the media support members open freely against only the spring force, but retract slowly with the dampening effect as the idler gear engages the dampening gear.", "[0009] An asymmetrically-damped media centering mechanism is disclosed which includes a first media support member moveable along a longitudinal axis thereof and a second media support member moveable along a longitudinal axis thereof.", "The first and second media support members may share a common longitudinal axis of movement.", "The disclosed media centering mechanism includes a reciprocal movement mechanism operably coupled to the first and second media support members that is configured to translate a longitudinal movement of the first media support member into a corresponding opposite longitudinal movement of the second media support member.", "The media centering mechanism further includes a pivoting arm coupled to the reciprocal movement mechanism.", "The pivoting arm is pivotable between at least a first and a second position.", "During use, the pivoting arm pivots to the first position when the first and second media support members are moved closer to each other (e.g., when grasping or closing onto a media roll positioned therebetween), and the pivoting arm pivots to the second position when the first and second media support members are moved further apart from each other (e.g., when spreading the media support members to insert a media roll therebetween).", "A damping gear is provided that is configured to engage the reciprocal movement mechanism when the pivoting arm is in the first position.", "The reciprocal movement mechanism may include a first and second drive member operably coupled to the first and second media support members, respectively, and may include a drive belt operably coupled to the first and second drive members and at least partially disposed around the driven gear.", "Additionally or alternatively, the reciprocal movement mechanism may include a first and second rack member operably coupled to the first and second media support members, respectively, wherein a pinion gear is operably engageable with the first and second rack members and configured to translate movement of the first rack member into a corresponding opposite movement of the second rack member.", "In embodiments, the pinion gear is axially coupled to the driven gear.", "[0010] Also disclosed is a method of centering a media roll, comprising the steps of providing a first and a second media support member moveable along a longitudinal axis and dimensioned to axially engage a media roll.", "The method includes the step of providing a reciprocal movement mechanism operably coupled to the first and second media support members wherein a longitudinal movement of one media support member causes a corresponding opposite longitudinal movement of the other media support member.", "A pivoting arm is provided, which operably couples to the reciprocal movement mechanism, wherein the pivoting arm pivots to the first position when the media support members are moved closer to each other, and the pivoting arm pivots to the second position when the media support members are moved further apart from each other.", "A damping gear is provided which is configured to engage the reciprocal movement mechanism when the pivoting arm is in the first position.", "[0011] Also disclosed is a portable printer that includes a display having an overmolded bezel associated therewith.", "The overmolded bezel is formed from resilient material that provides shock resistance and which protects the display, printer, and associated components thereof from damage in the event the portable printer is dropped or otherwise mishandled.", "In embodiments, the overmolded bezel is formed from Versollan™ OM 1255NX-9, a thermoplastic elastomer manufactured by PolyOne Corporation of Avon Lake, Ohio, USA.", "The overmolded bezel additionally or alternatively seals the display and printer to resist the infiltration of contaminants, e.g., dust and moisture, into the display and/or printer.", "[0012] Disclosed is a portable printer having ergonomic enhancements.", "In embodiments, a printer in accordance with the present disclosure includes a media loading arrangement capable of single-handed operation.", "A media cover may be unlatched using a lever operable by a single hand.", "Using a single hand, the media cover may be fully unlatched, e.g., both sides freed from an associated housing, such that the media cover swings clear of the housing to expose a media storage well.", "Media may be loaded into the media storage well and the media cover closed with one hand.", "Single-handed operation may provide a number of benefits.", "In one envisioned scenario, the portable printer may be hung from the waistbelt of a user, e.g., a warehouse worker.", "Such a worker is often situated precariously, such as on a forklift, on an elevated platform of a Hi-Lo machine, and the like, wherein using two hands to manipulate a portable device may be hazardous.", "By facilitating one-handed operation, a portable printer in accordance with the present disclosure may offer safer, more convenient, and more reliable operation.", "[0013] In another aspect, a portable printer in accordance with the present disclosure includes a dual wall, frame housing that provides improved strength and shock resistance.", "The dual wall construction includes a continuous inner frame structure adapted to support one or more internal printer components, which may include, without limitation, a printhead, a roller assembly, a drive assembly, media centering assembly, and/or a battery assembly.", "The inner frame is surrounded at least in part by a second, outer structure that provides additional stiffness, strength, and drop resistance.", "The housing includes a media access opening and a corresponding media access cover configured to facilitate the loading of media into the printer.", "The size of the media access opening is kept to the minimum size necessary to accommodate the media for use with the printer.", "By minimizing the media opening, greater space is available for the inner frame and/or the outer structure, further improving the strength, rigidity, and impact resistance of the printer.", "[0014] The disclosed printer may include one or more connectors that extend from the interior of housing to the exterior.", "While the connector(s) may include an electrical connector, other connector types are contemplated within the scope of the present disclosure, e.g., moisture-proof connectors, fluidic connectors, security connectors (e.g., K-Slot), and the like.", "In embodiments, two electrical connectors are provided, wherein a first connector is adapted to couple a source of electrical power to the printer and a second connector is adapted to couple a data signal to the printer.", "In embodiments, the disclosed printer may include a USB connector, a serial (e.g., RS-232, RS-422, RS-485), connector, a Firewire (IEEE-1394) connector, a network (10Base-T, 100Base-TX, and 1000Base-T) connector, and/or a parallel (IEEE 1284) connector.", "The disclosed printer may additionally or alternatively include a dust cover assembly that is adapted to cover one or more connectors.", "The dust cover assembly includes a cap portion that is dimensioned to seal the one or more connectors associated with the dust cover.", "In embodiments, the dust cover is formed from resilient material.", "The cover is joined to a base by a resilient hinge or tethering member that retains the cap portion to the base.", "The cap, hinge member, and base may be integrally formed.", "The hinge member may be a living hinge.", "The base is retained to the printer by any suitable manner of fastening, including without limitation, threaded fasteners, clips, tabs, and the like.", "Advantageously, the dust cover assembly may be user-replaceable, so that a worn or broken dust cover assembly may be readily replaced with a new dust cover assembly.", "In embodiments, a spare dust cover assembly may be stored within a recess provided by the printer housing.", "[0015] A portable printer having a media feed cover assembly is disclosed.", "In certain applications, it may be desirable to feed media into the printer from an external media source.", "To facilitate external media feeding, the disclosed printer includes a media feed opening defined in the housing.", "A media feed cover is provided to seal the media feed opening from moisture, dust, and other contaminants.", "The media feed cover is supported by a pocket formed between the outer enclosure and the inner frame.", "The cover assembly is configured to provide two or more detents to enable the cover to be positioned in an open and a closed position.", "In an embodiment, the pocket includes a recess in the open and closed position that provides detents for each of the open and closed positions.", "[0016] Also disclosed is a portable printer that includes an upper inner frame structurally associated with a lower inner frame to form an inner support structure.", "An asymmetrically-damped media centering assembly is fixed to the inner support structure.", "An upper housing and a lower housing are joined to the inner support structure to form a dual-wall housing assembly.", "A media opening defined in the upper housing exposing a media well, and a media access door having at least a closed position and an open position is operatively associated with the media opening.", "A latch assembly having a first, normally latched position and a second, unlatched position, the latch assembly is associated with the inner support structure and is configured to retain the media access door in the closed position when the latch is in the latched position, and to release the media access door when the latch is in the unlatched position.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0017] Various embodiments of the subject instrument are described herein with reference to the drawings wherein: [0018] FIG. 1 is a view of an embodiment of an asymmetrical damping mechanism in accordance with the present disclosure shown in a first, non-damped position;", "[0019] FIG. 2 is a view of the FIG. 1 embodiment of an asymmetrical damping mechanism in accordance with the present disclosure shown in a second, damped position;", "[0020] FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a pivot arm of the FIG. 1 embodiment of an asymmetrical damping mechanism in accordance with the present disclosure;", "[0021] FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a damping gear of the FIG. 1 embodiment of an asymmetrical damping mechanism in accordance with the present disclosure;", "[0022] FIG. 5 is a perspective view of another embodiment of an asymmetrical damping mechanism in accordance with the present disclosure shown in a first, non-damped position;", "[0023] FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the FIG. 5 embodiment of an asymmetrical damping mechanism in accordance with the present disclosure shown in a second, damped position;", "[0024] FIG. 7 is a perspective view of yet another embodiment of an asymmetrical damping mechanism in accordance with the present disclosure shown in a first, non-damped position;", "[0025] FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the FIG. 7 embodiment of an asymmetrical damping mechanism in accordance with the present disclosure shown in a second, damped position;", "[0026] FIG. 9 is a view of still another embodiment of an asymmetrical damping mechanism in accordance with the present disclosure shown in a first, non-damped position;", "[0027] FIG. 10 is a view of the FIG. 9 embodiment of an asymmetrical damping mechanism in accordance with the present disclosure shown in a second, damped position;", "[0028] FIG. 11 is a perspective view of an embodiment of a portable printer in accordance with the present disclosure;", "[0029] FIG. 12 is another perspective view of the FIG. 11 embodiment of a portable printer in accordance with the present disclosure;", "[0030] FIG. 13 is an exploded view of the FIG. 11 embodiment of a portable printer in accordance with the present disclosure;", "[0031] FIG. 14 illustrates an inner frame of an embodiment of a portable printer in accordance with the present disclosure;", "and [0032] FIG. 15 illustrates an embodiment of a dust cover assembly for a portable printer in accordance with the present disclosure.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0033] Particular embodiments of the present disclosure are described hereinbelow with reference to the accompanying drawings;", "however, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the disclosure, which may be embodied in various forms.", "Well-known and/or repetitive functions and constructions are not described in detail to avoid obscuring the present disclosure in unnecessary or redundant detail.", "Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a basis for the claims and as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present disclosure in virtually any appropriately detailed structure.", "In addition, as used herein, terms referencing orientation, e.g., “top”, “bottom”, “up”, “down”, “left”, “right”, “clockwise”, “counterclockwise”, and the like, are used for illustrative purposes with reference to the figures and features shown therein.", "It is to be understood that embodiments in accordance with the present disclosure may be practiced in any orientation without limitation.", "In this description, as well as in the drawings, like-referenced numbers represent elements which may perform the same, similar, or equivalent functions.", "[0034] With reference to FIGS. 1-4 , an embodiment of an asymmetrically-damped media centering mechanism 100 is shown.", "The disclosed mechanism 100 is adapted for use with a toothed drive belt 118 that is operably coupled to a first media support drive member 119 and a second media support drive member 125 .", "While a toothed drive belt is shown, any suitable belt or chain may be used (e.g., vee belt, round belt, flat belt, drive chain, etc.).", "As shown, first drive member 119 engages drive belt 118 within a notched region 124 .", "Second drive member 125 engages belt 118 within notched region 126 .", "It should be noted that any suitable manner of attachment may be utilized such that linear motion of drive members 119 , 125 is translated to/from drive belt 118 .", "The disclosed arrangement of drive belt 118 , first drive member 119 , and second drive member 125 provides for reciprocal linear movement of drive member 119 with respect to movement of drive member 125 .", "First drive member 119 and second drive member 125 may be slidably associated with one or more guides (not explicitly shown) that are configured to constrain the movement thereof to a substantially longitudinal axis of motion corresponding to the movement of belt 118 .", "[0035] A pivot arm 110 that is rotatable around a pivot pin 115 is disposed on a support member 121 .", "Pivot arm 110 includes a first idler gear 113 and a driven gear 116 rotatably mounted thereupon adjacent to opposite ends 111 and 112 , respectively, of pivot arm 110 .", "First idler gear 113 and driven gear 116 are positioned on pivot arm 110 in essentially coplanar alignment with drive belt 118 .", "Drive belt 118 is disposed around idler gears 113 and 116 at one end of the mechanism 100 , and around a second idler gear 127 at an opposite end of mechanism 100 .", "As shown, drive belt 118 is continuous, however, drive belt 118 may be discontinuous or segmented.", "[0036] A biasing member 128 is disposed between a free end 129 of drive member 119 and an anchor 130 and adapted to bias drive member 119 away from pivot arm 110 .", "Additionally or alternatively, a biasing member 128 ′ may be disposed between a free end 131 of drive member 125 and a corresponding anchor 130 ′.", "Biasing member 128 and/or biasing member 128 ′ may include an extension spring.", "At rest, biasing member 128 causes drive member 119 to be drawn leftward, and drive member 125 to be drawn rightward, e.g., causes both drive members 119 , 125 to be drawn generally towards the center of centering mechanism 100 .", "A media support member (not explicitly shown) is associated with each of drive member 119 , 125 to retain a media roll therebetween, as described herein.", "[0037] The disclosed media centering mechanism includes a damping gear 120 that is configured to engage driven gear 116 .", "With particular reference to FIG. 4 , damping gear 120 is associated with damping grease 122 that is applied between a movable surface 132 of damping gear 120 and a stationary surface, e.g., support member 121 and/or pin 123 .", "It is envisioned that any suitable damping grease, such as without limitation, SmartGrease™ Fluorocarbon Gel, manufactured by Nye Lubricants, Inc. of Fairhaven, Mass.", ", United States, may be utilized.", "Damping grease 122 resists the rotational motion of damping gear 120 .", "[0038] Referring again to FIG. 1 , during use, first drive member 119 and/or second drive member 125 may be caused to be moved in a direction indicated by the arrows, e.g., generally outwardly from the center of mechanism 100 , overcoming the biasing force of biasing member 128 , and causing belt 118 to traverse in a generally counterclockwise direction.", "The counterclockwise motion of belt 118 is translated through first idler gear 113 and/or driven gear 116 to cause a corresponding counterclockwise rotation of pivot arm 110 , which, in turn, causes driven gear 116 to disengage from damping gear 120 .", "In this manner, the outward linear motion of first drive member 119 and second drive member 125 is unimpeded by damping gear 120 thus enabling a user to freely open the media support members (not explicitly shown) associated therewith to facilitate the introduction of a media roll therebetween.", "[0039] Continuing now with reference to FIG. 2 , the first drive member 119 and/or second drive member 125 may be caused to be moved in the opposite direction (generally inwardly towards the center of mechanism 100 ) by, e.g., the biasing force of biasing member 128 .", "The described inward motion of first drive member 119 and second drive member 125 , in turn, causes belt 118 to traverse in a generally clockwise direction.", "The clockwise motion of belt 118 is translated through first idler gear 113 and/or driven gear 116 to cause a corresponding clockwise rotation of pivot arm 110 , which, in turn, engages driven gear 116 with damping gear 120 .", "The rotational resistance of damping gear 120 is translated through driven gear 116 to belt 118 , which slows the movement of first drive member 119 and second drive member 125 , and the media support members associated therewith.", "Thus, the dampening effect of engaged dampening gear 120 enables the return, or closing, of the first drive member 119 and second drive member 125 , and the media support members associated therewith, to be achieved in a smooth and controlled manner.", "[0040] Other embodiments are contemplated wherein a second damping gear (not explicitly shown) may be employed to provide damping in a direction opposite to that provided by a first damping gear.", "In one arrangement, the second damping gear is arranged such that the pivot arm causes the second damping gear to engage one or more of the idler or driven gears mounted thereupon when the drive member(s) move in an opening direction.", "[0041] Turning now to FIGS. 5 and 6 , an embodiment of a print media subassembly 200 having an asymmetrically damped media centering mechanism 201 is shown.", "Print media subassembly includes a housing 205 having defined therein a media storage well 250 that is dimensioned to accommodate a variety of roll-fed media.", "Housing 205 includes a support member 221 configured to support media centering mechanism 201 as described herein.", "Housing 205 includes one or more mounting bosses 251 configured to accept a fastener, pin, or other structural or connective element.", "The disclosed mechanism 201 includes a drive belt 218 that is operably coupled to a first media support drive member 219 and a second media support drive member 225 .", "While a toothed drive belt 218 is shown, any suitable belt or chain may be used as described herein.", "As shown, first drive member 219 engages drive belt 218 within a notched region 224 .", "Second drive member 225 engages belt 218 within notched region 226 .", "First and second drive members 219 , 225 include a retention tab 249 that is configured to retain belt 218 within notched region 224 and notched region 226 , respectively.", "It should be noted that any suitable manner of retention may be utilized such that linear motion of drive members 219 , 225 is translated to/from drive belt 218 .", "[0042] Drive belt 218 , first drive member 219 , and second drive member 225 provide for reciprocal linear movement of drive member 219 with respect to movement of drive member 225 .", "First drive member 219 is slidably disposed within a slot 242 that is defined in support member 221 and includes a wide portion 244 and a narrow portion 243 .", "Second drive member 225 is slidably disposed within a slot 245 that is defined in support member 221 and includes a wide portion 247 and a narrow portion 246 .", "Slots 242 and 245 are configured to constrain the movement of drive members 219 , 225 , respectively, to a substantially longitudinal axis of motion corresponding generally to the movement of belt 218 .", "A positive stop 248 is disposed at an end of slot narrow portion 243 and/or slot narrow portion 246 and configured to limit the longitudinal travel of drive member 219 and/or drive member 225 , respectively.", "[0043] A pivot arm 210 that is rotatable around a pivot pin 215 is disposed on a support member 221 .", "Pivot arm 210 includes a first idler roller 213 and a driven gear 216 rotatably mounted on pivot arm 210 .", "First idler roller 213 and driven gear 216 are positioned on pivot arm 210 in essentially coplanar alignment with drive belt 218 .", "Drive belt 218 is disposed around first idler roller 213 and driven gear 216 at one end of the mechanism 201 , and around a second idler roller 227 at an opposite end of mechanism 201 .", "As shown, drive belt 218 is continuous, however, drive belt 218 may be discontinuous or segmented.", "[0044] An extension spring 228 is disposed between an anchor pin 230 provided on support member 221 , and a mounting tab 229 provided on drive member 219 .", "As can be readily appreciated, extension spring 228 is configured to bias drive member 219 away from pivot arm 210 , which, by operation of drive belt 218 , first idler roller 213 , driven gear 216 , and second idler roller 227 , serves to bias drive member 225 toward pivot arm 210 in a reciprocally synchronized manner.", "Biasing member 228 causes drive member 219 to be drawn leftward, and drive member 225 to be drawn rightward, e.g., causes both drive members 219 , 225 and media support members 240 , 241 respectively associated therewith to be drawn generally towards the center of storage well 250 to retain a roll of media therebetween.", "[0045] First media support member 240 is operatively associated with drive member 219 , and second media support member 241 is operatively associated with drive member 225 .", "As shown, media support members 240 , 241 are joined to drive members 219 , 225 , respectively, by a fastener 252 which may include a threaded fastener, rivet, pin, or clip, however, any suitable manner or combination of attachment may be utilized, including without limitation, chemical bonding, adhesive, welding, and the like.", "Media support member 240 , 241 may be integrally formed with drive member 219 , 225 , respectively.", "[0046] The disclosed media centering mechanism includes a damping gear 220 that is configured to engage with driven gear 216 .", "Damping gear 220 is associated with damping grease (not explicitly shown) that is applied between a movable surface of damping gear 220 and a stationary surface, e.g., support member 221 and/or pin 223 and adapted to resist the rotational motion of damping gear 220 .", "Any suitable damping grease (as previously described herein) may be utilized.", "[0047] During use, a user loads a roll of media by opening one or both media support members 240 , 241 , inserting a roll of media (not explicitly shown) and releasing the media support members 240 , 241 which retain the media roll under tension provided by extension spring 228 .", "In greater detail, a user moves first media support member 240 and/or second media support member 241 generally outwardly from the center of mechanism 201 , thereby overcoming the biasing force of extension spring 228 , and causing belt 218 to traverse in a generally counterclockwise direction.", "The counterclockwise motion of belt 218 is translated through idler roller 213 and/or driven gear 216 to cause a corresponding counterclockwise rotation of pivot arm 210 , which, in turn, causes driven gear 216 to disengage from damping gear 220 .", "In this manner, the outward linear motion of first drive member 219 and second drive member 225 is unimpeded by damping gear 220 thus enabling a user to freely open media support members 240 , 241 associated therewith to facilitate the introduction of a media roll therebetween.", "[0048] Continuing, a user may relax pressure on, or release completely, media support members 240 , 241 to allow first drive member 219 and/or second drive member 225 to move in the opposite direction, e.g., closing direction generally inwardly towards the center of mechanism 201 by e.g., the biasing force of extension spring 228 .", "The described inward motion of first drive member 219 and second drive member 225 , in turn, causes belt 218 to traverse in a generally clockwise direction.", "The clockwise motion of belt 218 is translated through first idler roller 213 and/or driven gear 216 to cause a corresponding clockwise rotation of pivot arm 210 , which, in turn, engages driven gear 216 with damping gear 220 .", "The rotational resistance of damping gear 220 is translated through driven gear 216 to belt 218 , which slows the movement of first drive member 219 , second drive member 225 , and the associated media support members 240 , 241 .", "Thus, the dampening effect of engaged dampening gear 220 enables the return, or closing, of media support members 240 , 241 to be achieved in a smooth and controlled manner.", "[0049] With reference now to FIGS. 7 and 8 , an embodiment of an asymmetrically-damped media centering mechanism 300 employing a rack and pinion arrangement is shown.", "The disclosed media centering mechanism 300 includes a first media support member 340 and a second media support member 341 .", "The first and second media support members 340 , 341 are joined respectively to rack members 342 , 343 that extend inwardly towards the center of mechanism 300 .", "The media support members 340 , 341 may be joined to the respective rack member 342 , 343 by any suitable manner of attachment, including threaded fasteners, adhesive, welding, clips.", "Additionally or alternatively, media support members 340 , 341 may be integrally formed with the respective rack member 342 , 343 thereof.", "[0050] Rack members 342 , 343 are reciprocally synchronized by pinion gear 314 that is axially coupled to driven gear 313 , such that pinion gear 314 and driven gear 313 rotate in tandem.", "Pinion gear 314 and driven gear 313 may be positively joined by a common shaft (not explicitly shown) and/or may be integrally formed.", "Media support members 340 , 341 are biased toward each other by an extension spring 328 that is fixed to media support members 340 , 341 by a retention clip 330 .", "The biasing force of extension spring 328 is sufficient to secure a media roll (not explicitly shown) between media support members 340 , 341 .", "Media support members 340 , 341 may include media hubs 344 , 345 , respectively, that are dimensioned to operatively engage an inner diameter (e.g., a core) of a media roll.", "[0051] A damping gear 320 rotatably mounted on pin 323 is associated with damping grease 322 that is applied between a movable surface of damping gear 320 and an adjacent stationary surface (not explicitly shown) and/or pin 323 .", "Damping gear 320 is adapted to resist the rotational motion thereof by the viscous friction provided by damping grease 322 .", "As described elsewhere herein, any suitable damping grease may be utilized.", "In embodiments, additional or alternative friction-inducing elements may be employed in association with damping gear 320 , including without limitation magnetic elements, inertial elements (e.g., a flywheel), clockworks elements, clutch mechanisms, and the like.", "[0052] Pinion gear 313 engages movable gear 316 that is rotatably mounted on a pivot arm 310 that is configured to pivot on an axis (not explicitly shown) such that, when media support members 340 , 341 are moved apart from each other (e.g., when loading a media roll), pivot arm 310 swings movable gear 316 away from damping gear 320 , thereby disengaging movable gear 316 and damping gear 320 .", "Conversely, when media support members 340 , 341 are moved toward from each other (e.g., when a media roll is grasped therebetween for use), pivot arm 310 swings movable gear 316 towards damping gear 320 , thereby engaging movable gear 316 and damping gear 320 .", "In an embodiment, the pivot axis of pivot arm 310 is coincident with the rotational axis of driven gear 313 and/or pinion gear 314 .", "The pivoting motion of pivot arm 310 may be induced by parasitic friction that may be present among and between driven gear 313 , pinion gear 314 , and/or pivot arm 310 , and associated components thereof.", "Thus, the dampening effect of engaged dampening gear 320 enables the return, or closing, of media support members 340 , 341 to be achieved in a smooth and controlled manner while permitting the opening of media support members 340 , 341 to be performed without any appreciable resistance apart from that provided by extension spring 328 .", "[0053] Turning to FIGS. 9 and 10 , still another embodiment of an asymmetrical damping mechanism 400 in accordance with the present disclosure is shown wherein a damping roller 420 is disposed outside of a perimeter defined by drive belt 418 .", "Drive belt 418 is of a toothed type having a plurality of drive teeth 421 disposed on at least an outer surface 419 thereof.", "A pivoting arm assembly 410 is configured such that as the drive belt moves in a clockwise direction, e.g., a direction corresponding to the closing of a pair of media support members (not explicitly shown), the pivoting arm 410 rotates in a clockwise direction, causing the outer teeth 421 of drive belt 418 to engage damping roller 420 .", "[0054] Turning to FIGS. 11 and 12 , an embodiment of a portable printer 500 in accordance with the present disclosure includes a control panel 523 having an overmolded bezel 520 associated therewith.", "The overmolded bezel 520 is formed from resilient material that may provide shock resistance and prevent the infiltration of contaminants into the control panel 523 , printer 500 , user interface element(s) 524 , and components associated therewith.", "The control panel 523 includes a display 522 that is adapted to present operational information to a user.", "By way of example, and without limitation, the display 522 may present status information, diagnostic information, setup information, and the like.", "Display 522 may include a text display, a graphical display, a monochrome display, a color display, and may include any display means now or in the future known, including without limitation a liquid crystal display (LCD), a light emitting diode (LED) display, an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display, a vacuum fluorescent display, and the like.", "Control panel 523 includes one or more user interface elements 524 , e.g., buttons and/or switches, adapted to accept user inputs.", "The overmolded bezel 520 may include the one or more user interface elements 524 , such that the resilient material of the bezel 520 provides a seal associated with the one or more user interface elements 524 .", "[0055] Printer 500 includes a housing 540 having an upper housing 542 and a lower housing 544 .", "A media access door 510 is provided to facilitate the loading and unloading of media (not explicitly shown) in a media well 550 .", "As shown in FIG. 13 , media centering assembly 560 is positioned within media well 500 .", "Media centering assembly includes a pair of media support members 561 and an asymmetrically-damped centering mechanism 562 as described hereinabove.", "Printer 500 includes a belt clip 526 affixed to the lower housing 544 thereof.", "Belt clip 526 may be removably coupled to lower housing 544 by any suitable manner of attachment, such as without limitation threaded fasteners, one or more clips, and the like.", "[0056] Printer 500 includes an upper inner frame 548 , as shown in FIG. 14 , and a lower inner frame 546 .", "The combination of upper inner frame 548 and lower inner frame 546 provides an inner support structure, which, in combination with upper housing 542 and lower housing 544 , forms a dual-wall housing assembly that provides increased impact resistance and rigidity.", "Latch lever 530 is operably associated with media cover 510 such that actuation of latch lever 530 disengages one or more latches (not explicitly shown) to permit media cover 510 to open.", "Media cover 510 is configured to be positioned in at least a first, closed position as shown in FIG. 11 and a second, open position as shown in FIG. 12 .", "Detents are provided in association with media cover 510 to retain media cover 510 in each of the open and closed positions.", "A spring (not explicitly shown) may be associated with media cover 510 and configured to bias media cover 510 toward an open position as shown in FIG. 12 .", "Upper inner frame 548 provides support for latch lever 530 .", "An opening 532 is defined in housing 540 to facilitate access to and actuation of latch lever 530 .", "A fingertip recess 531 is defined in latch lever 530 to enable the convenient actuation thereof by, e.g., the fingertip of a user.", "In this manner, media cover 510 may be unlatched using a single-handed motion to expose media storage well 550 for loading and loading media.", "A media roller 536 is operably associated with upper inner frame 548 to facilitate feeding of media along a print path.", "[0057] Lower inner frame 546 includes a battery well 561 that is adapted to operably receive a battery pack 560 .", "Battery pack 560 may include one or more cells, which may be connected in series, in parallel, or in a combination of series and parallel, to provide operating power to printer 500 .", "Battery pack 560 may include a primary battery (e.g., non-rechargeable), a secondary battery (e.g., rechargeable), and or combinations thereof.", "Battery pack 560 may include an identifier, e.g., a physical, an electrical, or an optical identifier, that identifies to the printer 500 one or more characteristics of the battery pack 560 .", "Such characteristics may include, without limitation, a voltage, an amperage, an ampere-hour rating, a battery type (e.g., NiCd, NiMH, Li-ion), and a charge cycle count.", "[0058] As shown in FIG. 15 , printer 500 includes dust cover assembly 570 that is dimensioned to cover one or more connectors (not explicitly shown).", "The dust cover assembly 570 may be formed from resilient material, e.g., silicone, neoprene, or other elastomeric material.", "The dust cover assembly includes a cap 571 that is joined to a base 574 by a resilient hinge or tethering member 575 that retains the cap 571 to the base 574 .", "The cap 571 , hinge member 575 , and base 574 may be integrally formed.", "Hinge member 575 may be a living hinge.", "The base 575 is retained to lower housing 544 by any suitable manner of fastening, including without limitation, threaded fasteners 572 , clips, tabs, and the like.", "Advantageously, the dust cover assembly may be user-replaceable, so that a worn or broken dust cover assembly 570 may be readily replaced with a new dust cover assembly 570 .", "In embodiments, a spare dust cover assembly 570 may be stored within a recess provided by the printer housing (not explicitly shown.) [0059] The described embodiments of the present disclosure are intended to be illustrative rather than restrictive, and are not intended to represent every embodiment of the present disclosure.", "Further variations of the above-disclosed embodiments and other features and functions, or alternatives thereof, may be made or desirably combined into many other different systems or applications without departing from the spirit or scope of the disclosure as set forth in the following claims both literally and in equivalents recognized in law." ]

[ "FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention generally applies to a color selection system and more specifically to a color selection system with color harmony and color emotion intelligence.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present description relates to a color selection system for assisting the selection of color combinations.", "Color selection tools are used in various sectors, including for example the paint industry, to assist consumers and professional designers in choosing appealing color combinations.", "The abundance of available color choices can make it challenging at times for both normal consumers and experienced designers to select appealing color combinations, even with the aid of existing color selection tools.", "Many existing color selection tools provide pre-existing recommended color combinations that were chosen by designers and experts.", "The patent literature discloses color selection systems where coordinating colors are predetermined based on the first color selected by a user and based on a color coordination algorithm.", "The selections of colors recommended to users and consumers offered by these conventional color selection systems are limited.", "Accordingly, there is a need for an on-the-fly color selection system that can provide consumers and other users color combinations that are harmonious and/or have the desired emotion threshold.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Hence, the invention is directed to an expert color selection system that assists the user in selecting a starting color, and in one embodiment without additional input from the user calculates one or more color combinations that are harmonious with the starting or selected color and/or provide desired color emotion threshold with the starting color.", "Another aspect of the present invention relates to a development of novel uniform three-dimensional color spaces in Cartesian, polar and spherical coordinates.", "The color wheel theories are more accurately used with these novel uniform color coordinates.", "Another aspect of the present invention relates to transformations and inverse transformation among the three-dimensional color spaces including uniform and non-uniform spaces and including conventional color spaces and the novel uniform color spaces.", "These transformations and inverse transformations readily take colors from one space, e.g., CIE XYZ to Munsell and back or from CIELAB to a novel uniform color space and back.", "In one example, these transformations allow colors in any space be transformed to a space where color emotions and color harmonies can be calculated.", "Thereafter, harmonious colors and colors that meet emotional thresholds can be displayed.", "Another aspect of the present invention relates to the quantization of the uniform color space into sub-spaces, which preferably are rectangular prisms or cuboids, where harmonious colors or colors that meet emotional thresholds may be included.", "The sub-spaces can include a color that the user selects, and additional sub-spaces are ascertained by rotating the first sub-space.", "The sub-spaces may not include the color that the user selects and the sub-spaces are the space surrounding color(s) that have a relationship with the color that the user selects based on color wheel theories applied to a uniform color space.", "Another aspect of the present invention relates to a clustering process, where the analytical processes to determine harmonious color combinations or color combinations that meet color emotional thresholds are conducted on color combinations comprising the selected color and centers of cells or clusters within the quantized sub-spaces.", "The clustering process optimizes or minimizes the analytical processes to determine harmonious colors and/or colors that meet color emotion thresholds.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In the accompanying drawings, which form a part of the specification and are to be read in conjunction therewith and in which like reference numerals are used to indicate like parts in the various views: FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing the available paint colors in three-dimensional non-uniform space;", "FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the available color coordinate systems and the transformations and inverse transformation among them;", "FIG. 3 shows an exemplary cuboid having dimensions in the M, H and K dimensions in the uniform MHK color space;", "FIG. 4A shows a cuboid on the HK plane;", "FIG. 4B shows the available paint colors that are within the cuboid in FIG. 4A ;", "FIG. 4C shows the paint colors within the cuboid after a rotation;", "FIG. 5A shows a cuboid on the HM plane;", "FIG. 5B shows the available paint colors that are within the cuboid in FIG. 5A ;", "FIG. 5C shows the paint colors within the cuboid after a rotation;", "FIG. 6A shows a cuboid on the MK plane;", "FIG. 6B shows the available paint colors that are within the cuboid in FIG. 6A ;", "FIG. 6C shows the paint colors within the cuboid after a rotation;", "FIG. 7 shows a first cuboid that contains a color that a user selects and other cuboids formed by rotations of the first cuboid;", "FIG. 8 shows a cuboid formed around a complementary color to the selected color;", "FIG. 9 shows two cuboids formed around two colors generated by color wheel theories in relation to the selected color;", "FIG. 10 shows a cuboid divided into clusters;", "FIG. 11 shows a clustering process to ascertain color harmony for combinations including the selected color and the colors in two cuboids;", "FIG. 12 shows a flow chart summarizing the steps for determining color harmony including the clustering process;", "FIG. 13 shows a flow chart summarizing the steps for determining color emotion(s) including the clustering process;", "FIG. 14 shows a flow chart summarizing the steps for determining color harmony and color emotion(s) including the clustering process;", "FIG. 15 shows a flow chart utilizing the present invention with a digital micro-mirror device to display the suggested color combination, and FIG. 16 shows the correlation between the Cartesian coordinate (L*, a*, and b*) and the polar coordinate (Hu, V, C).", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Producible colors can be represented in several ways, including by the intensities at the various wavelengths within the visible electromagnetic range.", "It is known that colors can be presented in a three dimensional space.", "It is also known that colors do not occupy all regions of the three-dimensional space.", "In other words, there are certain regions outside the gamut where no color exists.", "This is caused by the lack of pigments, among other things, that can be mixed to produce colors for those empty regions.", "FIG. 1 shows color merchandise or paint colors in the format of paint chips on color strips in a three dimensional space.", "For example, more lighter colors, where the lightness or value of the colors are closer to white, are available than darker colors, where the lightness of value of the colors are closer to black.", "Also more yellow colors are available than other colors.", "In addition to the uneven occupation of colors, the known three-dimensional color spaces are mostly non-uniform or have units that are cumbersome to perform analytical analysis, as described below.", "An early three-dimensional coordinate was offered in 1931 by the Commission Internationale de l'Eclariage (CIE).", "This system defines three values also known as tristimulus values that can describe any color that human eye can perceive.", "These tri-stimulus values are X=k∫ λ S (λ) R (λ) x (λ) dλ (1) Y=k∫ λ S (λ) R (λ) y (λ) dλ (2) Z=k∫ λ S (λ) R (λ) z (λ) dλ (3) where X, Y, and Z are the tristimulus values, k is a normalizing factor usually calculated as k = 100 ∫ λ ⁢ S ⁡ ( λ ) ⁢ y _ ⁡ ( λ ) ⁢ ⁢ ⅆ λ ( 4 ) S(λ) is the spectral concentration of the illumination on the specimen and R(λ) the reflectance of the object being assessed for color.", "The x , y , z with the bars over them are the 1931 Standard Colorimetric Observer or the CIE 1931 Color Matching Functions.", "The CIEXYZ system is a Cartesian type of XYZ coordinate.", "It is recognized that CIEXYZ is a non-uniform color space.", "Uniformity in a color coordinate system is the property that defines an equal notational difference in any two, or more, places in the space as being equally perceptible to an observer.", "This property is necessary to the establishment of color tolerances in any system.", "CIEXYZ was transformed in the mid-1970 to a more uniform system based on three Cartesian type coordinates: L*, a* and b* or CIELAB, which are at right angles to each other.", "L* designate lightness, a* designates redness-greenness and b* designates yellowness-blueness.", "Since redness-greenness and yellowness-blueness axes are non-intuitive, CIELAB is converted to CIE L*C*h, which is a polar coordinate.", "L* still designates lightness, C* designates chroma and has the same units as a* and b*, and h° designates the hue angle.", "Lightness indicates the magnitude of the property of a reflecting object which nominates whether it appears to reflect more or less light incident upon it.", "Chroma indicates the amount of saturation of that color, e.g., the amount of purple in that purple color.", "Hue indicates the color and ranges from 0° at the red+ end of a* axis to 360°.", "Hue is the indication of color on the color wheel.", "CIE L*C*h or CIELCH is a polar system of coordinates.", "Munsell is another color coordinate system developed circa 1915.", "The Munsell system comprises three attributes, which are hue, value (lightness), and chroma.", "The CIELCh system, which was developed after Munsell, has similar coordinates.", "The Munsell system expresses value (V) in terms of its relationship to CIEXYZ luminous intensity Y. Y= 1.1914 V −0.22533 V 2 +0.23352 V 3 −0.0[.", "].20484 V 4 +0.00081939 V 5 (5) This equation is often referred to as the Munsell 5th Order Function.", "Solving for Munsell's value yields: V= 2.0583 Y 1/2.736 −1.0623 (6) The Munsell notation is unique in that Munsell chose a hue circle of 100 intervals which he designated by the five major hue notations R—for red Y—for yellow G—for green B—for blue P—for purple Combinations of these letter designations gave the intermediate, secondary (sometimes called binary) hues.", "YR—for orange GY—for greenish yellow BG—for cyan PB—for magenta RP—for reddish purple Since there were 10 such hue designations, Munsell assigned 10 units of hue circle coverage to each letter combination;", "thus, obtaining 100 whole number hues from 1R all the way around to 10RP.", "These hue designations were combined with two other designators, an example of which might be the designation 5RP 8/10.", "Here the 8/represents a Value of 8 units and the /10 represents a Chroma of 10 units.", "When written alone Munsell Value designations are always followed by a slash character and Munsell Chroma designations are always preceded by a slash.", "The notation thus turns out to be Hue, Value and Chroma in that order, or H V/C.", "CIEXYZ, CIELAB, CIELCH and Munsell are non-uniform color coordinate systems.", "An early uniform color coordinate system is the Ljg color coordinates from the Optical Society of America (OSA).", "The Ljg system has the lightness axis L with its zero at about 30% reflectance and ranges from about −5 (near black) to +7 (near white).", "The chromatic axes are j for yellowness-blueness and g for greenness-redness.", "The chromatic units range from about −7 to +7 depending on the hue angle and lightness of the gamut.", "These axes have their zero near neutral grey.", "It noteworthy that the greenness-redness axis is reverse from CIE's a* axis, and that Ljg is a large-scale color difference uniformity.", "Large-scale difference includes units that are five CIELAB units or larger.", "In one embodiment of the present invention, a uniform color coordinate system is developed to transform the uniform Ljg system to a more usable uniform system MHK, which is another Cartesian system.", "The axis M is the lightness axis, while H is redness-greenness (similar to the a* of the CIELAB system) and K yellowness-blueness (similar to the b* of the CIELAB system).", "The transformation from Ljg to the more usable MHK is shown below.", "M= 7.2 L +54 H=− 7.2 g K= 7.2 j As shown, Ljg's reverse greenness-redness axis (g) has been re-orientated, and all three axes are scaled up by a factor of 7.2 to reduce the large scale factor and the lightness axis has been translated upward by 54 units.", "Hence, the M lightness axis now has its zero proximate near black.", "The MHK color coordinate system can also be converted to a polar coordinate HuVC, where Hu is the hue angle, V is lightness and C is chroma.", "V, which ranges from 1 to 100, is different than Munsell's V, which ranges from 1 to 10.", "C has similar chroma units.", "The MHK color coordinate system can also be converted to a spherical coordinate UVW, where U is the length of a first line or vector from M=0 to the color, V is the angle from the HK plane to said first line and W is the angle on the HK plane and from the yellowness-blueness line K to a second line, wherein the second line is a perpendicular projection of the first line to the HK plane.", "One aspect of the present invention relates to the conversion or transformation of color data from one color coordinate system to another and back again.", "As shown in FIG. 2 , the color coordinate systems discussed above are shown along with the standard Red Green Blue (sRGB/RGB) color system used in televisions and computer monitors.", "Also shown are the known Reflectance Function, which comprises the reflections of visible light (380 nm-780 nm) from a surface, and the known Color Stimulus Function, which is the CIE color matching functions weighted by the spectral power distribution of the light illuminating the object, as discussed in ASTM E308.", "The CIEXYZ system is at the center of this transformation arrangement, where transformation and inverse (or reverse) transformation between CIEXYZ and each of Munsell, RGB, OSALjg, CIELCh, CIELab and Color Stimulus Function occur.", "The Reflectance Function is transformable with the Color Stimulus Function and is therefore transformable with CIEXYZ.", "Similarly, CIELCh is transformable with CIELab and is therefore transformable with CIEXYZ.", "The uniform HVC and UVW are transformable with the uniform MHK, which is transformable with OCALjg.", "Hence, MHK, HVC and UVW are also transformable with CIEXYZ.", "Solid arrow lines connecting the color coordinate systems indicate that the transformations and inverse transformations are previously known, and the broken arrow lines indicate that the transformations and inverse transformations are developed by the present inventors.", "Transformation and inverse transformation between CIEXYZ and Munsell were known only through table look-up, and analytical transformation and inverse transformation are developed by the present inventors.", "As FIG. 2 clearly shows, color coordinates in any color coordinate system can be converted into any other color coordinate systems.", "Although not shown, the Cyan Magenta Yellow Black system (CMYK) or other systems typically used in color printers is also contemplated.", "Transformation and inverse transformation between RGB for computer monitors and CMYK and other color systems for computer printers are well known.", "The analytical or mathematical transformations and inverse transformations are presented in the Appendix located at the end of this Section.", "The novel uniform color coordinate systems are used in accurately coordinating or selecting colors using color wheel theories.", "For example, a user may need the colors that form a triad relationship to a chosen color.", "If the user uses a non-uniform color space in a simple two-dimensional color circle, then the triad colors, which should be located 120° from the chosen color, would be incorrectly selected.", "The same errors would occur in three-dimensional color spaces, as shown in FIG. 1 , but with potentially larger error magnitudes, e.g., whether to keep the same lightness plane or to choose a parallel lightness plane or even a slanted plane with varying lightness.", "This holds true for other color wheel theories, such as, complementary, split complementary, mono-chromatic, analogous, tetradic, etc.", "Another aspect of the present invention relates to transformations and inverse transformations among the three-dimensional color spaces including uniform and non-uniform spaces and including conventional color spaces and the novel uniform color spaces.", "These transformations and inverse transformations readily take colors from one space, e.g., CIE XYZ to Munsell and back or from CIELAB to a novel uniform color space and back.", "In one example, these transformations allow colors in any space be transformed to a space where color emotions and color harmonies based on psychophysical analytical models can be calculated.", "Thereafter, harmonious colors and/or colors that meet emotional thresholds can be displayed.", "In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a uniform three-dimensional color space, preferably the MHK coordinate system, is quantized into color subspace(s) or subregion(s) to enable the invention to focus at strategic location(s) in the entire color space and carry out color harmony and color emotion analysis.", "An advantage of quantization is to calculate color harmony and emotions more quickly.", "Color harmony and color emotions are preferably based on psychophysical responses of people to colors and color combinations, which are fully described in U.S. published patent applications US2010/0194775 and US2010/0194776, which are incorporated herein in their entireties.", "Color harmony of color combination and color emotions of colors are empirically determined based on human subjects'", "psychological responses to colors.", "These empirical observations were reduced to mathematical equations or mathematical functions expressed in terms L*, a* and b* or L*, C* and h°, and possibly CIEXYZ.", "In one embodiment, the subspace is preferably a rectangular prism also known as a cuboid having dimensions in the directions M, H and K as shown in FIG. 3 .", "It is noted that solid shapes other than cuboid are usable including regular and irregular shapes.", "FIGS. 4A-6C illustrate the use of the cuboid to quantize, or to limit a variable or variables describing a physical system to discrete, distinct values.", "A relatively planar cuboid having a thickness or the smallest dimension sufficient to identify at least a single layer of colors is positioned at various orientations to illustrate the palettes that are within the cuboid.", "FIG. 4A shows a horizontal cuboid along the HK plane and intersecting the M axis.", "FIG. 4B shows the paint colors that are located on the planar cuboid shown in FIG. 4A .", "This cuboid can be rotated about the K (yellow-blue) axis or the H (red-green) axis at M value of 50 (neutral gray) to obtain other colors.", "This cuboid can also be moved up and down the M axis for lighter or darker colors.", "FIG. 4C shows the colors obtained from a rotation of the cuboid in FIG. 4A about the K (yellow-blue) axis.", "The resulting colors include the red colors being lighter and the green colors being darker.", "FIG. 5A shows a vertical cuboid along the MH plane and intersecting the K axis.", "FIG. 5B shows the paint colors that are located on the planar cuboid shown in FIG. 5A .", "This cuboid can be rotated and moved linearly to obtain other colors or bluer/yellower colors.", "FIG. 5C shows the colors obtained from a rotation of the cuboid in FIG. 5A about the H axis toward blue at M=0 and away from blue.", "The resulting colors include bluer whites and yellower blacks.", "FIG. 6A shows a vertical cuboid along the MK plane and intersecting the H axis.", "FIG. 6B shows the paint colors that are available that are located on the planar cuboid in FIG. 6 a .", "This cuboid can also be rotated and moved linearly to obtain other colors or redder/greener colors.", "FIG. 6C shows the colors obtained from a rotation around the K axis at M=0 to tip toward green.", "The cuboids described above are used for at least two purposes: to identify suitable color subspace(s) using color wheel theories in a color palette or a color library, e.g., the various color libraries from Benjamin Moore or from any color palette, and after the suitable color subspace(s) are identified to rapidly execute color harmony and color emotion analysis.", "Suitable color subspaces or cuboids may include the color selected by the user, e.g., the first color or the selected color.", "In this embodiment, a cuboid having a predetermined size is centered vertically with the selected color from the user at its center, as shown in FIG. 5A or 6 A. Additional cuboids 2 - 6 are created by rotating the first cuboid 1 around a vertical axis parallel to the M axis with the selected color 10 as the center of rotation or pivot point, as best shown in FIG. 7 .", "Alternatively or additionally, additional cuboids 2 - 6 are created by rotating the first cuboid around the H axis or the K axis.", "These cuboids may have any dimensions and in one example the cuboids have a thickness of about 20 units (same unit as in the H and K axes).", "The cuboids'", "height and width are preferably limited to the color gamut limit of the color library used for color harmony analysis.", "In another embodiment, the cuboid 1 can be centered horizontally with the selected color from the user at its center, as shown in FIG. 4A .", "Additional cuboids 2 - 6 are created by rotating the first cuboid 1 around a vertical axis parallel to the H axis or K axis with the selected color 10 as the center of rotation or pivot point.", "Colors from within each rectangular cuboid 1 - 6 described in the two preceding paragraphs could potentially be a member of a color combination for color harmony analysis or color emotion analysis.", "Preferably, a single cuboid only contributes one color therewithin to a color combination for color harmony and color emotion analyses.", "These cuboids 1 - 6 , as illustrated in FIG. 7 , all contain the color selected by the user, e.g., the first color.", "As the number of cuboids increases, the number of combinations available for color harmony and color emotion analyses and the computational time increase faster by manifolds.", "Suitable color subspaces or cuboids may not include the color selected by the user.", "This embodiment uses color circle theories, such as complementary, split complementary, mono-chromatic, analogous, triads, tetradic, etc.", "to identify suitable cuboids that do not necessary encompass the selected color or the first color.", "Color wheel theories also include combinations of colors that when combined yield a neutral gray.", "These color chords include dyads (two-color combinations), triads (three-color combination), tetrads (four-color combinations), hexads (six-color combinations), etc.", "The selected color is used as a guiding post or guiding compass and cuboids are selected in relation to the selected color based on color wheel theories.", "It is noted that these known color wheel theories are based on the geometric relationship of colors in three dimensional space, but were often applied to non-uniform color space.", "Application of color wheel theories on non-uniform color space often yields unsatisfactory results or unharmonious colors.", "It is preferred that these color wheel theories are used on uniform color spaces such as the inventive MHK, HuVC and UVW, described above.", "It is further noted that instead of selecting individual colors that are suggested by the color wheel theories, when cuboids encompassing said individual colors are substituted for said individual colors the cuboids contains colors that may be more harmonious or that meet color emotion thresholds than the individual colors suggested by the color wheel theories.", "Furthermore, psychophysical analytical relationships for color emotions and color harmony are the applied to the possible combinations of colors in the cuboids suggested by color wheel theories to determine the optimum color combinations.", "Referring to FIG. 8 , an example of an application of this method for a two-color combination is illustrated.", "A selected color or first color 10 is chosen in the MHK color space and more specifically on an HK plane.", "A complementary color 12 is located on the same plane or at the same M value or same lightness plane.", "Instead of using the complementary color, a cuboid 14 containing the complementary color 12 is selected as a possible palette or group of colors that can be harmonious or form optimal color emotion thresholds with the selected color as determined by psychophysical analytical models described in U.S. published patent applications US2010/0194775 and US2010/0194776.", "The complementary color 12 and cuboid 14 can be chosen on a different lightness plane, for example a certain M units above or below that of the selected color.", "The complementary color 12 once chosen forms the center of the complementary cuboid 14 , which as shown in FIG. 8 , is preferably a rectangular box that is for example ±10 units in the M or lightness dimension and ±5 units in chroma and hue angles (in the cylindrical HuVC uniform system).", "The cuboid preferably has square sides in the chroma direction.", "The sides defining the hue limits of the boxes do not run along lines of equal hue angle, but along lines of equal Cartesian distance from the central line of constant hue angle.", "The dimensions of this box can vary.", "Preferably, this cuboid box has dimensions in the MHK dimensions and units.", "All colors from the color library that fall within this box are identified and retained for further calculations.", "In the event that there is no color in this cuboid box, the chroma can increase or decrease or the size of the box may increase, until the box is populated with colors.", "Referring to FIG. 9 , another example of an application of this method for a three-color combination is illustrated.", "A selected color or first color 10 is chosen in the MHK color space and more specifically on an HK plane that connects first color 10 and the center neutral point on the M axis.", "This HK plane is extended to opposite side of the circle.", "Two colors 16 and 18 that form a split complementary relationship with selected color 12 , e.g., ±20° from the complementary color on this HK plane, are identified and cuboids 20 and 22 surrounding split complementary colors 16 and 18 using a predetermined ΔM, ΔH, ΔK values, respectively, are selected similar to cuboid 14 .", "Colors in cuboids 20 and 22 are retained for analysis.", "Triad colors 16 and 18 may be located on the same M plane or may have a M value different than the M value of selected color 10 .", "Other ways to choose a three color combination with the selected color 10 and two cuboids include, but are not limited to split complementary or analogous harmony, i.e., chose two colors that have the same chroma and lightness but are at a small hue angle, e.g., ±3°-20°, from the complementary color, correlative harmony, i.e., the two analogous harmonious colors that are 20 units in the M axis darker or 10 units if the 20 units darker would result in M values of less than 0, and transverse harmony, i.e., similar to triads, split complementary, analogous harmony and correlative harmony, except that the second and third colors are equally darker than M=50 (mid-grey) of the gamut of the colors that are lighter by the equivalent amount.", "Four color combinations, i.e., the selected color and three cuboids, can also be selected.", "Suitable color wheel theories for four color combinations include, but are not limited to, right hand tetradic harmony, i.e., the selected color, its complementary color, its analogous harmony color using a 30° hue angle on the right side using the complementary color as the chosen color, and the complementary of the right side analogous harmony, and left-hand tetradic harmony, i.e., similar to right-hand tetradic except a left side analogous harmony is used, Preferably, the four color combinations maintain the same lightness or value, and chroma.", "Five color combinations can be ascertained by dividing the hue angles (360°) into 5 and six color combinations can be ascertained by dividing the hue angles into 6, with one color being the selected color.", "Any color combination can be devised.", "After the cuboids 14 , 20 , 22 according to color wheel theories on a uniform color space are determined, an exhaustive psychophysical analysis including color harmony and color emotions can be conducted for every two-color combination of the selected color 10 and each color within cuboid 14 , or for every three-color combination of the selected color 10 , each color in cuboid 20 and each color in cuboid 22 .", "The top combinations, e.g., the top 50 or so of the largest harmonious values and colors best meeting the emotion thresholds, are retained for possible display to the user in the order of color harmony preference.", "The top member of this list in terms of any desirable level of color harmony or color emotion is the candidate for display, if it is not a duplicate with one of the other colors in the harmony.", "If it is, the candidate color is the next member on the list until this condition does not exist.", "It can be readily appreciate that for combinations of three colors, i.e., one selected color 10 and colors from two cuboids, and for combinations of N colors, i.e., one selected color 10 and colors from N−1 cuboids, the exhaustive method would require a very high amount of computation by a controller or processor.", "Another embodiment of the present invention relates to a clustering method, where the cuboid is divided into smaller cells or clusters to simplify the computation.", "Referring to FIG. 10 , a cuboid having the dimensions of M units by H units by K units is divided into cells or clusters.", "Each cluster has a three-coordinate designation (h, m, k) as shown.", "The dimension of each cluster may vary and is preferably relatively large at the initial stage of the clustering process.", "For example, a cluster can be ±10 M units in lightness and ±5 five units at the H and K dimensions from the center of the cluster, as an initial choice.", "Because the MHK location of the first or selected color 10 is known and the dimensions of each cuboid encompassing the selected color 10 or each cuboid derived from color wheel theories are also known, the locations of each cluster's center in the MHK space are also known.", "The MHK values of each cluster's center are converted to the corresponding CIE parameters (L*, a*, b* or L*, C*, h) for color harmony analysis and color emotion analysis.", "As discussed above in U.S. published patent applications US2010/0194775 and US2010/0194776, color harmony of color combination and color emotions of colors are empirically determined based on human subjects'", "psychological responses to colors.", "These empirical observations were reduced to mathematical equations or mathematical functions expressed in terms L*, a* and b* or L*, C* and h. To use these psychophysical equations, the coordinates of selected color 10 and the centers of the cuboids'", "clusters are transformed or inversely transformed to CIELAB space, discussed above.", "Alternatively, these psychological equations or functions are re-derived in the MHK, HuVC or UVW uniform color spaces, so that the color harmony and emotion analysis can be conducted without utilizing CIELAB coordinate system or other non-uniform coordinate system.", "With respect to the color harmony of color combinations, at this initial stage exhaustive color combinations based on the “first selected color”", "and the “cluster centers”", "from each cuboid are formed and submit their respective CIELAB parameters for color harmony analysis to identify the best color harmony color combination.", "The best color harmony could be the color combination with high level of color harmony for pleasing color co-ordination, or the color combination with low level of color harmony where complementary color for accent is needed to create a sharp contrast.", "In other words, the amount or level of color harmony is tunable.", "This process is illustrated in FIG. 11 .", "In the event a cuboid is identified that it does not encompass any color from the given color library, this cuboid will not be used in the analysis.", "In one example, the cuboids are identified by rotating a cuboid that contains the selected color 10 , as illustrated in FIG. 7 , about the M axis by 30° each time to identify a total of 6 cuboids.", "There would be 20 unique four-color combinations with varying levels of color harmony after an exhaustive analysis is conducted with the selected color or first color 10 being in combination with three cluster centers.", "# of combinations Cuboid # Cuboid # Cuboid # 1 1st Color 1 2 3 2 1st Color 1 2 4 3 1st Color 1 2 5 4 1st Color 1 2 6 5 1st Color 1 3 4 6 1st Color 1 3 5 7 1st Color 1 3 6 8 1st Color 1 4 5 9 1st Color 1 4 6 10 1st Color 1 5 6 11 1st Color 2 3 4 12 1st Color 2 3 5 13 1st Color 2 3 6 14 1st Color 2 4 5 15 1st Color 2 4 6 16 1st Color 3 4 5 17 1st Color 3 4 6 18 1st Color 4 5 6 19 1st Color 5 6 2 20 1st Color 5 6 3 Each cluster (h, m, k) may itself contain a number of colors.", "As discussed above, each cluster may have ±5 units in the H and K dimensions and ±10 M units in lightness dimension.", "The clustering process above would deliver the optimal harmonious color combination with the selected color 10 in combination with one or more cluster centers depending on the number of cuboids used.", "The clusters that are included in the optimal harmonious combination are known and are again subdivided into smaller cells or sub-clusters, similar to that shown in FIG. 10 and the process of calculating the color harmony for combinations comprising the selected color 10 and the centers of said cells or sub-clusters in said clusters is repeated until the process does not yield a combination with more optimal color harmony level.", "After the combination of colors with optimal harmony level is ascertained, the MHK values of the centers of the selected clusters or sub-clusters are compared to the MHK values of actual paint colors in any given color library, e.g., Benjamin Moore's various color palettes and libraries.", "The actual paint colors having the smallest color difference from the centers of the selected clusters or sub-clusters are chosen as the colors for the combination to be displayed and suggested to the user.", "FIG. 12 shows a flow chart summarizing the clustering method for determining color harmony discussed above.", "With respect to the color emotion(s) of color combinations, the clustering process is similar to that for color harmony.", "It is noted that color harmony indicates the harmonious property of a combination of colors, while color emotion(s) exists for a single color as well as an average or mean of the emotions of a combination of colors.", "While colors can evoke a wide variety of emotions in people, seven emotions have been identified as being material to paint colors, as discussed in U.S. published patent applications US2010/0194775 and US2010/0194776, as follows.", "(1) Exciting-calming: exciting: causing great enthusiasm and eagerness calming: making (someone) tranquil and quiet (2) Inviting-uninviting: inviting: offering the promise of an attractive or enjoyable experience uninviting: unappealing;", "unattractive (3) Warm-cool: warm: of or at a fairly or comfortably high temperature cool: of or at a fairly low temperature (4) Light-dark: light: having a considerable or sufficient amount of natural light dark: with little or no light (5) Clean-dirty: clean: free from dirt, marks, or stains dirty: covered or marked with an unclean substance (6) Happy-depressing: happy: feeling or showing pleasure or contentment depressing: causing or resulting in a feeling of miserable dejection (7) Fun-serious: fun: amusing, entertaining, or enjoyable serious: acting or speaking sincerely and in earnest, rather than in a joking or halfhearted manner The process to determine rapidly the desired color combination with the desired level of color emotion is similar to those used in the color harmony determination, discussed above, except that a desired color emotion and a desired threshold are input by the user, as well as the first or selected color 10 .", "FIG. 13 shows the flow chart based on the desired color emotion threshold, the selection of color subspace, the color clustering process and the analysis of the selected color combination with the psychophysical color emotion equations.", "The evaluation can be applied to a single emotion or to maximize the result for multiple emotions.", "In another embodiment, both the color harmony and color emotion analyses can be combined into one process, as best illustrated in FIG. 14 .", "The color selection process of the present invention can be used in combination with printers that print low-metamerism paint samples or merchandise that closely match real paint colors.", "Such low-metameric merchandise are disclosed in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 8,330,999 and published patent application Publication Number US2010/0225935-A1, which are incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.", "The color selection process of the present invention can also be displayed on a screen or surface using digital micro mirror (DMM) devices.", "Such devices are disclosed in commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 13/325,900 entitled “System Producing True Colors Using a Digital Micromirror Device”", "filed on 14 Dec. 2011, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, and can spectrally match the paint colors or color merchandise.", "FIG. 15 is an exemplary flow chart illustrating a non-limiting method of combining the inventive color selection process with DMM devices.", "It is noted that the psychophysical analytical calculations to obtain color harmony and color emotions, as well as the transformations and inverse transformations among the color coordinate systems, are conducted on a computer or a device using a processor or controller.", "The interface with the user, including obtaining the first color or the selected color and displaying the suggested color combinations is carried out on a visual user interface, such as a computer monitor or tablet or screen, or on a printer.", "The first color can be inputted by its identification number on a keyboard, or scanned by a spectrophotometer, or be selected from a menu of color choices or from color palettes or libraries.", "The present invention is not limited by any particular method of inputting the first or selected color.", "In another embodiment, the present invention is also directed to a computer system, including a processor, monitor and/or printer that operates or executes the processes and methods described and claimed herein.", "While it is apparent that the illustrative embodiments of the invention disclosed herein fulfill the objectives stated above, it is appreciated that numerous modifications and other embodiments may be devised by those skilled in the art.", "Therefore, it will be understood that the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications and embodiments, which would come within the spirit and scope of the present invention.", "APPENDIX Transformation and Inverse Transformation of Colors Among the Color Coordinate Systems Most of the following transformations are applicable to any CIE illuminant and observer combination.", "For those transformations that are illuminant and observer specific, the applicable illuminant and observer combination are specified.", "Reflectance Function to Color Stimulus Function Multiply the spectral reflectance function by the spectral power distribution of the selected illuminant or source.", "Q (λ)= kS (λ) R (λ), (7) where k is a scalar multiplier capable of normalizing the function appropriately, S(λ) is the spectral power in the source and R(λ) the reflectance function from spectrophotometry.", "The spectral power may be either relative or absolute, but see the following cautionary paragraph if you choose that it should be relative.", "The scalar k will in most instances have a value of unity.", "In some cases, it may be useful to normalize the function at a particular wavelength, so that it can be compared to other similar functions.", "It may be useful to scale the color stimulus function so that when multiplied into the CIE color-matching functions the Y value is scaled to 100, as is the convention of the CIE system for object colors.", "Caution should be exercised in scaling color stimulus functions as once scaled, the action cannot be reversed without knowledge of the scaling coefficient used.", "Color Stimulus Function to Reflectance Function Divide the color stimulus function by the spectral power distribution of the selected illuminant or source in an inverse to equation (7).", "Color Stimulus Function to CIE XYZ Notice that Eq.", "(7) calculates the first factor of Eqs.", "(1-3).", "Thus the transformation of a color stimulus function to tristimulus values is covered in its entirety by Eqs.", "(1-4).", "CIE XYZ to Reflectance Function It is possible through Principal Component Analysis to transform from CIE tristimulus values back to reflectance functions even though this involves an expansion in the number of degrees of freedom from three for tristimulus values, e.g., to thirty-one (31) for a spectrum from 400 to 700 nm at 10 nm intervals.", "The methodology and data required for doing so is given in the literature.", "See H. S. Fairman and M. H. Brill, The Principal Components of Reflectances, Color Research and Application, 29, 104-110 (2004).", "Using three principal components, if one has only one set of three tristimulus values known, it is possible to derive a spectrum that will have the exact tristimulus values in the reference illuminant and be not more than about 0.5 CIELAB color-difference units different in a second illuminant.", "If two sets of tristimulus values are known and used in connection with the first six principal components, the exact tristimulus values are guaranteed in both input illuminant-observer combinations, and the difference in a third illuminant combination may be no more than 0.2ΔE* ab .", "XYZ to Munsell The details of the transformation are again beyond the scope of this document, but the method may be outlined as follows: tristimulus values are converted from the CIE system to an equivalent of the Adams Chromatic Value by the equivalent of Eq.", "(6).", "That should put the color space into a large-scale uniform framework.", "It does somewhat, but it was found then necessary to calculate a least-square best-fit regression equation relating these coordinates to the Munsell notations.", "This is done at many lightness levels and at many hue angles so that there is a multiplicity of regression coefficients applicable to a given location in the gamut.", "The entirety of the methodology is included in the subroutine XYZ2Munsell which takes tristimulus values as its argument and returns Munsell notation as return values.", "Munsell to XYZ The traditional method of converting Munsell notation to CIE tristimulus values is a table look-up with interpolation of values not found exactly in the tables.", "Table for such look-up and interpolation are given in ASTM D1535 Practice for the Use of the Munsell System for Color, along with standard methods for their interpolation.", "In order to make the transformation from Munsell to CIE tristimulus values under computer program control, it is suggested that the method described herein for converting from OSA-Ljg to tristimulus values, and given two sections below titled “Ljg to XYZ”, be used.", "The forward transformation from XYZ to Munsell outlined in the section above would be used in place of the OSA forward transformation.", "Otherwise, the methodology of the Newton-Raphson method should be identical.", "XYZ To Ljg The tristimulus values involved are those of the CIE 1964 10° observer and CIE Standard Illuminant D65.", "The usual notation with the subscript 10 has been omitted in both the text and in the equations for clarity, but should be assumed in both.", "Depending whether one is starting with tristimulus notation or chromaticity coordinate notation, some of the following equations will be used as both tristimulus and chromaticity notation will be required somewhere in the OSA equations.", "x = X X + Y + Z ( 8 ) y = Y X + Y + Z ( 9 ) X = xY y ( 10 ) Z = ( 1 - x - y ) ⁢ Y y ( 11 ) The path to transformation of CIE to OSA notation begins with the taking into account the chromatic enhancement of lightness.", "According to the Sanders-Wyszecki formula, a grey of tristimulus Y 0 appears equally light to a chromatic color with chromaticity coordinates x and y, and a luminous reflectance of Y. Y 0 =(4.4934 x 2 +4.3034 y 2 −4.276 xy −1.3744 x −2.5643 y+ 1.8103) Y (12) The next effect to be considered is the crispening of color difference by backgrounds lighter or darker than the sample under consideration.", "A modified Semmelroth formula is used to model this effect, and a neutral grey background of 30% luminous reflectance is chosen as the standard background for viewing and calculating in the OSA system.", "The modified formula used is Γ=5.9 [Y 0 1/3 −2/3+0.042( Y 0 −30) 1/3 ].", "(13) A few intermediate values are then calculated.", "The scalar C will play a role similar to the scalar factors 500 and 200 in the CIELAB equation in order to keep the chroma scales uniform with each other over a wide range of lightness values.", "C = Γ 5.9 ⁢ ( Y 0 1 / 3 - 2 / 3 ) = 1 + 0.042 ⁢ ( Y 0 - 30 ) 1 / 3 Y 0 1 / 3 - 2 / 3 ( 14 ) The primaries are now transformed to OSA primaries.", "R= 0.799 X+ 0.4194 Y− 0.1648 Z G=− 0.4493 X+ 1.3265 Y+ 0.0927 Z B=− 0.1149 X+ 0.3394 Y+ 0.717 Z (15) Finally, the OSA notations themselves are calculated.", "L = ( Γ - 14.4 ) 2 ⁢ ⁢ j = C ⁡ ( 1.7 ⁢ R 1 / 3 + 8 ⁢ G 1 / 3 - 9.7 ⁢ B 1 / 3 ) ⁢ ⁢ g = C ⁡ ( - 13.7 ⁢ R 1 / 3 + 17.7 ⁢ G 1 / 3 - 4 ⁢ B 1 / 3 ) ( 16 ) The quantity L represents the lightness-darkness of the sample and the origin of the scale is, for every specimen, near the 30% luminous reflectance level.", "Accordingly, darker specimens will have negative L values and lighter specimens will have positive values.", "The name of scale j (from the French word jaune for yellow) was chosen to avoid confusion with CIE chromaticity coordinate y. Yellows are positive in j value and blues negative.", "Lastly, the scale g is reversed in direction from the usual so that greens are positive and reds negative in their g value.", "The order of OSA notation is always L, j, g, although that order is also unconventional.", "Ljg to XYZ For the inverse transformation, define the four functions of Eqs.", "(17-20) where the mathematical notation ƒ( ) means the entire forward transformation of the paragraphs above from XYZ to Ljg notation.", "( L 0 ,j 0 ,g 0 )=ƒ( X i ,Y i ,Z i ) (17) ( L 1 ,j 1 ,g 1 )=ƒ( X i +ΔX,Y i ,Z i ) (18) ( L 2 ,j 2 ,g 2 )=ƒ( X i ,Y i +Y,Z i ) (19) ( L 3 ,j 3 ,g 3 )=ƒ( X i ,Y i ,Z i ΔZ ) (20) An iterative algorithm is utilized.", "The i subscript in the right-hand-side of the above four equations refers to the current value in the i th iteration.", "In each iteration the transformation of the current values of CIE notation to Ljg notation are calculated;", "first, without modification, and then with an increment to X, and then Y and then to Z. This allows the calculation of the influence coefficients, or the influence matrix, needed for implementation of the Newton-Raphson method.", "Two more items are needed to begin the iterative calculations.", "A good guess as to a nominal value for X 0 , Y 0 , and Z 0 in the opening iteration is required as is a well-chosen value for the size by which the tristimulus values will be incremented by selection of the magnitude of ΔX, ΔY, and ΔZ.", "The chosen values of both will affect the rate of convergence of the algorithm to the roots of the three simultaneous equations being solved in equation (21).", "These factors will be discussed in the next section.", "[ X i + 1 Y i + 1 Z i + 1 ] = [ ( L 1 - L 0 ) Δ ⁢ ⁢ X ( L 2 - L 0 ) Δ ⁢ ⁢ Y ( L 3 - L 0 ) Δ ⁢ ⁢ Z ( j 1 - j 0 ) Δ ⁢ ⁢ X ( j 2 - j 0 ) Δ ⁢ ⁢ Y ( j 3 - j 0 ) Δ ⁢ ⁢ Z ( g 1 - g 0 ) Δ ⁢ ⁢ X ( g 2 - g 0 ) Δ ⁢ ⁢ Y ( g 3 - g 0 ) Δ ⁢ ⁢ Z ] - 1 ⁡ [ L - L 0 j - j 0 g - g 0 ] + [ X i Y i Z i ] ( 21 ) After each iteration, the calculated values of X i+1 , Y i+1 , and Z i+1 are stored in a variable so that the rate of change in the XYZs may be assessed.", "When the change is diminishingly small to the user's need for accuracy the iterations are ended, and the values of XYZ, if put through the forward algorithm, will obtain the starting Ljg values.", "Optionally, a limit to the maximum number of iterations should be imposed in the event that the algorithm should inadvertently fail to converge.", "Comments and Observations The present inventors'", "experience is that the values X=28.4, Y=30.0, and Z=32.2 are good starting values to be submitted to the first iteration.", "Those values are the tristimulus values of the central neutral grey of the OSA sample collection Ljg=(0,0,0), so would seem to offer the least difference in color with any random sample being converted.", "The value recommended for ΔX=ΔY=ΔZ is a value of 0.5.", "This increment should be chosen so as to coincide with the average difference by which tristimulus values are converging in each iteration.", "In these calculations, it is preferred to slow the rate of convergence at the expense of many more iterations.", "Doing so will incur the cost of more inversions of the influence coefficient matrix which must be inverted once in each iteration.", "The incremental term (the right-hand-side of Eq.", "(21) before the plus sign) is divided by five plus the cube root of the iteration number before adding it to the tristimulus values from the previous iteration.", "This was done for two purposes.", "First, to slow the convergence so that, as the roots of the equations are approached, there is never an occasion where one, or more, tristimulus value overshoots the root.", "This can lead to returning to the exact same previous set of tristimulus values on the next iteration.", "That may put one in a never-exiting loop going back and forth over the roots forever.", "Secondly, the introduction of the small, but ever-changing, term the cube root of the iteration number prevents that possibility absolutely.", "A good exit point exists when the rate of change of each of the three variables being sought has reached less than 0.0001 per iteration.", "One expects this to take about 150 to 200 iterations in a typical calculation with normal behavior.", "An upper limit of 600 iterations can be used before an abortive exit from the routine.", "Both of these may seem high compared to the number utilized in the other iterative process for computerized color matching with which the present inventors are most familiar.", "However, with the speed of modern day computers, it does not appear to slow the program down no matter how many colors are being processed, and the gain is more than worth the effort.", "Users should be cautioned that the OSA equations themselves are only effective within the producible surface color gamut, and deteriorate rapidly from uniformity of color difference outside this gamut.", "In some operations that deal with the entire producible gamut, it is not easy to know whether one in or out of gamut.", "One should, however, make a determination as to the position of any color with respect to this gamut before submitting the color to conversion in either direction.", "Ljg to MHK The transformation of OSA values to the uniform MHK color coordinate system takes place through the following transforms: M= 7.2 L+ 54 (22) H=− 7.2 g (23) K= 7.2 j (24) MHK to HuVC The transformation of Cartesian coordinates (these equations would work as well for L*a* and b*) to hue, value, and chroma is accomplished by the following steps, as illustrated in FIG. 16 .", "Assign the value of π.", "π=4* Arctan(1) (25) If K<", ">0 Then Hu =π−Arctan( H/K )−π/2*Sign( K )) (26) Else Hu=π/ 2−π/2*Sign( H ) End If V=M (27) C =( H*H+K*K ) 1/2 (28) The function Sign ( ) is a function built-in to most computer languages which return a minus one when the argument is negative, a zero when the argument is zero, and the value of positive one when the argument is positive.", "These same equations will be given in a slightly different format in a section describing LAB to LCh coordinates appearing below.", "MHK to UVW To convert MHK to UVW follow the following sequence of transformations.", "1) Dimension dummy variable XY(2) as placeholder and define Pi.", "Dim XY (2) PI= 4 *Atn (1) (29) 2) Store M and H in a dummy variable XY(2) for arguments of Rect2Pol.", "XY (0)= M XY (1)= H (30 Call routine to convert Cartesian coordinates to polar coordinates (Rect2Pol) Rect2Pol XY ( ) ,UV ( ) 3) Save value of angle UV(1) in V1 and change variables for a second rectangular to polar in another plane V 1 =UV( 1) XY (0)= UV (0) XY (1)= MHK (0) (31) Call routine a second time to convert rectangular in another plane to polar.", "Rect2Pol XY ( ) ,UV ( ) 4) Save angle in U and test angle UV(1) for being greater than right angle;", "if so, correct.", "U=UVW (0) If UVW (1)>", "PI/ 2 then UV (1)= UV (1)−2 *PI (32) End if W=PI/ 2 −UV (1) V=V 1 UVW to MHK To transform back from UVW to MHK use: M=U H=U * Cos( V ) K=U * Sin( V ) (33) HuVC to MHK The transformations from HuVC to MHK is: M=V H=C sin( Hu ) K=C cos( Hu ) (34) These equations are solved by the same subroutine used to convert LCh notation to L*a*b* notation with arguments sent to them in different notational format.", "MHK to Ljg The inverse transformation of MHK back to Ljg is accomplished by the following: L= 0.1388889( M− 54) (35) j= 0.138889 K (36) g=− 0.1388889 H (37) XYZ to Lab The CIE proposed in 1976 the following transformation of tristimulus values to what was called the CIELAB System for Colorimetry.", "A definition of the transformation that has been rearranged for optimal implementation on a modern computer follows: Limit = ( 6 29 ) 3 ( 38 ) If X/Xn<=Limit then FuncX = ( 841 108 ) ⁢ ( X X n ) + ( 4 29 ) Else FuncX = ( X X n ) 3 End if If Y/Yn<=Limit then FuncY = ( 841 108 ) ⁢ ( Y Y n ) + ( 4 29 ) Else FuncY = ( Y Y n ) 3 ( 39 ) End if If Z/Zn<=Limit then FuncZ = ( 841 108 ) ⁢ ( Z Z n ) + ( 4 29 ) Else FuncZ = ( Z Z n ) 3 End if L*= 116Func Y− 16 (40) a*= 500(Func X −Func Y ) (41) b*= 200(Func Y −Func Z ) (42) These are the CIELAB coordinates L*, a*, b*.", "Lab to XYZ CIELAB values may be transformed back to tristimulus values by the following equations: X=Xn *Exp(Log(( L*+ 16)/116+ a */500)*3) Y=Yn *Exp(Log(( L*+ 16)/116)*3) Z=Zn *Exp(Log(( L*+ 16)/116− b*/ 200)*3).", "(43) The logarithms are natural logs and Exp stands for exponentiation.", "Lab to LCh CIELAB coordinates may be usefully transformed to cylindrical coordinates L*, C*, and h which stand for lightness, chroma, and hue angle, respectively.", "L*=L* (44) C* =[( a *) 2 +( b *) 2 ] 1/2 (45) The value of h in degrees may be computed from the following pseudocode: if b*=0 then h= 90−90sign( a* ) else h= 180−(180/π)tan −1 ( a*/b* )−90sign( b *) end if where the function sign returns −1 for negative values of the argument, zero for zero value of the argument, and plus one for positive values.", "Such a function is built-in to almost all computer languages.", "π has a value of approximately 3.1415928.", "It may be useful to predefine the value of π in computer programs by π=4 tan −1 (1) (46) which stores the value of π to machine precision.", "The coordinate h, hue angle in degrees, is not to be confused with the color-difference component ΔH* which is the residual color-difference in the hue-change direction when the values of ΔE*, ΔL*, and ΔC* are known Δ H *=(Δ E*−ΔL*−ΔC* ) 1/2 (47) There is no such thing as H* as a stand-alone parameter.", "Only ΔH* is defined.", "LCh to Lab To get back to CIELAB values from LCh use the following: L*=L* (48) a*=C * sin( h ) (49) b*=C * cos( h ) (50) RGB sRGB Values to CIE XYZ Values CIE Standard Observer Used: 1931 two degree CIE standard observer CIE Standard Illuminant Used: CIE standard illuminant D65 [ R sRGB G sRGB B sRGB ] = [ 3 , 2406 - 1 , 5372 - 0 , 4986 - 0 , 9689 1 , 8758 0 , 0415 0 , 0557 - 0 , 2040 1 , 0570 ] ⁡ [ X Y Z ] Where R sRGB , G sRGB , B sRGB are functions of the corresponding 8 bit RGB values and are defined in the International Electrotechnical Commission document IEC/4WD 61966-2-1 “Colour Measurement and Management in Multimedia Systems and Equipment—Part 2-1: Default RGB Colour Space—sRGB.", "CIE XYZ Values to RGB sRGB Values CIE Standard Observer Used: 1931 two degree CIE standard observer CIE Standard Illuminant Used: CIE standard illuminant D65 [ X Y Z ] = [ 0 , 4124 0 , 3576 0 , 1805 0 , 2126 0 , 7152 0 , 0722 0 , 0193 0 , 1192 0 , 9505 ] ⁡ [ R sRGB G sRGB B sRGB ]" ]

[ "CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/301,872 filed on Feb. 5, 2010, the disclosure if which is also incorporated herein by reference.", "BACKGROUND 1.", "Field The presently disclosed subject matter relates to devices, systems, and processes useful as a control system for a gear reduction assembly, and in particular, for automatically selecting between a low range drive ratio and a high range drive ratio.", "Description of the Related Art Typical four-wheel drive vehicles have a transfer case that is a separate powertrain component from the engine and the multi-ratio transmission.", "The transfer case supplies the drive torque to each of the front and rear axles in series with the transmission.", "Shift-on-the-fly gear selection allows automatic selection between two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive while the vehicle is in motion.", "An electronic control unit (ECU) can select two or four-wheel drive based on several input variables, including road conditions, engine load, wheel slip, acceleration, driver input, and other variables.", "The transfer case typically includes a gear reduction assembly that provides a high range drive ratio for normal driving speeds and a low range drive ratio for low driving speeds such as when the vehicle is driven off-road, when high torque is desired, when low traction surfaces exist, etc.", "For example, the low range drive ratio can be used when starting from a stop on an incline with a trailer in tow (i.e., when engine load is high).", "Each of the high range drive ratio and the low range drive ratio can be used with any one of the reverse drive ratio and the plurality of forward drive ratios available in the multi-ratio transmission.", "In these known four-wheel drive configurations, selection of the low range drive ratio or the high range drive ratio is initiated by the driver.", "The driver can physically cause the shift by moving a shift lever mounted in the passenger compartment that is mechanically connected to the gearing in the transfer case.", "Movement of the lever by the vehicle driver engages the selected one of the low range drive ratio and the high range drive ratio.", "Alternatively, the driver can initiate the shift between the low range drive ratio and the high range drive ratio by actuating an electrical switch in the driver area of the passenger compartment.", "The electrical switch signals an ECU that drives actuator(s) to shift between the low range drive ratio and the high range drive ratio.", "In each of these driver-initiated configurations, the low range drive ratio will not be engaged until the driver takes a deliberate action.", "Thus, it is possible for the high range drive ratio to remain engaged when it might be otherwise prudent to engage the low range drive ratio.", "Similarly, the low range drive ratio may remain engaged long after it is necessary for given vehicle operation parameters.", "Thus, fuel economy, acceleration ability, and other vehicle performance can be compromised.", "Accordingly, there is a need to provide a fully automated control of the selection of the low range drive ratio and the high range drive ratio without a specific prompt from the driver, as well as to provide operating parameters for an ECU that provide efficient and accurate automatic switching between the low range drive ratio and high range drive ratio.", "SUMMARY According to an aspect of the disclosed subject matter, a method for automatically controlling a drivetrain coupled to at least one drive wheel of a vehicle, the drivetrain including a first assembly including a low range drive ratio and a high range drive ratio, and a second assembly including a reverse drive ratio and a plurality of forward drive ratios is disclosed.", "The method can include providing an electronic control unit configured to receive information from at least one sensor located on the vehicle and to provide an output signal based on the information, and providing an actuator mechanism configured to cause the first assembly to operate at a selected one of the low range drive ratio and the high range drive ratio.", "The method can also include automatically causing the actuator mechanism to select one of the low range drive ratio and the high range drive ratio based on the output signal from the electronic control unit, and driving the at least one drive wheel at the selected one of the low range drive ratio and the high range drive ratio and simultaneously with one of the reverse drive ratio and a ratio of the plurality of forward drive ratios.", "According to another aspect of the disclosed subject matter, a system for automatically controlling a two-speed gear reduction assembly in series with a multi-ratio transmission assembly of a vehicle, the two-speed gear reduction assembly including a low range drive ratio and a high range drive ratio, and the multi-ratio transmission assembly including a reverse drive ratio and a plurality of forward drive ratios, is disclosed.", "The system can include an actuator selectively movable between a low range position where the actuator couples the low range drive ratio in series with one of the reverse drive ratio and the plurality of forward drive ratios and a high range position where the actuator couples the high range drive ratio in series with the selected one of the reverse drive ratio and the plurality of forward drive ratios.", "The system can also include a vehicle speed sensor, a vehicle acceleration sensor, and a controller in electrical communication with each of the actuator, the vehicle speed sensor and the vehicle acceleration sensor.", "The controller can be configured to automatically select one of the low range drive ratio and the high range drive ratio based on electrical signals received from the vehicle speed sensor and the vehicle acceleration sensor.", "The controller can also be configured to automatically signal the actuator to move to a respective one of the low range position and the high range position when one of the low range drive ratio and the high range drive ratio is automatically selected.", "According to another aspect of the disclosed subject matter, a method for automatically controlling a drivetrain assembly driving at least one wheel of a vehicle, the drivetrain including a two-speed gear reduction assembly in series with a multi-ratio transmission assembly, the two-speed drive assembly including a low range drive ratio and a high range drive ratio, and the multi-ratio transmission assembly including a reverse drive ratio and a plurality of forward drive ratios, is disclosed.", "The method can include providing a switch that can be manually shifted from an automatic position to a manual position and determining a position of the switch.", "The method can also include selecting the low range drive ratio when the position of the switch equals the manual position, comparing a vehicle speed with a maximum vehicle speed when the position of the switch is equal to the automatic position, comparing an accelerator pedal position to a minimum position when the vehicle speed is less than the maximum speed, comparing a vehicle acceleration to a maximum acceleration when the accelerator pedal position is greater than the minimum position, causing the drivetrain to operate in the low range drive ratio when the vehicle acceleration is less than the maximum acceleration, causing the drivetrain to operate in the high range drive ratio when the position of the switch is equal to the automatic position and when one of the vehicle speed is at least equal to the maximum speed, the accelerator pedal position is at most equal to the minimum position, and the vehicle acceleration is at least equal to the maximum acceleration, and driving the at least one wheel at the selected one of the low range drive ratio and the high range drive ratio and with one of the reverse drive ratio and the plurality of forward drive ratios.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The disclosed subject matter of the present application will now be described in more detail with reference to exemplary embodiments of the apparatus and method, given by way of example, and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a first configuration of a powertrain and a control system of a vehicle made in accordance with principles of the disclosed subject matter.", "FIG. 2 is a flowchart representing a first embodiment of an algorithm useable by the control systems of FIGS. 1 and 3 .", "FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a second configuration of a powertrain and a control system of a vehicle made in accordance with principles of the disclosed subject matter.", "FIG. 4 is a flowchart representative of a second embodiment of an algorithm usable by the control systems of FIGS. 1 and 3 .", "FIG. 5 is a flowchart representative of a subroutine useable in the algorithm represented by the flowchart of FIG. 4 .", "FIG. 6 is a flowchart representative of a subroutine useable in the subroutine represented by the flowchart of FIG. 5 .", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 schematically represents a powertrain of a vehicle 10 that includes a control system 200 made in accordance with principles of the disclosed subject matter.", "The control system 200 can select the appropriate one of a low range drive ratio and a high range drive ratio without direct input from the driver of the vehicle.", "That is, the control system 200 can cause a shift between the low range drive ratio and the high range drive ratio without the driver of the vehicle moving a gear shift lever or pushing an electrical switch mounted in the driver area of the passenger compartment.", "The vehicle 10 can include a power source, such as an internal combustion engine 14 and a drivetrain driven by the internal combustion engine 14 .", "The drivetrain can be configured as a two-wheel drivetrain, a four-wheel drivetrain, or an all-wheel drivetrain and can include a transaxle 12 , a pair of front driveshafts 16 L, 16 R, a pair of front wheels 18 L, 18 R, a propeller shaft 20 , a rear differential assembly 22 , a pair of rear driveshafts 24 L, 24 R, and a pair of rear wheels 26 L, 26 R. Each of the driveshafts 16 L, 16 R, 24 L, 24 R can extend in a transverse direction (indicated by arrows T) of the vehicle 10 .", "The rear driveshafts 24 L, 24 R can be spaced from the front driveshafts 16 L, 16 R in a longitudinal direction (indicated by arrows L) of the vehicle 10 —which direction is perpendicular to the transverse direction T. Each of the front driveshafts 16 L, 16 R can be connected to and driven by the transaxle 12 .", "Each of the rear driveshafts 24 L, 24 R can be connected to and driven by the rear differential 22 .", "The left front wheel 18 L can be connected to and driven by the left front driveshaft 16 L. The right front wheel 18 R can be connected to and driven by the right front driveshaft 16 R. The left rear wheel 26 L can be connected to and driven by the left rear driveshaft 24 L, and the right rear wheel 26 R can be connected to and driven by the right rear driveshaft 24 R. Each of the internal combustion engine 14 and the transaxle 12 can be oriented with their output shafts (not shown) in the transverse direction T of the vehicle 10 .", "However, this orientation can be varied without departing from the scope of the disclosed subject matter, and can include a perpendicular orientation between the engine output shaft and transaxle output shaft.", "The internal combustion engine 14 can be connected to the transaxle 12 to drive the transaxle 12 in a manner known in the art.", "The propeller shaft 20 can extend in the longitudinal direction L of the vehicle 10 and can be connected to each of the transaxle 12 and the rear differential assembly 22 .", "The propeller shaft 20 can be driven by the transaxle 12 and can drive the rear differential assembly 22 .", "The transaxle 12 can include a multi-ratio transmission 28 , a two-speed final drive assembly 30 and a power take-off assembly 32 .", "The transaxle 12 can be configured such that it is accommodated within the engine compartment (not shown) of the vehicle 10 .", "Accordingly, the passenger compartment of the vehicle 10 need not accommodate the transaxle 12 .", "Co-pending U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 12/847,639, entitled “Transversely Mounted Transaxle Having A Low Range Gear Assembly and Powertrain for A Vehicle Including Same”, filed concurrently herewith and incorporated herein by reference, discloses details of an exemplary embodiment of the transaxle 12 .", "The multi-ratio transmission 28 can be connected to and driven by the internal combustion engine 14 in a manner that is known in the art.", "The multi-ratio transmission 28 can include a discrete number of forward drive ratios and a reverse drive ratio, which can be selected manually by an operator of the vehicle 10 or automatically, as is known in the art.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,974,473, the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses an example of a conventional automatic transmission that has a plurality of discrete forward drive ratios and a reverse drive ratio.", "Alternatively, the multi-ratio transmission 28 can include a plurality of forward drive ratios that can be varied continuously within the multi-ratio transmission 28 between a minimum drive ratio and a maximum drive ratio.", "The continuously variable multi-ratio transmission can also include a reverse drive ratio.", "U.S. Pat. No. 7,217,209, the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses an example of a continuously variable multi-ratio transmission.", "The two-speed final drive assembly 30 can be driven by the multi-ratio transmission 28 and can drive each of the front driveshafts 16 L, 16 R and the power take-off assembly 32 based on a selected one of a high range drive ratio and a low range drive ratio.", "Each of the high range drive ratio and the low range drive ratio can be selected independent of the ratio selected in the multi-ratio transmission 28 .", "That is, the two-speed drive assembly 30 can provide the selected one of the high range drive ratio and the low range drive ratio in series with any one of the reverse ratio and the forward ratios selected in the multi-ratio transmission 28 .", "The two-speed drive assembly 30 can include a high range gearing assembly that corresponds to the high range drive ratio and a low range gearing assembly that corresponds to the low range drive ratio.", "The high range gearing can be used for normal driving conditions, such as driving on a level surface, driving at highway speeds, driving on a dry road, etc.", "The low range gearing can be used for special driving conditions, such as driving on low traction surfaces, off-road driving, towing a trailer on an inclined surface at low speeds, starting from a stop with a trailer attached to the vehicle 10 , etc.", "Selection of the high range gearing and the low range gearing can be performed automatically by the control system 200 , as will be discussed in detail below.", "Each of the low range gearing and the high range gearing can be provided by respective combinations of meshing gears, such as those disclosed in the above-referenced co-pending U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 12/847,639, entitled “Transversely Mounted Transaxle Having A Low Range Gear Assembly and Powertrain for A Vehicle Including Same.”", "However, other known combinations of meshing gears can be used to provide a respective one of the low range gearing and the high range gearing.", "The transaxle 12 can include a housing 36 in which the multi-ratio transmission 28 and a front differential (not shown) for the front wheels 18 R, 18 L are mounted, as is known in the art.", "See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,974,473, referenced above.", "The housing 36 can also contain the two-speed drive assembly 30 and the power take-off assembly 32 .", "The control system 200 can include an actuator 202 , a vehicle speed sensor 204 , an accelerator pedal position sensor 206 and an electronic control unit (ECU) 208 in electrical communication with each of the actuator 202 , the vehicle speed sensor 204 and the accelerator pedal position sensor 206 .", "Based on signals received from each of the sensors 204 , 206 , the ECU 208 can output a control signal to the actuator 202 to move the actuator 202 between a low range position where the actuator 202 couples the low range drive ratio in series with a selected one of the reverse drive ratio and the plurality of forward drive ratios and a high range position where the actuator 202 couples the high range drive ratio in series with the selected one of the reverse drive ratio and the plurality of forward drive ratios.", "The actuator 202 can include any known actuator, such as an electrical actuator, a magnetic actuator, an electro-mechanical actuator, an electro-magnetic-mechanical actuator or an electro-hydraulic actuator.", "The actuator 202 can be coupled to a clutch (not shown) or other known torque transmission coupling device.", "The clutch can cause engagement of the selected one of the low range drive ratio and the high range drive ratio in series with selected one of the reverse drive ratio and the plurality of forward drive ratios.", "The actuator 202 can be a component of the two-speed final drive assembly 30 and at least the clutch can be mounted within the housing 36 , as is disclosed in the above-referenced co-pending U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 12/847,639, entitled “Transversely Mounted Transaxle Having A Low Range Gear Assembly and Powertrain for A Vehicle Including Same.”", "The vehicle speed sensor 204 can be a wheel speed sensor, a shaft speed sensor, or other known sensor capable of measuring data usable to determine the real-time travel speed of the vehicle.", "For example, the vehicle speed sensor 204 could be a sensor used to obtain data for a speedometer.", "The accelerator pedal position sensor 206 can be any known sensor capable of measuring movement and/or the relative location of an accelerator pedal of the vehicle.", "For example, the accelerator pedal position sensor can be a sensor used in a vehicle drive-by-wire system that can control the speed of the internal combustion engine 14 .", "The ECU 208 can be referred to as a central processing unit (CPU) or as a controller.", "The ECU 208 can be dedicated to the two-speed final drive assembly 30 .", "Alternatively, the ECU 208 can control the multi-ratio transmission 28 and/or the internal combustion engine 14 in addition to the two-speed final drive assembly 30 .", "If the ECU 208 is dedicated to the two-speed final drive assembly 30 , then the ECU 208 can be in electrical communication with an ECU(s) for the internal combustion engine and/or the multi-ratio-transmission.", "The control system 200 can further include a manual override switch 210 in electrical communication with the ECU 208 .", "The manual override switch 210 can enable the driver to disable automatic control of the actuator 202 by the ECU 208 and cause the actuator 202 to move to the low range position and engage the low range drive ratio.", "In addition, the override switch 210 can include another position that overrides the ECU 208 and causes the actuator 202 to move to the high range position and engage the high range drive ratio (thus, permitting the drivetrain to operate in the low range drive ratio only when either manually actuated by the override switch 210 or automatically actuated when the override switch 210 is placed back to the automatic position).", "The ECU 208 can be configured with hardware alone, or to run software, that permits the ECU 208 to receive, store and process data from the sensors.", "The ECU 208 can be configured with hardware alone, or to run software, that calculates the real-time vehicle acceleration based on real-time vehicle speed data provided to the ECU 208 by the vehicle speed sensor 204 .", "Alternatively, the vehicle speed sensor 204 could be a smart sensor configured with hardware alone, or to run software, that calculates the real-time vehicle acceleration and outputs the acceleration data to the ECU 208 .", "Although the exemplary embodiments depicted by FIGS. 1 and 2 can rely on vehicle speed, accelerator pedal position, and vehicle acceleration as inputs for the selection between the low range drive ratio and the high range drive ratio, other vehicle operation parameters can be used as inputs, such as torque converter slippage, longitudinal orientation of vehicle, lock up clutch actuation, etc.", "These other parameters can be used in addition to, or in place of, any combination of the vehicle speed, the accelerator pedal position, and the vehicle acceleration.", "The ECU 208 can automatically select, without direct input from the driver, which one of the low range drive ratio and the high range drive ratio may be best suited for the given vehicle operation parameters.", "A subroutine built into the hardware or executed when running the software can be based on a flowchart illustrated in FIG. 2 .", "The subroutine can begin at step S 100 .", "At step S 102 , the ECU 208 can determine if the driver has by-passed the automatic selection of the low range drive ratio and the high range drive ratio via the manual override switch 210 .", "That is, at step S 102 , the ECU 208 can determine if the driver has manually selected the low range drive ratio.", "In this exemplary embodiment, when the driver places the control system 200 into its manual mode by placing the manual override switch 210 in the ON position, the value of Manual Low Sw is equal to one (1).", "When the driver places the manual override switch 210 in the OFF position, the value of Manual Low Sw is equal to zero (0).", "The value of Manual Low Sw can be assigned by the manual override switch 210 and sent to the ECU 208 .", "That is, the manual override switch 210 can be configured with hardware and/or software to assign the value of Manual Low Sw based on the position (ON or OFF) of the manual override switch 210 .", "Alternatively, the manual override switch 210 can provide raw data to the ECU 208 and the ECU 208 can be provided with hardware and/or software to process the raw data into the appropriate value for Manual Low Sw.", "Also, the manual override switch 210 can provide the value for Manual Low Sw with or without a prompt from the ECU 208 .", "And, the value for Manual Low Sw can be stored in an electronic memory component external to or internal to at least one of the manual override switch 210 and the ECU 208 until needed by the ECU 208 .", "If the manual override switch 210 is placed in the ON position (i.e., the low range drive ratio is manually selected by the driver and the value of Manual Low Sw equals one (1)), then the subroutine can proceed to step S 104 .", "In step S 104 , the ECU 208 can select the low range drive ratio, in accordance with the driver's instruction.", "The ECU 208 then can proceed to step S 106 of the subroutine where the subroutine can end or go on to further processing steps to determine whether the current selection of drive ratio is continually appropriate.", "If the manual override switch 210 is activated by the driver, the ECU 208 can follow another subroutine where the ECU 208 can determine if it is not advantageous to permit manual engagement.", "Additionally, or alternatively, the ECU 208 can be configured to determine whether to disengage the low range drive ratio after it has been directly selected by the driver via the manual override switch 210 .", "The selection of the low range drive ratio can be carried to another subroutine where a decision can be made by the ECU 208 whether to signal the actuator 202 to move to the low range position.", "For example, the ECU 208 can be configured to collect data indicating the current position of the actuator 202 and comparing the current position to the position corresponding to the selection made at step S 104 .", "Alternatively, as part of step S 104 , the ECU 208 can signal the actuator 202 to move to the low range position, regardless of its current position.", "Also, as part of step S 104 or just prior to step S 104 or subsequent to step S 104 , the ECU 208 can be configured to compare other vehicle parameters before signaling the actuator 202 to move to the low range position at step S 104 .", "Examples of these parameters can include any of, but are not limited to, engine output torque, engine intake air flow, fuel flow, transmission output torque, transmission output speed, transmission gear selection, input speed of the power-take-off assembly 32 , output speed of the power-take-off assembly 32 , status of torque distribution in the rear differential 22 , position of an all-wheel-drive (AWD) manual switch or gear lever, vehicle inclination angle, vehicle load distribution, brake pedal position, and trailer detection signals.", "At any time, in the event that the ECU 208 determines an unsafe or undesired condition, a switch to low range (or back to high range) can be prevented by either the ECU 208 or by a mechanical limiting device or devices.", "The ECU 208 can work either alone or in combination with the mechanical limiting device(s) to prevent the transmission from switching between the low and high range positions.", "If the ECU 208 determines at step S 102 that the manual override switch 210 is not selected (i.e., placed in the OFF position and the value of Manual Low Sw equals zero (0)), then the control system 200 can operate in its automatic mode for selecting the appropriate one of the low range drive ratio and the high range drive ratio.", "And, the ECU 208 can proceed to step S 108 of the subroutine.", "Step S 108 can be useful for shift-on-the-fly capability for the control system 200 .", "At step S 108 , the ECU 208 can compare the data representing the real-time vehicle speed V provided by the vehicle speed sensor 204 with a maximum vehicle speed V max .", "The vehicle speed sensor 204 can be configured with hardware and/or software to assign the value of the real-time vehicle speed V and send it to the ECU 208 .", "Alternatively, the vehicle speed sensor 204 can send raw position data to the ECU 208 and the ECU 208 can be configured with hardware and/or software to process the raw data from the vehicle speed sensor 204 and assign the appropriate value to the real-time vehicle speed V based on this processing.", "Also, the vehicle speed sensor 204 can send the speed data to the ECU 208 without a prompt by the ECU 208 and the data can be stored in an electronic memory component internal to or external to at least one of the vehicle speed sensor 204 and the ECU 208 for access by the ECU 208 , as needed.", "Alternatively, the vehicle speed sensor 204 can send the data only when prompted by the ECU 208 .", "The maximum vehicle speed V max can be set at a predetermined value that can provide an advantageous operation of the vehicle 10 (or vehicle 310 described below) in the low range drive ratio.", "The maximum vehicle speed V max can be stored in an electronic memory device external to or internal to the ECU 208 for access by the ECU 208 , as needed.", "If the real-time vehicle speed V is at least equal to the maximum vehicle speed V max , then advantage(s) offered by the low range drive ratio may be diminished.", "Accordingly, the ECU 208 can proceed to step S 110 , where the high range drive ratio is selected.", "The ECU 208 can then proceed to step S 106 of the subroutine where the subroutine ends (or can go to further control or monitoring processing steps).", "As with the low range drive ratio selection, the selection of the high range drive ratio can be carried to another subroutine where a decision can be made whether to signal the actuator to move to the high range position.", "Alternatively, as part of step S 110 , the ECU 208 can signal the actuator 202 to move to the high range position, regardless of its current position.", "Also, as part of step S 110 , or just prior to step S 110 , the ECU 208 can be configured to compare other vehicle parameters before signaling the actuator 202 to move to the high range position at step S 110 .", "Examples of these parameters can include any of, but are not limited to the examples discussed above with respect to step S 104 .", "If the ECU 208 determines at step S 108 that the real-time vehicle speed V is less than the maximum vehicle speed V max , then the vehicle may be travelling at a speed for where an automatic shift to the low range drive ratio may be advantageous for the vehicle 10 .", "The ECU 208 can then proceed to step S 112 .", "At step S 112 , the ECU 208 can compare the data communicated by the accelerator pedal position sensor 206 (representing the real-time position AP of the accelerator pedal) to a minimum accelerator pedal position AP min .", "For example, the accelerator pedal (not shown) can have a real-time position AP that falls between an idle position where the internal combustion engine 14 operates under a minimum consumption of fuel and air and produces a minimum power output, and a wide-open throttle position where the internal combustion engine 14 operates under a maximum consumption of fuel and air.", "In general, each incremental position of the accelerator pedal between the idle position and the wide-open throttle position corresponds to a specific torque/power output value for the internal combustion engine 14 .", "The minimum accelerator position AP min can be selected from this range of accelerator positions that corresponds to a minimum torque/power output of the internal combustion engine 14 that can be advantageous in combination with the low range drive ratio.", "The minimum accelerator pedal position AP min can be stored in an electronic memory component external to or internal to the ECU 208 for access by the ECU 208 , as needed.", "Instead of measuring the real-time position AP of the accelerator pedal, the accelerator pedal position sensor 206 could measure the position of an engine throttle valve (not shown) that is mechanically or electrically coupled to the accelerator pedal, as is known in the art.", "In this exemplary embodiment, the engine throttle valve can move between an idle position and a wide-open throttle position that correspond, respectively, to the torque/power outputs of the internal combustion engine 14 described above.", "The accelerator pedal position sensor 206 can assign the value to the real-time position AP and can send this value to the ECU 208 .", "Alternatively, the accelerator pedal position sensor 206 can send raw position data to the ECU 208 and the ECU 208 can be configured with hardware and/or software to process the raw data from the accelerator pedal position sensor 206 and assign the appropriate value to the real-time position AP based on this processing.", "Also, the accelerator pedal position sensor 206 can send the position data to the ECU 208 without a prompt by the ECU 208 and the data can be stored in an electronic memory component internal to or external to the ECU 208 until the ECU 208 reaches step S 124 .", "Alternatively, the accelerator pedal position sensor 206 can send the data only when prompted by the ECU 208 .", "And, the value for the real-time position AP can be stored in an electronic memory component external to or internal to at least one of the ECU 208 and the accelerator pedal position sensor 206 for access by the ECU 208 , as needed.", "If the real-time position AP lies between the idle position and the minimum accelerator pedal position AP min , then the load on the internal combustion engine 14 may not be sufficient to take full advantage of the low range drive ratio.", "Accordingly, the ECU 208 can then proceed to step S 110 where the ECU 208 can select the high range drive ratio, as discussed above.", "The ECU 208 then can proceed to step S 106 of the subroutine where the subroutine can end, as discussed above.", "If the real-time position AP is greater than the minimum accelerator pedal position AP min , then the load on the internal combustion engine 14 may be sufficient to take advantage of the utility of the low range drive ratio.", "Accordingly, the ECU 208 can proceed to step S 114 of the subroutine.", "At step S 114 , the ECU 208 can compare the real-time vehicle acceleration dtV with a maximum vehicle acceleration dtV max .", "The maximum acceleration dtV max can be independent of the minimum accelerator pedal position AP min or the maximum acceleration dtV max can correspond to the minimum accelerator pedal position AP min .", "This comparison can be useful to determine if the engine load suggested by the accelerator pedal position sensor 206 would benefit from the low range drive ratio.", "That is, if the real-time vehicle acceleration dtV is less than the maximum vehicle acceleration dtV max despite a real-time accelerator pedal position AP indicative of a high torque/power output for the internal combustion engine 14 , then the low range drive ratio may be advantageous for the vehicle 10 .", "The real-time vehicle acceleration dtV can be provided by an acceleration sensor (not shown) in electrical communication with the ECU 208 .", "The acceleration sensor can assign the value of the real-time vehicle acceleration dtV and can send the real-time vehicle acceleration dtV to the ECU 208 .", "That is, the acceleration sensor can be configured with hardware and/or software to assign a value to the real-time vehicle acceleration dtV based on data sensed by the acceleration sensor.", "Alternatively, the acceleration sensor can provide raw data to the ECU 208 and the ECU 208 can be configured with hardware and/or software to process the raw data from the acceleration sensor and assign the appropriate value to the real-time vehicle acceleration dtV based on this processing.", "Also, the acceleration sensor can send the position data to the ECU 208 without a prompt by the ECU 208 and the data can be stored in an electronic memory component internal to or external to the ECU 208 until the ECU 208 reaches step S 114 .", "Alternatively, the acceleration sensor can send the data only when prompted by the ECU 208 .", "And, the value for the real-time vehicle acceleration dtV can be stored in an electronic memory component external to or internal to at least one of the acceleration sensor and the ECU 208 for access by the ECU 208 , as needed.", "Alternatively, the real-time vehicle acceleration dtV can be calculated from sequential values of the real-time vehicle speed V. Either the vehicle speed sensor 204 or the ECU 208 can be configured with hardware and/or software to calculate the real-time vehicle acceleration dtV from the sequential values of the real-time vehicle speed V. The sequential values of the real-time vehicle speed can be stored in an electronic memory component external to or internal to either the vehicle speed sensor 204 or the ECU 208 for access by the appropriate one of the vehicle speed sensor 204 and the ECU 208 , as needed.", "The value of the maximum vehicle acceleration dtV max can be stored in an electronic memory component external to or internal to at least one of the acceleration sensor, the vehicle speed sensor 204 , and the ECU 208 for access, as needed.", "If at step S 114 the ECU 208 determines that the real-time vehicle acceleration dtV is less than the maximum acceleration dtV max , the ECU 208 can proceed to step S 104 where the ECU selects the low range drive ratio, as discussed above.", "Then, the ECU 208 can proceed to step S 106 of the subroutine where the subroutine can end, as discussed above.", "If the ECU 208 determines at step S 104 that the real-time vehicle acceleration is not less than the maximum acceleration dtV max , then the ECU 208 can proceed to step S 110 where the ECU 208 can select the high range drive ratio.", "Thus, the actual vehicle performance substantially corresponds to an expected performance and the high range drive ratio can provide the most advantageous drivetrain performance with respect to power output and fuel consumption.", "Thus, steps S 108 , S 112 and S 114 can be beneficial for an automatic shift-on-the-fly capability of the control system 200 .", "FIG. 3 schematically represents another exemplary embodiment of a drivetrain of an automotive vehicle 310 that includes the control system 200 described above.", "Certain components of the vehicle 310 can be common with those of the vehicle 10 and are designated with like reference characters.", "The control system 200 of this embodiment of the vehicle 310 can implement the algorithm described above with reference to FIG. 2 .", "The vehicle 310 can be configured as a four-wheel drive vehicle or an all-wheel drive vehicle with a power source, such as an internal combustion engine 314 , driving a four-wheel-drive-type drivetrain.", "The drivetrain can include a multi-ratio transmission 328 that has a reverse drive ratio and a plurality of discrete forward drive ratios that can be selected manually or automatically, as disclosed above.", "Similarly, the multi-ratio transmission 328 can be a continuously variable multi-ratio transmission, as described above.", "In contrast to the vehicle 10 depicted by FIG. 1 , the internal combustion engine 314 and the multi-ratio transmission can be mounted along the longitudinal direction L of the vehicle 310 .", "The drivetrain can further include a pair of front driveshafts 16 L, 16 R, a pair of front wheels 18 L, 18 R, a primary propeller shaft 320 , a rear propeller shaft 324 , a front propeller shaft 326 , a front differential assembly 327 , a transfer case 330 , a rear differential assembly 322 , a pair of rear driveshafts 24 L, 24 R, and a pair of rear wheels 26 L, 26 R. The transfer case 330 can be spaced along the longitudinal direction L from the multi-ratio transmission 328 .", "The front propeller shaft 320 can connect the transfer case to the multi-ratio transmission 328 so that the multi-ratio transmission 328 can drive the transfer case 330 .", "Each of the rear propeller shaft 324 and the front propeller shaft 326 can be coupled to and driven by the transfer case in a manner known in the art.", "The transfer case 300 can include a gear assembly (not shown) that can provide each of the low range drive ratio and the high range drive ratio in a manner known in the art.", "The actuator 202 can be a component of the transfer case 330 and at least a portion of the actuator 202 can be mounted within the housing of the transfer case 330 , as is disclosed in the above-referenced U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 12/847,639, entitled “Transversely Mounted Transaxle Having A Low Range Gear Assembly and Powertrain for A Vehicle Including Same.”", "FIGS. 4-6 illustrate another embodiment of an algorithm in accordance with the presently disclosed subject matter.", "This alternate embodiment of the algorithm can be carried out in the control system 200 of FIG. 1 or FIG. 3 .", "The flowchart of FIG. 4 represents a main subroutine that can be built into hardware of the ECU 208 of FIG. 1 or FIG. 3 or executed when the ECU 208 of FIG. 1 or FIG. 3 runs software.", "The main subroutine can begin at step S 120 .", "At step S 122 , the ECU 208 can determine if the driver has by-passed the automatic selection of the low range drive ratio and the high range drive ratio via the manual override switch 210 .", "That is, at step S 122 , the ECU 208 can determine if the driver has manually selected the low range drive ratio.", "In this exemplary embodiment, when the driver places the manual override switch 210 in the ON position, the value of Manual Low Sw can be equal to one (1).", "And, when the driver places the manual override switch 210 in the OFF position, the value of Manual Low Sw can be equal to zero (0).", "The value of Manual Low Sw can be assigned by the manual override switch 210 and sent to the ECU 208 .", "That is, the manual override switch 210 can be configured with hardware and/or software to assign the value Manual Low Sw based on the position (ON or OFF) of the manual override switch 210 .", "Alternatively, the manual override switch 210 can provide raw data to the ECU 208 and the ECU 208 can be provided with hardware and/or software to process the raw data into the appropriate value for Manual Low Sw.", "Also, the manual override switch 210 can provide the value for Manual Low Sw with or without a prompt from the ECU 208 .", "And, the value for Manual Low Sw can be stored in an electronic memory component external to or internal to at least one of the manual override switch 210 and the ECU 208 until needed by the ECU 208 .", "If the manual override switch 210 is placed in the ON position (i.e., the low range drive ratio is manually selected by the driver and the value of Manual Low Sw equals one (1)), then the ECU can proceed to step S 124 of the main subroutine.", "Further details of this manual override function will be described later.", "If the driver has placed the manual override switch 210 in the OFF position, then the ECU 208 can proceed to step S 126 because the value for Manual Low Sw is not equal to one (1).", "The ECU 208 can begin the automatic mode for selecting the appropriate one of the low range drive ratio and the high range drive ratio at step S 126 .", "Step S 126 represents a subroutine (the Auto Low Set subroutine) that the ECU 208 can follow to determine automatically whether the low range drive ratio is appropriate or whether the high range drive ratio is appropriate.", "At step S 126 , the ECU 208 can assign a value of zero (0) or one (1) to Auto Low.", "If the ECU 208 has assigned the value of Auto Low to be equal to one (1), then the ECU 208 has determined in the Auto Low Set subroutine (i.e., step S 126 ) that conditions may be favorable for selection of the low range drive ratio.", "If the ECU 208 has assigned the value of Auto Low to be equal to one (1), then the ECU 208 has determined in the Auto Low Set subroutine that conditions may not be favorable for selection of the low range drive ratio.", "Details of the Auto Low Set subroutine followed at step S 126 will be discussed further with reference to FIG. 5 .", "After completing the Auto Low Set subroutine at step S 126 , the ECU can proceed to step S 128 .", "At step S 128 , the ECU 208 can compare the value of Auto Low assigned at step S 126 with a predetermined value.", "In this exemplary embodiment, this predetermined value can be one (1).", "This predetermined value can be stored in an electronic memory component external to or internal to the ECU 208 for access by the ECU 208 , as needed.", "If the ECU 208 determines that Auto Low equals one (1) at step S 128 , then the ECU can proceed to step S 130 .", "If the ECU 208 determines that Auto Low does not equal one (1) at step S 128 , then the ECU can proceed to step S 132 .", "If the ECU 208 moves from step S 128 to step S 130 , then the ECU 208 has determined that the low range drive ratio may be appropriate for the current vehicle conditions.", "At step S 130 , the ECU can select the low range drive ratio, in accordance with the automatic determination made by the ECU at step S 126 .", "This selection can involve the ECU 208 signaling the actuator 202 to move to the low range position.", "Alternatively, the signaling of the actuator 202 can be executed in a separate step or subroutine.", "For example, the ECU 208 can be configured to collect data indicating the current position of the actuator 202 and comparing the current position to the position corresponding to the selection made at step S 130 .", "Alternatively, as part of step S 130 , the ECU 208 can signal the actuator 202 to move to the low range position, regardless of its current position.", "Also, as part of step S 130 or just prior to step S 130 or subsequent to step S 130 , the ECU 208 can be configured to compare other vehicle parameters before signaling the actuator 202 to move to the low range position at step S 130 .", "Examples of these parameters can include any of, but are not limited to, engine output torque, engine intake air flow, fuel flow, transmission output torque, transmission output speed, transmission gear selection, input speed of the power-take-off assembly 32 , output speed of the power-take-off assembly 32 , status of torque distribution in the rear differential 22 , position of an AWD manual switch, vehicle inclination angle, vehicle load distribution, brake pedal position, and trailer detection signals.", "The ECU 208 can then proceed to step S 134 of the subroutine where the subroutine can end or go on to further processing steps to determine whether the current selection of the drive ratio is continually appropriate.", "If the ECU 208 moves from step S 128 to step S 132 , then the ECU 208 can select the high range drive ratio in accordance with the automatic determination made by the ECU 208 at step S 126 .", "This can involve the ECU 208 signaling the actuator 202 to move to the high range position.", "Alternatively, the signaling of the actuator 202 can be executed in a separate step or subroutine.", "For example, the ECU 208 can be configured to collect data indicating the current position of the actuator 202 and comparing the current position to the position corresponding to the selection made at step S 132 .", "Alternatively, as part of step S 132 , the ECU 208 can signal the actuator 202 to move to the low range position, regardless of its current position.", "If the ECU 208 moves from step S 122 to step S 124 , then the control system 200 is in the manual mode, in accordance with the driver's request.", "At step S 124 , the ECU 208 can determine whether the real-time position of the actuator 202 corresponds to the low range position or the high range position.", "The real-time actuator position can be reflected by the value Current Range.", "In this exemplary embodiment, when the actuator 202 is in the low range position, the value of Current Range can be zero (0).", "And, when the actuator 202 is in the high range position, the value of Current Range can be one (1).", "Prior to step S 124 , the ECU 208 can assign the value of Current Range based on the last value of actuator position.", "When the ignition switch (not shown) of the vehicle 10 , 310 is turned on, the ECU 208 can either retrieve from an electronic memory component external to or internal to the ECU 208 the last saved value of the actuator position.", "Alternatively, when the ignition switch is turned on, the ECU 208 can be configured with hardware and/or software to signal the actuator 202 of FIG. 1 or FIG. 3 to move to the high range position.", "If the vehicle 10 , 310 has been in operation and the ECU 208 has executed the subroutine of FIG. 4 at least once, then the ECU 208 can assign Current Range with a value that corresponds to the last actuator position selected by the ECU 208 in the subroutine of FIG. 4 .", "Alternately, the value of Current Range can be assigned by the actuator 202 and sent by the actuator 202 to the ECU 208 .", "Alternatively, the actuator 202 can send raw position data to the ECU 208 and the ECU 208 can be configured with hardware and/or software to process the raw data from the actuator 202 and assign the appropriate value of zero (0) or one (1) to Current Range based on this processing.", "Also, the actuator 202 can send the position data to the ECU 208 without a prompt by the ECU 208 and the data can be stored in an electronic memory component internal to or external to the ECU 208 until the ECU 208 reaches step S 124 .", "Alternatively, the actuator 202 can send the data only when prompted by the ECU 208 .", "At step S 124 , the ECU 208 can compare the value of Current Range to a predetermined value in order to determine which one of the low range drive ratio and the high range drive ratio is currently engaged.", "This predetermined value can be stored in an electronic memory component external to or internal to the ECU 208 .", "In this exemplary embodiment, the predetermined value can be equal to one (1).", "If the ECU 208 determines at step S 124 that the value of Current Range is not equal to one (1), then the ECU can proceed to step S 130 .", "If the ECU 208 determines at step S 124 that the value of Current Range is equal to one (1), then the ECU 208 can proceed to step S 136 .", "If the ECU 208 moves to step S 130 from step S 124 , then the current position of the actuator 202 corresponds to the low range position and the driver's request for the low range drive ratio is redundant to the real-time engagement of the low range drive ratio.", "When the ECU 208 moves to step S 130 , the ECU 208 can begin the process to signal the actuator 202 to remain in the low range position, as discussed above with respect to the automatic selection mode for the control system 200 .", "If the ECU 208 moves to step S 136 , then the current position of the actuator 202 corresponds to the high range position.", "At step S 136 , the ECU 208 can determine if the driver's manual request for a shift from the high range drive ratio to the low range drive ratio is appropriate based on the real-time vehicle speed V. The real-time vehicle speed V can be provided to the ECU 208 by the vehicle speed sensor 204 of FIG. 1 or FIG. 3 .", "The vehicle speed sensor 204 can be configured with hardware and/or software to assign the value of the real-time vehicle speed V and send it to the ECU 208 .", "Alternatively, the vehicle speed sensor 204 can send raw position data to the ECU 208 and the ECU 208 can be configured with hardware and/or software to process the raw data from the vehicle speed sensor 204 and assign the appropriate value to the real-time vehicle speed V based on this processing.", "Also, the vehicle speed sensor 204 can send the speed data to the ECU 208 without a prompt by the ECU 208 and the data can be stored in an electronic memory component internal to or external to at least one of the vehicle speed sensor 204 and the ECU 208 until the ECU 208 reaches step S 138 .", "Alternatively, the vehicle speed sensor 204 can send the data only when prompted by the ECU 208 .", "At step S 136 , the ECU 208 can compare the real-time vehicle speed V to a maximum speed value V max .", "The maximum speed value V max can be a predetermined value that can provide an advantageous operation of the vehicle 10 , 310 in the low range drive ratio.", "The maximum vehicle speed value V max can be stored in an electronic memory component external to or internal to the ECU 208 for access by the ECU 208 , as needed.", "If the ECU 208 determines at step S 136 that the real-time vehicle speed V is less than the maximum speed value V max , then a shift from the high range drive ratio to the low range drive ratio can be performed, in accordance with the driver's request.", "Then, the ECU 208 can proceed to step S 130 where step S 130 can be performed, as described above.", "Upon completion of step S 130 , the ECU can proceed to step S 134 and perform step S 134 , as discussed above.", "If the ECU 208 determines at step S 136 that the real-time vehicle speed V is not less than the maximum speed value V max , then advantage(s) offered by the low range drive ratio may be diminished.", "Accordingly, the ECU 208 can maintain the actuator 202 in the high range position.", "Then, the ECU 208 can proceed to step S 132 where step S 132 can be performed as described above.", "Upon completion of step S 132 , the ECU can proceed to step S 134 and perform step S 134 as discussed above.", "As mentioned above, at step S 126 , the ECU 208 can follow a subroutine that can be used to automatically select the appropriate one of the low range drive ratio and the high range drive ratio when the manual override switch in turned off.", "This subroutine (Auto Low Set subroutine) is represented by the flowchart of FIG. 5 and can begin at step S 140 .", "In the Auto Low Set subroutine, the ECU 208 can assign Auto Low with a value of zero (0) or one (1) based on real-time vehicle parameters.", "A value of zero (0) can represent a decision by the ECU 208 that conditions may not be favorable for the low range drive ratio.", "A value of one (1) can represent a decision by the ECU 208 that conditions may be favorable for the low range drive ratio.", "After entering the Auto Low Set subroutine at step S 140 , the ECU can proceed to step S 142 .", "At step S 142 , the ECU can compare the last value of Auto Low with a predetermined value.", "The last value of Auto Low can correspond to the value assigned by the ECU 208 when the ECU 208 last ran the Auto Low Set subroutine.", "Alternatively, the last value of Auto Low can correspond to the position of the actuator 202 the vehicle ignition is turned off.", "The last value of Auto Low Set can be stored in an electronic memory component external to or internal to the ECU 208 .", "If the low range drive ratio was last selected by the ECU 208 , then the last value of Auto Low can be equal to one (1) and the ECU 208 can proceed to step S 144 .", "At step S 144 , the ECU 208 can enter a subroutine (Auto Low Cancel Check subroutine) where the ECU can determine whether the current automatic engagement of the low range drive ratio should be maintained.", "Details of the Auto Low Cancel Check subroutine will be provided with the explanation of FIG. 6 , below.", "If the high range drive ratio was last selected, the value of Auto Low can be equal to zero (0).", "If the value of Auto Low equals zero (0), then the ECU 208 can proceed to step S 146 .", "If the ECU 208 moves from step S 142 to step S 146 , then the ECU 208 can begin the decision process to determine the appropriateness of an automatic shift from the high range drive ratio to the low range drive ratio.", "At step S 146 , the ECU 208 can compare the real-time position AP of the accelerator pedal with a minimum accelerator pedal position AP min .", "The accelerator pedal position sensor 206 can communicate the real-time position AP to the ECU 208 .", "For example, the accelerator pedal (not shown) can have a real-time position AP that falls between an idle position where the internal combustion engine 14 , 314 operates under a minimum consumption of fuel and air and produces a minimum power output, and a wide-open throttle position where the internal combustion engine 14 , 314 operates under a maximum consumption of fuel and air.", "In general, each incremental position of the accelerator pedal between the idle position and the wide-open throttle position corresponds to a specific torque/power output value for the internal combustion engine 14 , 314 .", "The minimum accelerator position AP min can be selected from this range of accelerator positions that corresponds to a minimum torque/power output of the internal combustion engine 14 , 314 that can be advantageous in combination with the low range drive ratio.", "The minimum accelerator pedal position AP min can be stored in an electronic memory component external to or internal to the ECU 208 for access by the ECU 208 , as needed.", "Instead of measuring the real-time position AP of the accelerator pedal, the accelerator pedal position sensor 206 could measure the position of an engine throttle valve (not shown) that is mechanically or electrically coupled to the accelerator pedal, as is known in the art.", "In this exemplary embodiment, the engine throttle valve can move between an idle position and a wide-open throttle position that correspond, respectively, to the torque/power outputs of the internal combustion engine 14 , 314 described above.", "The accelerator pedal position sensor 206 can assign the value to the real-time position AP and can send this value to the ECU 208 .", "Alternatively, the accelerator pedal position sensor 206 can send raw position data to the ECU 208 and the ECU 208 can be configured with hardware and/or software to process the raw data from the accelerator pedal position sensor 206 and assign the appropriate value to the real-time position AP based on this processing.", "Also, the accelerator pedal position sensor 206 can send the position data to the ECU 208 without a prompt by the ECU 208 and the data can be stored in an electronic memory component internal to or external to at least one of the accelerator pedal position sensor 206 and the ECU 208 for access by the ECU 208 , as needed.", "Alternatively, the accelerator pedal position sensor 206 can send the data only when prompted by the ECU 208 .", "And, the value for the real-time position AP can be stored in an electronic memory component external to or internal to at least one of the ECU 208 and the accelerator pedal position sensor 206 for access by the ECU 208 , as needed.", "If the real-time position AP lies between the idle position and the minimum accelerator pedal position AP min , inclusive, then the load on the internal combustion engine 14 , 314 may not be sufficient to take full advantage of the low range drive ratio.", "That is, the real-time position AP is not greater than the minimum accelerator pedal position AP min and the ECU 208 can then proceed to step S 148 .", "If the ECU 208 moves from step S 146 to step S 148 , then the ECU 208 can assign Auto Low with a value equal to zero (0).", "Then, the ECU can move step S 150 , where the ECU 208 can exit the Auto Low Set subroutine and return to step S 126 of the main subroutine represented by FIG. 4 .", "The ECU 208 can then proceed with the steps subsequent to step S 126 of the main subroutine, as described above with reference to FIG. 4 .", "If the real-time position AP is greater than the minimum accelerator pedal position AP min , then the load on the internal combustion engine 14 , 314 may be sufficient to take advantage of the utility of the low range drive ratio.", "Accordingly, the ECU 208 can proceed to step S 152 of the Auto Low Set subroutine.", "At step S 152 , the ECU 208 can compare the real-time vehicle acceleration dtV with a maximum vehicle acceleration dtV max .", "The maximum acceleration dtV max can be independent of the minimum accelerator pedal position AP min or the maximum acceleration dtV max can correspond to the minimum accelerator pedal position AP min .", "This comparison can be useful to determine if the engine load suggested by the accelerator pedal position sensor 206 would benefit from the low range drive ratio.", "That is, if the real-time vehicle acceleration dtV is less than the maximum vehicle acceleration dtV max despite a real-time accelerator pedal position AP indicative of a high torque/power output for the internal combustion engine 14 , 314 , then the low range drive ratio may be advantageous for the vehicle 10 , 310 .", "The real-time vehicle acceleration dtV can be provided by an acceleration sensor (not shown) in electrical communication with the ECU 208 .", "The acceleration sensor can assign the value of the real-time vehicle acceleration dtV and can send the real-time vehicle acceleration dtV to the ECU 208 .", "That is, the acceleration sensor can be configured with hardware and/or software to assign a value to the real-time vehicle acceleration dtV based on data sensed by the acceleration sensor.", "Alternatively, the acceleration sensor can provide raw data to the ECU 208 and the ECU 208 can be configured with hardware and/or software to process the raw data from the acceleration sensor and assign the appropriate value to the real-time vehicle acceleration dtV based on this processing.", "Also, the acceleration sensor can send the position data to the ECU 208 without a prompt by the ECU 208 and the data can be stored in an electronic memory component internal to or external to the ECU 208 until the ECU 208 reaches step S 114 .", "Alternatively, the acceleration sensor can send the data only when prompted by the ECU 208 .", "And, the value for the real-time vehicle acceleration dtV can be stored in an electronic memory component external to or internal to at least one of the acceleration sensor and the ECU 208 for access by the ECU 208 , as needed.", "Alternatively, the real-time vehicle acceleration dtV can be calculated from sequential values of the real-time vehicle speed V. Either the vehicle speed sensor 204 or the ECU 208 can be configured with hardware and/or software to calculate the real-time vehicle acceleration dtV from the sequential values of the real-time vehicle speed V. The sequential values of the real-time vehicle speed can be stored in an electronic memory component external to or internal to either the vehicle speed sensor 204 or the ECU 208 for access by the appropriate one of the vehicle speed sensor 204 and the ECU 208 , as needed.", "The value of the maximum vehicle acceleration dtV max can be stored in an electronic memory component external to or internal to at least one of the acceleration sensor, the vehicle speed sensor 204 , and the ECU 208 for access, as needed.", "If the ECU 208 determines at step S 152 that the real-time vehicle acceleration not less than the maximum acceleration dtV max , then the ECU 208 can proceed to step S 148 where the ECU 208 can assign Auto Low with a value that can be equal to zero (0).", "Thus, the actual vehicle performance substantially corresponds to an expected performance and the high range drive ratio can provide the most advantageous drivetrain performance with respect to power output and fuel consumption.", "Then the ECU 208 can continue as discussed above.", "If at step S 152 the ECU 208 determines that the real-time vehicle acceleration dtV is less than the maximum acceleration dtV max , the ECU 208 can proceed to step S 154 .", "At step S 154 , the ECU 208 can compare the data representing the real-time vehicle speed V provided by the vehicle speed sensor 204 with the maximum vehicle speed V max , as discussed above with respect to step S 136 .", "If the real-time vehicle speed V is not less than the maximum vehicle speed V max , then advantage(s) offered by the low range drive ratio may be diminished.", "Accordingly, the ECU 208 can proceed to steps S 148 and S 150 , where the ECU 208 can proceed as discussed above.", "If the ECU 208 determines at step S 154 that the real-time vehicle speed V is less than the maximum vehicle speed V max , then the vehicle may be travelling at a speed for where an automatic shift to the low range drive ratio may be advantageous for the vehicle 10 .", "The ECU 208 can then proceed to step S 156 where the ECU 208 can assign Auto Low with a value that can be equal to one (1).", "Then, the ECU 208 can proceed to step S 150 , as discussed above.", "Thus, the flowchart of FIG. 5 has been described under various conditions where the ECU 208 enters step S 140 with Auto Low having a value not equal to one (1).", "That, the actuator 202 is not in the low range position when the ECU 208 begins the Auto Low Set subroutine.", "Next, execution of an algorithm represented by the flowchart of FIG. 5 will be described, where the actuator 202 is in the low range position when the ECU 208 begins the Auto Low Set subroutine.", "In this example, the value of Auto Low can be equal to one (1) and the ECU 208 will move from step S 142 to step S 144 .", "At step S 144 , the ECU 208 will begin another subroutine (Auto Low Cancel Check subroutine) where the ECU 208 will first determine if the actuator 202 should be move from the low range position to the high range position.", "In this subroutine, the ECU 208 can assign Auto Low Cancel a value that can be equal to zero (0) or one (1).", "A value of zero (0) for Auto Low Cancel can represent a condition where further use of the low range drive ratio can be beneficial to the performance of the vehicle 10 , 310 .", "A value of one (1) for Auto Low Cancel can represent a condition where any advantage(s) offered by the low range drive ratio may be diminished with continued use of the low range drive ratio.", "The ECU 208 will return from the Auto Low Cancel Check subroutine and resume the Auto Low Set subroutine at step S 144 .", "Details of this subroutine will be discussed with respect to FIG. 6 below.", "After resuming at step S 144 , the ECU 208 can then proceed to step S 158 .", "At step S 158 , the ECU 208 can compare the value of Auto Low Cancel with a predetermined value.", "In this exemplary embodiment, the predetermined value can be equal to one (1).", "If the ECU 208 determines that Auto Low Cancel is equal to one (1), then the ECU 208 can proceed to steps S 148 and S 150 , as discussed above.", "If the ECU 208 determines that Auto Low Cancel is not equal to one (1), then the ECU 208 can proceed to steps S 156 and S 150 , as discussed above.", "Under certain conditions, it may be prudent for the ECU 208 to automatically cause a shift from the low range drive ratio to the high range drive ratio.", "For example, it may be beneficial to engage the high range drive ratio every instance just prior to turning off the engine ignition.", "By way of another example, it may be beneficial for the ECU to automatically shift from the low range drive ratio to the high range drive ratio when the vehicle reaches a traveling speed that is suggestive of normal traction conditions, such as, clear, dry pavement, level ground, etc.", "In contrast, an example where it may be prudent to maintain engagement of the low range drive ratio may be when the traction control system is active.", "Other exemplary scenarios where maintenance or cancellation of the low range drive ratio are possible and are apparent to those skilled in the art.", "As previously mentioned, step S 144 of the Auto Low Set subroutine can represent the Auto Low Cancel Check subroutine that can be used to determine if the current automatic engagement of the low range drive ratio should be maintained.", "The ECU 208 can begin the Auto Low Cancel Check subroutine at step S 160 .", "The ECU 208 can move from step S 160 to step S 162 , where the ECU can compare the value of the real-time position AP with a predetermined value.", "In this exemplary embodiment, the predetermined value can be zero (0).", "This value of the real-time position AP can represent a condition where the accelerator pedal (or the throttle valve) is in the idle position, as discussed above.", "Step S 162 can be used by the ECU 208 to determine whether to activate an accelerator pedal timer T AP or to reset the accelerator pedal timer T AP .", "As will be discussed below, the accelerator pedal timer T AP can be used by the ECU 208 to cancel further use of the low range drive ratio and to cause an automatic shift to the high range driver ratio.", "At ignition on or at ignition off, the value of the accelerator pedal timer T AP can be set by the ECU 208 at a predetermined value and stored in an electronic memory component external to or internal to the ECU 208 for access by the ECU 208 , as needed.", "The predetermined value can represent a maximum time deemed appropriate by one skilled in the art.", "Thus, when the ECU 208 enters the Auto Low Check subroutine for the first time, the accelerator pedal timer T AP can be set at its predetermined value.", "If the ECU 208 determines that the real-time position AP has a value not equal to zero (0), then the ECU 208 can move to step S 164 .", "At step S 164 , the ECU 208 can set the accelerator pedal timer T AP to be equal to the predetermined value.", "If the ECU 208 determines that the real-time position AP has a value equal to zero (0), then the ECU 208 can proceed to step S 164 where the ECU 208 can decrement (i.e., increment by a negative number) the current value of the accelerator pedal timer T AP .", "Other values can be used as the basis for the comparison of the value of AP step S 162 with a corresponding change in the decisions “Yes”", "and “No.”", "By way of example, the comparison at step S 162 can be “AP>0?”", "with the decision leading to step S 166 being “No”", "and the decision leading to step S 164 being “Yes.”", "From either step S 164 or step S 166 , the ECU 208 can proceed to step S 168 .", "At step S 168 , the ECU 208 can determine if the traction control system (TCS) is active.", "The ECU 208 can obtain real-time status data of the TCS from an electronic memory component external to or internal to the ECU 208 , as needed.", "Alternatively, the ECU 208 can be connected to an ECU that manages the TCS, such as a dedicated TCS ECU or an ECU dedicated to engine management.", "The ECU 208 can be configured with hardware and/or software to further process the real-time TCS status data or the ECU 208 can obtain this data ready for use by the ECU 208 at step S 168 .", "If the TCS is not active, then the ECU 208 can move to step S 170 .", "If the TCS is active, then the ECU 208 can skip to step S 172 .", "At step S 170 , the ECU 208 can compare the real-time vehicle speed V to the maximum low range speed V max,low .", "The maximum low range speed V max,low can be set a predetermined value deemed appropriate by one skilled in the art.", "In this exemplary embodiment, the maximum low range speed V max,low can be set at a value that can correspond to the maximum speed at which the low range drive ratio may be beneficial to performance of the vehicle 10 , 310 .", "Alternatively, the maximum low range speed V max,low can be equal to the maximum vehicle speed V max discussed above.", "Step S 170 can be used by the ECU 208 to determine whether to activate a vehicle speed timer T V or to reset the vehicle speed timer T V .", "As will be discussed below the vehicle speed timer T V can be used by the ECU 208 to cancel further use of the low range drive ratio and to cause an automatic shift to the high range driver ratio.", "At ignition on or at ignition off, the value of the vehicle speed timer T V can be set by the ECU 208 at a predetermined value and stored in an electronic memory component external to or internal to the ECU 208 for access by the ECU 208 , as needed.", "The predetermined value can represent a maximum time deemed appropriate by one skilled in the art.", "Thus, when the ECU 208 enters the Auto Low Check subroutine for the first time, the vehicle speed timer T V can be set at its predetermined value.", "If the ECU 208 determines that the real-time vehicle speed V is not greater than the maximum low range speed V max,low, then the ECU 208 can proceed to step S 172 .", "At step S 172 , the ECU 208 can set the vehicle speed timer T V to be equal to the predetermined value.", "If the ECU 208 determines that the real-time vehicle speed V is greater than the maximum low range speed V max,low , then the ECU 208 can proceed to step S 174 where the ECU 208 can decrement the current value of the vehicle speed timer T V .", "From either step S 170 or step S 174 , the ECU 208 can proceed to step S 176 .", "At step S 176 , the ECU can determine if either of the timers T AP , T V have time out.", "If either timer equals zero (0) then the ECU can proceed to step S 178 where the ECU can assign a value to Auto Low Cancel that can be equal to one (1).", "If the ECU 208 determines that both timers are not equal to zero (0), then the ECU can proceed to step S 180 , where the ECU 208 can assign a value to Auto Low Cancel that can be equal to zero (0).", "From either step S 178 or step S 180 , the ECU 208 can proceed to step S 182 .", "At step S 182 , the ECU 208 can exit the Auto Low Cancel Check subroutine and resume the Auto Low Set subroutine at step S 144 , as discussed above.", "Other parameters can be considered in the subroutines represented by FIGS. 4-6 .", "Examples of these parameters can include any of, but are not limited to, engine output torque, engine intake air flow, fuel flow, transmission output torque, transmission output speed, transmission gear selection, input speed of the power-take-off assembly 32 , output speed of the power-take-off assembly 32 , status of torque distribution in the rear differential 22 , position of an AWD manual switch, vehicle inclination angle, vehicle load distribution, brake pedal position, and trailer detection signals.", "Thus, an algorithm in accordance with the disclosed subject matter and executed by the control system n accordance with the disclosed subject matter can provide automatic on-the-fly shifts between the low range drive ratio and the high range drive ratio.", "Such a control system can also permit the driver to override the automatic selection of the low and high range drive ratios and request engagement of the low range drive ratio.", "Such a control system 200 can also monitor the driver's request for manual engagement of the low range drive ratio.", "While certain embodiments of the disclosed subject matter are described above, it should be understood that the disclosed subject matter can be embodied and configured in many different ways without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosed subject matter.", "While the method and control loop shown in FIGS. 2 and 4 - 6 are described with respect to certain steps S 100 -S 114 and S 120 -S 182 , there could be many different and additional steps in various chronological order without departing from the scope of the presently disclosed subject matter.", "Additionally, the values of Manual Low Sw, Current Range, Auto Low, and Auto Low Cancel could be compared to values different from either zero (0) or one (1).", "In accordance with these modification, the decision answers correspondingly can be changed from “Yes”", "to “No”", "and from “No”", "to “Yes”", "at steps S 122 , S 124 , S 128 , S 142 , S 158 .", "In a another modification in accordance with the disclosed subject matter, the comparison base (i.", "e, Vmax, APmin, dtVmax) for any or all of the real-time vehicle speed V, the real-time accelerator position AP and the real-time vehicle acceleration dtV can be assigned different values with a corresponding change in the mathematical symbol representing the comparison and/or the decision answers (i.e., “Yes”", "and “No”) at steps S 146 , S 152 , S 154 , and S 170 .", "Also, the timers T V , T AP can be incremented instead of decremented at steps S 166 and S 174 .", "In this alternate embodiment, the timers T V , T AP can be reset to a minimum value (or to a value equal to zero (0)).", "In a further modification, the timers T V , T AP can be compared to a maximum timer value (for example, a value of thirty (30)) instead of to a value of zero (0) when the timers are either decremented or incremented, with a corresponding change in the values of “Yes”", "and “No”", "at the comparison decision step S 176 .", "In another exemplary embodiment, the ECU 208 can be directly connected to the engine 14 , 314 and the transmission 28 , 328 via electrical communication lines.", "Alternatively, the ECU 208 can be connected to an ECU(s) for the engine 14 , 314 and/or the transmission 28 , 328 via electrical communication lines.", "In yet another possible embodiment, the presently disclosed subject matter could be incorporated into a manual transmission, if desired.", "In such a case, the operator of the vehicle could realize the benefit of using a low or high gear ratio without making the decision to place (or manually placing) the vehicle into the low or high range ratio.", "While the subject matter has been described in detail with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that various changes can be made, and equivalents employed, without departing from the scope of the invention.", "All related art references discussed in the above Description of the Related Art section are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application is a continuation in part of U.S. application Ser.", "No. 13/558,152, filed Jul. 25, 2012, entitled “METHOD OF USING BOTH MIR-196A AND MIR-196B AS BIOMARKERS FOR DETECTING ORAL CANCER.”", "The entire teachings of the above application are incorporated herein by reference.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1.", "Field of the Invention [0003] The invention relates to oral cancer treatments and more particularly to a method of using sequence of antagomiR for developing medicine for inhibiting oral cancer cells from spreading.", "[0004] 2.", "Description of Related Art [0005] A biomarker is in general a substance used as an indicator of a biological state.", "It is a characteristic that is objectively measured and evaluated as an indicator of normal biological processes, pathogenic processes, or pharmacologic responses to a therapeutic intervention.", "Currently, CEA (carcinoembryonic antigen) is used for colorectal cancer indication and PSA (prostate-particular antigen) is used for prostate cancer indication.", "However, biomarkers for indicating oral cancer are not available as far as the present inventor is aware.", "[0006] MicroRNA (abbreviated miRNA) is a short ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecule found in eukaryotic cells.", "A microRNA molecule has very few nucleotides (average of 22) compared with other RNAs.", "[0007] It is found that miRNA is capable of control target genes based on recent research.", "Further, different types of cancer have different miRNA molecules based on other recent researches.", "However, their applications to oral cancer treatment are unknown.", "Further endeavor is thus desired.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0008] One aspect of the invention is to provide a method of developing medicine for inhibiting oral cancer cells from spreading comprising the steps of combining the sequence of antagomiR with active ingredient to prepare a medicine which is configured to administer to oral cavity grown with oral cancer cells so that both miR-196a and miR-196b of the sequence of antagomiR are configuring of developing medicine for curing oral cancer cells wherein the miR-196a has a sequence of 5′-UAGGUAGUUUCAUGUUGUUGGG-3′(SEQ ID NO[.", "].1), and the miR-196b has a sequence of 5′-UAGGUAGUUUCCUGUUGUUGGG-3′(SEQ ID NO[.", "].2).", "[0009] Preferably, the oral cancer cells spread includes oral cancer cells migration and invasion.", "[0010] Preferably, both anti-miR-196a and anti-miR-196b of the sequence of antagomiR are configuring of developing medicine for inhibiting oral cancer cell spreading;", "and wherein the anti-miR-196a has a sequence of 5′-CCCAACAACAUGAAACUACCUA-3′(SEQ.", "ID.", "NO[.", "].3) for inhibiting miR-196a, and the anti-miR-196b has a sequence of 5′-CCCAACAACAGGAAACUACCUA-3′(SEQ.", "ID.", "NO[.", "].4) for inhibiting miR-196b.", "[0011] Preferably, both anti-miR-196a for inhibiting miR-196a and anti-miR-196a for inhibiting miR-196a show a great reduction of cell migration/invasion ability in OECM1 and SAS cells.", "[0012] Preferably, both scramble anti-miR-196a and scramble anti-miR-196b are used as a reference group;", "and wherein the scramble anti-miR-196a has a sequence of 5′-AACAAAUUCAACCCGUCCCAAA-3′(SEQ.", "ID.", "NO[.", "].5), and the scramble anti-miR-196b has a sequence of 5′-AUACAAAUCGCACGAACCAACC-3′(SEQ.", "ID.", "NO[.", "].6).", "[0013] It is therefore one object of the invention to provide a method of developing medicine for inhibiting oral cancer cells from spreading.", "The invention uses miR-196a and miR-196b as biomarkers for oral cancer detection comprising the steps of analyzing a sample from each of a plurality of human beings in terms of miR-196a and miR-196b wherein the miR-196a has a sequence of SEQ ID NO[.", "].1 and miR-196b has a sequence of SEQ ID NO[.", "].2;", "anti-miR-196a has a sequence of SEQ ID NO[.", "].3 and anti-miR-196b has a sequence of SEQ ID NO[.", "].4;", "scramble anti-miR-196a has a sequence of SEQ ID NO[.", "].5 and scramble anti-miR-196b has a sequence of SEQ ID NO[.", "].6;", "and detecting one of the human beings to have oral cancer if intensity of either miR-196a or miR-196b of the sample belonging to the human being is higher than a predetermined value, wherein the predetermined value of miR-196a is 1.817±0.38 and the predetermined value of miR-196b is 7.683±1.88.", "[0014] Wherein the method of analyzing a sample from each of a plurality of human beings in terms of miR-196a and miR-196b comprises the sub-steps of: [0015] (a1) sampling blood plasma with each sample having a volume of 200 μl [0016] (a2) extracting nucleic acid by a reagent which does not remove small RNAs;", "[0017] (a3) adding 700 μl 1QlAzol to each sample for homogeneousness;", "[0018] (a4) adding 140 μl trichloromethane to each sample to extract RNAs;", "[0019] (a5) removing about 525 μl of upper pure liquid of the sample to a new tube after using a centrifuge;", "[0020] (a6) adding 750 μl pure alcohol to the sample to deposit nucleic acid;", "[0021] (a7) obtaining deposits from the sample by using the reagent;", "[0022] (a8) draining the sample;", "[0023] (a9) adding 20 μl water of RNase-free to the sample to extract nucleic acid from the sample;", "[0024] (a10) for obtaining a constant quantity of nucleic acid, employing a reverse constant polymerase chain reaction reagent;", "[0025] (a11) employing extracted 3 μl nucleic acid for reverse reaction;", "[0026] (a12) adding 4 units of reverse reaction enzyme, 10 units of nucleic acid water soluble enzyme inhibition reagent, and 25 mM deoxy-ribonucleoside triphosphate (dNTP) to a reaction chamber having 30 μl volume;", "[0027] (a13) maintaining the chamber at 37-degree Celsius for about 30 minutes;", "[0028] (a14) employing a real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) detection instrument for real time constant quantity PCR;", "[0029] (a15) combining 8 μl reverse reacted product with 1 μl probe ;", "[0030] (a16) adding 1 μl water and 10 μl constant quantity PCR reagent to the mixture for reaction;", "and [0031] (a17) showing results as threshold cycle values in terms of relative presence.", "[0032] The above and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description taken with the accompanying drawings.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0033] FIG. 1 is a photograph showing values of 19 miRNA increased and values of 4 miRNA decreased with respect to an oral cancer group and a normal group of cells according to the invention;", "[0034] FIG. 2A plots mean intensity of 6 oral cancer cell lines versus mean intensity of 5 normal oral keratinocytes;", "[0035] FIG. 2B shows a table of 6 oral cancer cell lines (C) (mean value), 5 normal oral keratinocytes (mean value), fold (C/N), and P-value in columns;", "[0036] FIG. 3 depicts oral cancer cells OECM1 and SAS detected by using scramble control (SC) and antagomiR of miR-196a and miR-196b in a wound healing assay;", "wherein SC means that nucleic acid in the sequence is the same as that in the anti-sequence (e.g., antagomiR, anti-miR-196a and anti-miR-196b) but with random sequence;", "[0037] FIG. 4 depicts oral cancer cells OECM1 and SAS, and oral cancer cells OECM and SAS by using particular pcDNA (as vector control) and over-expressing plasmid of miR-196a and miR-196b in a wound healing assay;", "[0038] FIG. 5 depicts oral cancer cells OECM1 and SAS detected by using scramble control (SC) and antagomiR of miR-196a and miR-196b in a cell invasion assay;", "wherein SC means that nucleic acid in the composition of sequence is the same as that in the anti-sequence (e.g., antagomiR, anti-miR-196a and anti-miR-196b) but with random sequence;", "[0039] FIG. 6 is a plot similar to FIG. 5 showing the cell invasion ability after whether over-expression of miR-196a and miR196b by plasmid in terms of pcDNA (vector control), miR-196a and miR-196b;", "[0040] FIG. 7 depicts 52 out of 54 samples being tumor samples in which miR-196a is present in the tumor more than two times as that in the adjacent normal cells in part (a) and 48 out of 54 samples being tumor samples in which miR-196b is present in the tumor more than two times as that in the adjacent normal cells in part (B);", "and [0041] FIG. 8 plots relative expression (fold) versus samples of blood plasma of a normal person and an oral cancer patient in black spots in part (A), and sensitivity versus specificity for an area under curve (AUC) in part (B), both being in terms of miR-196a;", "and [0042] FIG. 9 plots relative expression (fold) versus samples of blood plasma of a normal person and an oral cancer patient in black spots in part (A), and sensitivity versus specificity for an area under curve (AUC) in part (B), both being in terms of miR-196b.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0043] Referring to FIGS. 1 to 9 , a method of using sequence of antagomiR for developing medicine for inhibiting oral cancer cells from spreading in accordance with the invention is illustrated below.", "[0044] It is envisaged by the invention that sequence of antagomiR can be combined with active ingredient to prepare a medicine which can be administered to the oral cavity cancer cell metastasis.", "Further, both miR-196a and miR-196b of sequence of antagomiR can effectively inhibit oral cancer cells from spreading.", "Both miR-196a and miR-196b present in the blood plasma, serum, saliva, or tumor of a patient are analyzed.", "miR-196a has the sequence of 5′-UAGGUAGUUUCAUGUUGUUGGG-3′(SEQ.", "ID.", "NO[.", "].1), miR-196b has the sequence of 5′-UAGGUAGUUUCCUGUUGUUGGG-3′(SEQ.", "ID.", "NO[.", "].2), anti-miR-196a has the sequence of 5′-CCCAACAACAUGAAACUACCUA-3′(SEQ.", "ID.", "NO[.", "].3), anti-miR-196b has the sequence of 5′-CCCAACAACAGGAAACUACCUA-3′(SEQ.", "ID.", "NO[.", "].4), scramble anti-miR-196a has the sequence of 5′-AACAAAUUCAACCCGUCCCAAA-3′(SEQ.", "ID.", "NO[.", "].5), and scramble anti-miR-196b has the sequence of 5′-AUACAAAUCGCACGAACCAACC-3′(SEQ.", "ID.", "NO[.", "].6).", "Intensity of miR-196a or miR-196b higher than normal value means the patient may have oral cancer.", "Oral cancer cells spread includes oral cancer cells migration and invasion.", "[0045] The oral cancer cells spread includes oral cancer cells migration and invasion.", "[0046] First, nucleic acids of oral cancer cells are analyzed by using miR-196a and miR-196b according to the invention.", "Intensity of miR-196a and miR-196b in blood plasma of an oral cancer patient is next compared with that of a normal person.", "It is found that the intensity of miR-196a and miR-196b in blood plasma of the oral cancer patient is much higher than that of the normal person.", "Thus, it is possible of determining whether a patient has oral cancer in an early stage or not by calculating the intensity of miR-196a and miR-196b of blood plasma of the patient.", "[0047] An analysis method developed by Agilent Technology (USA) is employed by the invention to compare nucleic acids in oral cancer cell lines of a patient with that in oral keratinocytes of a normal person.", "470 nucleic acids in both 6 oral cancer cell lines of a patient and 5 normal oral keratinocyte are compared with each other and its results are shown in FIG. 2A .", "In Y-axis, mean intensity of 6 oral cancer cell lines is shown and in X-axis, mean intensity of 5 normal oral keratinocytes is shown.", "[0048] As shown in FIG. 2B , 23 miRNAs are significantly different from each other in terms of 6 oral cancer cell lines (C) (mean value), 5 normal oral keratinocytes (mean value), fold (C/N), and P-value in columns.", "Low P-values means substantially the same characteristics of nucleic acids in the same group.", "Fold (C/N) for miR-196a is 17.20 and that for miR-196b is 10.96.", "This means that both miR-196a and miR-196b play a great role in oral cancer detection.", "470 nucleic acids are detected.", "Next, clustering analysis of 190 nucleic acids out of the 470 nucleic acids is done after normalization and weak signals removal.", "This unsupervised hierarchical clustering analysis is shown to divide samples into oral cancer cell lines and normal oral keratinocytes.", "These two groups are subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) with conditions of false discovery rate (FDR) less than 0.1 and more than two times variance.", "It is indicated that there exists a significant difference among 23 miRNAs with respect to oral cancer cell lines and normal oral keratinocytes.", "As shown in FIG. 1 , values of 19 nucleic acids are increased and values of 4 nucleic acids are decreased with respect to an oral cancer patient and a normal person.", "[0049] Further, influence of miR-196a and miR-196b for cell migration is analyzed by the invention by conducting a wound healing assay.", "In detail, two oral cancer cells OECM1 and SAS are detected by using antagomiR, anti-miR-196a of miR-196a, and anti-miR-196b of miR-196b in order to decrease presence level of miR-196a and miR-196b in cells.", "Therefore, time for cells migrating to gap in the experiment group is greater than that in the control group as shown in FIG. 3 .", "As shown, the oral cancer cells OECM1 and SAS are detected by using scramble control (SC) and antagomiR of miR-196a and miR-196b in the wound healing assay.", "SC means that nucleic acid in the sequence is the same as that in the anti-sequence (e.g., antagomiR, anti-miR-196a and anti-miR-196b) but with random sequence.", "[0050] Two cell lines show reduction of miR-196 as or miR-196bs by antagomiR with decreased number in the experiment group do not fill the gap when cells in the control group fill the gap.", "Moreover, for proving the influence of miR-196a and miR-196b to cells migration, a great number of miR-196as and miR-196bs are present in cells as shown in FIG. 4 .", "As shown, oral cancer cell OECM1 and SAS have transduction of particular pcDNA, miR-196a and miR-196b plasmid.", "The pcDNA is taken as control group.", "Subsequently, a wound healing assay is conducted to test cells migration capability.", "After 9 hours, miR-196a of oral cancer cell OECM1 moves a great distance to fill the gap but pcDNA thereof moves a less distance with the gap not being filled (see top left corner).", "After 9 hours, miR-196a of oral cancer cell SAS moves a great distance to fill the gap but pcDNA thereof moves a less distance with the gap not being filled (see top right corner).", "After 9 hours, miR-196b of oral cancer cell OECM moves a great distance to fill the gap but pcDNA thereof moves a less distance with the gap not being filled (see bottom left corner).", "After 9 hours, miR-196b of oral cancer cell SAS moves a great distance to fill the gap but pcDNA thereof moves a less distance with the gap not being filled (see bottom right corner).", "In brief, miR-196a or miR-196b can move faster than a cell's particular pcDNA of the control group.", "[0051] Matrigel invasion assay is employed to determine whether miR-196a or miR-196b can change a cell's invasion capability.", "Two oral cancer cells OECM1 and SAS are detected by using antagomiR, anti-miR-196a and anti-miR-196b of miR-196a, and miR-196b in order to decrease presence level of miR-196a and miR-196b in cells.", "In detail, the oral cancer cells OECM1 and SAS are detected by using scramble control (SC) of miR-196a and miR-196b.", "SC means that nucleic acid in the sequence is the same as that in the anti-sequence (e.g., antagomiR, anti-miR-196a and anti-miR-196b) but with random sequence.", "This is best shown in FIG. 5 .", "In FIG. 5 , anti-196a is anti-miR-196a and anti-196b is anti-miR-196b.", "[0052] In the two oral cancer cells, antagonized sequence of miR-196a and miR-196b is employed to decrease the presence of miR-196a and miR-196b.", "Thus, the number of cells passing gel substance of substrate is less as compared with cells in the control group.", "As compared with cells in the experiment group, the number of OECM1 cells passing gel substance of substrate is decreased to 49% and the number of SAS cells passing gel substance of substrate is decreased to 31% in evaluating the performance of antagonizing miR-196a.", "Similarly, as compared with cells in the experiment group, the number of OECM1 cells passing gel substance of substrate is decreased to 34% and the number of SAS cells passing gel substance of substrate is decreased to 47% in evaluating the performance of antagonizing miR-196b.", "In other words, the effect of inhibiting miR-196a by using anti-miR-196a and the effect of inhibiting miR-196b by using anti-miR-196b cause a great reduction of presence levels of both OECM1 cells and SAS cells.", "The sequence of antagomiR can be used for developing medicine for treating oral cancer by means of the sequence of anti-miR-196a and the sequence of anti-miR-196b.", "Specifically, both anti-miR-196a for inhibiting miR-196a and anti-miR-196b for inhibiting miR-196b show a great reduction of OECM1 and SAS cells migration/invasion ability.", "The sequence of antagomiR can be combined with active ingredient to prepare a medicine which can be administered to inhibit the oral cavity cancer cell spreading.", "In detail, regeant is added to both antagomiR of miR-196a and miR-196b to prepare a medicine which can inhibit both miR-196a and miR-196b levels so as to effectively inhibit oral cancer cells from spreading.", "[0053] Over-expression of miR-196a and miR-196b in cells in shown in FIG. 6 .", "Over-expression of miR-196a and miR-196b in cells can increase the invasion capability of oral cancer cells.", "Next, matrigel invasion assay is employed to test the invasion capability of oral cancer cells.", "Further, cells having particular pcDNA are taken as control group.", "It is found that the number of high presence miR-196a and miR-196b passing gel substance of substrate to reach the other end of the substrate is about two times as compared with that of cells having particular pcDNA.", "[0054] In addition to the oral cancer detection by using miR-196a and miR-196b, the invention also clinically detects presence of miR-196a and miR-196b in a tissue.", "54 tumor samples (T) and adjacent normal samples (N) of a patient are detected by the invention.", "Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a scientific technique in molecular biology to amplify a single or a few copies of a piece of DNA across several orders of magnitude, generating thousands to millions of copies of a particular DNA sequence.", "RT-qPCR is employed by the invention to amplify presence of miR-196a and miR-196b.", "Further, U6 nucleic acid is taken as internal control of normalization so that results can be expressed in relative presence.", "In part (A) of FIG. 7 , 52 out of 54 samples (i.e., 96.3%) are tumor samples in which miR-196a is present in the tumor more than two times as that in the adjacent normal cells (i.e., p<0.001).", "In part (B) of FIG. 7 , 48 out of 54 samples (i.e., 88.6%) are tumor samples in which miR-196b is present in the tumor more than two times as that in the adjacent normal cells (i.e., p<0.001).", "[0055] For confirming whether miR-196a and miR-196b can be used clinically, the invention further detects presence of miR-196a and miR-196b in blood plasma of a patient having oral cancer and a normal person respectively.", "54 samples of blood plasma of a patient having oral cancer and 33 samples of blood plasma of a normal person are taken and detected.", "The invention takes the following steps of detecting the presence of miR-196a and miR-196b: [0056] Step 1: Blood plasma is sampled.", "Samples have a volume of 200 μl.", "Nucleic acid is extracted from the sample by a reagent which does not remove small RNAs.", "In detail, miRNeasy® mini kit manufactured by 1QIAgen Inc. in Valencia, Calif.", "is employed.", "700 μl 1QIAzol is added to the sample for homogeneousness.", "Next, 140 μl trichloromethane (i.e., chloroform) is added to the sample to extract RNAs.", "About 525 μl of upper pure liquid is removed to a new tube after using a centrifuge.", "Next, 750 μl pure alcohol is added to the sample to deposit nucleic acid.", "Further, deposits are obtained by activating the centrifuge to agitate the reagent.", "The sample is drained from its bottom.", "Next, 20 μl water of RNase-free is added to the sample to extract nucleic acid from the sample.", "[0057] Step 2: In a constant quantity method of nucleic acid, reverse constant poly-enzyme chain reaction reagent is employed.", "miRNA assays kit manufactured by ABI, in Forest City, Calif.", "is employed as reverse constant poly-enzyme chain reaction reagent.", "First, extracted 3 μl nucleic acid is employed for reverse reaction.", "Next, 4 units of reverse reaction enzyme, 10 units of nucleic acid water soluble enzyme inhibition reagent, and 25 mM deoxy-ribonucleoside triphosphate (dNTP) are added to a reaction chamber having 30 μl volume.", "The chamber is maintained at 37-degree Celsius for about 30 minutes.", "AMV manufactured by HT Biotech Ltd (UK) and nucleic acid soluble enzyme inhibition reagent manufactured by CalBiochem (CA, USA) are employed.", "Next, real time PCR detection instrument (e.g., MiniOpticon manufactured by Bio-Rad) is employed for real time constant quantity PCR.", "8 μl reverse reacted product and 1 μl probe are mixed.", "Further, 1 μl water and 10 μl constant quantity PCR reagent are added for reaction.", "iQ supermix manufactured by Bio-Rad in Hercules, Calif.", "is employed as constant quantity PCR reagent.", "Results are shown as Ct value (i.e., threshold cycle) in terms of relative presence.", "[0058] Results show that miR-196a in blood plasma of oral cancer patient increases significantly as compared with that of a normal person.", "In detail, miR-196a presence in blood plasma of an oral cancer patient is 14.27 with P<0.0001 (i.e., about 14 times of that of a normal person, wherein the value of miR-196a is 1.817±0.38).", "In part (A) of FIG. 8 , samples of blood plasma of a normal person and an oral cancer patient are shown in black spots.", "Each sample represents a relative expression (fold) of miR-196a measured by RT-qPCT.", "Black horizontal line represents average of the samples belonging to either a normal person or an oral cancer patient.", "A chi square (X 2 ) statistic is used to investigate whether distributions of categorical variables differ from one another (i.e., samples of a normal person and that of an oral cancer patient).", "In part (B) of FIG. 8 , a receiver operational curve (ROC) analysis is employed to evaluate the marking capability of miR-196a in both a normal person and an oral cancer patient.", "Area under curve (AUC) is 0.938 and it means miR-196a can be used as a reliable biomarker for detecting an oral cancer patient out of a great number of normal persons.", "Logistic regression model is employed to estimate that sensitivity is 92.6% and specificity is 84.6% when miR-196a is used for detecting an oral cancer patient out of a great number of normal persons.", "[0059] Results further show that miR-196b in blood plasma of oral cancer patient increases significantly as compared with that of a normal person.", "In detail, miR-196b presence in blood plasma of an oral cancer patient is 10.03 with P<0.0001 (i.e., about 10 times of that of a normal person, wherein the value of miR-196b is 7.683±1.88).", "In part (A) of FIG. 9 , samples of blood plasma of a normal person and an oral cancer patient are shown in black spots.", "Each sample represents a relative expression (fold) of miR-196b measured by RT-qPCT.", "Black horizontal line represents average of the samples belonging to either a normal person or an oral cancer patient.", "A chi square (X 2 ) statistic is used to investigate whether distributions of categorical variables differ from one another (i.e., samples of a normal person and that of an oral cancer patient).", "In part (B) of FIG. 9 , a receiver operational curve (ROC) analysis is employed to evaluate the marking capability of miR-196b in both a normal person and an oral cancer patient.", "Area under curve (AUC) is 0.942 and it means miR-196b can be used as a reliable biomarker for detecting an oral cancer patient out of a great number of normal persons.", "Logistic regression model is employed to estimate that sensitivity is 90.7% and specificity is 84.9% when miR-196b is used for detecting an oral cancer patient out of a great number of normal persons.", "[0060] It is concluded that both miR-196a and miR-196a can be used as a reliable biomarker for detecting an oral cancer patient out of a great number of normal persons.", "[0061] While the invention has been described in terms of preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention can be practiced with modifications within the spirit and scope of the appended claims." ]

[ "TECHNICAL FIELD The disclosure pertains generally to controllers and more particularly to HVAC controllers such as thermostats that include a display panel.", "BACKGROUND Controllers are used on a wide variety of devices and systems for controlling various functions in homes and/or buildings and their related grounds.", "Some controllers have schedule programming that modifies device parameters such as set points as a function of date and/or time.", "Some such device or system controllers that utilize schedule programming for controlling various functions in homes and/or buildings and their related grounds include, for example, HVAC controllers, water heater controllers, water softener controllers, security system controllers, lawn sprinkler controllers, and lighting system controllers.", "HVAC controllers, for example, are employed to monitor and, if necessary, control various environmental conditions within a home, office, or other enclosed space.", "Such devices are useful, for example, in regulating any number of environmental conditions with a particular space including for example, temperature, humidity, venting, air quality, etc.", "The controller may include a microprocessor that interacts with other components in the system.", "For example, in many modern thermostats for use in the home, a controller unit equipped with temperature and/or humidity sensing capabilities may be provided to interact with a heater, blower, flue vent, air compressor, humidifier and/or other components, to control the temperature and humidity levels at various locations within the home.", "A sensor located within the controller unit and/or one or more remote sensors may be employed to sense when the temperature or humidity reaches a certain threshold level, causing the controller unit to send a signal to activate or deactivate one or more component in the system.", "The controller may be equipped with a user interface that allows the user to monitor and adjust the environmental conditions at one or more locations within the building.", "With more modern designs, the interface typically includes a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel inset within a housing that contains the microprocessor as well as other components of the controller.", "In some designs, the user interface may permit the user to program the controller to activate on a certain schedule determined by the user.", "For example, the interface may include a separate menu routine that permits the user to change the temperature at one or more times during a particular day.", "Once the settings for that day have been programmed, the user can then repeat the process to change the settings for the other remaining days.", "Such a schedule may help reduce energy consumption of the HVAC system by changing the set point to an energy saving set back temperature during certain times.", "Most structures are serviced by one or more utilities, such as an electric utility, a gas utility, a water utility and others.", "The expense of using these utility services continues to rise, particularly during peak demand periods.", "In order to better serve its customers, and in some cases to help reduce demand during peak or other periods, it would be advantageous for a utility to be able to directly and more efficiently communicate with its customers.", "SUMMARY The present disclosure pertains generally to thermostats that are adapted to assist utilities in communicating with its customers.", "In particular, the present disclosure relates to a thermostat having a display, a controller and a receiver that is coupled to the controller.", "The receiver is adapted to receive messages from a utility, and the controller is adapted to display related display messages on the display.", "The above summary is not intended to describe each disclosed embodiment or every implementation of the present invention.", "The Figures and Detailed Description that follow more particularly exemplify these embodiments.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES The invention may be more completely understood in consideration of the following detailed description of various embodiments of the invention in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG. 1 shows an illustrative but non-limiting HVAC control system.", "FIG. 2 shows an illustrative but non-limiting example of a thermostat of FIG. 1 ;", "FIG. 3 shows an illustrative thermostat operating in accordance with its programming;", "FIG. 4 shows the illustrative thermostat of FIG. 3 after the current energy demand and/or current energy cost has reached a critical level;", "FIG. 5 shows the illustrative thermostat of FIG. 3 displaying a first stored or received message;", "FIGS. 6-7 shows the illustrative thermostat of FIG. 5 displaying a second stored or received message;", "FIG. 8 shows the illustrative thermostat of FIG. 3 displaying a “Please Conserve”", "message received from a utility;", "FIG. 9 shows the illustrative thermostat of FIG. 3 displaying a “Storm Warning”", "message received from a utility or other source;", "FIG. 10 show the illustrative thermostat of FIG. 3 displaying information related to electrical consumption including historical electrical consumption information;", "FIG. 11 show the illustrative thermostat of FIG. 3 displaying information related to electrical costs including historical electrical cost information;", "FIG. 12 show the illustrative thermostat of FIG. 3 displaying information related to water usage including historical water usage information;", "FIG. 13 show the illustrative thermostat of FIG. 3 displaying information related to water usage costs including historical water usage cost information;", "FIG. 14 show the illustrative thermostat of FIG. 3 displaying information related to gas usage including historical gas usage information;", "FIG. 15 show the illustrative thermostat of FIG. 3 displaying information related to gas usage costs including historical gas usage cost information;", "FIG. 16 is a flow diagram of an illustrative method in accordance with the present invention;", "and FIG. 17 is a flow diagram of another illustrative method in accordance with the present invention.", "While the invention is amenable to various modifications and alternative forms, specifics thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawings and will be described in detail.", "It should be understood, however, that the intention is not to limit the invention to the particular illustrative embodiments described.", "On the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION The following description should be read with reference to the drawings, in which like elements in different drawings are numbered in like fashion.", "The drawings, which are not necessarily to scale, depict selected embodiments and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.", "Although examples of construction, dimensions, and materials may be illustrated for the various elements, those skilled in the art will recognize that many of the examples provided have suitable alternatives that may be utilized.", "FIG. 1 shows an illustrative but non-limiting HVAC control system 10 .", "The illustrative HVAC control system 10 includes a thermostat 12 that may be adapted to interact with and control HVAC equipment 14 .", "HVAC equipment 14 may include one or more of cooling equipment 16 , heating equipment 18 and/or ventilation equipment 20 .", "In some cases, cooling equipment 16 and heating equipment 18 may, for example, be combined in a forced air system, or perhaps a heat pump system, particularly in residential and/or light commercial applications.", "In other cases, one or more of cooling equipment 16 , heating equipment 18 and/or ventilation equipment 20 may be distinct systems controlled by thermostat 12 .", "In some instances, it is contemplated that thermostat 12 may represent two or more distinct thermostats, each controlling different equipment within HVAC equipment 14 , and or different zones within a structure.", "In the illustrative embodiment, thermostat 12 may be adapted to interact and/or communicate with a utility 22 .", "Utility 22 may represent a utility company or another entity that produces or otherwise provides an energy source such as electricity, natural gas and the like, or provides another utility such as water and/or sewer service.", "Utility 22 may represent a utility company or other entity that provides a source of hot water that can be used for heating and/or any other desired use.", "Utility 22 may provide hot water from a geothermal source, or by heating water using biomass or even microwave energy.", "In some instances, thermostat 12 may receive signals from utility 22 via a communication network 24 .", "Communication network 24 may include wireless communication between utility 22 and thermostat 12 , using radio frequencies and the like.", "In some cases, communication network 24 may represent a hard-wired communication network between utility 22 and thermostat 12 , such as copper wiring, coaxial cable, CAT 5 cable, fiber optics, and the like.", "In some instances, especially if utility 22 provides electrical power to the building in which thermostat 12 is located, communication network 24 may represent signals sent over the power lines themselves.", "some cases, part of communication network 24 may be a wired and another part may be wireless.", "More generally, communication network 24 may be any suitable communication path between utility 22 or the like and thermostat 12 .", "In some instances, thermostat 12 may receive information from utility 22 pertaining to utility usage, utility usage history, current and/or historical rate information, and the like.", "Alternatively, or in addition, thermostat 12 may receive information from meter 26 pertaining to utility usage, utility usage history, current and/or historical rate information, and the like.", "In some cases, thermostat 12 may receive information from utility 22 and/or meter 26 pertaining to a current electrical rate, say in cents per kilowatt-hour.", "In some instances, thermostat 12 may receive information regarding a remaining balance on a prepaid account, or perhaps monthly garbage and/or sewer charges.", "Utility 22 and/or meter 26 may, for example provide information to thermostat 12 regarding a measure of utility usage.", "In some cases, the measure of utility usage may be related to current utility costs over a designated period of time (e.g. over a past year, a past month, a past week, a past day, a past hour, etc.), i.e., a current electrical cost over a designated period of time, a current gas cost over a designated period of time, a current water cost of a designated period or time and the like.", "In some instances, a measure of utility usage may include a quantity of utility usage, and thus utility 22 may provide thermostat 12 with information pertaining to how much energy (e.g. in KWH, which are kilowatt-hours), for example is currently being used over a designated period of time (e.g. over a past year, a past month, a past week, a past day, a past hour, schedule period, etc.).", "In some instances, utility 22 and/or meter 26 may provide messages relating to utility usage.", "For example, utility 22 may provide, via communication network 24 , one or more messages intended for a homeowner, facilities manager or the like.", "In some cases, if utility demand is high, utility 22 may provide one or more messages that permit or instruct thermostat 12 to display suggestions on how to save energy, water or other resource.", "For example, if utility energy demand is high or expected to be high, thermostat 12 may display one or more messages suggesting that the homeowner or facilities manager conserve energy by changing a temperature set point, or perhaps suggesting that they wait and run energy intensive appliances later in the day, when utility demand may be lower.", "Utility 22 may, in some instances, provide one or more messages that permit or instruct thermostat 12 to display information pertaining to current or expected weather, current or expected energy demand, current or expected pricing tiers, etc.", "In some cases, utility 22 and/or meter 26 may provide one or more messages that cause thermostat 12 to display information relating to utility billing.", "This may include utility billing history, current utility billing rates and/or current utility costs, and the like.", "Thermostat 12 may display information pertaining to a measure of utility usage during a first time period (e.g. a designated month such as the current month) and information pertaining to a measure of utility usage during a second time period (e.g. the designated month one year ago) that is different from the first time period.", "While not required, the first time period may occur temporally before the second time period.", "In some cases, controller 34 may compute a measure of utility usage that is consumed by the HVAC system of the building or other structure by monitoring the on-time of one or more HVAC system components 16 , 18 and/or 20 .", "The first time period and the second time period may each, independently, be any desired length of time, and may be temporally separated by any desired time interval.", "In some cases, the first time period may immediately precede the second time period.", "The first time period may, if desired, be one or more months before the second time period.", "In some cases, the first time period may be about a year or more prior to the second time period.", "In some cases, the first time period and the second time period may each correspond to a one week (168 hours) time period, and the first time period may correspond to an immediately preceding week relative to the second time period.", "In some instances, the first time period and the second time period may each correspond to a one month time period.", "The first time period may be a one month time period that immediately precedes the second time period.", "In some cases, the first time period (e.g. June 2006) may be a one month time period that is about one year prior to the second time period (e.g. June 2007).", "In some cases, the indication of the measure of utility usage that is displayed for the first time period may include an indication of the cost of utility usage during the first time period, and the indication of the measure of utility usage that is displayed for the second time period includes an indication of the cost of utility usage during the second period of time.", "In some instances, the indication of the measure of utility usage that is displayed for the first time period includes an indication of the quantity of utility usage during the first period of time, and the indication of the measure of utility usage that is displayed for the second time period include an indication of the quantity of utility usage during the second period of time.", "In some embodiments, thermostat 12 may be adapted to interact and/or communicate with a meter 26 over a communication line 28 .", "Meter 26 may, for example, be adapted to measure and/or regulate a flow of energy or other resource (e.g. water) from utility 22 , and may also provide thermostat 12 with usage information via a wireless, wired, optical, or any other suitable communication path.", "In some instances, although direct communication therebetween is not expressly shown in FIG. 1 , meter 26 may provide utility 22 with usage information.", "Communication line 28 may represent wireless communication between meter 26 and thermostat 12 .", "In some cases, communication line 28 may represent a hard-wired line between meter 26 and thermostat 12 , such as copper wiring, coaxial cable, CAT 5 cable, fiber optic cable, and the like.", "In some instances, although not expressly illustrated in FIG. 1 , it is contemplated that meter 26 may also communicate with utility 22 , and may receive utility rate information and the like from utility 22 , but this is not required in all embodiments.", "The preceding discussion describes communication that may occur between utility 22 and thermostat 12 and/or between meter 26 and thermostat 12 .", "In order to accommodate this communication, thermostat 12 may include a receiver and/or transceiver 30 that permits thermostat 12 to communicate with utility 22 via communication network 24 and/or to communicate with meter 26 via communication line 28 .", "As noted, one or both of communication network 24 and/or communication line 28 may be wired or wireless.", "In some cases, communication network 24 may, for example, include a wireless paging system, and receiver and/or transceiver 30 may be a load control receiver that uses, for example, a 900 MHz paging technology such as the FLEX® paging technology available from Motorola.", "One such load control receiver is available from Cannon Technologies, located in Wayzata, Minn.", ", although it is contemplated that any suitable communication equipment may be used, as desired.", "Thermostat 12 may include a user interface 32 that may be adapted to accept information from a user as well as to provide information to the user.", "In some cases, user interface 32 may include a liquid crystal display (LCD) as well as a keypad or similar entry device.", "In some instances, user interface 32 may include a touch screen LCD that provides both functions.", "Thermostat 12 may include a controller 34 that is adapted to oversee the aforementioned communications between thermostat 12 and utility 22 and/or meter 26 .", "Controller 34 may regulate information that is solicited and/or displayed on user interface 32 .", "Controller 34 may be adapted to implement a control algorithm that is adapted to at least partially control one or more components of HVAC equipment 14 .", "Thermostat 12 may include a memory block 36 that can be used to store operating parameters, utility usage history and the like.", "Thermostat 12 may include a sensor 38 , which may be located within thermostat 12 as well as one or more external sensors 40 , as desired.", "Each of sensors 38 and 40 may be any type of sensor, or may represent multiple sensors, such as temperature sensors, humidity sensors and the like.", "External sensors 40 may be hard wired to thermostat 12 , or may communicate wirelessly, as desired.", "FIG. 2 shows an illustrative but non-limiting example of a thermostat 42 that may be considered as representing thermostat 12 ( FIG. 1 ), but showing additional detail regarding user interface 32 .", "Thermostat 42 includes a thermostat housing 44 and an LCD display 46 that is visible from outside thermostat housing 44 .", "Thermostat housing 44 may be formed of any suitable material and having any suitable dimensions.", "In some cases, thermostat housing 44 is stamped or molded from a polymeric material.", "In some cases, LCD display 46 is a touch screen LCD, but this is not required in all embodiments.", "LCD display 46 may be considered as including a first region 48 and a second region 50 .", "In the illustrative embodiment, first region 48 includes an array of pixels 52 that are arranged into a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns to form an array of pixels that is suitable for displaying alphanumeric characters such as text in a dot matrix format.", "In some cases, one or more of pixels 52 may be square or round fixed segment pixels.", "For example, first region 48 may include an array of pixels 52 that are arranged into 7 rows and a total of 125 columns.", "To more clearly illustrate the individual pixels, pixels 52 are schematically illustrated in FIG. 2 as unlit.", "First region 48 may be constructed using either fixed segment type LCD display or a graphic type LCD display.", "When first region 48 is constructed as a fixed segment LCD display, a number of relatively small fixed segments dots are provided, and in some cases, may be arranged into character blocks, with each character block having, for example, 5×7 dots.", "In some cases, each character block can be addressed separately and can form numbers, letters and a limited number of symbols.", "In other cases, each fixed segment dot can be addressed separately.", "When first region 48 is constructed as a graphics type LCD display, a relatively larger number of pixels are arranged in rows and columns, and each pixel can typically be individually addressed.", "In an illustrative but non-limiting example, first region 48 may include or be formed as fixed segment LCD display, and may include a total of 25 5×7 characters, for a total of 875 individual pixels 52 .", "Each pixel 52 may be square and may be 0.5 millimeters by 0.5 millimeters in size.", "There may be a small gap between adjacent pixels 52 .", "In some cases, there may be a 0.05 millimeter gap between adjacent pixels 52 .", "These pixels 52 may be formed as part of the fixed segment mask used in fabricating the fixed segment LCD display.", "In some cases, first region 48 may be used to display messages and other similar text.", "Controller 34 may be coupled to user interface 32 and may be adapted to display a message including two or more text characters in first region 48 using the array of fixed segment pixels 52 .", "If desired, controller 34 may be adapted to scroll messages across at least part of first region 48 .", "This may be useful in displaying messages that are too long to simultaneously fit in their entirety within first region 48 .", "Scrolling may also be useful in attracting attention to messages being displayed within first region 48 .", "In some cases, a message may be flashed, i.e., repeatedly turned on and off, within first region 48 to draw attention to the particular message.", "In some cases, display 46 may include a left arrow icon 54 and/or a right arrow icon 56 , which may be used to scroll through a long message, or perhaps to scroll through multiple messages.", "Left arrow icon 54 and right arrow icon 56 may be constructed as fixed segment icons, and may not be considered part of first region 48 , even though they are located within an upper portion of display 46 .", "In some embodiments, pressing right arrow icon 56 may cause controller 34 ( FIG. 1 ) to display another message, if another message is available, or to cause a message to scroll, Pressing left arrow icon 54 may cause controller 34 to display a previous message or to cause a message to scroll.", "Second region 50 of user display 46 may include a plurality of fixed segment graphical icons.", "At least some of the fixed segment graphical icons within second region 50 may be or may include a word, a perimeter boundary and/or a word within a perimeter boundary.", "In some instances, LCD display 46 is a touch screen LCD, and one or more of the fixed segment graphical icons may coincide with one or more touch sensitive buttons.", "For example, second region 50 may include a message icon 58 .", "If thermostat 42 has received or otherwise generated a text message to be displayed within first region 48 , controller 34 ( FIG. 1 ) may flash message icon 58 and/or may illuminate the “VIEW”", "text within message icon 58 .", "The “VIEW”", "text may be formed as part of a fixed segment graphical icon, if desired.", "Message icon 58 may coincide with a touch sensitive button or portion of LCD display 46 .", "In some cases, message icon 58 may include a fixed segment perimeter boundary 59 .", "Pressing message icon 58 may cause controller 34 to proceed with displaying and/or scrolling one or more messages within first region 48 of display 46 using the array of fixed segment pixels 52 .", "In some cases, once the message has been displayed, the “DELETE”", "text within message icon 58 may be illuminated, although this is not required.", "Pressing message icon 58 at this stage may cause controller 34 to delete the message that has been displayed or is currently being displayed.", "Second region 50 may include an “EXIT”", "icon 60 .", "Pressing EXIT icon 60 instead of message icon 58 may cause controller 34 to return to a previous screen without deleting the displayed message or messages.", "Example messages are shown and discussed with respect to subsequent Figures.", "Fixed segment LCD displays are often configured to display Arabic numbers (0-9) using seven segments.", "In contrast, fourteen segments are often needed to display other characters such as the Roman alphabet, measurement units and other symbols.", "In some instances, second region 50 of display 46 may include a set 62 of fixed segments that are configured to display numbers.", "In particular cases, set 62 may be configured to display utility usage data including utility usage quantity data and/or utility usage cost data.", "In some cases, set 62 may include a total of five fixed segment numbers 64 , with each fixed segment number 64 having a total of seven distinct bar segments 66 .", "Similarly, second region 50 of display 46 may include a set 68 of fixed segments that are configured to display numbers.", "In some cases, set 68 may be configured to display historical utility usage data including historical utility usage quantity and/or historical utility usage cost data.", "In some cases, set 68 may include a total of five fixed segment numbers 70 , with each fixed segment number 70 having a total of seven distinct bar segments 72 .", "In some instances, second region 50 of display 46 may include a TIER icon 74 that may include one or more of a CRITICAL fixed segment 76 , a HIGH fixed segment 78 , a MEDIUM fixed segment 80 and/or a LOW fixed segment 82 .", "In some cases, utility 22 ( FIG. 1 ) may provide a signal to thermostat 42 informing thermostat 42 that current energy costs and/or current energy demand has reached a particular tier or level.", "For example, if energy demand and/or energy cost is low, the LOW fixed segment 82 may be illuminated.", "The other fixed segments may be illuminated in accordance with the energy demand and/or energy cost data provided by utility 22 .", "In some situations, TIER icon 74 may not be illuminated.", "If the current energy demand and/or current energy costs reach a critical level, controller 34 ( FIG. 1 ) may illuminate CRITICAL fixed segment 76 .", "In some cases, when the current energy demand and/or current energy costs reaches a certain level (e.g. high or critical), a SAVING icon 84 may be illuminated or even flash indicating that controller 34 has altered a temperature set point in accordance with the energy demand information provided by utility 22 ( FIG. 1 ).", "In some cases, SAVING icon 84 may be illuminated irrespective of the current tier level.", "In some instances, utility 22 may, in response to energy demand and/or energy cost data, may determine how temperature set points are to be altered.", "A customer may, for example, sign a contract permitting utility 22 to alter temperature set points and/or to determine temperature differentials as necessary and/or appropriate.", "If utility 22 determines that a particular tier level has been reached, utility 22 may send a signal to thermostat 42 temporarily altering a temperature set point, either by providing a temporary temperature set point or by providing a temperature differential that can be applied to the temperature set point specified by the current schedule under which thermostat 42 is otherwise operating.", "The contract may permit utility 22 to send a signal to thermostat 42 instructing thermostat 42 to shut down HVAC equipment 14 ( FIG. 1 ) for a length of time that may be predetermined and/or may be calculated based, for example, on current energy demand and/or current energy rates.", "In some instances, for example, utility 22 may provide a signal to thermostat 42 instructing thermostat 42 to change to a temporary temperature set point.", "The temporary set point may vary, depending on the current energy tier.", "For example, utility 22 may suggest or require, based at least in part on the contract signed by the owner, a heating temperature set point of 70° F. for a low energy cost, 65° F. for a medium energy cost, 60° F. for a high energy cost, and 50° F. for a critical energy cost.", "Utility 22 may suggest or require, based at least in part on the contract, a cooling temperature set point of 72° F. for a low energy cost, 77° F. for a medium energy cost, 82° F. for a high energy cost, 86° F. for a critical energy cost.", "These temperatures are merely illustrative and are not intended to limit or define in any way or manner.", "In some cases, utility 22 may provide thermostat 42 with the heating and cooling temperature set point values corresponding to each tier level.", "Controller 34 ( FIG. 1 ) may issue a control signal to HVAC equipment 14 for operating cooling equipment 16 and/or heating equipment 18 when the temperature is different than the temperature set point associated with the acceptable energy cost level.", "In the above example, when the current energy price is high, the control signal may issue control information for operating heating equipment 18 when the temperature fell to 60° F. or below.", "For cooling equipment 16 , the control signal would issue control information for operating cooling equipment 16 when the temperature rose to or above 82° F. Additionally, the receiver and/or transceiver 30 may receive information from the utility(s) for an energy (and/or water) bill for usage of energy (and/or water) during a time period.", "In some cases, the user may authorize payment of the energy (and/or water) bill and have the authorization transmitted to utility 22 via the thermostat 12 .", "In some instances, utility 22 may send a signal instructing thermostat 42 to temporarily change its temperature set point by a particular temperature differential that depends on tier level.", "For example, utility 22 may provide a signal including a temperature differential or offset of 0° F. for a low energy cost, a temperature differential or offset of 2° F. for a medium energy cost, a temperature differential or offset of 6° F. for a high energy cost and a temperature differential or offset of 10° F. for a high energy costs.", "If, for example, the current temperature set point for heating is set at 68° F. and the energy demand reaches the critical level, thermostat 42 may temporarily operate with a temperature set point of 58° F. (68° F.-10° F.).", "If for example, the current temperature set point for cooling is set at 76° F. and the energy demand reaches the high level, thermostat 42 may temporarily operate with a temperature set point of 86° F. (76° F.+10° F.).", "Depending on the specifics of the contract between the owner and utility 22 , in some cases the owner may be able to override the temporary temperature set points provided by the utility.", "In some cases, the owner may not be permitted to make any changes, and in fact thermostat 42 may be instructed to not accept set point changes while utility 22 is providing a temporary temperature set point and/or a temperature differential to thermostat 42 .", "In some cases, it is contemplated that a homeowner, a facilities manager and/or an installer may program thermostat 42 with information pertaining to how temperature set points are to be altered in response to various energy demand and/or energy cost levels provided by utility 22 .", "In some cases, setback information that has been programmed into thermostat 42 may be based at least in part upon which time period (WAKE, LEAVE, RETURN, SLEEP) thermostat 42 is currently operating under.", "FIG. 3 shows the illustrative thermostat 42 operating in accordance with its programming.", "On second region 50 of display 46 , controller 34 ( FIG. 1 ) is displaying a current inside temperature value 86 and a current temperature set point 88 .", "If message icon 58 is blinking or otherwise illuminated, pressing message icon 58 may cause one or more messages to be displayed, as will be illustrated subsequently.", "As TIER icon 74 is indicating that the current energy demand and/or current energy cost is at a medium level, the illustrative thermostat 42 may continue to operate in accordance with its schedule, as indicated by the “Following Schedule”", "fixed segment icon 90 .", "It can be seen that as the temperature set point 88 is higher than the current temperature value 86 , the heat is currently operational.", "In FIG. 4 , TIER icon 74 is indicating that the current energy demand and/or current energy cost has reached a critical level 76 .", "While current inside temperature value 86 remains constant at 66° F., it can be seen that the temperature set point 88 has dropped from the 72° F. value shown in FIG. 3 to a savings temperature value of 58 20 F., and the heat has thus shut off.", "In some cases, controller 34 monitors the communication with utility 22 .", "In some cases, if the communication is broken or otherwise not functioning properly for some reason, thermostat 42 may return to its normal schedule until such time as communication is reestablished.", "Returning to FIG. 3 , assume for illustrative purposes that message icon 58 is blinking or is otherwise illuminated.", "In the illustrative embodiment, pressing message icon 58 will cause controller 34 ( FIG. 1 ) to display stored or received messages, as shown in FIG. 5 .", "First region 48 of display 46 can be seen as displaying a message “Good Morning!.”", "Because there is more than one message to display (two, in this example), the message includes “½”", "in front of the message, and right arrow icon 56 is illuminated.", "Pressing right arrow icon 56 may cause controller 34 to display the second message, as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 .", "It can be seen that once the message has been viewed, message icon 58 changes from illuminating the VIEW fixed segment icon to illuminating the DELETE fixed segment icon.", "In this particular example, the second message is “2 Honeywell UtilityPRO Helps You to Save Energy”, which is too large to display within the 25 character blocks forming first region 48 .", "Thus, controller 34 ( FIG. 1 ) may scroll the message.", "This can be seen by comparing FIGS. 6 and 7 , In FIG. 6 , first region 48 includes “2 Honeywell UtilityPRO He”, which is the first 25 characters of the message while in FIG. 7 , first region 48 includes “O Helps You to Save Energy”, which represents the last 25 characters of the message.", "These are screen captures illustrating how text fits within first region 48 .", "While the message is broken over two Figures, it will be understood that the message actually scrolls smoothly across first region 48 of display 46 .", "In some cases, it is contemplated that text may be scrolled vertically, rather than horizontally.", "Because a second or subsequent message is being displayed, it can be seen that left arrow icon 54 is illuminated, so that a user may move back to the previous message.", "In some cases, if only one message is available or otherwise appropriate for display, neither left arrow icon 54 nor right arrow icon 56 may be illuminated.", "A wide variety of messages may be displayed.", "For example, as shown in FIG. 8 , first region 48 of display 46 may, in response to a signal from utility 22 ( FIG. 1 ), display a message reading “Please Conserve!”", "This message may be displayed when, for example, the utility demand is high or expected to be high.", "Similar messages may suggest that the person refrain from running energy intensive appliances such as washing machines until the energy demand drops Another illustrative message is seen in FIG. 9 , in which first region 48 of display 46 displays a message reading “Storm Warning”, perhaps in response to utility 22 forwarding a signal from the local weather authorities, or perhaps the local weather authorities are equipped to broadcast a warning signal directly to receiver and/or transceiver 30 ( FIG. 1 ).", "It is contemplated that at least some of the messages may be targeted toward certain customers.", "For example, a tornado warning message may only be sent to those thermostats that are within the geographic region that is currently under a tornado warning.", "In another example, an ozone or UV warning message may only be sent to those thermostats that are within the geographic region that is currently experiencing high ozone or UV.", "Likewise, if the demand for energy is particularly high or expected to be high for only some of a utility's customers or part of the utility's grid, a message may be directed to only those thermostats that correspond to those customers (e.g. a unique message to a particular group of customers).", "It is also contemplated that promotional messages may be sent to certain thermostats.", "For example, messages that inform users of certain promotional or other events or services, such as sales at local stores, may be provided.", "Tips on saving energy and/or the maintenance of equipment may also be provided.", "In some cases, a water utility may have certain restrictions on water usage, such as limiting the watering of lawns to ever other day.", "In some cases, the water utility may send a message to the thermostat to notify the user of the water restrictions.", "In some cases, the water utility may send a message indicating that watering of lawns is prohibited for the customer on a particularly day (e.g. today) or during some other time period.", "In some cases, thermostat 42 may be adapted to provide a user with information regarding current and/or historical energy consumption data and corresponding energy costs.", "For example, FIGS. 10-15 illustrative this feature.", "Returning briefly to FIG. 3 , in which thermostat 42 is operating in accordance with its schedule, it can be seen that lower region 50 of display 46 includes a USAGE icon 92 .", "In the illustrative embodiment, pressing USAGE icon 92 brings the user to the screen shown in FIG. 10 .", "In FIG. 10 , controller 34 ( FIG. 1 ) is displaying information pertaining to electrical consumption.", "In particular, controller 34 is instructing first region 48 of display 46 to display “ELECTRICITY IN KWH”, so that the user can put into context the numerical data displayed within second region 50 of display 46 using set 62 of fixed segments and set 68 of fixed segments.", "Set 62 is displaying a value for the amount of electricity used thus far this month while set 68 is being used to display a value for the corresponding time period last year.", "Fixed segment icon 94 informs the user of the current time period while fixed segment icon 96 informs the user of the corresponding historical time period.", "As discussed above, other time periods may also be chosen or otherwise selected or displayed, as desired.", "Pressing right arrow icon 56 brings the user to FIG. 11 , in which controller 34 ( FIG. 1 ) is displaying information regarding electrical costs, while instead pressing EXIT button 60 would return the user to FIG. 3 .", "In FIG. 11 , first region 48 of display 46 now reads “ELECTRICITY BILL.”", "Fixed segment icon 98 , representing a dollar sign, provides additional context for the information being displayed.", "In some cases, fixed segment icon 98 may be omitted, if desired.", "Set 62 is being used by controller 34 to display the electrical bill to date for the month while set 68 is being used by controller 34 to provide the corresponding historical data.", "Pressing left arrow icon 54 would return the user to the screen shown in FIG. 10 while pressing right arrow icon 56 will bring the user to the screen shown in FIG. 12 .", "Pressing EXIT button 60 would return the user to FIG. 3 .", "In FIG. 12 , controller 34 ( FIG. 1 ) is displaying information pertaining to water consumption.", "In particular, controller 34 is instructing first region 48 of display 46 to display “WATER USAGE IN KGAL”, so that the user can put into context the numerical data displayed within second region 50 of display 46 using set 62 of fixed segments and set 68 of fixed segments.", "Set 62 is displaying a value for the amount of water used thus far this month while set 68 is being used to display a value for the corresponding time period last year.", "Fixed segment icon 94 informs the user of the current time period while fixed segment icon 96 informs the user of the corresponding historical time period.", "As discussed above, other time periods may also be chosen or otherwise selected or displayed.", "Pressing right arrow icon 56 brings the user to FIG. 13 , in which controller 34 ( FIG. 1 ) is displaying information regarding water costs, while instead pressing EXIT button 60 would return the user to FIG. 3 .", "In FIG. 13 , first region 48 of display 46 now reads “WATER BILL.”", "Fixed segment icon 98 , representing a dollar sign, provides additional context for the information being displayed.", "In some cases, fixed segment icon 98 may be omitted, if desired.", "Set 62 is being used by controller 34 to display the water bill to date for the month while set 68 is being used by controller 34 to provide the corresponding historical data.", "Pressing left arrow icon 54 would return the user to the screen shown in FIG. 12 while pressing right arrow icon 56 will bring the user to the screen shown in FIG. 14 .", "Pressing EXIT button 60 would return the user to FIG. 3 .", "In FIG. 14 , controller 34 ( FIG. 1 ) is displaying information pertaining to gas consumption.", "In particular, controller 34 is instructing first region 48 of display 46 to display “GAS USAGE IN CCF”, so that the user can put into context the numerical data displayed within second region 50 of display 46 using set 62 of fixed segments and set 68 of fixed segments.", "Set 62 is displaying a value for the amount of gas used thus far this month while set 68 is being used to display a value for the corresponding time period last year.", "Fixed segment icon 94 informs the user of the current time period while fixed segment icon 96 informs the user of the corresponding historical time period.", "As discussed above, other time periods may also be chosen or otherwise selected or displayed.", "Pressing right arrow icon 56 brings the user to FIG. 15 , in which controller 34 ( FIG. 1 ) is displaying information regarding gas costs, while instead pressing EXIT button 60 would return the user to FIG. 3 .", "In FIG. 15 , first region 48 of display 46 now reads “GAS BILL.”", "Fixed segment icon 98 , representing a dollar sign, provides additional context for the information being displayed.", "In some cases, fixed segment icon 98 may be omitted, if desired.", "Set 62 is being used by controller 34 to display the water bill to date for the month while set 68 is being used by controller 34 to provide the corresponding historical data.", "Pressing left arrow icon 54 would return the user to the screen shown in FIG. 14 while pressing right arrow icon 56 will return the user to the screen shown in FIG. 10 , unless thermostat 42 is equipped to display additional consumption or cost data.", "Pressing EXIT button 60 would return the user to FIG. 3 .", "FIGS. 16 and 17 are flow diagrams illustrating methods that may be carried out using thermostat 42 ( FIG. 2 ).", "In FIG. 16 , control begins at block 100 , where thermostat 42 receives a message from utility 22 ( FIG. 1 ).", "The message received from utility 22 may be related to energy demand, current and/or past energy costs, energy conservation, weather alerts, promotional and/or advertisements and the like.", "At block 102 , controller 34 ( FIG. 1 ) displays on display 46 an indication of a measure of utility usage during a first time period.", "At block 104 , controller 34 displays on display 46 an indication of a measure of utility usage during a second time period.", "In some cases, the first time period may predate the second time period, but this is not required.", "In FIG. 17 , control begins at block 100 , where thermostat 42 ( FIG. 2 ) receives a message from utility 22 ( FIG. 1 ).", "At block 106 , controller 34 ( FIG. 1 ) displays on display 46 an indication of a measure of utility usage during a period of time, Control passes to block 108 , where controller 34 displays on display 46 one or more display messages that are related to the message received from utility 22 .", "These messages may pertain to energy demand, current energy costs, energy conservation, weather alerts, advertisements and the like.", "In some cases, the indication of the measure of utility usage during the period of time may be displayed on display 46 at the same time or nearly the same time as the one or more messages arc displayed on display 46 .", "In some cases, they are not displayed simultaneously.", "The present invention should not be considered limited to the particular examples described above, but rather should be understood to cover all aspects of the invention as fairly set out in the attached claims.", "Various modifications, equivalent processes, as well as numerous structures to which the present invention can be applicable will be readily apparent to those of skill in the art to which the present invention is directed upon review of the instant specification." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a non-provisional application describing the same invention as an active provisional application, Ser.", "No. 61/341,838, filed on Apr. 5, 2010, and being filed within one year, hereby claims date priority therefrom, and further, said provisional application is hereby incorporated herein by reference.", "BACKGROUND This disclosure relates generally to information systems and in particular to an information system and method enabling consumer rebates and improved sales volume for retailers and manufacturers.", "In the present method, a group of consumers acting as a team are each offered a special program coupon for a discount on a particular product.", "A face value of the program coupon is discounted from the product's price when purchased by each one of the consumers in the team.", "An additional amount;", "a rebate, is awarded to each of the team consumers when they, as a team, have purchased a minimum number of the product.", "The amount due to each team member after the promotion period can be distributed in several ways including but not limited to: by mail, as a direct deposit to a team member's bank account, as a credit to a credit or debit card account, as a credit to a mobile/smart phone bill, or as a cash voucher generated in a store such as those generated by COINSTAR® and CATALINA MARKETING®.", "Social media are helping a variety of “group buying”", "scenarios flourish.", "In these services, such as offered by Groupon.com, wherein a group of people commit to an offer such as a $100 massage for $50.", "The participants commit to the Groupon.com offer by actually buying/pre-paying for the massage and hoping that a threshold that makes the offer valid is achieved.", "If the threshold is achieved each person in the group gets a certificate that entitles him or her to the offer.", "If not, they receive a full refund of their original payment.", "There are many such services, but none directed to the needs of supermarkets and/or consumer packaged goods manufacturers or to the method described herein.", "Few consumers would probably pre-pay for a discount on groceries (in large part because the grocery items desired by individual consumers vary widely), but consumers readily participate in coupon and rebate schemes that reduce the price of an item at the time of purchase or at a time after purchase when the purchase is confirmed.", "Moreover, the pre-payment method advocated by GROUPON® and similar services do not readily mesh with the flow of promotional dollars in multi-product retailers such as supermarkets where almost all discounts given to consumers are ultimately borne by manufacturers.", "The system shown in the drawing figures and described in the detailed description of this application is a solution to several of the characteristic problems of the grocery and similar multi-product retail industries, e.g., THE HOME DEPOT®, BEST BUY®, CVS®, etc.", ", and the manufacturers that supply them, and results in the benefits described herein.", "SUMMARY The present method joins the ideas of conventional coupon usage and electronic social media.", "It enables consumers to team up through social media for the enjoyment of greater discounts on purchased goods, and it provides a means by which manufacturers and retailers can reward consumers for their higher sales volume.", "One version of the present method includes: forming a team of consumers, publicizing a coupon offer for $1.00 discount on a specific product, purchasing the product at its regular price less the amount of the coupon discount, providing a further discount, a “kicker”", "to each of the members of the team if the team purchases a required number of units of the product.", "When that occurs, the amount of the kicker is banked/stored for—and later distributed to—each of the members.", "In other versions of the present method coupons may not be used as a factor or element.", "Store-specials, such as may appear in a printed or electronic circular or that may be denoted with shelf-tags and/or triggered by a loyalty card, checkout basket totals, recipes items, diet plans and many other approaches may enjoy the benefit of team shopping and may use the team kicker concept.", "The team shopping, team kicker method is managed by a program manager (PM).", "Consumers may form a team, or may join an existing team by registering at a PM Web site, an affiliate Web site, a PM application, or an affiliated application where the offer is presented.", "Team members are engaged and provided with a team “dashboard”", "which provides a guide with status information so that team members may see what their current rebate amount is and how it is affected by the status/performance of the various team members.", "This dashboard helps to fuel the desired effect of the invention, namely that team members who perform have a stake in encouraging team members who don't perform as the “kicker”", "is only awarded if all or most of the team performs and/or a certain quantity of items are sold before the offer expires.", "Teams are tracked via shopper loyalty cards or other unique identifiers such as credit/debit card number or even a smart/mobile phone number which are presented at a checkout stand.", "Kickers are banked/stored and may be paid out in many different ways such as credits on a consumer's credit card or direct deposit to a consumer's bank account.", "Teams may be formed on Facebook.com or another social network website, a branded destination website, or on a supermarket website.", "Teams may also compete for points, sweepstakes entries, and prizes.", "The details of one or more embodiments of these concepts are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below.", "Other features, objects, and advantages of these concepts will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.", "DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS FIGS. 1-4 are diagrams showing examples of systems in accordance with the present disclosure.", "FIG. 5 is an example of a coupon that may be used in accordance with a method of the present disclosure.", "FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of the presently described method.", "Like reference symbols in the various drawings indicate like elements.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION The above described drawing figures illustrate the present disclosure in at least one of its preferred embodiments, which is further defined in detail in the following description.", "Those having an ordinary skill in this art may be able to make alterations and modifications to what is described herein without departing from its spirit and scope.", "Therefore, it should be understood that what is illustrated is set forth only for the purposes of example and that it should not be taken as a limitation on the scope of the present apparatus and method of use.", "This description defines a system 10 and method for improving the sales level of retailers (and especially those that carry a multitude of products or so called SKUs (stock-keeping units).", "As such it is a promotional enablement providing a benefit to consumers as well as to retailers and manufactures;", "these three factors being the primary operatives in the present method.", "The method is based on a system 10 made up of computer servers tied together by a telecommunication system such as the Internet.", "The system 10 is an information exchange network consisting, in one version, shown in FIG. 1 , of one or more of each of: Program Manager (PM) servers 30 , teams of consumer servers 40 , retailer servers 50 , and manufacturer servers 60 .", "The term “server”", "as used here shall be understood to mean any digital information processing device such as a computer, a cellular telephone, or any similar device capable of receiving, processing and displaying information.", "In this disclosure the singular shall also take the meaning of plurality without distinction.", "In this disclosure the names of the owner/operators of the servers identified by numerals 30 - 60 may be used in place of the term “server”", "and in each instance shall have the identical meaning.", "FIG. 2 illustrates another version of the present system 10 .", "Here, the system consists of the PM 30 , the teams of consumers 40 , and the manufacturer 60 .", "FIG. 3 illustrates still another version of the present system 10 .", "Here, the system consists of the PM 30 , the teams of consumers 40 , and the retailer 50 .", "FIG. 4 illustrates yet another version of the present system 10 .", "Here, the system consists of a combination PM 30 and retailer 50 , the teams of consumers 40 and a manufacturer 60 .", "FIG. 5 illustrates a coupon 70 that is used with the method of this disclosure.", "The coupon has the elements of a typical example including a product 80 , CHEERIOS®, a benefit 90 , $1.00 off, and it also has a further benefit of a payout of 25 cents value, the kicker 100 (per team member) if the entire team purchases the product, or for those team members that do purchase the product.", "The coupon 70 may also have an expiration date as is well known (not shown).", "FIG. 6 illustrates an example of the present method including the steps of organizing the shopper teams, contracting kicker benefits with a manufacturer 60 , or alternately with a retailer 50 , arranging for a retailer checkout data stream to be sent to the program manager 30 , followed by compiling the data to determine if a given team's sales volume is high enough to trigger the kicker payout, and if so, triggering the payout with either the retailer 50 or the manufacturer 60 , and then distributing the kicker payouts to the team/team members.", "In the various versions, the PM 30 organizes the system 10 and manages its operation.", "Through advertising, notification, or in any other manner, the PM 30 encourages consumers 40 to organize themselves into teams and to register their teams with the PM 30 .", "The PM 30 then negotiates a contract with either the retailer 50 and, or the manufacturer 60 to offer a kicker redemption benefit over-and-above any benefits that may already be offered by the retailer 50 and, or the manufacturer 60 for consumer purchases.", "With such a contract in place, the PM 30 presents the deal to the consumer teams (teams) 40 .", "The teams 40 are notified that if the team 40 purchases at least a specified volume, or a specified total dollar value of a product, a series of products, products of a specified manufacturer or brand, or any similar specification;", "before a specified expiration date, each member of the complying/performing team 40 will receive a specified kicker benefit.", "The operating rules may be designed by the PM as desired.", "For instance, the rules may allow for some members of a team to receive the kicker benefit while others who have not met a specified member related goal, are not.", "Additionally, the teams 40 may be set into competition with each other by including in the deal, a “super-kicker”", "benefit based on which team 40 purchases the highest dollar volume per se, or per member, or achieves the team goal before other teams, or any similar arrangement.", "The arrangement with the retailer 50 enables the PM 30 to receive team purchasing information when the consumers use their retailer loyalty cards or other registered unique identifier which is scanned/logged by the retailer at the point of purchase.", "Recognition of a purchase may alternately be recorded when a consumer uses a telecommunication device such as a computer or a smart phone and enters a recognizable personal identification number (PIN).", "The purchase details are then telecommunicated to the PM 30 and recorded and aggregated.", "According to the agreement between the PM 30 and the retailer 50 or manufacturer 60 , or both, when team purchasing exceeds stipulated requirements to trigger the kicker, the specified benefit is awarded to the team members individually, or to the team 40 as a whole.", "Actual payout may be by check, airline points, and direct deposit to a team member's bank account or by any other means agreed to by the consumers.", "Alternatively, the team members may agree that they will work for a mutual prize—or entries into a drawing for a mutual prize—such as an all expenses paid trip to a desired resort that can be enjoyed by all of the team members at the same time together.", "In one embodiment, the method may use a traditional coupon for presenting the offer to a consumer.", "The coupon has printed on it, a product identity, the item to be purchased, a primary redemption amount, typical of a coupon and most often simply a reduction in the price of the product, a personal redemption behavior required for receiving the primary redemption amount, typically simply making the purchases at the reduced price, a kicker redemption amount which may be a direct payout compensation for making the purchase, to and a team redemption behavior required for receiving the kicker redemption amount, the latter being a total quantity or dollar value that must be accumulated by a given date to trigger the kicker benefit.", "In another example, consumers download coupons to mobile phones or to a specific loyalty card number.", "Such electronic “coupons”", "can have kickers that function as described above so that when the consumer presents a unique identifier such as a loyalty card number, cell phone number, or even a secure number embedded in the cell phone, the kicker benefit is registered and accounted for.", "In yet another example, the same process may proceed with the consumer purchasing a product from an e-tailer such as AMAZON.", "COM® or BUY.", "COM® wherein a product is displayed on an e-tailer Web site along with a price and a notice of a kicker amount if the purchaser has a coupon.", "Alternately, no coupon is required, but the kicker amount is offered simply for purchasing the product on-line.", "A number of embodiments have been described.", "Nevertheless, it will be understood that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of this disclosure.", "Accordingly, other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1.", "Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates generally to the detection of incoming threats and, more particularly, to methods and devices for both passively and actively detecting and tracking incoming threats such as rockets or missiles.", "[0003] 2.", "Description of Related Art [0004] Military vehicles, both ground and air, require defensive systems to warn or automatically defend against attacks by rockets or missiles.", "These defensive systems require sensors that detect an incoming threat and determine whether the threat is real or not.", "If the threat is real, a defensive system may initiate countermeasures to defeat the threat or issue warnings to the crew to evade the threat.", "[0005] Previous defensive systems have relied upon optical sensors or radar sensors to detect and track threats.", "Current systems only employ a single type of sensor—radar type or optical type.", "This limits the scope and speed of responses or actions possible for a system because of several issues, including the approach speed of a threat.", "Such difficulties are especially pronounced with respect to identifying and evading or mitigating incoming rockets or similar high-speed guided or un-guided munitions.", "A warning system combining multiple sensor types into a single system would represent a significant improvement over the current art by enabling faster acquisition of more data about the threat and therefore allowing for a reduced false alarm rate and an improved threat response.", "[0006] Other advantages may include a reduction in radiation emission due to a selectively triggered active detection system.", "This may reduce radiation hazard to system operators or other individuals in its vicinity as well as reduce the likelihood that the system, or a vehicle carrying the system, may be detected by hostile forces as a result of its radiation emissions.", "INVENTION SUMMARY [0007] Embodiments of the present invention pertains to a multi-band sensor and fire control system.", "The operating bands may be configured in the optical and radar spectra, but other embodiments of the present invention may employ alternate operating bands or alternate operating spectra, including bands that cross spectra (i.e. a band that covers visible and infra-red spectra).", "Yet further embodiments may employ three or more spectral bands or sensory technologies, such as a combination of visible, infra-red, radar, sonar, ultra-violet, laser, or any other sensing spectrum or system.", "[0008] In one embodiment of the present invention, a passive optical sensor may be used to detect a launch of a potential threat and establish its location in an image plane.", "Upon detection of a potential threat, the optical sensor may send the detection and location information to a tracking and control portion of the device.", "The control processor may then activate a radar transmitter and direct the radar beam to the correct coordinates to intercept the potential threat.", "The radar may then determine the speed, direction, and range of the potential threat.", "If the threat is determined to be real, the control processor may then determine which, if any, countermeasure to fire to intercept the incoming threat and provide the firing command to the countermeasures and/or signal appropriate warnings to the crew or suggest or engage appropriate evasive actions.", "If the threat is determined to be false, the radar is deactivated and the system returns to the passive optical surveillance mode.", "[0009] Alternate embodiments may employ passive infra-red, millimeter-wave, or ultra-violet detectors.", "Yet further embodiments may employ multiple optical sensors or multiple portions of a single sensor for detection or monitoring in certain specific electro-optical wavebands or for particular polarizations, or combinations of the two.", "Yet further embodiments may employ an active sonar or laser ranging system or any other suitable means for determining the position and trajectory of a target.", "[0010] One embodiment of the present invention may be designed specifically for ground vehicle defense against RPGs (rocket propelled grenades).", "Such an embodiment of the invention may not require exquisite accuracy in azimuth and elevation but may require an accuracy of plus or minus three feet in the range measurement by the radar in order to trigger any appropriate countermeasures accurately.", "Appropriate countermeasures may include non-lethal shot projectors that throw shot in a wide pattern to intercept and destroy or detonate an incoming RPG.", "An embodiment of the present invention may also determine an expected impact location relative to the vehicle carrying the inventive system for more accurate and effective countermeasures deployment.", "[0011] A sensor system according to the present invention configured for the above inventive embodiment may include an optical sensor system surrounded by a radar sensor system, with both systems potentially sharing a common set of electronic components.", "In one such embodiment, both systems may have a 360 by 60 degree field of view.", "Alternate embodiments of the present invention may have different fields of view depending on their specific application or configuration needs.", "One potential alternative embodiment may be an optical system with a 360 by 120 field of view and two separate range-finding systems, each with a non-overlapping 360 by 60 degree field of view.", "In yet further alternative embodiments, the field of view and configuration of the initial detection and ranging portions may be reversed or otherwise configured based on the operating and deployment requirements of the system.", "In embodiments where the detection and ranging systems operate on different technologies (i.e. millimeter-wave and sonar), it may be advantageous to use fewer shared components.", "In embodiments where the system is expected to be subject to damage from environmental or other factors, it may be advantageous to include redundant or otherwise fault-tolerant components in either or both sensors and/or in the electronics, [0012] By combining detection and ranging sensors into a single system, embodiments of the present invention provide a number of advantages.", "In the radar and optical embodiment, both optical and radar systems produce false alarms.", "By requiring both an optical signature and radar signature together to identify a threat, the present invention reduces the false alarm rate to near zero.", "Radar only systems must transmit continuously to detect threats.", "The radar signal can be detected and the vehicle attacked.", "In addition, the constant radar emissions can create radiation hazards to nearby humans if they are exposed for a significant period of time.", "This embodiment of the inventive device is passive until a potential threat is optically identified.", "Only then is the radar activated and then only for the period of time needed to detect the threat.", "[0013] The use of multiple, distinct detection bands in the present invention improves the detection of threats.", "All band signatures are required to confirm an attack.", "This feature is what reduces the false alarm rate.", "Further, by having at least one of the bands configured for passive detection and at least one band for active detection and only engaging the active detection system in response to a target acquired by the passive detection system, the present invention realizes the benefits of an active detection system while preventing others from easily or readily identifying the source of the active detection system.", "Embodiments of the present invention therefore provide accurate detection of potential threats or targets with a low false alarm rate.", "[0014] Embodiments of the present invention also allow for a sensor system that realizes the benefits of an active detection paradigm while mitigating some of the downsides of that paradigm (specifically, reducing chances of detection and location of the active system by engaging active detection only for short periods and only after detection of a target or threat by the passive system).", "[0015] Embodiments of the present invention may also include programmable components or sensor and/or control components that interact with programmable media or have particular operating parameters established or stored in computer-readable storage media included in or otherwise operationally interacting with part of all of a system according to the present invention.", "[0016] Further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter.", "However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.", "DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS [0017] The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given herein below and the accompanying drawings which are given by way of illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present invention, and wherein [0018] FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of an embodiment of a detector system according to the present invention;", "[0019] FIG. 2 shows a radar/optical dual-spectrum embodiment of a detector system according to the present invention;", "[0020] FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of an activation and operating sequence for a detector system according to the present invention;", "and [0021] FIG. 4 shows an embodiment of a detector system operating sequence for an embodiment of a system mounted on a ground vehicle.", "[0022] The drawings will be described in detail in the course of the detailed description of the invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0023] The following detailed description of the invention refers to the accompanying drawings.", "The same reference numbers in different drawings identify the same or similar elements.", "Also, the following detailed description does not limit the invention.", "Instead, the scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims and equivalents thereof.", "[0024] An embodiment of the present invention may include components depicted in FIG. 1 .", "A passive optical detector 101 may be continually operating or may be manually activated when the system is engaged and prepared for operation.", "This may be a passive optical detector operable in visible, millimeter wave, infra-red or ultra-violet depending on the particular operating environment and threat or threat types being detected.", "Embodiments for land vehicles operating in urban areas may be equipped with a visible spectrum or an infra-red passive detector to detect launches of munitions such as rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs).", "Embodiments for sea or air vehicles, or man-portable variants, may be equipped with a different passive sensor system or suite of systems, such as millimeter-wave detectors to identify metal objects, passive sonar to detect mechanically-created noises, or laser detectors that may indicate if the vehicle is being marked for a semi-active laser weapon.", "[0025] One specific embodiment may include 360-degree optical detector configured to detect light wavelengths associated with the combustion of particular propellants known to be used for anti-tank missiles or rocket-propelled grenades.", "Such a detector is described and discussed in, for example, U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 12/073,679, by Michael Warren, filed on Mar. 7, 2008, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.", "[0026] Embodiments of a passive detector 101 may be connected to a processing section 161 that includes a target verification unit 111 to determine if an event detected by the passive detector 101 is a target-related or threat-related event.", "If the event is target or threat related, a detector control unit 161 in the processing section 161 may be triggered to engage an active detector 141 .", "[0027] One embodiment of a passive detector may include an optical sensor that incorporates a Magneto Optic Filter that provides a very narrow pass band (25 milli-angstroms) centered at the potassium wavelength (769 nanometers).", "This pass band transmits light produced by many rocket motor propulsion chemicals.", "An embodiment of such a first discriminator (passive detector) is described in U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 12/073,679.", "[0028] Embodiments of this type may be configured to detect very short duration threat signatures (e.g. a launch flash of under 20 milliseconds in duration) associated with similarly short attack times (launch-to-hit times of less than 2 seconds and potentially as low as 0.1 seconds or less).", "In an embodiment with a latency of one video frame (approximately 0.01 seconds), a bright spot at least four pixels in size may be sufficient to engage the active detector 141 .", "[0029] Embodiments may also be equipped with a relative location mapping and computation aspect 111 - a .", "In such embodiments, the passive detector 101 may determine the azimuth (and elevation) angle, relative to the vehicle monitored, of a potential threat.", "Such line of sight information may be stored, along with related image data, in a memory unit 171 contained in the processing section.", "This information may be provided to the detector control 131 unit so that it may orient the active detector 141 appropriately upon activation.", "[0030] Alternate embodiments may be configured such that the active detector 141 scans the entire field of view covered by the passive detector 101 without receiving specific orientation directions based on the passive detection.", "Some embodiments configured for full field-of-view active scanning may still receive spatial confirmation from a passive detector.", "[0031] Additionally, line of sight information may be used to verify and compare a detection event from the active sensor 141 against the event detected by the passive sensor 101 so that the target verification unit 111 may better determine if an actual threat or target has been detected or not.", "[0032] In some embodiments, after the active detector 141 is engaged, the passive detector may continue to monitor the threat detection location and determine if the passively detected threat signature remains present.", "In embodiments configured for detection of rocket or missile launch events, a passive optical detector 101 may continue monitoring the initial launch detection location to determine if the launch signature disappears within approximately 3 video frames (about 0.03 seconds).", "[0033] Based on currently known properties of rocket propellants, a flash time of less than 0.03 seconds may be used to confirm that the time signature of the threat is as expected.", "In such embodiments, if the time signature matches expectations, the active detector 141 may remain activated for a pre-determined time or until a threat velocity and direction are also determined to be within an expected threat signature.", "[0034] Embodiments of continued active and/or passive detection information may be passed to an embodiment of a target verification unit 111 that, upon determining if the detection results match expected threat signatures, may indicate activation or arming ancillary systems 181 that include countermeasures 151 and their associated control systems 121 .", "In further embodiments, if the target verification unit 111 determines, from passive detector 101 results, that a threat signature duration is outside of the expected signature duration, the detector control 131 may de-activate the active sensor or, in embodiments configured to detect and process multiple threats, switch the active sensor to the next (in time and space) potential threat.", "[0035] Further embodiments of target verification 111 may include temporal integration functionality or components to integrate multiple passive detections and provide improved detection capability (such as sub-pixel resolution).", "Yet further embodiments may include spatial integration functionality or components to integrate the detection results of a passive and an active detector into a combined detection result having improved accuracy.", "[0036] The various components of an embodiment of a processing section 161 may communicate via a shared or system bus 191 that permits the various components to exchange information and control signals.", "Alternate embodiments may be wirelessly connected or may have specific, hard-wired connections between the components.", "Yet further embodiments may be realized as part of a broader or more general purpose processing system that includes specialized components or stored instructions in order to accomplish the necessary processing functions.", "[0037] Embodiments of an active detector 141 may be oriented in a direction identified by the passive detector 101 or may be omni-directional.", "An embodiment of an active detector 141 may be used to determine the position, relative velocity, and expected trajectory of an object detected by the passive detector 101 .", "Based on this determination of position, velocity, and trajectory, the target verification unit 111 may make a determination of whether the object is expected to impact the system or a vehicle or person carrying or monitored by the system.", "Further embodiments of an active detector 141 may also acquire information such as size or shape or material composition to facilitate more accurate determination of what an inbound object might be (e.g. a grenade or a rock).", "[0038] In the event the detection results of the active detector 141 are not determined to be associated with a threat, the active detector 141 may be de-activated and the system may return to a passive detection mode.", "If the active detector 141 is deemed to have detected a threat, however, the processing section 161 may trigger one of several ancillary systems 181 , such as a warning or countermeasures control system 121 that receives information about the detected threat.", "[0039] Active detector activation, orientation, and de-activation may be controlled by a detector control unit 131 .", "In some embodiments, the detector control components may be included with or otherwise integrated into the active detector 141 .", "In other embodiments, the detector control 131 may be a portion of the target verification 111 unit or may otherwise be a set of components incorporated into a processing section 161 that provides shared control and monitoring for both active and passive detection systems.", "Similarly, the target verification unit 111 may be a shared component set utilized by both active and passive sensor systems or, in alternate embodiments, may contain or be composed of components specifically dedicated for an active or passive detection system.", "Embodiments of said components may include programmable components or other storage-equipped or storage-capable units 171 or storage media that contain operating instructions or parameters associated with a detector, control system, or verification module.", "[0040] Embodiments of ancillary systems 181 may receive a combination of the initial passive and active detection information or may receive only the active detection information to establish an initial threat location and movement direction.", "Further embodiments may also receive further information such as object size or shape.", "Alternate embodiments of ancillary systems, such as a countermeasures control system 121 , may direct or otherwise control the active and/or passive detectors to acquire position, relative velocity, and expected trajectory information for a verified threat.", "An embodiment of a countermeasures control system may cause the active detector to track a verified threat and use that tracking information to determine an appropriate response or range of responses.", "Embodiments of such tracking components may include spatial integration functionality that combines detection results of a passive and an active detector into a combined detection result having improved accuracy, allowing for improved tracking and identification capability.", "[0041] Embodiments of an ancillary system 181 may also include components incorporated into a unit that provides shared control and monitoring for both active and passive detection systems.", "Embodiments of said components may include programmable components or other storage-equipped or storage-capable devices or storage media that contain operating instructions or parameters associated with a detector, control system, or verification module.", "[0042] Embodiments of ancillary systems 181 may include one or more countermeasure or avoidance systems 151 that may be triggered based on a detected and verified threat.", "Such systems may include notifications of incoming threats, suggested evasive or counter-strike maneuvers, or automated responses that do not require any user or operator interaction.", "[0043] An embodiment of an automated response may include firing a weapon or employing some other munition or device to detonate or disable the incoming threat.", "Embodiments of munitions and devices may include explosive charges, projectiles, flares, chaff, and/or energy devices such as laser or microwave emitters that may either disable, detonate, or deceive the incoming threat.", "[0044] Alternate embodiments of an automated response may include triggering an evasive maneuver such as swerving, stopping, or otherwise altering the course of a vehicle associated with or equipped with an embodiment of a detection system according to the present invention.", "Embodiments of notifications may include warning lights, displays showing an incoming threat, audible alerts, and/or combinations thereof.", "[0045] Embodiments of suggested threat responses may include indicators to activate particular systems or weapons, maneuver a vehicle in certain ways, or combinations thereof.", "In some embodiments, pre-selected responses may be offered to a user for selection and a particular response that includes some combination of countermeasures and/or evasive maneuvers may be automatically executed based on a user selection.", "[0046] FIG. 2 depicts one particular embodiment of the system described in FIG. 1 .", "The specific embodiment shown is a dual-band system with a passive, omni-directional optical detector 202 , 250 and an active, omni-directional radar system 220 , 230 .", "The target detection/verification, detector control, and countermeasures control systems are contained in a common set of electronic components 240 shared by both detector systems and operably connected to countermeasures and/or vehicle maneuvering systems (not shown).", "[0047] In the embodiment depicted, the optical detector 202 has a 360-degree by 60-degree field of view (horizon±30 degrees).", "Alternate embodiments may employ optical detectors having different fields of view, including ones that scan as little as ±5 degrees from the horizon or ones that have as much as 180 degrees of vertical field of view.", "Yet further embodiments of an optical detector may include semi-active detector types such as one with less than 360 degrees horizontal field of view that must be rotated for omni-directional detection.", "Further embodiments still may employ multiple passive optical detectors with directly adjacent or overlapping fields of view.", "One such embodiment may include configurable arrays of passive detectors that may be arranged for overlapping fields of view to allow for multiple initial threat or target detections, which may improve initial target verification results and allow for reductions in active detector use, further reducing the likelihood that the system will operate long enough to be detected and located or identified based on the active sensor emissions.", "Further embodiments still may have a common set of optical detection equipment 250 connected with multiple sets of optics 202 having different fields of view in different or overlapping directions.", "[0048] Embodiments configured for ground vehicle protection may employ passive detectors with a somewhat greater than hemispherical coverage, which is realizable by design.", "Some such embodiments may, for cost considerations, employ a greater-than-hemispherical passive optical detector with a fixed focus and fixed field of regard.", "Such embodiments may reduce cost, weight, and areas of potential component failure without significant sacrifices in accuracy and adaptability in applications meant to detect relatively close-range launches of munitions such as rocket-propelled grenades or man-portable anti-tank missiles, which may have launch-to-impact times significantly shorter than the focus or tracking adjustment speed of most optical systems.", "[0049] The embodiment depicted employs a visible-spectrum optical detector as a passive detector.", "Alternate embodiments may employ passive infra-red, millimeter-wave, or ultra-violet detectors.", "Some embodiments may have multiple passive detectors in multiple wavebands, such as separate visible spectrum wavebands, mid-wave infra-red, short-wave infra-red, millimeter-wave, ultra-violet, long-wave infra red, or any other suitable combination thereof depending on what the system is intended to detect and the operating environment it is configured for.", "Some embodiments may also employ spectral filtering techniques to detect only certain specific wavelengths or wavebands within a particular spectrum.", "Some such embodiments may be configured to only detect those portions of the visible or infra-red spectra associated with combustion of certain chemicals or chemical mixtures, such as those contained in solid or liquid propellants commonly used for missiles or rocket-propelled grenades or similar devices.", "[0050] In the embodiment depicted, the active detector is a radar system with a 360-degree by 60-degree (horizon±30 degrees) antenna 230 and associated RF components 220 .", "Alternate embodiments may include antennas with different fields of view, including ones that scan as little as ±5 degrees from the horizon or ones that have as much as 180 degrees of vertical field of view.", "Yet further embodiments of a radar detector may include steerable detector types such as one with less than 360 degrees horizontal field of view that must be rotated for omni-directional detection.", "Further embodiments still may employ multiple active detectors with directly adjacent or overlapping fields of view.", "One such embodiment may include configurable radar arrays that may be arranged for overlapping fields of view to allow for better scene coverage or improved detection quality.", "Further embodiments still may have a common set of RF components 220 connected with multiple radar antennas 230 or antenna arrays having different fields of view in different or overlapping directions.", "[0051] The embodiment depicted employs radar as an active detection system.", "Alternate embodiments may employ sonar, laser-based ranging systems, active millimeter-wave systems, or any other suitable active detection system depending on the types of targets and operating environment an embodiment is configured for.", "Yet further embodiments may combine multiple active detection systems, such as a combined radar/sonar or radar/laser system.", "Yet further embodiments may include multiple radar or laser or millimeter wave systems, or combinations thereof, having specific polarizations.", "[0052] Yet further embodiments may include spatial or temporal integration components (not shown) that may combine multiple passive detection frames for improved passive detection resolution or that may combine passive detection and active detection results for improved target or threat detection and tracking.", "In embodiments having multiple passive or active detection systems, one or more passive systems may be associated with a temporal integration system or approach and/or two or more active systems or at least one active and at least one passive detection system may be associated with a spatial integration system or approach to produce improved, combined detection results.", "[0053] The embodiment depicted employs a common set of electronic components 240 as one cohesive unit that combines a significant portion of the operation, control, and signal processing components required for control of the detector systems, recognition of targets or threats, and activation and control of countermeasures.", "Embodiments of a common suite of electronic components may include a power supply and a common signal and fire control processor.", "Alternate embodiments may also include spatial or temporal integration components or may have data interface points included in the common electronic components.", "Embodiments of such data interface points may allow for user configuration or parameter selection of various components based on operating environment or user preference.", "In some embodiments, the system may have a manual override feature that may be enabled or disabled.", "Embodiments of such a manual override option may allow for selective activation of an automated response system or the complete de-activation of any automated response beyond an alarm indicator.", "[0054] In the embodiment shown, the detectors and electronics are housed as a complete system inside a casing 210 .", "Embodiments of the casing may be made of aluminum.", "Alternate embodiments could be made of any reasonable material.", "Some embodiments may be made of steel armor sufficient to withstand small arms fire and shrapnel damage to the interior of the equipment.", "Embodiments of such a system may be mounted on a vehicle or a structure, or may be man-portable or semi-portable (i.e. vehicle-towed).", "Alternate embodiments of such systems may be integrated directly into the construction of a vehicle or a structure.", "[0055] Yet further embodiments may be composed of modular components that perform according to the present invention when connected and configured to do so.", "An example of such an embodiment may include a sensor suite on an armored vehicle, a jet, or a field command or communications center.", "Such a vehicle or structure may already have a 360-degree capable passive optical system and an active radar or laser ranging system.", "Equipping it with an appropriate suite of control electronics, or configuring the existing control electronics, may allow these active and passive systems to work in tandem as a threat or target detection system according to the present invention.", "[0056] An embodiment of an operational sequence associated with a detection system according to the present invention is depicted in FIG. 3 .", "When operating, the system begins in a stand-by state where the passive sensor (or sensors) is engaged 303 and looking for potential threats.", "Until a potential threat is detected 333 the system remains in a passive, stand-by state that only employs passive detection systems 303 .", "When a potential threat is detected 333 by the passive detector(s), the system engages one or more active detectors 313 and, if applicable, orients or otherwise directs their focus towards the position of the potential threat detected by the passive system(s).", "[0057] The detection results of the active detector(s) are then evaluated and compared with the passive detection results to determine if the potential threat is valid or a false alarm 353 .", "If the threat is determined to be a false alarm, the active detector is disengaged 323 and the system returns to a stand-by mode of passive detection 303 .", "If, however, the threat is determined to be valid, the system may trigger an alarm of engage other appropriate warnings or counter-measures 343 .", "In some embodiments, the system may engage or suggest activation of an active countermeasure system such as an anti-missile or anti-personnel system designed to disable or deflect the incoming threat.", "In other embodiments, the system may perform or suggest a series of evasive or defensive maneuvers to avoid or deflect the incoming threat.", "In yet further embodiments, the system may simply indicate that a threat is inbound and indicate that the vehicle occupants or operators should prepare for impact.", "[0058] In some embodiments, the system may continue tracking the threat while counter-measures or evasive maneuvers are performed or indicated.", "In such embodiments, if the threat is determined to still be present 363 after a system response, the system may engage in a second round of anti-threat responses 343 .", "Systems equipped with threat-neutralization devices may, for instance, engage a secondary threat neutralization device or proceed to evasive maneuvers if the threat neutralization device is deemed ineffective.", "Embodiments of systems may also be configured to attempt or suggest evasive maneuvers prior to employing threat neutralization devices or may have a predetermined range and sequence of responses and response alternatives depending on the type and nature of the detected threat.", "Once the threat is determined to be eliminated or is otherwise no longer viable, the active detector(s) may be disengaged 323 and the system returned to a stand-by state of passive detection 303 .", "[0059] FIG. 4 .", "depicts an embodiment of a detection and response sequence for a ground vehicle 404 equipped with an embodiment of the system discussed herein 410 .", "The passive detection portion of the system 410 may detect the launch 480 of an anti-tank missile 470 or similar weapon.", "Such detection may be made, in some embodiments, by optical detection of specific wavelengths associated with the combustion of fuels known to be used in such devices.", "Alternate embodiments may detect infra-red signatures or may track moving objects and determine their approximate speed and trajectory relative to the system or a vehicle equipped with or monitored by the system.", "[0060] Upon detecting the incoming threat 470 with the passive system, the active detection portion of the system 410 is triggered.", "The active detection aspect is oriented or otherwise directed to detect the potential incoming threat 460 and, if the threat is deemed valid, the active detection aspect tracks the threat 440 to determine its expected trajectory and impact time.", "Once it is determined where and when the threat will impact the vehicle 404 , an active counter-measure system 420 is deployed to neutralize the threat.", "In the embodiment shown, the counter-measure is a claymore-type device that launches a screen of shot or shrapnel 430 to destroy or detonate the incoming missile 450 before it can strike the vehicle 404 .", "In alternate embodiments, the counter-measure may be flares or an evasive maneuver, a directed electro-magnetic pulse, an anti-missile, or any other suitable threat evasion or neutralization device or maneuver.", "[0061] In alternative embodiments, cost and threat launch-to-impact times may lead to systems that only measure a threat's velocity and range.", "In such embodiments, an active detector may simply confirm a threat signature and determine range and velocity during the threat signature confirmation.", "Such an operation may be performed more quickly than a range calculation and may require less complicated components and algorithms, potentially reducing the overall cost of such embodiments.", "[0062] Embodiments of a system according to the present disclosure could be used on board a water vessel.", "Low-cost embodiments similar to those described above may be suitable for small patrol craft that would be vulnerable to attack from the same type of threats as a ground vehicle.", "[0063] Only exemplary embodiments of the present invention are shown and described in the present disclosure.", "It is to be understood that the present invention is capable of use in various other combinations and environments and is capable of changes or modifications within the scope of the inventive concept as expressed herein.", "Such variations are not to be regarded as departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims:" ]

[ "FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a system and method for a server based telephone system wherein interactive handsets can operate within a data communication mode and a voice communication mode concurrently.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Wireless in building telephones deploying a pico-cellular architecture allow employees to work away from their desks without the worry associated with missing incoming callers.", "A communication system such as this consisting of a central controller, base stations connected to the controller, and wireless handsets carried by the employees have allowed increased freedom and accessibility in the work place.", "The central controller manages all incoming calls for the individual wireless handsets using an in building telecommunication network.", "The network is divided into cells which service the handsets in a defined area.", "Each cell contains a base station which exchanges voice and data information with the handsets located within the cell's coverage area.", "When a call arrives for a particular handset, the controller determines the cell location of the requested handset and alerts the user with a notification alarm on the handset.", "As aforementioned, one key advantage of this system is the ability of the user to work away from their work area while not missing incoming calls.", "A problem results from the fact that this inevitably increases the time the employee is away from his/her Personal Computer (PC) and its associated applications and databases.", "This reduction in access to valuable resources can harm productivity and limits the true freedom gained by the use of the portable telephone system.", "The ability to communicate caller identification data from the central controller to the handset is well known.", "Generally, this information which includes the name and/or number of the calling party is transferred to the liquid crystal display (LCD) of the handset when the handset is alerted of an incoming call.", "Such an apparatus is typified in U.S. Pat. No. 5,581,599 Tsuji et al, issued Dec. 3, 1996, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.", "This innovation allows limited information about the calling party to become available to the user of the portable telephone.", "This information, although useful, does not allow a user to gain access to applications or databases that may be located on a PC.", "If a user required additional information about a calling party before accepting the call, it would necessitate access to a PC and the specific databases needed.", "There are presently available digital telecommunication systems that allow data sessions between the portable handset and the central controller.", "These data sessions may be initiated by the user or by applications running on a personal computer (PC) connected to the controller.", "Samples of these systems include the Companion 200 and Meridian Companion Mobility Option (MCMO) produced by Northern Telecom Limited and the Pocket Communication Systems (PCS) PCS50E, PCS150E, and PCS2000E produced by SpectraLink Corporation.", "These data sessions allow the user to access applications located on a server connected to the central controller remotely through a handset.", "While the user is away from a PC, this system allows for the activating and running of computer programs that may be required without prescribing that the user be situated at the same location as the PC.", "This increases the accessibility of information to the user while away from a PC.", "An inherent problem that occurs through the use of the portable telephone as both a means for voice communication and a means for data communication is the inability of the central controller to access the user for a voice call while the user is engaged in a data session on the handset with the server.", "This reduces the availability of the user to outside callers and limits the advantages gained by the portable telephone system.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to overcome the disadvantage of the prior art and, in particular, to provide a technique whereby a user engaged in a data session may be offered a voice call which he/she may accept or reject.", "According to a first aspect, the present invention provides a telephone communications network capable of operation in both data communication and voice communication mode, the network comprising: at least one display based telephone handset;", "a central switching controller coupled to the telephone handset and connectable to an external switched telephone network for selective switching of the telephone handset to the external switched network;", "and a central computing device connected to the central switching controller and controlling operation of the central switching controller by means of control software running on the central computing device and providing selective access by the telephone handset through the central switching controller to application software running on the central computing device, wherein the control software operates, while the telephone handset is in a data communication mode with the application software and an incoming voice call for the telephone handset is received at the central switching controller, to save in memory information about the telephone handset, to offer the incoming voice call to a display on the telephone handset, to connect the voice call to the telephone handset in the event that an acceptance signal is sent from the telephone handset or to reject the voice call to the telephone handset in the event that a rejection signal is sent from the telephone handset, and to restore the information about the telephone handset to the telephone handset and reconnect the telephone handset to the data communication mode with the application software after reception of the acceptance signal or the rejection signal.", "According to a second aspect, the present invention provides a method of offering an incoming voice call to a particular display based telephone handset in a telephone communications network while the particular handset is in a data communication mode with an application software, the telephone communications network capable of operation in both data communication and voice communication mode and comprising at least one display based telephone handset;", "a central switching controller coupled to the telephone handset and connectable to an external switched telephone network for selective switching of the telephone handset to the external switched network;", "and a central computing device connected to the central switching controller and controlling operation of the central switching controller by means of control software running on the central computing device and providing selective access by the telephone handset through the central switching controller to an application software running on the central computing device, the method comprising: A) on receipt of the incoming voice call, saving in memory information about that particular handset;", "B) offering the incoming voice call to a display on that particular handset;", "C) connecting the voice call to that particular handset in the event that an acceptance signal is sent from the particular handset or rejecting the voice call in the event that a rejection signal is sent from the particular handset;", "D) restoring the information about that particular handset to the particular handset after reception of the acceptance signal or the rejection signal;", "and E) reconnecting the particular handset to the data communication mode with the application software after receipt of the acceptance signal or the rejection signal.", "According to a third aspect, the invention provides a computer readable storage medium containing control software that when running on a central computing device connected to a central switching controller which is further coupled to at least one display based telephone handset capable of operation in both data communication and voice communication mode, controls the operation of the central switching controller through a plurality of control steps, wherein the central switching controller is connectable to an external switched telephone network for selective switching of the telephone handset to the external switched network;", "wherein the central computing device provides selective access by the telephone handset through the central switching controller to application software running on the central computing device;", "and wherein the plurality of control steps performed while the telephone handset is in a data communication mode with the application software and an incoming voice call for the telephone handset is received at the central switching controller comprise: A) saving in memory information about the telephone handset;", "B) offering the incoming voice call to a display on the telephone handset;", "C) connecting the voice call to the telephone handset in the event that an acceptance signal is sent from the telephone handset and rejecting the voice call in the event that a rejection signal is sent from the telephone handset;", "D) restoring the information about the telephone handset to the telephone handset after receipt of the acceptance signal or the rejection signal;", "and E) reconnecting the telephone handset to the data communication mode with the application software after receipt of the acceptance signal or the rejection signal.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to the following figures, in which: FIG. 1 is an illustration of a portable telephone handset in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention;", "FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an in building portable telephone system in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention;", "FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the steps executed by typical prior art software following receipt of an incoming call;", "FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the steps in the preferred embodiment executed following receipt of an incoming call and prior to the activation of the software contemplated by the present invention;", "and FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the steps executed by the software contemplated by the present invention following receipt of an incoming call while the portable handset is in a data session with the central controller.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The preferred embodiment of the present invention requires the use of the Companion Applications Toolkit (CAT) Application Programming Interface (API) produced by Northern Telecom Limited of Montreal, Canada.", "This CAT API corresponds to Northern Telecom part number A0674796 and is publicly offered for sale by Northern Telecom.", "The software manual for this API is the CAT Version 1.1 help file using Microsoft Windows Help Application 4.00.950 and is incorporated herein by reference.", "FIG. 1 is an illustration of a portable telephone handset 100 in accordance with the present invention which, as will be described herein below is software configurable to provide enhanced telephone services in a voice and data communications network.", "The features of the handset 100 include a liquid crystal display (LCD) 102 with a first display line 104 , a second display line 106 , softkey icons 108 , 110 , 112 , and navigational key (navkey) icons 114 , softkey buttons 116 , 118 , 120 , navkey buttons 122 , and a dialpad 124 .", "Software created using the CAT API controls the writing to the LCD 102 and the turning on or off of the softkey icons 108 , 110 , 112 and the navkey icons 114 .", "The process of turning on or off the softkey icons 108 , 110 , 112 and navkey icons 114 includes activation and deactivation of the corresponding softkey buttons 116 , 118 , 120 and navkey buttons 122 .", "The softkey icons 108 , 110 , 112 include a first softkey icon (left) 108 , a second softkey icon (middle) 110 , and a third softkey icon (right) 112 that correspond respectively to a first softkey button (left) 116 , a second softkey button (middle) 118 , and a third softkey button (right) 120 located below the softkey icons 108 , 110 , 112 on the portable handset 100 .", "Typically the second display line 106 of the LCD 102 is used to label the softkey icons 108 , 110 , 112 that are on by writing the appropriate labels directly above the particular softkey icons 108 , 110 , 112 that are on.", "FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an in building portable telephone system 200 in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention, consisting of a plurality of portable telephone handsets 100 , a plurality of base stations 202 , a central switching controller 204 and a personal computer (PC) 206 connected to the controller 204 through a PC interface device 208 .", "The central switching controller 204 , the plurality of base stations 202 , and the plurality of portable handsets 100 combined comprise the Companion 200 with Northern Telecom part number A0725269 in one embodiment and the Meridian Companion Mobility Option (MCMO) with Northern Telecom part number A0725270 in another embodiment.", "Both systems are produced by Northern Telecom Limited of Montreal, Canada.", "The controller 204 connects the in building telephone system 200 to an external telephone system 210 through analog telephone lines 212 .", "In the embodiment described above with the Companion 200 , the external telephone system 210 consists of a Public Branch Exchange (PBX) which is further connected to a public switched telephone network and/or connected to PBXs of other telephone systems.", "In the embodiment described above with the MCMO, the central switching controller 204 is included within the PBX and the external telephone system 210 connected to the central switching controller 204 consists of a public switched telephone network and/or PBXs for other telephone systems.", "The controller is connected to the portable handsets 100 through Time Compressed Multiplexing (TCM) telephone lines 214 between the controller 204 and the base stations 202 , and radio channels 216 between the base stations 202 and the portable handsets 100 .", "The PC interface device 208 is used to translate data information and requests in the TCM form to the RS232 form that the PC 206 can process and translate data information and requests in the RS232 form to the TCM form that the central switching controller 204 can process.", "In the preferred embodiment, the PC interface device 208 is a Computer Telephony Adaptor (CTA) which consists of either a serial box CTA100 external to the PC 206 with Northern Telecom part number A0646509 or a PC interface card CTA150 internal to the PC 206 with Northern Telecom part number A0363108.", "A Companion Applications Toolkit (CAT) server software 218 located within the PC 206 communicates with and has the capability to control the central switching controller 204 and the portable handsets 100 through the PC interface device 208 and regulates the operation of a plurality of software applications 222 programmed with the CAT API.", "An example of a possible software application 222 generated with the CAT API is a personal directory look up application selectively initiated by the user of one of the portable handsets 100 that allows the user to search a personal directory database located within the PC 206 for information on specific individuals.", "An additional example is a nurse call system application which initiates a data session with one or more of the portable handsets 100 carried by the nurses within a hospital ward in the event of an emergency request by a patient and provides additional information about the particular patient such as his/her room number to the handsets 100 in such an occurrence.", "A further example of such an application 222 is a stock inventory control application selectively initiated by the user of one of the portable handsets 100 that allows the user to access inventory databases located in the stock rooms or warehouses to determine if a product is in stock.", "The CAT server software 218 is 16 bit software which operates under Microsoft WINDOWS versions 3.1, 3.11, and Win95.", "This server software 218 is capable of being upgraded to 32 bit software which can be operated under Microsoft WINDOWS versions Win95, Win98, and WinNT.", "There are four CAT server buffers 224 within the CAT server software 218 which store the string displayed on the first display line 104 of the LCD 102 , the string displayed on the second display line 106 of the LCD 102 , the status of the softkey icons 108 , 110 , 112 and the status of the navkey icons 114 associated with every portable handset 100 within the in building telephone system 200 .", "This portable handset information is selectively updated in the CAT server buffers 224 and restored to the particular portable handsets 100 by the CAT server software 218 and its accompanying applications 222 .", "FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the steps executed by typical prior art software following receipt of an incoming call.", "As depicted in steps 302 and 304 , following an incoming call to the central controller 204 , the line number called along with the name and number of the calling party are extracted.", "The name of the calling party is only extracted if the central switching controller 204 and the PBX supports it.", "The controller 204 determines at step 305 the handset identifier that corresponds to the line number called.", "A handset that is in a data session with an application 222 at step 306 appears busy at the central controller 204 .", "In this circumstance, the calling party is routed at step 308 to the called handset identifier's corresponding voice mail box in order that the calling party can record a message for the user of the called handset 100 .", "The data session that the called handset 100 is engaged in is not disturbed and the user of the called handset 100 is not notified of the calling party's desire to communicate with the user.", "A called handset 100 that is not in a data session with an application 222 proceeds through a well known procedure controlled by the central switching controller.", "As depicted at step 312 , the name or number of the calling party is written to the LCD 102 of the called handset 100 .", "The notification alarm of the called handset 100 is triggered at step 314 .", "If the called handset 100 user answers the notification alarm at step 316 , the central controller 204 establishes a voice path between the calling party and the called handset 100 at step 318 .", "In the circumstance that the called handset 100 user does not respond to the notification alarm at step 316 , the calling party is routed at step 320 to the voice mail box as described above at step 308 .", "The sequence of steps, with reference to FIG. 4, in the preferred embodiment executed by the CAT server 218 following receipt of an incoming call and prior to the activation of the software contemplated by the present invention is now described.", "WAU in all functions, events, and event parameters mentioned below represents Wireless Application Unit.", "As depicted in step 400 , CAT function WAUmonitorLineEvents is activated and tracks all phone line related activity on the in building telephone system 200 .", "A WAU_CALL_OFFER event is received for every incoming call to every portable handset 100 in the system 200 at step 402 .", "At the time of receipt of event WAU_CALL_OFFER the CAT server software 218 extracts from the WAU_CALL_OFFER event at step 404 the called handset identifier along with the name and number of the calling party.", "The called handset identifier is determined by the controller 204 after it extracts the called line number and is included as a parameter of the WAU_CALL_OFFER event.", "The calling party name is only extracted if this feature is supported by the central switching controller 204 and the external telephone system 210 .", "The central switching controller 204 tracks the portable handsets 100 and determines which cell the portable handset 100 corresponding to the called handset identifier is located within.", "As depicted at step 406 , the CAT server software 218 determines if the called handset 100 is in a data session with an application 222 by checking for an activated data session flag for the called handset 100 within a look up table located within the CAT server software 218 containing all of the portable handset identifiers in the telephone system 200 .", "This data session flag is triggered either by function WAUsessionStart when an application 222 initiates a data session with a portable handset 100 or by event WAUsessionRequest when the user of a portable handset 100 requests a data session with an application 222 .", "In the circumstance that the called handset 100 is not in a data session with an application 222 , the sequence of events is identical to that described above for the prior art software at step 312 through to step 320 .", "The sequence of steps executed on the CAT server software 218 by the WAUofferCalls function, the software contemplated by the present invention, following receipt of an incoming call while the called handset 100 is in a data session with the central controller 204 at step 406 is now described with reference to FIG. 5 .", "This software can be added to the existing CAT server software 218 with use of an upgrade diskette or through the down loading of the software contemplated by the present invention from an Internet webpage.", "As depicted in step 502 , the portable handset information corresponding to the called handset 100 is stored in the CAT server buffer 224 .", "This portable handset information includes the string displayed on the first display line 104 of the LCD 102 , the string displayed on the second display line 106 of the LCD 102 , the status of the softkey icons 108 , 110 , 112 and the status of the navkey icons 114 .", "The status of the softkey icons 108 , 110 , 112 and the navkey icons 114 are references to which icons 108 , 110 , 112 , 114 are on and corresponding buttons 116 , 118 , 120 , 122 are activated.", "Only icons 108 , 110 , 112 , 114 that are on are displayed on the LCD 102 of the portable handset 100 .", "The navkey icons 114 on the LCD 102 of the called handset 100 are cleared by calling function WAUnavkeyIcons at step 504 .", "At step 506 , function WAUdisplay is called and the name or number of the calling party is written to the first display line 104 of the LCD 102 if the controller 204 and the external telephone system 210 supports the extraction of such information.", "If the controller 204 or the external telephone system 210 does not support the extraction of the name or number of the calling party, a generic string “CALL FOR YOU”", "is written to the first display line 104 of the LCD 102 in place of the name or number of the calling party.", "Function WAUdisplay is called again at step 507 and the softkey labels are written to the second display line 106 of the LCD 102 directly above the corresponding softkey icons 108 , 110 , 112 and softkey buttons 116 , 118 , 120 .", "The first softkey button (left) 116 corresponding to the first softkey icon (left) 108 is labelled “ANSWER”", "and the third softkey button (right) 120 corresponding to the third softkey icon (right) 112 is labelled “IGNORE.”", "The function WAUsoftkeyIcons is called at step 508 to turn on the first softkey icon (left) 108 and the third softkey button (right) 112 which in turn activates the first softkey button (left) 116 and the third softkey button (right) 120 .", "The user is then alerted at step 509 through the sending of an ATTENTION tone to the called handset 100 by calling function WAUtone.", "As depicted at step 510 , upon receipt of the WAU_SOFTKEY event which indicates the pressing of one of the softkey buttons 116 , 118 , 120 by the user, the event parameter WAU_SK_LEFT is monitored for at step 511 .", "The event parameter WAU_SK_LEFT indicates the pressing of the first softkey button (left) 116 at step 510 referring to the first softkey icon (left) 108 which is labelled “ANSWER.”", "This results at step 512 in the execution of function WAUanswerCall which establishes a voice communication path through the central switching controller 204 between the calling party and the called handset 100 .", "If the event parameter WAU_SK_LEFT is not received at step 511 , the pressing of the third softkey button (right) 120 at step 510 referring to the third softkey icon (right) 112 labelled “IGNORE”", "is indicated.", "In this situation, the calling party is routed at step 516 to the called handset identifier's corresponding voice mail box in order that the calling party can record a message for the user of the called handset 100 .", "In either case described at steps 512 or 516 , immediately after the receipt of event WAU_SOFTKEY the portable handset information corresponding to the called handset 100 is restored to the called handset 100 from the CAT server buffer 224 .", "Function WAUdisplay is called and the strings stored in the CAT server buffer 224 for the first display line 104 of the LCD 102 and the second display line 106 of the LCD 102 are restored to the called handset LCD 102 .", "The stored status of the softkey icons 108 , 110 , 112 and navigation key icons 114 are restored with the execution of functions WAUsoftkeyIcons and WAUnavkeyIcons respectively.", "This allows the user of the called handset 100 to resume at step 520 the data session with the application 222 at the same position that the data session was in prior to the incoming call.", "In the circumstance that the user pressed the first softkey button (left) 116 referring to the first softkey icon (left) 108 labelled “ANSWER”, the data session continues between the called handset 100 and the application 222 concurrently with the voice communication between the called handset 100 and the calling party.", "One key advantage of the implementation outlined above for the preferred embodiment of the software contemplated by the present invention is that handling of incoming calls is transparent to a software programmer using the CAT API to design additional applications 222 for the in building telephone system 200 .", "This is a result of the preferred embodiment of the software contemplated by the present invention being implemented in the CAT server software 218 .", "The CAT API programmer is not required to consider the case where an incoming call occurs while the called handset 100 is in a data session with their designed application 222 since the software contemplated by the present invention, when integrated in the CAT server software, will control the telephone system 200 in this case.", "An additional embodiment of the present invention has the software contemplated by the present invention implemented within an application 222 regulated by the CAT server software 218 .", "This embodiment allows the CAT API programmer to selectively run the software contemplated by the present invention during the occurrence of an incoming call while the called handset 100 is in a data session with the particular application 222 .", "The embodiments of the invention herein above disclosed rely on block diagrams to describe certain apparatus and their respective functions.", "Similarly, software functions are depicted by flowcharts of predetermined functional steps that are followed to achieve desired performance from the equipment described.", "These diagrams represent certain hardware and software features that would be known to those skilled in the art to whom this specification is addressed, although not in the novel combinations disclosed.", "Accordingly, the foregoing constitutes a sufficient description to such individuals for a comprehensive understanding of the best mode to give effect to the embodiments as disclosed and claimed herein.", "Although program listings have not been included to disclose the precise manner of digital computer programming to perform the operations desired, the detailed functional description presented herein, together with related flowcharts would permit a skilled programmer to program the software contemplated by the present invention to perform all operations described.", "Persons skilled in the art will appreciate that there are alternative implementations and modifications possible to allow incoming voice calls to be offered to telephone handsets while in a data session with an application, and that the above method is only an illustration of this embodiment of the invention.", "For example, one skilled in the art could design an alternative implementation in a fixed line telephone system within the scope of the invention.", "This would require an altered hardware system accompanying a similar software as contemplated in the present invention.", "The scope of the invention, therefore, is only to be limited by the claims appended hereto." ]

[ "FIELD [0001] This invention relates to a method of protecting pressure vessels comprising electrically conductive composite bosses against galvanic corrosion.", "BACKGROUND [0002] The detrimental effects of the burning of fossil fuels on the environment are becoming more and more of a concern and have spurred great interest in alternative energy sources.", "While progress is being made with solar, wind, nuclear, geothermal, and other energy sources, it is quite clear that the widespread availability of economical alternate energy sources, in particular for high energy use applications, remains an elusive target.", "In the meantime, fossil fuels are forecast to dominate the energy market for the foreseeable future.", "Among the fossil fuels, natural gas is the cleanest burning and therefore the clear choice for energy production.", "There is, therefore, a movement afoot to supplement or supplant, as much as possible, other fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum with natural gas as the world becomes more conscious of the environmental repercussions of burning fossil fuels.", "Unfortunately, much of world's natural gas deposits exist in remote, difficult to access regions of the planet.", "Terrain and geopolitical factors render it extremely difficult to reliably and economically extract the natural gas from these regions.", "The use of pipelines and overland transport has been evaluated, in some instances attempted, and found to be uneconomical.", "Interestingly, a large portion of the earth's remote natural gas reserves is located in relatively close proximity to the oceans and other bodies of water having ready access to the oceans.", "Thus, marine transport of natural gas from the remote locations would appear to be an obvious solution.", "The problem with marine transport of natural gas lies largely in the economics.", "Ocean-going vessels can carry just so much laden weight and the cost of shipping by sea reflects this fact, the cost being calculated on the total weight being shipped, that is, the weight of the product plus the weight of the container vessel in which the product is being shipped.", "If the net weight of the product is low compared to the tare weight of the shipping container, the cost of shipping per unit mass of product becomes prohibitive.", "This is particularly true of the transport of compressed fluids, which conventionally are transported in steel cylinders that are extremely heavy compared to weight of contained fluid.", "This problem has been ameliorated somewhat by the advent of Type III and Type IV pressure vessels.", "Type III pressure vessels are comprised of a relatively thin metal liner that is wound with a filamentous composite wrap, which results in a vessel with the strength of a steel vessel at a substantial saving in overall vessel weight.", "Type IV pressure vessels comprise a polymeric liner that is likewise wrapped with a composite filamentous material.", "Type IV pressure vessels are the lightest of all the presently approved pressure vessels.", "The use of Type III and Type IV vessels coupled with the trend to make these vessels very large—cylindrical vessels 18 meters in length and 2.5-3.0 meters in diameter are currently being fabricated and vessel 30 or more meters in length and 6 or more meters in diameter are contemplated—has resulted in a major step forward in optimizing the economics of ocean transport of compressed fluids.", "[0003] All pressure vessels require at least one end fitting, called a “boss,” for connecting the vessel to external paraphernalia for loading and unloading fluids into and out of the vessel.", "Bosses in current use are generally made of metals such as stainless steel, nickel alloys, aluminum, brass and the like.", "Unfortunately, bosses, in particular with regard to larger pressure vessels, are extremely heavy, by some estimates comprising as much as 70% of the weight of a Type III or Type IV pressure vessel.", "Further, large metal bosses are difficult to manufacture and tend to be expensive, often costing $100,000 or more.", "These factors have a huge negative effect on the economics, and thereby the viability, of ocean transport of compressed fluids.", "A polymeric composite boss would substantially lighten any of the classes of vessels, in particular Type III and Type IV vessels.", "In co-pending patent application Ser.", "No. ______, which is incorporated by reference as if fully set forth here herein, such a composite boss is disclosed.", "[0004] A presently preferred filler for use in the composite from which the above boss may be fabricated is fibrous or filamentous carbon.", "Since composites with fibrous carbon filler are electrically conductive, i.e., have an electrical potential, a problem may arise due to galvanic corrosion if the composite comes in contact with a substance having a different electrical potential, particularly in the presence of a conductive atmosphere such as would be found in salt-laden moist sea air encountered during marine transport.", "[0005] Thus, what is needed is a method of preventing carbon fiber or filament composite bosses from participating in galvanic corrosion.", "This application is directed to such a method.", "SUMMARY [0006] Thus, in one aspect the instant invention is directed to a pressure vessel, comprising: [0000] a non-conductive polymeric pressure vessel liner;", "and a one-piece composite boss comprising an electrically conductive fibrous or filamentous material;", "wherein: the non-conductive liner is contiguous to an inner surface of the composite boss, separating the inner surface of the boss from a compressed fluid contained in the pressure vessel;", "and the non-conductive liner is also contiguous to a proximal end surface of the boss, physically and electrically separating the end surface from galvanic corrosion-inducing contact with materials external to the pressure vessel.", "[0009] In an aspect of this invention, the non-conductive liner comprises a dielectric polymer.", "[0010] In an aspect of this invention, the dielectric polymer is a thermoplastic polymer.", "[0011] In an aspect of this invention, thermoplastic polymer comprises polyethylene.", "[0012] In an aspect of this invention, the dielectric polymer is a thermoset polymer.", "[0013] In an aspect of this invention, the thermoset polymer is made from a prepolymer formulation comprising at least 92% pure dicyclopentadiene.", "[0014] In an aspect of this invention, the composite boss comprises a thermoset polymer matrix.", "[0015] In an aspect of this invention, the thermoset polymer matrix is selected from the group consisting of epoxy resins, polyester resins, vinyl ester resins, polyimides, dicyclopentadiene resins and combinations thereof.", "[0016] In an aspect of this invention, the thermoset polymer matrix is made from a prepolymer formulation comprising at least 92% pure dicyclopentadiene.", "[0017] In an aspect of this invention, the electrically conductive fibrous or filamentous material comprises carbon fibers or filaments.", "[0018] In an aspect of this invention, the vessel is used for the containment and transport of compressed natural gas, CNG.", "[0019] In an aspect of this invention, the CNG comprises raw natural gas.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION Brief Description of the Figures [0020] The figures shown are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not intended nor should they be construed as limiting this invention in any manner whatsoever.", "[0021] FIG. 1 shows various configurations of pressure vessels that can include composite bosses made with carbon fiber or filament in the composite.", "The vessels are shown with an aperture where a conductive composite boss would be inserted.", "[0022] FIG. 1A shows a spherical pressure vessel.", "[0023] FIG. 1B shows an oblate spheroidal pressure vessel.", "[0024] FIG. 1C shows a toroidal pressure vessel.", "[0025] FIG. 1D shows a pressure vessel comprising a hollow elongate cylinder with one domed end section.", "[0026] FIG. 1E shows a pressure vessel comprising a hollow elongate cylinder with two domed end sections.", "[0027] FIG. 2 is a schematic representation of a conductive composite boss of this invention.", "[0028] FIG. 3A is a schematic representation of a pressure vessel liner having a riser, the riser being a feature of the method of fabrication of a pressure vessel of this invention when the liner polymer is a dielectric thermoplastic.", "[0029] FIG. 3B is a schematic representation of the above liner with a composite boss of this invention fitted over the riser.", "[0030] FIG. 3C is a schematic representation of the above liner after the extension of the riser has been flattened to cover the proximal end surface of the composite boss.", "[0031] FIG. 4 is a schematic representation of a mandrel for the fabrication of a pressure vessel liner with a conductive boss and galvanic protection where the liner comprises a thermoset polymer.", "DISCUSSION [0032] It is understood that, with regard to this description and the appended claims, any reference to any aspect of this invention made in the singular includes the plural and vice versa unless it is expressly stated or unambiguously clear from the context that such is not intended.", "[0033] As used herein, any term of approximation such as, without limitation, near, about, approximately, substantially, essentially and the like, mean that the word or phrase modified by the term of approximation need not be exactly that which is written but may vary from that written description to some extent.", "The extent to which the description may vary will depend on how great a change can be instituted and have one of ordinary skill in the art recognize the modified version as still having the properties, characteristics and capabilities of the word or phrase unmodified by the word of approximation.", "In general, but with the preceding discussion in mind, a numerical value herein that is modified by a word of approximation may vary from the stated value by ±10%, unless expressly stated otherwise.", "[0034] The terms “proximal”", "and “distal”", "simply refer to the opposite ends of a construct and are used as a method of orienting the features of an object with regard to one another or in relation to another object, e.g., the features of a boss and the position of the parts of the boss with regard to a vessel liner.", "In general, which end is designated as proximal and which is designated as distal is purely arbitrary unless the context unambiguously expresses otherwise.", "[0035] As used herein, the use of “preferred,” “preferably,” or “more preferred,” and the like refers to preferences as they existed at the time of filing of this patent application.", "[0036] As used herein, “contiguous”", "refers to two surfaces that are adjacent and that are in direct contact or that would be in contact were it not for an intervening layer of material.", "[0037] As used herein, “impenetrable”", "or “impervious”", "refer to the property of a substance that renders it for all intents and purposes impossible for a fluid to penetrate to any significant degree into a surface formed of the first substance.", "[0038] As used herein, “inert”", "refers to the property of a substance that renders a surface formed of the substance chemically unreactive toward a fluid or any component thereof that may come in contact with the surface.", "[0039] As used herein, a “fluid”", "refers to a gas, a liquid or a mixture of gas and liquid.", "For example, without limitation, natural gas as it is extracted from the ground and transported to a processing center is often a mixture of the gas with liquid contaminants.", "Such mixture would constitute a fluid for the purposes of this invention.", "[0040] As used herein, a “wrap”", "or “over-wrap”", "refers to the winding of a filamentous material around a construct, which may be, without limitation, cylindrical, geodesic, toroidal, spherical or oblate spheroidal as illustrated in FIG. 1 .", "The filamentous material may be wound around the construct in a dry state and left as such, it may subsequently be impregnated with a polymer or it may be impregnated with a polymer prior to being wound onto the construct.", "[0041] As used herein, the term “polar”", "simply refers to the end of a center-line through a structure about which center-line the structure is at least substantially symmetrical.", "Thus, in FIG. 3A , point 108 is the polar end of centerline 105 .", "A structure that is said to be in a polar orientation is located at a polar end of a center-line and is at least substantially symmetrically disposed about the center-line.", "For example, risers 138 and 139 at either end of the pressure vessel 100 in FIG. 3A could be described as “polar risers”", "and the opening in each riser could be described as a “polar opening.”", "[0042] As used herein, the term “dielectric”", "has it normal meaning as understood by those skilled in the art.", "Briefly, a dielectric is an electrical insulator that can be polarized by an electric field.", "For the purposes of this invention, the term includes any insulating material.", "[0043] As used herein, a “polymeric composite”", "has the meaning that would be ascribed to it by those skilled in the art.", "In brief, it refers to a fibrous or filamentous material that is impregnated with, enveloped by or both impregnated with and enveloped by a polymer matrix material.", "[0044] As used herein, a “boss”", "refers to a device as such would be understood by those skilled in the art.", "In brief, a “boss”", "is a device used to connect a pressure vessel with external piping through which the pressure vessel is filled or emptied with a fluid.", "[0045] Pressure vessels for the transport of compressed fluids, such as compressed natural gas, CNG, presently constitute four regulatory agency approved classes, all of which are cylindrical with one or two domed ends: [0046] Class I. Comprises an all metal, usually aluminum or steel construct.", "This type of vessel is inexpensive but is very heavy in relation to the other classes of vessels.", "Although Type I pressure vessels currently comprise a large portion of the containers used to ship compressed fluids by sea, their use in marine transport incurs very tight economic constraints.", "[0047] Class II.", "Comprises a thinner metal cylindrical center section with standard thickness metal end domes in which only the cylindrical portion is reinforced with a composite wrap.", "The composite wrap generally constitutes glass or carbon filament impregnated with a polymer matrix.", "The composite is usually “hoop wrapped”", "around the middle of the vessel.", "The domes at one or both ends of the vessel are not composite wrapped.", "In Class II pressure vessels, the metal liner withstands about 50% of the stress and the composite withstands about 50% of the stress resulting from the internal pressure of the contained compressed fluid.", "Class II vessels are lighter than Class I vessels but are more expensive.", "[0048] Class III.", "Comprises a thin metal liner comprises the entire structure and is reinforced with a filamentous composite wrap around entire vessel.", "The stress in Type III vessels is shifted virtually entirely to the filamentous material of the composite wrap;", "the liner need only withstand a small portion of the stress.", "Type III vessels are much lighter than type I or II vessels but are substantially more expensive.", "[0049] Class IV.", "Comprises a polymeric essentially gas-tight liner fully wrapped with a filamentous composite.", "The composite wrap provides the entire strength of the vessel.", "Type IV vessels are by far the lightest of the four approved classes of pressure vessels but are also the most expensive.", "[0050] While the composite boss of this invention may be used with any type of pressure vessel, it is most beneficially used with either a Type III or a Type IV pressure vessel where its use dramatically further reduces the weight of the vessel resulting in a substantial increase in the contained fluid to pressure vessel tare weight ratio and concomitant increase in the value of the fluid per unit weight of the pressure vessel.", "[0051] It is to be understood that, while this invention is described primarily with regard to conductive composite bosses, the technique and end result would be applicable to any kind of conductive boss including those made of metal.", "[0052] As noted above, Type II, Ill and IV pressure vessel require a composite wrap to give them the necessary strength to withstand the pressure exerted by a compressed fluid contained in the vessel.", "For a Type II pressure vessel, the wrap is relatively straight-forward and is referred by those skilled in the art as “hoop-wrapping,” which is described elsewhere herein and which is very well-known to those skilled in that art.", "On the other hand, for Type III and Type IV pressure vessels, to produce a vessel that has the requisite strength it is necessary to wrap the vessel, sometimes in addition to hoop-wrapping, sometimes in lieu of hoop-wrapping, in a manner called “isostensoidal-wrapping,” which is likewise known in the art and is also described elsewhere herein.", "When an entire vessel is wrapped with a composite, the underlying metal or polymeric structure is conventionally referred to as a “liner,” which provides the surface on which the composite wrap is wound and which is the surface with which the contained compressed fluid is in direct contact.", "[0053] For the purpose of this disclosure, only a pressure vessel liner having a composite boss integrated therewith will be described in detail in that once the liner/boss assembly is in hand, while it is hardly a trivial exercise, it is a well-established procedure to design and apply to the liner, including to the end domes, a composite comprising a filamentous material and a polymeric matrix, the end result being a completely composite-wrapped pressure vessel.", "In brief, for a given diameter cylindrical section of a pressure vessel liner, a given polar opening diameter and a given dome shape, a winding pattern can readily be determined using known algorithms including, without limitation, netting analysis, finite element analysis and combinations thereof.", "Using these mathematical formulae permits the design of a winding pattern that results is an isotensoid wrap of the vessel.", "The term “isotensoid”", "refers to the property of the fully wound vessel by which each filament of the wrap experiences a constant pressure at all points along its path.", "This is currently considered to be the optimal design for a composite wrapped pressure vessel because, in this configuration, virtually the entire stress imposed on the vessel by a pressurized gas is assumed by the filaments of the composite with very little of the stress being assumed by the polymeric matrix.", "[0054] Dome shapes include, but are not limited to, 2:1 ellipsoidal, 3:1 ellipsoidal and geodesic.", "The characteristics “2:1”", "and “3:1”", "refer to the ratio of the major axis to the minor axis of an ellipse.", "Presently preferred, however, is a geodesic dome shape since it constitutes a surface of revolution that is amenable to numerical solution for any combination polar opening diameter, cylindrical section diameter and filament width.", "This numerical solution in turn permits the progressive plotting of the curvature of the dome from the diameter of the pressure vessel toward the polar opening.", "Knowledge of the curvature then permits the design and application of an optimal strength, i.e., isotensoidal, filament wrap to the vessel using the algorithms mentioned above.", "Such pressure vessels exhibit the optimal combination of highest pressure loading at the lightest overall weight.", "[0055] As mentioned previously, the composite overwrap, while constituting relatively sophisticated design mathematics and implementation machinery, is well-known to those skilled in the pressure vessel design and fabrication art and any of these known techniques can be applied to a pressure vessel liner comprising a composite boss of this invention.", "Thus, except where aspects of composite-wrapping are relevant to elements of this invention, in which case they will be fully discussed, the design and implementation of composite vessel wraps will not be further discussed.", "[0056] While the presently approved pressure vessels are primarily cylindrical in shape, many other shapes are possible and a conductive composite boss of this invention would be well-suited for use with any shape vessel.", "FIG. 1 shows, without limitation, a few pressure vessel shapes currently in use or contemplated for use under various conditions.", "[0057] FIG. 2 shows a one-piece conductive composite boss of this invention.", "The boss comprises tubular center section 200 having outer surface 205 , inner surface 210 , through-hole 215 and flange, sometimes referred to in the art as a “wing,” 220 .", "For the purposes of description, the flange end of the boss will be considered to be its distal end, 225 in the figure, and the other end, naturally, will be considered the proximal end, 230 in the figure.", "Threaded holes 235 are radially disposed around proximal end surface 232 .", "These threaded holes may be used directly to connect the boss to a flange piece that in turn is used to couple the vessel to an external line for loading and unloading the vessel.", "In a presently preferred alternative threaded holes 235 form a mating surface with a diameter that is larger than that required for use with the intended fasteners.", "Into these oversize holes, metallic exteriorly-threaded ( 242 ) inserts 240 are screwed.", "The inserts comprise internal threads 245 that are sized correctly for coupling to whatever device is to be used to attach the pressure vessel to an external system for loading and unloading.", "[0058] Thus, FIG. 3A shows a schematic of pressure vessel liner 100 of this invention.", "The vessel liner is cylindrical in shape with domed end pieces.", "That is, vessel liner 100 comprises cylindrical center section 110 having length 112 , outer surface 115 , inner surface 120 , thickness 125 , domes 130 and 135 and polar risers 138 and 139 having in them polar openings 140 and 145 , one at each end.", "The polar openings are formed as necks that are blended with the domes such that the domes form shoulders for the necks.", "One of the necks can be larger than the other, or they can be the same size.", "As illustrated, the top neck is usually the wider neck since it is typically for inspection purposes, whereas the bottom neck is usually for loading and offloading fluid.", "[0059] As mentioned previously, it is within the scope of this invention that a pressure vessel of this invention may comprise a polar opening in only one of the domes.", "Also within the scope of this invention is a pressure vessel in which length 112 of cylindrical center section 110 approaches zero.", "[0060] The domes as shown are rounded to blend from the cylinder, through the shoulders and up to a neck—the polar risers.", "They can also assume other curved shapes, including generally hemi-spherical shapes.", "With such hemi-spherical shapes in particular, the result of the length 112 of cylindrical center section 110 approaching zero is a substantially spherical pressure vessel.", "[0061] The composite boss of this invention will work equally well in an oblate spheroid pressure vessel as it will in a spherical or cylindrical pressure vessel, the latter of which is a presently preferred embodiment of this invention.", "An oblate spheroid refers to a vessel having a shape described by an ellipse rotated about its minor axis a shown in FIG. 1B .", "Further the pressure vessel of this invention can also be toroidal in shape ( FIG. 1C ) with the conductive composite boss being fitted to an aperture in the inner contour of the torus.", "[0062] FIG. 3B shows a further configuration of pressure vessel that has a dome having a generally hemi-spherical shape.", "It has a pressure vessel liner 300 with a single piece composite boss 305 having a tubular section 315 into which a riser 380 has been inserted.", "As can be seen, inner surface 310 of tubular center section 315 is contiguous, that is, in direct contact with, outer surface 318 of riser 380 .", "Also, surface 330 of flange 335 is contiguous with outer surface 318 of riser 380 .", "In this manner, the liner material covers the entire surface of the boss and insulates it from contact with any other material other than the liner material.", "Boss 305 also has threaded holes 360 that, as discussed above, may be equipped with metallic threaded inserts as described with regard to FIG. 3 .", "The holes, of course, will continue through liner 300 so that external appliances may be connected to the pressure vessel at the boss.", "See FIG. 3C .", "[0063] The manner in which a conductive boss is layered with a dielectric liner so as to prevent galvanic corrosion of the boss varies with choice of liner material.", "That is, if the liner is a thermoplastic polymer, the simplest way to cover the proximal surface of the boss is to have the length of the riser be such that the riser extends beyond the proximal end of the boss.", "Such a configuration is shown in FIG. 3B .", "After the vessel has been fully formed, the portion of the riser that extends beyond the proximal surface of the boss can be reheated to soften it and then molded to the contours of the proximal end of the boss as shown in FIG. 3C .", "[0064] On the other hand, if the liner is a thermoset polymer it would, of course, be impossible to reheat and mold a portion of the riser to conform to the proximal end of the boss.", "In this case, one approach to forming the liner/boss could be to use a mandrel with a cylindrical portion that fits into the central opening of the boss but which has a diameter that is less than that of the boss by the desired thickness of the liner in the area of the boss.", "This is illustrated in FIG. 4 .", "When the thermoset polymer is applied to the mandrel, it fills void 490 between the mandrel and the boss such that, when it is cured, the inner and outer surfaces of the boss are covered with a layer of the dielectric thermoset liner.", "Mandrel 400 includes cylindrical portion 410 that has diameter 420 , which is less than that of the central lumen of the boss.", "Mandrel 400 is positioned so that its cylindrical outer surface 430 is spaced apart from inner surface 440 of boss 450 to a desired distance so as to provide a desired thickness of liner polymer on inner surface 440 and proximal surface 460 of boss 450 .", "[0065] A composite boss of this invention can be fabricated from a polymeric matrix containing fibrous materials that confer additional strength on the composite.", "The polymeric matrix can be any polymer known to have or found to have properties consistent with use in a high pressure environment such as that found in a pressure vessel of this invention.", "[0066] It is presently preferred that the composite boss comprise a polymeric matrix that results from the polymerization of a prepolymer formulation comprising dicyclopentadiene that is at least 92% pure.", "[0067] While thermoplastic polymers, thermoplastic elastomers, thermoset resins and combinations thereof can be used, presently preferred are thermoset polymers, which can exhibit significantly better mechanical properties, chemical resistance, thermal stability and overall durability than other types of polymers.", "[0068] A particular advantage of most thermoset plastics or resins is that their precursor monomers or prepolymers tend to have relatively low viscosities under ambient conditions of pressure and temperature therefore can be introduced into or combined with fibers and filaments quite easily.", "[0069] Another advantage is that thermoset polymers can usually be cured isothermally, that is, at the same temperature at which they are combined with the fibers/filaments, which can be room temperature.", "[0070] Suitable thermoset resins include, without limitation, epoxy resins, polyester resins, vinyl ester resins, polyimides, dicyclopentadiene resins and combinations thereof.", "[0071] As noted above, presently preferred polymers are dicyclopentadiene resins, in particular ROMP-synthesized cyclopentadiene resins.", "[0072] It is also presently preferred that the dicyclopentadiene prepolymer in a prepolymer formulation for use in fabrication of polymeric constructs herein has a purity of at least 92%, preferably at present at least 98%.", "[0073] As used herein, a “prepolymer formulation”", "refers to a blend of at least 92% pure dicyclopentadiene with one or more reactive ethylene monomer(s), a polymerization initiator or curing agent plus any other desirable additives prior to curing.", "[0074] A “polymeric construct”", "refers to any polymeric part of a pressure vessel of this invention, in particular liners, bosses, domed end sections and composite over-wraps.", "[0075] In general, any type of fibrous or filamentous material may be used to create the polymeric composites of this invention.", "Such materials include, without limitation, natural (silk, hemp, flax, etc.), metal, ceramic, basalt and synthetic polymer fibers and filaments.", "Presently preferred materials include glass fibers, commonly known as fiberglass, carbon fibers, aramid fibers, which go mostly notably under the trade name Kevlar® and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene, such as Spectra® (Honeywell Corporation) and Dyneeva® (Royal DSM N.V.).", "[0076] It is when carbon fibers, which are presently preferred, are used that the boss exhibits an electrical potential, the carbon fibers being “conductivity-conferring”", "and the benefits of this invention come into play to insulate the boss from any other material having an electrical potential different from that of the boss.", "Of course, the invention works as well with bosses made of conductive polymers or bosses made of non-conductive polymers but which are rendered conductive by the use of any conductivity-conferring filler which includes but is not limited to carbon fibers.", "An example of a non-carbon fiber-containing conductive composite would be a metal fiber composite.", "[0077] A pressure vessel liner of this invention may comprise a single layer or multiple layers of one or more dielectric polymers, wherein each layer may be the same as or different than each other layer, which would constitute a Type IV pressure vessel.", "It may also comprise a polymeric layer having on its inner surface, the surface in contact with the contained gas, a very thin layer of metal to assist with the impermeablility of the vessel to the contained gas.", "This thin metal layer would terminate before or at the point that the liner comes in contact with the boss.", "Such a pressure vessel would still be considered Type IV since the metal layer would be too thin to constitute a structural feature of the liner.", "[0078] Once the dimensions of the boss herein, in particular the diameter of the flange and thickness at the shear point, have been determined using the disclosure herein, the boss itself can be fabricated using any method know in the art.", "For example, the boss can be milled from a solid piece of cured composite material.", "Or the boss can be molded using a prepolymer formulation as set forth above and techniques such as, without limitation, compression molding, reaction injection molded (RIM) or resin transfer molding (RTM), each of which is well-known to those skilled in the art and therefore requires no further elucidation.", "[0079] Once the vessel liner has been formed and the boss is in place using one of the techniques discussed above, the liner can be wound with a filamentous composite to complete the pressure vessel and provide it with its ultimate strength.", "[0080] A pressure vessel of this invention can be used to contain and transport any compressed fluid.", "A presently preferred use of a pressure vessel herein is containment and transport of CNG, which may be in its purified state or, more commonly, in its as-extracted state, which is referred to as “raw”", "natural gas.", "Raw gas refers to natural gas as it comes, unprocessed, directly from the well.", "It contains, of course, the natural gas (methane) itself but also may contain natural gas liquids such as condensate, natural gasoline and liquefied petroleum gas.", "Water may also be present as may be other gases, either in the gaseous state or dissolved in the water, such as nitrogen, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and helium.", "Some of these may be reactive in their own right or may be reactive when dissolved in water, such as carbon dioxide which produces an acid when dissolved in water.", "[0081] A fully-formed Type IV pressure vessel comprising a conductive composite boss with galvanic corrosion protection afforded by a dielectric liner is within the scope of this invention.", "[0082] The pressure vessels described herein can carry a variety of gases, such as raw gas straight from a bore well, including raw natural gas, e.g. when compressed—raw CNG or RCNG, or H2, or CO2 or processed natural gas (methane), or raw or part processed natural gas, e.g. with CO2 allowances of up to 14% molar, H2S allowances of up to 1,000 ppm, or H2 and CO2 gas impurities, or other impurities or corrosive species.", "The preferred use, however, is CNG transportation, be that raw CNG, part processed CNG or clean CNG—processed to a standard deliverable to the end user, e.g. commercial, industrial or residential.", "[0083] CNG can include various potential component parts in a variable mixture of ratios, some in their gas phase and others in a liquid phase, or a mix of both.", "Those component parts will typically comprise one or more of the following compounds: C2H6, C3H8, C4H10, C5H12, C6H14, C7H16, C8H18, C9+ hydrocarbons, CO2 and H2S, plus potentially toluene, diesel and octane in a liquid state, and other impurities/species.", "[0084] The present invention has therefore been described above purely by way of example.", "Modifications in detail may be made to the invention within the scope of the claims appended hereto." ]

[ "CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION None.", "TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to compaction apparatus, particularly waste paper balers and industrial trash compactors, in particular such trash compactions devices that include a control system which requires some identifying data from a prospective operator to assure that the operator is qualified and authorized to operate the particular compaction apparatus.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to compaction equipment for commercial and industrial trash compaction to facilitate refuse disposal and to waste paper baler equipment utilized in paper recycling, both of which are important and widely used tools in the field of waste management.", "It is very desirable that this equipment be both efficient and reliable.", "As with all powerful mechanical equipment, safety hazards should be eliminated to the maximum extent possible, recognizing that there is a tendency for some operators to be less careful than they should be.", "There is a need to prevent operation by unauthorized persons who may or may not be in the area by permission.", "Although the invention with which this application is concerned is useful in both waste paper balers and in trash compactors, this background discussion will primarily concern itself with balers, since they are possibly the more frequently used by a variety of different operators.", "Balers comprise vertical presses for forming bales of compacted paper material for recycling purposes.", "They are often found where discard cardboard boxes are accumulated.", "See U.S. Pat. No. 4,232,599 issued Nov. 11, 1980 to Ulrich.", "The commercial or industrial trash compactor, which will be referred to herein simply as "trash compactor", is found in many situations where there are large volumes of waste to be disposed of in landfills or other waste disposal facilities.", "Thus, balers or trash compactors are found in shopping centers, industrial complexes, associated with large discount stores or department stores, and in some residential complexes.", "Although operational control of compaction apparatus in years past was usually implemented by simple switches and relays, there has been a tendency in recent years to employ computer microprocessors and somewhat sophisticated computer programs and algorithms stored in computer memory in or associated with the microprocessor.", "The present invention is adaptable for use with either relay or microprocessor implemented controls.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,953,109 to Burgis, U.S. Pat. No. 5,016,197 to Neumann, et al.", "and U.S. Pat. No. 5,558,013 to Blackstone, Jr. are examples of trash compaction systems utilizing microprocessors and computer programs to implement a desired control system.", "U.S. Pat. No. 3,802,335 to Longo and U.S. Pat. No. 4,643,087 to Fenner et al.", "discuss systems which do not employ computer microprocessors but execute simple logic with electrical relays.", "In the preferred embodiment, a magnetic strip card reader is employed capable of reading cards in the possession of each employee or person who may be authorized to have access to the compaction equipment in question.", "In many cases, employees may already be using such cards for the purpose of clocking in or clocking out from work thereby generating input data for accounting and payroll purposes.", "Examples of such time entry and accounting systems employing card readers may be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,717,867 to Winn et al, issued Feb. 10, 1998 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,538,056 to Young et al, issued Aug. 27, 1985.", "Other uses of card readers to identify employees and generate data for computer records or special purposes is known as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,871,435 to Numata et al, issued Feb. 16, 1999.", "The latter patent apparently identifies the user operating a centrifuge so that the operator can, at a later time, retrieve the resulting data of the centrifuge operation stored in a central computer memory.", "To the extent that techniques well known in the art for collecting data from cards read by card readers are shown in these prior patents, they are incorporated herein by reference as ordinary skill of the art helpful in carrying out the implementation of the inventions disclosed herein.", "It should be noted that apparatus according to the present invention does not simply control an access door or otherwise limit access to an area or a machine.", "The baler or compaction apparatus with the authorized operator identification feature described herein is accessible to unauthorized operators, and it is only particular operations thereof such as compaction and bale forming which require that the operator be authorized.", "This is an important safety feature which comes under the purview of regulatory authorities as well as being a desirable provision of company safety policy.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention departs from the teaching of prior art trash compaction and waste paper baler systems by providing apparatus which is simple, durable, reliable and provides safe and uncomplicated operation while preventing operation by unauthorized personnel.", "At the same time, it has control features which equal or exceed those of more complex systems and has a capability for collecting data regarding times of use, identification of users, and other data of possible interest.", "In balers described herein a current sensing relay switch is employed to determine the time at which the baler ram or platen is reversed from extending operation to retracting operation which, of course, depends on the fullness of the bale-forming enclosure of the baler.", "It should be noted that the normal stopping of the ram in the reverse stroke is not responsive to the current sensing relay switch, but is, rather, controlled by limit switches or position sensing switches responding to ram position, and, in some compaction apparatus, to time delay devices coordinated with the travel time of the ram.", "Those aspects of compaction apparatus not directly involved here are fully described in U.S. application Ser.", "No. 09/218,348 filed Dec. 22, 1998.", "The apparatus of the invention is capable of receiving additional, optional features which are not a part of the present invention.", "For example, a purchaser or user may specify an optional multi-cycle control feature whereby the ram of the compactor will extend and retract two or more times at each operation of the compactor ram by pressing the start button.", "Also an optional feature is available whereby the control system for the compactor is provided with a remote control panel connected by a short cable to the main control unit.", "According to the invention such a remote control would include operator identification features also.", "Other optional features, some of which are illustrated herein, may or may not be included with apparatus incorporating the basic aspects of present invention.", "In addition to providing the features and advantages referred to above, it is an object of the present invention to provide compaction apparatus for trash compactors and waste paper balers which have simple relay-implemented control systems and which include an operator identification feature employing a card reader or the like which also serves to prevent operation by unauthorized persons.", "It is another object of the present invention to provide such compaction apparatus wherein a secondary input in the form of a key pad or the like provides supplemental means for entering ID or other data.", "It is still another object of the present invention to provide such compaction apparatus controls with input-output means for transferring data to and from a hand-held unit for later transfer to a central multipurpose computer.", "It is a further object of the present invention to provide such compaction apparatus controls having capability of determining identity of operators and their authorization status from data commonly encoded on employee cards such as birth date or social security number.", "It is a still further object of the present invention to provide trash compaction apparatus with controls which requires the insertion of an operator identification card for certain functions and creates a log of data pertaining to time and operator ID for such operations.", "In addition to the features and advantages of the compaction apparatus according to the invention described above, further advantages thereof will be apparent from the following description in conjunction with the appended drawings.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an isometric view of a compaction apparatus (baler) incorporating features of the present invention;", "FIG. 2A is a schematic diagram of electrical and electromechanical components of the apparatus of FIG. 1;", "FIG. 2B is a schematic block diagram of an authorized operator identification unit adapted to function with the control system apparatus shown in FIG. 2A;", "FIG. 3 is an enlarged elevational view of the main control panel for the apparatus shown in FIG. 1;", "and FIG. 4 is an enlarged elevational view of the exterior of the operator identification unit associated with the control panel of FIG. 3. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring to the drawings and, particularly to FIG. 1, compaction apparatus 10 is shown in the form of a vertical waste paper baler operating to compact materials therein and is actuated by a hydraulic cylinder 13, powered by a pump 17, operated by motor 345.", "Motor 345 is provided with a starter unit and also appropriate safety devices, such as fuses or circuit breakers all in accordance with normal practice in the art.", "These elements forming no part of the invention generally are not shown.", "Similarly, hydraulic cylinder 13 has associated therewith conventional solenoid valves, relief valves and other conventional elements (not shown) along with hydraulic fluid reservoir housing 19.", "Features of the baler, such as bale ejection apparatus, form no part of this invention and are not shown.", "It will be understood that the general operation of the baler is similar to that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,232,599 issued Nov. 11, 1980, to Ulrich, and in U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 09/218,348, filed Dec. 22, 1998, in the names of Shannon Harrop and James Davis.", "Loading door 23 slides upward to provide access to the baler interior.", "Appropriate interlocks and other devices (not shown) are included to provide safe operation of the compaction apparatus, all in accordance with practice in the industry.", "Chamber door 25 is hinged at the side and may be opened when waste material has been compressed to form a full bale at which time the bale may be secured by ties in conventional manner and removed from the baler by ejection apparatus.", "Chamber door switch 341 provides a proximity sensor for indicating that chamber door 25 is in the closed position.", "Controls for the safe and reliable operation of the compaction apparatus 10, later to be described, are located in control box 27.", "The operation of the baler shown in FIG. 1 is generally conventional as will be apparent to those skilled in the art.", "Generally, a ram and a platen reside in the upward or fully retracted position while awaiting deposit of material to be compacted.", "Chamber door 25 is closed and locked as by the hand wheel lock mechanism 29 or some other suitable locking means appropriate to forces imparted to door 25 in the compaction process.", "With loading door 23 raised to its upward position for access to the interior of the baler, waste material is deposited in the baler underneath the platen.", "As the baler becomes full of uncompacted material, the controls on control panel 27 are set to turn the baler on, if necessary, and card reader 21 is used to initiate a compaction cycle.", "This process is repeated with actuations by the card reader until a bale of waste material of the desired size is formed, at which time ties are put around the bale in a known manner.", "With chamber door 25 open, the ram is operated and used as a lift mechanism to operate an ejection device for tipping a bale out of the compactor.", "The ejection device forms no part of the present invention and is not shown and described herein.", "After removal of a bale from the baler, chamber door 25 is closed and locked and the baler is restored to the condition for accepting waste material to form another bale.", "The operation of the basic circuit of the control system for baler 10 shown schematically in FIG. 2A will be understood more readily by reference to a table below entitled Baler Circuit as well as the following description.", "Power is supplied to the circuit 300 of FIG. 2A at terminals 373 and 375 and is preferably 120V AC power.", "Normally the electric motor powering the pump for the hydraulic system will be provided with three-phase power and the single phase AC power, nominally of 120V, may be extracted from the three-phase power by a conventional transformer not shown in FIG. 2A.", "Alternatively, a different voltage of AC or DC power may be utilized to power the circuit 300.", "The three-phase power for pump motor 345 is shown schematically and only the controller for the motor in the form of motor starter 340 is actually an operative part of the circuit of FIG. 2A.", "It may also be noted that at least one of the conductors supplying current to motor 345 is inductively coupled to current relay 350 as indicated in FIG. 2A.", "It should be noted in the circuit diagram of FIG. 2A that, in addition to a current relay, there are additional relays including relay 310, relay 320, relay 330, and relay 355.", "These relays are also designated R1, R2, R3, and R5, respectively, and the normally open or the normally closed contacts of each relay in the circuit diagram are marked to correspond to the designation of the relay which causes them to operate.", "For the current relay 350 the designation is CR.", "It will be noted that terminal 375 is designated the ground terminal for the circuit and is connected to ground 371.", "Conventional fuse protection indicated by fuse 379 is included in the circuit and a stop button 369 is provided to quickly remove all power from the circuit.", "While stop button 369 may be used to turn on and turn off the control circuit, an additional on-off switch 370 is provided.", "When the circuit is supplied with power and is on, it will be in an idle condition until card reader unit 21 causes it to be activated through cable 367 (by closing contacts for conductors AB, CD, and EF) to prevent the baler from being operated by unauthorized personnel as will be described in relation to FIG. 2B below.", "Limit switch 361 is the retract limit switch which is closed when the ram and platen (presshead) of the baler are fully retracted.", "Various interlock switches are provided which do not affect normal operation of the system provided that the chamber door and the loading door are in the proper position for the particular operation.", "Interlock switch 341 is the chamber door limit switch while interlock device 343 for the loading door and interlock device 363 for the loading door are preferably photo electric switches having respective infrared light sources 385 and 387.", "While current passing devices for interlock 343 and interlock 363 preferably are solid state devices, they are schematically shown as contacts 344 and 364.", "In this description of the schematic diagram of FIG. 2A and its operation, it is assumed that it will initially be set in the automatic mode.", "The mode control switch 301 includes three other contacts 303, 305, and 307.", "As shown in FIG. 2A there are three modes, namely 1) auto, 2) down, and 3) up.", "The operation of switch contacts 301, 303, 305, and 307 is indicated by respective series of three symbols of X or O indicating whether the particular contact is closed (X) or open (O) for each of the modes auto, down, and up.", "For example, contact 303 is closed in the auto mode, is closed in the down mode and is open in the up mode, as indicated by the legend XXO.", "As seen in the Baler Circuit table below, in the idle condition (before the start button 367 is pushed) none of the relays, R1, R2, R3, R5, or CR (current relay) are operated.", "Thus, in the idle condition, contacts 331, 351, 311, 333, 321, 335, 313, 315, and 325 are open;", "contacts 353, 357 and 337 are closed.", "In the idle condition and throughout the auto mode operation, contacts 301, 303 and 305 are closed while contact 307 is open.", "Referring to the Baler Circuit table, to begin the operation, the card reader unit 21 must read a valid operation ID from an insert card in order for control circuit 300 to be activated.", "As shown in the Baler Circuit table, activating circuit 300 by closing contacts AB and CD, causes actuation of R1 relay 310 and R5 relay 355;", "it also causes actuation of motor starter 340 of the motor control.", "After the ram has started extending, retract limit switch 361 assumes its normally closed position, and the valid ID signal is no longer activated.", "At some point determined to by the fullness of the baler, the ram and platen (press head) encounter substantial resistance causing an increase in hydraulic pressure with a corresponding increase in motor current and motor torque.", "This increase in current is sensed by the current relay 350 and, after a predetermined time delay of about 1 second to 6 seconds, current relay 350 closes and the ram is in fully extended position.", "Thereupon (extend) lower solenoid 337 (as indicated schematically in FIG. 2A) is deactivated.", "Note that in the vertical baler mechanism 10 "raise"", "equates to retract and "lower"", "equates to extend.", "After the short delay predetermined by the current relay 350, the baler is controlled by baler control circuit 300 to begin the retract cycle at which time (retract) raise solenoid 335 is activated.", "Note that solenoid 335 and solenoid 337 are provided with fuses 391 and 393 in a conventional manner and their selection is basically determined by contacts 395 and 397 of relay R3.", "The retract portion of the cycle is terminated when the ram reaches the fully retracted position and retract limit switch 361 is operated to open the contacts thereof.", "At this time, all relays, R1, R2, R3, and R5 together with the current relay are deactivated with the result that the control circuit 300 is returned to the original idle condition.", "It is customary to include in the control unit for the baler provisions for manually raising and manually lowering the ram and press head, primarily for the purpose of using the hydraulically operated ram to power the ejection mechanism for the baler.", "See U.S. Pat. No. 4,232,599 to Ulrich.", "The sequence for the manual up and for the manual down operations are shown in the Baler Circuit table.", "It should be noted that the interlock switches 341, 343, and 363 are required to be properly positioned for the manual down and the manual up operations.", "In the manual down operation, only chamber door interlock switch 341 and loading door interlock switch 343 are actuated while interlock switch 363 is not.", "In the manual up operation (primarily used for ejecting a bale from the baler) none of the interlock switches 341, 343, or 363 are actuated.", "The operation of the circuit 300 of FIG. 2A does not materially differ as to the manual down or the manual up operation as respects the present invention and, thus, these operations will not be discussed in greater detail.", "__________________________________________________________________________BALER CIRCUIT VALID RAISE RETR.", "RELAY MOTOR EXT.", "RETR.", "DEVICE ID PB LS R1 R2 R3 R5 CURR.", "CONT.", "SOLEN.", "SOLEN.", "__________________________________________________________________________MODE AUTO 301 = Y 303 = Y 305 = Y 307 = NIDLE NO NO YES NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NOBEGIN YES NO YES YES NO NO YES NO YES YES NOEXTENDING NO NO NO YES NO NO YES NO YES YES NOEXTENDED NO NO NO YES NO YES YES YES YES NO NORETRACTING NO NO NO YES NO YES YES NO YES NO YESRETRACTED NO NO YES NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NOMODE DOWN 301 = N 303 = Y 305 = N 307 = NIDLE NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NOBEGIN YES NO NO YES NO NO NO NO NO NO NOEXTENDING NO NO YES YES NO NO YES NO YES YES NOEXTENDED NO NO YES NO NO NO YES YES YES NO NORETRACTING NO NO YES NO NO NO YES NO NO NO NORETRACTED NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NOMODE UP 301 = N 303 = N 305 = N 307 = YIDLE NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NOBEGIN YES NO YES NO YES NO NO NO YES NO NOEXTENDING NO NO YES NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NOEXTENDED NO NO YES NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NORETRACTING NO YES YES NO YES NO NO NO YES NO YESRETRACTED NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO__________________________________________________________________________ A schematic block diagram showing the details of card reader and operator ID unit 21 is shown in FIG. 2B.", "The component parts of operator ID unit 21 are conventional components well known in the art and their detailed construction and operation will, accordingly, not be described here.", "Operator ID unit 21 includes a conventional card reader 111 which is preferably of the wipe reading type where the card is slipped through the card slot 113 without fully inserting the card into the card reader.", "However, a different form of magnetic strip card reader could be employed which does require full insertion of the card and, furthermore, reader 111 could be replaced by an equivalent reader employing a punched card or a reader employing an optical scanning device or any similar data acquisition apparatus.", "Card reader 111 forms one of the inputs to (central processing unit) CPU 115.", "CPU 115 is also connected to receive data from or transmit data to an input/output RS232 device 117.", "RS232 device 117 is a conventional means enabling a CPU such as CPU 115 to communicate with another computer or with a modem or other peripheral device and it is employed in the card reader 21 in a conventional fashion.", "RS232 device 117 is shown provided with an input 119 and an output 121.", "However, one connector could be employed for both input or output.", "It should be noted that with respect to the RS232 device 117 it could in-fact be incorporated in the Central Processor Unit as a part of CPU integrated circuit chip and the same is true of all of the other digital circuit devices shown in FIG. 2B.", "Another input to central processing unit 115 is a conventional calendar clock 135 (this is also likely to be incorporated within the CPU 115 in an actual implementation.", "A keypad 385 is provided as an optional input to the CPU 115 and is connected to the CPU 115 though a conventional connector 133.", "In the preferred embodiment shown in FIG. 4, keypad 385 is incorporated within the housing of the operator ID unit 21, but it is an optional feature which will frequently be omitted.", "CPU 115 is provided with a conventional digital memory 123 which is shown schematically as having one portion 125 reserved for data such as registers of authorized and/or unauthorized operators with another log memory 127 reserved for storing information collected with respect to operations or attempted operations of the compaction apparatus and to the operator associated therewith.", "Relay unit 129 is connected to an output of CPU 115 and a connector cable 367 is provided to connect relays or contacts of relay unit 129 for activating or deactivating control circuit 300.", "As previously explained, one or more multi-contact relays provided at 129 serve to establish connections to conductors A, B, C, D, E, and F such that conductor A is connected to conductor B, conductor C is connected to conductor D, conductor E is connected to conductor F initiating the activate or start condition of control circuit 300.", "Clearly, this is a situation specific to the baler control circuit and, with respect to each compaction apparatus control circuit, the necessary number and relation of relay contacts would be provided to make electrical connections in a necessary and sufficient manner to start the compaction function which is to be controlled and limited.", "An external indicator device 131 includes LED's 391 and 393 which are preferably of distinctive colors, for example LED 391 being green and LED 393 being red.", "External indicator device 131 allows the operator or would-be-operator to be aware of the condition of the circuitry and to be guided as to the action required to operate the compaction apparatus.", "Electrical cable 367 may also provide input to CPU 115 in conjunction with relays 129 and the modest power requirement of the operator ID unit 21 may also be met through conductors of cable 367.", "The operation of the compactor apparatus through the use of operation ID unit 21 and the instructions for such operation are purposely simple and designed to avoid difficulty for operators of relatively little training or experience.", "Operation of the compaction apparatus by use of operation ID unit 21 may be carried out essentially as follows.", "When the green run light is on continuously and the baler is not running, the employee is instructed to wipe the employee ID card from top to bottom with the magnetic strip on the left (inside the card slot).", "Arrows, instructions, or other indications on the card and on the card reader further insure easy orientation of the card in the proper manner.", "When the card has been properly wiped through the slot, and if the employee is authorized for operation of the compaction apparatus, this is indicated to the would-be operator when the green run light blinks three times, at which time the baler or other compaction apparatus will start.", "Conventional computer programming implements this operation by comparing data, such as a Social Security number or portion of a Social Security number, input through reader 111, to the data memory 125 having such identification data for authorized operators stored therein.", "Authorized operator data in data memory 125 has been input through connector 119 from a hand-held data transfer device or a hand-held computer, notebook personal computer or the like.", "If, on the other hand, the operation of CPU 115 in comparing the ID data from reader 111 to data stored in date memory 125 shows that the attempted operation is not by an authorized operator, then the red "error"", "light will blink three times.", "In either case, the green run light will return to continuous on, ready to accept input from the next authorized user.", "Attempted operation of the compaction apparatus by wiping a card through the reader when the compaction apparatus cycle is still in progress will, naturally, not start operation of the compaction apparatus, but neither will it harm the compaction apparatus or its controls.", "As previously explained, relay unit 129 containing one or more relays responds to input of authorized operator data and momentarily closes contacts for conductors A-B, C-D, and E-F to signal the main control circuit 300 to start a compaction cycle or a portion thereof.", "While the starting or non-starting of the compaction apparatus is itself an indication of the receipt of data in the reader 111, indicating either an authorized operator or an unauthorized operator, the green LED 391 and the red LED 393 are important to better communicate operating conditions to the person attempting operation of the compaction apparatus.", "Clearly, one or both of the LED's 391 or 393 could be omitted or they could be replaced or supplemented by audible signals as may be determined desirable by those skilled in the art.", "Furthermore, the LED unit 131 which utilizes conventional digital logic could be more complicated and could receive a signal through relay unit 129 and CPU 115 that the compaction cycle or portion of compaction cycle was under way and so indicate a different on/off status for LED's 391 and 393 (e.g. both LED's lit) or by providing additional LED's or other visual or audible indicators.", "CPU 115 has associated therewith a calendar clock 135 of conventional form as frequently found in personal computers or the like.", "Calendar clock 135 has a main function of providing date and time data for log memory 127 which CPU 115 relates to operator identity data from card reader 111.", "As desired, the operational log data from log memory 127 can be read out by CPU 115 through RS232 unit 117 and serial connector 121 for whatever purpose may be desired in the establishment central computer system.", "For example, attempted unauthorized use of the compaction apparatus will be recorded with time and date and with whatever data was read by card reader 111 at that time, thus aiding in preventing unauthorized use or attempts at unauthorized use on future occasions.", "In another optional use of calendar clock 135 CPU 115 is appropriately programmed so that reader 111 and/or relay unit 129 are disabled on particular days or at particular hours.", "Such disablement could be indicated by LED's 391 and/or 393 and/or additional LED's provided for that purpose.", "Also calendar clock 135 may be used in an optional refinement of the system logic of operator ID unit 21 wherein one of the qualifications for an authorized operator is age.", "If each prospective operator's card is encoded with the operator's birth date instead of or in addition to the operator's age, then the CPU 115 calculates the operator's age to the current date of calendar clock 135 in determining whether the age qualification is met.", "This improves efficiency by making it unnecessary to upgrade an operator from unauthorized to authorized and recoding his card on or after the appropriate birthday.", "Keypad 385 is shown in FIG. 2B as connected through connector 133 to the main operator ID unit 21 but it also may be formed integrally in the operator ID unit as shown in FIG. 4. Keypad 385 is an optional feature which may be given one or more of several functions.", "It may be employed as a further requirement to validate the identity of a prospective operator in a manner similar to the PIN number commonly used in connection with automated teller machines.", "Alternatively it may be used to override or substitute for data from reader 111 or otherwise aid supervisory personnel in overcoming any problems that might arise.", "While keypad 385, especially if it were expanded to a full keyboard, could be utilized to enter data into the memory 123, this is substantially less satisfactory than employment of input and output terminals 119 and 121 and RS232 unit 117.", "It will be understood that FIG. 2B is a schematic illustration of particular forms of known components with a particular configuration that is a useful and preferred form of apparatus for implementing the invention, innumerable variations therein might be made some of which have been previously suggested.", "Certain of the components could be omitted or replaced by equivalent components or components with a similar function as will be understood by those of skill in the art.", "Those possible substitutions suggested in the course of the description will not be repeated here.", "It should be pointed out that the schematic block diagram of FIG. 2B has presented the apparatus in the form of functional blocks, but in actual practical apparatus, these functions may very well be integrated on a single semi-conductor chip or otherwise combined so that their separate functional identities are not readily apparent.", "Clearly it is the intent that the scope of the invention will include such integrated versions of the apparatus and the presentation of FIG. 2B is understood to aid in understanding the function of the invention rather than depicting a physical embodiment thereof.", "FIG. 3 shows the main control 27 of the compaction apparatus.", "The external appearance of the box for controls 27 is shown for illustration only and the appearance and components thereof may vary widely without affecting the scope and operation of the improved operator identification features to which this disclosure is directed.", "Generally, the front view of the controls 27 shows the externally accessible elements of switches more fully described in connection with the schematic circuit diagram of FIG. 2A.", "Thus, mode switch 301 is shown manually operable to select between auto down and up modes.", "Raise switch is manually operable by means of its button shown in FIG. 3. Likewise stop button 369 is shown which is preferably a pull on and push off convention stop button for safety purposes allowing quick emergency stop of the baler.", "On/off switch 370 may be of conventional form and optionally may be a key operated switch.", "It will be noted that switch 370, even though key operated, will not operate or allow operation of the compaction equipment without an appropriate signal from the operator ID unit 21.", "This is a distinguishing feature from the otherwise generally similar baler apparatus shown in copending application Ser.", "No. 09/218,348.", "Power lamp 399 is a conventional indicator providing information that power is being supplied to the compaction apparatus (with switch 370 on).", "The function of power lamp 399 may be assumed or duplicated by LED unit 131 and LED's 391 and 393.", "In the case of other forms of compaction apparatus those with the operator ID feature according to the invention here may have an appearance and functional organization generally the same as those without such improvement.", "The major distinction in the main controls for a compaction unit according to the invention is that there will be no external access to a switch, key, button or lever which will cause a start of a compaction operation.", "Rather, the start of an operation must be initiated by causing card reader 111 of FIG. 2B to read data from an employee's card designating such employee as an authorized operator.", "FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary external appearance for an operator ID unit 21 having a card reader 111 provided with a slot 113 through which magnetic strip cards may be passed to read the data thereon.", "LED's 391 and 393 explained in FIG. 2B are shown together with keypad 385 which is an optional feature which may often be omitted without otherwise affecting the general appearance of FIG. 4. The particular form of keypad 385 may vary from a minimal numeric keypad as shown in FIG. 4 to a more extensive keypad having additional symbols, keys, or, in some cases, a full alpha-numeric keyboard.", "The function of the elements whose external appearance is shown in FIG. 4 has been explained heretofore and will not be repeated.", "It will be appreciated that variations and modifications may also be made to the manner in which operator ID data is input to the operator ID unit 21 and, specifically, data memory 125.", "Although such data transmission is disclosed as being implemented through an RS232 unit 117, the RS232 circuitry being very common and readily available, there are other similar circuits such as an RS485, an RS422 and others which can in alternative embodiments perform essentially the same function performed by the RS232.", "It should be further noted that, while it is convenient to transfer operator and employee data from a facility main computer to a notebook computer or other portable data transfer device and thence to the operator ID unit 21 as disclosed in the preferred embodiments, there are other means of data transfer which may be desirable in certain circumstances.", "For example, the desired operator ID data could be communicated directly from the facility main computer to the operator ID unit 21 over hardwired cable, infrared data link, fiberoptic cable, radio link or any other of many well-known data communication link means.", "In other cases, the data could be transmitted by a dial up telephone-modem communication link.", "It will be understood that, in referring to a main computer for the facility, this will include a desktop computer with personnel information, a desktop computer network, or a desktop computer dedicated for the purpose of providing operator ID information.", "From the foregoing description, the general operation of the specific baler control circuit of FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B will be understood, and it will be appreciated that control systems for other compaction apparatus may be similarly adapted to be enabled only upon receipt of a signal representing insertion of a valid operator ID card in operator ID unit 21.", "Whereas, the present invention has been described in relation to the drawings attached hereto, it should be understood that other and further modifications, apart from those shown or suggested herein, may be made within the spirit and scope of this invention." ]

[ "This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/528,948, filed on Aug. 30, 2011 and is incorporated by reference in its entirety.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention Embodiments relate generally to process executing on a heterogeneous computing environment.", "Background Art In conventional parallel processing system, each computer cluster node executes software processes that includes process information associated with other processes executing on one or more computer cluster nodes.", "Executing software processes use process information to communicate with other processes within the parallel processing system.", "The process information is compiled in a listing that may be stored in memory storage on each computer cluster node.", "Typically, the process information listing is compiled by a master node that obtains process information from each computer cluster node.", "Master node then transmits the process information listing to the computer cluster nodes in the conventional parallel processing system.", "This conventional technique however does not work in a parallel processing system that includes heterogeneous computing devices, where each device has different memory size and processor speed.", "For example, a process information listing that includes process information for millions of processes may overload computing devices that have a limited memory and processing power, such as embedded devices that include set-top boxes, mobile devices, game consoles, tablets and smart television sets, to name a few.", "For instance, process information for each process may not take up a lot of memory space, such as, in a non-limiting example, 500 bytes.", "However, when a parallel processing system includes N computing devices and P processes on each computing device, the process information listing may have the size of P*N*500 bytes.", "In a large parallel processing system, a number of P processes may be several million, and each computing device may require one gigabyte (1 GB) or more of data to store the processes information listing.", "In a heterogeneous parallel processing system, many computing devices are not equipped with this amount of memory storage.", "Additionally, using a network to transfer 1 GB or more of data to each computing device requires significant broadband and transfer time.", "This will introduce excessive latencies and interfere with processes execution and data transfer within the parallel processing system.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A heterogeneous parallel processing system is provided.", "The system includes a computer cluster system and a device cluster system.", "The computer cluster system includes at least one computer cluster node that includes at least one cluster node processor.", "The device cluster system includes at least one cluster device that includes at least one cluster device processor, the cluster device being substantially different from the computer cluster nodes.", "The system also includes a heterogeneous cluster node.", "The heterogeneous cluster node includes at least one computer cluster node from the computer cluster system and at least one cluster device from the device cluster system.", "The heterogeneous cluster node also includes a runtime environment module configured to transmit data between the at least one computer cluster node and the at least one cluster device in the heterogeneous cluster node, such that at least one process executing on the device cluster system is transparent in its operation to a plurality of processes executing in the computer cluster system.", "Further embodiments, features, and advantages of the invention, as well as the structure and operation of the various embodiments of the invention are described in detail below with reference to accompanying drawings.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS/FIGURES The accompanying drawings are included to provide further understanding, are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, and illustrate embodiments that, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.", "In the drawings: FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a heterogeneous parallel processing system where the embodiments of the invention may be implemented.", "FIG. 2A is a block diagram of a heterogeneous computer cluster node, according to an embodiment.", "FIG. 2B is a block diagram of a heterogeneous parallel processing system that includes a heterogeneous computer cluster node, according to an embodiment.", "FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a runtime environment, according to an embodiment.", "FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a runtime environment on a cluster device, according to an embodiment.", "FIG. 5 is a flowchart for a method for sharing process information in a heterogeneous parallel processing system, according to an embodiment.", "FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a method for distributing process information in a heterogeneous parallel processing system, according to an embodiment.", "FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a computing environment where the embodiments of the invention may be implemented.", "The present embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.", "In the drawings, like reference numbers may indicate identical or functionally similar elements.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION While the present invention is described herein with reference to illustrative embodiments for particular applications, it should be understood that the invention is not limited thereto.", "Those skilled in the art with access to the teachings provided herein will recognize additional modifications, applications, and embodiments within the scope of the invention and additional fields in which the invention would be of significant utility.", "FIG. 1 is a block diagram 100 of a heterogeneous parallel processing system where the embodiments of the invention may be implemented.", "Exemplary heterogeneous parallel processing system includes a network 102 , a central computer cluster system 104 , a device cluster system 106 , and a memory storage 108 .", "Network 102 may be any network or combination of networks that can carry data communication between the components included in a heterogeneous parallel processing system.", "Such network 102 may include, but is not limited to, wired or wireless local area network, metropolitan area network, and/or wide area network such as the Internet.", "Network 102 can support protocols and technologies including, but not limited to, World Wide Web protocols and/or services.", "Intermediate web servers, gateways, or other servers may be provided between components of the system shown in FIG. 1 , depending upon a particular application or environment.", "Network 102 also includes a local area network.", "Local network provides wired and wireless connectivity with various networks and network-enabled devices, including computers, the Internet, telephones, etc.", "Additionally, network 102 includes networks such as analog telephones, X10, Fiber Optic, and other home automation communications, and the like.", "Network 102 may also include network switches and broadband routers.", "Central computer cluster system 104 includes multiple central computer nodes 204 .", "Central computer node 204 may include applications and systems for processing data requests from other central computer cluster nodes 204 or device cluster system 106 .", "In a non-limiting example, central computer cluster system 204 may include a network of nine-blade servers, where each server is a central computer node 204 .", "Central computer node 204 includes central processing unit (CPU) processors (also referred to as “processors”), volatile and non-volatile memory storage and a communication interface (described in detail in FIG. 7 ).", "Central computer node 204 may also execute an operating system, such as in a non-limiting example, an open-source Linux operating system.", "Typically, central computer nodes 204 are designed to process large quantities of data and are equipped with processors and large amount of volatile and non-volatile memory storage to accommodate this type of processing.", "Device cluster system 106 includes multiple cluster devices 208 .", "Each cluster device 208 may be a computing device such as a smart phone, a tablet or any other electronic device under a control of a user, to name only a few.", "In another embodiment, cluster device 208 may include a set-top-box (STB) that is connected to network 102 .", "An STB receives media content from computer cluster system 204 and displays the media content to a user using, for example, a television screen, a personal computer, a computer tablet, a mobile or another computing device.", "Cluster device 208 includes a CPU processor, a floating-point unit, a graphics processing unit (GPU) processor, volatile and non-volatile memory and other components described in detail FIG. 7 .", "CPU processor on cluster device 208 may comprise a dual-core, system-on-chip processor or another processor common in cluster devices 208 described above.", "Typically, cluster device 208 includes a fraction of a memory and processing power as compared to computer cluster node 204 .", "In an embodiment, central computer cluster system 104 also includes host node 204 A. Host node 204 A is computer cluster node 204 that includes a runtime environment that includes processes, modules and applications that communicate with device cluster system 106 .", "Host node 204 A enables communication and data sharing between central computer cluster system 106 and device cluster system 106 .", "Host node 204 A and device cluster system 106 comprise a heterogeneous cluster node 202 , as described below.", "The runtime environment on host node 204 A may be initialized through a master node (not shown).", "A master node may be a module executing on computer cluster node 204 within central computer cluster system 104 .", "The master node distributes the workload to processors in the heterogeneous parallel processing system.", "The master node also requests, distributes and aggregates process information for processes that were launched on processors within heterogeneous parallel processing system to execute the workload.", "Memory storage 108 stores applications, data, configuration files, etc.", "that are being accessed by central computer cluster system 104 and device cluster system 106 .", "Memory storage 108 may provide a file-system partition for storing applications and data for each process that executes in the heterogeneous parallel processing system.", "In an embodiment, memory storage 108 may be a two-terabyte memory storage or other storage capable of storing large quantities of data and applications.", "In an embodiment, memory storage 108 may be mounted on central computer nodes 204 associated with computer cluster system 104 and cluster devices 208 associated with device cluster system 106 .", "A person skilled in the art will appreciate that when a memory storage is mounted on a computing device, a computing device is granted access to the memory storage without the data being physically stored on the computing device.", "In an embodiment, a heterogeneous parallel processing system also includes a device cluster controller 110 .", "Device cluster controller 110 communicates with device cluster system 106 using network 102 .", "Device cluster controller 110 provides commands and applications to device cluster system 106 .", "Example device cluster controller 110 may be digital cable head-end that provides interactive services, such as television services, to device cluster system 106 , where each cluster device 208 is an STB.", "Digital head-end provides interactive services such as, in a non-limiting example, electronic program guides, user-interface, video-on-demand (VOD), and the delivery of digital video sources in the MPEG-2 formats.", "One digital head-end provides the interactive services, heterogeneous parallel processing system provides processing instructs that process those services in a device cluster system 106 .", "FIG. 2A is a block diagram 200 A of a heterogeneous computer node, according to an embodiment.", "Heterogeneous cluster node 202 includes host node 204 A and a device cluster system 106 .", "Host node 204 A includes the process information for processing executing on host node 204 A and other central computer nodes 204 .", "Host node 204 A also executes a runtime environment that enables device cluster system 106 to access computer cluster nodes 204 associated with central computer cluster system 104 .", "Heterogeneous cluster node 202 includes processors 206 that are associated with host node 204 A and processors 210 that are associated with cluster devices 208 in device cluster system 106 .", "As described herein, processors 210 have less processing power than processors 206 .", "The total amount of processors that are included in heterogeneous cluster node 202 is the sum of processors 206 included on host node 204 A and processors 210 included in device cluster system 106 .", "For example, when cluster devices 208 include K number of processors 210 and host node 204 A includes J number of processors 206 , the total number of processors in a heterogeneous cluster node 202 is equal to J+K.", "Also, computer cluster nodes 204 in central computer cluster system 104 identify heterogeneous cluster node 202 as another computer cluster node 204 that comprises J+K processors.", "Host node 204 A and device cluster system 106 may use network 102 to exchange messages and data.", "Similarly, heterogeneous cluster node 202 and computer cluster system 104 may also use network 102 to exchange messages and data.", "FIG. 2B is a block diagram 200 B of a heterogeneous parallel processing system that includes a heterogeneous cluster node, according to an embodiment.", "Heterogeneous parallel processing system includes computer cluster nodes 204 associated with central computer cluster system 104 and heterogeneous cluster nodes 202 that include device cluster systems 106 .", "Although, FIG. 2B includes one heterogeneous cluster node 202 , the invention is not limited to this embodiment.", "Heterogeneous parallel processing system includes a total number of processors as the sum of processors 206 in central computer nodes 204 , and the sum of processors 206 and processors 210 in heterogeneous cluster node 202 .", "As described herein, host node 204 A in heterogeneous cluster node 202 includes a runtime environment.", "The runtime environment allows for the flow of data and messages between computer cluster system 104 and device cluster system 106 .", "For example, the runtime environment facilitates the flow of messages and data by mapping cluster devices 208 in device cluster system 106 into a processing domain of host node 204 A. Each cluster device 208 also includes a runtime environment that enables cluster device 208 to communicate with computer cluster system 104 .", "For example, when cluster device 208 begins executing processes, the runtime environment on cluster device 208 maps the executing process into the runtime environment of host node 204 A. As host node 204 A is a computer cluster node 204 , host node 204 A exchanges messages and data with other computer cluster nodes 204 within computer cluster system 104 .", "Upon start-up, each cluster device 208 mounts a remote file system included in memory storage 108 .", "The mount allows each cluster device 208 to access data stored in memory storage 108 .", "Processes executing on cluster device 208 may access memory storage 108 and retrieve data for processing.", "Similarly, each central computer node 204 mounts the remote file system included in memory storage 108 to access and process data.", "FIG. 3 is a block diagram 300 of a runtime environment, according to an embodiment.", "In central computer cluster nodes 204 , runtime environment 301 distributes the workload to processors 206 .", "On heterogeneous computer cluster node 202 , runtime environment 301 distributes the workload to cluster devices 208 within device cluster system 106 through host node 204 A. In an embodiment, runtime environment 301 may be implemented using distributed computational environments, such as message passing interface (MPI), such as Open MPI or a Map Reduce software framework implemented by Google, Inc. of Mountain View, Calif.", "Example Map Reduce framework is implemented in an open-source Apache™ Hadoop™ framework.", "Runtime environment 301 manages the mapping of the processes between host node 204 A and device cluster system 106 , launches the processes, (such as MPI processes in Open MPI), manages the process lifecycle during the execution and handles error messages.", "In a further embodiment, a system administrator may configure and reconfigure runtime environment 301 to adapt to the demands of the heterogeneous parallel processing system or to include additional cluster devices 208 .", "Runtime environment 301 includes a process distribution service 302 , a management server 304 , a client daemon 330 and an embedded library 332 .", "Process distribution service 302 may be an application or a module that executes on host node 204 A. Process distribution service 302 includes a runtime environment daemon 306 , a process manager 308 , a process daemon launcher 310 , a communication module 312 and a process information storage 314 .", "Runtime environment daemon 306 initiates process distribution service 302 on host node 204 A or computer cluster node 204 .", "Runtime environment daemon 306 may be invoked by any server within computer cluster system 104 that acts as a master node for cluster nodes 204 and heterogeneous cluster nodes 202 .", "In an embodiment, the master node may invoke runtime environment daemon 306 using a remote execution protocol, such as remote shell protocol (RSH) or secure shell protocol (SSH), or using a process launcher communication protocol.", "In a non-limiting example, process launcher communication tool (not shown) may be an application that loads a configuration file that includes address of each computer cluster node 204 or host node 204 A. Once the configuration file is loaded, the master node sends a message to initiate runtime environment daemon 306 on computer cluster nodes 204 and host nodes 204 A. Process manager 308 maps the processes in computer cluster node 204 or host node 204 A. On computer cluster node 204 , process manager 308 maps processes to Processors 206 .", "On a heterogeneous cluster node 202 , process manager 308 maps processes to processors 210 on cluster devices 208 .", "Process manager 308 also manages the execution and life-cycle of each process.", "For example, process manager 308 initializes a particular process, launches an application that executes using the process, signals a message delivery to each process when a message arrives from, for example, central cluster system 102 or memory storage 108 , and terminates the process.", "Process daemon launcher 310 launches and terminates each process within computer cluster node 204 or heterogeneous cluster node 202 .", "On computer cluster node 204 process daemon launcher 310 launches processes that execute on processors 206 .", "On host node 204 A process daemon launcher 310 launches management server 304 that manages processes on cluster devices 208 .", "Process daemon launcher 310 also manages process information 316 in process information storage 314 (described below), and communications between the launched processes and runtime environment daemon 306 .", "Process daemon launcher 310 also manages processes using command functions.", "On computer cluster node 204 , process daemon launcher 310 executes command functions to launch, terminate or communicate with the processes.", "On a host node 204 A, process daemon launcher 310 passes command functions to management server 304 .", "Exemplary and non-limiting command functions are “launch_local_proc,” “kill_local_proc,” and “signal_local_proc.”", "For example, command function “launch_local_proc”", "may launch processes on computer cluster node 204 or cluster device 208 .", "In an embodiment, “launch_local_proc”", "may specify the number of processes that may be launched.", "In another example, command function “kill_local_proc”", "terminates a configurable number of processes.", "In another example, command function “signal_local_procs”", "passes commands from an operating system to the processes.", "For example, management server 304 uses “signal_local_procs”", "command function to pass command “SIGSTOP”", "to a Linux operating system for a process executing on cluster device 208 .", "Communication module 312 is a communication interface that distributes message between host nodes 204 A and computer cluster nodes 204 within central computer system 104 .", "Communication module 312 also distributes messages between host nodes 204 A and a master node.", "Process information storage 314 stores process information 316 associated with processes that execute on computer cluster nodes 204 and/or heterogeneous cluster node 202 .", "In an embodiment, processes information may be stored as a data structure.", "Process information 316 for each process includes a web address and web port number information associated with computer cluster node 204 or cluster device 208 that executes the process.", "Computer cluster nodes 204 , host nodes 204 A, and the master node may require process information associated with the processes in heterogeneous parallel processing system to distribute workload for execution, to monitor the workload that is being executed, and to allow processes within computer cluster nodes 204 and device cluster system 106 to communicate with each other.", "Management server 304 manages processes that execute on device cluster system 106 .", "Management server 304 may be a stand-alone server or may execute on host node 204 A. In an embodiment, management server 304 is a multi-threaded server, implemented, for example, using Java;", "C, or C++ programming languages.", "Management server 304 includes a communication module 318 , a runtime manager 322 and a command and control interface 324 .", "Communication module 318 communicates with process distribution server 302 .", "For example, communication module 318 receives messages from process distribution service 302 that include command functions, such as “launch_local_proc,” “kill_local_proc,” and “signal_local_procs.”", "Once management server 304 receives command functions from process daemon launcher 310 , it propagates the command functions to cluster devices 208 or executes the command functions.", "Management server 304 may also transmit the results of the command functions back to process daemon launcher 310 .", "For example, a “launch_local_proc”", "command function may return a parameter that indicates that the process has launched successfully or has failed.", "In an embodiment, management server 304 uses communication module 318 to transmit messages to daemon launcher 310 .", "Management server 304 also receives a “deliver_message”", "command function.", "A “deliver_message”", "command function passes process information between process distribution service 302 and management server 204 .", "When communication module 318 receives messages from process distribution service 302 , communication module 318 passes the messages to runtime manager 322 .", "Runtime manager 322 uses a translation module 320 to translate the messages into a format that is executed or interpreted on cluster device 208 .", "In an embodiment, translation module 320 may translate messages from process distribution service 302 into an object oriented representation of a message, in for example, Java or C++ programming languages.", "When translation module 320 translates the messages, runtime manager 322 passes the messages to command and control interface 324 .", "Runtime manager 322 also identifies cluster device 208 that may process those messages.", "For example, runtime manager 322 may identify cluster devices 208 using process information 316 A stored in process information management service 326 .", "In another example, a message may include cluster device 208 information.", "Command and control interface 324 communicates with cluster devices 208 in device cluster system 106 .", "Command and control interface 324 receives a translated message from runtime manager 322 and transmits the translated message to the designated cluster device 208 for processing.", "When cluster device 208 completes processing the translated message, cluster device 208 may return a response message that includes the result of the processing to command and control interface 324 .", "Command and control interface 324 then passes the response message to runtime manager 322 .", "Runtime manager 322 uses translation module 320 to translate the response message into a format that is executed or interpreted by process distribution service 302 .", "Communication module 318 then transmits the response message to process distribution service 302 .", "Management server 304 also includes a process information management service 326 .", "Process information management service 326 stores processing information 316 A for processes that execute within device cluster 106 .", "As described herein, process information 316 A includes web address and web port information associated with computer cluster nodes 204 within computer cluster system 104 and cluster devices 208 within device cluster system 106 .", "Process information 316 A also includes information pertaining to each process, such as process identifier, etc.", "In a heterogeneous parallel processing system, processes require process information 316 A associated with other processes to communicate with one another for execution of point-to-point operations and collective communication operations.", "In a heterogeneous cluster node 202 process information 316 A may be a subset of process information 316 .", "Because cluster devices 208 have a limited amount of memory compared to computer cluster nodes 204 , cluster devices 208 do not store complete process information 316 for processes within heterogeneous parallel processing system.", "Instead, process information management service 326 stores process information 316 A for processes executing on cluster devices 208 within device cluster system 106 .", "Process information management service 326 may also store process information 316 A associated with processes executing in computer cluster system 104 .", "When process daemon launcher 310 initializes management server 304 , process distribution service 302 uploads a configuration file that defines runtime parameters for device cluster system 106 .", "Those runtime parameters are stored as process information 316 A within process information management service 326 .", "When management server 304 initializes a process on cluster node 208 , process information 316 A is appended with information pertaining to the initialized process, such as in a non-limiting example, a process identifier.", "Process information 316 A may also be appended with process information from other processes in computer cluster system 104 .", "When process distribution service 302 requests process information 316 A for processes executing within device cluster system 106 , process daemon launcher 310 makes, for example, a “deliver_message”", "request for process information 316 A to management server 304 .", "In response to the “deliver_message”", "request, management server 304 returns process information 316 A to process distribution service 302 .", "Process distribution service 302 may then forward process information 316 A to the master node.", "When a master node receives process information 316 A from the heterogeneous cluster node 202 and process information 316 from computer cluster nodes 204 it aggregates the information into a process information listing.", "The master node then transmits the process information listing to heterogeneous cluster node 202 and computer cluster nodes 204 .", "However, unlike conventional distributed systems, heterogeneous cluster node 202 stores the received process information listing within a memory storage accessible to management server 304 and process distribution service 302 .", "When processes executing on cluster devices 208 request process information 316 A, cluster device 208 makes a request to management server 304 for process information 316 A. In response, management server 304 uses command and control interface 324 to transmit process information 316 A to the requesting process on cluster device 208 .", "When management server 304 does not include process information 316 A requested by the requesting process, management server 304 attempts to query process information 316 in process information storage 314 on process distribution service 302 .", "If unsuccessful, process distribution service 302 may query the master node for the requested process information.", "Cluster devices 208 execute processes assigned for execution by a master node or process distribution service 302 .", "As described herein, command and control interface 324 transmits the translated command function to launch a process from management server 304 to cluster device 208 .", "To execute processes and communicate with process management server 304 , cluster devices 208 include a client daemon 330 and an embedded library 332 .", "Embedded library 332 includes resources that client daemon 330 uses to communicate with management server 304 and execute processes.", "In an embodiment, embedded library 332 may be optimized for a limited memory environment within cluster devices 208 .", "Client daemon 330 is an application or a module that executes as a background process on each cluster device 208 .", "In an embodiment, client daemon 330 may be a background thread that executes, in a non-limiting example, on a Linux operating system.", "Client daemon 330 accesses applications that are local to cluster device 208 or stored in memory storage 108 .", "Once client daemon 330 accesses applications, client daemon 330 provides a runtime execution environment for executing the accessed applications.", "For example, client daemon 330 launches a process for executing an application, requests process information 316 A for the requesting processes, communicates between cluster device 208 and computer cluster nodes 204 through management server 304 , redirects the I/O between cluster device 208 and management server 304 , and terminates the process, to name only a few.", "FIG. 4 is a block diagram 400 of a client daemon, according to an embodiment.", "Client daemon 330 includes a main process 402 .", "Cluster device 208 initializes main process 402 , for example, when cluster device 208 is being rebooted or when a user activates cluster device 208 .", "In an embodiment, main process 402 may be initialized using a boot script, such as, in a non-limiting example, an rc.", "local boot script in a Linux operating system or another script developed by an application developer.", "Once initialized, main process 402 executes as a background process on cluster device 208 .", "For example, main process 402 waits for messages from the command and control interface 324 on management server 304 , as cluster device 208 executes other processes or applications.", "Once cluster device 208 initializes main process 402 , main process 402 initializes a process launch manager 404 , an application loader 406 and a process information manager 408 .", "In an embodiment, process launch manager 404 , application loader 406 and process information manager 408 may be initialized as threads that execute asynchronously within client daemon 330 .", "Process launch manager 404 handles communications with management server 304 .", "For example, process launch manager 404 manages the application lifecycle by processing command functions from management server 304 to launch processes 414 , deliver messages to processes 414 and terminate processes 414 .", "In an embodiment, process launch manager 404 handles communications with management server 304 through a communication interface 410 and over network 102 .", "In a non-limiting example, communication interface 410 may process messages using a transmission control protocol and internet protocol (TCP/IP) interface.", "Process launch manager 404 launches processes 414 .", "Processes 414 execute applications 413 on cluster device 208 .", "For example, in a Linux operating system environment, process launch manager 404 may execute a function “fork( ).execute( )”", "that launches process 414 .", "Once process 414 is launched, process 414 accesses and loads the application 413 from application storage 412 .", "In an embodiment, process launch manager 404 may launch up to “N”", "processes 414 .", "A person skilled in the art will appreciate that a number of processes 414 executing on cluster device 208 may be restricted by the number of available resources or by the operating system on cluster device 208 .", "In an embodiment, prior to initializing process 414 , process launch manager 404 accesses an application registry 416 .", "Application registry 416 stores a listing of applications 413 that are stored in application storage 412 .", "If application 413 is not included in the listing, process launch manager 404 may not launch process 414 .", "Application loader 406 loads applications 413 into application storage 412 .", "Application storage 412 stores applications 413 .", "In an embodiment, applications 413 may receive, format or display content, such as media content or streaming media content.", "Applications 413 may also include applications for web browsing, text messaging, image processing, etc.", ", to name only a few.", "Application loader 406 loads application 413 for a sequential or concurrent access by processes 414 .", "In an embodiment, application loader 406 may retrieve applications 413 from memory storage 108 .", "Application loader 406 may also download applications 413 outside of the heterogeneous parallel processing system using network 102 , a thumb-drive, a compact disk, etc.", "Process information manager 408 manages process information 316 B on cluster device 208 .", "Process information 316 B on cluster device 208 may be a subset of process information 316 A stored on management server 304 .", "Process information 316 B is stored in a memory storage, such as process information memory cache 418 .", "When process information manager 408 receives process information 316 B from management server 304 , process information manager 408 stores process information 316 B in a process information memory cache 418 .", "Process 414 accesses process information 316 B stored in process information memory cache 418 through library interface 420 .", "Library interface 420 identifies the requested process information 316 B and retrieves process information 316 E from process information memory cache 418 .", "When library interface 420 is unable to identify the requested process information 316 B, process information manager 408 requests process information 316 B from management server 304 .", "In response, management server 304 uses process information management service 326 to retrieve the requested process information 316 B (which is included in process information 316 A) from process information management service 326 and transmits the requested process information to cluster device 208 .", "In an embodiment, process information manager 408 requests and receives process information 316 E through a process information communication interface 422 .", "Process information communication interface 422 is a communication interface on cluster device 208 for receiving and transmitting process information 316 B. In an embodiment, process information communication interface 422 may be included in communication interface 410 .", "When client daemon 330 receives a request for process information 316 B from management server 304 , client daemon 330 causes process information manager 408 to retrieve process information 316 B from process information memory cache 418 .", "Client daemon 330 may receive a request for process information 316 B when a master node issues a request for process information associated with processes in the heterogeneous parallel processing system.", "Once retrieved, process information manager 408 transmits process information 316 B to management server 304 using process information communication interface 422 .", "FIG. 5 is a flowchart 500 of a method for sharing process information in a heterogeneous parallel processing system, according to an embodiment.", "At step 502 , a command function for launching a process is received.", "For example, communication module 318 on management server 304 receives a command function, such as “launch_local_proc,” to launch process 414 on cluster device 208 .", "At step 504 , the command function is transmitted to a cluster device.", "For example, command and control interface 324 on management server 304 transmits the command function to cluster device 208 .", "In an embodiment, translation module 320 may translate the function into a language that may be interpreted or executed by cluster device 208 .", "At step 506 , process information is received.", "For example, management server 304 receives process information associated with process 414 that was launched on cluster device 208 .", "For example, client daemon 330 may launch process 414 using the command function of step 504 .", "As described herein, process information may include process identifier, the address of cluster device 208 and a port number.", "At step 508 , process information is stored.", "For example, management server 304 stores process information received in step 506 in process information management service 326 .", "In an embodiment, process information received in step 506 may be stored as process information 316 A. At step 510 , a request for process information is received.", "For example, computer cluster node 204 requests process information associated with the launched process 414 .", "As described herein, management server 304 stores process information 316 A that is associated with processes 414 that execute cluster devices 208 , as cluster devices 208 may lack sufficient memory to store the process information 316 and execute processes 414 .", "In an embodiment, a master node executing on computer cluster node 204 may request process information to compile a process information listing.", "In another embodiment, another process executing within computer cluster node 204 may request process information to communicate data or instructions with the launched process 414 .", "At step 512 , a response message that includes the request is transmitted.", "For example, management server 304 transmits process information to process distribution service 302 .", "Process distribution service 302 may then transmit process information to the master node or another computer cluster node 204 .", "FIG. 6 is a flowchart 600 of a method for distributing process information in a heterogeneous parallel processing system, according to an embodiment.", "At step 602 , a request for process information is made.", "For example, a master node executing on computer cluster node 204 requests process information 316 for processes that execute within a heterogeneous parallel processing system.", "At step 604 , the process information is transmitted from the computer cluster nodes.", "For example, computer cluster nodes 204 retrieve process information 316 from process information storage 314 and transmit process information 316 to the master node.", "At step 606 , the process information for a host node is transmitted.", "As described herein, host node 204 A stores process information 316 for processes that execute within host node 204 A. Host node 204 A also accesses process information 316 A that is stored on management server 204 .", "Management server 204 stores process information 316 A associated with processes 414 that are executing on cluster devices 208 .", "Once host node 204 A accesses process information 316 and process information 316 A, host node 204 A transmits process information 316 and process information 316 A to the master node.", "At step 608 , a process listing is compiled.", "For example, a master node compiles a process information listing from process information 316 and process information 316 A transmitted in step 604 and step 606 .", "At step 610 , a process information listing is transmitted to computer cluster nodes.", "For example, the master node transmits the process information listing to computer cluster nodes 204 .", "The process information listing may be stored as process information 316 in process information storage 314 on computer cluster node 204 .", "Processes executing within computer cluster node 204 may use process information listing to communicate with processes within the heterogeneous parallel processing system, such as, processes 414 .", "At step 612 , a process information listing is transmitted to a host node.", "As described herein, when host node 204 receives a process information listing, host node 204 A transmits the process information listing to management server 304 .", "When process 414 executing on cluster device 208 makes a request for process information associated with a process executing within computer cluster system 104 or another cluster device 208 , process 414 makes a request to management server 304 and retrieves the requested process information.", "FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of an example computer system 800 used to implement embodiments of servers 104 and/or clients 106 .", "Various aspects of the various embodiments can be implemented by software, firmware, hardware, or a combination thereof.", "Example computer system 700 in which an embodiment, or portions thereof, can also be implemented as computer-readable code.", "After reading this description, it will become apparent to a person skilled in the relevant art how to implement embodiments using other computer systems and/or computer architectures.", "Computer system 700 includes one or more processors, such as processor 706 .", "Processor 706 can be a special purpose or a general purpose processor.", "Processor 706 is connected to a communication infrastructure 706 (for example, a bus or network).", "Computer system 700 also includes one or more graphics processing units, such as graphics processing unit (“GPU”) 707 .", "GPU 707 is also connected to a communication infrastructure 706 .", "GPU 707 is a specialized processor that executes instructions and programs, selected for complex graphics and mathematical operations, in parallel.", "For example, GPU 707 may be adept at displaying and processing streaming media content.", "Computer system 700 also includes a main memory 708 , preferably random access memory (RAM), and may also include a secondary memory 710 .", "Secondary memory 710 may include, for example, a hard disk drive 712 and/or a removable storage drive 714 .", "Removable storage drive 714 may comprise a floppy disk drive, a magnetic tape drive, an optical disk drive, a flash memory, or the like.", "The removable storage drive 714 reads from and/or writes to a removable storage unit 716 in a well-known manner.", "Removable storage unit 716 may comprise a floppy disk, magnetic tape, optical disk, etc.", "which is read by and written to by removable storage drive 714 .", "As will be appreciated by persons skilled in the relevant art(s), removable storage unit 716 includes a tangible computer readable storage medium 724 A having stored therein control logic 728 B such as computer software and/or data.", "In alternative implementations, secondary memory 710 may include other similar means for allowing computer programs or other instructions to be loaded into computer system 700 .", "Such means may include, for example, a removable storage unit 716 and an interface 718 .", "Examples of such means may include a program cartridge and cartridge interface (such as that found in video game devices), a removable memory chip (such as an EPROM, or PROM) and associated socket, and other removable storage units 716 and interfaces 718 which allow software and data to be transferred from the removable storage unit 716 to computer system 700 .", "As will be appreciated by persons skilled in the relevant art(s), interface 718 also includes a tangible computer readable storage medium 724 B having stored therein control logic 728 C such as computer software and/or data.", "Computer system 700 may also include a communications interface 720 .", "Communications interface 720 allows software and data to be transferred between computer system 700 and external devices 722 .", "Communications interface 720 may include a modem, a network interface (e.g., an Ethernet card), a communications port, a PCMCIA slot and card, or the like.", "Software and data transferred via communications interface 720 are provided to communications interface 720 via a communications path.", "Communications path may be implemented using wire or cable, fiber optics, a phone line, a cellular phone link, a radio frequency (RF) link or other communications channels.", "In this document, the terms “computer program medium”", "and “computer usable medium”", "are used to generally refer to media such as removable storage unit 716 and a hard disk 712 installed in hard disk drive 712 .", "Computer program medium and computer usable medium can also refer to memories, such as main memory 708 and secondary memory 710 , which can be memory semiconductors (e.g. DRAMs, etc.).", "These computer program products are means for providing software to computer system 700 .", "Computer programs (also called computer control logic 728 ) are stored in main memory 708 , such as control logic 728 A and/or secondary memory 710 , such as control logic 728 B. Computer programs may also be received via interface 718 , such as control logic 728 C. Such computer programs, when executed, enable computer system 700 to implement embodiments as discussed herein, such as the system described above.", "In particular, the computer programs, when executed, enable processor 706 to implement the processes of embodiments.", "Accordingly, such computer programs represent controllers of the computer system 700 .", "Where embodiments are implemented using software, the software may be stored in a computer program product and loaded into computer system 700 using removable storage drive 714 , interface 718 , hard drive 712 or communications interface 722 .", "It is to be appreciated that the Detailed Description section, and not the Summary and Abstract sections, is intended to be used to interpret the claims.", "The Summary and Abstract sections may set forth one or more but not all exemplary embodiments of the present invention as contemplated by the inventor, and thus, are not intended to limit the present invention and the appended claims in any way.", "Embodiments have been described above with the aid of functional building blocks illustrating the implementation of specified functions and relationships thereof.", "The boundaries of these functional building blocks have been arbitrarily defined herein for the convenience of the description.", "Alternate boundaries can be defined so long as the specified functions and relationships thereof are appropriately performed.", "The foregoing description of the specific embodiments will so fully reveal the general nature of the invention that others can, by applying knowledge within the skill of the art, readily modify and/or adapt for various applications such specific embodiments, without undue experimentation, without departing from the general concept of the present invention.", "Therefore, such adaptations and modifications are intended to be within the meaning and range of equivalents of the disclosed embodiments, based on the teaching and guidance presented herein.", "It is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation, such that the terminology or phraseology of the present specification is to be interpreted by the skilled artisan in light of the teachings and guidance.", "The breadth and scope of the present invention should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments, but should be defined only in accordance with the following claims and their equivalents." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an in-tank motordriven fuel pump adapted to be mounted in a fuel tank for an automobile or the like, and more particularly to a motordriven fuel pump improved in discharge efficiency.", "FIG. 27 shows a conventional in-tank motor-driven fuel pump for an automobile or the like similar to a pump as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. 58-151397.", "Referring to FIG. 27, reference numeral 8 generally designates a motor-driven fuel pump mounted in a fuel tank 2 and vertically supported by a bracket 4.", "The motor-driven fuel pump 8 is generally composed of a pump section and a motor section which are formed in a cylindrical housing 10.", "The pump section is located in a lower portion of the housing 10, while the motor section is located in an upper portion of the housing 10.", "The pump section is partitioned by a partition wall 14 from the motor section.", "An end plate 28 is fixedly engaged at a lower end of the housing 10.", "There is defined a space between the partition wall 14 and the end plate 28 for engaging therein an annular upper spacer 20, a disc-like intermediate plate 46 having a central hole, and an annular lower spacer 26.", "An upper impeller or a second-stage impeller 52 is rotatably received in an upper space defined by the partition wall 14, the upper spacer 20 and the intermediate plate 46.", "A lower impeller or a first-stage impeller 40 is rotatably received in a lower space defined by the intermediate plate 46, the lower spacer 26 and the end plate 28.", "The second-stage and first-stage impellers 52 and 40 are formed at their outer peripheries with a plurality of radial vanes 48 and 44, respectively, for effecting a pumping function.", "At a lower surface of the partition wall 14, both surfaces of the intermediate plate 46 and an upper surface of the end plate 28, there are provided annular grooves facing the radial vanes 44 and 48.", "First-stage annular pump chamber 30 is formed around the radial vanes 44, and second-stage annular pump chamber 18 is formed around the radial vanes 48.", "The end plate 28, the intermediate plate 46 and the partition wall 14 are formed with a fuel inlet 42, a communication passage 22 and a pump outlet 50, respectively, at such positions as to face the first-stage and second-stage pump chambers 30 and 18.", "The impellers 40 and 52 are axially slidably mounted at their central portions to a motor shaft 58 projecting downwardly through the partition wall 14 from an armature 56 of the motor section which has magnets 54, and are driven to be rotated by the motor section.", "When the motor section is operated, the impellers 40 and 52 are rotated to suck the fuel in the fuel tank 2 from the fuel inlet 42.", "The fuel sucked is boosted in the first-stage and second-stage pump chambers 30 and 18, and is fed through the pump outlet 50 into a motor chamber 12.", "The fuel in the motor chamber 12 is then discharged from a fuel discharge outlet 6.", "In the motor-driven fuel pump as mentioned above, there are formed a sealing portion 16 between the partition wall 14 and the second-stage impeller 52, a sealing portion 24 between the second-stage impeller 52 and the intermediate plate 46, a sealing portion 32 between the intermediate plate 46 and the first-stage impeller 40 and a sealing portion 34 between the first-stage impeller 40 and the end plate 28.", "There are defined clearances in the sealing portions 16, 24, 32 and 34 to cause a fuel leakage loss.", "That is, the fuel leaks through the clearances of the sealing portions 16, 24, 32 and 34 between the pump chambers 18, 30 and a fuel well 36 through communication holes 38.", "To prevent a reduction in pump discharge efficiency due to the leakage loss, the clearances are made greatly small.", "Accordingly, if the dimensional accuracy of the sealing portions 16, 24, 32 and 34 is low and the impellers 40 and 52 have small unbalance, the impellers 40 and 52 under rotation generate an increased frictional resistance at the sealing portions 16, 24, 32 and 34.", "As a result, the rotation of the motor is reduced to cause a reduction in discharge efficiency of the motor-driven fuel pump 8.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a motor-driven fuel pump which reduces the frictional resistance of the impeller to thereby improve the discharge efficiency.", "According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided in a motor-driven fuel pump including a motor section provided with a driving motor, and a pump section arranged below the motor section and provided with an impeller to be driven by the driving motor, the improvement comprising a plurality of pressure compensation hollows formed on opposite surfaces in a sealing portion of the impeller, and a plurality of communication holes for communicating the pressure compensation hollows.", "With this arrangement, a pressure differential of the fuel between the opposite surfaces in the sealing portion of the impeller is cancelled by the communication holes, and the impeller is maintained in a balanced position by the fuel pressure in the pressure compensation hollows.", "Furthermore, the fuel in the pressure compensation hollows serves to lubricate the impeller, thereby greatly reducing the frictional resistance of the impeller.", "According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided in a motor-driven fuel pump including a motor section provided with a driving motor, a pump section arranged below the motor section and provided with an impeller to be driven by the driving motor, a pump chamber defined around outer peripheral vanes of the impeller, and a fuel well for receiving a fuel leaked along a sealing portion of the impeller;", "the improvement comprising a plurality of pressure compensation passages formed on opposite surfaces in the sealing portion of the impeller and communicated to a higher pressure side of either the pump chamber or the fuel well.", "With this arrangement, the fuel under high pressure in the pump chamber or the fuel well is induced to the pressure compensation passages, and the impeller is maintained in a balanced condition by the pressure of the fuel in the passages.", "Furthermore, the fuel in the passages serves to lubricate the impeller, thereby greatly reducing the frictional resistance of the impeller.", "According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided in a motor-driven fuel pump including a motor section provided with a driving motor, a pump section arranged below the motor section and provided with an impeller to be driven by the driving motor, a pump chamber defined around outer peripheral vanes of the impeller, and a fuel well for receiving a fuel leaked along a sealing portion of the impeller;", "the improvement comprising clearances defined on opposite surfaces in the sealing portion of the impeller which clearances have a radially sectional shape diverging toward a higher pressure side of either the pump chamber or the fuel well.", "With this arrangement, the fuel under high pressure in the pump chamber or the fuel well is induced to the clearances in the sealing portion, and the impeller is maintained in a balanced condition by the pressure of the fuel in the clearances.", "Furthermore, the fuel in the clearances serves to lubricate the impeller, thereby greatly reducing the frictional resistance of the impeller.", "The invention will be more fully understood from the following detailed description and appended claims when taken with the drawings.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an elevational view, partly in section, of the motor-driven fuel pump according to the present invention;", "FIG. 2 is a plan view of a first preferred embodiment of the impeller shown in FIG. 1;", "FIG. 3 is a cross section taken along the line A--A in FIG. 2;", "FIGS. 4 and 5 are plan views of second and third embodiments of the impeller according to the present invention;", "FIG. 6 is a plan view of a fourth embodiment of the impeller according to the present invention;", "FIG. 7 is a cross section taken along the line B--B in FIG. 6;", "FIG. 8 is a plan view of a fifth embodiment of the impeller according to the present invention;", "FIG. 9 is a cross section taken along the line C--C in FIG. 8;", "FIG. 10 is a graph showing the relation between a ratio of an area of the pressure compensation hollow to an area of the sealing portion and a pump efficiency according to the present invention;", "FIG. 11 is a plan view of the first-stage impeller in a sixth embodiment of the present invention;", "FIG. 12 is a cross section taken along the line A--A in FIG. 11;", "FIG. 13 is a plan view of the second-stage impeller in the sixth embodiment;", "FIG. 14 is a cross section taken along the line B--B in FIG. 13;", "FIG. 15 is a plan view of the first-stage impeller in a seventh embodiment of the present invention;", "FIG. 16 is a cross section taken along the line C--C in FIG. 15;", "FIG. 17 is a plan view of the second-stage impeller in the seventh embodiment;", "FIG. 18 is a cross section taken along the line D--D in FIG. 17;", "FIG. 19 is a plan view of the first-stage impeller in an eighth embodiment of the present invention;", "FIG. 20 is a cross section taken along the line E--E in FIG. 19;", "FIG. 21 is a plan view of the second-stage impeller in the eighth embodiment;", "FIG. 22 is a cross section taken along the line F--F in FIG. 21;", "FIG. 23 is a graph showing the relation between a surface roughness of the sealing portion of the impeller and a pump efficiency;", "FIG. 24 is a vertical sectional view of the pump section in a ninth embodiment of the present invention;", "FIG. 25 is a plan view of the impeller shown in FIG. 24;", "FIG. 26 is a vertical sectional view of the pump section in a tenth embodiment of the present invention;", "and FIG. 27 is an elevational view, partly in section, of the motor-driven fuel pump in the prior art.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3 which show a first preferred embodiment of the present invention, wherein the parts corresponding to those in FIG. 27 are designated by the same reference numerals, the motor-driven fuel pump 8 is of a two-stage pump type having a first-stage impeller 88 and a second-stage impeller 86.", "The first and second impellers 88 and 86 have the same structure in this embodiment and the following description is directed to the first impeller 88 only.", "The impeller 88 has a plurality of vanes 44 at the outer periphery, a pair of sealing portions 78 and 80 each having a fixed width formed on the opposite surfaces of the impeller 88 inside the vanes 44, and a pair of annular central grooves 72 and 76 formed around the boss of the impeller 88 for inserting the motor shaft 58 on the opposite surfaces of the impeller 88 inside the sealing portions 78 and 80.", "The annular central grooves 72 and 76 are communicated through a plurality of communication holes 74 to each other, and are also communicated to a fuel well 36 formed around the motor shaft 58.", "The impeller 88 is further formed with a plurality of round pressure compensation hollows 66 and 70 on the opposite surfaces of the impeller 88 in the sealing portions 80 and 78.", "The round hollows 66 and 70 are arranged on a single circle.", "The round hollows 66 and 70 on the opposite surfaces of the impeller 88 are communicated through a plurality of communication holes 68 to each other.", "The round hollows 66 and 70 are out of communication with both the vanes 44 and the central groove 72 and 76.", "Accordingly, the round hollows 66 and 70 are out of communication with the fuel well 36 and the first and second pump chambers 30 and 18.", "In operation, when the impellers 88 and 86 are rotated to increase the fuel pressure, the fuel is allowed to flow from the fuel inlet 42 through the first pump chamber 30 and the second pump chamber 18 to the motor chamber 12.", "However, as the fuel pressure in the fuel well 36 is greater than that in the first pump chamber 30, the fuel tends to flow from the fuel well 36 along the sealing portion 78 or 80 of the impeller 88 to the first pump chamber 30.", "At this time, because of tare of the impeller 88 or a small error in dimension or installation of the impeller 88, the upper clearance of the sealing portion 80 tends to become greater than the lower clerance thereof.", "However, as the pressure compensation hollows 66 and 70 are formed on opposite surfaces in the sealing portion 80 and 78, and they are communicated through the communication holes 68 to each other, a pressure differential between the upper clearance and the lower clearance is cancelled to maintain the impeller 88 under a balanced condition.", "Further, as the fuel in the pressure compensation hollows 66 and 70 functions to lubricate the sealing portion 80 and 78, the impeller 88 may be smoothly rotated with a reduced frictional resistance.", "As to the second-stage impeller 86, the fuel pressure in the pump chamber 18 is greater than that in the fuel well 36, and accordingly the fuel tends to flow from the pump chamber 18 along the sealing portion 84 and 82 of the impeller 86 to the fuel well 36.", "However, similarly to the first-stage impeller 86, since the second-stage impeller 86 is formed with pressure compensation hollows 60 and 64 communicated through communication holes 62 to each other, a pressure differential at the sealing portion 84 and 82 is cancelled to maintain the impeller 86 under a balanced condition.", "Referring to FIG. 10, it is appreciated that the pump efficiency is proper within a specific range of ratio of area of the pressure compensation hollow 60, 64, 66 or 70 to area of the sealing portion 84, 82, 80 or 78.", "As the result of test, a proper pump efficiency was obtained within the range of ratio of 5-20%.", "If the ratio is less than 5%, the frictional resistance of the impellers 86 and 88 increases to reduce the pump efficiency.", "On the other hand, if the ratio is greater than 20%, the frictional resistance decreases, but a leakage loss of fuel increases due to an increased area of the pressure compensation hollows 60, 64, 66 and 70, causing a reduction in the pump efficiency.", "Referring to FIG. 4 which shows a second preferred embodiment, the pressure compensation hollows 166 are round hollows arranged on two concentric circles 90 and 92 to increase a degree of freedom of the arrangement of the hollows 166.", "Referring to FIG. 5 which shows a third preferred embodiment, the pressure compensation hollows 266 are cross hollows arranged on a single circle to flow the fuel in multiple directions and thereby enhance the lubricating effect.", "Referring to FIGS. 6 and 7 which show a fourth preferred embodiment, there are provided a plurality of communication grooves 394 for communicating the pressure compensation hollows 366 with the central groove 376.", "Referring to FIGS. 8 and 9 which show a fifth preferred embodiment, there are provided a plurality of communication grooves 494 for communicating the pressure compensation hollows 466 with the vanes 444.", "In the fourth and fifth preferred embodiments, the communication grooves 394 and 494 allow the fuel to be easily induced into the pressure compensation hollows 366 or 466, thereby enhancing the balancing effect and the lubricating effect for the impeller 388 or 488.", "Referring to FIGS. 11 to 14 which show a sixth preferred embodiment, the first-stage impeller 588 is formed on its opposite surfaces with a plurality of pressure compensation straight grooves 594 communicated with the central grooves 576 and not communicated with the vanes 544.", "On the other hand, the second-stage impeller 586 is formed on its opposite surfaces with a plurality of pressure compensation grooves 596 communicated with the central groove 576.", "In operation, when the first impeller 588 is rotated, the fuel is induced from the fuel well into the pressure compensation grooves 594 of the first impeller 588, and the fuel pressure in the grooves 594 operates to balance the first impeller 588, thus smoothly rotating the first impeller 588.", "Similarly, the fuel in the second pump chamber is induced into the pressure compensation grooves 596 of the second impeller 586, and the fuel pressure in the grooves 596 operates to balance the second impeller 586, thus smoothly rotating the second impeller 586.", "Referring to FIGS. 15 to 18 which show a seventh preferred embodiment, the first-stage impeller 688 is formed on its opposite surfaces with a plurality of pressure compensation curved grooves 694 communicated with the central groove 676 and not communicated with the vanes 644.", "On the other hand, the second-stage impeller 686 is formed on its opposite surfaces with a plurality of pressure compensation grooves 696 communicated with the vanes 648 and not communicated with the central groove 676.", "The curved shape of the grooves 694 and 696 contributes to an increase in amount and pressure of the fuel to be induced into the grooves 694 and 696 due to inertia of the fuel moved by the rotation of impellers 688 and 686.", "Referring to FIGS. 19 to 22 which show an eighth preferred embodiment, the first-stage and second-stage impellers 788 and 786 are formed at their opposite surfaces with a plurality of pressure compensation grooves 794 and 796, respectively, which are communicated with both the central groove 776 and the vanes 744 and 748.", "These grooves 794 and 796 are very shallow and are arranged in close relationship to each other.", "FIG. 23 shows the relation between the pump efficiency and the surface roughness of the sealing surface of the impellers 788 and 786 shown in FIGS. 19 to 22.", "As is appreciated from FIG. 23, the pump efficiency is satisfactory within the range of the surface roughness of about 1-10 Z (average of ten points).", "The surface roughness was measured according to JIS B 0601.", "The grooves 794 and 796 may be provided by utilizing a tool mark generated by a grinding machine.", "Alternatively, when the impellers are formed of resin, the grooves 794 and 796 are formed by transferring grooves formed on a mold surface.", "In this embodiment, as the grooves are very shallow, the leakage loss of the fuel may be greatly reduced.", "Further, as a large number of the grooves 794 and 796 are communicated with both the fuel well and the pump chamber, the amount of fuel to be induced into the grooves may be increased.", "Referring to FIGS. 24 and 25 which show a ninth preferred embodiment, there are defined clearances 808 and 810 on opposite surfaces of the sealing portion 880 and 878 of the first-stage impeller 888 which clearances have a radially sectional shape diverging toward the fuel well 36.", "As to the second-stage impeller 886, there are defined clearances 802 and 806 on opposite surfaces of the sealing portion 884 and 882 of the second-stage impeller 886 which clearances have a radially sectional shape diverging toward the pump chamber 18.", "The clearances 808, 810 and 802, 806 are formed by the inclined upper surface of the end plate 5, the inclined opposite surfaces of the intermediate plate 846 and the inclined lower surface of the partition wall 14 in the sealing portions 884, 882 and 880, 878, respectively.", "In operation, when the first-stage impeller 888 is rotated, the fuel is induced from the fuel well 36 into the upper and lower clearances 808 and 810, and the fuel pressure in the upper and lower clearances 808 and 810 operate to balance the first-stage impeller 888, thus smoothly rotating the first-stage impeller 888.", "Similarly, the fuel in the second pump chamber 18 is induced into the upper and lower clearances 802 and 806 of the second impeller 886, and the fuel pressure in the upper and lower clearances 802 and 806 operates to balance the second-stage impeller 886, thus smoothly rotating the second-stage impeller 886.", "Referring to FIG. 26 which shows a tenth preferred embodiment similar to the ninth preferred embodiment as mentioned above, the clearances 902, 906, 908 and 910 are formed by obliquely cutting the opposite surfaces in the sealing portions 984, 982, 980 and 978 of the first-stage and second-stage impellers 986 and 988, respectively.", "The operation is substantially the same as that of the ninth preferred embodiment.", "In the ninth and tenth preferred embodiments, the test result proved that the proper inclination of the clearances was about 0.2-5 microns per 1 mm radial length of the sealing surface.", "Although the aforementioned preferred embodiments are directed to a two-stage pump, the present invention may be applied to a single stage pump and a three or more stage pump." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION The invention is a division of application Ser.", "No. 11/006,800, filed Dec. 7, 2004, which is a division of application Ser.", "No. 10/146,616, filed May 15, 2002, and PCT Application No. PCT/US03/15568, filed on May 15, 2003, both of which are herein incorporated by reference herein.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention This invention relates to a fermentation method for the production of mannitol and to a mannitol dehydrogenase useful for producing mannitol from a variety of readily available carbohydrate substrates, especially fructose and glucose.", "Description of the Prior Art Mannitol, a naturally occurring polyol, is widely used in the food, pharmaceutical, medicine and chemical industries (Soetaert et al.", ", Agro Food Ind.", "Hi - Tech.", "6:41-44, 1995).", "It is used as a sweet-tasting bodying and texturing agent.", "Mannitol reduces the crystallization tendency of sugars and is used as such to increase the shelf-life of foodstuffs.", "Crystalline mannitol exhibits a very low hygroscopicity, making it useful in products that are stable at high humidity.", "It is extensively used in chewing gum.", "Because of its desirable properties, mannitol is commonly used in the pharmaceutical formulation of chewable tablets and granulated powders.", "It prevents moisture absorption from the air, exhibits excellent mechanical compressing properties, does not interact with the active components, and its sweet cool taste masks the unpleasant taste of many drugs (Debord et al.", ", Drug Dev.", "Ind.", "Pharm.", "13:1533-1546, 1987).", "The complex of boric acid with mannitol is used in the production of dry electrolytic capacitors.", "It is an extensively used polyol for production of resins and surfactants.", "Mannitol is used in medicine as a powerful osmotic diuretic and in many types of surgery for the prevention of kidney failure and to reduce dye and brain oedema.", "Mannitol hexanitrate is a well known vasodilator, used in the treatment of hypertension.", "Mannitol is currently produced industrially by high pressure hydrogenation of fructose/glucose mixtures in aqueous solution at high temperature (120-160° C.) with Raney nickel as catalyst.", "Typically, the hydrogenation of a 50/50 fructose/glucose mixture results in an approximately 30/70 mixture of mannitol and sorbitol (Makkee et al.", ", Starch/Starke 37:136-141, 1985).", "Therefore about half of the fructose is converted to mannitol and half of it to sorbitol.", "The glucose is hydrogenated exclusively to sorbitol.", "As a consequence, the commercial production of mannitol is always accompanied by the production of sorbitol, thus reducing the conversion efficiency of substrate to mannitol (Soetaert et al.", ", 1995, supra).", "In recent years, research efforts have been directed towards production of polyols by fermentation and enzymatic means (Vandamme et al.", "FEMS Microbiol.", "Rev. 16:163-186, 1995).", "Yun et al.", ", ( Biotechnol.", "Letts.", "18:35-40, 1996) describe microbial transformation of fructose to mannitol by Lactobacillus sp.", "KY-107.", "In shake flask cultures, Yun et al.", "obtained a final concentration of 70 g mannitol/L from 100 g D-fructose within 80 h at 28° C. Yun et al.", "( J. Ferment.", "Bioeng.", "85:203-208, 1998) report the isolation of two mannitol-producing, lactic acid bacteria from kimichi, a traditional Korean food.", "Lactobacillus sp.", "Y-107 transformed fructose to mannitol from the early growth stage, with a 54% conversion yield after 20 h;", "whereas Leuconostoc sp.", "Y-002 converted fructose to mannitol more slowly with a 40% yield at 20 h. Yun et al.", "(1998, supra) describe the pathway for microbial mannitol formation as comprising two mechanisms.", "In the first mechanism, NADPH-linked mannitol dehydrogenase directs the reduction of fructose.", "In the second mechanism, fructose-6-phosphate is initially reduced to mannitol-1-phosphate by means of NAD(P)H-linked mannitol-1-phosphate dehydrogenase.", "The mannitol-1-phosphate is then converted to inorganic phosphate and mannitol by means of a specific mannitol-1-phosphatase.", "Korakli et al.", "( Adv.", "Food Sci .", "(CTML) 22:1-4, 2000) describe the production of mannitol in a fermentation process with selected strains of Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis with the ability to utilize maltose, sucrose and glucose as carbon sources.", "Cells of strain LTH 2590 were adapted to sucrose, but gave a decreased yield of mannitol production in relation to the fructose content of sucrose.", "Itoh et al.", "(European Patent Number EP0486024, 1992) teaches the use of Lactobacillus sp.", "B001 (FERM BP-3158) for the production of mannitol, acetic acid and lactic acid on carbohydrate substrates comprising glucose and fructose.", "Itoh et al.", "reports obtaining a level of 12.3% mannitol in 23 h with a yield of sugar of 61%.", "Though being able of use other sugars, such as glucose, galactose, maltose and xylose, strain B001 does not metabolize mannose or trehalose.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION I have now discovered a highly efficient fermentative method for the production of mannitol using a strain of Lactobacillus intermedius , as well as a biochemical method using mannitol dehydrogenase isolated from the L. intermedius strain.", "Fructose serves as the primary carbon substrate in both the fermentative and biochemical conversions, but important secondary carbon sources include glucose, maltose, mannose, raffinose and galactose.", "In accordance with this discovery, it is an object of the invention to provide a fermentative method for production of mannitol.", "It is also an object of the invention to introduce a heretofore unrecognized bacterial source for use in efficient conversion of fructose and other carbon sources to mannitol.", "Another object of the invention is to provide microbiological and biochemical alternatives to chemical production of mannitol.", "Yet another object of this invention is to provide a microbial source of mannitol for use in foods and pharmaceuticals.", "A further object of the invention is to provide a novel mannitol dehydrogenase isolated from L. intermedius for use in the biochemical conversion of fructose substrates to mannitol.", "Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the ensuing description.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a time course of fructose (150 g/L) utilization and mannitol production by Lactobacillus intermedius B-30560 in pH-controlled batch fermentation at 35° C. Symbols: ◯, Fructose;", "●, Mannitol;", "▴, Lactic acid;", "▪, Acetic acid.", "FIG. 2 is a time course of fructose (100 g/L) and glucose (50 g/L) co-utilization and mannitol production by Lactobacillus intermedius NRRL B-30560 in a pH-controlled batch fermentation at 37° C. Symbols: ◯, Fructose;", "□, glucose;", "●, Mannitol;", "▴ Lactic acid;", "▪, Acetic acid.", "FIG. 3 are time courses of fructose utilization and mannitol production by Lactobacillus intermedius NRRL B-30560 in pH-controlled fed-batch fermentation at 37° C. Fructose used: 300 g/L (final concentration).", "Symbols: ◯, Fructose;", "●, Mannitol;", "▴ Lactic acid;", "▪, Acetic acid.", "DEPOSIT OF BIOLOGICAL MATERIAL Lactobacillus intermedius B-3693 described herein was redeposited on Mar. 4, 2002, under the provisions of the Budapest Treaty in the Agricultural Research Culture Collection (NRRL) in Peoria, Ill.", ", and has been assigned Accession number NRRL B-30560.", "Hereafter, the L. intermedius for use in the invention will be referred to by the B-30560 Accession number.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The primary carbon source for use in the method of the invention is fructose, which may in fact be used as the sole carbon source.", "Secondary carbon sources for use in combination with fructose are glucose, maltose, mannose, raffinose and galactose, without limitation thereto.", "Unlike Lactobacillus sp.", "B001 , L. intermedius B-30560 can utilize trehalose very well, but cannot utilize xylose at all.", "Starch is also useful as a secondary carbon source, provided that glucoamylase is introduced into the fermentation medium to promote saccharification during the course of the fermentation.", "The amount of secondary carbon source can be up to about 33% (w/w) of the total substrate, though it is preferred that the secondary carbon source constitute less about 25% of the carbon substrate.", "The secondary carbon source of choice is glucose.", "The specific fermentation medium for use in the mannitol production is not necessarily critical, and selection thereof would be within the skill of an ordinary person in the art.", "A suitable medium would contain sources of protein, amino acids, salts and other growth stimulating components.", "Exemplary media would be simplified MRS medium [10 g peptone, 5 g yeast extract, 2 g ammonium citrate, 5 g sodium acetate, 0.1 g magnesium sulfate, 0.05 g manganese sulfate and 2 g disodium phosphate per liter (final pH 6.5)] and enriched MRS medium (same as the simplified medium but additionally containing 10 g beef extract and 1.0 ml Tween 80).", "Sodium acetate may be omitted from the simplified MRS medium.", "Also, peptone and yeast extract may be replaced with corn steep liquor.", "Fermentations may be conducted by combining the carbon source with the medium in any suitable fermentor, and inoculating with the L. intermedius NRRL B-30560.", "Initial levels of carbon substrate should exceed 50 g/L, and preferably be at least about 100 g/L, or even in excess of 200-300 g/L.", "The fermentation is carried out either aerobically or anaerobically under conditions conducive to the growth of L. intermedius B-30560 and production of mannitol dehydrogenase.", "Fermentation temperature should be maintained within the range of at least about 25° C., and less than about 50° C. Preferably, the temperature is at least about 30° C. and less than or equal to about 37° C. The pH of the medium at the commencement of the fermentation is typically within the range of about 6-7, and then is controlled by addition of base at approximately pH 4.5-6.0 as the fermentation progresses.", "Peak mannitol levels occur shortly after the organism completes its log phase growth, typically within about 24-96 hours post-inoculation.", "At higher levels of initial carbon substrate, longer periods of fermentation are of course required to maximize mannitol production.", "In pH-controlled, fed-batch fermentations, initial levels of carbon substrate may be lower than described above, and then supplemented as the fermentation progresses.", "With corn steep liquor replacing peptone and yeast extract, longer periods of fermentation are required to maximize mannitol production.", "Upon completion of the fermentation, mannitol may be recovered from the culture using techniques conventional in the art.", "For example, when mannitol is present in the culture broth at levels exceeding the solubility limit (180 g/L at 25° C.), it can be recovered from solution by cooling crystallization.", "In practice, mannitol would be crystallized from the crude fermentation broth by chilling the crude broth to about 4° C. After mannitol recovery, lactic acid and acetic acid can be easily recovered from the fermentation broth by electrodialysis.", "Mannitol dehydrogenase, the enzyme responsible for mannitol production in the aforementioned fermentation, can be isolated from the cells by breaking the cells with glass beads.", "While not desiring to be bound to any particular theory of operation, it appears that mannitol produced by L. intermedius NRRL B-30560 is derived from the hexose phosphate pathway like other mannitol producing bacteria such as Lactobacillus sp.", "Y-107, Leuconostoc sp.", "Y-002 and Leucononostoc mesenteroides (Yun et al.", ", 1996, supra;", "Yun et al.", ", 1998, supra;", "Soetaert et al.", ", 1995, supra).", "The process makes use of the capability of L. intermedius NRRL B-30560 to utilize fructose as an alternative electron acceptor, thereby reducing it to mannitol with the enzyme mannitol dehydrogenase.", "In this process, the reducing equivalents are generated by conversion of about one-third fructose to lactic acid and acetic acid.", "It is thought that enzyme reaction proceeds according to the following (theoretical) equation: 3Fructose 2Mannitol+Lactic acid+Acetic acid+CO 2 For fructose and glucose (2:1) co-fermentation, the equation becomes: 2Fructose+Glucose 2Mannitol+Lactic acid+Acetic acid+CO 2 The following examples are intended to further illustrate the invention, without any intent for the invention to be limited to the specific embodiments described therein.", "Example 1 Screening of Bacterial Strains Selection of Strains.", "Seventy two bacterial strains were obtained from the ARS Culture Collection, National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, Peoria, Ill.", "These strains were (with NRRL numbers): Lactobacillus acidophilus B-4495 , L. amylophilus B-4436 , L. amylovorus B-4545 , L. animalis B 14177 , L. arabinosus B-787 , L. brevis B-1836 , L. buchneri B-1860 , L. bulgaricus B-548, L. casei B-1922 , L. cellobiosus B-1840 , L. coryniformis B-4391 , L. delbrueckii B-763, L. fermentum B-1915 , L. fructivorans B-4000, L. gasseri B-14168 , L. gramminis B-14857 , L. helveticus B-1935 , L. intermedius B-3693 , L. jensenii B-4550 , L. leichmanii B-4525 , L. mali B-4565, L. paracasei B-4564 , L. pentosus B-473, L. plantarum B-4496 , L. reuteri B-14172 , L. rhamnosus B-442 , L. salivarius B-1949, Leuconostoc amelibiosum B-742 , L. citrovorum B-1147, L. mesenteroides subsp.", "dextranicum B-1120, L. mesenteroides subsp.", "mesenteroides B-1209 , L. paramesenteroides B-3471 , L. oenos B-3474, L. lactis B-3468, Pediococcus acidilactici B-1153, P. pentosaceus B-14009, Lactococcus lactis B-1821, Streptococcus dysgalactiae B-688, Enterococcus faecalis B-537, E. faecium B-1295, E. casseliflavus B-3502, E. hirae B-14926, Bacillus subtilis NRS-744, B. cereus B-3711, B. licheniformis NRS-1264, B. megaterium B-14308, B. pumilus B-14292, B. coagulans NRS-609 , B. smithii NRS-173, B. amyloliquefaciens B-14394, B. mycoides NRS-273 , Paenibacillus polymyxa B-367 , P. peoriae B-14750 , P. amylolyticus B-377 , P. illinoisensis NRS-1356 , P. chondroitinus B-14420 , P. alginolyticus NRS-1347 , P. pulvifaciens B-14166 , P. lautus NRS-666 , P. validus NRS-1000 , P. pabuli B-14213 , P. thiaminolyticus B-14605, P. macerans B-172 , P. glucanolyticus B-14680 , P. curdlanolyticus B-23243 , P. apiarius NRS-1438, Micrococcus luteus B-287, M. kristinae B-14845 , Brevibacillus brevis NRS-604 , B. agri B-1158 , B. choshinensis B-23247 and B. reuszeri NRS-1206.", "Screening Medium and Culture Conditions.", "The bacterial strains listed above were evaluated for cell growth, residual substrate and product yield.", "The strains were cultivated on a screening medium designated as enriched MRS contained 10 g peptone, 10 g beef extract, 5 g yeast extract, 1.0 ml Tween 80, 2 g ammonium citrate, 5 g sodium acetate, 0.1 g magnesium sulfate, 0.05 g manganese sulfate and 2 g disodium phosphate per liter (final pH 6.5).", "The medium and the substrate (glucose or fructose 5%, w/v) were sterilized separately at 121° C. for 15 min.", "A 125-ml Erlenmeyer flask containing 50 ml MRS medium with substrate was inoculated with a loopful of cells taken from a stock slant and incubated at 30° C. on a rotary shaker (130 rpm).", "Samples were periodically withdrawn for evaluation.", "Strains producing mannitol from fructose were: L. brevis B-1836 , L. buchneri B-1860 , L. cellobiosus B-1840, L. fermentum B-1915 , L. intermedius B-3693 (NRRL B-30560), Leuconostoc amelibiosum B-742 , L. citrovorum B-1147, L. mesenteroides subsp.", "dextranicum B-1120, and L. paramesenteroides B-3471.", "In addition, all these strains produced lactic acid and acetic acid.", "Among these nine strains, L. intermedius NRRL B-30560 produced mannitol at a higher rate than the other strains.", "Example 2 Mannitol Production at Four Fructose Concentrations Fermentation Experiment Protocol.", "Fermentation experiments were carried out with L. intermedius NRRL B-30560 in simplified MRS medium (without beef extract and Tween 80).", "For seed culture, a 250 ml Erlenmeyer flask containing 50 ml of the medium with fructose (2%, w/v) was inoculated with a loopful of cells taken from a stock slant and incubated at 30° C. on a rotary shaker (130 rpm) for 24 h. Batch culture experiments were performed in pH-controlled 500 ml fleakers with an initial medium volume of 300 ml at either 30° C. or 37° C. essentially as described by Bothast et al.", "[ Biotechnol.", "Lett.", "16:401-406.", "(1994)].", "The pH was maintained at 5.0 by adding 2-8 N NaOH.", "Cultures were stirred magnetically using 1.5 inch stir-bars, at 130 rev/min.", "Samples were withdrawn periodically to determine cell growth, sugar utilization and production yield.", "Effect of Fructose Concentration.", "Batch cultures were conducted at four concentrations of fructose substrate: 150, 200, 250, and 300 g/L.", "Cell growth was monitored by measuring optical density of the appropriately diluted culture broth at 660 nm.", "Sugar utilization and product analysis were performed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).", "The bacterium L. intermedius NRRL B-30560 produced mannitol, lactic acid and acetic acid when grown on fructose in pH-controlled fermentation (Table I).", "The mannitol yields were 107.6±0.5, 138.6±6.9, 175.6±5.9 and 198.3±11.0 g/L at 150, 200, 250, and 300 g/L fructose, respectively.", "A typical time course of fructose utilization and mannitol, lactic acid and acetic acid production at 150 g/L substrate concentration is shown in FIG. 1 .", "The time of maximum mannitol yield varied greatly from 20 h at 150 g/L fructose to 136 h at 300 g/L fructose concentration.", "Also, there was a long lag period of about 72 h in growth and fructose utilization at 300 g/L fructose concentration in comparison to the lag period of about 16 h at 250 g/L fructose.", "However, the product patterns and yields were not much dependent on fructose concentration.", "The bacterium transformed fructose to mannitol from the early growth stage and it did not consume mannitol even when all supplied fructose was utilized.", "Moreover, the product (mannitol, lactic acid and acetic acid) concentration continued to increase slightly upon further continuation of the fermentation in most cases.", "The maximum cell growth (A 660 of 9.6±0.8 in 16 h) was obtained at fructose concentration of 150 g/L.", "The average maximum cell densities (A 660 ) were 4.7±0.4 in 24 h, 5.3±1.0 in 64 h and 6.5±0.8 in 136 h at fructose concentrations of 200, 250 and 300 g/L, respectively.", "Small white needle-like crystals of mannitol appeared upon keeping the cell-free fermentation broth of 300 g/L fructose at 4° C. This suggests an efficient product recovery scheme for mannitol.", "Example 3 Mannitol Production on Fructose and Secondary Substrate The procedure of Example 2 was repeated, except that one third of fructose was replaced with other substrates including glucose, maltose, starch plus glucoamylase (simultaneous saccharification and fermentation, SSF), mannose, galactose, xylose, arabinose, cellobiose, raffinose and glycerol.", "In a separate run, two-thirds of fructose was also replaced by sucrose.", "The results of mannitol production by L. intermedius NRRL B-30560 in the two-substrate system is presented in Table II.", "It is clear that one-third of fructose can be replaced with glucose, starch with glucoamylase, maltose, mannose, raffinose and galactose.", "Two-thirds of fructose can also be replaced by sucrose.", "Even though arabinose was co-utilized with fructose, it did not contribute to mannitol production.", "The arabinose-fructose co-substrate also led to a considerable increase in the production of lactic acid and acetic acid.", "The bacterium was not able to co-utilize lactose, glycerol, cellobiose and xylose with fructose.", "A time course of fructose (100 g/L) and glucose (50 g/L) co-fermentation is shown in FIG. 2 .", "L. intermedius NRRL B-30560 co-utilized fructose and glucose simultaneously and produced very similar quantities of mannitol, lactic acid and acetic acid in comparison with fructose only.", "The conversion efficiency of fructose to mannitol was 96%.", "The glucose was converted to lactic acid and acetic acid which were partially neutralized during fermentation by adding NaOH to control the pH at 5.0.", "Example 4 Mannitol Production in Fed-Batch Fermentation In order to decrease the fermentation time required to complete 300 g/L fructose utilization as reported in Example 2, fed-batch culture technique was used.", "The results of fed-batch culture with L. intermedius NRRL B-30560 and 300 g/L fructose is shown in FIG. 3 .", "The fermentation time decreased considerably from 136 h to 92 h by feeding equal amounts of substrate and medium four times.", "The yields of mannitol, lactic acid and acetic acid were 202.5±4.3, 52.6±1.0 and 38.5±0.7 g/t, respectively.", "The maximum cell growth (cell density, A 660 of 6.9±0.2) occurred in 64 h. The yields of mannitol, lactic acid and acetic acid from co-fermentation of fructose and glucose (2:1) at 300 g/L total substrate concentration in fed-batch fermentation were 179.4±9.3, 44.08±0.4 and 33.4±0.6 g, respectively in 160 h. The maximum cell growth (A 660 of 3.1±0.3) was observed at 88 h. Example 5 Production of Mannitol Under Anaerobic Conditions L. intermedius NRRL B-30560 was grown essentially as described in Example 2 in simplified MRS medium under anaerobic conditions using 2% fructose as the carbon source.", "The product patterns were analyzed by HPLC.", "The bacterium produced mannitol, lactic acid and acetic acid in product ratios similar to those obtained under aerobic conditions.", "Example 6 Comparative Microbiological Production of Mannitol A comparative study of mannitol production by L. intermedius NRRL B-30560 with those of the earlier workers is presented in Table III.", "Fermentations were conducted as described in Example 2, except that the other bacteria reported in Table III were grown on enriched MRS medium (including beef extract and Tween) as described in Example 1.", "It is expected that the reported fermentation time for L. intermedius NRRL B-30560 could be shortened by using the enriched MRS medium.", "Example 7 Isolation of Mannitol Dehydrogenase from L. intermedius B-30560 The bacterium was grown in 1 L fleakers with a working volume of 700 ml at 37° C. and initial pH of 6.5 for 16 h using 15% fructose at which time mannitol dehydrogenase activity reached a maximum.", "The pH was controlled at 5.0 with 5 M NaOH.", "The cells were separated from the fermentation broth by centrifugation (15,000 g, 25 min) and washed with 50 mM phosphate buffer, pH 5.5.", "The washed cells were then suspended in the same buffer plus 1 mM Dithiothreitol (DTT) and treated with glass beads overnight.", "After centrifugation (30,000 g, 20 min), the clear supernatant was used as crude mannitol dehydrogenase (MDH) preparation.", "The enzyme was then subjected to DEAE-BioGel A column chromatography, BioGel A gel filtration, octyl-Sepharose column chromatography and finally Bio Gel HT column chromatography.", "The isolated mannitol dehydrogenase showed homogeneity as judged by native SDS-PAGE, SDS-PAGE and isoelectric gel electrophoresis.", "The first 20 N-terminal amino acids of purified mannitol dehydrogenase from L. intermedius B-30560 are Met-Lys-Ala-Leu-Val-Leu-Gln-Gly-Ile-Lys-Asp-Leu-Ala-Val-Gln-Asp-Tyr-Glu-Val-Pro (SEQ ID NO: 1).", "The purified enzyme was used for conversion of fructose to mannitol (see Example 8).", "Example 8 Biochemical Production of Mannitol In a reaction mixture containing 1.4% fructose, 50 mM phosphate buffer, pH 5.0 and 0.2 mM NADPH or NADH, the purified enzyme obtained in Example 7 was fairly active over a pH range 4.5-8.5 and temperature up to 50° C. with optimum pH being 5.5 and optimum temperature at 35° C. The enzyme converted fructose to mannitol almost quantitatively within 6 h at pH 5.0 and 30° C. The enzyme did not show any activity towards conversion of xylose to xylitol and arabinose to arabitol.", "TABLE I Mannitol production from fructose by L. intermedius NRRL B-30560 in pH controlled batch fermentation.", "a Fructose Time Mannitol Lactic acid Acetic acid (g/L) (h) (g/g) (g/g) (g/g) 150 20 0.72 ± 0.00 0.17 ± 0.00 0.12 ± 0.00 200 40 0.69 ± 0.03 0.17 ± 0.00 0.13 ± 0.00 250 64 0.70 ± 0.02 0.16 ± 0.00 0.12 ± 0.00 300 136 0.66 ± 0.03 0.15 ± 0.01 0.11 ± 0.00 a At 37° C., 130 rpm, Initial pH 6.5, pH controlled at 5.0, 500 ml fleaker with 300 ml medium.", "TABLE II Mannitol production using two substrate system (fructose and another sugar) by Lactobacillus intermedius NRRL B-30560 in pH-controlled batch fermentation.", "a Substrate Time Mannitol Lactic acid Acetic acid (g/L) (h) (g/L) (g/L) (g/L) Fructose (100) 20 97.3 ± 2.6 23.2 ± 0.5 15.8 ± 0.4 plus glucose (50) Fructose (50) 64 84.5 ± 0.7 23.6 ± 1.6 13.6 ± 0.3 plus sucrose (100) Fructose (100) 24 86.6 ± 1.2 25.7 ± 0.5 13.8 ± 0.1 plus starch (50) and glucoamylase Fructose (100) 15 95.9 ± 0.8 20.9 ± 0.2 14.2 ± 0.4 Plus maltose (50) Fructose (100) 89 89.1 ± 1.9 18.4 ± 2.6 14.6 ± 1.9 plus mannose (50) Fructose (100) 15 82.3 ± 0.7 16.7 ± 0.7 13.2 ± 0.2 plus galactose (50) Fructose (100) 40 94.1 ± 0.7 24.8 ± 0.3 15.3 ± 0.1 plus raffinose (50) Fructose (100) 64 61.6 ± 0.9 41.1 ± 1.1 27.3 ± 1.2 plus arabinose (50) a At 37° C., except for starch at 30° C., initial pH 6.5, pH maintained at 5.0, 130 rpm, 500 ml fleaker with 300 ml medium.", "TABLE III Comparison of mannitol production by L. intermedius B-30560 with those of earlier workers Substrate Time a Yield b Microorganism (g/L) (h) (%) Reference Bacteria Lactobacillus Fructose (150) 15 72 This work intermedius Fructose (200) 40 69 This work B-30560 Fructose (250) 64 70 This work Fructose (300) 136 66 This work Fructose (300) 926 67 This work (fed-batch) Fructose (100) + 20 65 This work Glucose (50) Lactobacillus Fructose (100) + 24 65 Itoh et al.", ", 1991, sp.", "B001 Glucose (50) supra Lactobacillus Fructose (100) 120 73 Yun et al.", ", 1998, sp.", "Y-107 supra Lactobacillus Fructose (?) 120 60 g/L Korakli et al.", ", 2000, sanfranciscensis supra Leuconostoc Fructose (100) + 35 60 Soetart et al.", ", 1995, mesenteroides Glucose (50) 35 60 supra L. mesenteroides Fructose (08) — 30-40 Erten, 1998, Proc.", "Biochem 33: 735-739 Leuconostoc Fructose (50) 25 40 Yun et al.", ", 1998, sp.", "Y-002 supra Yeast Candida Fructose (150) 168 45 Song et al.", ", 2002 magnoliae Biotechnol.", "Lett.", "24: 9-12 Torulopsis Glucose (194) 240 28 Onishi et al.", ", 1968 versalitis Appl.", "Microbiol.", "16: 1847-1852 Torulopsis Glycerol (100) 168 31 Onishi et al.", ", 1970 mannitofaciens Biotechnol.", "Bioeng.", "12: 913-920 Fungi Aspergillus Glucose (32) 288 69 Smiley et al.", ", 1967 candidus Biotechnol.", "Bioeng.", "9: 365-374 Candida n-Paraffin (100) 100 52 Hattori et al.", ", 1974 zeylannoides Agri.", "Biol.", "Chem.", "38: 1203-1208 Penicillium Sucrose (150) 288 40 Hendriksen et al.", ", scabrosum 1988, J. Chem.", "Techno.", "Biotechnol.", "43: 223-228 a Time to reach maximum mannitol yield.", "b Mannitol yields were calculated on the basis of initial sugars employed." ]

[ "[0001] This application claims the benefit of Taiwan application Serial No. 092123073, filed Aug. 21, 2003, the subject matter of which is incorporated herein by reference.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1.", "Field of the Invention [0003] The invention relates in general to an image capturing apparatus, which can do one pass duplex image scanning, and its method, and more particularly to an image capturing apparatus and method, which can reduce the period of time in waiting for image data in buffer memories to be transmitted before the next document can be scanned and improve the scan efficiency.", "[0004] 2.", "Description of the Related Art [0005] Today's technology places emphasis on speed and efficiency.", "Hence, scanners are constantly innovated in order to increase the scan speed in addition to providing high-quality images by resolution improvement.", "For example, flatbed scanners in early years took a lot of time reading images, for documents can only be manually placed on the flatbed and be scanned sheet by sheet.", "After the automatic document feeding technique has been developed, the scanner equipped with the automatic document feeder (ADF) can continuously scan tens of sheets of documents and transmit the image data thereof to computers for further processing, thereby saving the time of placing and retrieving each of the documents manually.", "Some scanners with automatic document feeding function can even read documents by one pass duplex scanning.", "[0006] Referring to FIG. 1A , a lateral view of a flatbed image capturing apparatus, which is equipped with an ADF to perform one pass duplex scanning, is shown.", "The image capturing apparatus 100 includes a base 110 , and an ADF 120 disposed on the base 110 .", "The ADF 120 is provided for feeding to-be-scanned documents 122 , and each document 122 has a first page of data 122 a (the page facing upward) and a second page of data 122 b (the page facing downward).", "The base 110 includes a flatbed 112 , a first image sensor 114 , and a circuit board 116 , while the ADF 120 includes a second image sensor 124 .", "As the documents 122 are to be scanned, they are fed onto the flatbed 112 via the ADF 120 , in which the first page of data 122 a and the second page of data 122 b of each document are respectively read by the first image sensor 114 installed in the base 110 and the second image sensor 124 installed in the ADF 120 .", "The image data thereof are converted to electrical signals and stored in memories on the circuit board 116 , or further transmitted to an exterior host 130 .", "FIG. 1B shows a lateral view of a one-pass-duplex-scanning sheet-fed scanner.", "Its process of one pass duplex scanning is similar to that of the flatbed scanner having the ADF as shown in FIG. 1A .", "[0007] Referring to FIG. 1C , a block diagram illustrating the image reading of the image sensors, and the storage and transmission of the corresponding image data in FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B is shown.", "The circuit board 116 includes a memory module 117 and an image processor 118 .", "The memory module 117 includes a first memory (buffer memory) 117 a and a second memory (buffer memory) 117 b for respectively registering the image data I 112 a , corresponding to the first page of data 122 a and read by the first image sensor 114 , and the image data I 122 b , corresponding to the second page of data 122 b and read by the second sensor 124 .", "The image processor 118 is provided for processing the image data transmitted from the memory module 117 and transmitting them to the host 130 .", "[0008] Generally, the image data I 122 b can be transmitted to the memory module 117 only after the image data I 122 a , previously stored in the memory module 117 , has been transmitted to the image processor 118 .", "For scanners having a high resolution of, for instance, 600 dpi, the speed of the image sensors 114 and 124 reading documents 122 is usually higher than that of transmitting image data I 122 a and I 122 b from the memory module 117 to the image processor 118 .", "That is, the scan time (ts) is usually smaller than the data transmission time (td) as shown in FIG. 1D .", "Supposed that T 1 is the time of performing one pass duplex scanning of one sheet of document 122 , and T 1 a and T 1 b are respectively the time of transmitting the corresponding image data I 122 a and I 122 b from the memory module 117 to the image processor 118 , both T 1 a and T 1 b are larger than T 1 .", "Therefore, the image data I 122 a and I 122 b corresponding to a certain sheet of document 122 can only be registered in the memory module 117 after those corresponding to the prior sheet of document 122 are being completely transmitted.", "This period of delay time Tw is (T 1 a +T 1 b −T 1 ).", "The delay time Tw recurs and adds up as each sheet of document 122 is being scanned, so the more documents are being scanned, longer the period of the delay time will be in the scanning process.", "As a result, the scan speed and scan efficiency will be greatly reduced.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0009] It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an image capturing apparatus and a method for reducing the period of time that image sensors wait for the image data in the memory set to be transmitted before beginning to read the data of the next document and in result improving the scan speed by increasing the number of memory sets in the image capturing apparatus.", "[0010] The invention achieves the above-identified objects by providing an image capturing apparatus for scanning a number of documents.", "Each document has a first page of data and a second page of data.", "The image capturing apparatus includes a first image sensor and a second image sensor.", "The first image sensor is provided for reading the first page of data and outputting the first image data corresponding to the first page of data.", "The second image sensor is provided for reading the second page of data and outputting the second image data corresponding to the second page of data.", "The image capturing apparatus further includes a number of first memories and a number of second memories for correspondingly registering the first image data and the second image data of each document.", "[0011] The invention achieves the above-identified objects by providing a method for an image capturing apparatus to scan n documents.", "Each document has a first page of data and a second page of data, and the image capturing apparatus has q memory sets, wherein the values q and n are positive integers.", "The method includes the steps of: scanning the m-th document;", "respectively registering the corresponding first image data and second image data in the first memory and the second memory of one of the memory sets in the memory module;", "outputting the first image data and the second image data, wherein m≦n, and the value m is a positive integer and has an initial value of 1;", "increasing the value m by an increment of 1 when in the first memory and the second memory of at least one of the q memory sets are stored no image data or the first image data and the second image data are being completely output;", "and repeating the step of scanning the m-th document until the image capturing apparatus has completed capturing the image of all the n documents.", "[0012] The invention achieves the above-identified objects by further providing a method for an image capturing apparatus to scan n documents.", "Each document has a first page of data and a second page of data, and the image capturing apparatus has q memory sets.", "The method includes the steps of: setting a value m to 1;", "determining if the value m is smaller than q, wherein k=m if the value m is smaller than q, and k=(m mod q)+1 if the value m is not smaller than q;", "reading the first page of data and the second page of data of the m-th document with the first image sensor and the second image sensor;", "registering the first image data Ima and the second image data Imb, respectively corresponding to the first page of data and the second page of data of the m-th document, into the k-th memory set and outputting the first image data Ima and the second image data Imb;", "and determining if the value m is smaller than n, wherein if m is smaller than n, increasing m by 1 and returning to the step of determining if m is smaller than q. [0013] Other objects, features, and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred but non-limiting embodiments.", "The following description is made with reference to the accompanying drawings.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0014] FIG. 1A is a lateral view of a flatbed image capturing apparatus, which is equipped with an ADF to perform one pass duplex scanning;", "[0015] FIG. 1B is a lateral view of a one-pass-duplex-scanning sheet-fed scanner;", "[0016] FIG. 1C is a block diagram illustrating the image reading of the image sensors and the storage and transmission of the corresponding image data in FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B ;", "[0017] FIG. 1D is a schematic diagram of the comparison between the scan time (ts) and the data transmission time (td) in FIG. 1C ;", "[0018] FIG. 2A is a schematic view of the flatbed scanner equipped with an ADF according to a preferred embodiment of the invention;", "[0019] FIG. 2B is a schematic view of a one-pass-duplex-scanning sheet-fed scanner;", "[0020] FIG. 2C is a block diagram illustrating the image reading of the image sensors, and the storage and transmission of the corresponding image data in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B ;", "[0021] FIG. 3A is a flow chart of the image capturing method according to a preferred embodiment of the invention;", "and [0022] FIG. 3B is a schematic diagram of the comparison among the scan time (ts) in the image capturing process of FIG. 3A , the conventional scan time (tso), and the transmission time (td) of image data in the memory set.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0023] In order to reduce the period of time in waiting for image data in the memory to be completely transmitted to an image processor before the scanning process of a next document begins and to improve the scan speed, especially in one pass duplex scanning process, at least two memory modules, into which both pages of data of each document are registered, are provided, so that as the first memory module is transmitting the image data of one document, the next document can be scanned and the corresponding image data can be registered into the second memory module.", "The image data in the second memory module will be transmitted after that in the first memory module has been transmitted.", "Therefore, the overall scan time can be effectively reduced.", "[0024] Referring to FIG. 2A , a schematic view of the flatbed scanner equipped with an ADF according to a preferred embodiment of the invention is shown.", "The image capturing apparatus 200 is provided for scanning n to-be-scanned documents 222 , and each document 222 has a first page of data (the page facing upward) 222 a and a second page of data (the page facing downward) 222 b .", "The image capturing apparatus 200 includes a base 210 and an ADF 220 (such as a U-type ADF) disposed on the base 210 .", "The base 210 includes a flatbed 212 , a first image sensor 214 , and a circuit board 216 .", "The first image sensor 214 is provided for reading the first page of data 222 a of the documents 222 .", "In addition, the ADF 220 , used for feeding the documents 222 , has a second image sensor 224 for reading the second page of data 222 b of the documents 222 .", "[0025] As the image capturing apparatus is performing the one pass duplex scanning, one of the documents 222 is fed through the ADF 220 and then onto the flatbed 212 , where the first page of data 222 a and the second page of data 222 b are read simultaneously with the first image sensor 214 and the second image sensor 224 , and the corresponding image data are registered into the memory on the circuit board 216 or further transmitted to the host 230 .", "[0026] FIG. 2B shows a schematic view of a one-pass-duplex-scanning sheet-fed scanner according to the invention.", "The process of one pass duplex scanning is similar to that of the flatbed scanner having the ADF as described above.", "[0027] The first and the second image sensors 214 and 224 can be charge-coupled devices (CCDs) or contact image sensors (CISs).", "[0028] Referring to FIG. 2C , a block diagram illustrating the image reading of the image sensors, and the storage and transmission of the corresponding image data in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B is shown.", "The circuit board 216 includes a memory module 240 and an image processor 218 .", "The invention features at least one more memory set in the memory module 240 than that in the prior art.", "The memory module 240 includes q (q is a positive integer) memory sets 241 , and each memory set 241 includes a first memory 241 a and a second memory 241 b for respectively registering the first image data Ima (m is a positive integer not larger than n) corresponding to the first page of data 222 a and the second image data Imb correspond to the second page of data 222 b .", "The image processor 218 , controlled by the computer host 230 , processes the first and the second image data transmitted from the memory module 240 and transmits them to the computer host 230 .", "The first memory 241 a and the second memory 241 b each have sufficient memory spaces for respectively registering the first and the second image data Ima and Imb corresponding to the first and the second pages of data 222 a and 222 b of one document 222 .", "[0029] In the following description, the scanner, which has q memory sets and is capable of scanning n documents 222 , will be taken as an example to illustrate the image capturing method according to the invention.", "Referring to FIG. 3A , a flow chart of the image capturing method according to a preferred embodiment of the invention is shown.", "In the step 302 , a value m is given and set to 1, wherein m≦n and m is a positive integer.", "In the step 304 , whether m is smaller than q is determined.", "If m<q, k=m.", "If m≧q, k=(m mod q)+1.", "Subsequently, in the step 306 , the first page of data 222 a and the second page of data 222 b of the m-th document 222 are respectively read with the first image sensor 214 and the second image sensor 224 , where one pass duplex scanning is being performed.", "In the step 308 , the first image data Ima and the second image data Imb respectively corresponding to the first page of data 222 a and the second page of data 222 b of the m-th document are registered in the k-th memory set 241 and subsequently being output.", "[0030] The first and the second image data Ima and Imb registered in the k-th memory set 241 can be output at the same time as another memory set 241 is registering another image data.", "That is, at the same time as the (m+1)-th sheet of document 222 is scanned and the corresponding first and second image data I(m+1)a and I(m+1)b are registered into the (k+1)-th memory set, the first and the second image data Ima and Imb can be transmitted from the k-th memory set to the image processor 218 .", "[0031] Proceeding to the step 310 , whether m is smaller than n is determined.", "If m is smaller than n, m is set to (m+1), and the process is returned to the step 304 .", "If m is not smaller than n, the process is ended after the first and the second image data Ima and Imb registered in the q memory sets 241 has all been transmitted, which indicates that the process of scanning n documents 222 is completed.", "[0032] Referring to FIG. 3B , a schematic diagram of the comparison among the scan time (ts) in the image capturing process of FIG. 3A , the conventional scan time (tso), and the transmission time (td) of image data in the memory set 241 is shown.", "As described above, let Tm be the time of scanning two pages of data 222 a and 222 b of the m-th (m=1, .", ",n) document 222 and registering the corresponding image data Ima and Imb into the k-th (k=1, .", ",q) memory set 241 .", "Let Tma and Tmb be respectively the time that the image data Ima and Imb are transmitted from the k-th memory set 241 to the image processor 218 .", "Since at least two memory set 241 are disposed in the scanner of the invention, the 2-th, .", ", and the q-th documents 222 can be continuously scanned after the first sheet of document 222 , and the waiting time Tw (=T 1 a +T 1 b −T 1 ) before the scanner begins to scan the second document 222 in the prior art is unnecessary.", "Moreover, the waiting time Tw 2 of the (q+1)-th document 222 after the q-th document 222 is scanned is only (T 1 a +T 1 b −(T 1 +T 2 + .", "+Tq)), which is much shorter than the conventional delay time Tw (=T 1 a +T 1 b −T 1 ).", "Even the image sensor can continuously read all the documents at a time without wasting any waiting time.", "Since the waiting time is shortened (Tw 2 <Tw), a period of time Tr is saved from implementing the invention during the process of the scanning of the n-th document 222 and the complete transmission of the image data Ina and Inb to the image processor 218 : Tr=T(n−q+1)a+T(n−q+1)b+ .", "+Tna+Tnb−Tn, which is more than the conventional waiting time Tw (=T 1 a +T 1 b −T 1 ).", "As the value n or q is increased, the time Tr becomes lengthened, which could be useful for doing printing jobs or other trivial jobs, such as changing papers for printers.", "Therefore, the scan speed and the efficiency of the scanner can be effectively improved.", "[0033] In the embodiment of the invention, the memory module 240 , including q memory sets, is disposed on the circuit board 216 in the base 210 .", "However, the first memories 241 a and the second memories 241 b of the q memory sets can be respectively disposed in the base 210 and in the ADF 220 , which can also achieve the goal of reducing the waiting time.", "Moreover, the image capturing apparatus 200 can be a flatbed scanner equipped with a ADF.", "Or it can be a sheet-fed scanner, which has the automatic document feeding function and has the first and the second image sensors 214 and 224 as mentioned above respectively disposed in the base and in the upper cover for one pass duplex scan.", "Even the image capturing apparatus in the invention can also be a manual flatbed scanner.", "As long as at least one memory set is added in the memory module according to the invention, the aim to reduce the waiting time can be achieved.", "Therefore, all these alternatives will not depart from the skill scope of the invention.", "[0034] As the preferred embodiment illustrates above, the image capturing apparatus in the invention has the following advantages: using at least two memory sets to subsequently register image data corresponding to at least two to-be-scanned documents can reduce the conventional waiting time for the image data corresponding to the first document to be transmitted from the first memory set before the second sheet of document is scanned.", "For this reason, the time saved during the process of the scanning of all the documents and the complete transmission of their corresponding image data from the memory module to the image processor will be much more than the conventional waiting time, and the time saved can be used for doing printing jobs or changing papers for printers.", "Therefore, the scan speed and the efficiency of the scanner can be largely improved.", "[0035] While the invention has been described by way of example and in terms of a preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited thereto.", "On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements and procedures, and the scope of the appended claims therefore should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements and procedures." ]

[ "This is a division of application Ser.", "No. 043,466, filed May 29, 1979.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to transducers, and more particularly to electrical semiconductor transducers of the acoustic type.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to one aspect of the invention there is provided a pressure transducer, including a flexible diaphragm supported in a frame of the same material as the diaphragm, first and second lands extending from one surface of the diaphragm, and a plurality of semiconductor filaments stretched between and formed integral with the lands, the device being so constructed that changes in the configuration of the diaphragm cause corresponding changes in the tension of the filaments and hence changes in natural and/or resonant frequency of vibration.", "The principle on which the transducer functions is analogous to the variation with tension of the resonant frequency of a stretched string.", "The resonant frequency of such a transducer is a direct function of an applied force with temperature variation a second order effect.", "The electrical output of the transducer is in a form particularly suitable for signal processing by logic circuitry or by a microprocesser.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In the accompanying drawings which illustrate exemplary embodiments of the present invention: FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a semiconductor resonant filament transducer;", "FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the transducer of FIG. 1;", "FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the transducer taken through a resonant filament;", "and FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of an oscillator drive circuit for use with the transducer.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a transducer 11 is shown which is formed by selective etching of a silicon wafer doped with boron.", "In FIG. 2 parts that remain after the etching process are shown.", "The fabrication of selectively etched silicon devices depends upon the phenomenon of inhibition of certain etching steps by a concentration of dopant boron higher than 4×10 19 atoms/cc.", "There is an abrupt change in the etch rate from that normal for undoped silicon to substantially zero at this boron concentration level so that the thickness of an unetched region is defind precisely by the boron diffusion depth.", "The process is more fully described in U.K. Specification No. 1,211,496 (J.", "C. Greenwood 6).", "The wafer is doped through a mask with boron in those areas in which etching is not required, and the wafer is then etched with a mixture of catechol, ethylene diamine and water to form the transducer structure shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.", "The transducer 11 includes a pair of lands 12 (as opposed to grooves) protruding from a silicon diaphragm 13 supported in a rectangular silicon frame 10 and linked by a pair of filaments 14 when pressure is applied.", "In practice of course a plurality of such devices is disposed on a silicon wafer.", "As, contrary to conventional semiconductor fabrication techniques, both major surfaces of the semiconductor wafer are etched, means must be provided for handling a process wafer by its rim portions only.", "Thus the transducers formed on a wafer must be disposed towards the central region leaving the rim portion free.", "In the apparatus used for the etching process, the silicon wafer on which the devices are to be formed is mounted by its rim portion on a glass carrier and is then sealed via an O-ring against a shoulder at one end of a tube.", "A clamp ring or gland nut metal with a reverse thread on the tube secures the wafer in position.", "Etch solution can then be poured into the cup thus formed and act on one side only of the wafer.", "In some applications the glass carrier may be replaced by a vacuum chuck arrangement.", "In a typical transducer fabrication process, the silicon wafer is cleaned in hydrofluoric acid, caro's acid and water and is then treated to a boron diffusion from both sides.", "The front of the wafer is masked with an evaporated aluminum layer with the reverse face masked and etched in a phosphoric acid etch to define the face of the diaphragm.", "The aluminum coating has a photoresist on it, and is etched with a phosphoric and/or nitric acid mixture.", "The silicon is etched by plasma etching to a depth greater than has been rendered insoluble in a selective etch by the boron diffusion.", "This is done on both sides of the slice, which is then etched in a selective etch to define the first configuration of the device.", "The various etching techniques will be apparent to those skilled in the art, but the following rules should be observed: 1.", "The etch rate of catechol-diamine-water is substantially slower in the <111>", "crystallographic direction than in any other.", "To a first approximation the rate in the <111>", "direction can be regarded as zero.", "A concave face tends to be opened up to give a hollow bounded by the slowest etching <111>", "(octahedral) faces;", "thus a pinhole in a protective oxide coating on a <111>", "orientation slice gives rise to a square pyramidal etch pit.", "A convex face tends to give a solid bounded by the fastest etching faces which are the 24 <331>", "faces.", "An irregularity, such as might be caused by faulty masking, in a <111>face tends to be straightened out whereas the same sort of irregularity in a fast etching face does not.", "The cleanest <331>", "fast etching faces are obtained when one edge only is adjacent to another fast etching face, the other edges being adjacent to unsoluble material or <111>", "planes.", "Irregular shapes result from other alignments although not every combination of adjacent faces has been tried.", "On <100>", "slices a variety of corner shapes can be obtained by putting compensating spikes on the mask.", "The angle of the spikes does not appear to be critical although a 1 in 3 slope gives good results.", "The length of a spike is related to the etch time, which is determined by the thickness of the slice.", "Normally the etch time should be greater than is needed just to reach the other side, so that any irregularities are cleaned up.", "If the etch time is 20% greater than is needed to reach the other side, a nearly square corner is obtained by making the length of the spike 20% longer than the thickness of the slice.", "If no spike is used, the corner is chamfered.", "Intermediate sized spikes give intermediate results.", "If a part of the surface is to be undercut, care has to be taken that this process is not stopped by <111>", "faces.", "For example if a bridge is to be undercut on a <100>", "orientation slice, the bridge must be at an angle to the <111>", "faces and must be sufficiently narrow.", "In FIG. 3, which is a cross section of part of the transducer, we see one of the resonant strips at 20, which is spaced from the lower surface 21 of the device.", "On the lower surface 21 there are the devices driving electrode 22, its pick-up electrode 23, and a guard electrode 24 therebetween.", "In use the transducer, which functions as a pressure gauge, is mounted by its rim or frame against a source of pressure to be measured.", "The filaments are excited at their resonant vibrational frequency, e.g. by a circuit of the type shown in FIG. 4, this frequency being determined by the pressure difference across the diaphragm.", "Changes in pressure cause corresponding changes in the tension of the filament 14 and hence changes in their resonant frequency.", "Conveniently the transducer may be excited electrostatically, the circuit of FIG. 4 being intended for this purpose, as this provides substantially no damping of the filament.", "To reduce the capacitive coupling between input and output to a minimum, two resonant strips, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, are used, those being driven in antiphase.", "The preamplifier FET's are mounted on the transducer itself.", "The circuit of FIG. 4 shows amplifier stages which give an overall gain of about 100.", "The second of these stages is an AGC stage and the third is a phase splitter with unity gain.", "The fourth stage is an optional stage to get an increased amplitude output." ]

[ "FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention relates generally to pet collar, and more specifically, to a pet collar having a retractable and lockable leash integrated into the collar.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Pet owners are routinely confronted with the inconvenience of the standard pet collar, which requires a separate, detachable leash for maintaining control of their pet.", "At times, pet owners may only need to use a leash for short periods of time under certain circumstance, such as when crossing a street or in the park when confronted with an aggressive dog.", "These situations require quick access to the leash.", "Also, pet owners may desire to quickly and easily tie the leash to a pole while entering a store.", "With the standard collar and leash, pet owners must carry the leash separately and may be inconvenienced by the time it takes to attach and detach the leash to the collar.", "[0003] The time required to gather the leash and attach it to the collar is extremely problematic for pet owners confronted with increasingly stringent leash laws.", "The ability to quickly leash a pet can save pet owners the hassle and expense of fines for violation of leash laws.", "[0004] An integrated collar and leash has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,816,198 issued to Peterson and entitled Counterweighted Pet Leash Retracting Collar.", "Peterson discloses a pet collar with a reflective strip, a leash, a counterweight and a leash retractor.", "The counterweight is needed to counterbalance the weight of the leash retractor and to ensure that the leash handle always comes to rest on the back of the animal's neck where it is easy for the user to access the leash handle.", "The extra weight can be cumbersome to the animal.", "[0005] Another integrated collar and leash has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,581,547 issued to Austin, which eliminates the need for the counterweight.", "In Austin, the leash feeds through a portion of the collar into a casing that stores the majority of the leash when not in use.", "The casing holds a coiled spring that is coupled to one end of the leash and provides the retractability.", "The opposite end of the leash forms a handle and is removably attached to the outside of the collar to provide access.", "The handle requires use of a fastener to attach the leash to the collar when not in use.", "[0006] Neither Peterson nor Austin discloses the use of a locking mechanism for quickly securing the leash to an object such as a pole, signpost, or parking meter.", "Also, both disclose the use of a separate handle that is not integrated into the collar.", "In the case of Austin, the handle needs to be attached to the collar by a fastener to prevent the collar from hanging loose when not in use.", "As for Peterson, the handle is in the form of a cylindrical handle, which dangles from the collar when not in use.", "[0007] An example of a locking leash is disclosed in U.S. Pub.", "No. 2002/0035968 issued to Prusia et al.", "and entitled Locking Leash and Collar System.", "Prusia shows a leash with a pet-securing region and handle region.", "The leash attaches to the collar in the standard manner.", "[0008] The present invention provides an improved integrated collar-leash, as well as integrating a locking mechanism into the leash portion of the collar-leash.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0009] The present invention generally is an integrated pet leash comprising a pet restraint, handle, retractors fastened to the outer side of the collar, and flexible elongated members.", "The flexible elongated members are coupled between the ends of the handle and the retractors.", "The retractors exert a force on the flexible elongated members toward the restraint.", "Additionally, the handle may include a detachable fastener to lock the collar-leash to poles, fence posts, parking meters, and the like.", "[0010] The present invention has other objects and advantages which are set forth in the description of the Detailed Description of the Invention.", "The features and advantages described in the specification, however, are not all inclusive, and particularly, many additional features and advantages will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in view of the drawings and specification herein.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0011] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the integrated collar-leash with the leash portion retracted.", "[0012] FIG. 2 is a frontal view of the integrated collar-leash with the leash portion extended.", "[0013] FIG. 3 is a frontal view of the integrated collar-leash with the leash portion retracted.", "[0014] FIG. 4 depicts the integrated collar-leash in use on an animal with the leash portion extended.", "[0015] FIG. 5 is an exploded view of a retractor.", "[0016] FIG. 6 is an exploded view of the latch mechanism incorporated into the handle portion of the leash.", "[0017] FIGS. 7 a and 7 b are perspective views of the double strap embodiment of the hook and loop fasteners incorporated into the handle portion of the leash in open and closed mode, respectively.", "[0018] FIGS. 8 a and 8 b are perspective views of the triple strap embodiment of the hook and loop fasteners incorporated into the handle portion of the leash in open and closed mode, respectively.", "[0019] FIG. 9 is a perspective view of the harness embodiment of the integrated leash-collar.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION Overview [0020] The preferred embodiment of the integrated collar-leash is depicted in FIGS. 1-4 with leash in both the retracted and extended positions.", "Collar-leash 10 includes collar portion 12 , collar buckle 14 , leash portion 16 , handle portion 18 , buckle 20 which is part of and incorporated into handle portion 18 , retractors 22 a and 22 b (collectively, referred to as retractors 22 ), and retractor covers 24 .", "[0021] Collar-leash 10 is depicted in collar mode in FIG. 3 .", "As shown, leash portion 16 is retracted so that collar-leash 10 functions as a pet collar.", "In contrast, collar-leash 10 is depicted in leash mode in FIG. 2 .", "As shown, leash portion 16 is extended so that collar-leash 10 functions as both a leash and collar.", "Collar portion 12 functions as the restraint for the pet as shown in FIG. 4 .", "[0022] Retractors 22 are fixed to the exterior side of collar portion 12 at a distance apart approximately equal to the width of the average human hand (approximately 3-4 inches).", "Rivets 26 or any one of many known means for fastening objects to leather or nylon such as punch buttons are used the fasten retractors 22 to collar portion 12 .", "Optionally, retractor covers 24 are stitched over retractors 22 to provide additional fastening support and protect retractors 22 from potential impact when worn by a pet.", "Retractor covers 24 each have a riveted hole for allowing leash portion 16 to pass through.", "Retractors 22 having a sufficiently durable housing 30 and a strong connection by way of rivets 26 will obviate the need for retractor covers 24 .", "[0023] Retractors 22 are preferably spring-loaded retractors such as RT-03S steel metal wire retractable reels made by UMX.", "The structure of a spring-loaded retractor 22 is shown in FIG. 5 .", "Retractor 22 includes housing 30 comprising a top cap 32 and bottom cap 34 .", "Within housing 30 is spring loaded retraction mechanism 34 comprising spring coil 36 connected to the inside of dense plastic spool 38 .", "Thin, flexible steel cable 28 is wrapped around the outer side of spool 38 and locked to spool 38 by a knot pinched or wedged in spool 38 .", "Spring coil 36 maintains the steel cable 28 wound into a coil within housing 30 when counter force is being exerted on steel cable 28 .", "[0024] Leash portion 16 is formed by handle portion 18 (which is separable for locking purposes into two portions 17 a and 17 b , collectively referred to as separable handle portions 17 ) and two separate flexible cables 28 a and 28 b (collectively, referred to as flexible cables 28 ), which are made of a flexible, thin and strong material such as steel cable, nylon cord, or the like.", "Flexible cable 28 a is attached between retractor 22 a and end 19 a of handle portion 18 .", "Flexible cable 28 b is attached between retractor 22 b and end 19 b of handle portion 18 .", "This configuration causes the retractors 22 to apply a constant force on flexible cables 28 that pulls handle portion 18 toward collar portion 12 .", "[0025] Handle portion 18 , when retracted as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3 , is positioned between and held in place by the retractive force of retractors 22 .", "This prevents handle portion 18 from hanging loose from collar portion 12 so that handle portion 18 will not interfere with the pet's ability to run or walk, or get caught on objects such as bushes and trees.", "Collar buckle 14 is positioned opposite (180 degrees around collar portion 12 ) handle portion 18 .", "[0026] Additionally, as depicted in FIG. 6 , handle portion 18 is equipped with a detachable fastener such as latch 20 .", "When leash portion 16 is extended, latch 20 may be disengaged.", "Each extension of leash portion 16 can be placed around an object and latch 20 re-engaged in order to lock collar-leash 10 to an object, such as a pole, fence post or parking meter.", "[0027] Alternatively, as shown in FIGS. 7-8 a hook and loop fastener 120 , such as Velcro® made by Velcro USA Inc., may be used to form a handle with a detachable fastener.", "Hook and loop fastener 122 may be constructed of two rectangular strap portions, top portion 124 with loops on the inner side and bottom portion 126 with hooks on the inner side as shown in FIG. 7 a in open mode (i.e., unlocked) and FIG. 7 b in closed mode (i.e., locked).", "Alternatively, for a stronger locking mechanism, hook and loop fastener 122 may be constructed of three rectangular strap portions, top portion 128 with loops on the inner side, bottom portion 130 with loops on the inner side and middle portion 132 with hooks on both sides as shown in FIG. 8 a in open mode (i.e., unlocked) and FIG. 8 b in closed mode (i.e., locked).", "[0028] An alternate restraint embodiment is depicted in FIG. 9 .", "The retraction mechanism of collar-leash 10 is incorporated into a harness style restraint.", "As shown, harness-leash 100 includes a harness portion 102 , in lieu of collar portion 12 of the preferred embodiment.", "Harness portion 102 is formed by a front circular strap 104 and rear circular strap 106 , both of which wrap around the body of the pet and connect by buckles 105 , and top connector strap 108 and bottom connector strap 110 , both of which connect front circular strap 104 to rear circular strap 106 .", "Retractors 112 are fastened to rear circular 106 of harness portion 102 in the same manner and function in the same way as described with respect to the preferred embodiment.", "As shown, the handle portion 108 and cables 128 are arranged laterally along the pet and harness portion 102 , but alternatively may be arranged longitudinally along the pet and harness portion 102 by fastening retraction mechanisms to top connector strap 108 .", "[0029] From the above description, it will be apparent that the invention disclosed herein provides a novel and advantageous integrated pet restraint and leash.", "The foregoing discussion discloses and describes merely exemplary methods and embodiments of the present invention.", "One skilled in the art will readily recognize from such discussion that various changes, modifications and variations may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention relates to a vehicle ignition module.", "More particularly, it pertains to an ignition electronics module that is actuated by an entry FOB.", "[0002] A conventional entry FOB includes a power supply and transponder, energized by the power supply for emitting a designated signal at a signature radio frequency.", "An antenna is required to receive the signal.", "An electronics module responds to the signal by activating the vehicle ignition system provided the frequency of the transmitted signal is recognized as being associated with the ignition system.", "[0003] The antenna, preferably a coil antenna, should be located near the axial end of the module such that the FOB is located within the magnetic field of the antenna when it is inserted in the module.", "The antenna is connected to a transceiver, a transmitter-receiver that uses many of the same components for both transmission and reception.", "The transceiver is connected to a microprocessor, which enables the ignition system to operate, provided the FOB is recognized on the microprocessor module by its transmitted signal.", "The module immobilizes the ignition system in the absence of the signal.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0004] A vehicle ignition module according to the present invention is a keyless ignition module that includes a coil antenna and a rotation position switch integrated into an immoblizer electronics assembly.", "A spring-loaded latch positively retains the FOB, which activates the ignition system when inserted axially into the module.", "The FOB is retained in its rotated positions by engaging a recess on the FOB with a complementary protrusion on the module.", "[0005] The coil antenna is electrically connected directly to the immoblizer electronics PCB assembly;", "the position switch is electrically connected to a PCB, which is connected to the immoblizer electronics PCB assembly.", "[0006] Axial displacement of the FOB into the module causes an actuator to contact a detector switch, which produces a wake-up signal to the electronics microprocessor module.", "In response to the wake-up signal, the low frequency signal produced by the FOB is identified upon being received by the antenna coil and transmitted to the electronics microprocessor module.", "[0007] Rotation of the FOB in the module among various detent positions causes the actuator to rotate position sensor assembly, which transmits the rotated position of the FOB to the electronics microprocessor module.", "[0008] A vehicle ignition module that is activated by a signal transmitted from a vehicle entry FOB that is engageable with the module.", "The module includes a PCB for activating the vehicle ignition in response to the signal transmitted from the FOB and for immobilizing the vehicle ignition in the absence of the signal.", "An antenna assembly receives and communicates the signal to the PCB, a rotation position sensor switch is activated in response to rotation of the FOB while engaged with the module, the switch being electrically connected to the PCB, and an actuator mechanism transmits to the position switch the rotational displacement and axial displacement of the FOB.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0009] The above, as well as other advantages of the present invention, will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment when considered in the light of the accompanying drawings in which: [0010] FIG. 1 is an isometric view showing a wireless ignition module and entry FOB for use with the module;", "[0011] FIG. 2 is an isometric view of the ignition module showing the components in spaced-apart relation and located in position for assembly;", "[0012] FIG. 3 is a cross section taken at plane 3 - 3 of FIG. 1 ;", "[0013] FIGS. 4-8 are isometric views showing the order of assembly of the detent hub, detent hub cover, retaining ring, and detent hub assembly;", "[0014] FIG. 9 is an isometric view showing the components of the position assembly in spaced-apart relation and located in position for assembly to a PCB;", "[0015] FIG. 10 is isometric view showing the position assembly secured to the PCB;", "[0016] FIG. 11 is a cross section taken at diametric plane 10 - 10 of FIG. 10 ;", "[0017] FIG. 12 is an isometric end view showing the rotor cover and contactor assembly secured to the PCB;", "[0018] FIG. 13 is isometric side view of the assembled module with the housing removed and entry FOB installed;", "and [0019] FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram showing communications components including the transponder, antenna coil, and transceiver.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT [0020] A wireless ignition module 10 for an automotive vehicle includes a housing 12 , a solenoid 14 mounted on the upper surface of the housing, and an antenna coil assembly 16 secured by screws 17 to a lateral face of housing 10 .", "A entry FOB 18 , suited for use with the module, includes a stem 20 having protrusions 22 , 23 located in a vertical plane and extending outward from the upper and lower surfaces of the stem 20 , and a recess 24 located between the protrusions.", "As is customary, the entry FOB has a power supply and transponder, energized by the power supply when manual actuated by the operator for transmitting a signal at a signature radio frequency, which is received by an antenna located in the module and is used to operate the ignition system of the vehicle.", "[0021] FIG. 2 shows that the top of housing 12 is closed by a cam cover 26 , which is secured to the housing by screws, the cover having a opening that allows a cam follower 28 , actuated by the solenoid 14 , to pass through the cover and to enter the space surrounded by the housing.", "The housing 12 is formed with a cylindrical sleeve 30 , aligned with the central axis 19 of the antenna coil assembly 16 .", "A detent hub 32 includes a cylindrical extension 34 , whose outer surface is formed with a lobe and a recess adapted to engage a complementary inner surface formed on a camshaft 36 , so that the camshaft and detent hub are mutually secured to rotate together about axis 19 .", "The detent hub 32 is formed with radially directed, diametrically opposed holes 38 , hub being sized to fit within sleeve 30 of housing 12 .", "[0022] The cylindrical sleeve 30 is formed with a radial passageway, containing a latch 56 , which is urged by a spring 57 radially toward axis 19 .", "Latch 56 is forced radially outward by the protrusions 22 as the entry FOB 18 is inserted into module 10 until protrusions 22 pass the location of the latch, whereupon the latch engages the recess 24 on the lower surface of the entry FOB, preventing the FOB from falling from the module 10 .", "[0023] A retainer ring 40 , which abuts the axial end surface of detent hub 32 , and provides access to axial slots 44 formed on the outer surface of the detent hub 32 .", "A detent hub cover 46 includes axial arms 48 , 49 , angularly spaced about the axis 19 and sized to engage the axial slots 44 on the cylindrical outer surface of the detent hub 32 , so that the detent hub cover 46 , retaining ring 40 , and detent hub 32 are assembled in correct angular position about axis 19 and are mutually secured to rotate about axis 19 as a unit.", "The antenna coil assembly 16 includes several legs formed with screw holes for attachment to the axial surface 52 of housing 12 .", "[0024] The antenna coil assembly 16 is formed with an arm 52 located on the lower outer surface, sized to fit through a passageway 54 in the axial wall 52 of housing 12 .", "The arm 52 carries terminals 58 of the coil antenna at the axially end of arm.", "Terminal 58 provide an electrical connection to a microprocessor module located on a PCB located in the housing 12 .", "[0025] Referring now to the cross section shown in FIG. 3 , the detent hub 32 is formed with a blind radial holes 60 , 61 into each of which are fitted a compression spring 62 and a detent plunger 64 , which is urged by the spring radially outward through a hole 38 and into contact with the coil assembly 16 .", "[0026] The inner surface of the antenna coil assembly 16 is formed with two diametrically opposite sets of recesses, each set having an ENTRY/EXIT position recess 66 , ACCESSORY/STOP position recess 68 , and a RUN position recess 70 .", "FIG. 3 shows the detent plungers 64 engaged with the ENTRY/EXIT position recesses 66 .", "When the entry FOB 18 is inserted into the module 10 and rotated, the detent hub 32 rotates with the entry FOB 18 causing plungers 64 to move among the detent positions formed on the inner surface of the coil assembly 16 .", "When the entry FOB 18 is rotated clockwise to its angular extremity of travel, each plunger 64 contacts an inclined surface adjacent the respective recess 70 .", "When the entry FOB 18 is released, it rotates counterclockwise on the inclined surfaces into engagement with RUN recesses 70 .", "[0027] The order of assembly of components external to the housing is described with reference to FIGS. 4-9 .", "The detent hub 32 shown in FIG. 4 has been fitted with the detent plungers 64 and springs 62 , and is in position to receive the retaining ring 40 .", "An axial end of detent hub 32 is formed with a recess having the shape of the cross section of the entry FOB 18 stem.", "In FIG. 5 , the a retaining ring 40 is fitted over the axial end surface of the detent hub 32 , such that axial slots 44 on the hub 32 are flush with surface 68 formed on the retained ring 40 .", "Retaining ring 40 is formed with surfaces 70 , 71 , which are engagable by protrusions 22 , 23 , and recesses 24 on the entry FOB 18 when it is inserted and rotated in the module 10 , thereby retaining the FOB 18 in the module in its rotated position.", "[0028] FIG. 6 shows the detent hub cover 46 fitted over the retainer ring 40 and detent hub 32 such that the legs 48 , 49 of the cover are fitted into respective axially slots 44 on the detent hub.", "Due to the engagement of the legs 48 , 49 in the slots 44 , the hub 32 , ring 40 and cover 46 rotate as a unit when the FOB 18 is turned in the module 10 .", "[0029] FIG. 7 shows a entry retainer latch 56 urged by its spring 57 radially inward for engagement with the entry FOB recess 24 , thereby preventing the entry FOB from falling out of the module 10 .", "[0030] FIG. 8 shows the antenna coil assembly 16 fitted over detent hub 32 , retainer ring 40 , and detent hub cover 46 , the antenna contacts 58 located at the axial end of the lower arm 52 , and the legs 50 in position for attachment to the end face 52 of housing 12 .", "[0031] FIG. 9 illustrates a entry FOB position assembly, which is installed in housing 12 in a path on engaged components that transmits axial displacement and rotation of the entry FOB 18 from the detent hub 32 to a detector switch 82 , located in the housing.", "The position assembly includes a PCB 80 , to which is secured a detector switch 82 , a contractor assembly 84 , rotor cover 86 , camshaft 36 , a key-in actuator 88 , and a key-in spring 90 .", "The PCB 80 includes a header assembly 92 comprising electric contacts extending downward from the inner axial surface of the PCB for engagement with receptacles on a microprocessor module 120 .", "[0032] FIG. 10 shows the components of the position assembly installed in the housing and secured to the PCB 80 .", "The contactor assembly 84 includes a semi-circular electrical contact rotatably secured to an annular radial leg and facing detector switch 82 .", "The contactor assembly 84 has a central opening, through which the key-in actuator 84 passes before the PCB 80 .", "The rotor cover 86 is secured mechanically to the inner surface of the PCB 80 and surrounds the actuator assembly 84 .", "The key-in spring 90 , a compression spring, is seated in a pocket formed in the key-in actuator 88 .", "[0033] FIG. 11 shows the position assembly in its assembled condition ready to be installed in housing 12 .", "Key-in actuator 88 is formed with an axial extension 94 , which is in continual contact with the adjacent axial surface of cylinder 34 on the detent hub 32 due to the effect of the compression spring 90 .", "The camshaft 36 has a central opening, into which the key-in actuator 88 extends.", "The axial surface of the camshaft 36 that faces detent hub 32 is formed with an axially-directed lobe 95 and axially-directed recess 97 , by which the cylinder 34 of detent hub 32 , which is formed with a complementary axially-directed lobe and recess, is rotatably secured to the camshaft.", "Resilient latches 98 , in the form of axial fingers, secure the key-in actuator latches 98 to camshaft 36 when the actuator 88 is inserted within the camshaft.", "The ends of the fingers 98 latch onto the camshaft by extending through holes 100 , so that the camshaft 36 and actuator 88 rotate as a unit.", "However, the latches permit the actuator to move axially toward the switch 82 without transmitting that axial displacement to the camshaft 36 .", "[0034] These engagements permits axial displacement of the detent hub 32 to be transmitted to the key-in actuator 88 but not to the camshaft 36 , and rotation of the detent hub 32 to be transmitted to the camshaft but not to the key-in actuator 88 .", "Camshaft 36 is formed with an external cam surface 96 , which is continually contacted by the stem 28 of solenoid 14 .", "[0035] FIG. 12 shows the rotor cover 86 in position to be secured by screws through the attachment holes 102 , 103 , the cover providing a central opening 104 , through which a rotor 84 of the contactor assembly extends to the adjacent inner surface of housing 12 .", "The rotor 84 is free to float radially within rotor cover 86 so that it can be aligned with the key-in actuator 88 .", "The rotor 84 provides an axial slot 108 , into which the axial inner surface 110 of key-in actuator 88 extends and with which it engages.", "In this way, camshaft 36 , key-in actuator 88 , and the contractor rotor 84 rotate as a unit.", "[0036] As the FOB 18 is inserted into the assembly 10 , the key-in actuator 88 slides axially toward detector switch 82 with its inclined surface 89 in contact with the rotor 84 .", "This movement brings position sensor 112 into contact with the detector switch 82 , closing an electric circuit that is connected through header 92 to the microprocessor module 120 .", "As the FOB 18 is rotated in the assembly 10 , the position sensor 112 remains in contact with the detector switch 82 , and a signal representing the degree of rotation of the FOB is transmitted to the microprocessor module 120 .", "[0037] FIG. 13 shows the position of the position switch/lock assembly as it is installed in the housing 12 , but the housing removed to show the details.", "A microprocessor module 120 , located within housing 12 , is electrically connected by terminals of the header 92 and by the electrical terminals 58 on the end of the arm 52 of the coil assembly 16 .", "The stem 28 of solenoid 14 rests on the cam surface 96 of the camshaft 36 , and the cylinder 34 at the end of the detent hub 32 is shown in contact with the extension 94 on the end of the key-in actuator.", "As FIG. 2 shows, the bottom of housing 12 is closed by a lower cover 122 , and the top of the housing is closed by the cam cover 26 , on which solenoid 14 is supported.", "[0038] Referring to FIG. 14 , integrated in the FOB 18 is a transponder 130 for receiving a designated signal and emitting a radio signal of its own.", "The antenna coil assembly 16 includes an antenna coil 132 located near the axial end of the assembly 16 such that the FOB is located within the magnetic field of the antenna when it is inserted in the module 10 .", "The antenna terminals 58 are connected to a transceiver 134 , a radio transmitter-receiver that uses many of the same components for both transmission and reception.", "The transceiver 134 is connected to the microprocessor module 120 , which enables the ignition system to operate, provided the FOB is recognized on microprocessor module 120 as the signal transmitted by the appropriate FOB, or otherwise immobilizes the ignition system.", "[0039] In operation, the force required to insert the entry FOB 18 into switch/lock assembly 10 causes axial displacement of the detent hub 32 and radial displacement of the latch 56 of the entry retainer, which is mounted on the sleeve 30 of housing 12 .", "When the entry FOB 18 is fully inserted in the assembly 10 , the detent latch 56 engages the FOB recess 24 between the protrusions 22 , 23 , thereby preventing the FOB from falling from the lock assembly inadvertently.", "[0040] When the entry FOB 18 is fully inserted, axial displacement of the detent hub assembly 32 transmits its axial movement to the key-in actuator 88 , which engages the detector switch 82 .", "The detector switch 82 closes a circuit that acts as wake-up signal to the electronic microprocessor module 120 , which, in response, identifies the entry FOB 18 by a low-frequency transmission between the entry FOB 18 and the antenna coil assembly 16 .", "[0041] Entry FOB 18 rotates about axis 19 among the four angularly spaced positions described with reference to FIG. 3 .", "When the FOB 18 is rotated to and past the ACCESSORY/STOP position, the FOB is locked in place by its engagement with the surfaces 70 , 71 on the retaining ring 40 .", "Rotation of the entry FOB 18 is transmitted through detent hub 32 to camshaft 36 .", "Rotation is transmitted further from camshaft 36 to key-in actuator 88 , due to the engagement of latches 98 in the latch holes 100 on the camshaft.", "As key-in actuator 88 rotates, it transmits rotation to the position sensor assembly, which transmits the rotated position to the electronic microprocessor module 120 through the sensor 112 and detector switch 82 .", "[0042] When FOB 18 is rotated clockwise to the START position and the operator releases the FOB, the position switch/lock assembly rotates counter-clockwise to the RUN position, where detent plungers 64 are seated in respective recesses 70 .", "The force of detent springs 62 urges the detent plungers 64 away from the start position after the entry FOB 18 is released.", "The springs provide restoring forces to return the assembly to the RUN position as the plungers 64 slide on the inclined surfaces that extend between the RUN positions and the START positions on the detent hub 32 .", "[0043] Before removing the FOB 18 from the switch assembly, the user rotates the FOB clockwise from the RUN position to the ENTRY/EXIT position shown in FIG. 3 .", "If various conditions are met, such as the transmission selector being located in the PARK position, removal of the FOB 18 from the switch assembly is permitted upon actuating solenoid 18 , which then allows camshaft 30 to rotate to the ENTRY/EXIT position.", "Thereafter, the FOB 18 can be removed from the switch assembly.", "[0044] In accordance with the provisions of the patent statutes, the present invention has been described in what is considered to represent its preferred embodiment.", "However, it should be noted that the invention can be practiced otherwise than as specifically illustrated and described without departing from its spirit or scope." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention The invention relates to an electronic digital watch combined with a computer which has a common recording field for both the computer and the watch.", "Description of Prior Art A known digital watch with computer which is obtainable e.g., under the tradename of "Pulsar", has a keyboard for the computer;", "however, the keys are so miniaturized in size and lie so closely together that they can be operated only with the aid of a pin.", "The advantage of the compact construction of such a computer watch, which has been conceived especially as a wrist watch, is opposed by the disadvantages that for the operation of the computer, a separate auxiliary instrument (pin) is required for the operation of the computer, and that a considerable accuracy in hitting is assumed for the user.", "The actual purpose of a wrist watch equipped with a computer involves the availability of an easily, safely and reliably operable computer for as many operations as possible, and which is constructed such that keying mistakes can be always avoided.", "The known digital watch thus, because of the needed auxiliary implement and the inaccuracy in hitting, has fulfilled only conditionally the purposes for which it is intended.", "In order to decrease the size of electronic pocket computers, it has been known (e.g., see U.S. Pat. No. 3,940,758 to MARGOLIN;", "IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Vol. 10, No. 3, August 1967 article entitled "Wallet Terminal Keyboard with Acoustic Coupler"", "by M. F. Davis, Jr. and R. H. Koepf) to form the keyboard from modular sections which can be folded on top of one another, whereby each section for the keys has a large number of traditional, essentially square or round pressure keys which have a sufficient size for operating with a person fingers and which are equipped on the support surface for the finger with the designation of the function of the key.", "The combination of such a computer with a digital watch would be usable possibly for a computer with only a few keys, since in the case of a predetermined size of the watch and of many keys, too many keyboard sections would have to be placed one on top of the other.", "It is true, however, that the operational safety of the computer would be guaranteed.", "Furthermore, so-called diaphragm switches are also known which may be combined into key sets, especially for electronic computers.", "In the case of such a keyboard (e.g., see French Pat. No. 7,001,611 to BREVATOME) contacts have been disposed in the fields of a screen supported by a bottom.", "On the screen is a diaphragm which on its part again is covered up with an insulating screen.", "Each screen element thus forms a membrane switch, whereby the screen element has a sufficient size so that always the membrane of only one switch is forced (pressed) onto the contact with the finger.", "A miniaturization of such a diaphragm switch is conditional in turn on the use of an auxiliary device, e.g. a pin.", "In an article in ELECTRICAL DESIGN NEWS.", "Vol. 18, No. 8, April 1973, pp 25 and 26, entitled "Power-Supply Modification Turns Standard Calculator Chip into Unique Product", a keyboard is shown, each key of which is developed as a trigger and is disposed in the middle of a square field.", "The edging of the keyboard facilitates so to speak the aiming at the individual small triggers;", "however, the distance between them must be sufficiently large that two adjacent triggers are not operated simultaneously with one press of a finger.", "For a satisfactory safety of operation, the frames around the triggers must therefore always encompass a sufficiently large surface area that in turn only relatively few keys could be accommodated on a keyboard section which is sufficiently small for a watch.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to create an electronic digital watch combined with a computer which has a joint recording field for both the computer and the watch, and a keyboard for the computer which is subdivided in at least two sections that can be folded on top of one another, and which sections include keys structured in the form of triggers surrounded by edgings.", "A number of keys may be accommodated on each section of the keyboard of the computer, even though it be combined with a digital watch to form a unit no larger than a traditional wrist watch, and nevertheless the ease and safety of operation required for the computer is fully guaranteed without there being any need to use any kind of auxiliary implement for the operation of the keys.", "According to the invention, computer includes numerous keys which each contain a trigger, each key being composed of a trigger disposed eccentrically within a concave recess and so as to project upwardly of the bottom of the recess, whereby the edge of the recess forms the edging around the trigger and the designation of function is provided on the bottom of the recess.", "In the case of operation of a key constructed as noted, not the miniaturized trigger which can be almost invisible visible under certain circumstances, but the edging of the recess and the function sign located on the bottom of the recess is clearly observable, even in the case of weak illumination.", "Whenever a finger tip is placed so as to strike the selected recess, an inevitable alignment with the selected recess takes place as a result of the contacted edge of the recess, so that the finger will rest correctly on the selected recess in every case.", "Even in the case of only a slight pressure exerted by the finger, the finger tip will be deformed and the trigger lying in the recess will be operated.", "Adjacent recesses between keys need only be separated from one another by a relatively narrow bridge.", "Whenever the eccentrically disposed trigger lies in the adjacent recess close to the bridge, then the bridge will prevent this trigger from being operated along with the first one.", "The recesses may be selected small as compared to the size of a finger tip, without thereby impeding the safety of operation.", "Since the recesses on the keyboard section may be disposed lying closely side by side, a keyboard of a predetermined size which is equipped with keys according to the invention, in the case of a comparison with a corresponding keyboard which contains keys operable, e.g., by means of a pin, will have fewer keys to be sure, but it will be completely safe in operation, and in comparison to corresponding keyboard equipped with traditional, safe to operate, large surface keys, it will be just as safe to operate as the latter, but will be able to accommodate considerably more keys.", "In a particularly favorable embodiment of the invention, the recess has an oblong shape, e.g., the shape of a rectangle with rounded corners, and the trigger is disposed in the recess displaced toward one narrow side of the recess.", "The size of the recess is then essentially determined by the size of the designation of the function.", "In the case of each keyboard section, the triggers are all preferably correspondingly positioned in the same location in the individual recesses.", "Embodiments of the invention are shown in the attached drawing by way of example.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 shows in perspective presentation a digital watch combined with a computer, whereby the computer section is in an out-of-operation positioning, FIG. 2 shows the watch of FIG. 1 with the computer section in operational position, FIG. 3 shows a sectional view of a key arrangement in a first variation, FIG. 4 shows a sectional view of a key arrangement in a second variation of, and FIG. 5 shows a very simplified block diagram by way of example of the electrical components of the digital watch shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The digital watch with computer is generally shown as 10 in FIGS. 1 and 2, and includes a housing 11 to which the two ends 12 and 13 of a wrist band are connected.", "In the housing 11 is contained an electronic, crystal controlled "watch chip"", "14 as well as a "computer chip"", "15 (see FIG. 5), as well as possibly a current supply 16, such as a miniature built in lithium or mercury battery.", "The display field 18 with illuminating diodes (LED) or liquid crystal cells (LCD), operable with either the watch or the computer, is visible through a window 17.", "A keyboard designated as a whole by 19 serves for the triggering of the computer chip 15.", "This keyboard is divided into two sections 20, 21 each having, for example, 10 keys, whereby the section 20 forms the bottom of a recess 23 in the housing 11, while the section 21 is disposed in a wing part 24 connected to the housing 11 by means of a hinge 22.", "The wing part 24 is shaped to fit precisely in recess 23 when hinged over onto section 20 and thus, as shown in FIG. 1, fits in its folded up position practically without gaps into the recess 23 of the housing 11.", "The corresponding contacts 27, 28 disposed on abutting ends 25, 26 serve essentially for connecting the key contacts of the wing part 24 with the computer chip 15 accommodated in the housing 11.", "An additional abutting surface 29 molded onto the housing 11 adjoins the bottom section 20 which abutting surface with an abutting surface 30 present at the free edge of the wing part 24.", "The abutting surfaces 29, 30 are each also provided with a set of corresponding contacts 31, 32, which among other things may serve for the purose of connecting the recording field with the watch chip 14 and to connect a photoelectric converter element 33, e.g., a so-called "solar cell"", "inserted in the side of the wing part 24 facing away from the key section 21, with the source of current 16 in order to keep the latter charged.", "It is obviously also possible to articulate sections of the keyboard inserted into the wing parts laterally to the housing, so that the keyboard may be opened in a manner of a two-winged door.", "In the case of non-use of the computer 10, the two sections 20, 21 remain facing each other on top of one another, such the keys are both hidden and protected from contamination, and the entire unit 10 assumes the shape of, say a wrist watch.", "As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, each "key"", "comprises a trigger 34 of the size of about a small pin head which projects from the bottom 35 of an elongated, e.g., rectangular, but preferably square, recess or depression 36.", "Each recess or depression 36 is defined by a plate 42 and side walls 37.", "The free end 38 of the trigger 34 projects from the top surface 35 of plate 42 and is rounded in shape, as can be seen from FIGS. 3 and 4, while the top edges of the side walls 37 always have a comparatively sharp edge 39 adjacent each depression 36.", "Moreover, the triggers 34 are positioned off center from the middle of the pertinent depression 36.", "Each trigger 34 is designated in more detail by a number or by a function symbol 41, each symbol being applied or engraved on the top surfaces 35 of the plate 42 in a size sufficient for good readability.", "Beneath plate 42 is an insulating layer 45, and beneath layer 45 is a contact spring plate 46 which includes contact tongues 47 (one contact tongue for each trigger 34).", "As can be seen from FIG. 3, upon the depression of trigger 38 by a finger (dashed line 40), the tongue 47 will be punched downwardly to contact printed conductor 49 on printed circuit board 48.", "Afterwards, due to resiliency of the tongue 47, it will spring back to its original positioning.", "In FIG. 4, each depression 36 is defined by an insulating structure 50 (having a top surface 35) and side walls 37.", "The trigger 34 with rounded free end 38 and bottom portion 52 is formed as a part of the insulating structure 50.", "Beneath structure 50 in a contact spring plate 46 with oval snap contacts 53 positioned adjacent each bottom portion 52, and beneath plate 46 is a printed circuit board 48 with printed conductors 49 adjacent each snap contact 53.", "A crossbared cover plate 37'", "connects the various side walls 37.", "As shown in FIG. 2, the longer dimensions of the rectangular recesses 36 are aligned to be parallel with the wrist band in their longitudinal direction.", "Naturally, the alignment may also be transverse in relation to the wrist band." ]

[ "RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims the benefit of Provisional U.S. Patent Application 60/640,933, filed in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Dec. 30, 2004 and incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention The present invention relates to utilization of voice fonts for speech synthesis applications and, more particularly, to creation and availability of a network-based voice font platform for use by network subscribers.", "Introduction Compression of speech data is an important problem in various applications.", "For example, in wireless communication and voice over IP (VoIP), effective real-time transmission and delivery of voice data over a network may require efficient speech compression.", "In entertainment applications such as computer games, reducing the bandwidth for transmitting player-to-player voice correspondence may have a direct impact on the quality of the products and the experience of the end-users.", "One well-known family of speech compression coding schemes is phoneme-based speech compression.", "Phonemes are the basic sounds of a language that distinguish different words in that base language.", "To perform phoneme-based coding, phonemes in speech data are extracted so that the speech data can be transformed into a phoneme stream which is represented symbolically as a text string, in which each phoneme in the stream is coded using a distinct symbol.", "With a phoneme-based coding scheme, a phonetic dictionary may be used.", "A phonetic dictionary characterizes the sound of each phoneme in the base language.", "It may be speaker-dependent or speaker-independent, and can be created via training using recorded spoken words collected with respect to the underlying population (either a particular speaker or a predetermined population).", "For example, a phonetic dictionary may describe the phonetic properties of different phonemes in terms of expected rate, tonal pitch and volume.", "When based on American English, there are a set of 40 different phonemes, according to the International Phoneme Association (24 consonants and 16 vowels).", "What is known as a “voice font”", "may be the phoneme patterns for all 40 phonemes stored in the phoneme dictionary.", "However, for higher quality voice fonts, sub-phoneme units, such as, for example, bi-phones or even smaller units are typically stored as the voice font.", "Thus, there can be an essentially unlimited number of voice fonts that can be created, by modifying one or more of the phoneme or sub-phoneme patterns in a stored set.", "There may arise situations where an individual may desire to select a “voice font”", "other that his/her natural voice for a speech signal transmission.", "Some systems exist that store a limited number of different voice fonts in a memory associated with an individual's communication device (e.g., cell phone, computer, etc.).", "However, as the number of voice fonts increases, the ability to store and/or update a listing of voice fonts has become problematic.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Additional features and advantages of the 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 invention.", "The features and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.", "These and other features of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, or may be learned by the practice of the invention as set forth herein.", "In a first aspect of the invention, a method for utilizing a network repository having stored voice font data is provided.", "A request for a response, including the voice font data stored in the network repository;", "is received via a network.", "The voice font data stored in the network repository is accessed.", "The response, including the voice font data, is sent via the network.", "In a second aspect of the invention, a machine-readable medium having instructions recorded thereon for at least one processor is provided.", "The machine-readable medium includes instructions for receiving, via a network, a request for a response including voice font data stored in a network repository, instructions for accessing the voice font data stored in the network repository, and instructions for sending the response including the voice font data via the network.", "In a third aspect of the invention, a system is provided.", "The system includes at least one processor, a memory, storage arranged to store voice font data for voice synthesis, a network communication device arranged to communicate via a network, and a bus for connecting the at least one processor, the memory, the storage, and the network communication device.", "The at least one processor is arranged to receive a request, via a network, for the voice font data stored in the storage, access the voice font data stored in the storage, and send the response including the voice font data via the network.", "In a fourth aspect of the invention, an apparatus is provided.", "The apparatus includes means for receiving, via a network, a request for a response including voice font data stored in a network repository, means for accessing the voice font data stored in the network repository, and means for sending the response including the voice font data via the network.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In order to describe the manner in which the above-recited and other advantages and features of the invention can be obtained, a more particular description of the invention briefly described above will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof which are illustrated in the appended drawings.", "Understanding that these drawings depict only typical embodiments of the invention and are not therefore to be considered to be limiting of its scope, the invention will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings in which: FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary operating environment for implementations consistent with principles of the invention;", "FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of an exemplary processing device which may be used in implementations consistent with the principles of the invention;", "FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary meta-table which may be employed in a network repository consistent with the principles of the invention;", "FIG. 4 is a flowchart of an exemplary process which may be performed in implementations consistent with the principles of the invention;", "and FIG. 5 is a flowchart of another exemplary process which may be performed in implementations consistent with the principles of the invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Various embodiments of the invention are discussed in detail below.", "While specific implementations are discussed, it should be understood that this is done for illustration purposes only.", "A person skilled in the relevant art will recognize that other components and configurations may be used without parting from the spirit and scope of the invention.", "Exemplary System FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary system 100 in which embodiments of the invention may be implemented.", "System 100 may include a network 102 , one or more user devices 104 , one or more processing devices, such as, for example, server 105 , and a network repository 106 .", "Network repository 106 may include a meta-data table 108 , a voice font database 110 , and a subscriber database 112 .", "Network 102 may include one or more networks, such as, for example, an Internet Protocol (IP) network capable of carrying voice over IP (VoIP) packets or other types of networks capable of carrying synthesized voice messages as well as other data.", "Network 102 may also include a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 103 and may include a wireless telephone network (not shown).", "User device 104 may be a conventional telephone (connected to PSTN 103 ), a processor device such as, for example, a personal computer, a handheld computer, a cell phone with a processor, a conventional telephone, or other device capable of receiving voice font data, playing synthesized voice, based at least partly on the received voice font data, or receiving a signal corresponding to synthesized voice and reproducing the corresponding synthesized voice.", "Server 105 may be a processing device, such as, for example, a personal computer or other processing device capable of receiving voice font data and text and generating synthesized voice data based, at least in part on the voice font data and the text.", "Network repository 106 may include a processing device with meta-table 108 , which has information describing multiple features of one or more voice fonts stored in voice font database 110 .", "Voice font database 110 may be a database that includes storage for data with respect to multiple voice fonts and may also include information pertaining to a fee for use of a particular voice font as well as access restriction data pertaining to use of one or more voice fonts.", "Subscriber database 112 may include information pertaining to a subscriber, such as, for example, userID, password, default voice font, etc.", "Further, subscriber database 112 may include more than one default voice font for a user's use.", "For example, a user may have a default voice font for personal messages and a default voice font for business messages.", "Exemplary Processing Device FIG. 2 is a block diagram of exemplary processing device 200 , which may be used to implement user device 104 , server 105 , or network repository 106 in various implementations consistent with the principles of the invention.", "Processing device 200 may include a bus 210 , a processor 220 , a memory 230 , a read only memory (ROM) 240 , a storage device 250 , an input device 260 , an output device 270 , and a communication interface 280 .", "Bus 210 may permit communication among the components of processing device 200 .", "Processor 220 may include at least one conventional processor or microprocessor that interprets and executes instructions.", "Memory 230 may be a random access memory (RAM) or another type of dynamic storage device that stores information and instructions for execution by processor 220 .", "Memory 230 may also store temporary variables or other intermediate information used during execution of instructions by processor 220 .", "ROM 240 may include a conventional ROM device or another type of static storage device that stores static information and instructions for processor 220 .", "Storage device 250 may include any type of media, such as, for example, magnetic or optical recording media and its corresponding drive, as well as memory, such as, RAM.", "In some implementations consistent with the principles of the invention, storage device 250 may store and retrieve data according to a database management system.", "Input device 260 may include one or more conventional mechanisms that permit a user to input information to system 200 , such as a keyboard, a mouse, a pen, a voice recognition device, a microphone, a headset, etc.", "Output device 270 may include one or more conventional mechanisms that output information to the user, including a display, a printer, one or more speakers, a headset, or a medium, such as a memory, or a magnetic or optical disk and a corresponding disk drive.", "Communication interface 280 may include any transceiver-like mechanism that enables processing device 100 to communicate via a network.", "For example, communication interface 280 may include a modem, or an Ethernet interface for communicating via a local area network (LAN).", "Alternatively, communication interface 180 may include other mechanisms for communicating with other devices and/or systems via wired, wireless or optical connections.", "Processing device 200 may perform such functions in response to processor 220 executing sequences of instructions contained in a computer-readable medium, such as, for example, memory 230 , a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.", "Such instructions may be read into memory 230 from another computer-readable medium, such as storage device 250 , or from a separate device via communication interface 280 .", "When processing device 200 is used as user device 104 , processing device may be, for example, a personal computer (PC), a handheld computer, a cell phone, or any other type of processing device.", "When processing device 200 is used as server 105 or network repository 106 , processing device 200 may be a personal computer or other processing device.", "In alternative implementations, such as, for example, a distributed processing implementation, a group of processing devices 200 may communicate with one another via a network such that various processors may perform operations pertaining to different aspects of the particular implementation.", "Exemplary Meta-Table FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary meta-table 300 that may be included in network repository 106 in implementations consistent with the principles of the invention.", "Meta-table 300 may include features pertaining to voice fonts, such as, for example, gender, age, language, accent, tone, quality, restrictions, font name, and a pointer to the voice font data for the particular font in voice font database 110 .", "Exemplary meta-table 300 has four voice font entries, although an actual meta-table may have fewer or more entries and may have fewer or more features, as well as different features.", "With respect to each of the exemplary features of meta-table 300 , GENDER may have a value of “MALE”", "or “FEMALE”, AGE may have a value corresponding to a particular age (in years) or an age range, language may have a value indicating language spoken, accent may have a value indicating a particular accent, such as, for example, a regional accent or an accent pertaining to a particular country, TONE may have a value indicating an emotional tone, such as, for example, “HAPPY”, “ANGRY”, etc.", ", QUALITY may have a value indicating a quality of synthesized voice to be produced based on the particular voice font, such as, for example, “High”, “Medium”, or “Low”, or any other suitable set of values, RESTRICTIONS may have a value indicating whether certain user-restrictions are placed on who may use the particular voice font, or whether the voice font may be used only upon payment of a fee, NAME may be a name for the voice font and may be an alphanumeric value, and POINTER, may be a pointer to the particular voice font in voice font database 110 .", "Entry 302 of exemplary meta-table 300 describes a voice font for a synthesized voice of a male in his 20's who speaks English with a southern accent.", "The tone of the font is energetic and can be used to produce a high quality synthesized voice with no restrictions on use.", "The voice font name is DREW and pointer 1 points to the corresponding voice font data in voice font database 110 .", "Entry 304 describes a voice font for a synthesized voice of a female child of about 6 years of age who speaks English with a Midwestern accent and with a happy tone.", "The quality of the synthesized voice to be produced using the voice font is medium with no restrictions on use.", "The voice font has a name of LILY and pointer 2 points to the corresponding voice font data in voice font database 110 .", "Entry 306 describes a voice font for a synthesized voice of a female in her 30's who speaks English with a French accent and with a playful tone.", "The quality of the synthesized voice to be produced using the voice font is high and may be used by paying a fee.", "The voice font has a name of CELEB1 and pointer 3 points to the corresponding voice font data in voice font database 110 .", "Entry 308 describes a voice font for a synthesized voice of a male in his 40's who speaks Spanish with a Mexican accent and with an angry tone.", "The quality of the synthesized voice to be produced using the voice font is medium and use of the font is subject to user access restrictions.", "The voice font has a name of USER1 and pointer 4 points to the corresponding voice font data in voice font database 110 .", "Exemplary Processes FIG. 4 shows an exemplary flow chart of a process that may be employed in implementations consistent with the principles of the invention.", "The process may be implemented in user device 104 , or server 105 .", "Assuming that user device 104 is a processing device, the process may begin with user device 104 requesting a particular voice font based on a user selection, a previously-defined user-preference, or via another means (act 402 ).", "In one implementation, a user may browse information in meta-table 300 via, for example, a browser or other means, and may select a voice font from the meta-table via any one of a number of input means, such as, for example, making a selection from a display using a pointing device, such as a computer mouse, an electronic stylus, or a user's finger on a touch screen display.", "Other means of indicating a desired voice font may also be used, such as, for example, a microphone and a speech recognizer, whereby a user may provide a verbal indication of a desired voice font.", "User device 104 may then send a request for the desired voice font to network repository 106 via network 102 (act 404 ).", "User device 104 may then determine whether the requested voice font is received (act 404 ).", "If the voice font is not received (which may be determined by a timeout event or an error notification), user device 104 may provide a notification to a user that the desired voice font is currently not available (act 406 ).", "This may be achieved via a displayed message, an audio signal, or another suitable means.", "If the voice font is received by user device 104 , the voice font may be stored in memory 230 or storage device 250 (act 408 ).", "User device 104 may then receive a text message (act 410 ).", "The text message may be, for example, an e-mail message, an instant message, a text document, keyboard input, or other textual input.", "User device 104 may then generate synthesized voice data based on the text message and the received voice font (act 412 ).", "The received voice font data may be in any known voice font data format or may be in a voice font format not yet developed.", "User device 104 may play a synthesized voice corresponding to the voice font data via output device 270 (act 414 ), such as, for example, a speaker, or a headset and the user will hear a synthesized voice speaking the text message.", "A variation of the exemplary process of FIG. 4 may also be implemented in a processing device, such as server 105 .", "In this example, we assume that user device 104 is a conventional telephone.", "Acts 402 - 412 may be performed by server 105 essentially as discussed above, with respect to the previous example.", "Server 105 may then play the synthesized voice data (act 414 ) through a connection from server 105 , via network 102 (including PSTN 103 ) to user device 104 (a conventional telephone, in this example), where a user will hear the synthesized voice speaking the text message.", "The connection may be established by a user of user device 104 making a call to a message retrieval application or other application.", "In a variation of the above-mentioned second example, the exemplary process of FIG. 4 may be implemented in a processing device, such as server 105 .", "However, in this example, we assume that user device 104 is a stationary processing device or a portable processing device, such as, for example, a cell phone, a handheld computer with a speaker, earphone, or headset, or another portable processing device capable of outputting a voice.", "Acts 402 - 412 may be performed essentially as discussed above, with respect to the previous examples.", "Server 105 may then send the generated synthesized voice data to user device 104 (act 416 ), which may play the synthesized voice data so that a user may hear the corresponding synthesized voice speak the test message.", "Alternatively, server 105 may play the synthesized voice data (act 414 ) through a connection from server 105 , via network 102 to user device 104 via, for example, a wireless connection.", "The user will subsequently hear the synthesized voice speaking the text message via user device 104 .", "The connection may be established by a user of user device 104 making a wireless call to a message retrieval application or other application.", "FIG. 5 is a flowchart that illustrates an exemplary process that may be implemented in network repository 106 consistent with the principles of the invention.", "First, network repository 106 may receive a request for a particular voice font (act 502 ).", "Network repository may then access a table, such as, for example, meta-table 300 to determine whether there are any restrictions on the use of the requested voice font (act 504 ).", "If network repository 106 determines that there are no restrictions on the use of the requested voice font, then network repository 106 may access voice font database 110 to obtain the corresponding voice font data (act 506 ) and may then deliver the voice font data to the requesting device (act 508 ).", "In an alternative implementation, the requesting device may include delivery data with the voice font request such that network repository 106 may deliver the voice font to a device different from the requesting device.", "If network repository determines that the requested voice font is restricted (act 504 ), then network repository 106 may determine if the restriction concerns charging a fee for use of the voice font (act 510 ).", "If the restriction does concern charging a fee for use of the voice font, network repository 106 may access subscriber database 112 to determine whether the particular subscriber, who may have previously been identified by entering a userID/password combination or by another identification means, is authorized to access a pay-for-use voice font and may add the particular fee to the subscriber's account (act 512 ) before obtaining the particular voice font (act 506 ) and delivering the voice font (act 508 ).", "If network repository 106 determines that the requested voice font is restricted (act 504 ) and that use of the voice font does not include charging the subscriber a fee (act 510 ), then network repository 106 may determine whether the subscriber is permitted to use the requested voice font (act 514 ).", "This may be achieved by referring to voice font database 110 which may include access restriction data with respect to particular voice fonts.", "If network repository 106 determines that the subscriber is not permitted access to the voice font, then network repository 106 may provide a restriction notification to the requesting device (act 516 ).", "Fees Implementations consistent with the principles of the invention may permit a fee to be charged for use of certain ones of the voice font data.", "For example, a fee may be charged for voice font data that can be used to synthesize a celebrity voice.", "The fee a subscriber may be charged may be based on the number of times the particular voice font data is requested, the particular individual or celebrity whose voice is to be synthesized, and/or a quality associated with the synthesized voice to be produced using the voice font.", "Further, network repository 106 may provide some voice font data, such as, for example, pay-for-use voice font data, such that it can be used only a predetermined number of times, such as, for example, one time, or a specific number of times based on, for example, an amount of a fee to be paid by a subscriber.", "Miscellaneous In implementations consistent with the principles of the invention, network repository 106 may receive new voice font data from a device and may store the voice font data in voice font database 110 .", "The voice font data may be received via network 102 or may be received locally along with configuration data, such as, for example, access restrictions, pay-for-use data, and feature information, as well as other information, for a new meta-table entry.", "CONCLUSION Although the above description may contain specific details, they should not be construed as limiting the claims in any way.", "Other configurations of the described embodiments of the invention are part of the scope of this invention.", "For example, hardwired logic may be used in implementations instead of processors, or one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) may be used in implementations consistent with the principles of the invention.", "Further, implementations consistent with the principles of the invention may have more or fewer acts than as described, or may implement acts in a different order than as shown.", "For example, with respect to the exemplary process described in FIG. 4 , the voice font may be stored after receiving a text message, instead of before receiving the text message, or the text may be received at some other point in the process.", "Accordingly, the appended claims and their legal equivalents should only define the invention, rather than any specific examples given." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Telecommunication networks are carrying increasing amounts of digital multimedia content (e.g. video and/or audio data).", "Standards have been developed for transporting digital multimedia content across the networks.", "Part 1 (Systems) of the Moving Pictures Expert Group (MPEG-2) standard defines a Transport Stream (TS) for carrying multimedia content across somewhat unreliable mediums such as broadcast channels, internet protocol networks, etc.", "The transport stream consists of packets that carry video or audio data in their payload.", "The data may be compressed to maximize usage of the bandwidth available, although data compression of the payload is not a requirement of the Transport Stream standard.", "The digital multimedia content must be transported across the network in a reliable and timely manner to the end user.", "Streaming video services (e.g. Internet Protocol television (IPTV), video conferencing, video-on-demand, etc.) are especially sensitive to delay, jitter, or data loss, which can all negatively impact the quality of the end user's experience.", "Determining the performance of a network that carries digital multimedia content is an important element to the successful design and operation of such a network.", "Some network parameters that are commonly determined include latency, jitter, and packet loss.", "Another measure of a network's performance is known as the Media Delivery Index (MDI).", "The MDI has two components: the delay factor (DF) and the media loss rate (MLR).", "The MDI is expressed as two numbers separated by a colon: DF:MLR.", "The DF component of the MDI is the maximum difference, observed at the end of each network packet, between the arrival of media data and the drain of media data.", "To calculate DF, consider a virtual buffer VB used to buffer received packets of a stream.", "When a packet P i arrives during a measurement interval, compute two VB values, VB(i,pre) and VB(i,post) as follows: VB ⁡ ( i , pre ) = ∑ j = 1 i - 1 ⁢ S j - MR * T i ( 1 ) VB ⁡ ( i , post ) = VB ⁡ ( i , pre ) + S i ( 2 ) where S j is the media payload size of the j th packet, T i is the time, relative to the previous packet, at which packet i arrives in the interval, and MR is the nominal media rate in bytes per second.", "VB(i,pre) is the virtual buffer size just before the arrival of P i , and VB(i,post) is the virtual buffer size just after the arrival of P i .", "This calculation is subject to the initial condition of VB(0,post)=VB(0,pre)=0 at the beginning of each measurement interval.", "A measurement interval is defined from just after the time of arrival of the last packet during a nominal period (typically 1 second) to the time just after the arrival of the last packet of the next nominal period.", "The DF is calculated as follows: DF = max ⁡ ( VB ⁡ ( i , post ) ) - min ⁡ ( VB ⁡ ( i , pre ) ) MR ( 3 ) The MLR is simply defined as the number of lost or out-of-order packets per second.", "For more information regarding the MDI, DF, and MLR measurements, please refer to the following publications: “A Proposed Media Delivery Index (MDI)”, by J. Welch and J. Clark, published in April 2006 by the Internet Engineering Task Force as IETF RFC 4445 and available at the following URL: http://www.", "rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4445.", "txt;", "and “IPTV QoE: Understanding and Interpreting MDI Values”, a white paper published by Agilent Technologies on Aug. 30, 2006 and available at the following URL: http://cp.", "literature.", "agilent.com/litweb/pdf/5989-5088EN.", "pdf Prior art methods for measuring delay factor are unsatisfactory for several reasons.", "For one thing, the prior art methods are not very accurate.", "For example, the typical value used for the media rate MR in equations (1) and (3) is the advertised bit rate at which the data is to be consumed at its destination.", "However, the advertised bit rate is only an approximation because it only includes the video stream, not the audio stream or other meta data (e.g. program guide information that might be embedded in the TS packet stream) While it is possible to restrict the measurement of the DF to video packets only, thus addressing the rate approximation issue, this results in more complicated and inferior measurements for network performance.", "Furthermore, the actual bit rate will vary depending on the accuracy of the encoder for the data bitstream.", "The encoder will do its best to achieve the advertised bit rate, but in reality can only approximate it.", "Some prior solutions also required that the payload in the packets be filled with instrumentation data, which rendered the packets incapable of containing valid multimedia data.", "However, it is desirable to keep the multimedia data within the transport stream packet intact, so as to recreate actual network conditions as closely as possible.", "Therefore, there remains a need for improved performance testing of a network carrying multimedia traffic, in particular streaming video content.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A method and apparatus for testing and measuring the performance of a network for delivering multimedia is disclosed.", "A multimedia source is divided into data packets according to a packetizing standard.", "Each data packet includes a header and a payload containing a portion of the multimedia.", "N data packets (N>0) are grouped together into a packet bundle.", "Then, instrumentation is inserted into the header of at least one data packet within the packet bundle.", "The instrumentation includes information used in determining performance characteristics of the network.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a system for creating instrumented multimedia for testing the performance of a network, according to embodiments of the present invention.", "FIG. 2 shows an exemplary bundle of N Transport Stream packets, according to embodiments of the present invention.", "FIG. 3 shows a system for testing the performance of a network that transports digital multimedia.", "FIG. 4 shows an exemplary instrumented network packet.", "FIG. 5 shows a flowchart for a method according to embodiments of the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a system 10 for creating instrumented multimedia 18 for testing the performance of a network, according to embodiments of the present invention.", "In one embodiment, the system 10 includes an encoder 12 and an instrumentor 14 .", "A multimedia source 16 is provided as input to the system 10 .", "The multimedia source 16 can be any video or audio data.", "In one embodiment, the multimedia source 16 has also been compressed to maximize usage of available network bandwidth.", "For the sake of convenience, all examples and illustrations hereinafter shall assume that MPEG-2 is the compression standard being used.", "However, it should be noted that other forms of compression and encoding may also be used without departing from the teachings of the present invention.", "It should further be noted that compression of the multimedia source may be omitted entirely without departing from the teachings of the present invention, although more network bandwidth would be required to transport uncompressed data.", "In an actual reduction to practice, the multimedia source 16 is a short, e.g. 10 second duration, MPEG-2 or H[.", "].264 encoded video clip, packetized according to the MPEG-2 Transport Stream standard.", "The encoder 12 encodes the multimedia source 16 according to user-specified parameters such as resolution, bitrate, framing rate, etc.", "to make the multimedia source 16 compatible with the equipment of the end user.", "For example, users in the United States will need to test networks having NTSC receivers, whereas users in Europe will want to test networks having PAL receivers.", "The encoder 12 encodes the multimedia source 16 into the proper format for the desired type of receiver.", "The output of the encoder 12 is transport stream (TS) packets 20 , according to the MPEG-2 Transport Stream standard.", "Typically, each TS packet 20 has a fixed size of 188 bytes, although there are some variations.", "For example, some systems add additional bytes to the TS packet for error correction purposes.", "The TS packet 20 includes a header 22 and a payload 24 .", "The payload 24 consists of data from the multimedia source.", "Refer now to FIG. 2 .", "The instrumentor 14 bundles N TS packets together (TS packet bundle 21 ) in preparation for transmittal across a network, where N is any integer greater than 0.", "The instrumentor 14 also allocates space within one of the N TS packets to carry instrumentation.", "As used herein, “instrumentation”", "refers to data or information that will be used to test the performance of the network across which the TS packet bundle 21 is to be transported.", "The number of TS packets that can be bundled together depends on various factors, including the type of network across which the bundles are to be transported.", "In an actual reduction to practice, the instrumentor 14 groups seven TS packets together at a time in a bundle for transport in an Ethernet packet across an internet protocol (IP) network.", "This bundling of the TS packets increases the amount of actual data that can be carried in the aggregate payloads of a TS packet bundle 21 , since it decreases the amortized overhead taken up by the instrumentation.", "The more TS packets that are grouped together in a bundle, the greater the savings.", "In every group of N TS packets, the instrumentor 14 designates one TS packet (instrumented TS packet 23 ) in which to insert instrumentation.", "It is not important which TS packet is designated, so long as the selection of which TS packet to instrument can be determined by the receiver.", "In an actual reduction to practice, the seventh TS packet is instrumented, although any TS packet could be selected without departing from the teachings of the present invention.", "The instrumentation is carried within the header 22 of the instrumented TS packet 23 .", "The MPEG-2 TS standard defines a space within each header 22 of a TS packet that can be used for optional fields, including a transport private data field 26 .", "The instrumentor 14 allocates space within the transport private data field 26 of an instrumented TS packet 23 for carrying instrumentation.", "This added instrumentation will take up space within the instrumented TS packet 23 and displace existing data.", "Thus, the displaced data must be shifted or reallocated.", "Generally, this requires the creation of additional TS packets to accommodate the data displaced by the instrumentation, and by implication, an increase in the Transport Stream bit rate.", "There are four main types of instrumentation to be included in the transport private data field 26 .", "First, there is a stream identification (ID) 28 , which identifies each TS packet bundle 21 as belonging to a particular program or multimedia file.", "The value in this field should be the same for all TS packet bundles 21 within the multimedia file.", "This field can be filled in at the same time the instrumentor 14 allocates space for instrumentation, if the TS packets are to be sent in only a single channel.", "However, the instrumented multimedia 18 can be used to simulate several different channels.", "If this is the case, this field should remain blank and be filled in at the time of transmission with the stream ID of the channel to be simulated.", "In an actual reduction to practice, four bytes were allocated to this field.", "There is also a field for a sequence number 30 .", "The sequence number 30 indicates the numerical order in which the TS packet bundles 21 should be played back to recreate the original multimedia source 16 , and indicates whether there is or has been any packet loss.", "This field may be populated by the instrumentor 14 at the time the TS packet bundles 21 are formed, although the sequence number 30 may need to be adjusted at the time of transmission, for reasons to be explained further below.", "In an actual reduction to practice, four bytes were allocated to this field as well.", "Next, there is a field for a time stamp 32 .", "This field is populated with the time of transmission of the TS packet bundle 21 , and is useful in measuring both jitter and latency of a network under test.", "In an actual reduction to practice, four bytes were allocated to this field, to accommodate a timestamp with 10 nanoseconds (ns) of resolution.", "Finally, there is a field for the expected transmission interval 34 .", "The expected transmission interval 34 is the expected amount of time that will pass between transmission of the first bit of the current TS packet bundle 21 and the first bit of the next TS packet bundle.", "For example, to calculate the expected transmission interval 34 for a single program constant bit rate video clip, the instrumentor 14 divides the total length of time it takes to play the multimedia source 16 by the total number of packets that are needed to transmit the instrumented multimedia 18 .", "If the multimedia source 16 is a 10 second video clip, and there are 10,000 packets required to play the clip, then the expected transmission interval for each packet is 10 seconds/10,000 packets=1 millisecond/packet.", "This number is adjusted to account for the behavior of the transmitter (such as delays or inaccuracies introduced by the transmitter) and obtain a more accurate value for the expected transmission interval 34 .", "If the underlying multimedia source 16 is a variable bit rate, or if there are multiple programs contained therein, then this calculation must also be adjusted accordingly.", "This expected transmission interval 34 simplifies calculation of the delay factor, as will be explained below.", "In an actual reduction to practice, two bytes were allocated to this field.", "This field can be filled in at the time the TS packet bundles 21 are formed.", "Other items may be inserted into the Transport Private Data field 26 .", "For example, error correction bits may be used to verify the instrumentation data being sent.", "The amount of space allocated in the TS packet 20 for the instrumentation will depend on how much instrumentation is to be inserted.", "Given that each TS packet 20 typically has a fixed size, any space taken up by the instrumentation leaves less space available that can be devoted to the actual payload.", "In an actual reduction to practice, the instrumentation takes up 20 bytes of the Transport Private Data field 26 .", "The MPEG-2 Transport Stream requires that the amount of space actually allocated to the Transport Private Data field 26 also be announced in the header 22 as well.", "Since the TS packets are bundled together by the instrumentor 14 for transmission, the amount of overhead required for the instrumentation is minimal.", "As previously mentioned, each TS packet is 188 bytes long, with seven TS packets bundled together by the instrumentor.", "Each grouping of seven TS packets is 1316 bytes long.", "Thus, the instrumentation takes up only 20 out of 1316 bytes.", "This minimal amount of instrumentation takes very little away from the payload capacity of the TS packets 20 .", "Referring back to FIG. 1 , the output of the instrumentor 14 is instrumented multimedia 18 , consisting of TS packet bundles 22 , wherein one TS packet in each bundle has been designated to carry instrumentation within its header 20 .", "This instrumented multimedia 18 can be passed directly to a transmitter, or saved onto storage media (e.g. floppy disk, CD-ROM, DVD, hard drive, flash memory, etc.) for later use.", "The instrumented multimedia is syntactically correct and playable since it contains all the multimedia content from the original source, and is thus visually indistinguishable from the original uninstrumented clip.", "The encoder 12 and the instrumentor 14 can be implemented using any combination of hardware or software desired.", "In an actual reduction to practice, the encoder 12 and instrumentor 14 were implemented using software installed on a computer.", "FIG. 3 shows a system 40 for testing the performance of a network under test 41 that transports digital multimedia.", "The system includes a transmitter 42 and a receiver 43 .", "The input to the system 40 is the instrumented multimedia 18 from FIG. 1 .", "The transmitter 42 wraps each TS packet bundle 21 from the instrument multimedia 18 in the proper frame, resulting in an instrumented network packet 44 that is sent through the network under test 41 to the receiver 43 .", "An exemplary instrumented network packet 44 is shown in FIG. 4 .", "Each instrumented network packet 44 includes a network packet header 46 , a network packet footer 49 (e.g. a checksum or CRC error correction field), and N TS packets that were bundled together by the instrumentor 14 .", "Before transmitting each instrumented network packet 44 , the transmitter 42 inserts or adjusts any necessary instrumentation into the transport private data field 26 of the designated TS packet.", "The designated TS packet as illustrated in FIG. 4 is the Nth one in the bundle, although any TS packet can be designated to receive the instrumentation.", "The different kinds of instrumentation are entered into the private transport data field 26 of a designated TS packet as previously described.", "The transmitter 42 enters a stream ID 28 , which indicates that all of the packets originate from the same multimedia source.", "The stream ID is determined by the desired test configuration, e.g. how many channels are to be simulated and where the channels are to be sent.", "A counter 48 inserts a sequence number 30 for each instrumented network packet 44 that is transmitted.", "If the desired duration of testing the network is longer than the duration of the instrumented multimedia 18 , the transmitter 42 can loop the instrumented multimedia repeatedly to generate enough instrumented network packets 44 for the duration of the test.", "The transmitter 42 increments the sequence number 30 accordingly when the instrumented multimedia 18 is looped to simulate a single continuous multimedia clip of arbitrary length.", "The transmitter 42 also maintains proper syntax and clocking of the transmission so that the looping is performed seamlessly and is invisible to the receiver 43 .", "A clock 52 in the transmitter 42 applies a time stamp 32 at the time the instrumented network packet 44 is transmitted.", "In an actual reduction to practice, the time stamp 32 has 10 nanoseconds (ns) of resolution.", "The expected transmission interval 34 was previously filled by the instrumentor 14 .", "In one embodiment, the network under test 41 is an internet protocol (IP) network, and the instrumented network packets 44 are framed according to Ethernet protocol.", "Typically, seven MPEG-2 TS packets can be carried in a single Ethernet packet (although this number may vary, as there can be fewer than seven TS packets).", "After passing through the network under the test 41 , the instrumented network packets 44 are received at the receiver 43 .", "The receiver 43 includes a clock (not shown) that is synchronized to the clock 52 in the transmitter 42 .", "The receiver 43 extracts the instrumentation information from the instrumented network packet 44 .", "The embedded instrumentation information makes characterization of the network under test 41 much simpler and more accurate to do.", "To calculate the delay factor, the receiver 43 extracts the expected transmission interval 34 .", "The amount of time it will take to “drain”", "or consume the instrumented network packet 44 is equal to the time between transmission of successive network packets 44 .", "Therefore, the expected transmission interval 34 can be interpreted as the length of time until the next network packet will arrive.", "This could also be determined by subtracting successive transmission time stamps, but would either require more hardware to perform look ahead, or also be affected by transmission jitter and loss.", "If the virtual buffer VB used in calculating DF is defined in terms of the expected transmission interval 34 , there is no need to rely on an approximation of the media rate.", "The expected transmission interval now describes how much time it will be before the next packet is supposed to arrive.", "As a result, the virtual buffers can now be calculated as follows: VB new ⁡ ( i , pre ) = ∑ j = 1 i - 1 ⁢ ETI j - T i ( 4 ) VB new ⁡ ( i , post ) = VB new ⁡ ( i , pre ) + ETI i ( 5 ) where VB new is the virtual buffer defined in terms of the expected transmission interval rather than a media rate, TD j is the value extracted from the j th expected transmission interval 34 , and T i is the time, relative to the previous packet, at which packet i arrives in the measurement interval.", "This calculation also is subject to the initial condition of VB new (0,post)=VB new (0,pre)=0 at the beginning of each measurement interval.", "A measurement interval is defined from just after the time of arrival of the last packet during a nominal period (typically 1 second) to the time just after the arrival of the last packet of the next nominal period.", "The calculation for the delay factor for the interval ending in packet i now becomes: DF=max j=0 .", "i (VB new ( j ,post))−min j=0 .", "i (VB new ( j ,pre)) (6) To calculate packet loss, the receiver 43 compares the sequence numbers 30 in the network packets 44 received to determine whether any packets have been lost or whether any sequencing errors (e.g. out-of-sequence packets) have occurred.", "To calculate the network latency, the receiver 43 compares the time at which a network packet 44 was received with the timestamp 32 embedded into the network packet when it was transmitted.", "To calculate network jitter, the receiver 43 compares the variations in network latency calculated for each packet.", "A combination of hardware and software may be used to perform these computations.", "As described herein, instrumentation of the MPEG-2 transport stream packets permits the accurate measurement of the MDI (DF:MLR), network latency, jitter and packet loss on a network carrying actual multimedia traffic in a MPEG-2 Transport Stream.", "By allowing actual multimedia data to be included in the payloads, a more realistic test of the network can be carried out.", "Furthermore, any multimedia playback devices (e.g. a digital television or computer connected to the Internet) connected to the network under test 41 will look and operate normally because valid multimedia content is being carried in the payloads of the TS packets.", "Although the present invention has been described with respect to TS packets contained in Ethernet packets transmitted over an IP network, it is equally applicable to other types of multimedia transmission systems, e.g. satellite transmission, cable television, broadcast airwaves, etc.", "FIG. 5 shows a flowchart for a method of measuring the performance of a network that delivers multimedia, according to embodiments of the present invention.", "First in step 54 , a multimedia source is provided.", "The multimedia source is packetized into TS Packets according to the MPEG-2 Standard, Part 1 (Systems).", "Next in step 56 , the TS packets are grouped into packet bundles in preparation for transmission as Ethernet packets, Each packet bundle includes 7 TS packets.", "Then in step 58 , instrumentation is inserted into a designated TS packet within each packet bundle.", "The instrumentation includes information such as the expected transmission interval between successive Ethernet packets, a time stamp for the time of transmission, a sequence number for the Ethernet packet, and a stream ID.", "The packet bundle is framed as an Ethernet packet in preparation for transmission.", "The Ethernet packet is transmitted across the network in step 60 .", "Then in step 62 , the Ethernet packet is received and the instrumentation is extracted from the designated TS packet.", "Finally in step 64 , the instrumentation is used to determine a performance characteristic for the network, such as a delay factor, a media loss rate, jitter, packet loss, latency, etc.", "Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to particular embodiments, persons possessing ordinary skill in the art to which this invention pertains will appreciate that various modifications and enhancements may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the claims that follow." ]

[ "RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a continuation (and claims the benefit of priority under 35 USC 120) of U.S. application Ser.", "No. 13/033,159, filed Feb. 23, 2011, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser.", "No. 12/347,252, filed Dec. 31, 2008, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser.", "No. 10/191,646, filed Jul. 9, 2002 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,493,607).", "The disclosures of U.S. application Ser.", "No. 13/033,159, U.S. application Ser.", "No. 12/347,252 and of U.S. application Ser.", "No. 10/191,646 are considered part of (and are incorporated by reference in) the disclosure of this application.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] This invention relates to power and energy consumption in computer systems.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Power/energy consumption has increased significantly with every chip generation.", "With the reduced transistor sizes in modern processors, the per area power density is approaching that of a nuclear reactor.", "Consequently, power reduction has become a design goal, with power saving features widely recognized as representing the next phase in the advancement of microprocessors.", "Portability and reliability requirements of emerging applications further underline this trend.", "[0004] Major processor vendors realize that they must compete in terms of the power consumption of their chips as well as chip speed.", "Typical approaches to reduce power consumption (e.g., by reducing supply voltage and/or clock rate) negatively impact performance.", "Other approaches do not scale between design generations (e.g., as clock rates increase, due to changed critical paths, the value of many circuit or microarchitecture based energy reduction approaches is reduced).", "[0005] The challenge is to reduce the energy consumed in processors without sacrificing performance, and with solutions that scale between processor generations.", "With increased Internet usage and growing desire for wireless communications, the processor market is being driven to produce smaller and more powerful chips that do not drain significant amounts of power.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0006] The aforementioned problems are addressed by the present invention.", "The concepts introduced are broad and present chip-wide energy reduction optimization opportunities.", "The particular embodiments described provide application adaptive and scalable solutions to energy-reduction in memory systems.", "[0007] A wide-range of compiler and microarchitectural techniques are presented, that improve the energy efficiency of processors significantly, without affecting performance (in many cases performance can be improved).", "The scope of the invention includes, but is not limited to, both embedded as well as general-purpose processor designs.", "[0008] In the methods described, energy consumption is reduced by (1) extracting and exposing static information to control processor resources at runtime, (2) exploiting speculative static information in addition to predictable static information, and (3) adding compiler managed static and static-dynamic execution paths (i.e., architectural components), that can also be integrated into conventional mechanisms and that leverage this static information.", "[0009] Speculative compiler analysis, as an underlying compilation approach, reduces the complexity of otherwise highly sophisticated analysis techniques (e.g., flow-sensitive and context-sensitive alias analysis), and expands their scope to large and complex applications.", "[0010] The methods presented are based on a combined compiler-microarchitecture approach, and, more specifically, statically speculative compilation and execution, and provide a unified and scalable framework to reduce energy consumption adaptively, with minimal or no performance impact, or performance improvement for many important applications (e.g., image compression and video processing).", "[0011] The invention can be used to save energy on any type of device that includes a processor.", "For example, the invention can be used to save energy on personal computers, devices containing embedded controllers, and hand-held devices, such as PalmPilots and cellular telephones.", "[0012] In general, in one aspect, the invention is a method, for use with a compiler architecture framework, which includes performing a statically speculative compilation process to extract and use speculative static information, encoding the speculative static information in an instruction set architecture of a processor, and executing a compiled computer program using the speculative static information.", "Executing supports static speculation driven mechanisms and controls.", "This aspect may include one or more of the following features.", "[0013] Executing may include controlling at least some processor resources using the speculative static information encoded in the instruction set architecture.", "Executing may include operating processor-related mechanisms using the speculative static information encoded in the instruction set architecture.", "Executing may include static, static-dynamic, and dynamic execution paths.", "The speculative static information may include information about one or more of processor resource demands and information that contributes to determining processor resource demands.", "[0014] The instruction set architecture may include at least one of modified and additional instructions to propagate information through code and to store the information.", "The compilation process may expose speculative static information to run time layers, and the microarchitecture which performs the executing may provide a mechanism to recover in case of static misprediction.", "The compilation process may extract the speculative static information and performs compilation using the speculative static information to reduce power consumption in the processor.", "The speculative static information may include predictable static information and additional static information that is speculated based on the predictable static information.", "[0015] Executing may be performed by microarchitecture that contains an extension.", "The extension may support correctness of execution for performing the statically speculative compilation process.", "The extension is comprised of hardware and/or software.", "[0016] The compilation process may perform static speculation.", "The static speculation determines information about execution of the computer program.", "The static speculation may be controlled on an application-specific and adaptive basis and may be managed with compile-time flags.", "The compilation process may determine processor performance and energy tradeoffs during compile-time and may use the tradeoffs during execution.", "The compilation process may perform design objective customization without changing the microarchitecture.", "[0017] More information about processor resource usage is exposed with speculative static compilation than with predictable static information.", "The microarchitecture may perform the executing using the speculative static information and dynamic information during execution.", "[0018] This aspect may be used in a silicon-based electronics system, a nano-electronics based electronic system, or any other appropriate system.", "[0019] In general, in another aspect, the invention is directed to a processor framework that includes a compiler which compiles a computer program, the compiler extracting speculative static information about the computer program during compilation, and a tagless cache architecture that is accessed based on the extracted speculative static information.", "This aspect may include one or more of the following.", "[0020] The speculative static information may be used to register promote cache pointer information.", "The speculative static information may be used to select cache pointers at run time.", "The processor framework may also include at least one of a scratchpad-memory based cache mechanism and an associative cache.", "[0021] The compiler may select which of plural cache accesses are mapped to which cache mechanisms based on the speculative static information.", "Frequently used data with a low memory footprint may be mapped to the scratchpad-memory based cache mechanism.", "Associativity and block size in the tagless cache may be logical and programmable.", "The compiler may determine block sizes and associativity of a cache based on an analysis of the computer program.", "[0022] The processor framework may include a memory area for storing a cache pointer.", "The processor framework may include a Cache TLB (Translation Look-ahead Buffer) for capturing statically mispredicted cache pointers and other types of cache pointers.", "The Cache TLB may include eight entries.", "The processor framework may include a microarchitecture for use in accessing the tagless cache.", "The microarchitecture may access the tagless cache using at least one of static, static-dynamic, and dynamic cache access paths.", "[0023] Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs.", "Although methods and materials similar or equivalent to those described herein can be used in the practice or testing of the present invention, suitable methods and materials are described below.", "In addition, the materials, methods, and examples are illustrative only and not intended to be limiting.", "[0024] This brief summary has been provided so that the nature of the invention may be understood quickly.", "A more complete understanding of the invention can be obtained by reference to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment thereof in connection with the attached drawings.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0025] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a Tag-less (tagless) Cache architecture, which is an example implementation of the microarchitecture described in the first embodiment.", "[0026] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of cache organizations with address translation moved towards lower levels in the memory hierarchy, STLB is the translation buffer between L1 and L2 caches, and MTLB is the translation buffer added between L2 cache and main memory.", "[0027] FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a baseline memory system, where all accesses require address translation, multi-way cache access, and tag-checks.", "[0028] FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an example of implementation of the microarchitecture in the 2 nd embodiment.", "[0029] FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of an embodiment of the compilation process.", "[0030] FIG. 6 is a diagram for alternative pointer representations: (a) program-point representation, (b) through global information.", "[0031] FIG. 7 is a diagram representing CFG and PTG graphs derived for a simple C program.", "[0032] FIG. 8 is a diagram representing a simple loop-based example analyzed with traditional flow-sensitive AA (top) and the SAA method (bottom), that shows that SAA achieves higher precision by removing all weak point-to relations after each merging-step, where the weak point-to relations are shown with dotted arrows.", "[0033] FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the accuracy of static speculation for one set of parameters suing the industry standard CPU2000 and Mediabench benchmarks.", "[0034] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing chip-wide energy reduction due to reduction in memory consumption obtained with the microarchitecture in the second embodiment as compared to an Alpha 21264 processor.", "[0035] FIG. 11 is a list of programs evaluated with the embodiments described herein.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0036] The problem of energy reduction without performance impact is addressed by the present invention.", "Power and energy consumption are reduced by methods incorporated at compile-time and at runtime, in both hardware and software layers.", "The methods include compiler level, instruction set architecture (ISA), and micro-architectural components/techniques.", "[0037] A compiler is software (i.e., machine executable instructions stored in a memory system) that translates applications from high-level programming languages (e.g., C, C++, Java) into machine specific sequences of instructions.", "The ISA is a set of rules that defines the encoding of operations into machine specific instructions.", "A program is a collection of machine level instructions that are executed to perform the desired functionality.", "Micro-architectural (or architectural) components refer to hardware and/or software techniques that are used during execution of the program.", "The actual machine can be a microprocessor or any other device that is capable of executing instructions that conform to the encoding defined in the ISA.", "A memory area can be any area that can store bits, e.g., registers, cache, and some type Random Access Memory (RAM).", "[0038] Compile-time refers to the time during which the program is translated from a high level programming language into a machine specific stream of instructions, and it is not part of the execution or runtime.", "Runtime is the time it takes to execute the translated machine instructions on the machine.", "Machine energy in the targeted apparatus is only consumed during runtime.", "Compilation is typically done on a different host machine.", "[0039] Information in the context of this invention refers to either information collected during compilation or during execution.", "Information collected during compilation is called static or compile time information.", "Information collected during runtime is called runtime or dynamic information.", "Program analysis refers to the process during compile time that analyzes the program and extracts static information.", "Program transformation/optimization is the process during compile time that modifies the program typically to achieve some objective such as improve performance.", "[0040] Static information is defined to be predictable if it can be shown during compilation that the information is true for any possible input set applied to the program, or for any possible execution of the program on the machine in question.", "Static information is defined to be speculative if the information extracted during compile time is not shown or cannot be shown to be true for all possible execution instances.", "As such, the available (i.e., extractable) speculative static information is a superset of the available predictable static information in a program.", "[0041] An energy optimization is called dynamic if it uses dynamic information.", "It is called static if it uses static information.", "[0042] The methods described herein address opportunities that appear at the boundary between compile-time and runtime layers in computer systems, in addition to techniques that can be isolated to be part of either compile-time or runtime components.", "The methods combine architecture and compiler techniques into a compiler-enabled, tightly integrated, compiler-architecture based system design.", "The approach is called compiler-enabled if the execution of specific instructions is managed to some extent by static information.", "[0043] This has the benefit of that in addition to dynamic techniques, static and static-dynamic energy reduction optimizations can be enabled.", "Additionally, the information exposed to runtime layers can be made available much earlier in the processor execution (pipeline), enabling energy reduction without negatively impacting execution latencies.", "[0044] In general, there are two main ways the methods presented herein achieve energy reduction, without significantly affecting performance (for several applications studied performance has been improved): (1) redundancies in instruction executions are either eliminated or reduced, and (2) execution paths are simplified based on modified and/or new micro-architectural components.", "In both (1) and (2) the methods are leveraging various type of static information and/or dynamic information about resources used and/or resources (likely) needed, and/or information that can be used to estimate the resources likely to be used.", "[0045] The methods leverage static program information in smart ways, and expose static resource utilization information for a particular application, to runtime layers.", "The apparatus extracts and leverages this information in a speculative manner, in both compiler and architecture components, i.e., in the new methods a superset of the predictable program information can be used.", "[0046] The methods implement compiler analysis and micro-architectural techniques that enable the extraction and utilization of speculative static information without affecting correctness of execution.", "The methods also enable various degrees of static speculation (i.e., the extent to which information extracted is expected to be true during execution), to control the accuracy of static speculation.", "[0047] Static speculation can be controlled on an application specific/adaptive basis and managed with compile-time flags.", "This provides unique post-fabrication (compile-time) customization of design objectives, as the type of information extracted and leveraged can be used to control tradeoffs between various design objectives such as power, performance, and predictability, without requiring changes in the architecture.", "[0048] Additionally, the static speculation based approach is or can be combined with dynamic techniques, in a solution that leverages both statically predictable, statically speculative, and dynamic information.", "[0049] Rather than extracting only predictable information, that would require a conservative compilation approach, the new methods extract speculative static information.", "Such information, that is likely to be true for the typical execution instance, provides a larger scope for optimizations.", "The information is leveraged speculatively and supported with micro-architectural techniques to provide correctness of execution.", "[0050] In addition to enabling extraction of more program information, the methods also increase the flow of information between compile-time and runtime layers/optimizations, by exposing the speculative static information to runtime layers.", "[0051] The methods encode statically extracted information about predicted resource utilization into the Instruction Set Architecture (ISA), so that this information can be leveraged at runtime.", "This approach enables a more energy-efficient execution if used together with micro-architectural components.", "[0052] The methods can be used to reduce power and energy consumption in both embedded and general-purpose systems.", "Furthermore, the methods are applicable to a wide-range of computer systems, both state-of-the-art and emerging, which build on ISA interfaces between hardware and compilation layers.", "The methods are independent from device level technology, and can be used to reduce energy consumption in both silicon based (e.g., CMOS) and emerging nano electronics based (e.g., carbon nano tubes, nano wires, quantum dots) systems.", "Memory Systems [0053] The presented embodiment relates to the cache and memory system mechanisms.", "Nevertheless, other embodiments, on the same principles of statically speculative execution and compilation, can be constructed.", "Background on Memory Systems [0054] The cache is a fast memory hierarchy layer, typically smaller in size than the physical address space.", "It is one of the cornerstones of computer systems, used to hide the latency of main memory accessing.", "This is especially important, due to the increasing gap between execution speeds and memory latency.", "While execution speeds are known to double every 18 months (Moore's law), memory latencies are improving at a much lower rate.", "With the increasing cache sizes, necessary to hide memory latencies, the energy impact of cache accesses becomes even more significant in future generation designs.", "[0055] Every instruction is fetched from the memory hierarchy.", "Approximately 20-25% of the program instructions are data memory accesses that are fetched from a layer in the (data) memory hierarchy.", "Hence, memory accessing (instructions and data related) accounts for a large fraction of the total processor energy.", "[0056] As caches are typically smaller in size than the main physical memory, not all memory accesses may be cached (i.e., found in the cache) at a given time.", "Fast lookup and detection, of whether a memory access is cached or not, in caches, is provided through associative search mechanisms and matching of tag information associated with data blocks.", "[0057] Conventional caches consist of a tag memory and a data-array.", "The data array is where the actual information is stored.", "The tag memory is storing additional information related to blocks of data (also called cache blocks or cache lines) in the data-array.", "The tag information can be imagined as a label that identifies a block of data in the cache.", "Every memory access has this kind of label associated, as part of its address.", "The tag extracted from the address is compared with labels in the tag-memory, during a memory access, to identify and validate the location of a data block in the data-array.", "[0058] If there is a tag that matches the current memory tag, then the access results in a cache-hit and can be satisfied from the cache data-array.", "If there is no tag in the tag-memory that matches the current tag then the access is a cache-miss (at this level at least) and the memory access needs to be resolved from the next layer in the memory hierarchy.", "[0059] In associative caches multiple ways (i.e., alternative locations) are looked up in both tag memory and data-array.", "[0060] Different systems have different organizations for memory hierarchies.", "Some systems have only one layer of cache before the main memory system, others have multiple layers, each increasingly larger (and slower typically) but still much faster than the main memory.", "Additionally, a memory system can have additional roles as described next.", "[0061] The broader memory system may include additional mechanisms such as address translation, Translation Lookahead Buffer (TLB), virtualization, protection, and various layers and organizations of memory.", "Address translation is the mechanism of mapping logical addresses into physical addresses.", "Logical addresses are typically the addresses that appear on the address pins of the processor, while the physical addresses are those that are used on the actual memory chips.", "[0062] Virtualization is the mechanism that enables a program compiled to run on machines with different memory system organizations.", "Protection is a mechanism that guarantees that memory accesses are protected against writing into unauthorized memory areas.", "Approach in Memory Systems [0063] The main components in the methods to reduce energy consumption in the memory system are: (1) compiler techniques to extract/leverage static information about memory accessing and data-flow, (2) tag-less and way-predictive compiler-enabled cache architecture based on speculative memory accessing, (3) methodology to interface and integrate the new methods into conventional memory hierarchies and combine static and dynamic optimizations, and (4) ISA extensions to expose memory accessing information.", "[0064] The remaining structure of this description is as follows.", "Next, two embodiments are introduced.", "First, the architecture of the Tag-less compiler-enabled cache and related compiler technology are presented.", "Then, a memory system that combines statically managed memory accessing with conventional memory accessing, a tagged statically speculative cache, the ISA extension, and an embodiment of the compiler technology are described.", "EMBODIMENTS [0065] Two implementation examples are presented, for the purpose of illustrating possible applications of the statically speculative execution and compilation methods in memory systems.", "[0066] The first embodiment is a Tag-less cache that can be integrated with other performance and energy reduction mechanisms.", "This scheme is especially attractive in embedded processors due to its low-cost, high-performance, low-power consumption as well as adaptivity to different application domains.", "[0067] The second implementation is an embodiment in multi-level memory hierarchies.", "It shows how the method of statically speculative execution and compilation can be integrated in multi-level memory hierarchies.", "It provides the necessary compilation and architecture techniques for such integration.", "The methods are applicable, but not restricted to, both embedded and general-purpose domains.", "1 st Embodiment Tag-Less Cache Architecture [0068] This section describes an energy-efficient compiler-managed caching architecture, that has no tag memory and utilizes speculative static information.", "The architecture is shown in FIG. 1 .", "[0069] Its main components are: Hotlines Register File 3 , Cache TLB (Translation Lookahead Buffer) 6 , Hotlines Check 5 , SRAM Memory 18 , Scratchpad Memory 19 , and Software (SW) Handler 15 .", "The arrows represent signals or flow in execution that are required for explanation: Virtual Line 1 , Hotline Index 2 , Result of Cache TLB lookup 10 , Cache TLB Miss signal 12 , Hotline Register Hit/Miss result 5 , Hotline Miss 7 , Hotline Hit 8 , Address from cache TLB 9 , Cache TLB Hit 11 , Software Handler Cache Hit 13 , Address 16 , Enable to Scratchpad 17 , Software Handler Detected Cache Miss 14 , Data output from SRAM 20 , and Data output from scratchpad 21 .", "[0070] In this following explanation a design example where scalar accesses are mapped to the scratchpad 17 and the non-scalars to memory 18 is assumed.", "This however is not necessary;", "another application of this architecture is to map all the memory accesses to either the hotlines or the conventional paths.", "Other memory accessing techniques could also be combined with the ones described here.", "[0071] The scratchpad access mechanism consumes very low power due to its small size (a 1 Kbytes memory is used, but this can be a banked memory where the actual use is application specific controlled by the compiler).", "All accesses directed to the scratchpad 17 are then output on 15 , being enabled by signal 12 decoded from the memory instruction.", "[0072] The memory instructions that are using the hotline path carry a hotline index 2 that has been determined at compile time.", "This identifies the hotline register from register file 3 , predicted by the compiler to contain the address translation for the current memory access.", "Using this index 2 , the corresponding hotline register is read from the hotline register file 3 .", "A hotline register file is similar to a general purpose register file, but contains register promoted cache pointers instead of operands.", "In addition to the statically indexed mode, an associative lookup can also be implemented to speed up access during replacement.", "[0073] The hotline register contains the virtual cache line address to SRAM line address 16 mapping.", "If the memory reference has the same virtual line address as that contained in the hotline register during the Hotlines Check 5 (i.e., correctly predicted speculative static information), there is a Hotline hit 8 .", "Upon a correct static prediction, the SRAM can be accessed through the SRAM address 16 ;", "this address is from the hotline register that is combined with the offset part of the actual address, and the memory access is satisfied.", "The offset is the part of the address used to identify the word within a cache line.", "If there is a static misprediction (i.e., the memory access has been encoded at compile-time with an index that points at runtime to a hotline register that does not contain the right translation information) that causes a Hotline Miss 4 , the cache TLB 6 is checked for the translation information.", "[0074] If the cache TLB 6 hits or signal 11 is set, the hotline register file 3 is updated with the new translation, and the memory access is satisfied from the SRAM memory 18 .", "Data is output on 20 .", "A Cache TLB miss 12 invokes a compiler generated software handler 15 to perform the address translation.", "This handler checks the tag-directory (which itself can be stored in a non-mapped portion of the memory) to check if it is a cache miss 14 .", "[0075] On a miss 14 , a line is selected for replacement and the required line is brought into its place—pretty much what happens in a hardware cache, but handled by software here.", "The cache TLB 6 and the hotline register 3 are updated with the new translation, and the memory access is satisfied by accessing the SRAM memory 18 and outputting the data on 20 .", "[0076] Because the software handler 15 is accessed so seldom, its overhead has minimal effect on the overall performance.", "This cache can, in fact, even surpass a regular hardware cache in terms of performance.", "For one, the interference between memory accesses mapped to different paths has been eliminated resulting in better hit-rate, and better cache utilization.", "[0077] Secondly, a high associativity is basically emulated, without the disadvantage of the added access latency in regular associative caches, where higher associativity increases cache access times.", "Since the SRAM access mechanism is much less complicated than a regular tagged hardware cache, there is a possibility of reduction in cycle time.", "[0078] Additionally, both the hotline path (i.e., 2 , 3 , 5 , 7 ) and the scratchpad path (i.e., 17 , 19 , 21 ) will have a smaller hit latency than in a conventional cache.", "This latency (in conventional caches) would be even larger if runtime information is used to predict way accesses.", "Furthermore, an optimal line size can be chosen on a per application basis, as the line here is not fixed but it is based on a compiler determined (logical) mapping.", "Access Mechanisms [0079] This cache architecture combines four cache control techniques: (1) fully static through 19 , (2) statically speculative through 2 , 3 , (3) hardware supported dynamic 6 , and (4) software supported dynamic through the software handler 15 .", "FIG. 1 shows this partitioning with the dotted line.", "To the left the architectural mechanisms implement dynamic control, to the right, static control.", "[0080] The fully static cache management is based on disambiguation between accesses with small memory footprints such as the scalars and other memory accesses.", "Furthermore, frequently accessed memory references that have a small footprint can be mapped into the scratchpad area.", "This architecture can also be used without the scratchpad memory, by having all memory accesses mapped either through the statically speculative techniques or some other path.", "[0081] The second technique in this architecture is based on a compile time speculative approach to eliminate tag-lookup and multiple cache way access.", "In addition, some of the cache logic found in associative caches can also be eliminated.", "The idea is that if a large percentage of cache accesses can be predicted statically, it is possible to eliminate the tag-array and the cache logic found in associative caches, and thus reduce power consumption.", "[0082] The accesses that are directly mapped to the scratchpad memory require no additional runtime overhead.", "The statically speculative accesses however, if managed explicitly in the compiler, use virtual to SRAM address mappings or translations at runtime.", "This mapping is basically a translation of virtual cache line block addresses into SRAM cache lines, based on the line sizes assumed in the compiler.", "[0083] Note that the partitioning of the SRAM into lines is only logical, the SRAM is mainly accessed at the word level, except for during fills associated with cache misses.", "Inserting a sequence of compiler-generated instructions, at the expense of added software overhead, can do this translation.", "For many applications there is a lot of reuse of these address mappings.", "[0084] The compiler can speculatively register-promote the most recent translations into a small new register area—the hotline register file.", "With special memory instructions, or other type of encoding of this information, the runtime overhead of speculation checking can be completely eliminated.", "Nevertheless, in simple designs a software based check that can be implemented in four regular instructions is also possible.", "[0085] To avoid paying the penalty during a statically miss-predicted access, a small fully associative Cache TLB 6 is used to cache address mappings for memory accesses that are miss-predicted.", "A 16-entry Cache TLB 6 is enough to catch most of the address translations that are not predicted correctly statically.", "Different application domains may work fine with a smaller or require a slightly larger size for optimum energy savings.", "[0086] The fourth technique used in this architecture, is basically a fully reconfigurable software cache 15 .", "This technique is a backup solution, and it can implement a highly associative mapping.", "This implementation is for example based on a four-way associative cache.", "The mapping table between virtual cache lines 1 and physical SRAM lines 16 can be implemented similar to an inverted page table or other schemes.", "Experimental results show that the combined static and cache TLB techniques often capture/predict correctly more than 99% of the memory accesses.", "[0087] From a power perspective, this cache has substantial gains compared to a conventional hardware cache for two reasons.", "First, there are no tag-lookups on scalar accesses and correctly predicted non-scalar accesses.", "Second, the SRAM is used as a simple addressable memory—the complicated access mechanisms of a regular cache consume more power and increase the memory access latency (e.g., the hit-latency).", "2 nd Embodiment Statically Speculative Memory Accessing in Conventional Memory Systems [0088] In general there are two main steps involved in a memory access: (1) converting the program address to a cache address, and (2) accessing the data from this address, if present in cache (accessing the slower memory such as DRAM if not present).", "Depending on the implementation, there can be considerable power/performance redundancy associated with both of these steps.", "This redundancy problem is described in the next subsection, following with implementation embodiments to tackle this problem.", "The invention is not limited to these embodiments.", "[0089] FIG. 3 shows the memory access process.", "The translation function translates the larger program address 100 into a cache block address shown as part of 110 (the lower order block offset bits in 100 do not undergo any translation).", "[0090] Depending on the caching scheme, this translation can be very expensive, both energy-wise (for example, on a virtual memory system with a 4-way cache, the virtual address 100 will be converted to physical address by the TLB 105 , and all the 4 tag and data arrays 112 , 113 , 114 , 115 would be looked up in parallel), and performance-wise (if the cache is software managed, doing the translation in software will consume valuable CPU cycles).", "The translation information 109 in case of a TLB hit 108 is added with the offset to form address 110 that is used to access the cache.", "[0091] Where is the redundancy?", "Looking at a cache block level, two program addresses with the same virtual block address map to the same cache block.", "Therefore, the second translation is redundant.", "In general, if there is a group of memory accesses mapping to the same cache block, repeating the translation process on each access can be wasteful.", "Additionally, if the cache way for the access is known, looking up all the four ways (e.g., way 3 112 , way 2 113 , way 1 114 ) is not necessary.", "Furthermore, the tag lookup 111 is wasteful if the tag has been checked for an earlier access in the same cache block.", "[0092] The usual implementation maps all the accesses to the same cache.", "This scheme may also be extravagant: many applications often exhibit the behavior where a small set of references are accessed very often—these can be accommodated in a small partition of the cache which consumes much less power.", "Therefore, partitioning the cache and devising a wiser translation function, which maps different accesses to different cache partitions depending on their access pattern, can amount to sizable energy savings.", "[0093] The aforementioned redundancies are tackled using a cooperative compiler-architecture approach.", "Specifically, compiler analysis techniques that identify accesses likely to map to the same cache line are developed.", "These accesses can avoid repeated translation to save energy.", "The compiler in the proposed method speculatively register promotes the translations for such groups of accesses.", "[0094] These registers that contain address translation information are provided as a form of architectural support.", "At runtime, the architecture is responsible for verifying static speculations: if correctly predicted by the compiler, the expensive translation is eliminated.", "On mispredictions, the architecture can update the registers with new information.", "Further, the level of speculation in the compiler can be varied to better match application behavior.", "Henceforth, the solution proposed is referred to as the microarchitecture in 2 nd embodiment.", "[0095] Conventional general-purpose microprocessors use a one-size-fits-all access mechanism for all accesses.", "The subject architecture in the 2 nd embodiment derives its energy savings by providing different energy-efficient access paths that are compiler-matched to different types of accesses.", "Next an overview of the subject architecture in the 2 nd embodiment is presented and followed with detailed discussions on the features of this architecture.", "[0096] Two different organizations of the architecture in the 2 nd embodiment are shown.", "In both organizations a virtually-indexed and virtually-tagged first level cache is used and address translation is moved to lower levels in the memory hierarchy.", "Other type of cache organizations are also possible.", "As second level or L2 cache, both a physically-indexed and a virtually-indexed cache are shown.", "Some of the design challenges in virtual-virtual organizations (e.g., the synonym problem, integration in bus based multiprocessor systems, and context-switching with large virtual L2 caches) could be handled easier in virtual-physical designs.", "In both organizations, translation buffers are added.", "A translation buffer is a cache for page level address translations and is used to avoid the more expensive page table lookup in virtual memory systems.", "[0097] In the virtual-virtual (v-v) organization, a translation buffer (MTLB) is added after the L2 cache and is accessed for every L2 cache miss.", "This serves better the energy optimization objectives than a TLB-less design, where address translation is implemented in software.", "Nevertheless, if increased flexibility is desired, in the way paging is implemented in the operating system, the TLB-less design is a reasonable option (experimental results prove this point).", "In the virtual-physical organization (v-r), a translation buffer (STLB) is added after the L1 cache and is accessed for every L1 cache miss or every L2 cache access.", "[0098] An overview of the different cache organizations with address translation moved towards lower levels in the cache hierarchy is shown in FIG. 2 .", "As address translation consumes a significant fraction of the energy consumed in the memory system, both the v-v and v-r designs will save energy compared to a physical-physical (r-r) cache hierarchy, where virtual-to-physical address translation is done for every memory access.", "[0099] A context-switch between threads belonging to different tasks may require change in virtual address mappings.", "To avoid flushing the TLBs address-space identifiers to TLB entries are added.", "Note that not having the address-space identifiers not only would require flushing all the TLB entries, but would also imply that the newly scheduled thread, once it starts executing, will experience a number of TLB misses until its working set is mapped.", "[0100] FIG. 4 presents an overview of the subject architecture in the 2 nd embodiment memory system, with integrated static 200 and dynamic 201 access paths.", "The subject architecture in the 2nd embodiment extends associative cache lookup mechanism 215 , 216 , 217 , 218 , with simpler, direct addressing modes 213 , in a virtually tagged and indexed cache organization.", "This direct addressing mechanism 213 eliminates the associative tag-checks (i.e., no tag-lookup as shown in 215 , 216 , 217 , 218 is required) and data-array accesses (i.e., only one of the data-arrays from 215 , 216 , 217 , 218 is accessed).", "The compiler-managed speculative direct addressing mechanism uses the hotline registers 208 .", "Static mispredictions are directed to the CAM based Tag-Cache 210 , a structure storing cache line addresses for the most recently accessed cache lines.", "Tag-Cache hits also directly address the cache, and the conventional associative lookup mechanism is used only on Tag-Cache misses.", "Integration of protection-checks along all cache access paths ( 208 , 210 and conventional) enables moving address translation to lower levels in the memory hierarchy, as described earlier, or TLB-less operation.", "In case of TLB-less designs, an L2 cache miss requires virtual-to-physical address translation for accessing the main memory;", "a software virtual memory exception handler can do the needful.", "Support for Moving the TLB to Lower Levels in the Memory Hierarchy or TLB-Less Operation [0101] The subject architecture in the 2nd embodiment employs virtually addressed caches, and integrates support for protection checks, otherwise performed by the TLB, along all access mechanisms.", "That is, the subject architecture in the 2nd embodiment has embedded protection checks in the Hotline registers 208 , the Tag-Cache 210 , and cache tags (shown as part of 215 , 216 , 217 , 218 ).", "The subject architecture in the 2nd embodiment therefore could completely dispense with the TLB.", "[0102] L2 cache misses in the v-v organization require address translation for the main memory access.", "The subject architecture in the 2nd embodiment uses translation buffer to speed up this address translation, but a software VM exception handler for doing the translation on L2 cache misses and fetching the data from the main memory can also be used.", "[0103] The statically speculative, compiler managed memory accessing can also be integrated in other type of memory hierarchies.", "Hotline Registers [0104] The conventional associative lookup approach 4 parallel tag-checks and data-array accesses (in a 4-way cache).", "Depending on the matching tag, one of the 4 cache lines is selected and the rest discarded.", "Now for sequences of accesses mapping to the same cache line, the conventional mechanism is highly redundant: the same cache line and tag match on each access.", "The subject architecture in the 2nd embodiment reduces this redundancy by identifying at compile-time, accesses likely to lie in the same cache line, and mapping them speculatively through one of the hotline registers 208 .", "[0105] The condition that the hotline path evaluates can be done very efficiently without carry propagation.", "The hotline cache access can also be started in parallel with the check, with the consequence that in case of incorrect prediction some additional power is consumed in the data-array decoder.", "As a result, the primary source of latency for hotline based accesses, is due to the data array access and the delay through the sense amps.", "Note that conventional associative cache designs use an additional multiplexer stage to select between ways in a multi-way access (i.e., the correct block from the ways 215 , 216 , 217 , 218 ).", "Furthermore, as shown in previous cache designs, the critical path is typically the tag-path;", "the tag latency can be as much as 30% larger than the latency of the data-array path in the conventional design.", "[0106] Reduced feature sizes in next generation architectures will further accentuate the latency increase of the tag path.", "Because of this, in conventional cache designs, the way-selection logic is moved towards the tag to rebalance the delay differences between the tag and data-array paths.", "In the subject architecture in the 2nd embodiment the latency of the data-array could be the main target for optimizations, as the tag path is not on the critical path for most of the memory accesses, by adequate bitline and wordline partitioning.", "Additionally, as physical cache designs would require the TLB access completed to perform the tag comparison (the tag access could be however done in parallel), this may also add to the tag path latency.", "As such, the subject architecture in the 2nd embodiment based microprocessor could either have a faster clock or at least a faster cache access for statically predicted cache accesses.", "[0107] The different hotline compiler techniques are described in the next section.", "A simple run-time comparison 211 reveals if the static prediction is correct.", "The cache is directly accessed on correct predictions 213 , and the hotline register 208 updated with the new information on mispredictions.", "A fully associative lookup on the hotline registers to support invalidations is included.", "[0108] As shown in FIG. 6 , a hotline register 208 has 3 components: (1) protection bits (ASID), which are used to enforce address space protection, (2) TagIndex—two accesses are to the same cache line if their Tag and Index components are the same.", "The TagIndex component is compared with Tag and Index of the actual access to check if the hotline register can indeed be used to directly address the cache, (3) cache-way information—this information enables direct access to one of the ways in the set-associative cache.", "Tag-Cache [0109] Another energy-efficient cache access path in the subject architecture in the 2nd embodiment is the Tag-Cache 210 .", "It is used both for static mispredictions (hotline misses 212 ) and accesses not mapped through the hotline registers, i.e., dynamic accesses 201 .", "Hence it serves the dual-role of complementing the compiler-mapped static accesses by storing cache-line addresses recently replaced from the hotline registers, and also saving cache energy for dynamic accesses;", "the cache is directly accessed on Tag-Cache hits 211 , 213 .", "[0110] A miss in the Tag-Cache 210 implies that associative lookup mechanism is used with an additional cycle performance overhead.", "The Tag-Cache is also updated with the new information on misses, in for example LRU fashion.", "As seen in FIG. 4 , each Tag-Cache 210 entry is exactly the same as a hotline register 208 , and performs the same functions, but dynamically.", "Associative Lookup [0111] The subject architecture in the 2nd embodiment uses an associative cache lookup that is different from the conventional lookup in that the protection information (ASID) is also tagged to each cache line.", "Even the virtually addressed L2 cache is tagged with protection information in the v-v design to enable TLB-less L2 access.", "This increases the area occupied by the tag-arrays, and also its power consumption.", "Compared to the overall cache area and energy consumption, this increase is however negligible.", "Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) Support [0112] To access the memory through the hotline registers, memory operations 200 that encode the hotline register index should be provided.", "This index is filled in during compile time based on the techniques described in the compiler section.", "The implementation should perform a simple check 211 between the content of the hotline register identified and the actual virtual block address, as shown in FIG. 4 .", "Special instructions, rather than modifications to existing can also be provided for example.", "Alternatively, techniques requiring no ISA modifications could also be used, as shown in the section.", "The invention is not limited to type of encodings described herein.", "Approach Not Requiring ISA Support [0113] Static information about the hotline registers 208 accessed could be provided by generating code that writes this into predetermined memory locations, e.g., into a stream-buffer.", "This buffer can be used to add the index at runtime to memory accesses in the critical path.", "For example, memory accesses that are identified in critical loops could use the index information from this buffer during the Instruction Decode stage to access the hotline registers.", "The invention is not limited to type of encodings described herein.", "An Embodiment of the Compilation Process [0114] FIG. 5 shows a high-level picture of the stages involved in an embodiment for compilation.", "The implementation is using the SUIF format.", "The invention is not limited to this format or to the compilation embodiment presented.", "[0115] The program sources are first converted to the intermediate format 301 and high-level optimizations are performed 306 .", "Following that is the Alias Analysis stage, or equivalent, and the Hotlines passes 302 .", "Alias information enables the Hotline Analysis to more economically assign hotlines to references (i.e., map cache pointers to registers).", "Without alias analysis, the compiler would liberally assign each memory reference a new hotline number.", "This will have a downgrading effect only if the number of references within inner loop bodies is more than the number of hotlines, resulting in the same hotlines being assigned to possibly spatially far apart references.", "This would cause interference and result in lower prediction rates.", "For many applications, the media benchmarks tested in particular though, this is not so and the alias analysis stage could be omitted with minimal effect on the prediction rates.", "Code is generated based on the information extracted in 303 .", "Optimizations are performed on the high-level representation 305 (e.g., based on expression trees) and low-level representation 306 (e.g., flat instruction sequences).", "Finally the generated code is run through an assembler 304 and results in a binary.", "[0116] The Section “Hotlines With Speculative Alias analysis shows a speculative data-flow analysis technique that further improves on the precision the range of location sets is determined and extends its scope to large and complex applications. Additional passes include code generation 303 that takes into consideration the results of the analysis above, and then assembling the code 305 into a binary format. [0117] Caches represent a large fraction of processor power consumption. Given accesses, a speculative analysis to predict which cache line is being accessed is used. Although it is impossible do this with perfect accuracy, the methods described herein provide an approach with good overall accuracy. Moreover, as pointed out above, it is not necessary for predictions to be perfect, rather, they should be right sufficiently often that one can make beneficial use of them. [0118] Almost all programs exhibit the behavior where certain cache lines are “hot”, i.e., they are being used much more frequently than others.", "If the compiler can register promote the cache pointers for these hot cache lines, the lookup for the many accesses mapping to these cache lines can be avoided, i.e., the compiler can identify at cache lines that are heavily used, and for all accesses going to these, map them through an energy-efficient memory access mechanism.", "Basic Hotlines Analysis [0119] This process assigns each variable name a different hotline register starting with the first register.", "When all the registers have been used up, it wraps around back to the first register.", "The following example illustrates this process: [0000] for(i = 0;", "i <", "100;", "i++) { a[i]{1} = a[i+1]{1};", "// numbers in curly braces b[i]{2} = 0;", "// are the hotline registers *(p++){3} = 1;", "// assigned by the process } [0120] The variables have been assigned three hotline registers.", "[0121] For example, the hotlines process predicts that all the a[ ] accesses for example, will map to the same cache line and register promotes the cache pointer in register 1 .", "[0122] In particular, if the a[ ] is a word-sized array and the cache line is 8 words wide, a[0] and a[7] could map to one cache line, a[8] through a[15] to another, and so on.", "[0123] Therefore, for this case, the process has seven correct predictions for every misprediction.", "[0124] In general, this simple process works well with programs with high spatial locality, like multimedia programs.", "Below, enhancements to the basic approach are described.", "[0000] Hotlines Combined with Alias Analysis [0125] An accurate flow and context sensitive alias analysis can reveal the location set that any pointer can be pointing to at any given context in the program.", "Consider the following example: [0000] int a[100], b[100];", "if (....", ") p = a;", "else p = b;", "for(i = 0;", "i <", "100;", "i++) { a[i] = 0;", "*(p++) = 1;", "// location_set(p) = {a, b} } [0126] The if-statement assigns either the array a or b to the pointer p. This means that inside the loop, p could be accessing either array a or b. [0127] A context- and flow-sensitive compiler would extract this information: the location sets of pointers at various points in the program.", "As mentioned earlier, this can help in a more efficient hotline process: perform alias analysis and then during the hotlines phase, utilize alias information to better handle pointer-based accesses.", "[0128] Perfect alias analysis is not typically possible for large and complex applications, especially those using precompiled libraries.", "Instead, a speculative alias analysis is developed as part of the solution proposed.", "This is described in Section “Hotlines with Speculative Alias Analysis.”", "[0000] Enhancement with Type, Distance and Dependence Analysis [0129] This process hotlines all accesses like the basic hotline process, but is more refined.", "If an array a[ ] has been mapped through register r 1 , it won't necessarily be mapped through register 1 again.", "Instead the process will try to calculate the spatial distance of this access to the previous one.", "Only if they are sufficiently close will they be mapped through the same register.", "[0000] The following example illustrates how the process works: [0000] for(i = 0;", "i <100;", "i++) { a[i]{1} = a[i+1]{1} + a[i+100]{2} + a[i+103]{2};", "b[i]{3} = 0;", "// number in curly braces is the hotline p{4} = p->next{4} // register assigned by the process } [0130] Suppose the array element-size is 4 bytes, the cache line is 64 bytes, and that two accesses are mapped to the same register if they are within 32 bytes from each other.", "[0131] The hotlines process first assigns a[i] hotline register r 1 .", "When it comes to a[i+1], it checks the distance from currently mapped accesses, and finds the closest one to be a[i] which is 4 bytes apart.", "Since this is within the threshold, a[i+1] is also mapped through r 1 .", "For a[i+100], the closest access a[i+1] is 396 bytes apart, and hence a[i+100] is mapped through a different hotline.", "The array accesses b[ ] is assigned register r 3 and so on.", "[0132] In evaluating the distance between two accesses, the hotlines process uses control-flow, loop structure, dependence and type information: field offsets in structures, array element sizes, etc.", "Support for Various Levels of Static Speculation [0133] This process can be made to vary in its level of aggressiveness.", "A very aggressive version would carry out actions based on predictions which do not necessarily have a high degree of confidence.", "A conservative version may not do so, for instance, it would not hotline non-affine array accesses of the form a[b[i]] which are generally hard to predict.", "Different versions of this process with different levels of aggressiveness can be constructed.", "The invention is not limited to one particular implementation.", "Hotlines with Speculative Alias Analysis [0134] This analysis is part of the embodiment presented for the compilation process.", "The objective of this analysis is to extract precise information about memory access patterns in pointer based accesses.", "The proposed technique is speculative in the sense that the possible values for each pointer access are determined and included based on their likelihood of occurrence at runtime.", "Unlikely values are ignored and highly likely values are added, even when the full proof cannot be derived at compile-time.", "[0135] One of the primary motivations for developing the speculative alias analysis (SAA) process is because the more precise implementations of non-speculative alias analysis have limitations when used for large programs or when special constructs such as pointer based calls, recursion, or library calls are found in the program.", "The less precise alias analysis techniques, that are typically used in optimizing compilers, have lower complexities but they are much less useful in the context of extracting precise information about memory access patterns.", "The experience with several state-of-the-art research alias analysis packages shows that they don't work well for these programs.", "For example, none of the SPEC2000 benchmarks could be analyzed with them.", "SAA based analysis can not only be applied without restrictions and has lower complexity, but also provides more precise information about memory accesses.", "[0136] The information given by this analysis can be used in the hotlines processes, e.g., to determine which cache pointer (or hotline register) to assign to a given pointer based memory access.", "Additionally, the same information can be used in disambiguating pointer based loop-carried dependencies, to estimate loop level parallelism in addition to ILP.", "[0137] There are two ways to give pointer information: (1) through program-point information, and (2) through global information.", "FIG. 6 shows a simple C program and illustrates the difference between these representations.", "[0138] Program point information for example would show that at the end of the program segment in FIG. 6 , pointer p points to {y,z}, a more precise information, compared with the global information case where p points to {x,y,z}.", "Although global information can be extracted with much more efficient analysis process, it gives less precise results.", "[0139] In general, alias analysis is done at either the intra-procedural level or at the inter-procedural level.", "The latter considers analysis across call statements, attempts to handle recursive, and pointer-based calls.", "[0140] For intra-procedural analysis, a variety of processes with different degrees of precision and efficiency have been developed.", "A more precise analysis results in narrower sets (i.e., fewer possible values for a pointer to take).", "Flow-sensitive analysis takes control flow into account usually giving program-point results.", "Flow-insensitive analysis views a program as a set of statements that can be executed in any order and gives per program or global results.", "[0141] Flow-insensitive processes can be built on top of a type-based analysis or constrained-based analysis.", "Because of the higher precision of flow-sensitive approaches are of more interest in these techniques.", "Flow-sensitive approaches are typically based on traditional dataflow analysis, where pointer information is represented with points-to graphs (PTG).", "The speculative approach defined in the SAA process could be applied to any type of alias analysis.", "[0142] Nodes in a PTG correspond to program variables and edges represent points-to relations.", "A points-to relation connects two variables and means that a pointer variable can take the value of another variable during execution.", "Intuitively, a smaller number of points-to relations means better precision.", "[0143] The main steps in a non-speculative flow-sensitive analysis process are as follows: (1) build a control-flow graph (CFG) of the computation, (2) analyze each basic block in the CFG gradually building a PTG, (3) at the beginning of each basic block merge information from previous basic blocks, (4) repeat steps 2-3 until the PTG graph does not change.", "See for example in FIG. 7 , the CFG and the PTG for a simple C application.", "[0144] This analysis builds a PTG for the program in a conservative way, i.e., it guarantees that for each variable all the possible points-to relations are captured.", "The SAA approach removes some of these points-to relations when it predicts them as seldom-occurring.", "A point-to relation is defined to be a weak points-to relation if the edge is less likely to be leveraged during execution compared to other points-to relations from the same pointer variable.", "[0145] FIG. 8 exemplifies the flow-sensitive embodiment of the SAA process in loops, for the simple case when point-to relations are mapped to either weak or strong ones.", "One of the process's rules is that the incoming location sets are the weak point-to relations, and are removed if there is any strong point-to relation for the same access within the loop body.", "A generalization of this process, for nested loops, is to consider loop nests organized in pairs, with inner loop updates being strong and incoming edges weak, and so on.", "[0146] FIG. 8 shows that a great deal of precision has been obtained by removing several edges in the PTG.", "For example, both pointer p and q has been determined to point to only variable c after only three iterations in the process.", "[0147] The complexity of the SAA process is reduced compared to traditional alias analysis process.", "One possible implementation is by stopping the dataflow analysis after a certain number of iterations.", "Other implementations are also possible.", "The main complexity in non-speculative alias analysis is coming from dealing with loops, recursive calls, multithreaded analysis, and library calls in an inter-procedural analysis.", "The analysis in the SAA process applies an approximate approach and stops the dataflow analysis before full convergence is reached in such cases.", "Library calls that may modify pointer values and for which source codes are not available can also be speculatively estimated or ignored.", "[0148] An example of implementation of the SAA process is as follows: (1) build a control-flow graph (CFG) of the computation, (2) analyze each basic block in the CFG gradually building a points-to graph (PTG), (3) at the beginning of each basic block merge information from previous basic blocks, (4) annotate weak and strong point-to relations focusing on loops by looking at incoming point-to relations and point-to relations in loop bodies, (5) speculatively estimate recursive calls and library calls, (6) repeat steps 2-5 until the PTG graph does not change or until a predetermined number of steps in the analysis have been reached.", "[0149] The methods described in this embodiment have been implemented and carefully evaluated.", "[0150] A small sampling of data giving a preview of the accuracy of static speculation obtained with this implementation is presented in FIG. 9 .", "As shown, both memory accessing and instructions executed per cycle could be predicted statically with good accuracy.", "Better prediction translates into the possibility of saving more energy.", "[0151] FIG. 10 shows the breakdown of processor-wide energy savings obtained due to significantly reduced energy consumed in the memory system.", "It shows that up to 75% of the energy consumed in memory accessing can be saved.", "This translates into up to 21% total energy reduction in an Alpha 21264 type of processor.", "A description of some the benchmarks evaluated, but not limited to, is presented in FIG. 11 .", "[0152] The invention is not limited to, but can also be used to improve performance in processors.", "Reduction of access latencies in caches, for example, in the embodiments shown, can improve memory accessing performance.", "Alternatively, it can enable faster clock rates that would reduce execution time, or would enable using larger caches that would improve memory performance.", "Other performance benefits can result from, but not limited to, more efficient execution.", "[0153] Other embodiments not described herein are also within the scope of the following claims." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention The present invention relates in general to an ESD protection circuit and method thereof, and more specifically to a high voltage tolerant input/output circuit avoiding damage to N-type MOS transistors from electrostatic discharge (ESD).", "Description of the Related Art In the development of the semiconductor manufacture process, dimensions of complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor transistor (CMOS) have reached sub-micron level to upgrade the performance of very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuits and computational speed.", "As dimensions shrinks, reliability and ESD tolerance of VLSI circuits decline significantly.", "ESD models include human-body model (HBM), machine model (MM), and charged-device model (CDM).", "All three generate instantaneous current of several amperes only for hundreds or even several nanoseconds.", "FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a conventional high voltage tolerant CMOS VLSI input/output circuit.", "As shown in FIG. 1 , the sources of the PMOS transistors P 110 -P 1 n are coupled to the power rail Vcc 1 , gates of the PMOS transistors P 110 and P 111 are coupled to the power rail Vcc 1 , and gates of the PMOS transistors P 112 -P 11 n are coupled to pre-driver P 1 .", "The drains of the NMOS transistors N 110 -N 11 n and the corresponding drains of the PMOS transistors P 110 -P 11 n are coupled to a pad 10 , and all gates of the NMOS transistors N 110 -N 11 n are coupled to the power rail Vcc 1 .", "The drains of the NMOS transistors N 120 -N 12 n in another row are coupled to the corresponding sources of the NMOS transistors N 110 -N 11 n .", "According to the driving requirement, gates of the NMOS transistors N 120 and N 121 are connected to the power rail Vss 1 , and gates of the NMOS transistors N 122 -N 12 n are coupled to pre-driver N 1 .", "The NMOS transistors N 110 -N 11 n and the NMOS transistors N 120 -N 12 n are connected in series, and the reliability of the NMOS transistors N 120 -N 12 n is enhanced by voltage division.", "When ESD occurs at the pad 10 , the discharge current follows the path of the PMOS transistors P 110 -P 11 n , the NMOS transistors N 110 -N 11 n , and the NMOS transistors N 120 -N 12 n .", "Because the bias conditions of each transistor differ, current discharge is not even, and some transistors damaged.", "The NMOS transistor has an extremely thin gate oxide vulnerable to ESD damage.", "For example, at the output buffer stage, a commonly used NMOS transistor with a channel width of 300 submicrons can tolerate an ESD voltage of more than 3000 volts if fabricated by conventional 2-submicron manufacture process, and less than 2000 volts if by 1-submicron manufacture process with low-doping-drain (LDD) technology, and about 1000 volts if by 1-submicron manufacture process with LDD and silicide technology.", "Furthermore, ESD generates an instantaneous discharge current of several amperes in hundreds of nanoseconds.", "In the high voltage tolerant input/output circuit shown in FIG. 1 , the ESD current follows a path of some components only, such that current discharge is uneven and slow, and some components are damaged.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, the present invention provides an ESD protection circuit and method thereof.", "When ESD occurs, the discharge path is increased to evenly discharge the current and avoid damage to N-type MOS transistors.", "One embodiment of the present invention provides an ESD protection circuit comprising an ESD detection circuit, a first first-type transistor, a first second-type transistor, and a second second-type transistor, wherein the drains of the first first-type and second-type transistors are coupled to a pad, the source of the first second-type transistor is coupled to the drain of the second second-type transistor, the source of the first first-type transistor is coupled to a first power rail, and the source of the second second-type transistor is coupled to a second power rail, and, in normal operation, the gate of the first second-type transistor is coupled to the first power rail and the gate of the second second-type transistor is controlled by a pre-driver.", "The ESD detection circuit determines whether ESD occurs at the pad and, if so, couples the gates of the first and second second-type transistors to the second power rail.", "Another embodiment of the present invention provides a method for protecting devices from ESD, appropriate for a driver circuit wherein the driver circuit has a first first-type transistor, a first second-type transistor, and a second second-type transistor wherein the drains of the first first-type and second-type transistors are coupled to a pad, the source of the first second-type transistor is coupled to the drain of the second second-type transistor, the source of the first first-type transistor is coupled to a first power rail, and the source of the second second-type transistor is coupled to a second power rail.", "Some embodiments of the method comprise the steps of determining whether ESD occurs at the pad, and, when ESD occurs, coupling the gates of the first and second second-type transistors to the second power rail.", "When ESD does not occur, the gate of the first second-type transistor is coupled to the first power rail and the gate of the second second-type transistor is controlled by a pre-driver.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The following detailed description, given by way of example and not intended to limit the invention solely to the embodiments described herein, is best understood in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the high voltage tolerant CMOS VLSI input/output circuit according to the prior art.", "FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the high voltage tolerant CMOS VLSI input/output circuit according to an embodiment of the present invention;", "and FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the high voltage tolerant CMOS VLSI input/output circuit according to another embodiment of the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the high voltage tolerant CMOS VLSI input/output circuit according to an embodiment of the present invention.", "The high voltage tolerant input/output circuit comprises a driver circuit 20 , a redundant circuit 21 , an ESD detection circuit 22 , NOR gates 23 and 26 , inverter circuits 24 and 27 , a voltage shifter 25 , a pad 28 , and a pre-driver P 2 wherein the transistors P 200 and P 201 are PMOS transistors and the transistors N 200 , N 201 , N 202 , and N 203 are NMOS transistors.", "When ESD occurs in the pad 28 , the ESD detection circuit 22 outputs a signal S 22 with a high logic level to the inverter circuit 27 and the NOR gate 26 .", "The inverter circuit 27 outputs a signal S 22 ′ with a low logic level to gates of the NMOS transistors N 200 and N 202 after receiving S 22 .", "The voltage levels of S 22 ′ and the power rail Vss 2 are equal, such that gates of the NMOS transistors N 200 and N 202 are coupled to the power rail Vss 2 .", "The NOR gate 26 outputs a signal S 20 ′ to the gate of the NMOS transistor N 201 after receiving S 22 .", "The voltage levels of S 20 ′ and the power rail Vss 2 are equal, such that the gate of the NMOS transistor N 20 1 is coupled to the power rail Vss 2 .", "In normal operation, the ESD detection circuit 22 outputs a signal S 22 with a low logic level to the inverter circuit 27 and the NOR gate 26 .", "The inverter circuit 27 outputs a signal S 22 ′ with a high logic level to gates of the NMOS transistors N 200 and N 202 after receiving S 22 .", "The voltage levels of S 22 ′ and the power rail Vcc 2 are equal, such that gates of the NMOS transistors N 200 and N 202 are coupled to the power rail Vcc 2 .", "In normal operation, a signal S 20 is input into the NOR gate 23 , through the inverter circuit 24 , the voltage shifter 25 , and the NOR gate 26 , and is output as a new signal S 20 ′ to the gate of the NMOS transistor N 201 .", "The logic levels of S 20 ′ and S 20 are inverted, thus the gate of the NMOS transistor N 201 is coupled to the power rail Vcc 2 or the power rail Vss 2 .", "Moreover, in normal operation, the gate of the PMOS transistor P 200 receives the signal from pre-driver P 2 .", "FIG. 3 shows detailed circuits and descriptions of several components shown in FIG. 2 .", "The driver circuit 20 comprises a PMOS transistor P 200 and NMOS transistors N 200 and N 201 wherein the drain of the PMOS transistor P 200 and the drain of the NMOS transistor N 200 are coupled to a pad 28 , the source of the NMOS transistor N 200 is coupled to the drain of the NMOS transistor N 201 , the source of the PMOS transistor P 200 is coupled to a power rail Vcc 2 , as shown in FIG. 3 .", "The source of the NMOS transistor N 201 is coupled to a power rail Vss 2 .", "The redundant circuit 21 comprises a PMOS transistor P 201 and NMOS transistors N 202 and N 203 , wherein the drain of the PMOS transistor P 201 and the drain of the NMOS transistor N 202 are coupled to the pad 28 .", "The source of the NMOS transistor N 202 is coupled to the drain of the NMOS transistor N 203 .", "The source of the PMOS transistor P 201 is coupled to the high power rail Vcc 2 .", "The source and the gate of the NMOS transistor N 203 are coupled to the low power rail Vss 2 .", "The ESD detection circuit 22 is coupled to the power rail Vcc 2 , thereby detecting ESD at the pad 28 according to the voltage of the power rail Vcc 2 .", "The ESD detection circuit 22 comprises a plurality of NMOS transistors connected together in series wherein the drain and the gate of each NMOS transistor are coupled.", "The ESD detection circuit 22 couples gates of the NMOS transistors N 200 , N 201 , and N 202 to the power rail Vss 2 when ESD occurs at the pad 28 .", "The NOR gate 23 is controlled by the voltage of the power rail Vss 2 and the received signal S 20 .", "The NOR gate 23 outputs a signal S 23 at the output end wherein the logic levels of S 23 and S 20 are inverted.", "The inverter circuit 24 comprises a PMOS transistor P 202 and an NMOS transistor N 204 wherein the gates of PMOS transistor P 202 and NMOS transistor N 204 are coupled to receive the signal S 23 .", "The source of the PMOS transistor P 202 is coupled to a power rail Vcc 3 .", "The source of the NMOS transistor N 204 is coupled to the power rail Vss 2 .", "The drains of the PMOS transistor P 202 and the NMOS transistor N 204 are coupled at a node 3 .", "The voltage shifter 25 is coupled to the inverter circuit 24 at node 3 .", "The voltage shifter 25 comprises PMOS transistors P 203 and P 204 and NMOS transistors N 205 and N 206 .", "The gate of the NMOS transistor N 206 is coupled to node 3 .", "The gate of the NMOS transistor N 205 is coupled to the output end of the NOR gate 23 to receive the signal S 23 .", "The gate of the PMOS transistor P 203 , the drain of the PMOS transistor P 204 , and the drain of the NMOS transistor N 206 are coupled at node 4 .", "Both sources of the PMOS transistors P 203 and P 204 are coupled to the power rail Vcc 2 .", "Both sources of the NMOS transistors N 205 and N 206 are coupled to the power rail Vss 2 .", "The drain of the PMOS transistor P 203 , the gate of the PMOS transistor P 204 , and the drain of the NMOS transistor N 205 are coupled at node 5 .", "A plurality of diodes T 0 -Tn are connected in series between the voltage supplies Vcc 2 and Vcc 3 , such that the voltage of the power rail Vcc 3 is lower than that of the power rail Vcc 2 .", "If the PMOS transistor P 202 is turned on and the NMOS transistor N 204 is turned off, node 3 is coupled to the power rail Vcc 3 , thus the voltages of node 3 and the power rail Vcc 3 are equal.", "The output end of the voltage shifter 25 , node 5 , is coupled to the power rail Vcc 2 .", "Thus, the voltages of node 5 and the power rail Vcc 2 are equal.", "The NOR gate 26 is coupled to the ESD detection circuit 22 , to receive the signal S 22 , and to the voltage shifter 25 at node 5 .", "In normal operation, the NOR gate 26 controls the gate of the NMOS transistor N 201 according to the voltage level of node 5 .", "When ESD occurs at the pad 28 , the NOR gate 26 couples the gate of the NMOS transistor N 201 to the power rail Vss 2 according to the ESD detection circuit 22 .", "The NOR gate 26 comprises PMOS transistors P 205 and P 206 and NMOS transistors N 207 and N 208 .", "The gates of PMOS transistor P 205 and NMOS transistor N 207 are coupled to the ESD detection circuit 22 .", "The gates of PMOS transistor P 206 and NMOS transistor N 208 are coupled to the voltage shifter 25 at node 5 .", "The source of the PMOS transistor P 205 is coupled to the drain of the PMOS transistor P 206 .", "The source of PMOS transistor P 206 is coupled to the power rail Vcc 2 .", "The sources of the NMOS transistors N 207 and N 208 are coupled to the power rail Vss 2 .", "The drains of PMOS transistor P 205 , NMOS transistor N 207 , and NMOS transistor N 208 are coupled to the gate of the NMOS transistor N 201 at node 2 .", "The inverter circuit 27 is coupled to the ESD detection circuit 22 to receive the signal S 22 and to couple the gates of the NMOS transistors N 200 and N 202 to the power rail Vss 2 when ESD occurs at the pad 28 .", "The inverter circuit 27 is composed of a NOR gate having two input ends.", "One end is coupled to the power rail Vss 2 , and the other end receives the signal S 22 .", "The NOR gate comprises PMOS transistors P 207 and P 208 and an NMOS transistor N 209 .", "The gates of PMOS transistor P 207 and NMOS transistor N 209 are coupled to receive the signal S 22 .", "The gate, the source, and the drain of the PMOS transistor P 208 are coupled to the power rail Vss 2 , the power rail Vcc 2 , and the source of PMOS transistor P 207 , respectively.", "The drains of PMOS transistor P 207 and NMOS transistor N 209 , and gates of NMOS transistor N 200 and NMOS transistor N 202 , are all coupled at node 1 .", "When ESD occurs, the voltage of the pad 28 increases.", "Because of the PN junction current leakage of the PMOS transistor P 201 , the voltage level of the power rail Vcc 2 also increases.", "When the voltage level of the power rail Vcc 2 reaches a fixed value, the plurality of NMOS transistors in the ESD detection circuit 22 coupled to the power rail Vcc 2 is turned on (here regarded as diodes due to connection type).", "With voltage division, the signal of the power rail Vcc 2 goes through the plurality of NMOS transistors to output the signal S 22 with a high logic level.", "Meanwhile, the signal S 22 is input into the inverter circuit 27 , such that the NMOS transistor N 209 is turned on and the PMOS transistor P 207 is turned off.", "Node 1 is coupled to the power rail Vss 2 .", "Thus, the voltages of node 1 and the power rail Vss 2 are equal, and gates of the NMOS transistors N 200 and N 202 are coupled to the power rail Vss 2 .", "Also, the signal S 22 is input into NOR gate 26 .", "The signal S 22 , with a high logic level, turns on the NMOS transistor N 207 and turns off the PMOS transistor P 205 , such that node 2 is coupled to the power rail Vss 2 .", "Thus, the voltages of node 2 and the power rail Vss 2 are equal.", "Moreover, the gate of the NMOS transistor N 201 is coupled to the power rail Vss 2 .", "In normal operation, the power rail Vcc 2 is at a high voltage level and the power rail Vss 2 is at a low voltage level.", "The voltage of the power rail Vcc 2 turns on the plurality of NMOS transistors in the ESD detection circuit 22 coupled to the power rail Vcc 2 (here regarded as diodes due to connection type).", "With voltage division, the signal of the power rail Vcc 2 goes through the plurality of NMOS transistors to output the signal S 22 with a low logic level.", "The logic level of the signal S 22 can be adjusted by controlling the number of NMOS transistors inside the ESD detection circuit 22 .", "The voltage levels of Vcc 2 differ in normal operation and when ESD occurs, such that the logic level of the signal S 22 is low during normal operation and high during ESD.", "The signal S 22 is input into the inverter circuit 27 to turn off the NMOS transistor N 209 and turn on the PMOS transistor P 207 .", "Thus, node 1 is coupled to the power rail Vcc 2 , and the voltages of node 1 and the power rail Vcc 2 are equal.", "Moreover, gates of the NMOS transistors N 200 and N 202 are coupled to the power rail Vcc 2 .", "Furthermore, in normal operation, if the NOR gate 23 receives signal S 20 with a high logic level, then the NOR gate 23 outputs the signal S 23 with a low logic level.", "The inverter circuit 24 receives the signal S 23 to turn on the PMOS transistor P 202 and to couple node 3 to the power rail Vcc 3 with a high voltage level.", "Consequently, the voltage level of Vcc 3 is lower than the voltage level of Vcc 2 .", "Because the gate of the NMOS transistor N 206 of the voltage shifter 25 is coupled to node 3 , NMOS transistor N 206 is turned on and node 4 is coupled to the power rail Vss 2 , and the PMOS transistor P 203 is turned on and node 5 is coupled to the power rail Vcc 2 .", "Furthermore, the NOR gate 26 receives the signal S 22 with a low logic level to turn off the NMOS transistor N 207 and turn on the PMOS transistor P 205 .", "Because the gate of the PMOS transistor P 206 and the gate of the NMOS transistor N 208 are coupled to node 5 , the PMOS transistor P 206 is turned off and the NMOS transistor N 208 is turned on.", "Thus, node 2 is coupled to the power rail Vss 2 , and the voltages of node 2 and the power rail Vss 2 are equal.", "Moreover, the gate of the NMOS transistor N 201 is coupled to the power rail Vss 2 .", "Similarly, in normal operation, if the NOR gate 23 receives the signal S 20 with a low logic level, then the NOR gate 23 outputs the signal S 23 with a high logic level.", "The inverter circuit 24 receives the signal S 23 to turn on the NMOS transistor N 204 and to couple node 3 to the power rail Vss 2 .", "Because the gate of the NMOS transistor N 206 of the voltage shifter 25 is coupled to node 3 , the NMOS transistor N 206 is turned off.", "The gate of the NMOS transistor N 205 receives the signal S 23 with a high logic level to turn on the NMOS transistor N 205 and to couple node 5 to the power rail Vss 2 .", "Furthermore, the NOR gate 26 receives the signal S 22 with a low logic level to turn off the NMOS transistor N 207 and turn on the PMOS transistor P 205 .", "Because the gate of the PMOS transistor P 206 and the gate of the NMOS transistor N 208 are coupled to node 5 , the PMOS transistor P 206 is turned on and the NMOS transistor N 208 is turned off.", "Thus, node 2 is coupled to the power rail Vcc 2 , and the voltages of node 2 and the power rail Vcc 2 are equal.", "Moreover, the gate of the NMOS transistor N 201 is coupled to the power rail Vcc 2 .", "In conclusion, in normal operation, gates of the NMOS transistors N 200 and N 202 are coupled to the power rail Vcc 2 , and the gate of the NMOS transistor N 201 is coupled to the power rail Vcc 2 or the power rail Vss 2 according to the signal S 20 .", "The PMOS transistor P 200 is controlled by pre-driver P 2 and outputs signals at the pad 28 to a back end.", "When ESD occurs, gates of the NMOS transistors N 201 , N 200 , and N 202 are coupled to the power rail Vss 2 , such that the bias conditions of the NMOS transistors N 200 , N 201 , N 202 , and N 203 are the same.", "Thus the NMOS transistors can be turned on at the same time to discharge the ESD current, thereby increasing the discharge path to avoid potential damage to transistors.", "While embodiments of the invention have been described by way of example and in terms of the preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiment.", "On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements as would be apparent to those skilled in the art.", "Therefore, the scope of the appended claims should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements." ]

[ "BACKGROUND The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for injection molding, and in particular, to a method and apparatus for molding injection molded parts.", "Conventionally, a variety of methods have been utilized for injection molding in various fields.", "Of these methods, a molding metal mold of a runnerless (hot runner) system has been widely used.", "There are a variety of molds in such a hot runner system.", "Smaller molds generally only require one inlet for injecting molten material.", "For larger molds, several inlets are used to inject molten material at different points within the mold cavity.", "These larger molds are sometimes referred to as multi-gate mold cavities.", "In multi-gate mold cavities, the pressure of molten material differs at various points inside the cavity.", "The pressure typically becomes constant throughout the cavity once the cavity is completely filled with molten material.", "A conventional molding process can be done using power from hydraulic means or electrical means.", "The molding process uses two platens, a movable platen and a stationary platen.", "In a process using hydraulic means, a hydraulic cylinder applies a certain force to push a movable platen against a stationary platen.", "Molding members within or attached to the platens form a molding cavity.", "The force is maintained on the stationary platen or die plate while a molten material is injected into the molding cavity.", "The molten material is injected into the cavity with a resin feeding screw until the pressure inside the cavity reaches a predetermined molding pressure or until the screw has moved a predetermined distance and for a set period of time, thereby ensuring that the cavity is filled.", "After injecting the molten material, the molten material is allowed to cool and solidify, the force is then released, and the plates are separated and the process begins anew.", "Some injection molding machines use a mold with only one cavity, thereby allowing for the production of one molded object per cycle.", "Total cycle time is the sum of the fill time and the cool down time.", "The cool down time is generally substantially longer than the fill time.", "For example, a typical fill time is about 5 seconds, whereas a typical cooling time is about 30 seconds, for a total of about 35 seconds for the production of one molded article.", "To reduce process time per molded article, some injection molding machines utilize molds with a plurality of cavities for forming a plurality of molded articles.", "The molten material fills into each of the cavities simultaneously.", "While this may extend the fill time a few seconds, for example for mold cavities for car doors, to about 8 seconds, the cooling time remains fixed at about 40 seconds.", "The total time of this process is about 48 seconds for the production of two molded articles.", "Thus, using multiple cavities increases the efficiency almost two-fold.", "A problem with the multiple cavity method, however, is that the mold clamping force must also be doubled since the article molding area is doubled.", "As a result, a larger injection molding machine must be used to apply the extra force needed to hold the molding platens together.", "A larger injection molding machine costs more, takes up more floor space, and requires more power.", "Therefore, using multiple cavity molds with the conventional method can sacrifice cost for greater time efficiency.", "Furthermore, for molding larger articles, the molten material is injected at several different points in the mold cavity.", "This is due to the limits on the flow of molten plastic.", "These larger mold cavities are commonly known as multi-gate mold cavities.", "An example of an article that would require a multi-gate mold cavity is an interior car door panel, which typically requires four or five gates per single cavity mold.", "In the manufacture of such parts, it is desirable to maintain the injected pressure of the molten material constant so that the part is formed accurately.", "Without maintaining the pressure constant, the structural accuracy of the formed part may suffer.", "For example, the resulting part may include short shots, ripples, or other dimensional inaccuracies.", "As such, there is a need to be able to accurately measure the pressure of molten plastic inside of the mold cavity.", "Accordingly, a general object of the present invention is to provide an injection molding machine and a method for injection molding either large or small articles where there is process control for each cavity.", "A further object of the present invention is to provide an injection molding machine and a method for injection molding large articles with greater efficiency and reduced costs.", "BRIEF SUMMARY In one aspect, the invention is a method for sequentially injecting a molten material comprising clamping a stationary platen and a movable platen at a clamping force to define at least two cavities, opening a first valve gate to inject a molten material into a first cavity, closing the first valve gate either by position, time or pressure switch, opening a second valve gate to inject the molten material into a second cavity, and closing the second valve gate when the desired position, time or pressure switch value has been met.", "In a second aspect, the invention is an injection molding apparatus comprising a mold having at least two mold cavities, a molten material inlet system in communication with said at least two mold cavities, at least two valve gates in said molten material inlet, wherein each of said at least two valve gates are associated with one of said mold cavities;", "and a controller adapted to sequentially open and close said valve gates.", "In a third aspect, the invention is a controller for use with a injection molding device having a mold with at least two cavities, the controller comprises means for opening a first valve gate associated with a first mold cavity to initiate a flow of molten material into the first mold cavity, means for closing the first valve gate by either position, time or pressure switch, means for opening a second valve gate associated with a second cavity to initiate a flow of molten material into a second mold cavity, and means for closing the second valve gate by either position, time or pressure switch.", "Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description.", "It should be understood, however, that the detailed description and the specific examples, while indicating embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, the invention being defined only by the claims following this detailed description.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS The following drawings form part of the present specification and are included to further demonstrate certain aspects of the present invention.", "The invention may be better understood by reference to one or more of these drawings in combination with the detailed description of specific embodiments presented herein: FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an injection molding apparatus suitable for the method of injection molding a molten material, provided by the present invention.", "FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a part of the injection molding apparatus showing a state immediately after clamping the mold, and a state in which the introduction of the molten material is initiated, in the method of injection molding, provided by the present invention.", "FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a part of the injection molding apparatus showing a multi-gate injection molding system with multiple multi-gate molds, in the method of injection molding, provided by the present invention.", "FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustration of the sequential injection molding process of the present invention.", "FIG. 5 schematically shows a change in injection velocity with time for a conventional injection molding method and a sequential injection molding method.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS First, the injection molding apparatus suitable for use in the method of injection-molding a thermoplastic or thermoset resin, provided by the present invention, will be outlined below with reference to FIG. 1 .", "Although the injection molding apparatus described and shown in FIG. 1 uses hydraulic power, one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that an electrically powered molding apparatus can also be used for the present invention.", "The injection molding apparatus includes an injection cylinder 12 having a resin-feeding screw or extrusion screw 10 inside, a stationary platen 40 , a movable platen 44 , an inlet 26 , tie bars 34 , a clamping hydraulic cylinder 30 and a hydraulic piston 32 .", "The movable platen 44 is actuated with the hydraulic piston 32 in the hydraulic cylinder 30 to move in parallel on the tie bars 34 .", "A mold is formed by a stationary mold member 36 and a movable mold member 46 .", "The stationary mold member 36 is attached to the stationary platen 40 , and the movable mold member 46 is attached to the movable platen 44 .", "The platens 40 , 44 , the tie bars 34 , and the cylinder 30 and piston 32 define a clamping system for applying a clamping pressure to the mold members 36 , 46 .", "The movable platen 44 is moved towards the stationary platen 40 until the movable mold member 46 is engaged with the stationary mold member 36 , and the mold is clamped to form multi-gate cavities 22 , 24 .", "This clamped position is illustrated in FIG. 2 .", "After the mold has been clamped, the clamping force is controlled with the clamping hydraulic cylinder 30 .", "The clamping force may also be controlled by toggle or an electric machine.", "The molten material flows into the cavities 22 , 24 via inlets 26 .", "Valve gates 50 , 52 may be used, but are not necessary, to open and close inlets 26 .", "If used, valve gates 50 , 52 would face cavities 22 , 24 and at least one valve gate is associated with each cavity 22 , 24 respectively.", "After the molten material cools and hardens, the clamping force is released and the movable platen 44 is moved away from the stationary platen 40 , in order to release the molded product.", "For the exemplary two-cavity multi-gate mold shown in FIG. 2 , the sequential injection molding method begins with clamping the mold with at a mold clamping force.", "The controller 60 then closes valve gate 52 and opens valve gate 50 .", "Molten material fills cavity 22 .", "The amount of material that enters the cavity may be controlled by the use of pressure transducers P 1 , P 2 or preferably can be controlled by predetermining the distance or time the resin feeding screw 10 must travel to fill cavity 22 .", "Conventional molding processes use the position of the resin feeding screw 10 to control the amount of material being injected into the mold cavity and to ensure that the cavity is full and packed.", "Sometimes, the time the screw travels is the controlling variable in filling the cavity.", "As molten material enters through the inlet, it gradually fills the entire cavity.", "A stroke sensor or potentiometer 65 measures the distance resin feeding screw 10 has moved and transmits this reading to the controller 60 .", "The controller 60 uses the data from the stroke sensor and/or a timer to determine when to close valve gate 50 to stop the flow of molten material into cavity 22 and open valve gate 52 to start the flow of molten material into cavity 24 .", "The controller closes valve gate 50 when the resin feeding screw has traveled a pre-determined distance or for a predetermined period of time.", "If no hold pressure is used in molding the article, the valve gate 50 is closed at the switchover point which is the point when the entire cavity gets filled with molten material and begins to exert a pressure on the cavity.", "If a hold pressure is used, the valve gate is kept open for a fixed period of time after the molten material has filled the entire cavity and the resin feeding screw exerts a holding pressure.", "After the fixed period of time the valve gate 50 is closed.", "If pressure transducers are used, the controller closes valve gate 50 and opens valve gate 52 when the pressure inside the cavity reaches a set point pressure.", "The controller opens valve gate 52 and the resin feeding screw may then retreat back or may continue from its end position depending on whether or not there is enough material in the injection chamber to fill the second cavity 24 .", "In a preferred embodiment, the pressure exerted by the resin feeding screw is decreased between the closing of valve gate 50 and the opening of valve gate 52 .", "In the alternative, the screw is activated after delay time of about 0.5 seconds after opening valve gate 52 .", "This prevents a sudden high pressure shot upon the opening of valve gate 52 and provides greater control of the process.", "Molten material then fills into cavity 24 .", "When the resin feeding screw 10 has moved the predetermined distance or time to fill and pack cavity 24 , the molten material is held inside cavities 22 , 24 and is allowed to cool and solidify.", "At this point, valve gate 52 may be left open if there are no additional mold cavities to be utilized, otherwise the controller closes valve gate 52 and the process repeats.", "FIG. 3 shows a perspective view an embodiment of the multiple multi-gate mold injection system of the present invention.", "In particular, there are two multi-gate mold cavities for interior car door panels 71 .", "Molten material enters into the main inlet 75 and then flows into the multi-drop hot manifold 76 that has inlets at various points in the mold cavity.", "Pressure transducers 73 may be placed inside the cavity, preferably at the end of fill point 72 , to measure the pressure inside the cavity.", "Ejector pins 74 release the molded article once the molten material cools and solidifies.", "FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustration of the sequential injection molding process of the present invention.", "It will be understood that each step of the flowchart illustration can be implemented by computer program instructions or can be done manually.", "These computer program instructions may be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart step.", "These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function specified in the flowchart step.", "The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart step.", "It will be understood that each step of the flowchart illustration can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based computer systems which perform the specified functions or steps, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions, or can be done manually.", "An injection molding machine utilizing a sequential injection molding process has a plurality of multi-gate mold cavities formed by the movable mold member 46 and the stationary mold member 36 .", "For an injection molding machine with m cavities, where n equals 1 to m, the process begins with step 100 by closing the clamp with a mold clamping force calculated by the equation: mold clamping force required=(clamp tonnage required per square inch)×(surface area of cavity n ) The clamp tonnage is predetermined and is calculated based upon the type of molding material and the desired characteristics of the molded article.", "For example, an ABS material may require two to three tons of pressure per square inch of area.", "Other materials require different amounts of pressure.", "In step 110 , a first valve gate is opened which faces a first cavity.", "The first cavity is then injected with molten material using a resin-feeding screw at a predetermined injection velocity in step 120 .", "The injection velocity may be changed or may be kept constant as the cavity becomes filled with molten material.", "The time it takes to fill the cavity to the V/P change over position or the set-point pressure depends on the size of the cavity and the injection velocity.", "In a preferred embodiment, the injection velocity is varied and it takes about one second to about ten seconds to fill the cavity to the set-point pressure or V/P change over position.", "In step 130 , the controller monitors the distance, time and/or velocity at which the resin screw has moved and compares it to the set-point values said screw must move in order for molten material to fill the cavity or reach the velocity to pressure (V/P) switch point.", "The V/P switch point occurs when the molten material has fully filled the cavity and begins to exert a pressure inside the cavity.", "In one embodiment, if a predetermined holding pressure at which the material must be held is used, resin feeding screw exerts a holding pressure for a predetermined time before the controller closes the valve gate to the cavity.", "The process goes back to step 120 if the cavity is not full or has not reached the V/P switch point if there is no holding pressure, or has not reached a predetermined holding pressure if using holding pressure or has not reached the pressure switch set value.", "The first valve gate is closed once the cavity is full if not using holding pressure or once it is full and has been held for a predetermined period of time at a holding pressure or has reached the pressure switch set value in step 140 .", "The process goes back to step 110 and repeats for n cavities.", "After all of the cavities are full, the machine recovers for the next shot in step 150 the molten material inside the cavities is allowed to cool and solidify in step 160 .", "The cooling process takes about 20 seconds to about 40 seconds, depending upon the size of the molded article and the type and temperature of the molded material.", "After cooling, the mold clamping force is released and the clamp is opened in step 170 .", "The sequential injection molding process ends with step 180 , when the molded articles are ejected from the molding cavities.", "The mold clamping force required is reduced significantly in a sequential injection molding process for a multiple cavity mold.", "This is because the area to be pressurized does not increase when there are multiple cavities.", "For a mold with multiple cavities, the area to be pressurized remains constant and equals the area of one cavity since each cavity in the mold is pressurized and closed sequentially.", "Therefore, the mold clamping force required in a two-cavity mold is reduced to almost half by using the sequential injection molding method compared to a conventional method.", "The mold clamping force required in a three-cavity mold the force required is reduced by over fifty percent compared to the force required in the conventional method.", "This significant reduction in mold clamping force allows for a reduction in the press size, which in turn allows for dramatic cost savings in terms of production cost per molded article.", "FIG. 5 shows how the injection velocity varies during the step of filling a cavity for a standard injection molding process compared to a sequential injection molding process in a two-cavity mold.", "The injection velocity is controlled by the machine set-point of the resin-feeding screw 10 .", "In a standard injection molding process the cavities are filled with molten material simultaneously and in the sequential method the cavities are filled sequentially.", "Both processes may be carried out with more than two cavities.", "The sequential molding process, however, has at least two cavities.", "In a standard injection molding process, the injection pressure is set above the necessary pressure requirement to fill the mold cavity.", "The injection velocity of the molten material is set at a filling flow rate prior to the valve gate being opened.", "As illustrated in FIG. 5 , the injection velocity is kept at filling flow rate until the cavities are almost full.", "The injection velocity is then gradually tapered down from the filling flow rate so that the injection velocity of the molten material can be controlled to allow proper fill of the entire cavity.", "Once the pressure inside the cavity reaches the set-point molding pressure, the injection velocity is brought down to zero or if molding by position when the cavity reaches the desired fill level.", "Decreasing the injection velocity ensures that the molten material is uniform inside the cavities, thereby yielding a higher quality molded article.", "In the sequential injection molding process, the injection pressure is set above the necessary pressure requirement to fill the mold cavity.", "This pressure requirement is dependent on the physical properties of the molten material such as its viscosity.", "The injection velocity of the molten material is set at a filling flow rate when a valve gate is opened.", "The injection velocity is kept at the filling flow rate until a cavity is almost full and then gradually tapered down until the cavity is full at the switchover point or if holding pressure is utilized until the hold timer times out.", "The difference in the sequential method compared to the standard method, is that the injection velocity is increased again to the filling flow rate when the second valve gate is opened.", "This adds approximately 0.5 seconds to about 4 seconds to the total fill-time for the process.", "In a preferred embodiment, the ramp up of the injection velocity to the filling flow rate is rapid so that the total process time does not increase significantly.", "It is contemplated that numerous modifications may be made to the injection molding method and apparatus of the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the claims.", "For example, while the exemplary embodiment shown in the drawings has two multi-gate mold cavities, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the same sequential steps can be used to control the flow of molten material into molds having more than two cavities.", "In addition, for molds having more than two cavities, there may be a valve gate associated with each cavity, with each valve gate opened and closed sequentially.", "Alternately, for molds having more than two cavities, there may be fewer valve gates than cavities, as long as there are at least two cavities.", "In this embodiment, at least one of the valve gates would control the inlet to at least two cavities.", "Accordingly, while the present invention has been described herein in relation to several embodiments, the foregoing disclosure is not intended or to be construed to limit the present invention or otherwise to exclude any such other embodiments, arrangements, variations, or modifications and equivalent arrangements.", "Rather, the present invention is limited only by the claims appended hereto and the equivalents thereof." ]

[ "FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a computer program that can create new operator services databases from all or parts of one or more existing operator services databases containing data information for the operation of data and voice audio telecommunication switches.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART The configuration of telecommunication switches usually occurs in at least three environments.", "First, during the testing of switch hardware and software, a laboratory switch is configured to the requirements established for the test.", "Second, when a switch is sold to a customer, the switch is configured to the customer's specifications.", "Third, when a switch experiences a full failure, it often requires reconfiguration of the databases supporting the failed switch or configuration of new databases for an emergency backup switch or replacement switch.", "Normally, the configuration of telecommunication switches during these three environments requires the manual input of thousands and possibly millions of records of information.", "This process is extremely time consuming and can take weeks or months to complete.", "In the first environment, telecommunication companies continually test new versions of switch software, peripheral devices and other hardware devices during the life of a telecommunication switch.", "When testing software or hardware, switch engineers design different operating environments to establish operating parameters of the new software or hardware.", "Data engineers manually input data to configure the operation of the switch for the designed test.", "Usually, the configuration of the testing environment is performed on a data build machine (computer).", "The configuration of the switch to simulate the desired testing operational conditions often involves retesting archived configurations or modified archived configurations.", "Otherwise, the testing configuration is accomplished by manual data entry.", "In the second environment, telecommunication switches sold to customers are configured based on the customer's intended operational conditions and requirements.", "Usually, the configurations for new switches are manually built new data configurations without relying on existing database configurations.", "However, the configuration of the features, switching software and hardware is often adopted from other existing configurations.", "The third operational environment is recovery of the switch after the switch has experienced a failure.", "These failures can result from equipment failure to natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes or fires.", "Recovery of the failed switch sometimes requires the installation of an emergency backup switch.", "The emergency backup switch requires database configurations that replicate the databases in the damaged switch.", "Normally, the configuration of the emergency backup switch requires manual, time consuming input of data that will support specific customer features and routing of calls on the emergency backup switch.", "Having the ability to configure the telecommunication switch by transferring existing data information from known databases into new databases by automating the manual tasks of data entry would save considerable time, money and significantly improve productivity.", "In addition, instant access to many different switching systems is a critical task that currently requires many hours or days of research and manual browsing.", "A need exists for a robust process to automatically replace the current manual method data entry to configure operator services data for telecommunications switches.", "SUMMARY In order to automate the current manual data entry process of engineering operator services configuration databases, the computer program of this invention establishes a new database structure and mines source databases to load source operator services data into the new operator services database structure.", "The computer program is capable of searching for the desired data and automates many of the tasks for configuring a new operator services database from the source databases.", "This eliminates the current requirement for manual data entry for configuring new operator services databases for telecommunication switches.", "This computer program is multifunctional allowing for the browsing of all operator services databases prior to the configuration.", "Once the target operator services databases are determined, the computer program creates a new data directory structure and selectively copies all or part of the data from the source operator services databases into the new database.", "The invention selects the source databases, determines whether the operator services database supports European Transmission Standard Interface (ETSI), Alternate Mark Inversion (AMI), or both and modifies the equipment numbers and network addresses.", "The program removes the operator services positioning system (OSPS) equipment or network addresses for digital subscriber line (DSL) assignments, transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP) DSL equipment, IP addresses to ports information, IP access numbers and ETSI ISDN/OSPS numbers.", "The program modifies the equipment and network addresses with the new data relating to the new location of the equipment numbers and addresses.", "The computer program performs a series of queries regarding the OSPS configuration and extracts the data.", "The data is evolved to the same software release if needed, and loaded into the new OSPS data directory structure.", "This invention provides accurate and timely customer information, significantly decreases the time interval for engineering a new operator services database, decreases the research and data entry time, decreases the interval for lab planning and project management, improves database integrity, provides a cleaner operator services database, reuses existing operator services data eliminating double data entry, reuses some existing software code, use preexisting tools, and provides a platform for future growth and expandability.", "By accomplishing these tasks, the telecommunication switch manufacturer or telecommunication switch operator saves time, money and decreases time-to-market product and service schedules.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The summary of the invention, as well as the following detailed description of preferred embodiments, is better understood when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which are included by way of example, and not by way of limitation with regard to the claimed invention.", "FIG. 1 is a functional flow chart illustrating the logical operations of the main menu of the computer program.", "FIG. 2 illustrates the various hardware components and database types used in conjunction with the computer program.", "FIG. 3 illustrates the operation of the computer program as it builds a new database from parts of other databases.", "FIG. 4 is a flow chart of the overall features exercised in the operation of the computer program.", "FIG. 5 is a flow chart of the logical operation of the computer program.", "FIG. 6 is a flow chart of the browse feature of the computer program.", "FIG. 7 is a flow chart of the dialing plan feature configuration of the computer program.", "FIG. 8 is a flow chart of the build database feature configuration of the computer program.", "FIG. 9 is a flow chart of the build database feature of the computer program.", "FIG. 10 is a flow chart of the operator services feature configuration of the computer program.", "FIG. 11 is a flow chart of the operator services feature configuration of the computer program.", "FIG. 12 is a flow chart of the operator services feature configuration of the computer program.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The following applications are filed concurrently and are also incorporated by reference: 1.", "Method and Apparatus for Creating and Modifying Similar and Dissimilar Databases (U.S. Ser.", "No. 09/053,957) now U.S. Pat. No. 6,108,669.", "Method for Creating and Modifying Similar and Dissimilar Databases for use in Hardware Equipment Configurations for Telecommunication Systems (U.S. Ser.", "No. 09/054,207) now U.S. Pat. No. 6,169,994.", "Method for Creating and Modifying Similar and Dissimilar Databases for use in Dialing Plan Configurations for Telecommunication Systems (U.S. Ser.", "No. 09/054,094).", "Method for Creating and Modifying Similar and Dissimilar Databases for use in Network Configurations for Telecommunication Systems (U.S. Ser.", "No. 09/053,961) now U.S. Pat. No. 6,055,227.", "Method for Creating and Modifying Similar and Dissimilar Databases for use in Private Branch Exchange Configurations for Telecommunication Systems (U.S. Ser.", "No. 09/054,193).", "Method for Creating and Modifying Similar and Dissimilar Databases for use in Intelligent Network Configurations for Telecommunication Systems (U.S. Ser.", "No. 09/054,329).", "Method for Creating and Modifying Similar and Dissimilar Databases for use in GSM Wireless Network Configurations for Telecommunication Systems (U.S. Ser.", "No. 09/054,324).", "FIG. 1 illustrates the logical operation of the main menu of the user interface for the Simple Environment Engineering System (“SEES”) computer program.", "If the SEES program is wrongly selected as the application of choice by the user, the main menu display 10 allows the user to exit 11 the computer program without choosing any of the functions.", "If SEES is selected as the program of choice by the user, from the main menu display 10 , the user can choose seven operations.", "These operations include: about SEES 12 , peripheral interface data bus/peripheral interface control bus (PIDB/PICB) 13 , browse feature 14 , lab configuration document reports 16 , query by unit 18 , create a new database 22 , or engineer an existing database 24 .", "About SEES 12 is documentation about the computer program and the operations and features that a user can implement.", "Peripheral interface data bus (PIDB)/peripheral interface control bus (PICB) 13 allows a user to examine the peripheral units in the switching modules as they are connected to the interface control and data buses.", "The browse feature 14 allows users to view the location and type of data in other databases.", "This feature allows the user to search for and find the desired data prior to generating new data from scratch.", "The lab configuration document reports 16 provide data on all the hardware for a given lab or for a customer's switch.", "Query by unit 18 identifies hardware items, features, signaling types, or other elements of the switch across many databases containing information on lab switches, manufacturers'", "switches, and/or customers'", "switches.", "Query by unit 18 also specifies and conforms targeting specific software releases to common versions.", "The last two operations, create a new database and modify an existing database, have a guard dog authorization screen 20 that prevents entry by unauthorized users into the program.", "Entry by unauthorized users beyond the browse feature impact existing source databases and source data resources.", "Allowing unauthorized users to create and modify existing source databases and source data resources can have severe effects on other operations due to the unintended destruction of valuable data.", "The computer program will query the user or the user's computer for authorization to gain access to those features of the program that allow for the creation or modification of operator services databases or data resources.", "Typical authorized users are data engineers.", "Once the screening process is complete, access is permitted, and another text or graphical user interface menu is displayed that allows the user to select features other than browse.", "From all six of these operations, a user can exit 11 the program.", "The computer program uses all current data environments and employs functions to ensure that different versions of various software databases are converted to a common version.", "SEES provides accurate configuration information to customers on all environments to the switch module.", "SEES uses an office data administration tool called “init-office”", "to insure a clean initial database structure.", "SEES automatically updates the newest office data administration tool issues and environments.", "FIG. 2 illustrates the various hardware components used in conjunction with a telecommunications switch 33 .", "A data build machine 26 is used to create the data information used in the operation of a telecommunications switch 33 .", "The data build machine 26 usually contains or has access to the source databases such the office dependant database 28 , the equipment configuration database 30 , the office data administration tools 32 , and other configuration databases 35 .", "The SEES computer program located on the data build machine 26 relies on various tools or routines to help in the execution of its operation.", "Also connected to the data build machine 26 are a variety of personal computers or work stations 27 .", "The data build machine 26 is also connected to a switch interface processor 25 .", "The switch interface processor 25 is capable of connecting to other data build machines or communication switches 33 .", "The connection 56 between the switch interface processor 25 and other communication switches 33 or data build machines can be a physical link such as a communication line (fiber, coaxial cable, twisted pair, etc.) or a nonphysical link such as transferring tapes or disks containing the data.", "Other communication links include radio frequency (RF) links by satellite transmission of data or wireless transmission of data.", "Many telecommunication switches 33 have redundant administration modules represented by a zero side 34 and a one side 36 .", "The redundant administrative modules 34 and 36 operate such that one of the modules is operating while the other one is on standby.", "If the operating administrative module fails, the module on standby starts operating without causing a loss of services.", "This is also true for the redundant communication modules which have a zero side 38 and a one side 40 .", "The administration modules 34 and 36 and the communication modules 38 and 40 are crossed linked by communication links 42 .", "The cross linking of administration modules 34 and 36 with communication modules 38 and 40 eliminates the interruption of service should one of these modules fail.", "Connected via communication link 44 to the communication modules 38 and 40 are switch modules 46 , 48 , 50 , 52 and 54 .", "Each telecommunication switch 33 has at least one switch module (SM).", "The Lucent Technologies'", "5ESS Switch can currently support up to 192 switch modules connected to the administrative modules 34 and 36 and communication modules 38 and 40 .", "The equipment configuration database 30 contains information regarding the administration modules 34 and 36 and part of the communication modules 38 and 40 (encompassing items corresponding to bracket 58 in FIG. 2 ).", "The equipment configuration database 30 keeps track of all the equipment hardware associated with the telecommunication switch 33 including the various equipment types of the hardware such as tape units, circuit packs, administration module links and disks containing the software versions used in conjunction with the hardware and all associated resources.", "The office dependent database 28 contains information regarding part of the communication modules 38 and 40 and the switch modules 46 , 48 , 50 , 52 and 54 (encompassing items corresponding to bracket 60 in FIG. 2 ).", "The office dependent database 28 is loaded on the memory disk in the administration modules 34 and 36 and is pumped or downloaded into the switch module memory.", "The office dependent database 28 provides call set up, functional feature capability of the switch modules, and defines all switch module hardware configuration information.", "FIG. 3 illustrates the operation of the Simple Environment Engineering System as it builds a new database from parts of other databases.", "In a typical setting, DB- 1 62 contains information regarding features such as rate and routing information.", "DB- 2 64 contains dialing information such as specific switch module configurations and networking rate and routing information.", "DB- 3 66 contains hardware platform information such as additional switch module configurations.", "DB-n 68 are other databases in the data warehouse 70 containing information such as additional features or hardware.", "SEES identification routines browse the data warehouse 70 looking for desired components for reuse.", "In the database section modifier 72 , SEES pulls new components from the various databases in the data warehouse 70 and with some modification such as altering the hardware designations for the software data, SEES creates a new database 74 .", "FIG. 4 illustrates the overall features of SEES.", "“SEES calls”", "100 is a routine that calls other components of the program such as the make menu user interface (mkmenu) routine 110 .", "The SEES'", "user interface allows a user to incorporate a variety of utilities including UNIX, web based languages, directories, databases, office data administration tools, DOS, and other applications.", "The make menu (mkmenu) routine 110 can be set up to use menu driven utilities employing streamlined commands, shortcuts, object menus, pictures or icons.", "From the user interface screen 110 , the user can call functions 111 that implement the various configuration features of the computer program.", "The browse feature 124 restricts users to a read only environment but because of this restriction, allows many more unsophisticated users to use SEES to view the various databases used in the operation of a telecommunication switch 33 .", "For more sophisticated users who have authorization to get past the guard dog 20 , SEES queries as to whether a new database will be created 153 or whether an existing database will be modified 155 .", "Either choice allows the user to select the from the seven configuration scheme features of SEES.", "The first feature of SEES is the hardware engineering module 156 .", "This module includes the equipment configuration block 160 that allows users to examine the properties of the administrative modules 34 and 36 and the communication modules 38 and 40 used in the operation of a telecommunication switch 33 .", "The office dependent database hardware block 162 contains information allowing the communication between the communication modules 38 and 40 and the switch modules 46 , 48 , 50 , 52 and 54 .", "The second feature of SEES is the dialing plan engineering module 158 .", "The dialing plan engineering module 158 includes the feature engineering block 164 , the signal network engineering block 166 and the dialing plan engineering block 168 .", "The feature engineering block 164 pulls existing features from other databases that contain feature definitions with embedded office dependant information into the new environment modified to the new database.", "The signal network engineering module 166 transfers data content regarding signaling information.", "The dialing plan engineering module 168 maps numbers that differentiate the route of the call and defines everything that is not hardware routing, trunking, lines, subscribers, and complete customer calling information.", "The third feature of SEES is the network engineering module 170 .", "The network engineering module 170 includes the signaling system 7 (ss 7 ) block 174 , the NA 7 block 176 , the ISDN user part (ISUP) block 178 , the TUP block 180 and the British Telecom 7 (BT 7 ) block 182 .", "Other blocks can also be added that focus on the international standard of particular countries or particular telecommunication companies.", "The fourth feature of SEES is the operator services feature 172 .", "The operator services feature allows telecommunication switch 33 customers to connect operator services to the telecommunication switch 33 .", "These services include but are not limited to directory assistance, automatic call distributor/distribution, toll and assistance applications, administrator measurements-operator, automated calling card services, automated operator trainer, automatic call distribution (ACD), busy line verification, and emergency alerts.", "The fifth feature of SEES is the private branch exchange module 159 .", "The private branch exchange module 159 is used to configure databases related to private branch exchange networks.", "The sixth feature of the computer program is the intelligent network module 173 .", "The intelligent network module 173 includes the dialing plan module 158 , the hardware engineering module 156 , and the network engineering module 170 .", "These three components should be implemented prior to performing an intelligent network configuration.", "The seventh feature of the computer program is the wireless module 171 .", "The wireless module 171 includes the dialing plan module 158 , the hardware engineering module 156 , and the network engineering module 170 .", "These three components should be implemented prior to performing a wireless configuration.", "FIG. 5 is a flow chart of the logical operation of Simple Environment Engineering System.", "SEES 100 accesses variables 102 by calling the setev routine 106 , the name variable (name_vars) routine 108 and the make menu (mkmenu) routine 110 .", "The setev routine 106 sets the office data administration variables.", "The setev routine 106 also sets the office data administration environmental variables that provides a description of the functionality that setev routine 106 provides.", "The name variable (name_vars) routine 108 sets certain variable values.", "The name variables (name_vars) routine 108 defines legal values 112 for lab, release and enviss.", "Lab is the total testing environment that simulates the product being sold to the customer.", "Release is the hardware, software options (SWOPT), equipment configuration database and the office dependant database relating to the telecommunication switch 33 being used by SEES in the creation 153 or modification 155 of a database.", "The enviss routine is the environment tool version that the office data administration is supporting.", "The make menu (mkmenu) routine 110 sets up the main menu 114 and calls a display variable (disp_vars) routine 116 , then calls any selection made by the user.", "From the make menu (mkmenu) routine 110 , the user can access the loadc_menu routine 120 that expands the parameters or values and allows them to reset lab, release and enviss.", "The make menu (mkmenu) routine 110 also allows the user to access browse 124 , and the create a new database 153 or build an existing database 155 .", "To access either create a new database or build an existing database, the user must first pass a guard dog 20 .", "The guard dog 20 functions as a screen permitting only authorized users into these sensitive areas of the data build machine 26 to either create 153 or modify 155 databases.", "The browse feature 124 allows users to view hardware and software configurations on known telecommunication switches 33 .", "FIG. 6 illustrates the browse feature 124 .", "The browse feature 124 allows the user to select the environment 132 , then calls the display equipment (dis_eq) routine 134 , the display packs (disp_paks) routine 136 , the display features (disp_feat) routine 138 , the display equipment number (disp_ens) routine 140 and the display the test user guide (disp_tug) routine 142 .", "The display equipment (dis_eq) routine 134 displays all switch module and unit configuration within the switch module.", "The dumpdf routine 135 is used on all eq* forms (equipment related data) 137 in the selected circuit packs.", "The display packs (disp_pak) routine 136 displays all circuit packs 144 and their locations.", "The display packs (disp_paks) routine 136 uses dumpdf 135 after extracting the appropriate data to view from the office data administration makefdt command 146 .", "The display feature (disp_feat) routine 138 displays the feature information based on specific hardcoded selections by accessing the mapped relations (data structures) 148 .", "If the mapped relations (data structures) 148 are missing or removed, a message 150 will display indicating this condition.", "The display equipment number (disp_ens) routine 140 displays all equipment numbers by cutting the line equipment numbers 152 out of the data structures 154 and optionally, converts them using the len 2 port command 103 under oddtools/bin 101 .", "T he display test user guide (disp_tug) routine 142 , an optional routine, automates the test environment user guide 161 .", "FIG. 7 illustrates the dialing plan configuration (dp_config) routine.", "The user is prompted for the target “base&control”", "181 .", "Base&control is the location where the new database is created and manipulated.", "If the user responds yes 183 , then the computer program calls the office data administration tool init-office 185 .", "Init-office 185 builds a database structure containing no data.", "Init-office 185 calls an office data administration tool that confirms that the correct version of vars 108 is running.", "If the user responds no 187 , then the computer program searches 189 all of the office dependent databases.", "This function will show only one selected source environment Then it will determine those data elements in the data elements database that are empty 191 .", "It will then display all data elements as a menu.", "The computer program then selects the data elements to load 193 and takes all choices and loads them into the new database structure 195 .", "As the load process continues, all messages 197 will show on the screen then the last menu will request input for ending the dialing plan configuration 199 .", "FIG. 8 illustrates the build database feature.", "The user is prompted for the target “base&control”", "201 .", "From the response to the new location 203 , then the computer program calls the office data administration tool init-office 205 .", "The init-office routine 205 builds a database structure containing no data.", "The init-office routine calls 205 an office data administration tool that confirms that the correct version of vars is running.", "If the user responds no 207 , then the computer program searches 209 all of the office dependent databases.", "This function will show all features and display all switching module configurations available to load into the data elements 211 .", "The program will then allow the user to select those switching modules to load in the new data structure 213 .", "The program takes all the user selected choices and loads them into the new database structure 215 .", "As the load process continues, all messages 217 will show on the screen then the last menu will request input for ending the dialing plan configuration 219 .", "FIG. 9 illustrates the osps_config feature 280 that is used to engineer the operator services data by using data from existing source databases.", "The objective is to transfer operator services configuration from one configuration to another.", "The user will have to select the type of switching network signaling being used, the global switch modules, the new point code locations, and trunk equipment numbers.", "SEES will transfer the data from one hardware platform to another while reconfiguring the network to its new environment.", "The user starts from the engineering/create database feature.", "After selecting the osps_config feature 280 , the user will use the dialing plan and network engineering features.", "Data is engineered from the office data administration tool data elements directly into the selected “base&control”", "or database location.", "The user is then required to input the target database 282 .", "Call initoffice routine 284 checks for an existing target database and queries the user as to whether that database should be removed or whether new data will be added to the existing database.", "If new data is added, the existing database remains unchanged.", "The computer program calls the display variables (dis_vars) routine 286 to set and display selected variables such as lab, office data administration tool version.", "SEES does this task by using the env_menu routine to select the data from preexisting databases.", "Once found, this data is engineered into the target database.", "SEES then returns to the osps_config feature 280 to obtain a list of special network data elements from the selected source database or “base&control.”", "Only those data elements with containing data are shown as a selection.", "The operator services configuration feature 280 shows all the data elements block 288 from the source database and allows the user to select the individual data elements manually.", "This task is accomplished from a menu type screen with each form dynamically identified and selected by a number.", "The computer program then copies or dumps the user selected data elements into the target database or “base&control.”", "All data elements are error checked prior to the execution of the dump or copy.", "If the operation is an append to an existing database, then SEES dumps to an existing form.", "The formxfer routine is then called.", "The evlchg routine 290 takes one argument and the argument passed is the filename of the script that will be used to make the data changes when the evolve tool is executed.", "SEES then calls the evl_form routine 292 .", "The evl_form routine 292 takes two arguments.", "The first argument passed is the office data administration tool form name and the second argument is the filename where the contents of the office data administration tool form was dumped.", "This routine will check to see if there is a possible office data administration tool evolve to go between the two required generics and will perform all necessary step evolves to accomplish the tasks.", "The data elements block 288 proceeds to the formxfer block 294 .", "The formxfer block 294 uses the dfixfer block 296 to calculate the new trunk members in accordance with the new operator services or lab configuration form user assigned OSPS equipment numbers.", "It will also differentiate information for the DSL assignments, TCP/IP DSL equipment, IP addresses to ports information, IP access numbers, and ETSI ISDN OSPS.", "The program dynamically writes an evolve script, provided an evolution pathway exists.", "This provides the manipulation of the data.", "The dfixfer block 296 .", "The program then returns to osps_config after the evolve/transfer is completed.", "The osps_xfer routine 298 calculates the new OSPS equipment numbers in accordance with the new operator services or lab configuration from the user assigned information.", "The ck_psu routine 300 will check all available resources on the PSU's for room to support the transitioned links.", "SEES then returns the user to osps_config after the evolve/transfer is completed.", "The user is then prompted as to whether the user wants to exit 302 or return to the main menu.", "FIG. 10 illustrates the process of engineering a new operator services configuration database or data resource from at least one source database or source data resource.", "The user calls and starts 1400 the computer program.", "The computer program can be located on one machine (a computer device) or multiple machines virtually connected via a network file share capability allowing all the virtual machines to appear as one machine and containing all existing source databases or source data resources.", "In the main menu of the computer program, a text or graphical user interface presents the main menu to the user allowing the user to select whether to browse existing source databases and source data resources or whether the user desires to create a new source database or engineer (modify) an existing source database from all or parts of other existing source databases or source data resources.", "When the user selects the operator services engineering feature, the user is required to select the location of the new operator services database 1402 .", "Selecting means selecting an item from a menu or inputting information such that the computer can react to the instruction.", "In addition, the user must select whether the new or modified operator services database should be located on the same machine (computer) or a virtual machine (computer), should the operator services database be created or modified, and whether the operator services database should be inclusively updated.", "The location of the new database 1402 is confirmed 1404 with the user and if the confirmation is not correct, the computer program allows the user to reselect a different location 1402 .", "The computer program searches or checks the node or location where the user intends for the new or modified operator services database to be located.", "This node check will confirm the actual location of the operator services database, and whether the node is free 1406 on the desired machine (computer).", "The computer program confirms whether the selected location of the new database is empty of existing data 1406 .", "If the response from the user is yes, the computer program creates a new operator services directory structure 1408 .", "If the response is no, the program allows the user to delete the existing database 1410 .", "If the database is deleted, the program removes the database structure 1412 and creates a new operator services directory structure 1408 .", "The operator services directory structure can be created to hold similar and dissimilar size data as compared to the source databases.", "If the existing database structure is not deleted, or the program created a new operator services directory structure, the computer program then allows the user to select the qualifying source databases available for use 1414 .", "The source databases might have access utilities to assist the in the configuration of a new database.", "The computer program then selects qualifying existing source data resources using the user set criteria in input when the user was prompted to select the lab, machine (computer), site, customer name, and software release.", "The computer program requires the user to select and input certain elements regarding the characteristics desired in the new operator services database to be created in order to search existing source databases and source data resources for existing data.", "For example, the user will be prompted to select the lab, the computer or machine, the site location of the new or modified operator services database, the customer name, the software release, and the version of the source database or source data resource.", "The program creates an index of pointers 1416 to the source databases and displays 1418 the choices of databases containing operator services position system (OSPS) configurations.", "The computer program queries the user as to whether the desired new operator services configuration will support European Transmission Standard Interface (ETSI) 1424 , alternate mark inversion (AMI) 1428 , or both 1420 .", "If the new database supports both ETSI and AMI, the computer program accesses a data structure that will support both 1422 .", "If the new database supports only ETSI, the computer program accesses a data structure that will support ETSI 1426 .", "If the new database supports only AMI, the computer program accesses a data structure that will support AMI 1430 .", "Connector A 1432 connects FIG. 10 with FIG. 11 .", "The computer program queries whether any configuration exists 1434 to support the new database.", "If not, the user is returned to the main menu 1436 .", "If a configuration was selected, the user selects the OSPS database element locations in the source databases 1438 .", "The computer program queries whether the new database has a similarly configured OSPS hardware configuration 1440 .", "If not, the computer program allows the user to manually configure 1442 a new OSPS hardware configuration.", "If the new database contains a similarly configured OSPS hardware configuration, the computer program uses a best fit algorithm 1444 to compare the packet handling resources, digital line equipment, and digital facility resources.", "The computer program modifies the equipment numbers and network addresses 1446 .", "Then it removes OSPS equipment numbers or network addresses for the equipment for digital subscriber line (DSL) assignments, TCP/IP DSL equipment, IP addresses to ports information, IP access numbers, and ETSI ISDN/OSPS.", "The computer program performs a series of queries that if required engineers the item in the query.", "The computer program prompts the user whether authorized calling numbers are needed 1448 and if the response is yes, the program engineers authorized calling numbers 1450 .", "The computer program prompts the user whether booking priorities and codes are needed 1452 and if the response is yes, the program engineers the booking priorities and codes 1454 .", "The computer program prompts the user whether announced text patterns and line code digit information are needed 1456 and if the response is yes, the program engineers the announced text patterns and line code digit information 1458 .", "The computer program prompts the user whether operator assignments are needed 1460 and if the response is yes, the program engineers the operator assignments 1462 .", "Connector B 1464 connects FIG. 11 and FIG. 12 together.", "The computer program prompts the user whether OSPS office options are needed 1466 and if the response is yes, the program engineers the OSPS office options 1468 .", "The computer program prompts the user whether operator service center to office administration processor number mapping is needed 1470 and if the response is yes, the program engineers the operator service center to office administration processor number mapping 1472 .", "The computer program prompts the user whether operator queue determinations are needed 1474 and if the response is yes, the program engineers the operator queue determinations 1476 .", "The computer program prompts the user whether country code and international routing numbers are needed 1478 and if the response is yes, the program engineers the country code and international routing numbers 1480 .", "The computer program prompts the user whether expanded operator queue determinations are needed 1482 and if the response is yes, the program engineers the expanded operator queue determinations 1484 .", "The computer program extracts the data 1486 and the user selects the specific set of elements for the new database 1488 .", "The computer program determines if this format is the same version or release as the new database structure 1490 .", "This is accomplished by matching the selected criteria in the software release with the new or existing software release of the directory structure and name.", "If the format is not the same, the computer program determines if evolutionary pathways exist 1491 .", "If the evolutionary pathways do not exist, the computer program aborts 1492 .", "If the evolutionary pathways exist 1491 , the program calls an evolution tool 1493 , to modify the saved data so that consistency with the new location is maintained.", "If the format is the same version or release as the new database structure 1490 , or after the evolution of data has occurred 1493 , the data is error checked 1494 .", "The program dynamically manipulates and modifies the data 1498 .", "All selected operator services data that is saved is loaded 1495 or merged into a new or existing operator services data resource using a platform utility that converts the data from an ASCII format to a binary format and loads the data into the database.", "The computer program displays 1496 all the statistics on the data elements as they are being loaded into the selected location.", "In addition, the computer program displays errors, updates, non-updates to the selected location data resource.", "The computer program then allows the user to return to the main menu or quit, (exit the program) 1497 .", "Please note that while the specification in this invention has been described in relation to certain preferred embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the invention is capable of alternative embodiments and that certain embodiments described in this invention can be varied considerably without departing from the basic scope and principles of the invention." ]

[ "BACKGROUND 1.", "Technical Field The present disclosure relates to structures of insulated-gate transistors, for example, MOS transistors.", "More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a method for manufacturing such a transistor providing a step of adjustment of the transistor threshold voltage.", "Description of the Related Art Many MOS transistors manufacturing methods are known.", "To decrease transistor dimensions, it has been provided to replace the gate insulator of the MOS transistors with insulators of high dielectric constant.", "It has also been provided to adjust the threshold voltage of such transistors, at the end of the manufacturing of their insulated gates, by performing a controlled anneal, which enables the diffusion of atoms modifying this threshold voltage.", "FIG. 1 schematically illustrates such a method.", "In the upper portion of a semiconductor substrate 10 are formed insulating trenches 12 which enable to insulate the different electronic components formed at the surface of substrate 10 from one another.", "For example, in the case of MOS transistors, trenches 12 delimit the channel regions of the transistors.", "Trenches 12 generally are trenches known as “STI”, for Shallow Trench Isolation, formed of silicon oxide.", "In practice, the insulating trenches are formed by etching of the upper surface of semiconductor substrate 10 and deposition of an insulating material in the openings defined by etching.", "A polishing, for example, a chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP), is then performed to only leave the insulating material in the openings.", "Insulated gate T of a MOS transistor, formed at the surface of a channel region delimited by trenches 12 , comprises a stack of several insulating layers, topped with several conductive layers.", "In the shown example, this gate comprises a stack of a first insulating layer 14 , of a second heavily-insulating layer 16 , of a layer 18 of a material having atoms capable of diffusing towards the insulating material, of a layer of a conductive material 20 , and of an upper conductive layer 22 on which is taken the transistor gate contact.", "Conventionally, first insulating layer 14 , as close as possible to semiconductor substrate 10 , is made of silicon oxide or of silicon oxynitride.", "This layer is provided to obtain a good interface with the semiconductor material of substrate 10 , and generally has a small thickness, on the order of one nanometer.", "Heavily-insulating layer 16 is made of a material having a high dielectric constant (known as “high-K”).", "Among such high-K materials, hafnium oxide (HfO 2 ) or hafnium oxynitride (HfSiON) can for example be mentioned.", "Other high-K alloys are known.", "Layer 18 performs a specific function to adjust the transistor threshold voltage.", "This layer may for example be made of lanthanum, of aluminum, of magnesium, of dysprosium, or more generally of a material from the category of rare earths, or of an alloy comprising one or several of these materials.", "When the structure is annealed, lanthanum, aluminum, magnesium, dysprosium atoms of layer 18 diffuse towards the interface between insulating layers 14 and 16 to form a silicate, for example, a lanthanum silicate.", "This diffusion enables to adjust the transistor threshold voltage, since the material having diffused generates dipoles at the interface between layers 14 and 16 , which modify this threshold voltage.", "The threshold voltage adjustment depends on the thickness of diffusion layer 18 , on the anneal duration and temperature of the structure.", "The upper layers 20 and 22 of the insulated gate are layers conventional in the forming of MOS transistors, and will not be detailed any further herein.", "As an example, layer 20 may be made of a metal such as titanium nitride and layer 22 may be made of polysilicon.", "In the case of an association of MOS transistors of different types on a same substrate, different gate structures are generally provided for these transistors, the diffusing layer being placed in the gate stack at different levels for a proper adjustment of the threshold voltage.", "BRIEF SUMMARY An embodiment provides a method for manufacturing insulated-gate transistors.", "More specifically, an embodiment provides a method for manufacturing insulated-gate transistors having a threshold voltage adjustable during the manufacturing, while limiting unwanted diffusion phenomena, this method providing the forming of specific insulating trenches.", "Thus, an embodiment provides a method for defining an insulating layer in a semiconductor substrate, including forming a trench in the substrate, forming in the trench an insulating material having its upper surface arranged above the surface of the substrate, and forming, in a portion of the insulating material located above the surface of the semiconductor substrate, a diffusion barrier layer.", "According to an embodiment, the method comprises defining a mask at the surface of the substrate having an opening in front of the trench.", "According to an embodiment, the insulating material is silicon oxide.", "According to an embodiment, the diffusion barrier layer is made of silicon carboxide.", "According to an embodiment, forming the diffusion barrier layer includes depositing a stack having a carbon layer, a layer capable of providing oxygen atoms, and an encapsulation layer, followed by an anneal step.", "According to an embodiment, deposition of the stack is preceded by etching the mask to decrease its thickness.", "According to an embodiment, the layer capable of providing oxygen atoms is a titanium nitride or titanium layer, and the encapsulation layer is a silicon layer.", "According to an embodiment, the diffusion barrier layer is formed by implanting carbon atoms in the insulating material.", "According to an embodiment, implanting carbon atoms is preceded by etching a portion of the insulating material to decrease its thickness.", "An embodiment further provides a device comprising a semiconductor substrate in which is defined at least one insulating area, comprising a diffusion barrier layer which extends, in the insulating area, above the surface of the semiconductor substrate.", "An embodiment further provides a MOS transistor formed on a device such as hereabove, further comprising, at the surface of the semiconductor substrate and close to at least one insulating area, a gate comprising at least one first insulating layer of high dielectric constant topped with at least one second layer comprising atoms capable of diffusing towards the first layer.", "The foregoing and other features and advantages will be discussed in detail in the following non-limiting description of specific embodiments in connection with the accompanying drawings.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 , previously described, illustrates a method for forming a known insulated-gate transistor of adjustable threshold voltage;", "FIGS. 2 , 3 A, and 3 B illustrate a problem of unwanted diffusion which disturbs the adjustment of the threshold voltage of an insulated-gate transistor formed by known methods;", "and FIGS. 4A to 4E illustrate results of steps of a method for manufacturing insulating trenches and a MOS transistor according to a first embodiment;", "and FIGS. 5A to 5E illustrate results of steps of a method for manufacturing insulating trenches and a MOS transistor according to a second embodiment.", "For clarity, the same elements have been designated with the same reference numerals in the different drawings and, further, as usual in the representation of integrated electronic components, the various drawings are not to scale.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION The method for adjusting the threshold voltage of a MOS transistor by diffusion of diffusing atoms originating from a layer formed above the insulating region of the insulated gate is often of poor efficiency in practice.", "Indeed, the anneal step enabling the diffusion of the atoms of layer 18 towards the interface between layers 14 and 16 also causes many unwanted diffusions in the structure, which disturb the adjustment.", "There thus is a need for a method for forming a MOS transistor with an adjustable threshold voltage during the manufacturing method, limiting unwanted diffusions which disturb this adjustment.", "The present inventors have noted that, during the diffusion step enabling to adjust the threshold voltage of a MOS transistor such as in FIG. 1 , unwanted diffusions occur and cause unwanted variations of this threshold voltage.", "Such unwanted diffusions are caused by parasitic diffusion agents.", "In particular, the diffusion is accelerated by the presence of silicon and of oxygen.", "Indeed, since the forming of a silicate is thermodynamically favorable, areas containing silicon and oxygen, in particular, attract diffusing agents.", "FIGS. 2 , 3 A, and 3 B illustrate a source of such parasitic diffusion agents.", "More specifically, FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of the structure of FIG. 1 , at the interface between insulated gate T and insulating trenches 12 .", "As illustrated in this drawing, the insulating trenches being in practice bowl-shaped with rounded edges.", "This shape implies that a region of the gate stack is located in front of thin insulating portions of trenches 12 .", "FIG. 2 shows two cross-section axes of the gate stack, at A 1 -A 2 and B 1 -B 2 .", "FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate the distribution of the different materials of this stack along these cross-sections, in the case where layer 16 is made of hafnium oxide, layer 18 comprises lanthanum atoms, and substrate 10 is made of silicon.", "The first cross-section A 1 -A 2 is formed vertically in front of the edge of insulating trench 12 , and the second cross-section B 1 -B 2 is formed vertically on a portion of the gate stack distant from insulating trench 12 .", "FIGS. 3A and 3B show the silicon (Si), hafnium (Hf), and lanthanum (La) concentrations along cross-section lines A 1 -A 2 and B 1 -B 2 , after the anneal step enabling to diffuse lanthanum towards the interface between layers 14 and 16 .", "As can be seen in the curves, the amount of lanthanum which has diffused at the interface between layers 14 and 16 is smaller at the level of cross-section A 1 -A 2 than at the level of cross-section B 1 -B 2 .", "During the diffusion, a large number of lanthanum atoms which should have been fixed at the interface between layers 14 and 16 , have leaked.", "The migration of the diffusing atoms towards trenches 12 modifies the MOS transistor threshold voltage in unwanted fashion.", "FIGS. 4A to 4E , and 5 A to 5 E, illustrate results of steps of two variations of a method for manufacturing at least one MOS transistor insulation trench, enabling to limit the above-described unwanted diffusions.", "FIGS. 4A to 4D and 5 A to 5 D are simplified drawings of the methods provided herein, and FIGS. 4E and 5E illustrate results obtained in practice by the two methods provided herein.", "At the step illustrated in FIG. 4A , it is started from a device comprising a semiconductor substrate 30 on which is formed a mask 32 comprising one or several openings at the level of insulating trenches to be defined in the substrate.", "As an example, mask 32 may be made of silicon nitride (Si 3 N 4 ).", "An etching has been performed to define a trench 34 in the semiconductor substrate 30 , at the level of the openings formed in mask 32 .", "At the step illustrated in FIG. 4B , opening 34 has been filled with an insulating material.", "Material 36 may be formed by deposition or by growth on substrate 30 .", "As an example, material 36 may be made of silicon oxide.", "Due to the deposition or to the growth, the surface of material 36 is located above the surface of semiconductor substrate 30 .", "At the step illustrated in FIG. 4C , the upper surface of insulating material 36 has been etched so that the resulting material 36 ′ has its surface located above the surface of semiconductor substrate 30 , but with a low level difference.", "This etching may be performed by any known method.", "At the step illustrated in FIG. 4D , atoms have been implanted in material 36 ′ to form a barrier layer against the unwanted diffusion.", "For example, carbon atoms are implanted to form a silicon carboxide layer 38 (SiOC) in material 36 ′.", "Layer 38 is parallel to the surface of substrate 30 , and is located above the surface of semiconductor substrate 30 , at the border thereof.", "The carbon atom implantation power is adjusted to obtain this distribution in material 36 ′ and so that the carbon atoms implanted on the portion of the structure protected by the mask do not cross mask 32 and do not penetrate into the upper surface of substrate 30 .", "Indeed, the implantation of carbon atoms in semiconductor substrate 30 is generally not desired, and even less at the level of future active MOS transistor areas, such an implantation altering the operation of the electronic components defined on the substrate.", "As an example, the atom implantation power may range between 1 and 10 keV, and the dose of implanted atoms may typically range from 10 13 to 10 17 atoms.", "Such parameters enable to adjust the implantation depth between 10 and 100 nm.", "Thus, the implementation of the steps of FIGS. 4C and 4D implies a monitoring due to the fact that the carbon atoms are implanted in material 36 ′ just above the surface of substrate 30 and are not implanted in substrate 30 .", "It should be noted that the etch step described hereabove in relation with FIG. 4C may be optional if the thickness of mask 32 is sufficient for an implantation in material 36 ′ to cause no implantation in substrate 30 , through mask 32 .", "The step illustrated in FIG. 4E is a final step of the forming of a MOS transistor on substrate 30 , comprising trenches defined according to the method of FIGS. 4A to 4D .", "After having removed mask 32 , for example, by chemical etching, layers forming an insulated gate having an adjustable threshold voltage are formed at the surface of the obtained device.", "In the shown example, gate T formed at the surface of substrate 10 is identical to the gate described in relation with FIG. 1 , that is, it comprises a first insulating bonding layer 14 , a high-K insulating layer 16 , a layer 18 comprising atoms capable of diffusing towards the interface between layers 14 and 16 , a first conductive layer 20 , and a second conductive layer 22 .", "It should be noted that, in practice, the insulating trenches are generally bowl-shaped with rounded edges.", "The method provided herein is more specifically adapted to such a trench configuration.", "The layers forming gate T partly extend over two trenches 12 , thus delimiting the MOS transistor channel region, formed according to the method described in relation with FIGS. 4A to 4D .", "Advantageously, the forming of barrier layers 38 in the insulating material of trenches 12 enables to limit unwanted diffusions.", "Indeed, barrier layers 38 enable to slow down the diffusion of diffusing atoms and of oxygen in the structure (as illustrated by arrows in FIG. 4E ), and makes the silicate-forming chemical reaction less favorable.", "FIGS. 5A to 5E illustrate results of steps of a variation of a method for manufacturing MOS transistor insulating trenches, enabling to limit unwanted diffusions.", "At the step illustrated in FIG. 5A , it is started from a device such as that in FIG. 4B , comprising a semiconductor substrate 30 on which is formed a mask 32 comprising at least one opening at the level of insulating trenches to be defined in substrate 30 .", "An etching has been performed to define a trench in semiconductor substrate 30 , at the level of the openings in mask 32 , and the trench has been filled with an insulating material 36 .", "At the step illustrated in FIG. 5B , the upper surface of mask 32 has been etched to thin the mask and only leave a lower portion 32 ′ thereof.", "This etching is performed so that the upper surface of mask 32 ′ is located under the upper level of insulating material 36 .", "At the step illustrated in FIG. 5C , a stack of layers for example comprising a first carbon layer 40 , a second layer 42 having its atoms forming an oxygen source, for example, a titanium or titanium nitride layer, and a third encapsulation layer 44 , for example, made of silicon, have been formed all over the structure of FIG. 5B .", "As a variation, layer 40 may be a layer of any material comprising carbon atoms, for example, an SiC, SiCN, SiOCN, TaC layer, layer 42 may be made of any material comprising oxygen atoms, for example, titanium oxide or tantalum oxide.", "It should be noted that encapsulation layer 44 is optional, and may also be made of silicon nitride or silicon oxide.", "The structure is then annealed.", "This anneal combines the oxygen atoms present in layer 42 and the carbon atoms of layer 40 to form carbon monoxide CO, and then combines the formed carbon monoxide with the surface of material 36 .", "FIG. 5D illustrates the result obtained after this anneal, layers 40 , 42 , and 44 having been removed.", "The removal of layers 40 , 42 , and 44 may be implemented by any known adapted etching, for example, a chemical etching based on TMAH (tetra-methylammonium hydroxide), N 4 OH (ammonium hydroxide), or again HF/HNO 3 (hydrofluoric acid/nitric acid).", "The anneal forms, at the surface of material 36 located above mask 32 ′, a silicon carboxide (SiOC) encapsulation layer 46 .", "This layer forms a barrier against parasitic diffusion agents, and thus against diffusion.", "At the step illustrated in FIG. 5E , an etching, for example, a chemical etching, has been performed to remove mask 32 ′.", "An insulated gate T having a threshold voltage that can be adjusted by anneal has then been formed at the surface of substrate 30 .", "Gate T formed at the surface of substrate 10 is identical to the gate described in relation with FIG. 1 , that is, it comprises a first insulating bonding layer 14 , a high-K insulating layer 16 , a layer 18 comprising atoms capable of diffusing towards the interface between layers 14 and 16 , a first conductive layer 20 , and a second conductive layer 22 .", "The layers forming gate T partly extend over two trenches 12 , delimiting the MOS transistor channel region, formed according to the method described in relation with FIGS. 5A to 5D .", "Advantageously, the forming of SiOC barrier layer 46 at the surface of the insulating material of trenches 12 enables to limit unwanted diffusions (as illustrated by arrows in FIG. 5E ).", "Further, the forming of a barrier layer 46 having edges which do not reach the surface of semiconductor substrate 30 enables to avoid for carbon atoms to propagate in semiconductor substrate 30 and to damage the active area of the MOS transistor.", "Thus, the two methods provided herein provide the forming, in the high portion of insulating trenches defined in a semiconductor substrate 30 , of a barrier layer 38 / 46 enabling to limit unwanted diffusions of atoms during the adjustment of the threshold voltage of such MOS transistors.", "The methods provided herein thus ensure a diffusion of the atoms of layer 18 towards the interface between layers 14 and 16 , which is of good quality and uniform over the entire surface of the insulated gate.", "Specific embodiments of the present disclosure have been described.", "Various alterations and modifications will occur to those skilled in the art.", "In particular, a specific MOS transistor gate structure T, having a manufacturing method which provides an adjustment of the threshold voltage by an atom diffusion, has been described herein.", "It should be noted that the methods described herein can be adapted to the forming of insulating trenches in the substrate in relation with any MOS transistor gate structure having a manufacturing process which implies a step of diffusion and adjustment of the threshold voltage.", "Various embodiments with different variations have been described hereabove.", "It should be noted that those skilled in the art may combine various elements of these various embodiments and variations to provide further embodiments, without showing any inventive step.", "In particular, a combination of the methods of FIGS. 4A to 4E and 5 A to 5 E is possible, the result of such a method being the obtaining of insulating trenches simultaneously comprising a barrier layer 38 at the surface of substrate 30 in material 32 and a barrier layer 46 at the surface of material 32 .", "It should be noted that methods enabling the formation of a diffusion barrier layer ( 38 , 46 ) by implantation of carbon atoms in the trenches have been discussed herein.", "It should be noted that it may as a variation be provided to perform an implantation of nitride, boron, or phosphorus atoms in the insulating trenches to form the diffusion barrier.", "Such alterations, modifications, and improvements are intended to be part of this disclosure, and are within the spirit and the scope of the present disclosure.", "Accordingly, the foregoing description is by way of example only and is not intended to be limiting.", "The various embodiments described above can be combined to provide further embodiments.", "These and other changes can be made to the embodiments in light of the above-detailed description.", "In general, in the following claims, the terms used should not be construed to limit the claims to the specific embodiments disclosed in the specification and the claims, but should be construed to include all possible embodiments along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.", "Accordingly, the claims are not limited by the disclosure." ]

[ "CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to provisional patent application Ser.", "No. 60/295,932 filed Jun. 5, 2001, to provisional patent application Ser.", "No. 60/305,007 filed Jul. 12, 2001, and to provisional patent application Ser.", "No. 60/369,726 filed Apr. 4, 2002;", "the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION As is known in the art, there is a trend to reduce the size of semiconductor devices, integrated circuits and microcircuit modules while at the same time having the devices, circuits and modules perform more functions.", "To achieve this size reduction and increased functionality, it is necessary to include a greater number of active circuits, such as transistors for example, in a given unit area.", "As a consequence of this increased functionality and dense packaging of active devices, such devices, circuits and modules (hereinafter collectively referred to as “circuits”) use increasingly more power.", "Such power is typically dissipated as heat generated by the circuits.", "This increased heat generation coupled with the need for circuits to have increasingly smaller sizes has led to an increase in the amount of heat generated in a given unit area.", "To further exacerbate the problem, the circuits are often densely mounted on printed circuit boards.", "This increase in the amount of heat generated in a given unit area has led to a demand to increase the rate at which heat is transferred away from the circuits in order to prevent the circuits from becoming damaged or destroyed due to exposure to excessive heat.", "To increase the amount of heat that such circuits can withstand, the circuits can include internal heat pathways which channel or otherwise direct heat away from the most heat-sensitive regions of the circuits.", "Although this internal heat pathway technique increases the amount of heat which the circuits can withstand while still operating, one problem with this internal heat pathway technique is that the amount of heat generated by the circuits themselves often can exceed the amount of self-generated heat which the circuits can successfully expel as they are caused to operate at higher powers.", "Furthermore, other heat generating circuit components mounted on printed circuit boards proximate the circuits of interest further increase the difficulty with which heat can be removed from heat sensitive circuits.", "Thus, to increase the rate at which heat is transferred away from the circuits, a heatsink is typically attached to the circuits.", "Such heatsinks typically include a base from which project fins or pins.", "The fins or pins are typically provided by metal extrusion, stamping or other mechanical manufacturing techniques.", "The heatsinks conduct and radiate heat away from the heat generating and thermally vulnerable regions of circuits.", "To further promote the heat removal process, fans are typically disposed adjacent the heatsink to blow or otherwise force air or gas through the sides of the fins or pins of the heatsink.", "One problem with this approach, however, is that the amount of air or other gas which a fan or blower can force through the heatsink fins/pins is limited due to the significant blockage of gas flow pathways due to the fins/pins themselves.", "Furthermore, in a densely populated printed circuit board (PCB) or multi-circuit module (MCM), other circuit components and mechanical structures required to provide or mount the PCB or module present additional blockage to gas pathways and also limits the amount of gas flow through the heatsink thus limiting the effectiveness of the heatsink.", "Thus, the ability of such conventional heatsinks and heatsink fan assemblies is limited and is not sufficient to remove heat as rapidly as necessary to ensure reliable operation of state of the art devices, circuits and modules having increased thermal cooling requirements.", "It would, therefore, be desirable to provide a heat removal system which requires a relatively small surface area for mounting and which is capable of removing an amount of heat which is greater than the amount of heat removed by conventional heatsinks requiring a like amount of surface area.", "It would be further desirable to provide a method and apparatus for producing a heatsink member as part of the heat removal system, and to provide such a member in a cost-effective and repeatable manner.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with the present invention, a heat removal system includes a heatsink having a base and a plurality of heat conducting folded fin members projecting from a first surface of the base and arranged to leave an open space on the first surface of the base.", "At least one thermally conductive slug projects from the center of the fin members.", "A gas circulating system (e.g. a fan) is disposed over the slug and fin members.", "With his particular arrangement, a heat removal system (a fan-heat sink assembly) which rapidly removes heat from devices, circuits and modules including high power CPU chips and custom ASICS is provided.", "By disposing the gas circulating system above the base and the thermally conductive slug and fins, the gas circulating system increases the amount of gas flow through and around the heat conducting members and thermally conductive plate.", "In a preferred embodiment, the gas circulating system blows gas downward toward a PC board on which a heat generating device is disposed.", "The folded fin members and slug provide increased heat sinking capability.", "In one embodiment, the folded fin heat sink members are arranged in a circular shape and are attached to a surface of a central slug having a right circular cylinder shape and disposed in the center of the circle formed by the folded fin members.", "The gas circulating system may be provided as a fan or squirrel cage type blower.", "In some embodiments it may be preferable to position the gas circulating system below, rather than above the base plate.", "In such embodiments, the base plate should have one or more openings therein to allow the passage and flow of gas through and around the thermally conductive members and thermally conductive plate.", "The assembly will be self aligning and self jigging and the attachment means can be by soldering in a belt furnace.", "The heatsink assembly folded fin member may be arranged to provide a plurality of fins and troughs.", "The sidewall of a fin is provided with at least one aperture.", "The top surface of the fin is closed, thereby permitting the fin to operate as a plenum of sorts.", "Different aperture patterns, shapes, and sizes are provided to produce the desired cooling for a particular application.", "The apertures may be provided on only a single sidewall of the fin, or may be provided on both sidewalls of the fin.", "The bottom of the troughs may also be closed.", "A method of producing the folded fin heatsink member is also disclosed.", "A piece of material is provided having a plurality of holes disposed therein.", "The material is aligned between a stripper plate and an upper die.", "Next a fold is punched into the material with a die block and a fin forming punch.", "The folded piece is retracted from an upper die and the process repeated until the desired number of fins has been produced.", "Then the folded fins are separated from the unformed material, thereby providing the folded fin member.", "The apparatus for forming the folded fin member comprises an upper die having a recess formed therein, the upper die being movable between a first upper die position and a second upper die position.", "The apparatus further includes a pilot pin movably disposed within said upper die and a stripper plate disposed below said upper die and having an aperture disposed there through.", "The stripper plate is capable of supporting the piece of material being formed into the folded fin heatsink member.", "A die block is disposed beneath the stripper plate, with the die block movable between a first die block position and a second die block position.", "The apparatus further includes a forming punch extending from said die block and movable through the aperture in the stripper plate and into the recess of the upper die.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention will be better understood by reference to the following more detailed description and accompanying drawings in which: FIG. 1 is a side view of a heat removal system;", "FIG. 2 is a top view of a heat removal system;", "FIG. 3 is a bottom view of a heat removal system;", "FIG. 4 is an end view of a folded fin members disposed on a base plate.", "FIG. 5 is an isometric view of the heatsink assembly of the present invention;", "FIG. 6 is a sectional view of a fin showing apertures extending through both sidewalls of the fin;", "FIG. 7 is a sectional view of a fin showing apertures extending through a single sidewall of the fin;", "FIG. 8 is sectional view showing an aperture in which the material is displaced away from the sidewall of a fin.", "FIG. 9A is a top view of an oval folded fin member attached to a circular base;", "FIG. 9B is a side view of the folded fin member of FIG. 9A;", "FIG. 9C is a bottom view of the folded fin member of FIG. 9A;", "FIG. 10A is a top view of a folded fin member attached to a square base;", "FIG. 10B is a side view of the folded fin member of FIG. 10A;", "FIG. 10C is a bottom view of the folded fin member of FIG. 10A;", "FIG. 11 is a flow chart of the present method for providing a folded fin heatsink member;", "FIG. 12 is a block diagram of the apparatus used for performing a first part of the method;", "FIG. 13 is a block diagram of the apparatus used for performing a second part of the method;", "FIG. 14 is a block diagram of the apparatus used for performing a third part of the method;", "and FIG. 15 is a block diagram of the apparatus used for performing a fourth part of the method.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION Referring now to FIGS. 1-4 in which like elements are provided having like reference designations throughout the several views, a heat removal system 10 includes a heatsink assembly 12 and a gas flow system 20 .", "Gas flow system 20 may be provided as a fan, a squirrel cage blower, or any other device well known to those of ordinary skill in the art to be useful for generating or otherwise increasing gas flow.", "In this particular embodiment, the heatsink assembly 12 includes first and second opposing plates 13 a and 13 b which are each adapted for mounting to the gas flow system 20 .", "Thermally conductive plates 13 are preferably fabricated from a thermally conductive material such as copper or any other thermally conductive material having suitable thermal and mechanical characteristics including but not limited to aluminum, brass, a zinc-aluminum die cast, a zinc alloy material.", "In the case where the plates are provided from aluminum, the plates are preferably plated to make them solderable.", "In some applications, it may be desirable or necessary to provide each of the plates 13 as single unitary pieces or as more than one piece.", "The plates form an outer housing similar to the venturi section of an axial fan housing.", "The particular number of pieces from which plates 13 are provided may be selected in accordance with a variety of factors including but not limited to the particular application, the amount of heat which must be transferred away from heat generating devices, the amount of space available for mounting of the heat sink and other components, the material from which plate 13 is provided, the particular manufacturing techniques used and the cost to manufacture the plate.", "Similarly, the particular number of plates is also selected in accordance with consideration of the above-listed factors.", "In some applications related to cooling of processors (e.g. computer central processing units, digital signal processing units or image processing units) and other integrated circuits, six to ten plates may be used.", "Disposed between and in thermal contact with the plates 13 a , 13 b is a folded fin heat sink member 14 .", "In this particular example, the folder fin member is disposed in a circular shape.", "Thos of ordinary skill in the art should appreciate that other shapes may also be used.", "The folded fin members are thermally coupled to a thermally conductive slug 16 .", "A first surface of the slug is adapted to be in contact with an active portion of a heat generating device (e.g. an integrated circuit).", "Thus the folded fin member 14 is wrapped around the central post or slug 16 .", "Typically, the folded fin member 14 and central post 16 are provided from tinned copper.", "Ideally, the portion of the slug 16 in contact with the heat generating device should be provided having a shape which covers as much as possible the active area of the heat generating device.", "In one embodiment, the central post 16 is machined flat and a thermal interface material is disposed on the surface of the post 16 which will be in contact with the heat generating device.", "The thermal interface material may be a thermoelectric material or a thermoionic material.", "Thus, for example, in the case where the heat generating device is an IC which itself includes an internal heat sink, the slug 16 should cover the internal heat sink of the IC.", "Also, it may be desirable or necessary to provide folded fin member 14 as a single unitary piece or as more than one piece.", "The particular number of pieces from which member 14 is provided may be selected in accordance with a variety of factors including but not limited to the particular application, the amount of heat which must be transferred away from heat generating devices, the amount of space available for mounting of the heat sink and other components, the particular material from which base 14 is provided, the particular manufacturing techniques used to fabricate member 14 and the cost of manufacturing the member 14 .", "As shown in FIGS. 1-3, the fan 20 is mounted on the first or top most plate 13 a and is spaced-apart from the folded fin member 14 and the heat generating device.", "In an exemplary embodiment, the base plate 13 b is provided having a substantially square shape, but it should be noted that although plates 13 are here shown having a substantially square shape, other shapes, including, but not limited to, rectangular, circular, oval, square, triangular, rhomboidal and irregular shapes, may also be used.", "The particular shape of plates 13 will be selected in any particular application in accordance with a variety of factors including but not limited to the shape of the particular part being cooled and the amount of area available for mounting of the heat sink.", "Likewise, although slug 16 is provided having a substantially circular shape, other shapes, including, but not limited to, rectangular, circular, oval, square, triangular, rhomboidal and irregular shapes, may also be used.", "The particular shape of slug 16 will be selected in any particular application in accordance with a variety of factors including but not limited to the shape of the folded fin member 14 and the shape of the particular part being cooled and the amount of area available for mounting of the heat sink.", "The heatsink assembly may be coupled to any type of integrated circuit package including, but not limited to, dual-in-line packages (DIP) leadless chip carriers, leaded chip carriers, flat packs, pin-grid arrays as well as other surface mount packages and small outline integrated circuit packages for surface-mounting.", "A heatsink as shown and described herein may be disposed over a first surface of an integrated circuit which is disposed on a printed circuit board.", "Disposed between a first surface of a circuit and a first surface of the heatsink is a sheet of a thermally conductive matrix material.", "The matrix material facilitates an extraction of heat from the circuit to the heatsink.", "The material may be either a thermoelectric material or a thermoionic material.", "It should also be noted that in some applications it may be desirable to mount the circuit on the printed circuit board prior to placing the heatsink/thermally conductive matrix material assembly on to the circuit.", "It should also be noted that in some applications it may be desirable to apply the thermally conductive matrix material first to the surface of the circuit and then to mount the heatsink to the circuit/thermally conductive matrix assembly and then mount the assembly on the PCB.", "Referring now to FIGS. 5-8 in which like elements are provided having like reference designations throughout the several views, a heatsink assembly 110 is shown.", "The heatsink assembly 110 includes a folded fin member 115 .", "In this particular example, the folded fin member 115 is disposed in a circular shape.", "Those of ordinary skill in the art should appreciate that other shapes may also be used.", "The folded fin member 115 has a plurality of ridges and troughs which define a plurality of spaced fins 130 .", "A sidewall of a fin includes at least one aperture 160 extending through the sidewall.", "A side edge of a fin 130 may also include an aperture 170 .", "In a preferred embodiment a plurality of apertures 160 are provided in a predetermined pattern, shape and size to provide the desired cooling.", "The top edges 140 of the fins 130 are closed, and the bottom edges 150 of the troughs are also closed, thereby allowing the fin/trough combination to act as a plenum.", "The apertures 160 can be of any size or shape.", "Referring to FIG. 6, a cross sectional view of a fin 130 shows apertures 160 present in both side walls of the fin.", "In FIG. 7, a cross-sectional view of a fin shows the apertures 160 disposed in only one sidewall of the fin.", "Additionally, the material 165 originally in the sidewall 130 where the aperture is provided may not be completely removed, but merely displaced from the sidewall as shown in FIG. 8 .", "This arrangement provides additional material for cooling as opposed to the embodiment wherein the original material in the sidewall is completely removed to form the aperture.", "Additionally, the portion 165 displaced from the sidewall provides increased turbulence which breaks up boundary layers, thereby providing additional cooling.", "In addition, an aperture 170 may be disposed in a side edge of a fin.", "The heatsink assembly 110 may further include a thermally conductive member or slug (not shown), similar to thermally conductive slug 16 of FIGS. 1-3.", "A first surface of the member is adapted to be in contact with an active portion of a heat-generating device 180 (e.g. an integrated circuit).", "Thus the folded fin stock 115 is wrapped around the slug and is in thermal communication with the slug.", "Typically, the folded fin stock and slug are provided from tinned copper or aluminum.", "The slug may be of any shape, and the folded fin material may follow the shape of the slug and have edges of the fins attached to the slug.", "While the slug is shown in a generally vertical alignment with respect to the device being cooled, the slug may be tilted such that the cylindrical slug is at an angle with respect to the device being cooled.", "The bottom surface of the slug is provided having an angled surface such that the bottom surface of the slug would be in contact with the device being cooled.", "Similarly, the folded fin member would also be attached to the slug such that the folded fins would be at an angle with respect to the device being cooled.", "Alternately, the slug is generally perpendicular to the device being cooled, and the fins are provided having different heights such that one section of the fins are lower than another section, thereby defining an air scoop section for receiving cooling gas provided in a generally non-vertical direction.", "Ideally, the portion of the slug in contact with the heat generating device 180 is provided having a shape which covers as much as possible the active area of the heat generating device.", "In one embodiment, the slug is machined flat and a thermal interface material is disposed on the surface of the member which will be in contact with the heat generating device.", "Thus, for example, in the case where the heat-generating device is an IC which itself includes an internal heatsink, the member should cover the internal heatsink of the IC.", "In an exemplary embodiment, the thermally conductive slug is provided having a substantially circular shape, other shapes, including, but not limited to, rectangular, circular, oval, square, triangular, rhomboidal and irregular shapes, may also be used.", "The particular shape of the member will be selected in any particular application in accordance with a variety of factors including but not limited to the shape of the folded fin member and the shape of the particular part being cooled and the amount of area available for mounting of the heatsink.", "Referring now to FIGS. 9A-9C, a folded fin member 115 is shown having a generally oval shape.", "The folded fin member is shown coupled to a generally circular base 118 in FIGS. 9A-9C, and is shown couple dot a generally square base in FIGS. 10A-10C.", "as shown in FIGS. 9B and 10C the folded fin member can be disposed such that a first portion of the folded fin member is at a different v\\horizontal height than another portion of the fodled fin member.", "This orientation provides additional cooling as a gas source may be couples to provide gas in a generally horizontal direction to impinge on the fins.", "It may be desirable or necessary to provide folded fin member 115 as a single unitary piece or as more than one piece.", "The particular number of pieces from which the folded fin member 115 is provided may be selected in accordance with a variety of factors including but not limited to the particular application, the amount of heat which must be transferred away from heat generating devices, and the amount of space available for mounting of the heatsink and other components.", "As shown in FIG. 5 a gas supply source 190 is coupled to the folded fin member 115 and the heat-generating device 180 .", "The gas supply source 190 may be a fan, a blower or a compressed gas source and supplies gas to the folded fin member 115 and to the slug.", "The heatsink assembly 110 may be coupled to any type of integrated circuit package including, but not limited to, dual-in-line packages (DIP) leadless chip carriers, leaded chip carriers, flat packs, pin-grid arrays as well as other surface mount packages and small outline integrated circuit packages for surface-mounting.", "The heatsink assembly 110 as shown and described herein may be disposed over a first surface of an integrated circuit which is disposed on a printed circuit board.", "Disposed between a first surface of a circuit and a first surface of a heatsink is a sheet of a thermally conductive matrix material.", "The matrix material facilitates an extraction of heat from the circuit to the heatsink.", "It should also be noted that in some applications it may be desirable to mount the circuit on the printed circuit board prior to placing the heatsink/thermally conductive matrix material assembly on to the circuit.", "It should also be noted that in some applications it may be desirable to apply the thermally conductive matrix material first to the surface of the circuit and then to mount the heatsink to the circuit/thermally conductive matrix assembly and then mount the assembly on the PCB.", "The above-described heatsink assembly rapidly and efficiently removes heat from devices, circuits and modules.", "The heatsink assembly of the present invention is relatively inexpensive to manufacture, assemble and install.", "The present invention further comprises an apparatus and a method for providing the folded fin heat sink member 115 .", "The method utilizes an apparatus to perform a variety of functions which results in the formation of a folded fin heat sink member 115 having certain desirable characteristics.", "The apparatus for performing the method includes two stamping machines coupled together with an air feeder mechanism.", "The first stamping machine is conventional in design, and is used to place a plurality of holes or apertures in predetermined areas of the material.", "The second stamping machine is used to provide the folding of the material into the desired shape.", "Referring now to FIG. 11, a flow chart of the method 200 is shown.", "The rectangular elements, are herein denoted “processing blocks”", "and represent computer software instructions or groups of instructions.", "The diamond shaped elements, are herein denoted “decision blocks,” represent computer software instructions, or groups of instructions which affect the execution of the computer software instructions represented by the processing blocks.", "Alternatively, the processing and decision blocks represent steps performed by functionally equivalent circuits such as a digital signal processor circuit or an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC).", "The flow diagrams do not depict the syntax of any particular programming language.", "Rather, the flow diagrams illustrate the functional information one of ordinary skill in the art requires to fabricate circuits or to generate computer software to perform the processing required in accordance with the present invention.", "It should be noted that many routine program elements, such as initialization of loops and variables and the use of temporary variables are not shown.", "It will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that unless otherwise indicated herein, the particular sequence of steps described is illustrative only and can be varied without departing from the spirit of the invention.", "Thus, unless otherwise stated the steps described below are unordered meaning that, when possible, the steps can be performed in any convenient or desirable order.", "The first step is step 205 and recites that a plurality of holes are provided in the material.", "One of the holes may function as an index hole and provide a reference point for the second stamping machine.", "The holes may be of any design or shape and any number of holes may be provided in the material.", "The holes may be punched clear through such that the material which formerly occupied the hole is completely removed from the rest of the material, or the holes may be provided such that the material which formerly occupied the hole is displaced such that it is only partially removed, and remains attached to the remaining material while still providing an aperture through the material.", "Referring now also to FIG. 12, step 210 of the method is shown.", "In this stamping machine 300 , and as recited in step 210 , a reference hole is located within the material.", "The upper die 330 of the stamping machine includes a pilot pin 320 .", "The pilot pin 320 guides the material to its desired position for the folding as recited in step 215 .", "During step 220 , and as shown in FIG. 13, the upper die 330 is lowered until it is adjacent the material.", "The material is now secured in position between the stripper plate 340 and the upper die 330 .", "During this time the pilot pin 320 retracts into the upper die 330 as recited in step 225 .", "Referring now to FIG. 14, the apparatus is shown during step 230 .", "The die block 350 and fin forming punch 360 are raised up to the stripper plate 340 .", "During step 235 , the fin forming punch 360 draws the material into the cavity of the upper die 330 .", "At the end of this step the fold is complete in the upper die 330 .", "Step 240 is depicted in FIG. 15 .", "At this step the die block 350 and the forming punch 360 are lowered back to their starting position.", "The upper die 330 is also raised away from stripper plate 340 .", "Upper die 330 further includes a knock back device (not shown) that aids in removing the just-formed folded fin from the cavity as the upper die is raised as recited in step 245 .", "At step 250 , a determination is made whether the desired number of fins has been formed.", "If not, then steps 215 et seq.", "are performed again.", "When the desired number of fins have been formed operation proceeds to step 255 wherein the material is cut thereby providing the folded fin member.", "In a particular application, the fin folding process is performed a total of 63 times to form the folded fin member.", "There is a counting device which counts up to 63 and then a cutting tool cuts off the string of folded fins.", "Following step 255 , the process is finished, as shown at step 260 .", "By way of the presently disclosed method and apparatus it is very simple to change fin heights and pitch by simply changing the front edge of the upper die and the forming punch.", "A variety of materials can be used to form the folded fin member, in the preferred embodiment copper is the material of choice.", "The number of fins, the height of the fins, and the spacing of the fins can be of any size, dependent on the application the folded fin member will be utilized in.", "Having described the preferred embodiments of the invention, it will now become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that other embodiments incorporating their concepts may be used.", "It is felt therefore that these embodiments should not be limited to disclosed embodiments but rather should be limited only by the spirit and scope of the appended claims.", "All publications and references cited herein are expressly incorporated herein by reference in their entirety." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention generally relates to a drive control system for a vehicle with an auxiliary driving system.", "In particular, the present invention relates to a drive control system on a vehicle having an electric motor auxiliary driving system for reducing roll-back when the vehicle is starting motion on a hill or for propelling the vehicle in stop-and-go traffic.", "A common problem for an operator of a vehicle that is stopped on an incline or hill is that the vehicle is susceptible to rolling backwards when the operator removes his or her foot from the brake.", "This problem is especially evident in a vehicle with a manual transmission, although, an operator of a vehicle with an automatic transmission can also experience roll-back to a lesser extent.", "Where a manual transmission is employed, the operator of a vehicle starting on a steep slope initially engages both the brake pedal and the clutch pedal and places the vehicle in gear.", "The operator then moves his or her right foot from the brake pedal to the accelerator pedal and engages the accelerator pedal while releasing the clutch pedal with his or her left foot.", "If the operator does not perform this operation skillfully and carefully, the operator may experience the unpleasant and undesirable sensation of rolling backwards or even stalling the engine.", "Additionally, if the accelerator pedal is not applied quickly enough, backward motion can cause the vehicle to roll into another vehicle immediately behind it in traffic.", "To address this problem, numerous braking systems, sometimes referred to as “hill-holders,” have been developed to arrest backward motion of a vehicle starting on a hill when the operator removes his or her foot from the brake pedal.", "Prior art “hill-holders”", "generally disclose clutch or friction brake mechanisms that mechanically restrict vehicle drivelines or the vehicle's wheels to prevent roll-back.", "Conventional “hill holder”", "systems are supplementary mechanisms that increase the cost of the vehicle and complicate manufacture and assembly.", "Additionally, conventional mechanical mechanisms of this type can cause lurching or uneven acceleration of the vehicle if the brake mechanism of the system disengages improperly after the accelerator pedal has been engaged.", "Another common problem experienced by an operator of a vehicle with a manual transmission occurs in stop-and-go traffic such as during rush hour or during city driving.", "In stop-and-go traffic, the operator must repeatedly engage and release the clutch pedal over a short distance.", "This repetitive motion can cause strain and discomfort to the operator.", "Vehicles with auxiliary driving systems provide a means for reducing roll-back without the need for conventional mechanical “hill holder”", "systems and can propel a vehicle in stop-and-go traffic without repetitive clutch pedal engagement.", "Vehicles with auxiliary driving systems generally contain two separate power sources for driving the wheels of the vehicle.", "A typical configuration for a vehicle with an auxiliary driving system is a vehicle with an internal combustion engine as the power source for a primary driving system and an electric motor as the power source for the auxiliary driving system.", "The auxiliary driving system can provide on-demand torque delivery to the wheels of the automobile.", "This provides on-demand four wheel drive capability which promotes stability during slip events.", "The auxiliary driving system can also be utilized to increase acceleration of the vehicle when desired.", "BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a drive control system for controlling advancement of a vehicle having an auxiliary driving system.", "The drive control system can be used to arrest vehicle roll-back when the vehicle is starting on a steep grade where the vehicle contains a primary driving system for driving one wheel pair and an electric motor powered auxiliary driving system for driving the other wheel pair.", "The auxiliary driving system is used to apply a driving torque to one set of the vehicle's wheels in order to prevent the vehicle from rolling downhill.", "The drive control system can also be used to control movement of the vehicle using the auxiliary driving system in stop-and-go traffic without requiring the operator to repetitively engage and release the clutch.", "The auxiliary driving system propels the vehicle by simple operation of the accelerator pedal.", "In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a vehicle drive control system is provided.", "The vehicle drive control system comprises a primary driving system having a first power source for providing torque to a first set of one or more wheels and an auxiliary driving system having a second power source for providing torque to a second set of one or more wheels of the vehicle.", "The auxiliary driving control system is configured to apply torque to a second set of one or more wheels of the vehicle to arrest downhill movement of the vehicle.", "In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a method is provided for preventing movement of a vehicle using an auxiliary driving system.", "In the first step undesired movement of the vehicle is determined.", "In the second step, an amount of torque needed to prevent the movement is determined.", "In a third step, a command is provided to the auxiliary driving system to drive the vehicle in opposition to the movement.", "In yet another aspect of the present invention, a method is provided for controlling an auxiliary driving system of a vehicle having a primary driving system and an auxiliary driving system.", "In the first step, the operator selects operation of the auxiliary driving system.", "In the second step, the operator engages a clutch pedal.", "In the third step, the operator selects a gear of a transmission of the primary driving system.", "In the fourth step, undesired downhill movement of the vehicle is detected.", "In the fifth step, torque is applied to one or more wheels of the vehicle using the auxiliary driving system to arrest the undesired downhill movement.", "Advantages of the present invention will become more apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description of the preferred embodiments of the invention which have been shown and described by way of illustration.", "As will be realized, the invention is capable of other and different embodiments, and its details are capable of modification in various respects.", "Accordingly, the drawings and description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a vehicle according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.", "FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a vehicle according to an alternate embodiment of the present invention.", "FIG. 3 is a logic flow chart representing a preferred embodiment of the present invention.", "FIG. 4 is a force diagram of a vehicle on an incline.", "FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating forces within the auxiliary driving system, including torque forces on the rear left and rear right wheels, according to one embodiment of the present invention.", "FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating realized forces on a vehicle using a preferred embodiment of the present invention.", "FIG. 7 is a logic flow diagram representing a preferred embodiment of the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION FIG. 1 generally discloses a vehicle 10 having a primary driving system 20 with a first power source 22 and an auxiliary driving system 30 with a second power source 31 .", "In the preferred embodiment, the first power source of the primary driving system 20 is a conventional gasoline internal combustion engine;", "however, other power sources, such as a compressed natural gas (CNG) powered engine may be used.", "The second power source of the auxiliary driving system 30 is preferably at least one electric motor 32 that is connected with a battery 34 and is controlled by an electronic control unit 36 .", "The electronic control unit 36 is preferably a computer with a microprocessor and memory for controlling torque application to the auxiliary driving system 30 depending upon desired driving conditions.", "In one embodiment of the present invention, depicted in FIG. 1 , separate electric motors 32 are used to drive each wheel of a vehicle wheel pair.", "In another preferred embodiment, shown in FIG. 2 , one electric motor 32 is used to provide torque to an axle 38 wherein the drive torque is then distributed to each wheel of a vehicle wheel pair through a differential 40 .", "FIGS. 1 and 2 depict a vehicle 10 wherein the primary driving system 20 is a front wheel drive system driving the front wheel pair 50 , and the auxiliary driving system 30 is a rear wheel drive system driving the rear wheel pair 60 .", "One skilled in the art will recognize that in another preferred embodiment (not shown), the primary driving system 20 may drive the rear wheel pair 60 and the auxiliary driving system 30 may drive the front wheel pair 50 .", "One skilled in the art will also recognize that the vehicle 10 may, in some situations, primarily be driven by the electric motor 32 .", "Additionally, one skilled in the art will recognize that the present system may also be utilized in hybrid electric vehicles (HEV's).", "Sensors 70 on the vehicle 10 are used to measure a plurality of driving conditions.", "Preferably, wheel angular speed sensors 70 are used to monitor wheel speed and direction.", "Additionally, sensors 70 may be used to monitor whether the operator has engaged the clutch pedal 80 , brake pedal 82 or accelerator pedal 84 and the gear 86 in which the transmission 88 is engaged.", "All sensors preferably communicate with the electronic control unit 36 such that the control unit's memory stores information received from the sensors 70 and the control unit's microprocessor interprets and manages the information received from the sensors 70 .", "As will be set forth in detail below, the auxiliary driving system 30 can be used to prevent “roll-back”", "of a vehicle when “Starting On Hill Mode”", "(SHM) is activated.", "When “Starting On Hill Mode”", "is activated, the electronic control unit 36 instructs the electric motor 32 to provide drive torque to the rear wheels 60 of the vehicle 10 so that the vehicle does not roll downhill.", "During operation, the primary driving system 20 is preferably used as the primary source to drive the vehicle 10 .", "The auxiliary driving system 30 , while capable of driving the vehicle 10 when desired, is not used to provide constant driving torque to the wheels 60 of the vehicle 10 .", "When an operator is starting the vehicle 10 in first gear on a hill or incline, the vehicle 10 may be susceptible to rolling backwards or downhill as the operator removes his or her foot from the brake pedal 82 and before the operator has engaged the accelerator pedal 84 .", "Wheel angular speed sensors 70 monitor wheel rotation of the rear wheels 60 to determine if the vehicle is undesirably rolling backward.", "Sensors also monitor whether the operator has engaged the clutch pedal 80 , the brake pedal 82 or the accelerator pedal 84 .", "Information from the sensors 70 is communicated to the electronic control unit 36 .", "Where “Starting On Hill Mode”", "has been activated, the electronic control unit 36 commands the auxiliary driving system 30 to temporarily provide forward driving torque at the rear wheels 60 in order to effectively brake the backward rolling of the vehicle until the operator has engaged the accelerator pedal of the vehicle 10 .", "Once the operator engages the accelerator pedal 84 the primary driving system 20 then drives the vehicle 10 as in conventional operation.", "When the vehicle 10 is driven forward by the primary driving system 20 , the electronic control unit 36 of the auxiliary driving system 30 deactivates “Starting On Hill Mode.”", "The electric motor 32 and any torque that it provides may then be deactivated.", "Although the above describes a vehicle that is starting on an incline, one skilled in the art will recognize that the auxiliary driving system can be used for preventing a vehicle from rolling forward if the vehicle is on a decline and the operator has placed the vehicle in reverse gear.", "In that situation, wheel angular speed sensors 70 monitor wheel rotation of the rear wheels 60 to determine if the vehicle is undesirably rolling forward.", "Where “Starting On Hill Mode”", "has been activated, the electronic control unit 36 directs the electric motor 32 of the auxiliary driving system 30 to temporarily provide rearward driving torque at the rear wheels 60 in order to effectively brake the forward rolling of the vehicle until the operator has engaged the accelerator pedal 84 of the vehicle 10 .", "Once the operator engages the accelerator pedal, the primary driving system 20 then drives the vehicle 10 in conventional operation.", "When the vehicle 10 is driven rearward by the primary driving system 20 , the electronic control unit 36 of the auxiliary driving system 30 deactivates “Starting On Hill Mode”", "and deactivates the electric motor 32 .", "FIG. 3 is a flow diagram that illustrates the conditions under which “Starting On Hill Mode”", "will be activated.", "With regard to the events in FIG. 3 , a sensor monitors whether a Starting On Hill Mode (SHM) switch 90 is On or Off.", "The switch 90 is controllable by the vehicle operator and is preferably located on the vehicle's instrument panel.", "Another sensor 70 monitors whether the clutch pedal 80 is engaged by the operator.", "Preferably, the clutch pedal 80 is engaged when the operator pushes down on clutch pedal 80 with his or her foot.", "When the clutch pedal 80 is engaged, it is considered to be “On.”", "Finally, sensors 70 also monitor in which gear 86 the operator has placed the transmission 88 .", "The transmission preferably has a reverse gear and at least one forward gear.", "The first forward gear is typically called “1 st gear.”", "“Starting On Hill Mode”", "will be ON if (i) the SHM switch 90 (or button) at the vehicle instrument panel is turned on AND, (ii) the clutch pedal 80 is engaged AND, (iii) the gear shift 86 of the vehicle is placed in 1 st gear or reverse gear.", "If these conditions are present, “Starting On Hill Mode”", "will be activated.", "Conversely, “Starting On Hill Mode”", "will be deactivated if (i) the SHM switch 90 (or button) is off OR (ii) the clutch pedal 80 is not engaged OR, (iii) the gear shift 86 of the vehicle is not in 1 st gear or reverse gear.", "When the “Starting On Hill Mode”", "is activated and the vehicle is rolling downhill undesirably, the auxiliary driving system preferably provides enough driving torque to stop the vehicle from rolling in order to maintain a static position.", "FIGS. 4 and 5 illustrate the forces experienced by the vehicle components during operation of the present invention.", "During operation of the preferred embodiment, applied torque to the front wheels 50 is zero because the brake pedal is released and the operator has not yet engaged the accelerator pedal.", "Therefore, where F vehicle is the traction force of the vehicle, m is the mass of the vehicle, a x is the acceleration of the vehicle, F rl is the traction force of the rear left wheel, F rr is the traction force of the rear front wheel, g is the gravitational acceleration, θ is the angle of the slope, and F drag is the drag force on the vehicle, the overall effective traction force of the vehicle is defined by: F vehicle =ma x =F rl +F rr −mg sin θ− F drag With respect to each wheel, where r w is the radius of the rear wheels, T rl is the torque on the rear left wheel, T rr is the torque on the rear right wheel, I w is the mass moment of inertia for the rear wheels, {dot over (ω)} rl is the angular acceleration of the rear left wheel, and {dot over (ω)} rr is the angular acceleration for the rear right wheel, then: F rl r w =T rl −I w {dot over (ω)} rl F rr r w =T rr −I w {dot over (ω)} rr If both rear wheels 60 are on the same surface and the wheels experience no slipping during operation and F drag is zero, then the required torque for the electric motor 32 to prevent the car from rolling backwards is represented by: T r = T r1 = T rr = r w ⁢ mg ⁢ ⁢ sin ⁢ ⁢ θ 2 Unlike a conventional mechanical braking system which may be able to hold a vehicle on a steep grade without roll-back, the auxiliary driving system may not eliminate vehicle-roll back where the angle of the incline is great enough to cause a “roll-back”", "force that is greater than the available driving torque that the electric motor is able to produce at zero or low speed.", "For example, if the maximum torque of the auxiliary driving actuator at zero or low speed is 300 Nm and the vehicle parameters are such that m=1400 kg and r w =0.31 m, the critical slope angle which can be supported by the auxiliary driving system 30 is: θ critical ≈8.1 deg If the slope angle θ slope is the same as or smaller than the critical slope, the auxiliary driving system will be able to prevent the vehicle from rolling backwards.", "If, however, the slope angle θ slope is greater than the critical slope, the vehicle will roll back.", "Although roll back will be experienced, the auxiliary driving system will reduce the rate of roll back which will, in turn, minimize negative sensations from rolling backwards.", "The difference experienced in roll back sensation to the operator between a vehicle on a steep grade with and without “Starting On Hill Mode”", "activated is illustrated in FIG. 6 .", "As can be seen in FIG. 6 , although an operator may experience roll back, it will feel less severe and as though the operator is on a smaller grade slope.", "If the vehicle has an accelerator pedal sensor 70 , a brake pedal sensor 70 and a longitudinal accelerometer (not shown), the SHM switch or button may be replaced by a “Starting On Hill”", "detection algorithm.", "For example, if the angular displacement value of the longitudinal accelerometer is greater than a predetermined value (indicating the vehicle on an incline), and the clutch pedal is engaged and the accelerator pedal is not engaged, “Starting On Hill Mode”", "will be activated.", "If the clutch pedal is not engaged or the vehicle is not in first or reverse gear, then “Starting On Hill Mode”", "will not be activated.", "The drive control system can also be used to propel the vehicle using the auxiliary driving system in stop-and-go traffic conditions.", "This is referred to as “Stop-and-Go Mode.”", "This mode will allow the vehicle to be driven at low to medium speeds without requiring the operator to repeatedly engage and release the clutch pedal or operate the gear shift.", "FIG. 7 is a flow diagram that illustrates the conditions under which “Stop-and-Go Mode”", "will be activated.", "With regard to the events in FIG. 7 , a sensor monitors whether the “Stop-and-Go Mode”", "(SGM) switch 92 is On or Off.", "The switch 92 is controllable by the driver and is preferably located on the vehicle's instrument panel.", "Sensors 70 also monitor whether the operator has placed the transmission 88 in neutral.", "In this mode, the transmission 86 of the primary driving system 20 is placed in neutral.", "The power source 22 of the primary driving system 20 does not provide the driving torque to propel the vehicle 10 .", "Instead, the power source 22 may be used to run an alternator that charges the battery 34 of the auxiliary driving system.", "The electric motors 32 are then used to provide drive torque to the wheels 60 of the vehicle 10 without requiring the operator to engage and release the clutch pedal 80 or put the primary driving system transmission 88 in gear.", "The amount of drive torque provided to the wheels 60 of the auxiliary driving system is controlled by the operator by engaging the accelerator pedal 84 .", "“Stop-and-Go Mode”", "will be ON if i) the SGM switch 92 (or button) at the vehicle instrument panel is turned on AND, (ii) the transmission 88 of the primary driving system is placed in neutral.", "While this mode is activated, the vehicle operator only need operate the accelerator pedal 84 to move the car forward in stop-and-go traffic.", "Sensors 70 preferably monitor the angle of the accelerator pedal 84 .", "The speed that the auxiliary driving system 30 drives the vehicle is dependant on how far the accelerator pedal 84 is pushed by the operator.", "While preferred embodiments of the invention have been described, it should be understood that the invention is not so limited and modifications may be made without departing from the invention.", "The scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims, and all devices that come within the meaning of the claims, either literally or by equivalence, are intended to be embraced therein." ]

[ "FIELD OF INVENTION This invention relates to asphaltic compositions, such as asphaltic concretes, blacktops, pavements and the like, and asphaltic compositions made from recycled materials.", "More particularly, this invention relates to asphaltic materials, pavements made there from, and to methods for making paving materials and pavements having recycled or waste building materials as a component of the asphaltic composition.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Paving materials such as asphaltic concretes that are used for roadways, parking areas, walkways and other traffic surfaces have been the subjects of much recent research.", "Some of these efforts have involved the addition of polymers, including plastics, in attempts to improve the flexibility, strength and life of the paving material.", "Other efforts have centered on recycling roadway asphalts in an effort to lower costs and reduce the environmental impacts such roadways have on our surroundings.", "The increasing need to dispose of or find new uses for used or waste building materials (such as concrete, brick, gravel, rock and other debris) has led to growing costs and increased environmental concerns in the disposal of these materials.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION The present invention provides for asphaltic compositions, such as an asphaltic concrete, blacktop, pavement or other similar composition.", "Such compositions include an aggregate and a binder to hold the aggregate in place upon curing of the composition to form, e.g., a roadway.", "Aggregates The aggregates of the present invention may be made from one or more recycled materials (referred to herein as “recycled aggregates”).", "For example, the recycled materials may be obtained from recovered waste, scrap or debris building materials obtained from demolition, remodeling or building sites.", "These recycled materials may include a wide variety of granulated, crushed or pulverized materials.", "For example, such materials may include the following: concrete, rock, stone, stone aggregates, sand, brick or material derived from masonry units.", "Mixtures of one or more of these materials may also be used to form the recycled aggregate of the present invention.", "For example, the recycled aggregate may be a mixture of rock, brick and concrete.", "In an embodiment of the present disclosure, and without limiting the scope of the disclosure herein, an asphaltic composition may include at least 5% by weight of recycled aggregate.", "In additional embodiments, the recycled aggregate may include at least 1% by weight of recycled brick.", "In yet another embodiment, an asphaltic composition of the present disclosure may include at least 15% by weight of recycled aggregate.", "The recycled aggregates of the present invention may further include other aggregate materials, traditionally used to form aggregates for asphaltic compositions, in conjunction with the above mentioned recycled materials.", "Such traditional materials include virgin rock, stone or concrete, crushed gravel or crushed slag and may also include asphaltic materials or bitumen.", "Other recycled materials may also be included in the recycled aggregates of the present invention.", "For example, roofing material such as shingles, plastics or recycled asphalt or asphalt waste and the like.", "To maintain the desired properties of the asphaltic cement, the size distribution of the recycled aggregate may be controlled.", "In this manner, the recycled aggregate may be produced so as to conform to, e.g., a particular state highway standard for aggregates used in asphaltic cements.", "Generally, this process of creating a recycled aggregate with a controlled particle size distribution may be accomplished as follows, although other suitable processes for preparing aggregates for asphaltic materials may be employed.", "For example, larger recycled materials are first broken up, crushed, pulverized or otherwise mechanically granulated to form a particulate.", "The resulting particulate is then passed through several screens so that as a result, individual particles are separated by size in particle fractions.", "From the sorted materials, a recycled aggregate can then be produced by mixing the desired portion of each sized particle fractions.", "For example, an aggregate may include from five to seven sieve sizes ranging from no. 40 to three-fourths inch in size, or preferably from no. 200 to one inch in size.", "For example, using the above technique a given recycled aggregate may be formed in accordance with a particular state highway standard for asphaltic compositions.", "One such suitable mix is, for example, shown in Table 1, and represents formulation parameters for bituminous plant mixtures according to the standards of New York State.", "TABLE 1 New York State Standard of Bituminous Plant Mixtures Mixture Base Binder Shim Top 2 Requirements 1 Type 1 Type 2 Type 3 Type 5 Type 6, 6F Type 7, 7F General Job General Job General Job General Job General Job General Job Limits % Mix Limits % Mix Limits % Mix Limits % Mix Limits % Mix Limits % Mix Screen Sizes Passing Tol.", "% Passing Tol.", "% Passing Tol.", "% Passing Tol.", "% Passing Tol.", "% Passing Tol.", "% 50.0 mm 100 — 100 — — — — — — — — 37.5 mm 90-100 — 75-100 ±7 100 — — — — — — 25.0 mm 78-95 ±5 55-80 ±8 95-100 — — — 100 — — 12.5 mm 57-84 ±6 23-42 ±7 70-90 ±6 — — 95-100 — — 6.3 mm 40-72 ±7 5-20 ±6 48-74 ±7 100 — 65-85 ±7 — 3.2 mm 26-57 ±7 2-15 ±4 32-62 ±7 80-100 ±6 36-65 ±7 ±6 850 μm 12-36 ±7 — — 15-39 ±7 32-72 ±7 15-39 ±7 ±7 425 μm 8-25 ±7 — — 8-27 ±7 18-52 ±7 8-27 ±7 ±7 180 μm 4-16 ±4 — — 4-16 ±4 7-26 ±4 4-16 ±4 ±4 75 μm 2-8 ±2 — — 2-8 ±2 2-12 ±2 2-6 ±2 ±2 Asphalt 4.0-6.0 ±0.4 5.2-4.5 ±0.4 4.5-6.5 ±0.4 7.0-9.5 ±0.4 5.8-7.0 ±0.4 6.0-8.0 ±0.4 Content, % 3,4 Description and Dense base Open base Dense Dense, smooth Dense, granular Dense, gritty Typical Uses course with course with intermediate texture sand texture for rural texture for relatively low relatively high course with asphalt for suburban, and single course permeability permeability relatively low leveling where urban arterial resurfacing of permeability feathered edge roadways rural, suburban, is required and urban arterial Notes: 1 All aggregate percentages are based on the total weight of the aggregate.", "The asphalt content is based on the total weight of the mix.", "2 The “F”", "designation in the mix type indicates that high friction coarse aggregates are required.", "3 When slag aggregates are used in the mix, the asphalt content shall be increased accordingly minimum 25 percent for all slag mix.", "4 The asphalt content job mix tolerance of ±0.4% shall not apply to Marshall Design mixtures.", "By way of another example, the size distribution of the recycled aggregate may be prepared in accordance to the Texas Master Gradation Bands as shown in Table 2.", "TABLE 2 Texas Master Gradation Bands (% Passing by Weight or Volume) and Volumetric Properties of Aggregates Used in Hot-Mix, Cold-Laid Asphaltic Concretes.", "C D F A B Coarse Fine Fine Sieve Size Coarse Base Fine Base Surface Surface Mixture 1½″ 98.0-100.0 — — — — 1″ 78.0-94.0 98.0-100.0 — — — ¾″ 64.0-85.0 84.0-98.0 95.0-100.0 — — ½″ 50.0-70.0 — — 98.0 — ⅜″ — 60.0-80.0 70.0-85.0 85.0-100.0 98.0-100.0 #4 30.0-50.0 40.0-60.0 43.0-63.0 50.0-70.0 80.0-86.0 #8 22.0-36.0 29.0-43.0 32.0-44.0 35.0-46.0 38.0-48.0 #30 8.0-23.0 13.0-28.0 14.0-28.0 15.0-29.0 12.0-27.0 #50 3.0-19.0 6.0-20.0 7.0-21.0 7.0-20.0 6.0-19.0 #200 2.0-7.0 2.0-7.0 2.0-7.0 2.0-7.0 2.0-7.0 Design VMA 1 , % Minimum — 12.0 13.0 14.0 15.0 16.0 Plant-Produced VMA 1 , % Minimum — 11.0 12.0 13.0 14.0 15.0 Note: 1 Voids in mineral aggregates.", "Binder To form an asphaltic composition, such as an asphaltic concrete, blacktop, pavement or other similar such material, the recycled aggregate of the present invention may be combined with a suitable binder.", "Many such binders will be known to one of skill in the art.", "For example, such binders may include tars.", "Binders in accordance with the present invention may also take the form of asphalt emulsions such as asphalt/water or asphalt/naphthalene binders, such as, for example, the binders referred to as MS2 and HMFS-64.", "The binders may also be polymeric materials.", "In one embodiment the polymeric materials may be obtained or recycled from at least one of various waste sources.", "Any waste source is suitable.", "Examples of such sources are municipal solid waste, industrial waste and household waste.", "Any single or combination of multiple polymeric materials may be used such as thermosets, elastomers, and thermoplastics.", "Non-limiting examples of such materials are: acetals, acrylics, amino resins, cellulosics, phenolics, polyamides, polyesters, polyolefins, polyethers, styrenes, vinyls, polyurethanes, ketone-formaldehydes, polycarbonates, epoxy resins, polyethylene terphtalates, polyethylenes (including high and low density), polypropylenes, polyvinyl chlorides, polystyrenes, melamine-fomaldehyde resins, urea-fomaldehyde resins, acyrlonitrile butadiene styrene copolymers, blends, mixtures, and other copolymers (including terpolymers, etc.).", "Preferred examples of such materials include polyethylene terphthalate, high density polyethylene, styrene (including styrene-butadiene rubber, styrene-butadiene-styrene block copolymer) and polystyrene.", "Non-limiting common examples of recyclable items comprising such materials may include tools, gears, bearings, pumps, valves, screws, containers, bottles, fans, paint sprayers, shower heads, tool handles, dishes, molded products, switch cover plates, buttons, electric mixer housings, cabinets, coffee makers, door knobs, adhesives, laminates, coatings, fabric, shoe heels, eyeglass frames, toothbrush handles, pen and pencil barrels, piano keys, beads, toys, fishing tackle, cutlery handles, combs, steering wheels, veneers, automotive parts, pulleys, washing machines, detergent dispensers, telephones, food containers, ashtrays, croquet balls, roof panels, windshield wipers, football helmets, inks, clothing, cellophane, boat hulls, vehicle bodies, wash tubs, luggage, costume jewelry, fan blades, pie fittings, surgical implants, insulation, drink containers, trash can liners, bags, rug backing, canteens, gaskets, tires, sponges, furniture, and utensils, and the like.", "Preferably these items may be recyclable drink bottles, such as water bottles or soda bottles, for example polyethylene terephthalate containers.", "The binders of the current invention may be used alone or in combination.", "For example the binders may be combinations of polymeric materials, or combinations of tars and polymeric materials, or combinations of asphalt emulsions and polymeric materials, or combinations of tars and asphalt emulsions, or combinations of tars, asphalt emulsions, and polymeric materials, or any other combination of binders.", "Furthermore, the binders of the present disclosure may include virgin binders (i.e. binders not made from waste sources or recycled materials), recycled binders, or any combination thereof.", "In an embodiment of the present disclosure, and without limiting the scope of the disclosure herein, an asphaltic composition may include 80% by weight of binder.", "In an additional embodiment, an asphaltic composition may include 85% by weight of binder.", "One method of forming the asphaltic composition of the present invention includes the steps of mixing the recycled aggregate with the binding agent.", "The recycled aggregate may be heated to an elevated temperature prior to mixing with the binder.", "For example, the recycled aggregate may be heated to greater than 100° F., for example, to greater than 120° F., for instance, to greater than 130° F., such as greater than 150° F. The recycled aggregate may be heated to less than 400° F., for example, to less than 350° F., such as less than 300° F. or less than 250° F., such as less than 230° F. The heated recycled aggregate may then be mixed with a binder.", "The binder may also be an elevated temperature.", "For example, the binder may be heated to a temperature greater than 100° F., for example, to greater than 120° F., for instance, to greater than 130° F., such as greater than 150° F. It is also possible for both the binder and the recycled aggregate to be at the same temperature when they are mixed.", "Heater As described above, the recycled aggregate of the present invention may be heated to an elevated temperature prior to mixing with the binder.", "For example, the aggregates of the present invention, including the recycled aggregates, may be heated with a radiant heater, subjected to microwave irradiation to heat it, or a combination of radiant heating and heating through microwave irradiation may be used.", "Preferably a radiant heater is used." ]

[ "FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] This invention relates to a system for the preparation of a high quality gasoline through the recombination of catalytic hydrocarbon and its process.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART [0002] Catalytic cracking, catalytic schizolysis and heavy oil catalytic schizolysis technology is the key technology of the oil refining, catalytic schizolysis is classified into the catalytic schizolysis of wax oil and the catalytic schizolysis of heavy oil.", "The generated oils produced from these processes are collectively called catalytic hydrocarbons.", "Through the processing &", "handling, generally fractionation with fractionator, the obtained catalytic hydrocarbons can be fractionated into the products such as dry petroleum gas, liquefied petroleum gas, gasoline, diesel oil and heavy oil etc.", "Among them, the gasoline and diesel oil occupy above 70% of the supply volume of the gasoline and diesel oil in the market.", "[0003] As the environmental protection requirements become more and more strict, the standard of gasoline &", "diesel oil will be increased continuously.", "The current processing method wherein the catalytic hydrocarbons go through the fractionator has the following shortcomings: the first is that the quality of the produced gasoline and diesel oil should be improved, the alkenes content is too high, octane value (RON) is too low, the cetane number of the diesel oil is too low, the stability does not conform to the requirements.", "The second is that the above processing method can not produce multiple grades of gasoline simultaneously, in addition, there is only one product type.", "The third is that the proportion between produced gasoline and diesel oil does not conform to the market need, the diesel oil can not satisfy the need, whereas the gasoline is in oversupply status.", "[0004] In order to solve the above problem, there is a Chinese patent with patent No03148181.7 namely “treatment method of catalyzing the hydrocarbon recombination”", "and the Chinese patents with patent No200310103541.9 and 200310103540.4 have given publicity to the improved patents, however, the methods of reducing sulfur and olefin have not been touched upon in these publicized patents.", "[0005] The current GB 17930 gasoline standard requires that the sulfur content is below 0.05% (wt), the olefin content is below 35% (v) and the benzene content is below 2.5% (v).", "Most of the refineries can assure the quality of the gasoline.", "However, the National Gasoline Standard III that will be implemented in 2010 requires the following: the sulfur content is below 0.015% (wt), the olefin content is below 30% (v) and the benzene content is below 1% (v).", "For most of the refineries, they must be confronted with the requirements of higher standard, i.e., the National Gasoline Standard IV: the sulfur content is below 0.005% (wt), the olefin content is below 25% (v) or even lower.", "Gasoline quality solution must consider the transition from National Gasoline Standard III to National Gasoline Standard IV.", "The better planning is to follow National Gasoline Standard IV in single step.", "[0006] Since the proportions of blended components in the gasoline products of our country differ greatly with those of the developed countries, the catalytic cracking gasoline (hereafter called catalytic gasoline) occupies a high proportion while reformed gasoline and gasoline alkyl ate only occupies a little proportion.", "Furthermore, this condition will exist for a long time.", "Therefore, the method of reducing sulfur and olefin mainly touches upon the problem of catalyzed gasoline.", "[0007] It is generally acknowledged that 5-10% of the general sulfur in the catalytic cracking material will enter the gasoline fraction.", "According to the characteristics of the refineries in our country that catalytic material hydrogenation purification capability is low, secondary processing catalytic cracking capability is high and there is residual oil coking, the sulfur content of the catalytic gasoline in the refinery processing the crude oil with low sulfur content (sulfur content 0.3%) is about 200 ppm, if the crude oil with sulfur content of 0.8%, the sulfur content of the catalytic gasoline is about 900 ppm.", "Therefore, the difficult point in the upgrade of gasoline quality has changed from the problem of olefin to the problem of sulfur.", "It is impossible to radically solve the problem of sulfur through the improvement of catalytic cracking process or catalyst.", "The catalytic cracking material hydrogenation and desulfurization cannot be applied in large scale due to big investment, high operation cost and current condition in the refineries.", "Furthermore, it is inapplicable to the refineries processing rude oil with low sulfur content.", "In the meantime, the catalytic cracking equipment excessively reduces the olefin;", "therefore, it will aggravate the loss of benzoline and the octane number (RON) of the gasoline.", "[0008] Therefore, it is a technical problem that how to provide a system for blended gasoline having low sulfur content, low olefin content and high octane number (RON) with low cost.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0009] One of the object of the invention is to provide, a gasoline catalytic hydrocarbon recombination system having low sulfur content, low olefin content and high octane number (RON) with low cost is provided.", "[0010] In order to realize the above purpose, this invention adopts the following technical resolution: One Technical Resolution as Follows: [0011] A system for the preparation of a high quality gasoline through the recombination of catalytic hydrocarbon, including fractionator and extractor, wherein the upper part of the said fractionator is equipped with light petrol pipeline, the lower part of the above fractionator is equipped with heavy petrol pipeline, the middle part of the said fractionator is equipped with medium petrol pipeline, the said medium petrol pipeline is connected with the medium petrol extractor, the upper part of the medium petrol extractor is connected with the medium petrol raffinate oil hydrogenation unit through the pipeline, the lower part of the said medium petrol extractor is connected with the medium petrol aromatic hydrocarbon hydrogenation unit through the pipeline, the said medium petrol aromatic hydrocarbon hydrogenation unit is then connected with the light petrol pipeline in the upper part of the said fractionator through the pipeline, the lower part of the said heavy petrol extractor is connected with the said medium petrol aromatic hydrocarbon hydrogenation unit through the pipeline, the upper part of the heavy petrol extractor is connected with the said medium petrol raffinate oil hydrogenation unit through the pipeline.", "Another Technical Resolution as Follows: [0012] A system for the preparation of a high quality gasoline through the recombination of catalytic hydrocarbon, including fractionator and extractor, wherein: the upper part of the said fractionator is connected with light petrol hydrogenation unit through the pipeline, the lower part of the said fractionator is equipped with heavy petrol pipeline, the middle part of the said fractionator is equipped with medium petrol pipeline, the said medium petrol pipeline is connected with the medium petrol extractor, the upper part of the medium petrol extractor is connected with the medium petrol raffinate oil hydrogenation unit through the pipeline, the lower part of the said medium petrol extractor is connected with the medium petrol aromatic hydrocarbon hydrogenation unit through the pipeline, then it is connected with the light petrol pipeline in upper part of the said fractionator behind the light petrol hydrogenation unit through the pipeline, the lower part of the said heavy petrol extractor is connected with the said medium petrol aromatic hydrocarbon hydrogenation unit through the pipeline, the upper part of the heavy petrol extractor is connected with the said medium petrol raffinate oil hydrogenation unit through the pipeline, or it will directly produces low solidification point diesel product.", "[0013] A preferred system, wherein the upper part of the fractionator is also equipped with pipeline to round the light petrol hydrogenation unit and directly extract the light petrol.", "[0014] Another object of the invention is to provide a process for the preparation of a gasoline with low sulfur content and low olefin content through the catalytic hydrocarbon recombination.", "[0015] In order to realize the above purpose, this invention adopts the following technical resolution: One Technical Resolution as Follows: [0016] A process for the preparation of a high quality gasoline through the recombination of catalytic hydrocarbon comprising: put the stabilized gasoline into the fractionator to carry out the distilling and fractionize into the light petrol, medium petrol and heavy petrol.", "The above light petrol is distilled through the upper part of the fractionator, the said medium petrol enters the medium petrol extractor through the pipeline to carry out extraction separation and separate into aromatic hydrocarbon and raffinate oil, the said aromatic hydrocarbon is hydrogenated through the aromatic hydrocarbon hydrogenation unit, then it is blended and used with the light petrol distilled from the upper part of the fractionator, after the medium petrol raffinate oil is hydrogenated through the raffinate oil hydrogenation unit, it is directly used as ethylene material;", "the said heavy petrol enters heavy petrol extractor through the pipeline to carry out extraction separation and separate into aromatic hydrocarbon and raffinate oil, the said aromatic hydrocarbon obtained from the extraction of the heavy petrol is blended with the aromatic hydrocarbon obtained from the extraction of the medium petrol, then it is hydrogenated through the aromatic hydrocarbon unit, subsequently it is blended with the light petrol distilled from the upper part of the fractionator;", "the raffinate oil obtained from the extraction of the said heavy petrol is blended with the raffinate oil obtained from the extraction of the said medium petrol, then it is hydrogenated through the said raffinate oil hydrocarbon unit and it is regarded as the ethylene material.", "[0017] A preferred process, wherein the tower top temperature of the said fractionator is 65˜74° C., the tower bottom temperature is 180˜195° C., the tower top pressure of the said fractionator is 0.11˜0.28 MPa (absolute pressure), the tower bottom pressure is 0.12˜0.30 MPa (absolute pressure), the distillation range of the above light petrol is controlled to 30° C.˜65° C., the said medium petrol is controlled to 65° C.˜160° C. and the distillation range of the said heavy gasoline is controlled to 160° C.˜205° C. [0018] A preferred process, wherein the tower top temperature of the said fractionator is 69° C., the tower bottom temperature is 190° C., the tower top pressure of the said fractionator is 0.2 MPa (absolute pressure), the tower bottom pressure is 0.25 MPa (absolute pressure), the distillation range of the said light petrol is controlled to 30° C.˜90° C., the said medium petrol is controlled to 90° C.˜160° C. and the distillation range of the said heavy gasoline is controlled to 160° C.˜205° C. [0019] A preferred process, wherein the catalyst of the said raffinate oil hydrogenation unit is selective hydrogenation catalyst GHT-20, the volume airspeed ratio of the said raffinate oil hydrogenation unit is 2˜4, hydrogen/oil volume ratio is 250˜350, the operation temperature is 285˜325° C., the operation pressure is 1.5˜2.5 MPa (absolute pressure).", "[0020] A preferred process, wherein the physical and chemical characteristics of the catalyst of the said raffinate oil hydrogenation unit, i.e., selective hydrogenation catalyst GHT-20 are in the following table: [0000] Name of the index Unit GHT-20 Appearance Grey three-leaf type Specification mm Φ1.5-2.0 Intensity N/cm 170 Bulk density g/ml 0.70 Specific surface m 2 /g 180 Pore volume ml/g 0.5-0.6 WO 3 m % 6.6 NiO m % 2.1 C 0 O m % 0.16 [0021] A preferred process, wherein the catalyst of the said aromatic hydrocarbon hydrogenation unit is full hydrogenation catalyst, GHT-22, the volume airspeed ratio of the said heavy gasoline hydrogenation unit is 2˜4, hydrogen/oil volume ratio is 250˜350, the operation temperature is 280˜325° C., the operation pressure is 1.5˜2.5 MPa (absolute pressure).", "[0022] A preferred process, wherein the physical and chemical characteristics of the said full hydrogenation catalyst GHT-22 are in the following table: [0000] Name of the index Unit GHT-22 Appearance Grey three-leaf type Specification mm Φ1.5-2.0 Intensity N/cm 180 Bulk density g/ml 0.73 Specific surface m 2 /g 180 Pore volume ml/g 0.5-0.6 WO 3 m % 15 NiO m % 1.7 C 0 O m % 0.15 Na 2 O m % <0.09 Fe 2 O 3 m % <0.06 SiO 2 m % <0.60 Carrier m % 82.4 Another Technical Resolution as Follows: [0023] A process for the preparation of a high quality gasoline through the recombination of catalytic hydrocarbon comprising: the stabilized gasoline is put into the fractionator to carry out the distilling and fractionize into the light petrol, medium petrol and heavy petrol, the said light petrol is distilled through the upper part of the fractionator after being hydrogenated in the light petrol hydrogenation unit, the said medium petrol enters the medium petrol extractor through the pipeline to carry out extraction separation and separate into aromatic hydrocarbon and raffinate oil, the said aromatic hydrocarbon is hydrogenated through the aromatic hydrocarbon hydrogenation unit, then it is blended and used with the light petrol distilled from the upper part of the fractionator, after the medium petrol raffinate oil is hydrogenated through the raffinate oil hydrogenation unit, it is directly used as ethylene material;", "the said heavy petrol enters heavy petrol extractor through the pipeline to carry out extraction separation and separate into aromatic hydrocarbon and raffinate oil, the said aromatic hydrocarbon obtained from the extraction of the heavy petrol is blended with the aromatic hydrocarbon obtained from the extraction of the medium petrol, then it is hydrogenated through the aromatic hydrocarbon unit, subsequently it is blended with the light petrol distilled from the upper part of the fractionator, the raffinate oil obtained from the extraction of the said heavy petrol is blended with the raffinate oil obtained from the extraction of the said medium petrol, then it is hydrogenated through the said raffinate oil hydrocarbon unit and it is extracted as the ethylene material.", "[0024] A preferred process, wherein as for the light petrol distilled from the upper part of the fractionator, there is 50% weight that rounds light petrol hydrogenation unit and it is directly extracted out.", "[0025] A preferred process, wherein the tower top temperature of the said fractionator is 67˜68° C., the tower bottom temperature is 186˜188° C., the tower top pressure of the said fractionator is 0.2 MPa (absolute pressure), the tower bottom pressure is 0.25 MPa (absolute pressure), the distillation range of the said light petrol is controlled to 30° C.˜65° C., the said medium petrol is controlled to 65° C.˜160° C. and the distillation range of the said heavy gasoline is controlled to 160° C.˜205° C. [0026] A preferred process, wherein the tower top temperature of the said fractionator is 67˜68° C., the tower bottom temperature is 186˜188° C., the tower top pressure of the said fractionator is 0.2 MPa (absolute pressure), the tower bottom pressure is 0.25 MPa (absolute pressure), the distillation range of the said light petrol is controlled to 30° C.˜80° C., the said medium petrol is controlled to 80° C.˜160° C. and the distillation range of the said heavy gasoline is controlled to 160° C.˜205° C. [0027] A preferred process, wherein the catalyst of the said light petrol hydrogenation unit is selective hydrogenation catalyst GHT-20, the volume airspeed ratio of the said light petrol hydrogenation unit is 2, hydrogen/oil volume ratio is 150, the operation temperature is 230° C., the operation pressure is 1.0 MPa (absolute pressure).", "[0028] A preferred process, wherein the physical and chemical characteristics of the catalyst of the said selective hydrogenation catalyst, i.e., GHT-20, are seen in the following table: [0000] Name of the index Unit GHT-20 Appearance Grey three-leaf type Specification mm Φ1.5-2.0 Intensity N/cm 170 Bulk density g/ml 0.70 Specific surface m 2 /g 180 Pore volume ml/g 0.5-0.6 WO 3 m % 6.6 NiO m % 2.1 C 0 O m % 0.16 [0029] A preferred process, wherein the catalyst of the said raffinate oil hydrogenation unit is selective hydrogenation catalyst GHT-20, the volume airspeed ratio of the said raffinate oil hydrogenation unit is 2˜4, hydrogen/oil volume ratio is 250˜350, the operation temperature is 285˜325° C., the operation pressure is 1.5˜2.5 MPa (absolute pressure).", "[0030] A preferred process, wherein the catalyst of the said aromatic hydrocarbon hydrogenation unit is full hydrogenation catalyst, GHT-22, the volume airspeed ratio of the said heavy gasoline hydrogenation unit is 2˜4, hydrogen/oil volume ratio is 250˜350, the operation temperature is 285˜325° C., the operation pressure is 1.5˜2.5 MPa (absolute pressure).", "[0031] A preferred process, wherein the physical and chemical characteristics of the said full hydrogenation catalyst GHT-22 are seen in the following table: [0000] Name of the index Unit GHT-22 Appearance Grey three-leaf type Specification mm Φ1.5-2.0 Intensity N/cm ≧180 Bulk density g/ml ≧0.73 Specific surface m 2 /g ≧180 Pore volume ml/g 0.5-0.6 WO 3 m % ≧15 NiO m % ≧1.7 C 0 O m % ≧0.15 Na 2 O m % <0.09 Fe 2 O 3 m % <0.06 SiO 2 m % <0.60 Carrier m % 82.4 [0032] The fractionator used in this invention is the fractionator disclosed in the China patent 03148181.7 namely “catalytic hydrocarbon recombination treatment method.”", "The said extractor uses the extractor disclosed in the China patents 200310103541.9 and 200310103540.4, including solvent recycling and water rinsing system.", "[0033] The hydrogenation unit used in this invention is the current hydrogenation unit, including heating furnace, heat exchanger, high-pressure separator, air condenser and water condenser etc.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING [0034] In the following, we will further explain this invention through attached drawings and embodiments, but this does not mean the limitation to this invention.", "[0035] FIG. 1 is the schematic flow sheet of embodiment 1.", "[0036] FIG. 2 is the schematic flow sheet of embodiment 3.", "[0037] FIG. 3 is the schematic flow sheet of embodiment 4.", "[0038] FIG. 4 is the schematic flow sheet of embodiment 5.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Embodiment 1 [0039] See FIG. 1 , it is the schematic flow sheet of this embodiment.", "The gasoline is fractionated at fractionator 1 with the flow rate of 100,000 ton/year to the stabilized gasoline (catalytic gasoline) with low sulfur content whose distilling range is 30-205° C., sulfur content is 100 ppm, mercaptan content is 5 ppm, olefin content is 30% (v), diolefin content is 0.1% (v), aromatic hydrocarbon content is 15% (v), octane number (RON) is 89, density is 728 kg/m3, the tower top temperature of distilling tower 1 is 69° C., the tower bottom temperature is 192° C., tower top pressure is 0.2 MPa (absolute pressure), tower bottom pressure is 0.25 MPa (absolute pressure), light petrol, medium petrol and heavy petrol can be separately obtained.", "The above light petrol (distilling range 30-90° C.) is vaporized through the upper of distilling tower 1 , the total vaporization volume is 43,000 tons/year.", "The above medium petrol (distilling range 90-160° C.) is conveyed into the medium petrol extractor 2 - 1 to carry out extraction separation with the flow rate of 25000 tons/year and separate into aromatic hydrocarbon and raffinate oil.", "The solvent used in the above medium petrol extractor 2 - 1 is N-methyl-morph line, the extracting temperature is 95° C., solvent ratio (solvent/inlet material) is 2.5 (mass), the rinsing ratio of the raffinate oil is 0.2 (mass), the solvent recovery temperature is 155° C., the solvent recovery pressure is 0.13 MPa (absolute pressure), the above aromatic hydrocarbon passes the pipeline with the flow rate of 5000 tons/year into the aromatic hydrocarbon hydrogenation unit to carry out hydrogenation, then it passes the pipeline to be blended with the hydrogenated light petrol, the above raffinate oil passes the raffinate oil hydrogenation unit 3 - 1 with the flow rate of 20000 tons/year to carry out hydrogenation, then it is treated as ethylene material, [0040] The catalyst of the above raffinate oil hydrogenation unit 3 - 1 is selective hydrogenation catalyst GHT-20.", "The volume airspeed ratio of the above raffinate oil hydrogenation unit 3 - 1 is 2, hydrogen/oil volume ratio is 250, the operation temperature is 285° C., the operation pressure is 1.5 MPa (absolute pressure).", "[0041] The above heavy petrol (distilling range 160-205° C.) enters the heavy petrol extractor 2 - 2 to carry out extraction separation with the flow rate of 32000 tons/year and aromatic hydrocarbon and raffinate oil are separated out.", "[0042] The solvent used in the above extractor 2 - 2 is N-methyl-morpholine, the extraction temperature is 115° C., the ratio of solvent (solvent/feed material) is 3.5 (mass), the rinsing ratio of the raffinate oil is 0.2 (mass), the recovered temperature of the solvent is 151° C., the recovered pressure of the solvent is 0.112 MPa (absolute pressure), the above aromatic hydrocarbon as the product of the heavy petrol abstraction is blended with the aromatic hydrocarbon as the product of the medium petrol abstraction with the flow rate of 11000 tons/year, then it enters the aromatic hydrocarbon hydrogenation unit 3 - 2 to carry out hydrogenation, subsequently it is mixed with the above light petrol.", "[0043] The catalyst of the above aromatic hydrocarbon hydrogenation unit 3 - 2 is full hydrogenation catalyst GHT-22, [0044] The volume airspeed ratio of the above aromatic hydrocarbon hydrogenation unit 3 - 2 is 2, hydrogen/oil volume ratio is 250, the operation temperature is 285° C., the operation pressure is 1.5 MPa (absolute pressure).", "The raffinate oil as the product of the heavy petrol abstraction is blended with the raffinate oil as the product of the medium petrol abstraction with the flow rate of 21000 tons/year, then it is hydrogenated in the raffinate oil hydrogenation unit, finally it is extracted as fine quality ethylene material.", "[0045] The distilling range of the obtained blended petrol is 30-205° C., the sulfur content is 19.25 ppm, the mercaptan content is 3.95 ppm, the olefin content is 22.36% (v), the diolefin content is 0.08% (v), the aromatic hydrocarbon content is 23.78% (v), the octane number (RON) is 93.56, the density is 712.52 kg/m3, the oil output is 59000 tons/year.", "[0046] The distilling range of the obtained fine quality ethylene material is 65-160° C., the sulfur content is 0.5 ppm, the mercaptan content is less than 1 ppm, the olefin content is less than 0.1% (v), the diolefin content is less than 0.01% (v), the aromatic hydrocarbon content is 3.0% (v), the octane number (RON) is 74.24, the density is 751.50 kg/m3, the oil output is 41000 tons/year.", "[0047] The physical and chemical characteristics of the above selective hydrogenation catalyst GHT-20 are seen in the following table: [0000] Name of the index Unit GHT-20 Appearance Grey three-leaf type Specification mm Φ1.7 Intensity N/cm 170 Bulk density g/ml 0.70 Specific surface m 2 /g 180 Pore volume ml/g 0.55 WO 3 m % 6.6 NiO m % 2.1 C 0 O m % 0.16 [0048] The physical and chemical characteristics of the above full hydrogenation catalyst GHT-22 are seen in the following table: [0000] Name of the index Unit GHT-22 Appearance Grey three-leaf type Specification mm Φ1.7 Intensity N/cm 180 Bulk density g/ml 0.73 Specific surface m 2 /g 180 Pore volume ml/g 0.57 [0000] WO 3 m % 15 NiO m % 1.7 C 0 O m % 0.15 Na 2 O m % <0.09 Fe 2 O 3 m % <0.06 SiO 2 m % <0.60 Carrier m % 82.4 [0049] The measuring methods used in this invention are as follows (same below): 1.", "Distilling range: GB/T6536-1997 petroleum products—determination of distillation 2.", "Sulfur content: SH/T0689-2000 light hydrocarbon &", "engine fuel and other petroleum products-determination of total sulfur content (ultra-luminescence method) 3.", "Mercaptan sulfur: GB/T1792-1988 Distillate fuels—Determination of mercaptan sulphur—Potentiometric titration method 4.", "Olefin: GB/T11132-2002 Liquid petroleum products-Determination of hydrocarbon types-Fluorescent indicator absorption method 5.", "Aromatic hydrocarbon: GB/T11132-2002 Liquid petroleum products-Determination of hydrocarbon types-Fluorescent indicator absorption method 6.", "Octane number: GB/T5487 gasoline-testing methods for octane number-research method 7.", "Density: GB/T1884-2000, method for laboratory measurement of crude oil and liquid petroleum products (densitometer method) 8.", "Measurement of the diolefin: titration method 9.", "Hydrogenation catalyst analysis method: [0000] Chemical Applied petrochemical component Analytical procedure industry standard NiO Colorimetric analysis SH/T0346-1992 CoO Colorimetric analysis SH/T0345-1992 WO 3 Colorimetric analysis TABLE Continued Physical characteristics Analytical procedure Applied instrument Surface area Low temperature 2400 model sorption nitrogen adsorption analyzer Pore volume Mercury intrusion Auto Pore II 9200 method Intensity Cold Crushing DL II type intelligent Strength granular intensity measurement method measuring gauge Bulk density Weighing method Embodiment 2 [0059] See FIG. 1 , it is the schematic flow sheet of this embodiment.", "The gasoline is fractionated at fractionator 1 with the flow rate of 100,000 ton/year to the stabilized gasoline (catalytic gasoline) with high sulfur content whose distilling range is 30-205° C., sulfur content is 100 ppm, mercaptan content is 5 ppm, olefin content is 30% (v), diolefin content is 0.1% (v), aromatic hydrocarbon content is 15% (v), octane number (RON) is 89, density is 728 kg/m 3 , the tower top temperature of distilling tower 1 is 69° C., the tower bottom temperature is 190° C., tower top pressure is 0.2 MPa (absolute pressure), tower bottom pressure is 0.25 MPa (absolute pressure), light petrol, medium petrol and heavy petrol can be separately obtained.", "The above light petrol (distilling range 30-65° C.) is vaporized through the upper of distilling tower 1 , the total vaporization volume is 43,000 tons/year.", "The above medium petrol (distilling range 65-160° C.) is conveyed into the medium petrol extractor 2 - 1 with the flow rate of 25,000 tons/year to carry out extraction separation and separate into aromatic hydrocarbon and raffinate oil.", "The solvent used in the above medium petrol extractor 2 - 1 is N-methyl-morpholine, the extracting temperature is 95° C., solvent ratio (solvent/inlet material) is 2.5 (mass), the rinsing ratio of the raffinate oil is 0.2 (mass), the solvent recovery temperature is 155° C., the solvent recovery pressure is 0.13 MPa (absolute pressure), the aromatic hydrocarbon as the product of the extraction of the above medium petrol passes the pipeline with the flow rate of 5000 tons/year into the aromatic hydrocarbon hydrogenation unit 3 - 2 to carry out hydrogenation, then it passes the pipeline to be blended with the hydrogenated light petrol in the upper part of the distilling tower 1 , the above raffinate oil as the product of the extraction of the above medium petrol passes the raffinate oil hydrogenation unit 3 - 1 with the flow rate of 20000 tons/year to carry out hydrogenation, then it is treated as ethylene material, the catalyst of the above raffinate oil hydrogenation unit 3 - 1 is selective hydrogenation catalyst GHT-20.", "The volume airspeed ratio of the above raffinate oil hydrogenation unit 3 - 1 is 4, hydrogen/oil volume ratio is 350, the operation temperature is 325° C., the operation pressure is 2.5 MPa (absolute pressure).", "The above heavy petrol (distilling range 160-205° C.) enters the heavy petrol extractor 2 - 2 to carry out extraction separation with the flow rate of 32000 tons/year and aromatic hydrocarbon and raffinate oil are separated out.", "The solvent used in the above heavy petrol extractor 2 - 2 is N-methyl-morpholine, the extraction temperature is 115° C., the ratio of solvent (solvent/feed material) is 3.5 (mass), the rinsing ratio of the raffinate oil is 0.2 (mass), the recovered temperature of the solvent is 151° C., the recovered pressure of the solvent is 0.112 MPa (absolute pressure), the above aromatic hydrocarbon as the product of the heavy petrol abstraction is blended with the aromatic hydrocarbon as the product of the medium petrol abstraction with the flow rate of 11000 tons/year, then it enters the aromatic hydrocarbon hydrogenation unit 3 - 2 to carry out hydrogenation, subsequently it is mixed with the above light petrol.", "[0060] The catalyst of the above aromatic hydrocarbon hydrogenation unit 3 - 2 is full hydrogenation catalyst GHT-22, the volume airspeed ratio of the above aromatic hydrocarbon hydrogenation unit 3 - 2 is 4, hydrogen/oil volume ratio is 350, the operation temperature is 325° C., the operation pressure is 2.5 MPa (absolute pressure).", "The raffinate oil as the product of the heavy petrol abstraction is blended with the raffinate oil as the product of the medium petrol abstraction with the flow rate of 21000 tons/year, then it is hydrogenated in the raffinate oil hydrogenation unit, finally it is extracted as fine quality ethylene material.", "[0061] The distilling range of the obtained blended petrol is 30-205° C., the sulfur content is 19.35 ppm, the mercaptan content is 3.96 ppm, the olefin content is 22.46% (v), the diolefin content is 0.08% (v), the aromatic hydrocarbon content is 23.78% (v), the octane number (RON) is 93.56, the density is 712.52 kg/m3, the oil output is 59000 tons/year.", "[0062] The distilling range of the obtained fine quality ethylene material is 65-160° C., the sulfur content is 0.5 ppm, the mercaptan content is less than 1 ppm, the olefin content is less than 0.1% (v), the diolefin content is less than 0.01% (v), the aromatic hydrocarbon content is 3.0% (v), the octane number (RON) is 74.34, the density is 751.60 kg/m3, the oil output is 41000 tons/year.", "Embodiment 3 [0063] See FIG. 2 , it is the schematic flow sheet of this embodiment.", "The gasoline is fractionated at fractionator 1 with the flow rate of 100,000 ton/year to the stabilized gasoline (catalytic gasoline) whose distilling range is 30-205° C., sulfur content is 2000 ppm, mercaptan content is 50 ppm, olefin content is 40% (v), diolefin content is 1% (v), aromatic hydrocarbon content is 19% (v), octane number (RON) is 91, density is 728 kg/m3, the tower top temperature of distilling tower 1 is 67° C., the tower bottom temperature is 186° C., tower top pressure is 0.2 MPa (absolute pressure), tower bottom pressure is 0.25 MPa (absolute pressure), light petrol, medium petrol and heavy petrol can be separately obtained.", "The above light petrol (distilling range 30-65° C.) is vaporized through the upper of distilling tower 1 , the total vaporization volume is 30,000 tons/year.", "It is extracted after being hydrogenated in the light petrol hydrogenation unit 3 - 3 , the catalyst of the above light petrol hydrogenation unit 3 - 3 is selective hydrogenation catalyst GHT-20.", "The volume airspeed ratio of the above light petrol hydrogenation unit 3 - 3 is 2, hydrogen/oil volume ratio is 150, the operation temperature is 230° C., the operation pressure is 1.0 MPa (absolute pressure).", "The above medium petrol (distilling range 65-160° C.) is conveyed into the medium petrol extractor 2 - 1 with the flow rate of 30,000 tons/year to carry out extraction separation and separate into aromatic hydrocarbon and raffinate oil.", "The solvent used in the above medium petrol extractor 2 - 1 is N-methyl-morpholine, the extracting temperature is 95° C., solvent ratio (solvent/inlet material) is 2.5 (mass), the rinsing ratio of the raffinate oil is 0.2 (mass), the solvent recovery temperature is 155° C., the solvent recovery pressure is 0.13 MPa (absolute pressure), the aromatic hydrocarbon as the product of the extraction of the above medium petrol passes the pipeline with the flow rate of 7000 tons/year into the aromatic hydrocarbon hydrogenation unit 3 - 2 to carry out hydrogenation, then it passes the pipeline to be blended with the hydrogenated light petrol in the upper part of the distilling tower 1 .", "The catalyst of the above aromatic hydrocarbon hydrogenation unit 3 - 2 is selective hydrogenation catalyst GHT-20.", "The volume airspeed ratio of the above aromatic hydrocarbon hydrogenation unit 3 - 2 is 2, hydrogen/oil volume ratio is 250, the operation temperature is 285° C., the operation pressure is 1.5 MPa (absolute pressure).", "The above raffinate oil as the product of the extraction of the above medium petrol passes the raffinate oil hydrogenation unit 3 - 1 with the flow rate of 23000 tons/year to carry out hydrogenation, and then it is treated as ethylene material, the catalyst of the above raffinate oil hydrogenation unit 3 - 1 is selective hydrogenation catalyst GHT-20.", "The volume airspeed ratio of the above raffinate oil hydrogenation unit 3 - 1 is 2, hydrogen/oil volume ratio is 250, the operation temperature is 285° C., the operation pressure is 1.5 MPa (absolute pressure).", "The above heavy petrol (distilling range 160-205° C.) enters the heavy petrol extractor 2 - 2 to carry out extraction separation with the flow rate of 40000 tons/year and aromatic hydrocarbon and raffinate oil are separated out.", "The solvent used in the above heavy petrol extractor 2 - 2 is N-methyl-morpholine, the extraction temperature is 115° C., the ratio of solvent (solvent/feed material) is 3.5 (mass), the rinsing ratio of the raffinate oil is 0.2 (mass), the recovered temperature of the solvent is 151° C., the recovered pressure of the solvent is 0.112 MPa (absolute pressure), the above aromatic hydrocarbon as the product of the heavy petrol abstraction is blended with the aromatic hydrocarbon as the product of the medium petrol abstraction with the flow rate of 10000 tons/year, then it enters the aromatic hydrocarbon hydrogenation unit 3 - 2 to carry out hydrogenation, subsequently it is mixed with the above light petrol.", "The catalyst of the above aromatic hydrocarbon hydrogenation unit 3 - 2 is selective hydrogenation catalyst GHT-20.", "The volume airspeed ratio of the above aromatic hydrocarbon hydrogenation unit 3 - 2 is 2, hydrogen/oil volume ratio is 250, the operation temperature is 285° C., the operation pressure is 1.5 MPa (absolute pressure).", "The raffinate oil as the product of the heavy petrol abstraction is blended with the raffinate oil as the product of the medium petrol abstraction with the flow rate of 30000 tons/year, then it is hydrogenated in the raffinate oil hydrogenation unit, finally it is extracted as fine quality ethylene material.", "The distilling range of the obtained blended petrol is 30-205° C., the sulfur content is 33.6 ppm, the mercaptan content is less than 1 ppm, the olefin content is 15% (v), the diolefin content is 0.01% (v), the aromatic hydrocarbon content is 37.4% (v), the octane number (RON) is 95.6, the density is 695 kg/m3, the oil output is 47000 tons/year.", "[0064] The distilling range of the obtained fine quality ethylene material is 65-205° C., the sulfur content is 5.0 ppm, the mercaptan content is less than 1 ppm, the olefin content is 1.0% (v), the diolefin content is less than 0.01% (v), the aromatic hydrocarbon content is 4.0% (v), the octane number (RON) is 77.6, the density is 760.0 kg/m 3 , the oil output is 53000 tons/year.", "The physical and chemical characteristics of the above selective hydrogenation catalyst GHT-20 are See the following table: [0000] Name of the index Unit GHT-20 Appearance Grey three-leaf type Specification mm Φ1.7 Intensity N/cm 170 Bulk density g/ml 0.70 Specific surface m 2 /g 180 Pore volume ml/g 0.55 WO 3 m % 6.6 NiO m % 2.1 C 0 O m % 0.16 [0065] The physical and chemical characteristics of the above full hydrogenation catalyst GHT-22 are See the following table: [0000] Name of the index Unit GHT-22 Appearance Grey three-leaf type Specification mm Φ1.7 Intensity N/cm 180 Bulk density g/ml 0.73 Specific surface m 2 /g 180 Pore volume ml/g 0.57 WO 3 m % 15 NiO m % 1.7 C 0 O m % 0.15 Na 2 O m % <0.09 Fe 2 O 3 m % <0.06 SiO 2 m % <0.60 Carrier m % 82.4 [0066] The measuring methods used in this invention are as follows (same below): 1.", "Distilling range: GB/T6536-1997 petroleum products—determination of distillation 2.", "Sulfur content: SH/T0689-2000 light hydrocarbon &", "engine fuel and other petroleum products-determination of total sulfur content (ultra-luminescence method) 3.", "Mercaptan sulfur: GB/T1792-1988 Distillate fuels—Determination of mercaptan sulphur—Potentiometric titration method 4.", "Olefin: GB/T11132-2002 Liquid petroleum products-Determination of hydrocarbon types-Fluorescent indicator absorption method 5.", "Aromatic hydrocarbon: GB/T11132-2002 Liquid petroleum products-Determination of hydrocarbon types-Fluorescent indicator absorption method 6.", "Octane number: GB/T5487 gasoline-testing methods for octane number-research method 7.", "Density: GB/T1884-2000, method for laboratory measurement of crude oil and liquid petroleum products (densitometer method) 8.", "Measurement of the diolefin: titration method 9.", "Hydrogenation catalyst analysis method: [0000] Chemical Applied petrochemical component Analytical procedure industry standard NiO Colorimetric analysis SH/T0346-1992 CoO Colorimetric analysis SH/T0345-1992 WO 3 Colorimetric analysis Physical characteristics Analytical procedure Applied instrument Surface area Low temperature 2400 model sorption nitrogen adsorption analyzer Pore volume Mercury intrusion Auto Pore II 9200 method Intensity Cold Crushing DL II type intelligent Strength granular intensity measurement method measuring gauge Bulk density Weighing method Embodiment 4 [0076] See FIG. 3 , it is the schematic flow sheet of this embodiment.", "[0077] The gasoline is fractionated at fractionator 1 with the flow rate of 100,000 ton/year to the stabilized gasoline (catalytic gasoline) whose distilling range is 30-205° C., sulfur content is 600 ppm, mercaptan content is 20 ppm, olefin content is 30% (v), diolefin content is 0.5% (v), aromatic hydrocarbon content is 13% (v), octane number (RON) is 87, density is 722 kg/m 3 , the tower top temperature of distilling tower 1 is 67° C., the tower bottom temperature is 186° C., tower top pressure is 0.2 MPa (absolute pressure), tower bottom pressure is 0.25 MPa (absolute pressure), light petrol, medium petrol and heavy petrol can be separately obtained.", "The above light petrol (distilling range 30-65° C.) is vaporized through the upper of distilling tower 1 , the total vaporization volume is 30,000 tons/year.", "It is extracted after being hydrogenated in the light petrol hydrogenation unit 3 - 3 , the catalyst of the above light petrol hydrogenation unit 3 - 3 is selective hydrogenation catalyst GHT-20.", "The volume airspeed ratio of the above light petrol hydrogenation unit 3 - 3 is 2, hydrogen/oil volume ratio is 150, the operation temperature is 230° C., the operation pressure is 1.0 MPa (absolute pressure).", "The above medium petrol (distilling range 65-160° C.) is conveyed into the medium petrol extractor 2 - 1 with the flow rate of 30,000 tons/year to carry out extraction separation and separate into aromatic hydrocarbon and raffinate oil.", "The solvent used in the above medium petrol extractor 2 - 1 is N-methyl-morpholine, the extracting temperature is 95° C., solvent ratio (solvent/inlet material) is 2.5 (mass), the rinsing ratio of the raffinate oil is 0.2 (mass), the solvent recovery temperature is 155° C., the solvent recovery pressure is 0.13 MPa (absolute pressure), the aromatic hydrocarbon as the product of the extraction of the above medium petrol passes the pipeline with the flow rate of 7000 tons/year into the aromatic hydrocarbon hydrogenation unit 3 - 2 to carry out hydrogenation, then it passes the pipeline to be blended with the hydrogenated light petrol in the upper part of the distilling tower 1 .", "The catalyst of the above aromatic hydrocarbon hydrogenation unit 3 - 2 is selective hydrogenation catalyst GHT-20.", "The volume airspeed ratio of the above aromatic hydrocarbon hydrogenation unit 3 - 2 is 3, hydrogen/oil volume ratio is 300, the operation temperature is 305° C., the operation pressure is 2.0 MPa (absolute pressure).", "The above raffinate oil as the product of the extraction of the above medium petrol passes the raffinate oil hydrogenation unit 3 - 1 with the flow rate of 23000 tons/year to carry out hydrogenation, then it is treated as ethylene material.", "The catalyst of the above raffinate oil hydrogenation unit 3 - 1 is selective hydrogenation catalyst GHT-20.", "The volume airspeed ratio of the above raffinate oil hydrogenation unit 3 - 1 is 3, hydrogen/oil volume ratio is 300, the operation temperature is 305° C., the operation pressure is 2.0 MPa (absolute pressure).", "The above heavy petrol (distilling range 160-205° C.) enters the heavy petrol extractor 2 - 2 to carry out extraction separation with the flow rate of 40000 tons/year and aromatic hydrocarbon and raffinate oil are separated out.", "The solvent used in the above heavy petrol extractor 2 - 2 is N-methyl-morpholine, the extraction temperature is 115° C., the ratio of solvent (solvent/feed material) is 3.5 (mass), the rinsing ratio of the raffinate oil is 0.2 (mass), the recovered temperature of the solvent is 151° C., the recovered pressure of the solvent is 0.112 MPa (absolute pressure), the above aromatic hydrocarbon as the product of the heavy petrol abstraction is blended with the aromatic hydrocarbon as the product of the medium petrol abstraction with the flow rate of 10000 tons/year, then it enters the aromatic hydrocarbon hydrogenation unit 3 - 2 to carry out hydrogenation, subsequently it is mixed with the above light petrol.", "The above raffinate oil as the product of heavy petrol extraction is directly extracted out as the low solidification point diesel with the flow rate of 30000 tons/year.", "[0078] The distilling range of the obtained blended petrol is 30-205° C., the sulfur content is 10.0 ppm, the mercaptan content is less than 1 ppm, the olefin content is 10.4% (v), the diolefin content is less than 0.01% (v), the aromatic hydrocarbon content is 32.5% (v), the octane number (RON) is 94.5, the density is 664.6 kg/m 3 , the oil output is 40000 tons/year.", "[0079] The distilling range of the obtained fine quality ethylene material is 65-160° C., the sulfur content is 5.0 ppm, the mercaptan content is less than 1 ppm, the olefin content is 1.0% (v), the diolefin content is less than 0.01% (v), the aromatic hydrocarbon content is 1.0% (v), the octane number (RON) is 75.0, the density is 745.0 kg/m3, the oil output is 25000 tons/year.", "The distilling range of the obtained low solidification point diesel is 160-205° C., the sulfur content is 20.0 ppm, the mercaptan content is 2.0 ppm, the olefin content is 36.8% (v), the diolefin content is 0.1% (v), the aromatic hydrocarbon content is 2.0% (v), the density is 782.0 kg/m3, the oil output is 35000 tons/year.", "Embodiment 5 [0080] See FIG. 4 , it is the schematic flow sheet of this embodiment.", "The gasoline is fractionated at fractionator 1 with the flow rate of 100,000 ton/year to the stabilized gasoline (catalytic gasoline) whose distilling range is 30-205° C., sulfur content is 100 ppm, mercaptan content is 10 ppm, olefin content is 20% (v), diolefin content is 0.8% (v), aromatic hydrocarbon content is 10% (v), octane number (RON) is 84, density is 726 kg/m 3 , the tower top temperature of distilling tower 1 is 68° C., the tower bottom temperature is 188° C., tower top pressure is 0.11 MPa (absolute pressure), tower bottom pressure is 0.12 MPa (absolute pressure), light petrol, medium petrol and heavy petrol can be separately obtained.", "The above light petrol (distilling range 30-65° C.) is vaporized through the upper of distilling tower 1 , the total vaporization volume is 25,000 tons/year, thereinto, 50% of the distilling volume is through the upper part of the distilling tower 1 , other 50% is directly extracted.", "The catalyst of the above light petrol hydrogenation unit 3 - 3 is selective hydrogenation catalyst GHT-20, the volume airspeed ratio of the above light petrol hydrogenation unit 3 - 3 is 2, hydrogen/oil volume ratio is 150, the operation temperature is 230° C., the operation pressure is 1.0 MPa (absolute pressure).", "The above medium petrol (distilling range 65-160° C.) is conveyed into the medium petrol extractor 2 - 1 with the flow rate of 30,000 tons/year to carry out extraction separation and separate into aromatic hydrocarbon and raffinate oil.", "The solvent used in the above medium petrol extractor 2 - 1 is N-methyl-morpholine, the extracting temperature is 95° C., solvent ratio (solvent/inlet material) is 2.5 (mass), the rinsing ratio of the raffinate oil is 0.2 (mass), the solvent recovery temperature is 155° C., the solvent recovery pressure is 0.13 MPa (absolute pressure), the aromatic hydrocarbon as the product of the extraction of the above medium petrol passes the pipeline with the flow rate of 4000 tons/year into the aromatic hydrocarbon hydrogenation unit 3 - 2 to carry out hydrogenation, then it passes the pipeline to be blended with the hydrogenated light petrol in the upper part of the distilling tower 1 .", "The catalyst of the above aromatic hydrocarbon hydrogenation unit 3 - 2 is selective hydrogenation catalyst GHT-20.", "The volume airspeed ratio of the above aromatic hydrocarbon hydrogenation unit 3 - 2 is 4, hydrogen/oil volume ratio is 350, the operation temperature is 325° C., the operation pressure is 2.5 MPa (absolute pressure).", "The above raffinate oil as the product of the extraction of the above medium petrol passes the raffinate oil hydrogenation unit 3 - 1 with the flow rate of 23000 tons/year to carry out hydrogenation, then it is treated as ethylene material, the catalyst of the above raffinate oil hydrogenation unit 3 - 1 is selective hydrogenation catalyst GHT-20.", "The volume airspeed ratio of the above raffinate oil hydrogenation unit 3 - 1 is 2, hydrogen/oil volume ratio is 250, the operation temperature is 285° C., the operation pressure is 1.5 MPa (absolute pressure).", "The above heavy petrol (distilling range 160-205° C.) enters the heavy petrol extractor 2 - 2 to carry out extraction separation with the flow rate of 45000 tons/year and aromatic hydrocarbon and raffinate oil are separated out.", "The solvent used in the above heavy petrol extractor 2 - 2 is N-methyl-morpholine, the extraction temperature is 115° C., the ratio of solvent (solvent/feed material) is 3.5 (mass), the rinsing ratio of the raffinate oil is 0.2 (mass), the recovered temperature of the solvent is 151° C., the recovered pressure of the solvent is 0.112 MPa (absolute pressure), the above aromatic hydrocarbon as the product of the heavy petrol abstraction is blended with the aromatic hydrocarbon as the product of the medium petrol abstraction with the flow rate of 10000 tons/year, then it enters the aromatic hydrocarbon hydrogenation unit 3 - 2 to carry out hydrogenation, subsequently it is mixed with the above light petrol.", "The above raffinate oil as the product of heavy petrol extraction is blended with the above raffinate oil as the product of medium petrol extraction with the flow rate of 39000 tons/year, then it undergoes raffinate oil hydrogenation treatment, finally it is extracted as fine quality ethylene material.", "[0081] The distilling range of the obtained blended petrol is 30-205° C., the sulfur content is 16.4 ppm, the mercaptan content is 1.7 ppm, the olefin content is 13.7% (v), the diolefin content is 0.1% (v), the aromatic hydrocarbon content is 27.0% (v), the octane number (RON) is 91.6, the density is 664.1 kg/m 3 , the oil output is 35000 tons/year.", "[0082] The distilling range of the obtained fine quality ethylene material is 65-205° C., the sulfur content is 5.0 ppm, the mercaptan content is less than 1 ppm, the olefin content is 1.0% (v), the diolefin content is less than 0.01% (v), the aromatic hydrocarbon content is 2.0% (v), the octane number (RON) is 71.2, the density is 764.4 kg/m 3 , the oil output is 65000 tons/year.", "INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY [0083] The advantage of this invention is as the following: [0084] Compared with the existing technology, the system &", "method of preparing high quality gasoline through the recombination of catalytic hydrocarbon in this invention has the following advantages: first the recombination is carried out, then hydrogenation will be implemented.", "Therefore, the catalysts and parameters of the applied hydrogenation unit is more pertinent, the sulfur content of the blended gasoline is lower, the olefin content is further lower and the it has low cost." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a surge protector device and its fabrication method which returns itself to its non-conductive state in a very short time after conversion to its conductive state by a surge including thunder.", "Related Background Art A surge protector device including an arrester is very important device to protect various electronic apparatuses from a surge including thunder.", "The surge protector device is a general name of apparatuses which are used in order to protect other electronic apparatuses from excess voltage, that is, a surge.", "An arrester is used to protect other electronic apparatuses from thunder, that is extremely high voltage and large current.", "The arrester is one of the surge protector apparatuses.", "The term of “protector device”", "is used here to indicate apparatuses which are used in order to protect other electronic apparatuses from excess voltage or excess current.", "However, the excess voltage is not limited to only extremely high voltage such as thunder but includes low voltage if it is excess to a specified voltage.", "A glass-tube type arrester has been conventionaly used.", "It contains special gas between two electrodes in a glass tube.", "It is non-conductive unless surge is induced.", "When surge or thunder is induced, discharge starts and the gas between the electrodes changes to conductive.", "Current passes through the arrester, and it is led to the earth.", "Discharge does not stop immediately after surge ceases.", "The arrester cannot protect other electronic apparatuses from continuous current or next attack by surge or thunder.", "There were serious problems in a glass-tube and other type protector devices which have been used.", "One of the problems is that a protector device must change from its resistive state to a conductive state in a very short time such as 0.03 μsec.", "when it is attacked by surge.", "Another problem is that a protector device should return from the conductive state to the original resistive state when surge ceases.", "In order to solve these problems in the prior art, an improved arrester was proposed (Japanese Patent Publication No. 118361/1995, “Molybdenum Arrester”", "by Seita Ohmori).", "It is what uses a plurality of molybdenum bars whose surface was oxidized.", "This arrester will be called here as a “molybdenum arrester.”", "The molybdenum arrester leads current to the earth when surge or thunder is induced.", "The molybdenum arrester is very useful and economically efficient because it repeats the change between the conductive and non-conductive states automatically.", "It is possible to use metals other than molybdenum in the protector device which functions with the same principle as the molybdenum arrester.", "Tantalum, chromium and aluminum are included in such metals.", "There is a serious problem in the improved protector device by Ohmori which results from the fact that the protector device uses a simple pileup of a plurality of bars which have resistive films on their surfaces.", "FIG. 1 shows schematically the arrester ( 10 ) of the prior art which is called the molybdenum arrestor proposed by Ohmori (Japanese Patent Publication No. 118361/1995 “Molybdenum Arrester”).", "The arrester ( 10 ) includes two molybdenum bars ( 11 ) which have high resistive oxide films ( 12 ) on their surfaces and electrodes ( 13 ).", "The arrestor ( 10 ) uses the breakdown phenomenon at the interface between the high resistive films ( 12 ).", "A breakdown voltage depends largely on microscopic structure of the interface.", "That is, as shown in FIG. 2 , the high resistive films ( 12 ) on the two molybdenum bars come in contact with each other point by point microscopically although they seem to contact line by line or surface by surface macroscopically.", "There exists a layer ( 21 ) of air with a thickness of at least several atomic sizes between the high resistive films on the two molybdenum bars.", "The breakdown is what occurs in this layer of air.", "Therefore, an oscillator of voltage is observed as shown in FIG. 4 with an oscilloscope when an direct voltage is applied to the arrestor as shown in FIG. 1 which was proposed by Ohmori through an circuit ( 30 ) shown in FIG. 3 .", "In FIG. 3 , the circuit ( 30 ) includes a power source ( 31 ), a sample ( 32 ), resistors ( 33 , 34 ), an oscilloscope ( 35 ), and an amperameter ( 36 ).", "Similarly, a very sharp pulse of current is observed when an alternating voltage is applied to the Ohmori's arrestor.", "These phenomena mean that the Ohmori's arrestor cannot be used in practical uses.", "There has been no report of test on Ohmori's arrestor as described above by Ohmori and other peoples.", "The fact described above mean that it is impossible to realize a practically useful arrestor as far as it is composed of molybdenum bars simply piled up.", "In other words, it is impossible to realize a practically useful surge protector device as long as it uses breakdown phenomena in a layer of air between two surfaces.", "It is desirable, therefore, to provide a surge protector device which does not use breakdown phenomena in a layer of air between two surfaces.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In one aspect, the present invention provides a novel and unique surge protector device.", "This surge protector device basically comprises: a plurality of metal bars which are combined to a single body by a continuous high-resistive film of semiconductor crystal so that there is no gap between adjacent metal bars;", "and electrodes formed on the endmembers of said metal bars composing the single body.", "Thus, the present invention's surge protector device is fabricated so as to have no air gap between adjacent ones of the metal bars.", "As a result, the present invention's protector device can operate in such a way that the surge protector device changes from a non-conductive state to a conductive state due to breakdown in depletion region accompanying the semiconductor crystal when the voltage across the electrodes exceeds a threshold voltage because of a surge.", "The operational principle of the present invention is fundamentally different from that of the prior art surge protector device as proposed by Ohmori in which the protector device operates to change from a non-conductive state to a conductive sate based on discharge in air gap between plural bars.", "In the surge protector device of the present invention, preferably, molybdenum is used as the main component of the metal bar.", "But, it is also possible to use tantalum, chromium or aluminum as the main component of the metal bar.", "According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a novel and unique method for fabricating the surge protector device (as stated above).", "This novel and unique fabrication method of the present invention basically comprises two specific processing steps (that is, first and second oxidization steps).", "At the first oxidization step, a plurality of metal bars are oxidized so that adjacent ones of the metal bars are combined with each other.", "At the first oxidation step, the plurality of metal bars first set in contact, and then these metal bars are made to a single body without any gap between adjacent bars.", "At the second oxidization step, the single body composed of the plurality of metal bars are oxidized again in order to form a high-resistive semiconductor film on the whole surface of the single body.", "And, at a final step, electrodes are formed on the end metal bars on the opposite sides of the single body.", "The number of the metal bars in the single body is properly selected in accordance with the use of the surge protector device.", "Usually, the number of the metal bars is 2-4.", "In some applications, it is also possible to use a plurality of single bodies connected electrically in series.", "As stated above, a preferred metal for the metal bar is molybdenum although other metals such as tantalum, chromium and aluminum can be used.", "In case that the molybdenum bars are used in the surge protector device, after once the device changes to the conductive state due to the surge, it returns quickly from the conductive state to the original no-conductive state at the moment the surge (or thunder) ceases.", "This is caused even when the molybdenum oxide film is broken by a large current because molybdenum is oxidized quickly if it is in oxidizing atmosphere.", "Thus, the surge protector device operates to automatically repeat the transition between two states (i.e., the non-conductive state and conductive state) in case that molybdenum is used.", "In addition, a transitional voltage (a threshold voltage) at which the surge protector device changes from the non-conductive state to the conductive state can be controlled precisely for the novel surge protector device according to the present invention.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a prior art surge protector device which includes two cylindrical molybdenum bars with high resistive films which were formed by oxidizing each bar separately prior pile up.", "FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the interface between the two molybdenum bars with oxide films on their surface.", "FIG. 3 shows schematically a circuit which was used to test the prior art surge protector device.", "FIG. 4 shows current oscillation observed when a direct voltage is applied to the prior art surge protector device.", "FIG. 5 is a schematic view of plural metal bars and a holder which is used to oxidize the bars keeping them in contact.", "FIG. 6 is a schematic view of the main element of the surge protector device which was formed by oxidizing plural metal bars keeping them in contact.", "FIG. 7 is a schematic view of the plate on which the main element is fixed.", "FIG. 8 is schematic view of the structure formed by setting the plate with the main element in the case and forming electrodes and electrode terminals to the main element.", "FIG. 9 is a schematic view of the structure after setting a cap on the case.", "FIG. 10 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the surge protector device according to the first embodiment of the present invention after setting the main element, oxidizing and fire-resisting agents in the case.", "FIG. 11 is a schematic view of the surge protector device according to the second embodiment of the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferable embodiments of the present invention will be explained in detail with reference to the attached drawings, hereinafter.", "In the following embodiments, cylindical molybdenum bars were used.", "In the first embodiment, four molybdenum bars whose diameter was 2 mm and length was 7 mm were used to make a main element of the protector device.", "At the first step, molybdenum bars were rinsed with aceton and then with methyl alcohol.", "After then, they were rinsed with a high-purity water and then dried.", "At the second step, the four molybdenum bars were oxidized to make the bars into a single body.", "The molybdenum bars ( 101 ) were set on a holder ( 100 ) as shown in FIG. 5 .", "The top surface of the holder ( 100 ) has a tilt so that the molybdenum bars ( 101 ) are set in contact.", "It is preferred that the holder is made of high-purity quarts.", "The holder with the molybdenum bars on its top surface was set in an equipment for oxidization.", "In FIG. 5 the holder ( 100 ) is shown to have two sets of the molybdenum bars ( 101 ) on its top surface.", "However it is easily understood that the holder ( 100 ) can be designed to have more sets.", "The first oxidization to make the four molybdenum bars into a single body was done, in this embodiments, by heating the bars at 650° C. for 30 min, in an atmosphere of high-purity oxygen.", "However, it is preferred one example and it can be changed an accordance with particular uses.", "The atmosphere can also be changed.", "For example, high-purity oxygen including high-purity steam can be used.", "While the first oxidization was done to make the four molybdenum bars into a single body, a thin high-resistive film was formed on the whole surface of the body composed of bars.", "At the third step, the second oxidization is done to cause the thin high-resistive film on the whole surface of the body to be more thick.", "In this embodiment, oxidation was done at 550° C. for 5.5 hours.", "The conditions should be changed according to particular uses.", "The body was kept in the oxidizing equipment while the first oxidization and second oxidization were being done.", "The atmosphere in the equipment was changed from oxygen to high-purity nitrogen after the first oxidization until a temperature in the equipment reaches to 550° C. The second oxidization was done also in high-purity oxygen.", "FIG. 6 shows schematically the main element ( 200 ), that is, the body composed of the four molybdenum bars ( 101 ) after the completion of the second oxidization.", "In FIG. 6 , a high-resistive film ( 201 ) is formed on the whole surface and areas at the interfaces between the molybdenum bars.", "The film ( 201 ) is made of molybdenum oxide and continuous on the whole surface and at the interfaces.", "That is, there is no gap between the molybdenum bars and in the film.", "While a thickness of the film formed by oxidization at 550° C. for 5.5 hours is actually about 20 μm, the thickness is exaggerated in FIG. 6 for convenience clear.", "At the fourth step, the main element ( 200 ) composed of four molybdenum bars was fixed on a plate ( 301 ) with paste ( 302 ) as shown in FIG. 7 in order to make mechanically stable the main element.", "The plate ( 301 ) may be made of any material which is electrically resistive and heat-resisting.", "The paste ( 302 ) may be also made of any material which is electrically resistive.", "It is preferred to use a paste which does not shrink when it becomes hard.", "It is also preferred that only the bottom region of the main element ( 200 ) is fixed with the paste in order that the paste ( 302 ) does not hinder the formation of electrodes in the next step and that an oxidizing agent contacts the main element at many areas as much as possible when the main element and the oxidizing agent are set in a case.", "At the fifth step, the plate ( 301 ) on which the main element ( 200 ) had been fixed was bonded in the case ( 400 ) as shown in FIG. 8 .", "Then electrodes ( 401 ) were formed on the two end members of the molybdenum bars consisting the main element ( 200 ).", "The electrodes ( 401 ) were stuck on the end members with indium solder.", "These electrodes may be stuck with other materials such as electrically conductive paste.", "However it is preferred that no process at a high temperature is required to form the electrodes ( 401 ).", "In this embodiment, the electrodes ( 401 ) were formed by sticking two electrode terminals ( 402 ) with indium solder to the most central parts of the molybdenum bars.", "The electrode terminals were made of thin plates of brass.", "The electrode terminals ( 402 ) had a length such that they extend to outside of the case ( 400 ) and they are connected electrically to means outside of the case ( 400 ).", "The electrode terminals ( 402 ) may be made of other electrically conductive material such as capper.", "The case ( 400 ) was made of heat-resisting plastics in this embodiment.", "However it may be made of other materials such as ceramics as far as they are electrically insulating and hear-resisting.", "At the sixth step, a mixture ( 501 ) composed of an oxidizing agent and a fire-resisting agent was inserted into the case ( 400 ) in which the main element ( 200 ) had been fixed and a cap ( 502 ) of the case ( 400 ) was fixed with paste as shown in FIG. 9 .", "Then the case ( 400 ) was set in a vacuum vessel and inside of the case was evacuated through a hole ( 503 ) formed in the cap ( 502 ).", "Paste was arranged around the hole ( 503 ).", "After a pressure inside of the case ( 400 ) reached 10 −3 Torr, the case ( 400 ) was sealed by heating the paste ( 504 ) to melt it and close the hole.", "By sealing the case, the surge protector device ( 600 ) according to the first embodiment of the present invention was completed.", "Cross sectional view of the completed surge protector device ( 600 ) are shown schematically in FIGS. 10( a ) and 10 ( b ).", "The cross sectional view shown in FIG. 10( a ) is what obtained along the line A-A′ in FIG. 9 and that shown in FIG. 10( b ) is along the line B-B′.", "The completed surge protector device ( 600 ) changed from a non-conducive state to a conductive state by application of an inpulse of 4000V.", "This means that the surge protector device ( 600 ) satisfactorily serves as a surge protector device.", "When the mixture ( 501 ) obtained by mixing potassium chlorate as an oxidizing agent and silica as a fire-resisting agent of a ratio 1:3 in weight was inserted in the case ( 400 ) with the main element ( 200 ), the surge protector device ( 600 ) was reproduced even when an inpulse of 4500V was applied and a current of 300 A flowed.", "Although the high-resistive film on the molybdenum bars was made of semiconductor crystal formed by oxidization of molybdenum, it may be semiconductor crystal made by other methods such as vapor growth, suputtering and vacuum evaporation.", "FIG. 11 shows schematically the surge protector device ( 1000 ) according to the second embodiment of the present invention.", "In this embodiment, two main elements ( 1200 , 1201 ) are electrically connected with each other.", "Each element was the same as the main element in the first embodiment and it was composed of four molybdenum bars.", "A connecting electrode ( 1001 ) was arranged between the two main elements ( 1200 , 1201 ) in order to connect the elements electrically in series.", "On the opposite side of the first main element ( 1200 ) to the connecting electrode ( 1001 ) there was formed an electrode terminal ( 1002 ) which extended to outside of the case ( 1400 ).", "The electrode terminal ( 1002 ) was formed by the method as explained above concerning to the first embodiment.", "On the opposite side of the second main element ( 1201 ) to the connecting electrode ( 1001 ) there was formed an electrode terminal ( 1003 ) which extended to outside of the case ( 1400 ).", "The two main elements ( 1200 , 1201 ) and the connecting electrode ( 1001 ) were connected with each other using electrically conductive paste.", "The main elements ( 1200 , 1201 ) were fixed by the same method as that described above concerning to the first embodiment.", "An oxidizing agent and a fire-resisting agent were inserted into the case ( 1400 ) similar to the first embodiment.", "The case ( 1400 ) was sealed by the same method as that shown above concerning to the first embodiment.", "The surge protector device ( 1000 ) according to the second embodiment changed from a non-conductive state to a conductive state by application of an inpulse of 8000V and its function took place even when an inpulse of 9000V was applied and a current of 600 A flowed.", "The surge protector apparatuses according to the first and second embodiments of the present invention did not show the oscillation of voltage a current when a direct voltage was applied which the molybdenum arrestor proposed by Ohmori showed.", "This fact means that there is no air gap in any part of current path for the surge protector device according to the present invention.", "The surge protector apparatuses according to the first and second embodiments had error in characteristics within ±2% when they were fabricated with the same conditions for each case.", "On the other hand, the characteristics of the arrestor proposed by Ohmori which were fabricated practically with the same conditions had non-uniformity as large as ±20%.", "One of the reason is that an interface structure between the molybdenum bars cannot been controlled in atomic size because the arrestor by Ohmori has a structure in which plural molybdenum bars are simply piled up.", "Another reason is that the force applied to the interface between the molybdenum bars are not controlled because the molybdenum bars are simply piled up, too.", "Both atomic structure of the interface and force applied to the interface had effects on the electrical characteristics including breakdown.", "The surge protector devices according to the present invention did not cause problems such as current oscillation and non-uniformity of characteristics because they had no gap in the current path.", "Principle of the function, which the protector apparatuses according to the present invention have, is considered as follows.", "The switching function from a non-conductive state to a conductive state occurs because breakdown occurs in depletion region accompanying to semiconductor crystal in the molybdenum oxide film on the surface of the molybdenum bars and in the areas between the bars when electric field above a threshold is induced.", "On the other hand, the arrestor proposed by Ohmori changes its state from a non-conductive to a conductive because discharge occurs in the air gap between the molybdenum bars when electric field reaches at a threshold.", "Therefore, it is described clearly in the patent application by Ohmori that the switching function is based on discharge.", "Discharge is not used to have the switching function in the case of the surge protector device according to the present invention.", "That is, the principle of the switching function of the surge protector device according to the present invention is fundamentally different from that accompanying to the Ohmori's arrestor.", "It is possible that a part of the current path is broken because of heat if an applied voltage is large and a current flow is large when the protector device changes its sate from a non-conductive one to a conductive one.", "In such a case, the protector device according to the present invention is restored quickly because the molybdenum is oxidized quickly if it is in an oxidizing ambient.", "It is similar to the arrestor proposed by Ohmori.", "The surge protector device according to the present invention has not the following problems which the arrestor proposed by Ohmori has: 1) poor characteristics such as current oscillation 2) poor controlability, and 3) poor resproducibility of production.", "The principle of switching function from a non-conductive state to a conductive one of the surge protector device according to the present invention is based on breakdown in depletion region accompanying to semiconductor crystal.", "It is completely different from that the arrestor proposed by Ohmori is based on, that is, discharge of air." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention This invention relates to relays and more particularly to a method and apparatus for adjusting the contact system of such a relay.", "Prior Art This invention is directed to that type of electromagnetic relay which has a switching element which is mounted at one end and which is elastic or resilient such that its free end can move to cooperate with at least one other switching member to effectuate a contact.", "Such a switching element can, for example, be a contact tongue, an arm, an armature, a contact spring or an armature contact or any other known variant.", "In addition the invention is directed to a method of adjusting such a relay.", "Most electromagnetic relays have an operating air gap.", "In such relays adjustment of the air gap is provided either in the magnetic circuit or in the contact spacing between the contact providing parts during the production of the relay.", "This adjustment is required in order to avoid large variations in the operating values of the relays.", "Such an adjustment has been known to be provided by means of adjusting screws or by means of controlled bending of the sheet metal parts with the aid of adjusting clamps.", "Such adjustment operations require painstaking care and manual dexterity and cannot generally be automated .", "During the course of miniaturizing such relays, the adjusting problem has been aggravated due to the fact that, frequently, the parts to be adjusted are often accessible to the adjusting tools only with great difficulty.", "Further in conventional miniature sealed relays wherein the contact system is internally sealed, adjustment after assembly can be virtually impossible particularly where it is required that adjustment tools be given access to the components to be adjusted.", "An adjustable miniature relay is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,477,045.", "In such a type of relay, subsequent adjustment is thought to be provided for by means of an adjustment spring device in cooperation with screws in the casing wall.", "However such a device does not provide a complete solution to the problem since the adjusting mechanism is not only very expensive but is no longer functionable after completion of the final sealing of the adjustment member.", "It has also been suggested, in connection with contact relays having a ferromagnetic switching tongue received in a glass casing, to subsequently deform the tongue by means of a magnetic field applied from the exterior.", "See for example U.S. Pat. No. 3,242,557.", "However the bending of a spring tongue which abuts an opposing contact requires an extremely high magnetic force.", "Thus, desired adjustment cannot be readily obtained.", "Further the contact force cannot be adjusted independently from the contact spacing and an initial grid potential vis-a-vis opposed rigid contacts cannot be obtained with this known method.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore a primary objective of this invention to construct an electromagnetic relay of the above described types such that the contact switching element can be adjusted to arbitrary values in both switching directions even though the switching element to be adjusted is positioned interiorly of a sealed casing or housing.", "This primary objective is resolved in this invention by attaching the switching element through its elastic support to an elongated ferromagnetic adjusting plate which is bendable about a point of attachment to the relay body.", "The adjusting plate is used as a carrier for the switching rod or arm and can be bent through the use of a magnetic field applied from the exterior.", "This is particularly advantageous when used in connection with hermetically sealed armatures or contact rods or arms.", "The switching arm or element can, itself, be fashioned as a spring member or can be supported in an elastic fashion.", "The spring switching element is not, itself, deformed during the adjusting process.", "Rather the adjusting plate which functions as a carrier for the spring element is bent during the adjusting process to alter the position of the point of attachment of the elastic element to the adjusting plate, thus effecting the elastic element.", "The free end of the elastic member (switching rod or arm), can be arbitrarily prestressed by this method vis-a-vis an anti-pole device or an opposed contact as only the switching rod or elastic element and not the adjusting plate which is bent, abuts the counter buffer or dog.", "In one embodiment of the invention the adjusting plate is positioned parallel to the elastic member such that the elastic member, which functions as a switching member, is mounted to the adjusting plate in the proximity of the adjusting plate - relay body clamp point.", "In another embodiment the switching member can be elastically supported at its free end in alignment with the adjusting plate.", "The adjusting plate also preferably is provided with a theoretical bending point between its clamping point and the point of mounting of the switching member.", "The theoretical bending point can be formed by a weakness in the cross section of the adjusting plate.", "In this manner the magnetic forces necessary for adjustment can be relatively low.", "The material of the adjusting plate is advantageously soft iron or a similar material which has a spring bending limit which lies in approximately the same range.", "The switching element or elastic element can itself be arbitrarily selected in accordance with other requirements.", "Thus, if the switching element is a contact rod it can be formed of an elastic contact material or, if it is an armature, can be formed of a ferromagnetic material.", "The invention is therefore not limited by the material of the switching element and, for example the switching element could be an elastic armature contact arm or rod which is electrically and magnetically conductive, or, in another case, it could be a rigid armature mounted through an armature support such as a spring.", "The switching member can be positioned as an armature contact located within the coil of the relay and, for example, may be used in such a position where the coil member forms a hermetically sealed switching chamber.", "Adjustment in all such cases can be carried out on the completely mounted, sealed, and possibly even cast relay, by use of this invention.", "It is therefore a primary object of this invention to provide an improved adjustable relay.", "It is another, and more particular object of this invention to provide a relay having a switching arm or element whose attitude is adjustable by means of a bendable adjustment plate attached to the switching arm or element.", "It is another object of this invention to provide a relay having a switching element, the position of which can be adjusted by means of the application of an external magnetic force acting upon a bendable adjustment plate carrying the switching element.", "Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be readily apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, although variations and modifications may be effected without departing from the spirit and scope of the novel concepts of the disclosure, and in which: BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a relay according to this invention taken along the lines I--I of FIG. 2. FIG. 2 is a view similar to FIG. 1 taken along the lines II--II of FIG. 1. FIGS. 3 and 4 are respectively side and top elevational views of the magnetically adjustable switching element assembly in the form of a spring arm.", "FIGS. 5 and 6 are views similar to FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrating a magnetically adjustable rigid armature.", "FIG. 7 is a view illustrating a magnetically adjustable contact spring.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT FIG. 1 illustrates, in cross section, an electromagnetic armature contact relay.", "The relay includes a coil body 1 which functions as carrier for the magnet system.", "The body carries a coil winding 2 and defines a switching chamber 3 interior of the coil body.", "A ferromagnetic spring rod or arm 4 extends substantially axially of the coil body and is of the type which will execute switching movements between pole shoes 5 and 6 with its free end 4a being used as an armature contact.", "A permanent magnet 7 is positioned between outer ends of the pole shoes 5 and 6.", "The permanent magnet is so positioned that, in dependence upon the current direction in the coil 2, the switching element 4 will be attracted to one or the other of the pole shoes.", "The pole shoes 5 and 6 may therefore be used both as electrically opposite contacts and as an attractor element.", "The electrical connections are not illustrated in the schematic views of FIGS. 1 and 2 but will be apparent to those skilled in the art.", "In order to provide for adjustability of the positioning of the switching element 4, its mounting end 4b is not directly clamped in the coil body.", "Rather the mounting end 4b is attached to an adjusting plate 8.", "The plate 8 extends essentially parallel to the switching element 4 and is formed of a ferromagnetic material having a low spring bending limit.", "The adjusting plate 8, in the embodiment illustrated,has spaced bridge connections at 9 and 10 which are clamped to the coil body 1.", "In order to provide fastening, in the illustrated embodiment, the coil body is provided with notches 11 and 12 extending parallel to the axis and located on opposite sides of the switching chamber 3.", "The bridges 9 and 10 are receivable in the notches 11 and 12 thereby seating and suspending the adjusting plate within the switching chamber 3.", "A tab 13 of the adjusting plate, cut from the adjusting plate, projects freely between the bridges 9 and 10 in substantially parallel spaced relationship thereto.", "The swtiching element 4 is attached to the tab by means such as point soldering as at 14.", "In order to provide for easy adjustment of the adjusting plate the bridges 10 and 11 have weakened portion 15 and 16 providing a theoretical bending point.", "The weakened portions 15 and 16 lie outside of the portions of the bridges 9 and 10 which are enclamped in the coil body 1 such that the adjusting plate is bendable about the position of enclampment of the adjustment plate at the weakened points 15 and 16.", "Because the adjusting plate is constructed of a ferromagnetic material, it will be appreciated that it can be caused to move and therefore be bent around the bending points 15 and 16 by the application of an externally applied magnetic field of relatively small strength.", "During the process of bending the adjusting plate 8, the mounting point 14 of the switching element 4 will be slightly moved whereby the position of the free end 4a of the switching element can be adjusted.", "For example, dependent upon the desired adjustment, the free end can abut, with more or less grid potential, one or the other of the anti-poles 5 or 6, or can be centrally positioned with respect thereto.", "The adjusting plate 8 and the switching element 4 are sufficiently independent from one another that, in view of the stiffness of the switching element 4, an additional deflection of the adjusting plate is permitted even when the switching element 4 abuts one of the pole plates 5 or 6.", "The adjusting plate 8 is bent through the application of a magnetic field which may be applied from the exterior of the relay by means such as, for example, coil 17.", "A torque will obviously be exerted upon an elongated ferromagnetic member whose longitudinal axis forms an angle between zero and 90° with respect to the flux lines of the magnetic field.", "When this occurs, the ferromagnetic part will attempt to rotate its axis in the direction of the lines of flux.", "Such a ferromagnetic part, in the instant example, the adjusting plate, will be magnetized in a longitudinal direction by means of the magnetic field and will have the effect of a dipole.", "Its magnetic moment is p=I·V.", "In this formula I represents the magnetization and V the volume.", "In a dipole having the magnetic movement p which lies at an angle α with the flux lines having a field force H, a torque in the amount D=p·H· sine α occurs.", "When the component is unilaterally clamped, the torque corresponds with a force, effective vertically to the greatest area of the adjusting plate (having a length 1), as F h =D/1.", "Thus, the torque will be dependent upon the sine of the angle between the adjusting plate to be bent and the magnetic lines of flux.", "However since magnetization of the adjusting plate cannot result at an angle α of 90°, the angle has to be selected smaller than 90°.", "An optimum torque results, in practice, at an angle which is up to 15° less than 90°, that is from 75° to 90°.", "In addition to the directional effect of the homogenous magnetic field, the force can be utilized for magnetic adjustment by seeking to move a ferromagnetic part in the direction of the increasing field strength of the inhomogenous magnetic field.", "This has the effect of attraction of the pole shoes.", "This additionally occurring force is approximately F i '=I·cos·dH/ds.", "As this force effects the flux line direction, it should be multiplied by sine α in order to obtain the component which acts vertically to the adjusting plate.", "This force acts at the center of gravity.", "Therefore when one end of the component is clamped, i.e. a unilateral clamping, the comparison force acting in the direction of the end of the adjusting plate is obtained by multiplying by 1/2: F i '=1/2I·dH/ds· cos α · sin α.", "Adjustment of a relay such as the relay illustrated in FIG. 1 can be made prior to the assembly of the permanent magnet.", "In such an adjustment method, position of the spring can be determined by electrical measurement between the individual magnetic field impulses.", "Thus such measurement can, for example, be made by measuring the capacitance between the center and the opposed contacts or by means of the amount of excitation which is required in order to deflect the spring towards the closer pole plate in the then existent neutral system.", "Additionally, there is the possibility of an additional measurement offered by operating and retrodirective excitation of the poled system formed by coupling an external permanent flux circuit in the adjusting device.", "In such an adjusting method, it should be safeguarded that adjustment is not altered during any subsequent magnetic balancing of the permanent magnet.", "In this it can be advantageous to allow the demagnetized fields to have an application vertically to the privileged direction of the permanent magnet.", "It is even more advantageous to undertake adjustment of the relay after the relay has been completely assembled.", "In that case operating values of the complete relay can be used as an adjusting criterion.", "In using this method, it is possible to adjust the operating values particularly precisely by using a combined adjusting and balancing process wherein both the position of the switching element and the balancing of the permanent magnet are to be somewhat simultaneously accomplished.", "In this system, it is however, desirable to insure that no reciprocal influence occurs between the two processes.", "It is therefore important that one of the processes can be carried out without altering the final condition of the other.", "For example, if the permanent magnet is balanced without influencing the switching component adjustment, as can perhaps be accomplished by applying a demagnetizing field having flux lines running parallel to the coil axis, it should be assured that the adjustment is accomplished first and the balancing latter carried out.", "FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate a somewhat modified adjustment plate.", "In this construction the adjusting plate can be positioned in the coil body 1 in place of the adjusting plate 8.", "In this example the switching element 20 is attached at point 19 to the adjusting plate.", "The plate has 2 laterally spaced bridge members 21 and 22 for enclampment of the adjusting plate into the housing.", "The adjusting plate is again provided with a theoretical bending point 23 which lies in the area of the point of juncture between the elongated extending ferromagnetic material arm portion and the clamping portion of the attachment plate.", "It is to be noted that in the embodiment illustrated the majority of the elongated portion of the attachment plate is offset so as to lie spaced relation to the switching element 20.", "FIGS. 5 and 6 illustrate a rigid armature system wherein a rigid armature member 24 is used in place of the spring switching elements of the prior embodiments.", "The armature can be connected to a magnetic core 26 through the intermediary of a plate member 25 functioning as a flat leaf spring.", "In this example, the core 26 is simultaneously utilized to provide the adjustment plate.", "A theoretical bending point 28 is provided between the clamping area 27 used for seating the core 26 in the coil body and the adjusting plate portion 26.", "In this construction adjustment of the relay can again be provided by means of magnetic deformation of the adjusting plate 26 which is suitably sized to be properly influenced by the magnetic flux lines.", "The simultaneous usage of a ferromagnetic member as a magnetic core and as the adjusting plate is therefore possible An additional embodiment is illustrated in FIG. 7. In this construction the switching component is a spring member similar to the embodiments of FIGS. 3 and 4 but is, however, a contact making spring 31.", "This spring is not directly clamped to the carrier 32 but rather is clamped through the intermediary ferromagnetic plate 33.", "The plate can then function as an adjusting plate deformable by application of a magnetic field in order to make a contact adjustment.", "Again a theoretical bending point 34 is advantageously provided at a weak point in the cross section of the plate 33.", "Although the teachings of my invention have herein been discussed with reference to specific theories and embodiments, it is to be understood that there are by way of illustration only and that others may wish to utilize my invention in different designs or applications." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser.", "No. 13/216,178, filed on Aug. 23, 2011, which is currently pending.", "U.S. application Ser.", "No. 13/216,178 is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 12/267,380, filed on Nov. 7, 2008, which was issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,177,394 on May 15, 2012.", "The contents of U.S. application Ser.", "Nos. 13/216,178 and 12/267,380 are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.", "FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE [0002] The present disclosure is in the field of microscopes.", "BACKGROUND [0003] This disclosure refers to various outside documents to aid the reader in understanding the embodiments of the processes, machines, manufactures, compositions of matter, and other teachings of the present disclosure;", "to enable those of ordinary skill in the art to practice the embodiments of the processes, machines, manufactures, compositions of matter, and other teachings of the present disclosure;", "and to allow one of ordinary skill in the art to understand the metes and bounds of the embodiments of the processes, machines, manufactures, compositions of matter, and other teachings of the present disclosure.", "No admission is made that any such document meets any legal definition of “prior art”", "in any country, and the Applicants reserve the right to demonstrate that any such document meets or fails to meet any legal definition of “prior art”", "in any country.", "All such documents are incorporated by reference herein so far as is necessary to enable those of ordinary skill in the art to practice the embodiments of the processes, machines, manufactures, compositions of matter, and other teachings of the present disclosure;", "and to allow one of ordinary skill in the art to understand the metes and bounds of the embodiments of the processes, machines, manufactures, compositions of matter, and other teachings of the present disclosure.", "[0004] In the surgical setting, there have been a number of different microscopes designed and sold for ophthalmic surgery.", "Presently there are no microscopes that deliver two collimated light beams in stereoscopic to the subject surface, e.g., the tissue under examination hi a surgical procedure.", "[0005] Until now microscopes have delivered to the subject surface (1) one or more uncollimated light beams from the objective lens or (2) a single uncollimated light beam below the objective.", "Routing a parallel light beam through the objective lens transmits a light beam which is not collimated.", "The illumination system, described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,779,968 delivered a single uncollimated light beam from a single light source to the subject surface through objective lens (shown as 1 or 1a), wherein FIGS. 1 and 3 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,779,968 depict the beam to the subject surface passing through an objective lens which is uncollimated.", "Another illumination system believed to be from the Zeiss Lumera microscope delivered two focused (uncollimated) beams to the subject surface through the objective lens.", "Another illumination system from the Moller EOS 900 microscope delivered two focused (uncollimated) light beams through the objective lens to the subject surface.", "[0006] U.S. patent publication 2010/0118549, published May 13, 2010, describes an invention directed toward cataract surgery in which the microscope light reflects from the retina to produce a red reflex, in essence a backlighting of the lens in cataract surgery.", "[0007] Illumination in retinal surgery is different from that in cataract surgery.", "In retinal surgery the microscope is equipped with a device for magnifying the retina so that the surgeon sees a large view of the operative site.", "However, the illumination of the surgical microscope for cataract surgery is not used in retinal surgery.", "In retinal surgery, a small fiber-optic pie about 1 mm in diameter is inserted through the sclera and into the vitreous body for direct illumination of the retinal surface.", "The surgeon holds this fiber-optic pie such that light exiting the tip of the fiber-optic pie is directed toward the retinal tissue on which the operating instruments are utilized.", "SUMMARY [0008] Microscopes are used in many different fields.", "The systems of the present disclosure can be used in any field but are especially useful in surgical settings or any other application in which highly three dimensional objects require magnification, particularly those partially occluded by an enclosure.", "An example of this is ophthalmic surgery [0009] The illumination system of the present disclosure allows delivery of two collimated light beams to the subject surface which at least partially overlap, producing stereoscopic illumination.", "Additionally, an independent system of illumination may be provided at an angle oblique to the stereoscopic system.", "Either system can be used together or separately.", "[0010] As defined herein and unless otherwise stated, (a) “collimated light”", "means light rays from any light source which are partially parallel instead of converging or diverging;", "and (b) “collimation”", "means the process of arranging converging or diverging light beams so that they are at least partially parallel.", "If the light source for each stereoscopic beam was truly a point source there would be little overlap of the beams on the subject surface.", "With a white light source the focal length of the lens varies with wavelength.", "An ideally collimated beam would result from a monochromatic point source located at the focal point of the condenser lens.", "The larger the light source, however, the more other effects occur.", "Light from one side of the bulb, for example, enters the condenser lens at a different point than light from the bulb's other side and therefore they behave differently as they exit the lens.", "Light that lies directly on the optical axis of the lens is collimated but the off axis light creates some divergence in the beams.", "[0011] Certain embodiments of the illumination system incorporate a 50%/50% beamsplitter plate.", "The beamsplitter plate facilitates red reflex enhancement during cataract surgery on the lens, but is not necessary for retinal surgery.", "In fact, its presence can reduce 50% of the light returning from the surgical site to the surgeon's eyes.", "It is therefore desirable to remove the beamsplitter plate from the optical system for retinal surgery.", "In certain embodiments of the system this is accomplished by allowing the beamsplitter plate to be removed from the light beam path, thus allowing 100% of the reflected light from the retina to enter the optical system of the surgical microscope.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES [0012] FIG. 1 is a view from the top of an embodiment of the illumination system showing the stereoscopic illumination system and the oblique illumination system.", "The lines with arrows represent the centers of the light beams from their source until they reflect against the beamsplitter (for stereoscopic) and against the full mirror (for oblique).", "[0013] FIG. 2 is a side schematic view of one side of the embodiment of the stereoscopic illumination system.", "It shows a single collimated light beam illuminating the subject surface, in this instance an eye, and light from the eye's red reflex traveling through the objective lens toward the binoculars.", "[0014] FIG. 3 is a side schematic view of an embodiment of the oblique illumination system, in which the light is offset at an angle oblique to the stereoscopic illumination system.", "It shows a light beam illuminating the subject surface, in this instance an eye, and light from the eye's red reflex traveling through the objective lens toward the binoculars.", "[0015] FIG. 4 is a side view of an embodiment of the system as a detachable module for an existing microscope, including a side schematic view of the stereoscopic illumination system and how the light beam illuminates the subject surface.", "It shows a collimated light beam illuminating the subject surface, in this instance an eye, and light from the eye's red reflex traveling through the objective lens toward the binoculars.", "[0016] FIG. 4 a is a side view of an embodiment of the illumination system as a detachable module for an existing microscope, including a side schematic view of the oblique illumination system and how the light beam illuminates the subject surface.", "It shows a light beam illuminating the subject surface, in this instance an eye, and light from the eye's red reflex traveling through the objective lens toward the binoculars.", "[0017] FIG. 5 is a side view of an embodiment of the illumination system as a module attached to an existing microscope, including a side schematic view of the stereoscopic illumination system and how the light beam illuminates the subject surface.", "It shows a collimated light beam illuminating the subject surface, in this instance an eye, and light from the red reflex traveling through the objective lens toward the binoculars.", "[0018] FIG. 5 a is a side view of an embodiment of the illumination system as a module attached to an existing microscope, including a side schematic view of the oblique illumination system and how the light beam illuminates the subject surface.", "It shows a light beam illuminating the subject surface, in this instance an eye, and light from the red reflex traveling through the objective lens toward the binoculars.", "[0019] FIG. 6 is a 3 dimensional cutaway of an embodiment of the illumination system including the stereoscopic and the oblique illumination systems, the centers of the light beams, and the patterns of illumination on the subject surface.", "[0020] FIG. 7 depicts an embodiment of the illumination system with rheostats, for independent control of each illumination source, and their connections to an external power source.", "[0021] FIGS. 8 and 8 a depict the illumination system described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,779,968.", "[0022] FIG. 9 depicts an illumination system believed to be the Zeiss Lumera microscope delivering two focused (uncollimated) beams to the subject surface through the objective lens.", "[0023] FIG. 10 depicts an illumination system from the Moller EOS 900 microscope delivering two focused (uncollimated) light beams through the objective lens to the subject surface.", "[0024] FIG. 11 is a side view of the microscope with disengagement of the retractable beamsplitter plate 31 for retinal surgery.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0025] An illumination system for a microscope is provided, the illumination system being below the objective lens 11 a of the microscope.", "The illumination system contains two illumination sub-systems, the first being the stereoscopic sub-system which delivers two beams of collimated light (as defined herein) to the subject surface 16 .", "These two beams of collimated light overlap on the subject surface 16 at least partially.", "The advantage of the stereoscopic collimated light is a better three dimensional view than produced by prior art illumination systems under similar circumstances.", "Compared to uncollimated light, delivering collimated light into a partially occluded opening allows a (a) greater quantity of light and (b) more direct light.", "The at least partial overlap of the collimated light allows the user viewing through binoculars 22 to view the subject surface 16 optimally with stereopsis.", "An additional illumination sub-system at an angle oblique to the stereoscopic sub-system is also provided, but the light for the oblique system need not be collimated.", "[0026] A particular embodiment produces collimated light beams for each of the two stereoscopic light beams by passing light through an aspheric condensing lens 4 and then through a plano-convex lens positioned at the appropriate focal plane.", "The collimation can be accomplished at multiple points between the light source 5 and the subject surface 16 (e.g., before or after filtering, or before or after the beam is split).", "[0027] The system can be built into an entire microscope or can be constructed as a module fitting onto an existing microscope.", "If constructed as a module, the module includes an objective lens 11 a that replaces the objective lens of the microscope.", "Situated below the included objective lens 11 a of the module type or of the objective lens 11 a of the built-in type, are illumination components for directing light to the subject surface 16 .", "The construction of the microscope may be altered substantially without affecting the illumination system.", "[0028] In a further embodiment, one light source 5 produces two beams of light for the stereoscopic system which are directed by the following elements to the subject surface 16 as two collimated light beams.", "In another embodiment, the two collimated light beams are produced by two light sources, one for each light beam.", "The illumination components of the light source 5 for the stereoscopic system and the light source 7 for the oblique system are located inside the module or existing microscope and are separated by an opaque barrier 6 .", "A beam from the stereoscopic light source 5 is collected by two condensing lenses 4 that gather and concentrate the light.", "[0029] In another embodiment, each gathered and concentrated light beam passing through a condensing lens 4 is transmitted through an infrared filter 3 then through an ultraviolet filter 2 and then through a collimating lens 8 , in one embodiment, a collimating lens 8 is a double convex lens (i.e., with a curved surface on both sides) with a positive focal length which, when used in conjunction with an upstream aspheric condensing lens 4 and positioned at the appropriate focal plane, produces collimated light.", "[0030] In some embodiments, however, one light source 5 for the stereoscopic system is used to produce two beams of light in the following mariner.", "A beam from each of two sides of the light source 5 is directed through a Dove prism 1 (bending light twice for a total of 180°) before reaching the collimating lens 8 .", "After passing through the collimating lenses 8 , each collimated light beam is then refracted by a 90° prism 10 .", "Each column of collimated light exits its 90° prism 10 parallel to the other so that each strikes a beamsplitter 12 at an angle so that a portion of each column of collimated light is reflected downward toward the subject surface 16 .", "[0031] These columns of collimated light reflected from the beamsplitter 12 downward to the subject surface 16 overlap each other at least partially at the stereoscopic illumination overlap 27 as dictated by the focal length of the included objective lens 11 a .", "The portion of light from the collimated beams of light passing through the beamsplitter 12 is absorbed by an anti-reflective light absorber 13 .", "In a preferred embodiment, the beamsplitter 12 splits the light in half, one half reflected to the subject surface 16 and the other half passes through the beamsplitter 12 to the anti reflective light absorber 13 .", "The beamsplitter 12 can be a half mirror or a mirror partially reflective in another fraction (e.g., three quarters reflective).", "The function of the beamsplitter 12 is to allow light to pass upward from the subject surface 16 to the binoculars 22 for the user.", "The collimated light beams are coaxial with the light transmitted to the binoculars 22 .", "A plano glass cover 15 encloses the bottom portion of the module to protect the components from contaminants.", "[0032] In some embodiments of the illumination system three beams of light are required, but they can be achieved in various ways.", "One way would be to use three light sources with each one having its own set of condensing 4 and collimating lenses 8 .", "Another way would be to use two light sources, like the model depicted herein.", "This would utilize light emitting from two sides of one bulb for the stereo paths, and the second light source 7 for the oblique path.", "Another way would be to use one source.", "Light could be gathered from three sides of the bulb, condensed and collimated separately to form the three needed beams, or light could be gathered and then optically split into separate beams later on down the pathway.", "The significant advantage to using more than one light source, is the ability to adjust the illumination ratio between stereo and oblique light for optimal viewing.", "Using one source and having the ability to adjust light ratios would require mechanical shutters to block light accordingly.", "Another variance to the light source is to use fiber-optic light source.", "This merely removes the actual bulbs from the close proximity of the system and places them in a more remote location.", "The advantages of this are the ability to use higher power light sources that would not realistically fit in the module, heat generated by the bulbs being removed from proximity of the surgical procedure, and noise and air from the internal fan 17 also being removed to the remote site.", "One disadvantage with a fiber-optic system is light loss through the fiber-optic cable.", "Another variance for light sourcing is an LED (Light Emitting Diode) light source.", "It is also possible to have any combination of LED, bulb, and fiber-optic sources all in one system.", "[0033] A light source for the oblique system 7 is located so that light from said the second light source is directed through a condensing lens 4 that gathers and concentrates the light from the light source 7 .", "The gathered and concentrated light from the condensing lens 4 is transmitted through an infrared filter 3 , and an ultraviolet filter 2 to a collecting lens 8 a which collects diverging light from the condensing lens 4 .", "The light passes through the collecting lens 8 a and is reflected downward toward the subject surface 16 at an angle so that oblique illumination 28 of the subject surface 16 is accomplished.", "The oblique illumination 28 covers the entire visual field for both eyes of the user, assuming the objective is at a middle range or higher.", "The oblique illumination 28 can be reduced by an adjustable mechanical aperture 25 so that the illumination is centered in a smaller area of the subject surface 16 , for instance the iris of an eye only, to eliminate glare to the user from light reflecting from the sclera of the eye.", "[0034] The infrared filter 3 and ultraviolet filter 2 can be placed at any convenient position in the pathway between the light sources 5 , 7 and the subject surface 16 .", "[0035] Rheostats 26 may control the intensity of the two light sources 5 , 7 to control the amount of light projected to the subject surface 16 .", "[0036] A cooling fan 17 may be mounted in close proximity to the bulb tray 19 or other light sources in the illumination system.", "[0037] The housing 18 of the modular component may contain a fitting for connection to an existing microscope.", "This fitting may attach at the existing microscope's objective lens receptacle 11 after the existing microscope's objective lens is removed.", "This fitting locks the module housing 18 in place in the existing microscope's objective lens receptacle 11 .", "A particular embodiment of this fitting is an attachment ring 20 which screws or otherwise mounts onto the existing microscope.", "[0038] For the full microscope containing the system, the binoculars 22 are in communication with zoom optics 23 which are housed in the microscope body 21 and are in communication with the objective lens 11 a .", "There is a focus drive housing 24 .", "[0039] The built-in system may be completely enclosed in the body of the microscope below the zoom system and the objective lens 11 a. [0040] Ancillary optics 9 , such as mirrors and prisms, are used to refract the light so that the projected beams exit the system at proper angles.", "They could also be used to split a single light beam into two light beams.", "This could be done if only one light source was being used, or if a fiber-optic system was used and the incoming beam needed to be converted to two or three beams.", "This placement of the ancillary optics 9 for light redirection or splitting along the pathway is irrelevant to the function as long as the beams are directed to the proper locations, but keeping in mind losses that occur at each light interface.", "[0041] There are numerous combinations that could be achieved using one or more of the same or different light sources, mirrors and prisms for directing light around inside the system, using prisms to split beams at any point along the light pathway if there are not enough beams from light sources, using or not using a mechanical shutter for illumination intensity control, placement of the ultraviolet 2 and infrared 3 filters, and even the direction and angle at which the oblique light illuminates the field.", "Ultimately, these variances if done properly, all result in two collimated stereo illumination beams hitting the beamsplitter 12 set at a forty-five degree angle in the direct path of the optical viewing pathways of a microscope, and a third oblique illumination beam hitting the subject surface 16 at some offset angle with the ability to control the levels and/or ratios of said illumination.", "[0042] One embodiment directs illumination light rays onto the patient from one light source, but with three illumination pathways—the two co-axial 90 degree pathways, and one oblique eight degree pathway.", "The two 90 degree pathways are directed down to the patient via a beamsplitter plate glass 12 directly in-line with the stereo microscope optical pathways, creating the true dual co-axial illumination.", "This provides optimal red reflex or retinal reflex primarily for cataract surgery, but in other surgical settings the bright full red-reflex is not desired.", "In one embodiment of the system, the surgeon has the ability then to turn off, via shutter, the 90 degree co-axial illumination pathways.", "At this point the surgeon is solely utilizing the eight degree illumination for surgery.", "When the microscope is being used in this state, the beamsplitter 12 is no longer needed, as there is no 90 degree illumination.", "To maximize light transfer through the system, the beamsplitter 12 is moved out, or disengaged, from the stereo microscope optical pathways.", "Then when the 90 degree co-axial illumination is required again, the user can re-engage the beamsplitter 12 plate and 90 degree co-axial illumination.", "[0043] Retinal surgery requires the use of a surgical microscope.", "The microscope is equipped with a device for magnifying the retina so that the surgeon sees a large view of the operative site.", "However, the normal illumination of the surgical microscope is not used in retinal surgery.", "A small fiberoptic pic about 1 mm in diameter can be inserted through the sclera and into the vitreous body for direct illumination of the retinal surface.", "The surgeon holds this fiberoptic pie such that light exiting the tip of the fiberoptic pie is directed toward the retinal tissue on which the operating instruments are utilized.", "Since the normal illumination of the microscope is not utilized and is in fact turned off, and since only the relatively low illumination from the fiberoptic pic illuminating the retinal surface is seen by the surgeon, it is to the surgeon's advantage to have an optical system that does not significantly decrease the light from the retina.", "It can therefore be desirable, in one embodiment, to retract the beamsplitter plate from the optical system for retinal surgery.", "The present invention accomplishes this goal by allowing the beamsplitter plate to be rotated out of the light beam path, thus allowing 100% of the reflected light from the retina to enter the optical system of the surgical microscope and be transmitted to the user.", "Thus, when co-axial illumination is not desired, a retractable beamsplitter plate 31 is disengaged to slightly beyond a vertical position.", "In this position there is no light loss from having the retractable beamsplitter plate 31 incident to the light rays 2 entering the microscope system.", "By disengaging the retractable beamsplitter plate 31 a 50% increase in light transfer efficiency can be achieved, thus allowing more light to reach the surgeon.", "The beamsplitter is thus retractable, and in this way the same microscope can be used, on the one hand, in cataract and other surgery using the illumination system and with the retractable beamsplitter engaged, on the other hand, in retinal and other surgery without using the illumination system and with the retractable beamsplitter disengaged.", "CONCLUSION [0044] It is to be understood that any given elements of the disclosed embodiments of the invention may be embodied in a single structure, a single step, a single substance, or the like.", "Similarly, a given element of the disclosed embodiments may be embodied in multiple structures, steps, substances, or the like.", "The foregoing description illustrates and describes the processes, machines, manufactures, compositions of matter, and other teachings of the present disclosure.", "Additionally, the disclosure shows and describes only certain embodiments of the processes, machines, manufactures, compositions of matter, and other teachings disclosed, but, as mentioned above, it is to be understood that the teachings of the present disclosure are capable of use in various other combinations, modifications, and environments and is capable of changes or modifications within the scope of the teachings as expressed herein, commensurate with the skill and/or knowledge of a person having ordinary skill in the relevant art.", "The embodiments described hereinabove are further intended to explain certain best modes known of practicing the processes, machines, manufactures, compositions of matter, and other teachings of the present disclosure and to enable others skilled in the art to utilize the teachings of the present disclosure in such, or other, embodiments and with the various modifications required by the particular applications or uses.", "Accordingly, the processes, machines, manufactures, compositions of matter, and other teachings of the present disclosure are not intended to limit the exact embodiments and examples disclosed herein." ]

[ "FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The invention relates to the field of micro optical polarization splitter, in particular, to a tiny optical polarization splitter based on photonic crystal technology.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Conventional polarization splitters are large in volume, and can not be used in the optical integrated circuits.", "However, micro optical devices including polarization splitters can be manufactured based on photonic crystals.", "Up to now, there are two methods, one of which is that a photonic crystal with a TE photonic bandgap and a TM transmission band, or a TM photonic bandgap and a TE transmission band are used to achieve the polarization separation of waves.", "This kind of polarization splitters can only be used as separate photonic crystal devices, since the transmittance and degree of polarization are poor, and it is difficult to integrate them into other photonic crystal devices.", "The other is that different relative coupling lengths are designed in order to couple light waves with different polarization states into different waveguides by means of long-distance coupling between waveguides, utilizing the method of the periodic coupling and odd-even state alternation between the waveguides.", "The polarization splitters obtained by the two methods above, although the volume thereof has been much smaller than that of conventional polarization splitters, still have a relative large volume.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0003] The object of the present invention is to overcome the shortcomings in the prior arts, and to provide a TE-polarization splitter based on a photonic crystal waveguide formed in a photonic crystal with a complete photonic bandgap, to be convenient for integration with high efficiency and a small dimension.", "[0004] The object of the present invention is realized through the following technical schemes.", "[0005] The TE-polarization splitter based on a photonic crystal waveguide according to the present invention includes a waveguide formed in a photonic crystal with a complete photonic bandgap, wherein after the incident wave with any polarization direction is inputted into the polarization splitter via the input port of the photonic crystal waveguide, TE wave is outputted from the output port of the polarization splitter, while the TM wave is reflected from the input port of the polarization splitter.", "[0006] Dielectric defect rods are arranged in the photonic crystal waveguide, the refractive index for the e-light is more than that for the o-light in the dielectric defect rods in the waveguide, and the optical axis of the dielectric defect rods in the waveguide is parallel to the photonic crystal waveguide plane and orthogonal to the propagating direction of the wave.", "[0007] The number of the dielectric defect rods in the waveguide is 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6.", "[0008] The photonic crystal waveguide is a two-dimensional photonic crystal waveguide, and includes a two-dimensional photonic crystal waveguide with tellurium dielectric material, a two-dimensional photonic crystal waveguide with honeycomb structure, a two-dimensional photonic crystal waveguide with triangular lattice, and two-dimensional photonic crystal waveguides with various irregular shapes.", "[0009] The photonic crystal waveguide has a structure formed by removing 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 rows of the dielectric rods from the photonic crystal.", "[0010] The photonic crystal waveguide plane is perpendicular to the axis of the dielectric rods in the photonic crystal.", "[0011] Compared with the prior arts, the present invention has the following advantages: [0012] (1) The structure has the advantages of small volume, high degree of polarization, high light transmission efficiency, and being suitable for large-scale optical integrated circuits;", "[0013] (2) The present invention can completely realize the polarization separation function via a kind of dielectric defect rods in a small volume, thus it is convenient for optical integration and high efficient;", "[0014] (3) The present invention can realize the polarization beam splitting function for different wavelengths by the method of scaling the lattice constant and other geometric parameters utilizing the scaling property of photonic crystals.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0015] FIG. 1 is the schematic diagram, showing the structure of a Tellurium photonic crystal waveguide device used in the present invention.", "[0016] The initial signal for the photonic crystal waveguide device is inputted from the left port “1”, the port “2”", "outputs TE light wave, “3”", "is the background tellurium dielectric rods, the direction of the optical axis thereof is outwards vertical to the paper plane, and the radius thereof is R=0.3568a.", "“4”", "is square dielectric defect rods, the direction of the optical axis thereof is parallel to the paper plane and perpendicular to the horizontal axis of the paper plane, and the side length of the cross section of the square dielectric defect rod is L=0.575a, and the position center thereof is consistent with the respective circle center of the background dielectric rods deleted.", "[0017] FIG. 2 is the power of TE and TM waves in the TE output channel versus the side length of the square dielectric defect rods in the waveguide of the TE polarization splitter according to the present invention.", "[0018] FIG. 3 is the extinction ratio of light in the TE output channel versus the side length of the square dielectric defect rods in the waveguide of the TE polarization splitter according to the present invention.", "[0019] FIG. 4 is the degree of polarization of light in the TE output channel versus the side length of the square dielectric defect rods in the waveguide of the TE polarization splitter according to the present invention.", "[0020] FIG. 5 is the extinction ratio of light versus wavelength in the TE output channel in the photonic bandgap region of the photonic crystal in the TE polarization splitter according to the present invention.", "[0021] FIG. 6 is the degree of polarization of light versus wavelength in the TE output channel in the photonic bandgap region of the photonic crystal in the TE polarization splitter according to the present invention.", "[0022] FIG. 7 is the simulated field distribution for TE waves.", "[0023] FIG. 8 is the simulated field distribution for TM waves.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0024] Below in connection with the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments, the present invention will be described in further detail.", "[0025] The dielectric material in the principle introduction and the embodiments of the present invention is Te dielectric rod as an example.", "Tellurium is a uniaxial positive crystal, the refractive index for o-light thereof is n o =4.8, and the refractive index for e-light is n e =6.2.", "For the e-axis and the dielectric rod axis in the same direction, the photonic bandgap can be obtained by the plane wave expansion.", "For the square-lattice photonic crystal with the lattice constant being a and the radius of the rods in photonic crystal being 0.3568a, the photonic bandgap is 3.928 to 4.550 (ωa/ 2πc ), and the light wave with any frequency therein will be confined in the waveguide.", "[0026] In the present invention, square dielectric defect rods are introduced in the waveguide, such that the equivalent refractive indexes of the defect rods for the light wave with different polarization states is different, thus the defect rods can result in one polarization state to be totally reflected and the other polarization state to be totally transmitted.", "The dielectric defect rods having different performance for different polarization states are applied near the end surface of the waveguide, and thus the separation of the light waves with different polarizations can be realized.", "[0027] As shown in FIG. 1 , two lines or two rows of dielectric rods in the tellurium photonic crystal in the present invention needs to be deleted to form the waveguide for guiding light, and the width thereof is L=3a, which is the distance between the circle centers of nearest background dielectric rods on the two walls of the waveguide, wherein a is the lattice constant of the photonic crystal.", "The radius of the background tellurium dielectric rods in the photonic crystal is R=0.3568a.", "Cartesian rectangular coordinate system is used in the description, wherein the positive direction of X axis is to the right horizontally in the paper plane;", "the positive direction of Y axis is vertically upward in the paper plane;", "and the positive direction of Z axis is outward vertically to the paper plane.", "[0028] The equivalent refractive indexes of the dielectric defect rods are: [0000] n eff TE = ɛ eff TE , ɛ eff TE = ∫ Ω  ɛ e · E z 2   Ω ∫ Ω  E z 2   Ω , ɛ e = n e 2 , ( 1 ) n eff TM = ɛ eff TM , ɛ eff TM = ∫ Ω  ɛ o · ( E x 2 + E y 2 )   Ω ∫ Ω  ( E x 2 + E y 2 )   Ω , ɛ o = n o 2 , ( 2 ) [0000] In the equation, n eff TE and n eff TM represent the equivalent refractive indexes for TE and TM lights, respectively, and E x , E y and E z are the x, y, z components of the electric field, respectively.", "[0029] The reflection ratio (R) and the transmissivity (T) of the light wave in the waveguide due to the dielectric defect rods can be expressed as: [0000] R TE = ( n eff TE - 1 n eff TE + 1 ) 2 ,  T TE = 4  n eff TE ( n eff TE + 1 ) 2 , ( 3 ) R TM = ( n eff TM - 1 n eff TM + 1 ) 2 ,  T TM = 4  n eff TM ( n eff TM + 1 ) 2 .", "( 4 ) [0030] As shown in FIG. 1 , in the four square dielectric defect rods, the center of each square dielectric defect rod is consistent with the center of the round dielectric rod which was originally deleted to form the waveguide, so that the four square tellurium dielectric defect rods are arranged in square, and the distance between the centers of two nearest squares is a, the distance between the center of the square dielectric defect- rod and that of the nearest background dielectric rod is also a, and the side length of each square dielectric defect rod is 0.575a.", "The optical axis of the four square tellurium dielectric defect rods is perpendicular to the optical axis of the background cylinder tellurium dielectric rods in the photonic crystal.", "[0031] For the waveguide with the above defects introduced, the incident signal port is at the position “1”", "in FIG. 1 .", "Light is propagated in the waveguide formed by the array of “3”", "dielectric rods, after the light arrives at the defect position “4”, the TE wave is totally transmitted, and the TM wave is totally isolated.", "After the signal acted with the defect rods, the TE wave will be finally outputted at the position “2”", "of the output port.", "For different input signals, the selection functions are provided as follows: (1) For the incident light of mixed TE and TM waves, the TE wave is totally exported from the right-hand-side of the waveguide, and the TM wave is totally isolated.", "(2) For the incident light of only TE wave, the TE wave is exported from the right-hand side of the waveguide.", "(3) For the incident light of only TM wave, TM wave can't be brought into the right-hand side of the waveguide.", "[0035] The lattice constant and the operating wavelength can be determined by the following ways.", "According to the refractive index curve of the uniaxial crystal tellurium, tellurium has a relative stable refractive index in the wavelength range between 3.5a-35a.", "By the equation [0000] f = ω   a 2  π   c = a λ , ( 5 ) [0000] wherein f is the photonic bandgap frequency, and the normalized photonic bandgap frequency range of the square-lattice tellurium photonic crystal in the present invention [0000] f=0.21977→0.25458, (6) [0000] the corresponding photonic bandgap wavelength range is calculated as: [0000] λ=3.928a˜4.55a.", "(7) [0000] Thus, it can be seen that, by varying the value of the lattice constant a, the required wavelength λ proportional to the lattice constant can be acquired.", "[0036] The extinction ratio in the waveguide is defined as: [0000] Extinction   Ratio TE = 10 × log 10  ( I TE I TM ) , for   TE   wave , ( 8 ) Extinction   Ratio TM = 10 × log 10  ( I TM I TE ) , for   TM   wave .", " The   degree   of   polarization   is   defined   as  : ( 9 ) Degree   of   Polarization TE =  I TE - I TM I TE + I TM  , for   TE   wave , ( 10 ) Degree   of   Polarization TM =  I TM - I TE I TM + I TE  , for   TM   wave .", "( 11 ) [0037] FIG. 2 shows the output power of different TE and TM light waves versus the side length of the four square dielectric defect rods.", "For the side length in the range of 0.51a-0.6a.", "The TE wave has a maximum of output power.", "[0038] As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 , by simultaneously adjusting the side length of square dielectric defect rods, we can have, R TE ≈0, T TE ≈1 and R TM ≈1, T TM ≈0, i.e., the function of isolating TM light and transmitting TE light is realized.", "(Here, the direction of the e-axis of the square dielectric defect rods is in the horizontal y axis.) [0039] According to FIG. 3 , for the side length of the square dielectric defect rods in the range of 0.55a-0.6a, the TE wave has a maximum extinction ratio, i.e., the maximum extinction ratio is 37.3 dB for the side length of 0.575a of the square dielectric defect rods.", "According to FIG. 4 , for the side length of the square dielectric defect rods in the range of 0.55a-0.6a, the TE wave has the degree of polarization larger than 0.995, e.g., for the side length of 0.575a of the square dielectric defect rods, the degree of polarization is 0.9996.", "By considering FIGS. 3 and 4 together, it can be derived that for the TE wave having both maximum extinction ratio and high degree of polarization, the side length of the square dielectric defect rods is [0000] L defect =0.575a.", "(12) [0000] In this case, we have n eff TE →1, n eff TM →∞.", "[0040] From FIG. 5 , it can be found that for the operating wavelength in 3.928a-4.55a, all of the extinction ratios for TE wave at the output port are larger than 17 dB except the range of 4.032a-4.046a.", "For the wavelength of 4.1375a, the extinction ratio has a maximum value of 35.885 dB.", "And the extinction ratio has a minimum value of 5.4 dB in the range of 4.032a-4.046a.", "[0041] From FIG. 6 , it can be found that for the operating wavelength in 3.928a-4.55a, all of the degrees of polarization for TE wave at the output port are larger than 0.96 except for the range of 4.032a-4.046a.", "And in the range of 4.032a-4.046a, the degree of polarization has a minimum value of 0.55.", "Thus, the operating wavelength is not suitable to be chosen in the range of 4.032a-4.046a.", "[0042] By considering FIGS. 5 and 6 together with the above analysis, it can be found that the TE polarization splitter function of the present invention can be realized very well using all of the light waves in the wavelength band of 3.928a-4.55a except a narrow wavelength band of 4.032a-4.046a, which shows that the present invention has a large operating wavelength range, which is not available for other polarization beam splitting devices based on coupling of cavity modes.", "[0043] FIGS. 7 and 8 are the light field diagrams calculated by finite element software COMSOL for the operating wavelength of 4.1a in free space.", "It can be observed that the TE light propagates with a high transmittance while the TM light is entirely isolated, so it has an extremely high extinction ratio.", "[0044] The direction of the e-axis of the four square dielectric defect rods in the waveguide transmitting TE is different from that of the background dielectric rods—the direction of the e-axis of the four square dielectric defect rods is parallel to the Y axis, while the e-axis of the background rods is parallel to the Z axis.", "Since the directions of the e-axis of the square dielectric defect rods and the background dielectric rods are different, the shape of the defect is designed as a square to ensure linear influence for the waveguide, and to reduce manufacture difficulty at the same time.", "The present invention can effectively separate light waves comprising both TE and TM components in a short distance.", "[0045] The present invention has a high extinction ratio and meanwhile has a broad operating wavelength range, which allows the pulses with a certain frequency spectrum width, or Gauss-pulse light, or light with different wavelengths, or light with multiple wavelengths to operate at the same time, and is useful in practice.", "[0046] The present invention may establish a square-lattice tellurium photonic crystal—a uniaxial positive crystal tellurium array in a square lattice arrangement on a substrate.", "In the present invention, both TE and TM lights can propagate in a fundamental mode in the photonic crystal waveguide formed by deleting two lines or two rows at the center of the photonic crystal.", "The e-light optical axis of each rod in the background tellurium dielectric rods in the photonic crystal must satisfy that it is consistent with the direction of the axis of the cylinder.", "The operating wavelength can be adjusted by the lattice constant of the photonic crystal.", "But the selection of the operating wavelength can not exceed a stable linear range of the refractive index.", "[0047] The above embodiment and application range of the present invention can be improved, and should not be understood as the limit of the invention." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to an apparatus for the desludging of baths, in particular the freeing of tick immersion baths for cows from solid particles introduced by the animals.", "Such an apparatus includes a suction tube immersible in the liquid, a pump and a preliminary basin fed by the pump and equipped with an overflow passing the liquid to be purified to the upper edge of a sieve plate mounted obliquely relative to the direction of gravity and retaining the solid particles.", "The sieve plate is provided with a plurality of slots extending essentially transversely relative to the direction of flow, with a collector basin being located underneath the sieve plate for the filtered liquid, the basin being connected by means of a drain with the bath to be purified.", "An apparatus of this type, with an inclined metal sieve for the separation of solids from aqueous liquids has already been used in various fields, in particular for the preliminary settling of municipal waste waters, the fine precipitation of slaughterhouse sewage, the separation of fibers in textile plants and in paper mills.", "In tropical countries it is necessary to free domestic animals, in particular cows, regularly from pathogenic organisms in order to prevent the propagation of epidemics.", "In East Africa, cows are driven twice weekly through tick baths which contain insecticide, however, in the process the cows contaminate the bath with dirt adhering to body parts, and with their own excrements.", "In particular, the soil material adhering to the hooves of the cows is introduced in the bath and settles on the bottom in the form of a sludge.", "The immersion baths for cows contain about 20,000 liters of water and about 0.2% insecticide.", "After about 50,000 to 100,000 cows have dragged sand, stones, soil and other foreign substances into the bath, it must be cleaned.", "For this, heretofore immersion baths of this type were completely emptied once or twice a year to remove the bottom sludge from the basin.", "In the case of a sludge component of about 10%, 2,000 liter sludge must be removed in this manner.", "In view of the large water and sludge volumes, the process presently followed is cumbersome and involves high losses relative to water and time, as during the emptying and refilling of the basin it is not possible to bathe the animals to protect them against disease.", "Based on this state of the art it is the object of the invention to provide an apparatus to make it possible to free a sludge containing bath of even small solid particles, within a short period of time and without interrupting the operation.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This object is attained according to the invention by providing a sieve plate for an apparatus of the aforementioned type which is in the form of a ribbed support plate for placement of a filter cloth of a tight mesh plastic fabric upon it.", "With known sieve plates, the suspension flowing in a parallel manner rapidly downward over the sieve plate, the bottom layer of the water is always conducted by means of the Coanda effect downward through the sieve slots to the collector basin.", "The solids are separated because, in view of their mass inertia, they do not follow the rapid reversing motion of the liquid and accumulate on the surface of the sieve plate, where they are further dewatered and from where they finally drop at the lower edge of the sieve plate over a discharge edge into a solids collector vessel.", "However, the prevailing flow conditions cannot prevent the development of a certain back-up, so that the flow velocity of the purified liquid is limited.", "But an additional capillary effect is provided by the filter cloth of a tight mesh plastic fabric pressed by its own weight and the running liquid onto the sieve plate, together with an advantageously modified flow of the liquid and the solid particles.", "In this manner, the placing of the filter cloth of a tight mesh plastic fabric results in an increased flow volume, even if the solids to be precipitated are of a certain minimium size.", "The filter cloth placed on the sieve plate located obliquely relative to the direction of gravity preferably is a polyester monofilament filter fabric, the mesh width of which is smaller than the slot width at the narrowest location of slots between the sieve rods of the sieve plate.", "The rods preferably have a triangular profile, so that the slots widen in the direction of the collector basin, for which reason the flow velocity is highest in the area of the mesh openings of the filter cloth.", "It was discovered that by means of the synergy effect produced in this manner both a high flow volume and the precipitation of relatively small particles is possible simultaneously.", "In a preferred exemplary embodiment, the filter fabric has a mesh opening of about 177 micrometers and the sieve plate has a slot width of about 500 micrometers.", "Depending on the properties of the ground on which the cows are living, the mesh opening of the filter fabric may amount to 100 to 250 micrometers.", "The slot width of the sieve plate, which is mounted at an inclination relative to the vertical of 20°to 50°, may be between 250 and 1,500 micrometers.", "Experiments indicated that neither the sieve plate alone nor the filter fabric alone, have the advantageous combination effect of the sieve plate with the filter fabric placed on it.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Other objects and advantages will become apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments of the invention as described in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein like reference numerals are applied to like elements and wherein: FIG. 1. shows the separation part of the apparatus for the desludging of baths in a perspective view;", "FIG. 2. shows a detail of a cross section through the sieve plate of the apparatus on the line II--II of FIG. 1;", "and, FIG. 3. a schematic view of the apparatus in cross section.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows a separation part 1, which is made essentially from a sheet of an alloy steel and is provided with a left side wall 2 and a right side wall 3.", "To rigidize the side walls, borders 4,5 and 6 are provided, with the border 6 also serving to fasten the separation part to a trailer, not shown in the drawing, together with the vehicle for the towing of said trailer.", "The transport trailer makes it possible to move the separation part 1 and the materials additionally required to the site in a rapid and simple manner.", "Between the left side wall 2 and the right side wall 3, a sieve plate 7 is located.", "The FIG. 1 sieve plate is covered, with the exception of a small portion located to the right adjacent to a deflector 8, by a filter cloth 9 hanging over the lower edge 10 of the sieve plate 7 or an extension of said sieve plate 7.", "The upper edge 11 of the sieve plate 7 or an extension plate of the sieve plate, forms an overflow for a preliminary basin 12, shown in section in FIG. 3. The preliminary basin 12 extends on the one hand between the left side wall 2 and the right side wall 3, and on the other hand, between a rear wall 13 and a partition 14 of the separation part 1 of the apparatus for the desludging of baths.", "The preliminary basin 12 is equipped with an inlet 15 with a flange connector 16, which makes it possible to connect a flexible PVC hose 17 with a diameter of, for example, 8 cm.", "The PVC hose 17 is connected with the outlet of a pump 18, in particular a centrifugal pump driven by a diesel engine, permitting a volume flow of 800 liters per minute.", "The pump 18 is mounted, together with the separation part 1, on a trailer, not shown, by means of vibration damping rubber buffers.", "To the suction inlet of the pump 18, a suction tube 19 with a diameter of 8 cm is connected;", "its suction opening 20 is covered with a screen 47 to prevent the entry of stones with a diameter larger than 4 cm.", "About 5 to 10 cm from the suction opening 20, approximately 6 holes 48 with diameters of 2 to 3 cm are provided in the suction tube 19 in order to prevent the clogging of the suction tube 19 upon its immersion in the sludge particles 21.", "The suction tube 19 is lowered with its suction orifice 20 into the vicinity of the bottom of an immersion bath 22, into which the cows are jumping to be disinfected and from which the animals can leave by way of stairs, not shown.", "The immersion bath 22 contains, for example, 20,000 liters.", "The depth of the water is chosen so that any injury to the animals is prevented and complete bathing is assured.", "The dimensions are selected so, that the animals have sufficient contact time before they reach the stairs to leave the bath 22.", "The water containing the sludge suctioned off by the pump 18 from the bath passes in the direction of the arrows 23, 24, 25 and 26 into the preliminary basin 12 of the separation part 1.", "The filtered liquid leaves the separation part in the direction of the arrows 27, 28 and 29.", "In correspondence with the inlet 15, the separation part 1 has an outlet 30 with a flange connector 31, to which a plastic pipe 32 having a diameter of, for example, 30 cm may be connected, and through which the filtered liquid flows back by gravity into the bath 22.", "This circulation results in considerable savings in water, and the specific configuration of the separation part 1 provides a high specific throughput.", "The preliminary basin 12 has an overflow at the upper edge 11 of the sieve plate 7 and the partition 14, over which the soiled liquid runs over in the direction of the arrow 33.", "The upper part 34 of the sieve plate 7 may be steeper than the center part 25 and the lower part 36, which together with the upper part 34 may be made impermeable.", "The soiled liquid passes along the arrow 37 onto the center part 35 of the sieve plate covered with the filter cloth 9, wherein the solids accumulate and slide down in small heaps 38 along the surface of the filter cloth 9, until they drop at the location indicated by the arrow 39 into a solids collector vessel 40.", "The liquid separated from the solids falls in the direction of the arrows 41 into a collector basin 42 equipped with a bottom plate 43 extending between the side walls 2 and 3.", "The collector basin 42 is drained by an outlet 30.", "FIG. 2 shows, greatly enlarged, a detail of the sieve plate 7 and the filter cloth 9 upon it in cross section.", "FIG. 2 clearly shows the manner in which the sieve plate acts as the support for the filter cloth 9, the filaments 44 of which are indicated in the cross section by a plurality of points.", "The individual filaments 44 of the filter cloth 9 form a tight mesh, with a mesh opening of, for example, 100 to 250 micrometers and preferably 177 micrometers.", "The filter cloth 9 preferably consists of a polyester monofilament filter fabric, which does not become saturated as do the natural fibers, which cannot be used.", "The filament diameter of the fabric filaments 44 indicated by points in cross section in FIG. 2, amounts to 60 to 200 micrometers.", "The number of filaments per square cm is between 25 and 60.", "The free surface of the fabric of the filter cloth is between 15 and 40%.", "Depending on the fabric used, its thickness is 100 to 300 micrometers.", "The polyester monofilament filter fabrics have weights per unit area of 60 to 200 g/m 2 .", "The choice of the fabric for the filter cloth 9 depends on the properties of the sludge and the minimum throughput volume required.", "In case of a mesh opening of 177 micrometers it is appropriate to dimension the slot width of the slots between the sieve rods of the sieve plate from between 250 to 1500 micrometers.", "In a preferred embodiment, the narrowest location is dimensioned as a multiple of the mesh width of the filter fabric;", "e.g., about 500 micrometers.", "FIG. 2 clearly shows the triangular profile of the sieve rods, which preferably are made of stainless steel.", "The slots extend in a horizontal, sinusoidal corrugation between the side walls, which are located at a distance of about 60 cm.", "The length of the area provided with sieve rods between the side walls is, for example 1.2m.", "The inclination of the sieve plate is conveniently 20°to 50°relative to the vertical.", "The filter cloth may be fastened in the vicinity of the upper edge of the sieve plate or the partition.", "The combination of the filter cloth and the sieve plate is self-cleaning, whereby the manipulation of the separation part is greatly simplified.", "It will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that the present invention can be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof.", "The presently disclosed embodiments are therefore considered in all respects to be illustrative and not restrictive.", "The scope of the invention is indicated by the appended claims rather than the foregoing description, and all changes that come within the meaning and range of equivalents thereof are intended to be embraced therein." ]

[ "FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The field of the invention relates to a communication system, and more particularly, to wireless communications systems.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART [0002] The transmission of digital data is inherently prone to interference, which may introduce errors into the transmitted data.", "Error detection techniques have been suggested to determine as reliably as possible whether errors have been introduced into the transmitted data.", "For example, it is common to transmit data in packets and add to each packet a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) field, for example of a length of sixteen bits, which carries a checksum of the data of the packet.", "When a receiver receives the data, the receiver calculates the same checksum on the received data and verifies whether the result of the calculation is identical to the checksum in the CRC field.", "[0003] When the transmitted data is not used on-line, it is possible to request retransmission of erroneous data when errors are detected.", "However, when the transmission is performed on-line, such as, e.g., in telephone lines, cellular phones, remote video systems, etc.", ", it is not possible to request retransmission.", "[0004] Convolutional codes have been introduced to allow receivers of digital data to correctly determine the transmitted data even when errors may have occurred during transmission.", "The convolutional codes introduce redundancy into the transmitted data and pack the transmitted data into packets in which the value of each bit is dependent on earlier bits in the sequence.", "Thus, when errors occur, the receiver can still deduce the original data by tracing back possible sequences in the received data.", "[0005] To further improve the performance of a transmission channel, some coding schemes include interleavers, which mix up the order of the bits in the packet during coding.", "Thus, when interference destroys some adjacent bits during transmission, the effect of the interference is spread out over the entire original packet and can more readily be overcome by the decoding process.", "Other improvements may include multiple-component codes that encode the packet more than once, in parallel or in series.", "For example, it is known in the art to employ an error correction method that uses at least two convolutional coders in parallel.", "Such parallel encoding is commonly referred to as turbo coding.", "[0006] For multiple-component codes, optimal decoding is often a very complex task, and may require large periods of time not usually available for on-line decoding.", "Iterative decoding techniques have been developed to overcome this problem.", "Rather than determining immediately whether received bits are zero or one, the receiver assigns each bit a value on a multilevel scale representative of the probability that the bit is one.", "A common scale, referred to as log-likelihood ratio (LLR) probabilities, represents each bit by an integer in some range, e.g., {−32,31}.", "A value of 31 signifies that the transmitted bit was a zero with very high probability, and a value of −32 signifies that the transmitted bit was a one, with very high probability.", "A value of zero indicates that the logical bit value is indeterminate.", "[0007] Data represented on the multilevel scale is referred to as “soft data,” and iterative decoding is usually soft-in/soft-out, i.e., the decoding process receives a sequence of inputs corresponding to probabilities for the bit values and provides as output corrected probabilities, taking into account constraints of the code.", "Generally, a decoder that performs iterative decoding uses soft data from former iterations to decode the soft data read by the receiver.", "During iterative decoding of multiple—component codes, the decoder uses results from decoding of one code to improve the decoding of the second code.", "When parallel encoders are used, as in turbo coding, two corresponding decoders may conveniently be used in parallel for this purpose.", "Such iterative decoding is carried out for a plurality of iterations until it is believed that the soft data closely represents the transmitted data.", "Those bits that have a probability indicating that they are closer to one (for example, between 0 and 31 on the scale described above) are assigned binary zero, and the remaining bits are assigned binary one.", "[0008] “Turbo coding”", "represents an important advancement in the area of forward error correction (FEC).", "There are many variants of turbo coding, but most types of turbo coding use multiple encoding steps separated by interleaving steps combined with the use of iterative decoding.", "This combination provides previously unavailable performance with respect to noise tolerance in a communications system.", "Namely, turbo coding allows communications at levels of energy-per-bit per noise power spectral density (E b /N o ) that were previously unacceptable using the existing forward error correction techniques.", "[0009] Many communications systems use forward error correction techniques and therefore would benefit from the use of turbo coding.", "For example, turbo codes could improve the performance of wireless satellite links, in which the limited downlink transmit power of the satellite necessitates receiver systems that can operate at low E b /N o levels.", "Digital wireless telecommunication systems, for example, digital cellular and PCS telephone systems, also use forward error correction.", "For example, the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has promulgated the Group Radio Access Network Standard TS 25.212 V4.0[.", "].0, which defines a digital wireless communication system that uses multiplexing and channel coding.", "[0010] As described above, an interleaver is an important part of turbo coding and decoding.", "Various known references describe turbo interleaver implementations.", "In most contemporary solutions, the turbo interleaver is implemented using a digital signal processor (DSP) and memory lookup table to calculate and determine the proper interleaving address.", "[0011] In one reference, a VLSI implementation is illustrated for a turbo decoder, where the turbo interleaver is implemented as a SRAM and an EPROM containing the scrambling addresses, which must be pre-programmed by a DSP.", "Another reference illustrates a VLSI implementation of a turbo decoder, where the interleaver is implemented as a RAM and a ROM containing the scrambling addresses, which must be hard-coded and is very large.", "As described above, the traditional and popular solution for the interleaver address generation is based on a ROM or a RAM.", "The interleaver addresses are stored in the ROM/RAM, then read out one by one.", "[0012] One of the most common computations performed by a turbo interleaver is a “MOD”", "computation, common in residue number theory.", "Simple examples include 12 MOD 4=0, 12 MOD 5=2, 135 MOD 6=3, etc.", "Conventionally, the MOD computation is performed via division or several steps of addition, comparison, and subtraction which require more than one clock cycle to achieve, especially for large number MOD computations.", "[0013] MOD computations also require a large amount of computing/processing power and circuit area in order to compute the MOD value quickly.", "The computing/processing power required is often several cycles, which introduces an undesirable delay.", "In conventional implementations, which compute numbers up to MOD 33, 20.6 mm 2 of silicon area is required.", "[0014] In summary, conventional implementations of turbo interleavers require too much processing time in the way of DSP clock cycles, too much memory, too much power and too much surface area on a silicon chip.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0015] The present invention is directed to a turbo interleaver circuit architecture, which utilizes the relationship between intra-row elements in a matrix, in order to simplify the MOD computations necessary in an interleaver.", "In one exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the interleaver calculates a subset of results, stores those results, performs an add/compare/subtract operation between the stored results in order to obtain new results, then updates at least some of the old results with the new results for the next column operation.", "The interleaver address is then calculated row by row.", "[0016] By storing only a subset of the results and replacing old results with new results, the interleaver in one exemplary embodiment calculates the interleaver address “on the fly”", "in one clock cycle with very little delay.", "The interleaver may also require less power and smaller substrate surface area.", "In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the interleaver performs the MOD computation utilizing only addition, comparison, and subtraction operations instead of division operations.", "In a more specific exemplary embodiment, the interleaver obtains a MOD computation result with only a single addition, comparison, and subtraction.", "As a result, the MOD calculation may be performed in one clock cycle;", "consequently, the interleaver address generation is produced more quickly than in conventional interleavers which implement division and/or multiplication and shift operations.", "[0017] The interleaver in at least one exemplary embodiment of the present invention also reduces the traditional large address memory and DSP computation load to generate the interleaver address “on the fly.”", "[0018] In yet another exemplary embodiment, the interleaver of the present invention, performs interleaving based on inter-row and intra-row permutations among a rectangular matrix.", "The number of rows are selectable from fixed numbers set by a standard (for example 5, 10, and 20 as may be defined by a standards) and the number of columns of the rectangular matrix are decided (again as may be determined by a standard) by the nearest prime number.", "For example, if the block length of the input data K is 44, the number of rows is set at 5, and the number of columns is set at 10, then 5×10=50 interleaving addresses will be generated from the rectangular matrix (interleaving addresses 0-49 in random order).", "If the number of interleaving addresses generated 50 is greater than the block length of the input data, 44, all addresses greater than or equal to 44 are invalid, and therefore not useful addresses.", "In the above example, addresses 44-50 are said to be “pruned.”", "If K=50, then no addresses are pruned.", "[0019] In other exemplary embodiments, the interleaver of the present invention utilizes two addition/comparison/subtraction circuits to avoid losing a clock cycle when pruning an invalid address.", "In at least one exemplary embodiment, the interleaver produces two addresses in every clock cycle, but only one is selected.", "During pruning, if a first address is found to be invalid, namely the address is greater than the block length, then the other address can be used immediately without waiting for the next clock cycle to calculate it.", "[0020] As a result, the interleaver of the exemplary embodiments of the present invention has an efficient structure and is applicable to mobile wireless communication systems, such as UMTS/DoCoMo data channel processing as specified in the standards documentation by 3GPP.", "The interleaver of the exemplary embodiments of the present invention is implemented with significantly reduced memory size and simplified construction for data interleaving address to be generated “on-the-fly.”", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0021] The present invention will be better understood from reading the following description of non-limiting embodiments, with reference to the attached drawings, wherein: [0022] [0022 ]FIG. 1 illustrates a hardware diagram of an interleaver in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.", "[0023] [0023 ]FIG. 2 illustrates the interleaver address generator 10 of FIG. 1 receiving auxiliary parameters from a digital signal processor (DSP).", "[0024] [0024 ]FIG. 3 illustrates the interleaver address generator 10 of FIG. 1 receiving auxiliary parameters from an all-hardware configuration.", "[0025] [0025 ]FIG. 4 illustrates the interleaver address generator of FIG. 1 equipped with additional logic for the decoder application.", "[0026] [0026 ]FIGS. 5A and 5B illustrate the operating of the interleaver address generator for the logMAP decoder application of FIG. 4 in sequential and pseudo-random modes, respectively.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0027] An algorithm for producing an interleaved address may include several steps.", "An exemplary algorithm includes the steps of formatting the input data bits into a rectangular matrix, performing intra-row and inter-row permutations on the rectangular matrix, and outputting the bits from the rectangular matrix with pruning.", "[0028] The first step is to format the input bits into a rectangular matrix.", "If K is the number of input bits in the data block to encode, the number of rows R and columns C of the rectangular matrix may be determined as follows.", "[0029] 1.", "Determine the number of rows R of the rectangular matrix such that: R = { 5 , if ( 40 ≤ K ≤ 159 )  10 , if ( ( 160 ≤ K ≤ 200 )   or   ( 481 ≤ K ≤ 530 ) ) 20 , if ( K = any   other   value )  [0030] The rows of rectangular matrix are numbered 0, 1, 2, .", ", R−1 from top to bottom.", "[0031] 2.", "Determine the prime number p and the number of columns C of the rectangular matrix such that: [0032] if (481≦K≦530) then p=53 and C=p.", "[0033] else [0034] find the minimum prime p such that (p+1)−K/R≧0, where p is the minimum prime number>=(K/R)−1.", "[0035] C is determined by the value of p with respect to K/R as depicted above.", "[0036] The columns of rectangular matrix are numbered 0, 1, 2, .", ", C−1 from left to right.", "[0037] 3.", "When R and C have been determined, the input bits can be written into a R×C matrix row by row.", "[0038] 4.", "Compute the intra-row and inter-row permutations within the R×C rectangular matrix.", "[0039] The second step is to perform intra-row and inter-row permutations on the rectangular matrix.", "The following algorithm may be used to compute the intra-row and inter-row permutation.", "[0040] (1) Select a primitive root ν (for example for Table 1, which is provided in the 3GPP Standard.) [0041] (2) Construct a base sequence s(i) for intra-row permutation as: [0042] s(i)=[ν×s(i−1)] mod p, i=1, 2, .", ", (p−2).", ", and s(0)=1 [0043] (3) Let q 0 =1 be the first prime integer in {qj}, [0044] Select the consecutive minimum prime integers {q j } (j=1, 2, .", ", R−1) such that: g.c.d{q j , p−1}=1, q j >6, and q j >q (jn−1) , where g.c.d. is greatest common divisor.", "[0045] (4) Permute sequence {q j } to get sequence {r j } such that r T(j) =q j , j=0, 1, .", ", R−1, [0046] where T(j) (j=0, 1, 2, .", ", R−1) is the inter-row permutation pattern defined as the one of the following four patterns: Pat 1 , Pat 2 , Pat 3 and Pat 4 depending on the number of input bits K. TABLE 1 Table of prime numbers p and associated primitive roots v 7 3 11 2 13 2 17 3 19 2 23 5 29 2 31 3 37 2 41 6 43 3 47 5 53 2 59 2 61 2 67 2 71 7 73 5 79 3 83 2 89 3 97 5 101 2 103 5 107 2 109 6 113 3 127 3 131 2 137 3 139 2 149 2 151 6 157 5 163 2 167 5 173 2 179 2 181 2 191 19 193 5 197 2 199 3 211 2 223 3 227 2 229 6 233 3 239 7 241 7 251 6 257 3 [0047] [0047] { T  ( 0 ) , T  ( 1 ) , T  ( 2 ) ,  …  , T  ( R - 1 ) } = { Pat 4 if ( 40 ≤ K ≤ 159 ) Pat 3 if ( 160 ≤ K ≤ 200 )  Pat 1 if ( 201 ≤ K ≤ 480 )  Pat 3 if ( 481 ≤ K ≤ 530 ) Pat 1 if ( 531 ≤ K ≤ 2280 ) Pat 2 if ( 2281 ≤ K ≤ 2480 ) Pat 1 if ( 2481 ≤ K ≤ 3160 ) Pat 2 if ( 3161 ≤ K ≤ 3210 ) Pat 1 if ( 3211 ≤ K ≤ 5114 ) , [0048] where Pat 1 , Pat 2 , Pat 3 and Pat 4 have the following patterns respectively.", "[0049] Pat 1 : {19, 9, 14, 4, 0, 2, 5, 7, 12, 18, 10, 8, 13, 17, 3, 1, 16, 6, 15, 11} [0050] Pat 2 : {19, 9, 14, 4, 0, 2, 5, 7, 12, 18, 16, 13, 17, 15, 3, 1, 6, 11, 8, 10} [0051] Pat 3 : {9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0} [0052] Pat 4 : {4, 3, 2, 1, 0} [0053] (5) Perform the j-th (j=0, 1, 2, .", ", R−1) intra-row permutation as: [0054] When C=p, U j (i)=s([i×r j ]mod(p−1)), i=0, 1, 2, .", ", (p−2).", ", and U j (p−1)=0, C=p, [0055] When C=p+1, U j (i)=s([i×r j ]mod(p−1)), i=0, 1, 2, .", ", (p−2).", ", U j (p−1)=0, and U j (p)=p, [0056] if (K=C×R) then exchange U R−1 (p) with U R−1 (0).", "[0057] When C=p−1, U j (i)=s([i×r j ]mod(p−1))−1, i=0, 1, 2, .", ", (p−2), [0058] The maximum-size of the permutation matrix is 20×256.", "[0059] (6) Perform the inter-row permutation based on the pattern T(j) (j=0, 1, 2, .", ", R−1);", "[0060] where T(j) is the original row position of the j-th permuted row.", "[0061] The output of the Turbo code internal interleaver is the bit sequence read out column by column from the intra-row and inter-row permuted R×C matrix starting with row 0 of column 0 and ending with row R−1 of column C−1.", "The output may be pruned by deleting bits that were not present in the input bit sequence, i.e. the number of bits output from Turbo code internal interleaver is K and the total number of pruned bits is: (R×C)−K.", "[0062] [0062 ]FIG. 1 illustrates exemplary hardware for implementing an exemplary algorithm for producing an interleaved address.", "The interleaver address generator 10 includes ADJLUT 12 , LUT 14 , and adder 16 as well as first storage 18 and second storage 20 .", "The interleaver address generator 10 also includes control logic 30 , add/compare/subtract (ACSUB) units 40 and 42 , lookup tables 44 and 46 , multipliers 48 and 50 , prune control logic 60 and adder 70 .", "In an exemplary embodiment, the first storage 18 and second storage 20 are each implemented as a bank of D-flip flops.", "[0063] Exemplary calculations performed by the interleaver address generator 10 of the present invention are as follows.", "In a given row, if a first column MOD result is 1*r MOD p=a, and the jth column MOD result is j*r MOD p=b, then the succeeding column (j+1)th computation is (j+1)*r MOD p=(1*r MOD p+j*r MOD p) MOD p=(a+b) MOD p. Since both a and b are less than p, (a+b) MOD p may be computed with a single adder, comparator, and subtractor.", "As a result, the desired result may be obtained without a large amount of computation.", "In the above example, a and b are defined as old results, which are stored in the first storage 18 and the second storage 20 , respectively.", "“a”", "will always be stored in the first storage 18 for all the new computations and “b”", "will be stored in the second storage 18 and updated whenever the succeeding new result has been calculated.", "[0064] The results of the MOD computations above are then used as an index of the lookup table, S(i)LUT 44 and the true intra-row permutation order is supplied from Table 2, which can be provided by a DSP or stored in a ROM.", "[0065] In some exemplary algorithms, the interleaving is based on inter-row and intra-row permutation among a rectangular matrix, and the numbers of row are only selectable from a fixed set (for example, 5, 10, 20, .", "), the number of column is determined based on the nearest prime number.", "For example, if the block length K=44, the row assigned is 5, and column assigned is 10, then 5*10=50 interleaving address will be generated from the matrix (0,1, .", ", 49 in random order).", "All invalid addresses are pruned, namely those with values longer than K. In this example, only addresses 0-43 are useful addresses.", "If K=50, then there is no need to prune any addresses.", "[0066] After the MOD calculation, pruning by the prune control circuit 60 may occur.", "For example, in the first clock cycle, the row 1, column 1 and row 2, column 1 addresses are generated, if both are valid, the (1,1) address is selected otherwise the (2,1) address is the substitute.", "Then in the next clock cycle the (2,1) address and the (3,1) address are calculated if no pruning was performed in last cycle or the (3,1) address and the (4,1) address are generated if pruning occurred in last clock cycle.", "In the no pruning case, the (2,1) address has already been calculated in the last clock cycle, in order to save power.", "The prune control circuit 60 stops the computation path for the (2,1) address in the repeated calculation period.", "[0067] The operation of the interleaver address generator 10 is most easily described in conjunction with Table 2.", "For operation of the interleaver address generator 10 , a prime integer p is selected according to the length of data input to the interleaver address generator 10 .", "{q j } in Table 2 is defined as a sequence of minimum prime integers starting with 1 and having a maximum size (in an exemplary embodiment, the maximum size is 20 prime numbers, but the interleaving structure may be flexible to support different maxima) which is essential to construct a set of column 1 values (shown as column 5 in Table 1).", "The subsequent columns'", "values are generated by the previous column value and column 1's value.", "The value of {q j } may be selected from the set {1, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, 67, 71, 73, 79, 83, 89} sequentially on condition that g.c.d{q j , p−1}=1.", "The Δq j LUT 14 stores the difference sequence {q i −q j−1 }, the values in column 3 of Table 2, instead of {q j } in order to reduce the storage area and calculate the value for the first column in a simple way.", "ADJLUT 12 adjusts the output value from Δq j LUT 14 if there is any skipping of prime numbers in the {q j } sequence.", "[0068] With regard to the recursive calculations performed in Table 2, {m ij } represent the ([i*q j ]mod(p−1)) element in the matrix.", "Column 0 is all 0s (i=0).", "Each column 1 modulo result can be obtained from its preceding row modulo value and the corresponding Δq j .", "The subsequent columns'", "modulo results are calculated from the column 1 value and the respective preceding column's results as follows: [0069] i=1: [0070] m 1j =q j mod(p−1)=(m 1j−1 +Δq j )mod(p−1), where mod(p−1) is calculated as follows: [0071] if (m 1j−1 +Δq j )>=(p−1) then m 1j =( m 1j−1 +Δq j )−( p− 1);", "[0072] else m 1j =( m 1j−1 +Δq j );", "[0073] end if;", "[0074] i>1: m i , j = i * q j  mod  ( p - 1 ) = ( q j + ( i - 1 ) * q j )  mod ( p - 1 ) = [ q j  mod  ( p - 1 ) + ( i - 1 ) * q j  mod  ( p - 1 ) ]  mod  ( p - 1 ) = ( m 1 , j + m i - 1 , j )  mod  ( p - 1 ) , where   mod  ( p - 1 )   is   calcuated   as   follows : [0075] if (m 1j +m i−1j )>=(p−1) then m ij =( m 1j +m i−1j )−( p− 1);", "[0076] else m ij =( m 1j +m i−1j );", "[0077] end if;", "TABKE 2 Values Input To and Calculated By Interleaver Address Generator 10 0 * q j mod J q j Δq j (p − 1) 1 * q j mod(p − 1) i * q j mod(p − 1) 0 1 2 3 4 1 7 11 13 17 1 6 4 + Δ2 + Δ4 + Δ 0 0 0 0 0 m 1 , 0 = q 0  mod  ( p - 1 ) = 1 m 1 , j = { m 1 , j - 1 + Δq j m 1 , j - 1 + Δq j - ( p - 1 ) , if >", "( p - 1 ) j = 1 , …  , R - 1 m i , j = { m i - 1 , j + m 1 , j m i - 1 , j + m 1 , j - ( p - 1 ) , if >", "( p - 1 ) j = 0 , …   R - 1 .", "R − 2 73 2 0 R − 1 79 6 0 R 83 4 0 R + 1 89 6 0 [0078] The first storage 18 is used to store the column 1 values and the second storage 20 is used to store the most recent column values.", "The second storage 20 is updated at every cycle with the new matrix value.", "ACSUB unit 40 is the add-compare-subtract to calculate the new matrix value.", "Two ACSUB units 40 , 42 and two ports for the first and second storage units are employed to handle the pruning of invalid addresses without introducing a clock cycle delay.", "Control logic 30 generates the address signal and write enable signals we — 1 and we_p, etc for the ADJLUT 12 , Δq j LUT 14 , and the first and second storages 18 , 20 .", "The control logic 30 also generates enable and control signals to organize the operation of the ACSUB units 40 , 42 .", "In the pruning cycle, both ACSUB units 40 , 42 are turned on to calculate two interleaver addresses simultaneously, otherwise both ACSUB units 40 , 42 are active alternatively to provide one effective value in every clock cycle.", "In this manner, ACSUB units 40 , 42 do not need to repeat any unnecessary calculations, so half of the power for the add, comparison and subtraction can be saved.", "T(j) LUT circuit 46 is the look up table for the row permutation of the matrix, which is used to generate the respective position of the interleaving after multiplication with the column number of the input data.", "S(i) LUT circuit 44 is the intra-row permutation sequence that may be downloaded for each code block from a DSP or another micro-controller, or in the alternative, hard-wired into ROM.", "Each of these options is further discussed below.", "The matrix value is the input to the S(i) LUT 44 as the index of the look up table and the outputs of the S(i) LUT 44 are part of the final interleaving.", "S(i) LUT 44 may be implemented with a double port RAM and double multipliers designed to produce two outputs per clock cycle.", "Both outputs go through the prune control circuit 60 to provide one interleaving address per clock cycle.", "[0079] In order to perform the operations described above, the following input parameters are required to be downloaded: K(block length), prime — 1(Prime number minus one), Prune_Value (the number of value needed to be pruned), Col C(the number of columns), Row R (the number of rows) and an SI table.", "These input parameters may be provided from several sources.", "[0080] A first source for the input parameters is a DSP 80 , as illustrated in FIG. 2. A second source is an all-hardware solution.", "In this case, as illustrated in FIG. 3, all the possible prime numbers (P — 1) and SI are stored in a ROM for block lengths from 40 to 5114.", "The Row R, Col C, and Prune_value can be calculated according to the P — 1 looked up from the ROM table.", "The P — 1 &", "SI base address ROM may be 1092 bits, and the SI ROM may be 6128*8 bits.", "Since s(0) is always 1, the SI ROM size can be further reduced to (6128−52)*8 bits.", "With the all-hardware generation for the auxiliary parameters, the SI LUT 44 employed in the interleaver address generator 10 can be omitted if there is already a SI ROM outside the interleaver address generator 10 .", "[0081] The interleaver address generator 10 may be used in a sliding window decoder 100 where the sliding window decoder 100 partitions the block into one or more windows.", "As illustrated in FIG. 4, the sliding window decoder 100 may also include a memory control unit 102 for controlling the generation of interleaved and sequential addresses and a MUX 104 for sending one or both to an extrinsic memory 110 .", "With a two phase windowed logMAP decoder, the sliding window decoder 100 can simultaneously fetch two blocks from the extrinsic memory 110 in order to calculate a forward recursion on the window and a dummy backward recursion from the end of the next window to the end of the current window.", "In the second phase, the logMAP decoder calculates the backward recursion for the current window.", "An efficient method of generating turbo interleaver addresses for a new window period of the sliding window decoder 100 is to calculate them in the current window period phase two, and then store the addresses in a cache memory for use in the next window period.", "TIWINA and TIWINB, shown in FIG. 4, are “turbo interleaver windows memories A and B”, and are used store windows of addresses.", "FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B show how the address windows can be updated and used in a particular two-phase logMAP algorithm for decoder 100 .", "The decoder operates in sequential order and pseudo-random order alternately.", "FIG. 5A shows the decoder 100 operating in sequential access mode, and FIG. 5B shows the decoder 100 operating in pseudo-random access mode that uses the interleaved addresses.", "In phase one, windows w 0 and w 1 are accessed to calculate alphas and dummy betas, and in phase two the window w 1 is accessed in a reverse order to calculate true betas.", "The window may then be slid forward to the end of the block, as showed in FIGS. 5A and 5B.", "When in sequential order, TIWINA and TIWINB are equipped with the first two windows'", "interleaver addresses in order to address windows w 0 and w 1 at the very start of the phase one calculation during decoder's pseudo-random access mode.", "In each current window period, the addresses for w 1 remain and used for the next window period to address w 0 , and the memory storing the addresses for w 0 are updated during phase two for next window period to address w 1 .", "As a result, TIWINA and TIWINB are accessed in forward order and reverse order alternately to provide the addresses for w 0 and w 1 due to the properties of the sliding window logMAP decoder, as illustrated in FIG. 5B.", "[0082] As described above, the interleaver of the exemplary embodiments of the present invention reduces the number of MOD calculations necessary by utilizing old results efficiently.", "The interleaver of the exemplary embodiments of the present invention uses two storage areas 18 , 20 , one to store the first column of m 1j results and the other to store the latest column of m i,j results, where m i,j is the result of ACSUB units 40 , 42 .", "The results from the two ACSUB units 40 , 42 are stored into the j and j+1 row of the storage area 20 , wheras m 1j is stored in the storage 18 .", "j may vary from 0 to 20, increases by 1 every clock cycle.", "In the interleaver of the exemplary embodiments of the present invention, all a DSP is needed for is to provide the S(i) sequence.", "If the overall encoder/decoder architecture does not include a DSP, the all-hardware solution described above may be used to calculate the S(i), Col C, Row R, and Prune_value parameters.", "[0083] It is further noted, that although the present invention has been described in the context of calculating two columns using two ACSUB units, embodiments using any other number of columns less than the total number of columns are also considered to be within the scope of the present application.", "[0084] It is further noted than a DSP is capable of performing the MOD calculation, so another option, with the scope of the present invention is to implement the interleaver algorithm via DSP firmware and download the results into a memory for hardware to use and access.", "[0085] While the particular invention has been described with reference to illustrative embodiments, this description is not meant to be construed in a limiting sense.", "It is understood that although the present invention has been described, various modifications of the illustrative embodiments, as well as additional embodiments of the invention, will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art upon reference to this description without departing from the spirit of the invention, as recited in the claims appended hereto.", "Those skilled in the art will readily recognize that these and various other modifications, arrangements and methods can be made to the present invention without strictly following the exemplary applications illustrated and described herein and without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.", "It is therefore contemplated that the appended claims will cover any such modifications or embodiments as fall within the true scope of the invention." ]

[ "FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to photofinishing methods and systems, and more particularly to methods and systems of controlling orders in a wholesale photofinishing operation.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In conventional wholesale photofinishing laboratories, customer rolls of film arrive in envelopes from retail dealers containing owner's name and instructions for developing, and the details of the photographic output desired.", "The individual dealer-designed envelopes used to transport film are of a common size, however, most are unique, with different locations on the envelope for instructions and information.", "Consequently some instructions are missed and some are misinterpreted.", "In addition, because the envelope contains owner information, it must be maintained in the same order as the films throughout the photofinishing steps in order to return the film and prints to the proper owner.", "What is desired is a method to eliminate the need for envelopes within the photofinishing laboratory, while insuring that customer instructions are followed and the customer receives their original film order.", "The Advanced Photographic System provides a number imprinted on the film cassette (called a Cassette ID or CID) and the same number exposed on the film (called a Film ID or FID), so that after processing, the film and cassette may be reunited.", "However, customer identification and order information are not associated with this number, nor is the CID necessarily unique within a photofinishing laboratory.", "That is, within a given laboratory on a single night, there may be several pairs of Advanced Photographic System films with the same FID or CID.", "There is a need therefore for an improved method of photofinishing that avoids the problems noted above.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The need is met according to the present invention by providing a method and system for photofinishing, that includes generating a unique roll ID number for a roll of photographic film to be finished;", "recording customer order information for the roll of film;", "associating the customer order information with the unique roll ID number in a central computer facility;", "marking the roll of film with a machine readable version of the unique roll ID number;", "and reading the roll ID number on the roll of film, and accessing the customer order information from the central computer facility to control a photofinishing operation, whereby the roll of film can be transported to a photofinishing laboratory without the use of an envelope bearing customer order information.", "ADVANTAGES The present invention provides for a means of associating the customer roll of film with the customer name and the customer instructions for the photofinishing of the roll of film.", "It provides a means of automated handling of rolls of film within a photofinishing laboratory, and eliminates the need for the retail bags to identify rolls of films.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a typical retail-wholesale photofinishing operation;", "FIG. 2 As a flow chart describing the method and system of the present invention;", "FIG. 3 shows a film cartridge bearing a label having a unique roll ID according to the present invention;", "FIG. 4 shows a preferred format for the unique roll ID according to the present invention;", "and FIG. 5 shows a label according to the present invention for use with a one-time use camera.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION FIG. 1 shows the traditional wholesale photofinishing laboratory schematic, showing the photographer (or customer) 10 filling out an envelope 12 at a retail location 14 .", "The envelope 12 contains customer identification and the specific services requested that the laboratory perform on the roll of film 16 .", "The film 16 is deposited into the envelope 12 .", "The retail dealer sites are numerous;", "one is shown for simplicity.", "At an established frequency, a transport service provider 18 will collect the customer envelopes 12 and transport them to the photofinishing laboratory 20 to perform the requested services on the films contained therein.", "Within the photofinishing laboratory 20 , a sorting operation is conducted on the envelopes 12 .", "Customer films with the same services requested are grouped, or batched together for processing and output services requested at a manual sorting location 22 .", "Typical output services would include size of print, number of prints, surface texture of print or electronic storage of digitized scan of the image.", "In addition, other output services might include placement of the image onto a non-traditional surface such as a piece of clothing, a keychain or any desired item.", "Once batched, the customer films are removed from the envelope, spliced together in a reel 24 and processed in a film processor 25 to produced rolls of processed film 27 .", "The envelopes 12 are maintained in the same order sequence as the spliced customer rolls of film to permit return to the owner.", "To facilitate maintaining the sequence, an auxiliary common number may be placed on the envelope and splice tape attaching the film to the reel of other customer rolls.", "The reel of processed customer films 27 is manually transported to a printer 26 or other output devices 28 , 30 (such as a film scanner to produce digital images, or an enlarging printer to produce large prints) to provide the customer services requested.", "When all services are available, the services, the processed films 24 and the order envelopes 12 are matched at a finishing station 32 , where the requested services are reunited with the envelopes 12 .", "Once the requested services are completed, the customer order 34 associated with envelope 12 is returned to the dealer site 14 , usually by the same transport provider 18 .", "FIG. 2 shows the flow of one embodiment of the present invention.", "In this embodiment, the customer 10 enters the requested photofinishing services and customer information into a computer-based ordering station 36 at a retail location 14 .", "The customer-entered data is either stored on a portable storage medium, such as a diskette or tape 35 , or other suitable recording media, or electronically transmitted to a central computer facility 38 .", "The central computer facility 38 includes at least one computer accessible from a remote location, for example via the internet.", "The retail location computer ordering station generates a label 40 , containing a machine readable roll identification number 42 , which the customer affixes to the roll of film 16 .", "In another embodiment of the invention, the computer-based ordering station 36 applies the label 40 directly to the film cassette 16 .", "In a third embodiment of the invention, the roll identification number is written on the cassette 16 directly, for example by an ink jet print head (not shown).", "If the film in the cassette 16 has a magnetic recording layer, for example APS film, the unique roll ID may be magnetically recorded on the magnetic recording layer of the film by the computer based ordering unit 36 .", "The label 40 may also contain a magnetic strip that is machine readable, for recording the unique roll identification ID 42 .", "A human readable version of the unique roll identification 42 may also be printed on the label 40 along with the magnetically coded version.", "The number created by the computer based ordering station 36 is a unique number, consisting of at least two portions.", "In one embodiment, one portion contains the identification of the retail dealer location, the second portion contains a sequence number for customer films in that retail location.", "The label 40 may be affixed to the film cartridge, spool or cassette 16 .", "The film is then collected for subsequent transport via transport service 18 to the photofinishing laboratory 20 .", "If the customer-input information has been stored on a portable storage medium 35 , the storage medium is also transported to the photofinishing laboratory at the same time.", "The central computer facility 38 may be physically located at the photofinishing laboratory 20 , or at a remote location accessible electronically by the laboratory, for example via the internet.", "Within the laboratory 20 , an automated sorting device 48 that reads the machine-readable code from the label and sorts the film cassettes 16 (only one cassette is shown for simplicity) into batches that require similar services.", "The unique roll identification number on the label 40 allows the customer roll of film 16 to be paired with the requested information from either the portable storage medium 35 or the central computer facility 38 and sorting the film into the proper batches for the requested services.", "In an all digital lab, the films are not sorted prior to processing, but spliced onto a common reel, processed and sent to a film scanner (not shown).", "The film scanner would read the URID from the spliced tape, interrogate the central computer facility for service instructions, and then send the digital image files to the appropriate output devices such as digital printers.", "At the time of splicing, the unique roll identification number (also called the URID) is read from the label 40 on the film cassette 16 , and imprinted onto the splice tape 50 used to fasten the films into a continuous roll 24 for processing, for example by an ink jet print head or dot matrix printer.", "The customer films are developed in a processor 25 and the process films 27 are transported to printer 26 and other devices 28 , 30 to provide the services requested.", "The URID is imprinted on the back of the requested prints using well-known photographic process surviving inks and printing equipment such as ink jet or dot matrix printers.", "When all services are available, the services and the processed films 27 are matched at a finishing station 32 where the requested services are reunited with the processed film 27 .", "The URID 42 on the processed film and the services allows accurate sorting.", "The finishing station 52 creates an order return envelope 62 with the dealer and customer identification, cost information, etc.", "supplied from the central computer facility 38 .", "The completed customer orders are then returned to the retail location 14 .", "The use of the URID 42 , generated by the computer based ordering station 36 at the retail location 14 , eliminates the need for manual sorting used in conventional wholesale photofinishing operations, increases the reliability in fulfilling the requested services, and decreases the chance of losing customer rolls of films.", "FIG. 3 shows a film cartridge 16 bearing a label 40 imprinted with the unique roll identification number (URID) 42 in both human and machine readable forms.", "Alternatively, the URID 42 may be in a font that is both human and machine readable.", "Referring to FIG. 4, the human readable and machine-readable URID 42 is generated at the retail dealer location and consists of at least two portions.", "In one embodiment, one portion 64 identifies the dealer while a second portion 66 is a sequence number within the dealer.", "In this embodiment, the sequence number 66 starts for example at 1 and increments in single digits up to a sufficiently large number such that the sequence number is not repeated within one week.", "Upon reaching the maximum sequence number, the sequence number 66 is re-initialized at 1 and the incrementing repeats.", "This scheme will prevent duplicate UFID's 42 in a photofinishing lab.", "The label 40 is either a partial label, leaving the machine-readable information preprinted on the cassette uncovered, or it may be a complete label.", "If the label completely covers the cassette 16 , then the machine-readable information that was already on the cassette can be read and replicated on the label 40 .", "FIG. 5 shows a label for use with one-time use cameras according to the present invention.", "The label 80 is generated by the computer based ordering station 36 at the retail location 14 .", "In one embodiment, when the customer indicates the product is a one-time use camera instead of an individual roll of film, the computer-based ordering station 36 described in FIG. 2 generates a label consisting of two layers.", "The outer layer 82 contains the two-portion unique roll identification number 42 on surface 84 and an adhesive on the opposite surface 86 .", "The second layer 88 contains an adhesive on the lower surface 90 and a release surface 92 .", "The customer applies the two-part label to the one-time use camera.", "When the one-time-use camera arrives in the photofinishing laboratory 20 , the roll of film is removed from the one-time use camera, and the outer layer 82 is removed from the second layer 88 of label 80 and affixed to the roll of film by the laboratory personnel.", "The roll of film 16 then follows the workflow described in FIG. 2 .", "The invention has been described in detail with particular reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, but it will be understood that variations and modifications can be effected within the spirit and scope of the invention.", "PARTS LIST 10 customer 12 photofinishing envelope 14 retail location 16 roll of film 18 transportation service provider 20 photofinishing laboratory 22 manual sorting location 24 reel of spliced film 25 film processor 26 printer 27 processed film reels 28 output device 30 other output device 32 finishing station 34 completed customer order 35 portable storage medium 36 computer-based ordering station 38 central computer facility 40 label 42 machine readable roll identification number 48 automated sorting device 50 splice tape 52 finishing station 62 order return envelope 64 dealer ID 66 sequence number 80 one time use camera label 82 outer layer 84 outer surface of outer layer 86 opposite surface 88 second layer 90 lower surface of second layer 92 release surface of second layer" ]

[ "FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a line for producing vehicles of different models while conveyance devices carrying vehicle bodies thereon are conveyed along a conveyance line.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Choosing automobiles that match one's lifestyle is a recent trend, and a stronger demand exists for compact (small-sized) automobiles having a smaller occupant capacity (two to three people) in the same way as for ordinary (regular-sized) automobiles that have a regular occupant capacity (five people).", "Since compact automobiles have an occupant capacity of two to three people, they need only one row of seats, and the total length of the automobile can be shortened to approximately half the length of an ordinary automobile.", "A production line designated for compact automobiles must be newly prepared in order to manufacture the compact automobiles.", "However, the need to prepare a new production line designated for compact automobiles raises the equipment costs of production lines and poses an obstacle to keeping the costs of such compact automobiles low.", "Additionally, extra space must be ensured within the production factory in order to prepare a new production line designated for compact automobiles.", "One example of a production line is a mixed production line for producing vehicles of different models, such as sports cars or station wagons, as is disclosed in the Japanese Publication JP 63-013857 A or Japanese Patent No. 3008220.", "Sports cars, stations wagons, and other vehicle models each have different numbers of components.", "A mixed production line for producing vehicles with different numbers of components is provided with a bypass conveying line.", "For example, mixed production with vehicles having a small number of components is adjusted by causing vehicles having a large number of components to go through the bypass conveying line.", "It is possible to absorb the difference in the number of components by using a bypass production line because sports cars, station wagons, and other vehicles merely have small differences in the numbers of components.", "However, compact automobiles have approximately half the number of components of ordinary automobiles.", "Consequently, in the mixed production line disclosed in JP 63-13857 A, when compact automobiles are incorporated into an ordinary automobile production line, the number of steps for assembling a compact automobile is approximately half the number of steps for assembling an ordinary automobile.", "When the number of steps for assembling a compact automobile decreases by half, it is difficult to adequately absorb the difference in the number of components by using the bypass conveying line disclosed in JP 63-13857 A. In this case, the solution is to set the assembly operation time for compact automobiles in accordance with the assembly operation time for larger automobiles.", "Therefore, there is much idle time in the assembly operation for compact automobiles, and it is difficult to produce compact automobiles efficiently.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a production line for vehicles of different models that can produce compact automobiles more efficiently when compact automobiles having different numbers of components than ordinary automobiles are incorporated into an ordinary automobile production line.", "According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a production line for vehicles of different models, including a plurality of conveying mechanisms for conveying along a conveying line respective conveyance devices with vehicle bodies carried thereon in such a manner as to allow components to be installed on the vehicle bodies, wherein each of the conveying devices is adapted to carry two of the vehicle bodies.", "Compact automobiles herein have approximately half the number of components of an ordinary automobile, for example.", "It is possible to form a single unit from the vehicle bodies of two compact automobiles in the production line by mounting two compact automobile vehicle bodies on a conveying hanger.", "Two unitized vehicle bodies have approximately the same number of components as an ordinary automobile, and the number of assembly steps is approximately the same as an ordinary automobile.", "Consequently, two unitized vehicle bodies can have the same number of assembly steps as the vehicle body of an ordinary automobile.", "Thereby, when the vehicle bodies of compact automobiles and ordinary automobiles are produced together, compact automobiles can be produced more efficiently without any idle time in the steps of assembling the compact automobiles.", "In the production line described above, it is preferred that in a state in which two vehicle bodies are mounted on a conveyance device, the total length of the two mounted vehicle bodies be equal to the maximum total length of an ordinary vehicle body that can be conveyed along the conveying line.", "Consequently, conveyance devices for mounting two vehicle bodies can be placed at the same intervals as conveyance devices for mounting one vehicle body of an ordinary automobile.", "Two unitized vehicle bodies can thereby be conveyed at the same intervals as vehicle bodies of ordinary automobiles, and compact automobiles can be produced more efficiently.", "In a state in which two vehicle bodies are mounted on a conveyance device, it is preferred that the total length of the two mounted vehicle bodies be less than the maximum total length of an ordinary vehicle body that can be conveyed along the conveying line.", "In a state in which two vehicle bodies are mounted on a conveyance device, it is preferred that each of the two mounted vehicle bodies is the body of a vehicle having an occupant capacity of two people.", "In a state in which two vehicle bodies are mounted on a conveyance device, it is preferred that the two mounted vehicle bodies be mounted on the conveyance device so that rear parts thereof face each other.", "According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a production line for vehicles of different models, which comprises: a conveying line;", "and a plurality of conveyance devices adapted to be conveyed along the conveying line and designed to carry a single first vehicle body, wherein one of the conveyance devices is configured to carry two second vehicle bodies of a different model than the first vehicle body.", "The first vehicle body may, for example, be a vehicle body of an ordinary automobile according to the embodiments, and the second vehicle body may be a vehicle body of a compact automobile.", "The total length of two compact automobiles is approximately equal to the total length of one ordinary automobile.", "The conveyance device preferably has multiple brackets for supporting a first vehicle body or two second vehicle bodies in the anteroposterior direction of the mounted vehicles.", "Therefore, the conveyance device can support a single first vehicle body, and can also support two second vehicle bodies.", "According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for producing vehicles of different models, comprising the steps of: conveying multiple conveyance devices, each of which is used for mounting a single first vehicle body, along a conveying line;", "and mounting two second vehicle bodies on each of the conveyance devices when the second vehicle bodies of a different model than the first vehicle body are incorporated into the conveying line.", "According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a production line for vehicles of different models, comprising: a conveying line;", "a plurality of first conveyance devices conveyed along the conveying line and used for mounting a first vehicle body;", "and a sub-line whereby a plurality of second conveyance devices that are the same as the first conveyance devices and that carry second vehicle bodies are supplied to the conveying line with short intervals when the second vehicle bodies of a different model than the first vehicle body are incorporated and assembled in an array of the first vehicle bodies.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Certain preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG. 1 is a side elevational view showing a compact automobile produced in a production line according to the present invention;", "FIG. 2 is a top plan view showing the compact automobile of FIG. 1 ;", "FIG. 3( a ) is a schematic view showing a production line for vehicles of different models according to a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 3( b ) is a schematic view showing a production line according to the present invention using a first conveying mechanism, FIG. 3( c ) is a schematic view showing a production line according to the present invention using a second conveying mechanism;", "FIG. 4 is a side elevational view showing an ordinary vehicle body placed on a conveyance device shown in FIG. 3 ;", "FIG. 5 is a side elevational view showing two compact vehicle bodies placed on the conveyance device of FIG. 3 ;", "FIG. 6 is a schematic view showing the step of painting ordinary vehicle bodies and compact vehicle bodies in the production line of FIG. 3 ;", "FIG. 7 is a schematic view showing the step of installing engines, suspension systems and other components in ordinary vehicle bodies and compact vehicle bodies in the production line of FIG. 3 ;", "FIG. 8 is a schematic view showing the step of assembling exterior and interior components in ordinary vehicle bodies and compact vehicle bodies in the production line of FIG. 3 ;", "and FIG. 9 is a schematic top plan view showing the production line for vehicles of different models according to a second embodiment of the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A first embodiment of the present invention will now be discussed with reference to FIGS. 1 to 8 .", "As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 , a compact automobile 10 comprises an engine 13 disposed at the front of a vehicle body 11 , a right side door 14 disposed on the right side of the vehicle body 11 , a left side door 15 disposed on the left side of the vehicle body 11 , a driver seat 17 disposed on the right side within a passenger compartment 16 , a passenger seat 18 disposed on the left side within the passenger compartment 16 , left and right front wheels 21 , 21 disposed at the front of the vehicle body 11 , and left and right rear wheels 22 , 22 disposed at the rear of the vehicle body 11 .", "The compact automobile 10 is a vehicle having an occupant capacity of two people, including the driver seat 17 and the passenger seat 18 .", "The total length L 1 of the compact automobile 10 is approximately half the total length L 2 of an ordinary automobile 25 shown in FIG. 3C .", "The first embodiment relates to a compact automobile 10 having an occupant capacity of two people, but this automobile may also have an occupant capacity of three people, in which case a center seat (not shown) is provided between the driver seat 17 and the passenger seat 18 , for example.", "Referring to FIG. 3 , a vehicle production line 30 comprises a painting area 31 for painting a vehicle body 26 of the ordinary automobile 25 and the vehicle body 11 of the compact automobile 10 ;", "a drive system installation area 32 for installing drive systems composed of engines, suspension systems, and the like into the vehicle body 26 of the ordinary automobile 25 and the vehicle body 11 of the compact automobile 10 ;", "and an exterior and interior installation area 33 for installing side doors and seats in the vehicle body 26 of the ordinary automobile 25 and the vehicle body 11 of the compact automobile 10 .", "The vehicle production line 30 further comprises a first conveying mechanism 35 for conveying the vehicle body 26 of the ordinary automobile 25 and vehicle bodies 11 , 11 of compact automobiles 10 in a suspended state;", "and a second conveying mechanism 36 for conveying the vehicle body 26 of the ordinary automobile 25 and vehicle bodies 11 , 11 of compact automobiles 10 in a mounted state.", "In the exterior and interior installation area 33 shown in FIG. 3C , after side doors and seats are installed in the vehicle body 26 of the ordinary automobile 25 and the vehicle body 11 of the compact automobile 10 , front wheels 21 , 21 and rear wheels 22 , 22 are installed in the vehicle body 26 of the ordinary automobile 25 and the vehicle body 11 of the compact automobile 10 , thereby completing the assembly steps of the ordinary automobile 25 and the compact automobile 10 .", "The first conveying mechanism 35 conveys the vehicle body 26 of the ordinary automobile 25 and the vehicle body 11 of the compact automobile 10 in a suspended state through the painting area 31 , and also conveys the vehicle body 26 of the ordinary automobile 25 and the vehicle body 11 of the compact automobile 10 in a suspended state through the drive system installation area 32 as shown in FIG. 3B .", "The second conveying mechanism 36 conveys the vehicle body 26 of the ordinary automobile 25 and the vehicle body 11 of the compact automobile 10 in a mounted state on a belt conveyor through the exterior and interior installation area 33 .", "FIG. 4 shows the vehicle body 26 of an ordinary automobile mounted on the first conveying mechanism 35 , and FIG. 5 shows vehicle bodies 11 , 11 of compact automobiles mounted on the first conveying mechanism 35 .", "The first conveying mechanism 35 comprises a guide rail (conveying line) 41 provided above the painting area 31 and the drive system installation area 32 shown in FIG. 3 , a carrier 42 moveably suspended from the guide rail 41 , a conveying hanger (conveying device) 43 provided to the suspended carrier 42 , and a moving device (not shown) for moving the carrier 42 along the guide rail 41 .", "The suspended carrier 42 is linked to the guide rail 41 via a support arm 45 .", "Rollers (not shown) are provided at the top end of the support arm 45 .", "The suspended carrier 42 is disposed to be movable along the guide rail 41 via the rollers.", "The conveying hanger 43 is composed of right and left front hanger frames 46 , 47 provided at the front end of the carrier 42 , right and left rear hanger frames 48 , 49 provided at the rear end of the carrier 42 , a right support 51 provided at the bottom ends of the right front hanger frame 46 and the right rear hanger frame 48 , and a left support 52 provided at the bottom ends of the left front hanger frame 47 and the left rear hanger frame 49 .", "The right and left front hanger frames 46 , 47 are bilaterally symmetric, as are the right and left rear hanger frames 48 , 49 .", "A first right bracket 51 a is provided at the front end of the right support 51 , a second right bracket 51 b is provided at the rear end, a third right bracket 51 c is provided behind the first right bracket 51 a (in proximity to the right front hanger frame 46 ), and a fourth right bracket 51 d is provided in front of the second right bracket 51 b (in proximity to the right rear hanger frame 48 ).", "A first left bracket 52 a is provided at the front end of the left support 52 , a second left bracket 52 b is provided at the rear end, a third left bracket 52 c is provided behind the first left bracket 52 a (in proximity to the left front hanger frame 47 ), and a fourth left bracket 52 d is provided in front of the second left bracket 52 b (in proximity to the left rear hanger frame 49 ).", "The right and left supports 51 , 52 are bilaterally symmetrical, and the first through fourth right brackets 51 a to 51 d , as well as the first through fourth left brackets 52 a to 52 d , are also bilaterally symmetrical.", "One example of the aforementioned moving device is a setup in which the suspended carrier 42 is connected by a chain (not shown), and the chain is driven to move the suspended carrier 42 along the guide rail 41 as shown by the arrow.", "An example of mounting the vehicle body 26 of the ordinary automobile 25 on the conveyance device 43 will be described with reference to FIG. 4 .", "The vehicle body 26 of the ordinary automobile 25 is hereinbelow referred to as a “ordinary vehicle body 26 .”", "The third right bracket 51 c of the right support 51 and the third left bracket 52 c of the left support 52 bear the front part 26 a of the ordinary vehicle body 26 .", "The fourth right bracket 51 d of the right support 51 and the fourth left bracket 52 d of the left support 52 bear the rear part 26 b of the ordinary vehicle body 26 .", "The ordinary vehicle body 26 is mounted facing forward on the conveying hanger 43 .", "An example of mounting a vehicle body 11 of a compact automobile 10 on both the front half 43 a and rear half 43 b of the conveying hanger 43 will be described with reference to FIG. 5 .", "Hereinbelow, the vehicle body 11 of the compact automobile 10 mounted facing forward on the front half 43 a of the conveying hanger 43 is referred to as the “forward-facing compact vehicle body 11 ,” and the vehicle body 11 of the compact automobile 10 mounted facing backward on the rear half 43 b of the conveying hanger 43 is referred to as the “backward-facing compact vehicle body 11 .”", "The first right bracket 51 a of the right support 51 and the first left bracket 52 a of the left support 52 bear the front part 11 a of the forward-facing compact vehicle body 11 .", "The third right bracket 51 c of the right support 51 and the third left bracket 52 c of the left support 52 bear the rear part 11 b of the forward-facing compact vehicle body 11 .", "The forward-facing compact vehicle body 11 is mounted facing forward on the front half 43 a of the conveying hanger 43 .", "The second right bracket 51 b of the right support 51 and the second left bracket 52 b of the left support 52 bear the front part 11 a of the backward-facing compact vehicle body 11 .", "The fourth right bracket 51 d of the right support 51 and the fourth left bracket 52 d of the left support 52 bear the rear part 11 b of the backward-facing compact vehicle body 11 .", "The backward-facing compact vehicle body 11 is mounted facing backward on the rear half 43 b of the conveying hanger 43 .", "Thus, the forward-facing compact vehicle body 11 is mounted facing forward on the front half 43 a of the conveying hanger 43 , and the backward-facing compact vehicle body 11 is mounted facing backward on the rear half 43 b of the conveying hanger 43 , whereby two compact automobiles 10 are mounted on a single conveying hanger 43 .", "The compact automobiles 10 shown in FIG. 5 have a total length L 1 ( FIG. 3 ), and the ordinary automobile 25 shown in FIG. 3 has a total length L 2 ( FIG. 2 ).", "The total length L 1 is reduced to about half of the total length L 2 .", "For the sake of convenience, the total length L 2 of the ordinary automobile 25 is assumed to be the maximum total length of a vehicle body that can be conveyed along the guide rail 41 .", "With the two compact vehicle bodies 11 mounted on the conveying hanger 43 , the total length L 3 of the two mounted compact vehicle bodies 11 is either approximately equal to the maximum total length L 2 of a vehicle body that can be conveyed along the guide rail 41 , or is kept smaller than the maximum total length L 2 .", "In the first embodiment, the total length L 3 of the two mounted compact vehicle bodies 11 is described as being approximately equal to the maximum total length L 2 .", "The following is a description, made with reference to FIGS. 6 through 8 , of an example of assembly in which four compact vehicle bodies 11 are incorporated among multiple ordinary vehicle bodies 26 in the vehicle production line 30 .", "Two compact vehicle bodies 11 are formed into a single unit by being mounted on a conveying hanger 43 , as shown in FIG. 6 .", "The total length L 3 of two unitized compact vehicle bodies 11 is approximately equal to the total length L 2 (maximum total length L 2 ) of an ordinary automobile 25 .", "Consequently, in the painting area 31 , both the conveyance devices 43 on which two compact vehicle bodies 11 are mounted as a single unit, and the conveying hangers 43 on which ordinary vehicle bodies 26 are mounted can be moved along the guide rail 41 at equal intervals P 1 in the direction of the arrow.", "The surface area of a compact vehicle body 11 is approximately half the surface area of an ordinary vehicle body 26 .", "Therefore, the surface area of two unitized compact vehicle bodies 11 is approximately equal to the surface area of an ordinary vehicle body 26 .", "Consequently, the time required to paint two unitized compact vehicle bodies 11 can be approximately equal to the time required to paint an ordinary vehicle body 26 .", "Thus, two unitized compact vehicle bodies 11 can be conveyed at the same interval P 1 as an ordinary vehicle body 26 , and the painting time for a single unit of two compact vehicle bodies 11 can be approximately equal to the painting time for an ordinary vehicle body 26 .", "Consequently, when two unitized compact vehicle bodies 11 are incorporated among ordinary vehicle bodies 26 and painted, the compact vehicle bodies 11 can be painted in approximately the same time as an ordinary vehicle body 26 .", "The compact vehicle bodies 11 can thereby be painted efficiently.", "FIG. 7 shows the steps of installing engines, suspension systems, and other components in ordinary vehicle bodies and compact vehicle bodies.", "In the drive system installation area 32 , the ordinary vehicle bodies 26 and the compact vehicle bodies 11 are conveyed by conveying hangers 43 , similar to the painting area 31 .", "In the drive system installation area 32 , conveying hangers 43 on which two unitized compact vehicle bodies 11 are mounted, as well as conveying hangers 43 on which a single ordinary vehicle body 26 is mounted, are moved along the guide rail 41 at equal intervals P 1 in the direction of the arrow.", "In the drive system installation area 32 , components that include engines 61 , front and rear suspension systems 62 , 63 , and the like are installed in the ordinary vehicle bodies 26 .", "Similarly, components that include engines 13 , front and rear suspension systems 65 , 66 , and the like are installed in the compact vehicle bodies 11 .", "The engines 13 of the compact vehicle bodies 11 are smaller and lighter than the engines 61 of the ordinary vehicle bodies 26 .", "The front and rear suspension systems 65 , 66 of the compact vehicle bodies 11 are smaller and lighter than the front and rear suspension systems 62 , 63 of the ordinary vehicle bodies 26 .", "Consequently, the time required to install the engines 13 , front and rear suspension systems 65 , 66 , and the like in two of the unitized compact vehicle bodies 11 can be approximately equal to the time required to install the engine 61 and front and rear suspension systems 62 , 63 in one of the ordinary vehicle bodies 26 .", "Thus, two unitized compact vehicle bodies 11 can be conveyed in the same interval P 1 as an ordinary vehicle body 26 , and the time required to install the engines 13 , front and rear suspension systems 65 , 66 , and the like in two of the unitized compact vehicle bodies 11 can be approximately equal to the time required to install the engine 61 , front and rear suspension systems 62 , 63 , and the like in one of the ordinary vehicle bodies 26 .", "Consequently, when two unitized compact vehicle bodies 11 are incorporated among ordinary vehicle bodies 26 , and engines and suspension systems are installed in the two unitized compact vehicle bodies 11 , the assembly time can be approximately equal to the assembly time of an ordinary vehicle body 26 .", "The engines 13 , front and rear suspension systems 65 , 66 , and other components can thereby be efficiently installed in the compact vehicle bodies 11 .", "FIG. 8 shows the steps of installing exterior and interior components in ordinary vehicle bodies and compact vehicle bodies.", "The ordinary vehicle bodies 26 and compact vehicle bodies 11 are conveyed through the exterior and interior installation area 33 on a belt conveyor (conveying line) 67 in the second conveying mechanism 36 .", "Two of the compact vehicle bodies 11 are conveyed as a unit in the exterior and interior installation area 33 as well, similar to the painting area 31 ( FIG. 6 ) and the drive system installation area 32 ( FIG. 7 ).", "Consequently, the two unitized compact vehicle bodies 11 can be moved by the belt conveyor 67 in the direction of the arrow at the same intervals P 1 as the ordinary vehicle bodies 26 .", "In the exterior and interior installation area 33 , right and left front side doors 68 , 69 , right and left rear side doors 71 , 72 , driver seats 73 , passenger seats 74 , rear seats 75 , and other components are installed in the ordinary vehicle bodies 26 .", "Similarly, right and left side doors 14 , 15 , driver seats 17 , passenger seats 18 , and other components are installed in the compact vehicle bodies 11 .", "Thus, two doors, namely the right and left side doors 14 , 15 , are installed in each of the compact vehicle bodies 11 .", "Four doors, namely the right and left front side doors 68 , 69 and the right and left rear side doors 71 , 72 , are installed in each of the ordinary vehicle bodies 26 .", "Consequently, the time required to install side doors in two of the unitized compact vehicle bodies 11 is approximately equal to the time required to install side doors in one of the ordinary vehicle bodies 26 .", "Furthermore, two seats, namely the driver seat 17 and the passenger seat 18 , are installed in each of the compact vehicle bodies 11 .", "Four seats, namely the driver seat 73 , the passenger seat 74 , and the rear seats 75 , are installed in each of the ordinary vehicle bodies 26 .", "Consequently, the time required to install seats in two of the unitized compact vehicle bodies 11 is approximately equal to the time required to install seats in each of the ordinary vehicle bodies 26 .", "Thus, two of the unitized compact vehicle bodies 11 can be conveyed in the same interval P 1 as one of the ordinary vehicle bodies 26 , and the time required to install two side doors 14 , 15 , two seats 17 , 18 , and the like in the two unitized compact vehicle bodies 11 is approximately equal to the time required to install four side doors 68 , 69 , 71 72 , four seats 73 , 74 , 75 , and the like in the ordinary vehicle body 26 .", "Consequently, when two unitized compact vehicle bodies 11 are incorporated among ordinary vehicle bodies 26 , and exterior and interior components are installed in two unitized compact vehicle bodies 11 , these components can be assembled in approximately the same time as the assembly time for an ordinary vehicle body 26 .", "The right and left side doors 14 , 15 , driver seats 17 , passenger seats 18 , and other components are thereby efficiently installed in compact vehicle bodies 11 .", "Furthermore, unitizing two compact vehicle bodies 11 makes it possible, for example, to install interior components such as roof panels, linings, and carpets in passenger compartments in pairs.", "The installation costs of roof panels, linings, carpets, and other components of passenger compartments can thereby be reduced.", "As described above, in the vehicle production line 30 of the first embodiment, two unitized compact vehicle bodies 11 can be painted in approximately the same amount of time as an ordinary vehicle body 26 , and the components of the two unitized compact vehicle bodies 11 can be installed in approximately the same amount of time as the components of the ordinary vehicle body 26 .", "Consequently, two of the unitized compact automobiles 10 can be produced in approximately the same amount of time as one of the ordinary automobiles 25 .", "Thereby, when the vehicle bodies 11 , 26 of the compact automobiles 10 and the ordinary automobile 25 are produced together, the compact automobiles 10 can be produced more efficiently.", "Next, a vehicle assembly apparatus 80 of a second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 9 .", "In the vehicle assembly apparatus 80 of the second embodiment, components identical or similar to those in the vehicle assembly apparatus of the first embodiment are denoted by the same numerical symbols, and descriptions thereof are omitted.", "FIG. 9 shows an example of a drive system assembly area in the vehicle assembly apparatus of the second embodiment.", "The total length L 4 of a compact automobile 81 is sometimes less than the total length L 2 of the ordinary automobile 25 shown in FIG. 3 , and greater than half the total length L 2 .", "In this case, when the vehicle bodies (hereinafter referred to as “compact vehicle bodies”) 82 of compact automobiles 81 are mounted in units of two on the conveying hanger 43 , the total length of each two of the unitized compact vehicle bodies 82 is greater than the total length L 2 of each of the ordinary vehicle bodies 26 .", "Therefore, it is difficult to mount and unitize the compact vehicle bodies 82 in pairs on the conveying hanger 43 .", "In view of this, in the vehicle assembly apparatus 80 of the second embodiment, for example, the drive system assembly area 84 comprises a sub-line 86 , and dollies 42 and conveying hangers 43 can be provided to the guide rail 41 after the sub-line 86 .", "In other words, when the compact vehicle bodies 82 are assembled together with the ordinary vehicle bodies 26 , the dollies 42 for mounting compact vehicle bodies 82 held in the sub-line 86 are added to the guide rail 41 during intervals.", "The intervals P 2 between the dollies 42 for mounting the compact vehicle bodies 82 are thereby smaller than the intervals P 1 between the dollies 42 for mounting the ordinary vehicle bodies 26 .", "Each of the compact automobiles 81 has fewer components than each of the ordinary automobiles 25 .", "Therefore, the intervals P 2 between the dollies 42 for mounting the compact vehicle bodies 82 are reduced to make the number of steps for assembling the multiple compact automobiles 81 match the number of steps for assembling each of the ordinary automobiles 25 .", "As an example, the number of steps for assembling five of the compact automobiles 81 matches the number of steps for assembling three of the ordinary automobiles 25 .", "Therefore, the time required to assemble five of the compact automobiles 81 is approximately the same as the time required to assemble three of the ordinary automobiles 25 , multiple automobiles of different models can be assembled with one assembly line, and the vehicles are produced more efficiently at low cost.", "In the vehicle assembly apparatus 80 of the second embodiment shown in FIG. 9 , an example of a drive system assembly area 84 was described, but this description also applies to a painting area and an exterior and interior assembly area.", "In the exterior and interior assembly area, the compact vehicle bodies 82 and ordinary vehicle bodies 26 can be conveyed by a conveyer instead of dollies 42 and conveyor hangers 43 on a guide rail 41 .", "Consequently, in the exterior and interior assembly area, the interval between the compact vehicle bodies 82 conveyed by the belt conveyor is P 2 , and the interval between the ordinary vehicle bodies 26 is P 1 .", "As described above, in the vehicle assembly line 80 of the second embodiment, the number of steps for assembling multiple compact automobiles 81 can be matched with the number of steps for assembling ordinary automobiles 25 by reducing the intervals P 2 between dollies 42 for mounting compact vehicle bodies 82 .", "Thereby, when the compact automobiles 81 and ordinary automobiles 25 are produced together, the compact automobiles 81 can be produced more efficiently.", "The shapes of the dollies 42 and conveying hangers 43 depicted in the previous embodiments are not limited to the examples depicted, and the designs thereof can be appropriately varied.", "Obviously, various minor changes and modifications of the present invention are possible in light of the above teaching.", "It is therefore to be understood that within the scope of the appended claims the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described." ]

[ "BACKGROUND [0001] Demand for a low-cost snapshot multi spectral imager has been increasing for various applications, which include accurate color reproduction, machine/robot vision, plant and vegetation research, food processing, counterfeit detection, early stage diagnosis of cancer, medical in-vivo imaging, and defense applications (point/stand-off optical spectral detection systems for remote sensing).", "Especially, accurate color reproduction is highly desired for a growing number of smart displays equipped with color camera modules and color displays.", "[0002] A typical multispectral imager essentially consists of either rotating filter wheels, mechanically diced thin-film dichroic filters mounted in front of an image sensor, or multiple cameras with bulk dichroic filters.", "Even for those touted as commercial systems, there is no real volume production pathway with significant price or reduced complexity enhancements for as few as tens or hundreds of units.", "[0003] There is a low cost color filter array used for typical CCD or CMOS image sensor which is a negative type photosensitive material that can be patterned with UV light.", "It consists of pigments to define the spectrum of the color filter, a dispersant polymer for pigment dispersion, an initiator to generate the radical for the polymerization reaction, a monomer to be polymerized and an alkaline soluble polymer to control the development property.", "The photo-polymerization starts with the radicals generated when the initiator is exposed to UV light.", "When the radical gets in contact with the monomers, the polymerization starts and forms the high molecular weight polymer insoluble for the developer.", "The un-exposure area is not polymerized and is removed during the development process.", "As a result, the pattern profile is formed.", "This type of color filter array requires coating, pre-bake, exposure, development, rinse and post-bake multiple times to make a mosaic pattern.", "Although this type of filter can be made at low cost for one filter, the cost increases as number of filter type of an array increases.", "Also the bandwidth is broad and the band selectivity is limited to a visual range.", "[0004] Recently, it has been found that certain nanostructures work as an optical filter, and has a strong advantage compared to prior technologies.", "Multiple, or almost infinite number of, optical filters can be made on a single layer, at no additional cost.", "The spectral shapes of these plasmonic nano-optical filters can be controlled.", "It can be narrowed but usually at an expense of the transmission power.", "Also usually unwanted second peaks or third peaks are generated at relatively high transmission power.", "For the above reasons, low cost and clean spectral filters are not readily available for multi-spectral imager application so far.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0005] Hybrid dual layer filter can be employed can be employed as filters.", "A multispectral imager comprises a two layer filter array monolithically integrated onto detector array, a top layer of pigment based filter and a lower layer of plasmonic nano-optic filter to make a low cost and narrow bandwidth filter without side leaking or side peaks.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0006] FIG. 1 is a schematic representation in a vertical cross-sectional view of a FSI (front side illumination) multispectral imager with dual layer filter arrays according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.", "[0007] FIG. 2 is a schematic representation in a vertical cross-sectional view of a BSI (back side illumination) multispectral imager with dual layer filter arrays according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.", "[0008] FIG. 3A is a schematic representation in a perspective view of a multispectral imager with monolithically integrated multispectral filter array with a mosaic pattern.", "[0009] FIG. 3B is a schematic representation of a spectral response of a multispectral filter array.", "[0010] FIGS. 4A , 4 B and 4 C show spectral responses of different types of multispectral band pass filters for multispectral image.", "[0011] FIGS. 5A , 5 B, and 5 C show examples of spectral responses of plasmonic nanofilters.", "[0012] FIGS. 6A and 6B show examples of spectral responses of pigment based RGB CMY filters.", "[0013] FIG. 7A shows a schematic representation of an overlay of spectral responses of a plasmonic nanofilter with pigment based RED color filter.", "[0014] FIG. 7B shows a schematic representation of the resulting of spectral response of a dual layer filter made of a plasmonic nanofilter and pigment based RED color filter.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0015] Unless otherwise specified, the words “a”", "or “an”", "as used herein mean “one or more.”", "The term “light”", "includes visible light as well as UV and IR radiation.", "The invention includes the following embodiments.", "[0016] Referring to FIG. 1 , a vertical cross-sectional view of a first exemplary multispectral imager 100 is shown, which can be employed to generate accurate-color, multispectral, and/or 3D images.", "The first exemplary multispectral imager 100 contains a microlens array 101 , a pigment based color filter array 102 , a plasmonic nanofilter array 103 , at least one metal interconnection layer 104 , and a pixelated photo detector array 105 .", "The number of different band pass filters for the mosaic pattern can be more than four.", "The vertical cross-sectional view of FIG. 1 represents a front side illumination sensor structure.", "[0017] As used herein, a plasmonic filter refers to a patterned metal film with subwavelength-size periodic hole arrays.", "A plasmonic filter acts as an optical filter due to the interference of surface plasmon polaritons (SPP) between adjacent holes.", "A plasmonic nanofilter refers to a plasmonic filter having patterned shapes of which at least one dimension is a nanoscale dimension (less than 1 micron).", "[0018] Referring to FIG. 2 , a vertical cross-sectional view of a second exemplary multispectral imager 200 is shown, which can be employed to generate accurate-color, multispectral, and/or 3D images.", "The second exemplary multispectral imager 200 contains a microlens array 201 , a pigment based color filter array 202 , and a plasmonic nanofilter array 203 , at least one metal interconnection layer 204 , and pixelated photo detector array 205 .", "The number of different band pass filters for the mosaic pattern can be more than four.", "The vertical cross-sectional view of FIG. 1 represents a back side illumination sensor structure.", "[0019] Referring to FIG. 3A , an example of multispectral imager 300 is shown, including a filter array mosaic pattern 310 of multispectral imager, and a detector 320 with associated pixel array.", "The filters may be made of a layer or layers of highly conductive structured materials.", "The highly conductive structured material layer may include a periodic pattern or patterns of elements.", "The elements can have shapes and sizes configured such that a transmittance spectrum of the conductive layer has at least one pass band within the target wavelength range.", "[0020] FIG. 3B illustrates a schematic representation of a spectral response of an ideal multispectral filter array.", "[0021] Referring to FIGS. 4A , 4 B and 4 C, examples of spectral responses of different types of dichroic filters are shown.", "The respective pass wavelength ranges ( 410 , 420 , 431 , 432 , 433 , 451 , 453 , 453 , 454 , 455 , 456 ) are illustrated for each dichroic filters.", "Some of the dichroic filters show second peaks or second bands.", "A dichroic filter is an interference-based color filter that selectively passes light within a small wavelength range (a pass band) while reflecting light outside of the selective pass band.", "[0022] Referring to FIGS. 5A , 5 B and 5 C, examples of spectral responses of different wavelength plasmonic nano-optic filters in the visible and near infrared range 501 , 502 , 503 , 504 , 505 , 506 , 507 , 508 , and 509 are shown.", "The filters may be made of a layer, or layers, of highly conductive structured materials.", "The highly conductive structured material layer(s) may include a periodic pattern, or patterns, of elements.", "The periodic pattern(s) of elements can have shapes and sizes that are configured such that a transmittance spectrum of the conductive layer has at least one pass band within the target wavelength range.", "The filters can show broad bandwidths and second and third peaks that are located outside the range of the first peak, i.e., outside the wavelength range within which transmission of light is desired for a given filter.", "[0023] Referring to FIGS. 6A and 6B , examples of different peak-wavelength pigment based filters in the visible range 601 , 602 , 603 , 604 , 605 , and 606 are shown.", "The filters show broad bandwidths and leakage in the longer wavelength ranges.", "[0024] Referring to FIG. 7A , a spectral response ( 701 , 702 ) of a plasmonic nanofilter is overlaid with a spectral response 703 of a pigment based RED color filter.", "[0025] Referring to FIG. 7B , the spectral response ( 704 , 705 ) of a dual layer filter made of a plasmonic nanofilter and pigment based RED color filter is shown.", "The transmission spectra of the dual layer filter can be obtained by multiplying the transmittance spectra of the plasmonic nanofilter with the transmittance spectra of the respective pigment based filter within the same dual layer filter.", "[0026] According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a multispectral imager is provided.", "The multispectral imager comprises a microlens array ( 101 or 201 ), a mosaic patterned optical filter array {( 102 , 103 ) or ( 202 , 203 )} underlying the microlens array and including a two-dimensional repetition of a unit mosaic pattern 310 , and a pixelated detector array ( 105 or 205 ) underlying the mosaic patterned optical filter array {( 102 , 103 ) or ( 202 , 203 )}.", "The unit mosaic pattern comprises an array of composite filter elements ( 150 or 250 ) having different peaks in a respective transmittance spectrum.", "Each composite filter element ( 150 or 250 ) comprises a pigment based filter portion ( 152 or 252 ) and a plasmonic nano-optic filter portion ( 153 or 253 ).", "[0027] In one embodiment, the unit mosaic pattern 310 can be an m×n rectangular pattern, wherein m and n are independent integers greater than 1.", "In one embodiment, the unit mosaic pattern can comprise a combination of multiple hexagonal patterns that can be repeated in two directions.", "[0028] In one embodiment, each plasmonic nano-optic filter portion ( 153 or 253 ) can comprise a conductive material layer including a periodic pattern of geometric shapes.", "In one embodiment, the plasmonic nano-optic filter portions ( 153 , 253 ) within the unit mosaic pattern can comprise the same conductive material having different periodic patterns of geometrical shapes.", "In one embodiment, the conductive material can be an elemental metal or an intermetallic alloy of at least two elemental metals.", "In one embodiment, shapes and sizes of the geometrical shapes can be configured such that a transmittance spectrum of each second layer has at least one pass band within a respective pass band of the first layer within a same composite filter element.", "[0029] In one embodiment, the multispectral imager can be configured to generate a multispectral image employing the mosaic patterned optical filter array.", "In one embodiment, each pigment based filter portion ( 152 , 252 ) in the unit mosaic pattern can have a different composition from other pigment based filter portions ( 152 , 252 ) in the unit mosaic pattern.", "[0030] In one embodiment, the transmission spectra of each composite filter element ( 150 or 253 ) can be the same as the product of a respective pigment based filter portion ( 152 or 252 ) in the composite filter element ( 150 or 250 ) and a respective plasmonic nano-optic filters ( 153 or 253 ) in the composite filter element ( 150 or 250 ).", "[0031] In one embodiment, at least one metal interconnect layer 104 can overlie the pixelated detector array 105 .", "In another embodiment, at least one metal interconnect layer 204 can underlie the pixelated detector array 204 .", "[0032] In one embodiment, each pigment based filter portion ( 152 or 252 ) can overlie a respective plasmonic nano-optic filter portion ( 153 , 163 ) within each composite filter element ( 150 or 250 ).", "In one embodiment, each composite filter element ( 150 , 250 ) may comprise a portion of an optional upper transparent material layer overlying a respective plasmonic nano-optic filter portion ( 153 or 253 ), and a portion of an optional lower transparent material layer underlying the respective plasmonic nano-optic filter portion ( 153 or 253 ).", "In one embodiment, the pixelated detector array ( 104 , 204 ) can comprise semiconductor photodetectors.", "[0033] In one embodiment, a method of interpreting bio-chemical contents of an organism is provided.", "The multispectral imager of the present disclosure can be provided.", "A multispectral image of an organism can be taken.", "Health condition of the organism can be identified by correlating the multispectral image with spectral distribution data from organisms with previously characterized health conditions.", "In one embodiment, the organism can be a human, and the multispectral image can be taken from a part of a human body.", "[0034] In one embodiment, a method of acquire a multispectral image is provided.", "The spectral imager of the present disclosure can be provided.", "A multispectral image can be taken employing the spectral imager.", "[0035] Although the foregoing refers to particular preferred embodiments, it will be understood that the present invention is not so limited.", "It will occur to those of ordinary skill in the art that various modifications may be made to the disclosed embodiments and that such modifications are intended to be within the scope of the present invention.", "All of the publications, patent applications and patents cited in this specification are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety." ]

[ "TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for testing and filling semiconductor based liquid crystal displays, also known as liquid crystal micro displays (“lcmds”).", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Lcmds are small liquid crystal displays that usually have a display area less than 1 square cm and a thickness of about 1 mm.", "They are primarily used as view finders in devices such as cameras but are also used as part of a larger display component wherein the image from the lcmd is projected or magnified.", "Each lcmd typically comprises hundreds of thousands of pixels but some can contain over a million.", "Lcmd manufacturing is typically performed in a clean room environment wherein steps are taken to remove dust and other contaminating agents from the surrounding atmosphere.", "The degree to which a manufacturing environment is kept clean depends on factors such as the size and density of the integrated circuits contained in the lcmds, the desired quality of the lcmds, and the costs associated with maintaining different levels of cleanliness.", "Statistical models may be used to conduct a cost-benefit analysis for determining an ideal level of cleanliness for manufacturing lcmds of a certain type, size, and quality.", "With reference to FIGS. 1 &", "2 (prior art), each batch of lcmds is typically made from two substrates.", "Usually, one substrate is a semiconductor layer, such as a silicon wafer 9 , containing many integrated circuits (“ICs”) 12 .", "Although, for illustration purposes, FIG. 1 shows that the silicon wafer 9 contains only nine ICs 12 , each silicon wafer 9 typically contains hundreds of ICs 12 arranged in rows and columns.", "Each IC 12 includes an array of pixels comprising IC electrodes 16 driven via corresponding switching elements 17 .", "The other substrate is typically a glass wafer 10 that has thereon one transparent electrode 15 per corresponding IC 12 .", "Each substrate is typically, but not necessarily, less than 1 mm thick;", "the thickness of each substrate may vary according to the manner in which the lcmds are to be used.", "A sealant that forms lcmd wall 11 is applied to one of the substrates.", "Traditionally, the wall 11 does not completely surround each IC 12 —a small gap 13 remains through which the liquid crystal material flows to fill the lcmds.", "The silicon wafer 9 is then aligned and joined with the glass wafer 10 such that the transparent electrodes 15 are aligned with the corresponding ICs 12 .", "Spacers (not shown) are used to keep the substrates separated by a small distance which is typically on the order of a few micrometers.", "The spacers may, for example, be etched onto the silicon wafer.", "After the substrates are joined, lcmds 8 are formed, each containing an IC 12 .", "Since the distance between the silicon wafer 9 and the glass wafer 10 is on the order of microns, viscosity limitations may make it impossible for liquid crystal material to reach many, if not most, of the inner lcmds 8 prior to their separation.", "Therefore, the lcmds 8 are filled with liquid crystal material via openings 13 after they are separated.", "The lcmds 8 may be separated from each other by using, for example, a scribe and break process.", "In a scribe and break process, the semiconductor wafer 9 is scribed (typically with a specialized saw or laser) along scribe lines 14 , in order to weaken the locations where the separation is to take place.", "In addition, the glass wafer 10 is scribed using a cutting tool such as a laser or a specially designed saw.", "The wafers 9 &", "10 are typically then temporarily glued onto a flexible material that is then flexed in order to break up the wafers and separate the lcmds.", "The scribe and break process results in small debris of semiconductor and glass material that accumulate around lcmd openings 13 .", "After the lcmds are separated, they are filled with liquid crystal material.", "The filling is preferably achieved in a vacuum unit in which the lcmds are immersed in liquid crystal material.", "After an lcmd 8 is filled, the hole 13 through which it is filled is then sealed with a glue or epoxy material.", "The traditional filling process described above often results in a large number of defective lcmds because debris from the scribe and break process are frequently pulled into many of the lcmds 8 by the in-flowing liquid crystal material.", "The debris may cause an electronic malfunction or may distort an image by blocking or altering the path of the electromagnetic radiation controlled by the lcmd.", "The defects caused by the debris are not discovered until after the lcmds are packaged since the packaging provides the wiring through which the lcmd receives imaging and testing signals.", "Packaging an lcmd involves mounting and wiring.", "The lcmd is mounted into/onto a packaging unit at a predetermined angle and location so that the image produced is properly focused and aligned.", "The lcmd is also wired to terminals on the packaging unit.", "These terminals will eventually be connected to and will receive imaging and other signals from a host device, such as, for example, a camera.", "The area surrounding the wiring connections is typically filled with a glue or epoxy material that stabilizes the connections and prevents the wires from touching each other.", "After the lcmds are packaged, they are tested so that defective units may be detected and eliminated.", "The testing can be difficult and costly since each individual lcmd must be tested separately.", "The reason that the lcmds cannot be tested while they are still part of a substrate assembly is because the testing must take place after the liquid crystal filling process (which has traditionally needed to be performed after the separation of the lcmds 8 due to viscosity limitations).", "The packaging process is relatively expensive and may account for most of the cost of a finished lcmd.", "Packaging the lcmds prior to testing significantly increases the cost associated with defective units since such cost would also include the cost of packaging.", "Based on the foregoing, there exists a need for a system and method of manufacturing and testing lcmds that result in a higher yield and lower costs.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A liquid crystal micro display (lcmd) is manufactured by creating a hole in an lcmd surface, filling the lcmd with liquid crystal material through the hole, and then sealing the hole.", "The invention allows an lcmd to be tested before it is separated from other lcmds and packaged.", "As a result, the invention increases the yield and reduces the cost associated with lcmd manufacturing.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 depicts an example top view of a prior art lcmd substrate assembly.", "FIG. 2 depicts a cross sectional view of a prior art lcmd depicted in FIG. 1 .", "FIG. 3 depicts a flow chart illustrating a method of manufacturing lcmds of the present invention.", "FIG. 4 depicts an example top view of an lcmd substrate assembly used in the method illustrated in FIG. 3 .", "FIG. 5 depicts a cross sectional view of an lcmd of FIG. 4 .", "FIG. 6 depicts a step for testing an lcmd in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION With additional reference to FIGS. 4 and 5, FIG. 3 depicts a flow chart illustrating a method of manufacturing lcmds of the present invention.", "Lcmds are formed using two substrates.", "In one embodiment, the first substrate is a silicon wafer 21 (less than 1 mm thick) on which many (typically hundreds) of ICs are formed.", "Each IC 22 includes a large number (typically about half a million) of active pixels comprising electrodes 40 driven by corresponding switching elements 41 .", "The thickness of each substrate may vary according to the application for which the lcmds will be used.", "The second substrate is transparent and is typically a thin glass wafer 26 having the transparent electrodes 42 of a corresponding number of lcmds.", "The transparent electrodes 42 are made from a transparent conductive material such as indium-tin oxide.", "Fill holes 33 are created in one of the wafers as indicated in step 3 A. The fill holes 33 are carefully positioned so as to provide access to the chamber 35 of each lcmd 30 without damaging the ICs 22 or the display area of the lcmd 30 .", "For example, a fill hole 33 may be positioned as illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5.", "The fill holes 33 may be created in either the glass wafer 26 or the silicon wafer 21 .", "If the fill holes 33 are to be in the glass wafer 26 , then they may be created using a glass drilling tool such as a laser device or a rotary drill.", "However, the fill holes 33 are preferably created in the silicon wafer 21 using an anisotropic etch.", "The anisotropic etch creates a funnel-shaped fill hole 33 in the silicon wafer 21 such that the opening in the inner surface of the silicon wafer 21 is smaller than the opening in the outer surface, as illustrated in FIG. 5 .", "The anisotropic etch helps to more precisely place the fill holes 33 in the desired areas of the inner surface of the silicon wafer 21 .", "After the fill holes 33 are created, wafers 21 and 26 are joined as indicated in step 3 B. This step typically involves applying a sealant material around each IC 22 and then joining the wafers to form lcmd units 30 .", "The lcmd units 30 are then filled with liquid crystal material via the fill holes 33 , as indicated in step 3 C. The filling is preferably achieved using a standard vacuum filling technique whereby lcmds are placed in a vacuum chamber (not shown) in which air pressure is subsequently reduced;", "the lcmd units are then lowered into a bath of liquid crystal material and the pressure in the vacuum chamber is reasserted such that the pressure difference between the lcmd chambers 35 and their surroundings forces the liquid crystal material into the lcmd chambers 35 through the fill holes 33 .", "Other filling methods may also be used, such as, for example, injecting or pouring the liquid crystal material into the lcmds through their respective fill holes 33 .", "These alternative filling methods may be facilitated by the creation of outlet holes in a substrate for allowing the air inside an lcmd chamber 35 to escape while the lcmd chamber 35 is being filled with liquid crystal material.", "After the lcmds are filled, the fill holes 33 (and any outlet holes) are sealed using a sealing object, such as a plug, or a sealing material such as glue, epoxy, or solder, as indicated in step 3 D. The lcmds are then tested as indicated in step 3 E. Since the lcmds are still part of the same substrates and are still physically connected, they are easily handled during testing.", "Each row or column of lcmds may share the same testing signal(s) as illustrated in FIG. 4 and discussed in the related description below.", "Lcmds that appear to be defective are marked using, for example, an ink marker, so that they may be identified and disposed of at a later time.", "After the lcmds are tested, they are separated along scribe lines 36 (as indicated in step 3 F) using, for example, a scribe and break process as discussed above.", "By following the above described steps, the debris caused by the scribe and break process should not affect the quality or performance of the lcmds since they are filled and sealed before debris are generated.", "It should be noted that in some implementations, steps 3 A- 3 F may occur out of the order illustrated in FIG. 3 .", "As a non-limiting example, step 3 B may occur before step 3 A. Furthermore, each one of steps 3 A- 3 F may comprise sub-steps.", "FIG. 4 is a top view of an example lcmd substrate assembly formed by the silicon wafer 21 and the glass wafer 26 before being divided into individual lcmds.", "For illustration purposes only, the silicon wafer 21 is shown to contain only 9 ICs.", "Typically, however, such a silicon wafer would contain hundreds of ICs.", "Each IC, such as IC 22 , is surrounded by a sealant wall 23 and is resistively connected to other ICs and to a testing terminal, such as testing terminal 25 , located on the silicon wafer 21 and used for receiving a testing signal.", "A glass wafer 26 covers the ICs and is joined to the silicon wafer via the sealant walls 23 that surround the ICs.", "The glass wafer 26 is layered with typically one transparent electrode 42 (FIG.", "5) per lcmd.", "Transparent electrodes 42 are made from a transparent material such as indium-tin oxide.", "Parallel paths, such as paths 28 and 29 are used to reduce the impact of open circuits during testing.", "The glass wafer 26 is placed over the silicon wafer in such a way as to not cover the testing terminals on the silicon wafer.", "FIG. 5 is a cross sectional view of a simplified version an lcmd 30 of FIG. 4 .", "Lcmd 30 contains an lcmd chamber 35 that is filled with liquid crystal material through fill hole 33 .", "The filling is preferably performed in a vacuum chamber as discussed above.", "After the lcmd chamber 35 is filled, the fill hole 33 is sealed using a sealing object, such as a plug, or a sealing material such as glue, epoxy, or solder.", "The filling and testing processes of this invention are easier than the traditional filling and testing processes since lcmds do not have to be individually handled.", "Instead, lcmds 30 are filled and tested before they are separated.", "Furthermore, fewer defects are caused during the new filling process since no debris from the scribe and break process are pulled into the lcmds.", "FIG. 6 illustrates the testing of an lcmd in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.", "For illustration purposes only, very few pixel electrodes 40 and corresponding switching elements 41 are shown.", "However, each lcmd tested may contain hundreds of thousands or even millions of pixels.", "After the lcmds are filled and sealed, but before they are separated, an electric signal is sent to one or more ICs 22 through a testing terminal, such as testing terminal 25 (FIG.", "4 ).", "The testing signal is routed through a connection 54 to a switching element 53 that is fabricated in or forms part of the IC 22 .", "Each connection, such as connections 54 and 56 , may be resistive and/or may incorporate a resistive element.", "The testing signal causes the switching element 53 to connect the pixel electrodes 40 to a grounding terminal 52 via respective switching elements 41 .", "The grounding terminal 52 may be located on the silicon wafer and may be grounded through a connection that is routed between scribe lines.", "With all the pixel electrodes 40 grounded, a corresponding transparent electrode 42 (FIG.", "5) on the glass wafer 26 may be driven with varying voltages to create an all “black”, an all “white”, and/or an intermediate gray display.", "Optical testing equipment such as, for example, a specialized camera, can then be used to evaluate the lcmd's performance in response to the testing signals.", "The optical testing equipment tests to see if the lcmd produces a non-uniform image.", "An lcmd image may be non-uniform for various reasons such as, for example, the presence of debris in the lcmd or incomplete liquid crystal filling.", "An lcmd that produces a non-uniform image can be marked using, for example, an ink marker, so that it can be disposed of after the lcmds are separated.", "The above described approach eliminates the difficulties associated with handling separate lcmds during testing as well as the unnecessary cost associated with packaging defective units.", "It should be emphasized that the figures described above and attached hereto and the items shown therein are not necessarily drawn to scale or accurately proportioned, but rather, they represent simplified illustrations that help to clearly set forth the principles of the invention.", "Furthermore, the above-described embodiments of the present invention are merely possible examples of implementations setting forth a clear understanding of the principles of the invention.", "Many variations and modifications may be made to the above-described embodiments of the invention without departing substantially from the principles of the invention.", "All such modifications and variations are intended to be included herein within the scope of the disclosure and present invention and protected by the following claims." ]

[ "BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION The invention relates to an optical reading system for electronic pocket calculators.", "In the known electronic pocket calculators, the small luminous digits of the display usually lying in one plane with the keyboard are disadvantageous.", "The reading range is thus greatly limited, so that for calculation the pocket calculator must be set up on or beside the writing documents.", "To read the digits one must bend over the calculator display or take the calculator in hand, in the case of lengthy work with the calculator at the desk this is very disadvantageous.", "OBJECT OF THE INVENTION According to the invention we provide an optical reading system in which over the digital display of electronic pocket calculators an optical reversing system is arranged which deflects the digits of the calculator display as an upright image (non-reversed) into an approximately vertical plane.", "The reversing system may consist of a cylinder of optical synthetic plastics material or glass, parallel with the longitudinal axis of which a mirror is arranged at an inclined angle.", "In order to screen off the cylinder against light incidence and to prevent troublesome reflection, the cylinder can be covered appropriately by non-transparent and/or reflection-reducing fittings.", "Such a reversing system formed from cylinder and mirror can be produced simply and cheaply.", "The cylinder enlarges and reverses the digits which are reproduced upright and optimally legibly in the mirror inclined in relation to the cylinder.", "In another example of embodiment of the invention the digits are deflected by an appropriately ground pentahedral prism into an upright image.", "The digit enlargement takes place preferably by a lens system of rod form which is adjustably arranged in front of the prism.", "According to a further feature of the invention the reversing system is formed from two surface mirrors the mirror faces of which stand opposite to one another with spacing, the rear mirror protruding downwards or upwards beyond the forward mirror and at least one mirror being arranged at an inclination in relation to the other mirror.", "To enlarge the digits a lens system of rod form is arranged according to the invention in front of the mirror surface of the rear mirror protruding beyond the other mirror, and is horizontally and also vertically adjustable.", "In order to produce an especially simple and cheap reversing system, according to a further feature of the invention a concave mirror standing at an inclination to the digital display of the pocket calculator is used.", "According to the invention the optical components are combined into one construction unit by the arrangement of side parts or the like.", "In order to screen off the digital display still better against light incidence, according to a further feature of the invention the construction unit is provided with a screen comprising a front plate and a roof part, an aperture being arranged in the front plate so that the displayed digits are clearly legible.", "The roof part preferably forwardly protrudes beyond the front plate and thus also screens the aperture against interfering light incidence from above.", "According to a further feature of the invention the front plate of the screen possesses a downwardly displaceable cover part which according to the setting of the construction unit adapts itself to the calculator cover plate and thus covers the luminous digits of the calculator display or their glare from the viewer.", "For the securing of the construction unit on the calculator housing according to one example of embodiment of the invention the side parts are prolonged so that they protrude downwards beyond the construction unit, preferably the side parts possess securing elements which render it possible to hold the optical reading system fast in the desired position on the calculator housing.", "Such an optical reading system can be used in each case for pocket calculators with the same form and dimensions.", "In order to make the optical reading system universal, so that it can be used for the most various models of pocket calculators, according to one feature of the invention the construction unit is adjustably and securably attached to a carrier which is connected with a support plate or the like.", "In order that the construction unit may be adjusted still better, according to another feature of the invention the carrier is provided with a longitudinal slot in which the guide screw with knurled nut connected with the construction unit is displaceably mounted.", "For the adjustment of the size of the digits the construction unit is vertically adjustable in relation to the calculator and for the setting of the correct position in relation to the angle of view of the observer it is rotatable.", "The securing of the construction unit in the desired position is effected by the knurled nut situated on the guide screw.", "According to a further feature of the invention on the support plate for the calculator at least one stop is fixedly arranged which serves for the simple and rapid positioning of the calculator on the support plate.", "According to another feature of the invention stops are provided which are longitudinally and transversely displaceable and securable in grooves of the support plate.", "At least one stop is preferably formed as a retaining clamp which prevents the calculator from lifting away from the support plate.", "An embodiment of the adjustable optical reading system according to the invention of the described kind renders possible problem-free and rapid positioning of the calculator, especially because the adjustment of the stops for the specific calculator has to be effected only once, the securing is preferably effected by a stop formed as clamp which can be secured by magnetic force on the support plate made from sheet steel.", "The securing of the calculator takes place, according to another proposal in accordance with the invention, by a permanent magnetic plate secured with the support face of the calculator housing.", "The embodiments of the optical reading system described according to the invention can be produced simply and cheaply, any desired pocket calculator models can be used especially advantageously for calculation at the desk, since the reading range is substantially extended by the optical reading system.", "The working space remains free for writing and drawing, since the pocket calculator together with the optical reading system can be set up behind the writing documents, the enlarged digits can be read better, without the necessity of bending over the calculator display.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS Various examples of embodiment of the invention are represented in the drawings, wherein: FIG. 1 shows an optical reading system in front view, for better clarity the sliding part and the screen are removed, the sectional parts are represented broken away, FIG. 1a shows the sliding part of the optical reading system in front view, FIG. 1b shows the screen of the optical reading system in front view, FIG. 2 shows a lateral elevation of the optical reading system with inserted calculator, the construction unit is shown in longitudinal section for better clarity, section parts are in part shown broken away, FIG. 3 shows another form of embodiment of the invention, namely a construction unit of the optical reading system with a prism as reversing system, in longitudinal section, FIG. 3a shows the associated front view, FIG. 4 shows a construction unit of the optical reading system where the reversing system is formed from two mirrors, in longitudinal section, as an alternative form of embodiment of the invention, FIG. 4a shows the associated front view, FIG. 5 shows a construction unit of the optical reading system with a concave mirror as reversing system, in a longitudinal section, as a further form of embodiment of the invention, FIG. 5a shows the associated front view.", "DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The optical reading system, as represented in FIGS. 1 and 2, consists of the optical reversal system 1 which is formed from the cylinder 2, produced for example from optical synthetic plastics material, and the surface mirror 3.", "The surface mirror 3 is secured parallel with the longitudinal axis of the cylinder 2 at an oblique angle in grooves 4 of the side parts 5, 5'.", "The surface of the cylinder 2 is appropriately covered from troublesome light incidence by a non-transparent fitting 6.", "The assembling and securing of the side parts 5, 5', the mirror 3, the knob 7, the guide screw 8 and the screen 9 with the cylinder 2 as construction unit is effected by means of the screws 10, 10'", "which are screwed to internal threadings situated in the ends of the cylinder 2.", "The screen 9 consists of the front plate 11 having an aperture 12 which is upwardly defined by the roof part 13 which protrudes forwards over the front plate 11.", "The displaceable cover part 14 is guided in longitudinal grooves 15, 15'", "of the side parts 5, 5', the longitudinal grooves 15, 15'", "being upwardly widened to receive the stops 16, 16'", "of the cover part 14, which prevent the sliding part from falling out.", "The construction unit is mounted for vertical displacement and rotation by means of the guide screw 8 in the longitudinal slot 17 of the vertical carrier 18 which is firmly connected with the support plate 19 for the calculator 20, for example by hard soldering.", "The knurled nut 21, which is screwed to the external threading of the guide screw 8, here serves for the guidance and securing of the guide screw 8 connected with the construction unit.", "So that the support plate 19 may stand securely without slipping, rubber feet 22, 22', 22"", "are fitted on its lower face.", "Longitudinal grooves 23 are worked into the support plate 19, in which grooves the stops 24, 24'", "for the calculator 20 are guided longitudinally displaceably and securably by groove blocks 25, 25'.", "The stops 24, 24'", "possess vertically adjustable discs 26, 26'", "at the top which grasp over the upper edge of the calculator housing and thus prevent the calculator 20 from lifting away from the support plate 19.", "For the rapid and simple securing of the calculator 20 a magnetic stop 27 is removably arranged on the support plate 19 made from sheet steel, the cross bar of which stop is formed as clamp.", "For the sake of completeness it should be mentioned that the securing of the calculator 20 on the support plate 19 can also be effected by a permanent magnet plate of synthetic plastics material firmly connected with the support surface of the calculator housing.", "FIGS. 3 and 3a show a construction unit of the optical reading system which possesses a pentahedral prism 29 as reversing system.", "Before the vertical face of the prism 29 a rod lens 30 is displaceably arranged in grooves 31 of the side parts 32, 32'.", "The attachment, adjustment and securing of the rod lens 30 are effected by the knobs 33, 33'.", "The fastening above the digital display 28 of the calculator 20 takes place on the carrier 18, as represented in FIGS. 1 and 2.", "FIGS. 4 and 4a show a reversing system formed from mirrors as construction unit of the optical reading system.", "The construction unit is secured by the carrier 18 over the digital display 28 of the calculator 20, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, and consists of the mirrors 34, 35 secured in grooves 36, 37 of the side parts 38, 39.", "The mirror surface 40 of the mirror 35 is here so inclined that the luminous digits situated in the digital display are reproduced inverted therein.", "The mirror surface 41 of the mirror 34 stands opposite to the mirror surface of the mirror 35, namely with such inclination that an upright reproduction of the reflected digits occurs in the part of the mirror surface 41 protruding beyond the mirror 35.", "For the enlargement of the digits reproduced in the mirror surface 41 by way of example a bi-convex rod lens 42 is arranged in front of the mirror surface 41, which lens is mounted horizontally and vertically displaceably and securably in the slots 43, 44 of the side parts 38, 39.", "The displacement and securing of the rod lens 42 can be effected by the knobs 45, 46 which are screwably secured by threaded bolts 47, 48 firmly connected with the rod lens 42.", "The diameters of the threaded bolts 47, 48 are here smaller than the height of the slots 43, 44, so that a vertical displacement of the rod lens 42 is also achieved.", "Naturally the adjusting mechanism for the rod lens can also be of other information.", "For screening against interfering light incidence the construction unit is enclosed by a housing 49 of appropriate configuration.", "FIGS. 5 and 5a show an especially simple reversing system of the optical reading system.", "A concave mirror 50 is assembled into a construction unit by the side parts 51, 52 which protrude downwardly below the lower edge of the concave mirror.", "The side parts preferably possess securing elements 53, 54 in the form of screws, leaf springs or the like which render it possible for the optical reading system to be held fast in the desired position directly on the calculator housing." ]

[ "CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS [0001] This non-provisional patent application claims priority from provisional patent application 60/747,288, which is relied upon and incorporated herein by reference.", "FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates to a weapon simulation system having simulated weapons with simulated ammunition magazines, and, more particularly, to a weapon simulation system having a simulated weapon that will identify and remember a particular simulated magazine, and even more particularly, to a weapon simulation system that will keep track of the number of simulated rounds of ammunition that have been expended from a particular magazine when the simulated magazine has been detached and reattached to the simulated weapon.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] When military and/or police personnel are engaged in tactical training situations, they use simulated weapons that are designed to imitate actual firearms that are used in their field.", "Such firearms frequently use detachable magazines, which typically requires that the operator carry a number of magazines loaded with ammunition so that they can rapidly re-load their weapon as needed.", "[0004] To provide a realistic experience when training personnel using weapon simulator systems incorporating simulated weapons with simulated detachable magazines, weapon simulator systems have been designed so that the trainee is able to carry a number of simulated magazines to be used with the simulated weapon.", "By using various different magazines, the operator is able to change these magazines as required with actual firearms.", "However, while weapon simulator systems allow the trainee to exchange magazines during a simulation, the simulated weapons do not differentiate between individual magazines.", "Moreover, such designs do not provide a memory of the amount of ammunition used with a specific magazine.", "Consequently, when the simulated magazine is removed from the simulator, the parameters of the simulated magazine are reset, such that the same magazine can be removed from the simulated weapon and immediately re-inserted into the simulated weapon to cause the parameters of the simulated weapon to be re-loaded.", "As a result, the operator only needs one magazine for use with the simulated weapon, and the realism of using the simulated weapon is diminished.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0005] FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a simulated weapon;", "[0006] FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the simulated weapon illustrated in FIG. 1 ;", "[0007] FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the connections between the weapon processor and the simulated magazine circuit;", "[0008] FIG. 4 is a side elevational view of a second embodiment of the simulated weapon;", "[0009] FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the simulated weapon illustrated in FIG. 3 ;", "[0010] FIG. 6 is a chart illustrating the sensors used in the present invention to read magnetic identifiers;", "[0011] FIG. 7 is a block diagram of the connections between the weapon processor and the simulated magazine of the second embodiment.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0012] Referring to FIGS. 1-7 , a weapon simulator assembly 8 is illustrated that includes a simulated weapon 10 in conjunction with a simulated detachable magazine 12 .", "In particular, the weapon simulator assembly 8 allows for the use of one or more simulated detachable magazines 12 with one or more simulated weapons 10 , with the number of rounds of ammunition used in each simulated magazine 12 being monitored by the weapon simulator assembly 8 for realistic use of the weapon simulator assembly 8 during a simulation.", "That is, the weapon simulator assembly 8 is able to monitor and track the number of rounds of ammunition fired and remaining in each simulated magazine 12 during a simulation to determine when all of the ammunition in the simulated magazine 12 has been fired.", "[0013] In a first embodiment of the weapon simulator assembly 8 illustrated in FIGS. 1 through 3 , the number of rounds of ammunition used in the simulated magazine 12 are tracked within the simulated magazine 12 itself.", "In particular, this weapon simulator assembly 8 includes the simulated weapon 10 having a receiver 11 and associated receiver slot 11 s to engage and secure the simulated magazine 12 with the simulated weapon 10 .", "A magazine circuit 14 or similar processor is housed within the simulated magazine 12 , and connected to at least one magazine electrical contact 17 m in the simulated magazine 12 .", "Similarly, the simulated weapon 10 includes a weapon processor 16 in communication with various switches and electronic equipment in the simulated weapon 10 to monitor and control operation of the simulated weapon 10 .", "For example, among other connections, the weapon processor 16 is in communication with the trigger 15 to determine when the operator has attempted to fire the simulated weapon 10 , as well as other electronics that may be used with the weapon simulator assembly 8 , such as a laser 19 .", "The weapon processor 16 is additionally connected with a weapon electrical contact 17 w or sensor located at the base of the receiver 11 in the receiver slot 11 s, as shown in the cutaway view of FIG. 2 .", "As a result, when the simulated magazine 12 is inserted into the slot 11 s, the magazine circuit 14 will be in electrical communication with the weapon processor 16 in the simulated weapon 12 via an electrical interface 17 .", "[0014] When the simulated magazine 12 engages the weapon simulator 10 in the receiver slot 11 , the magazine circuit 14 will communicate with the processor 16 to monitor operation of the simulated weapon 10 and identify when the simulated weapon 10 has been fired.", "That is, the processor 16 will transmit a signal to the magazine circuit 14 indicating that the simulated weapon 12 has been fired.", "The simulated magazine circuit 14 is preset with operational information, including the number of rounds of ammunition to be associated with the simulated magazine 12 .", "Thus, when the weapon processor 16 transmits a signal that the trigger 15 has been pulled and the simulated weapon 12 has been fired, the magazine circuit 14 will calculate and store information relevant to the particular magazine 12 ;", "namely, the magazine circuit 14 will calculate the number of rounds of ammunition that have been fired, and based on the predetermined number of rounds of ammunition associated with that magazine 12 prior to firing, the magazine circuit 14 will determine the number of rounds of ammunition that are available for the operator.", "Since the information is stored in the magazine circuit 14 in the simulated magazine 12 , it is portable with the simulated magazine 12 among various simulated weapons 10 .", "Thus, as the simulated magazine 12 is connected to a simulated weapon 10 , the magazine circuit 14 will transmit the information to the weapon processor 16 concerning how many rounds of ammunition remain available for a particular simulation scenario.", "[0015] An advantage of this embodiment of the simulated magazine 12 and method of use is the portability and fidelity of the simulated magazine 12 .", "That is, the simulated magazine 12 can be swapped and used in various independent simulated weapons 10 , and each magazine 12 will accurately track and report the number of rounds remaining from the information maintained in the simulated magazine 12 to the processor 16 in the simulated weapon 10 to which it is connected.", "If the magazine circuit 14 calculates that no ammunition is available, then the operator will be prohibited from firing the simulated weapon 10 during a simulation and be required to replace the simulated magazine 12 with one having ammunition available according to the magazine circuit 14 implemented in the corresponding simulated magazine 12 .", "[0016] In addition, a display 18 such as a liquid crystal display, may be incorporated into the side of the simulated magazine 12 and connected to the magazine circuit 14 .", "The display visually indicates information pertinent to the simulated magazine 12 , such as the number of rounds remaining within the simulated magazine 12 , so that the operator will be aware of the status of the simulated magazine 12 .", "[0017] A second embodiment of the weapon simulator assembly 8 is illustrated in FIGS. 4-7 .", "In this embodiment, the weapon processor 16 of the simulated weapon 10 is able to differentiate between individual magazines 12 through the use of a unique identifier 20 or finger print associated with each magazine 12 , and the weapon processor 16 will administer the operating parameters of the weapon simulator assembly 8 accordingly.", "Initially, the weapon processor 16 of the simulated weapon 10 will create a file associated with each magazine 12 and assign a predetermined value associated with the number calculate the number of rounds of ammunition provided for the associated magazine 12 , and the processor 16 will keep track of the number of rounds of ammunition remaining in that particular magazine 12 according to the identifier of the particular magazine 12 .", "[0018] In particular, each magazine 12 includes an magnetic signature member or identifier 20 , which could be a series of magnets 20 or voids positioned in the simulated magazine 12 .", "Similarly, the simulated weapon 10 includes one or more sensors 22 corresponding to the magnets 20 or voids in the simulated magazine 12 , with the sensors 22 positioned in the simulated weapon 10 proximate the receiver 11 .", "When the simulated magazine 12 is inserted into and connected with the receiver 11 , the magnets 20 or voids will be substantially adjacent sensors 22 in the weapon simulator 10 when the simulated magazine 12 is attached to the receiver 11 of the simulated weapon 10 .", "The arrangement of magnets 20 (or the absence thereof in one of the voids) in different locations proximate the sensors 22 identifies the simulated magazine 12 to the processor 16 in the simulated weapon 10 .", "The weapon processor 16 is programmed to monitor and save firing information for each independent magazine 12 (that is, the number of times the simulated weapon 10 has been fired with the particular simulated magazine 14 attached thereto), and control operation once a predetermined value associated with the number of rounds of ammunition available has been exceeded for a particular simulated magazine 12 .", "[0019] More particularly, in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 , three magnets 20 are positioned in the simulated magazine 12 to provide one of seven different choices for the simulated weapon 10 to identify the simulated magazine 12 (see the simulated magazine Identification Table in FIG. 6 ).", "Of course, the number of magnets 20 and sensors 22 incorporated into the simulated magazine 12 and simulated weapon 10 , respectively, could be varied according to the total number of magazines 12 to be used with the weapon simulator assembly 8 and to be identified by the processor 16 .", "Once the simulated magazine 12 is inserted into the slot 11 s of the receiver 11 , the sensors 22 will generate a binary signal based on the position of the magnets 20 , or lack thereof.", "[0020] The weapon simulator 10 is able to specifically identify each magazine 12 according to the arrangement of magnets 20 in the simulated magazine 12 .", "The weapon processor 16 will maintain a record corresponding to each magazine 12 based on identifier 20 or fingerprint of the simulated magazine 12 , with the record identifying the number of rounds in the simulated magazine 12 according to a preset number of rounds minus the number of times the weapon simulator 10 had been fired with the particular magazine 12 connected to the weapon simulator 10 .", "Consequently, if one magazine 12 is replaced by a second magazine 12 , the processor 16 of the weapon simulator 10 will be able to maintain an ongoing correlation of the first magazine 12 with the number of rounds remaining in that magazine 12 .", "[0021] An advantage of this embodiment is the simplicity in identifying the simulated magazine 12 .", "A disadvantage of this embodiment, however, is that there is no portability among simulated weapons 10 .", "A magazine 12 could be expended (or partially expended) with one weapon simulator 12 , and the weapon processor 16 for that simulated weapon 10 would maintain the accurate number of rounds for the particular magazine 12 .", "However, when the simulated magazine 12 is connected with another simulated weapon 10 , that simulated weapon 10 would not have a record of the information from the simulated weapon 10 that previously used the simulated magazine 12 .", "In addition, the simulated magazines 12 would have to be marked on the outside with a visual indicator 22 (such as a magazine identification number) for the operator to identify the number of rounds remaining in the simulated magazine 12 .", "[0022] Having thus described exemplary embodiments, it should be noted by those skilled in the art that the within disclosures are exemplary only and that various other alternatives, adaptations, and modifications may be made within the scope of this disclosure as described herein and as described in the appended claims." ]

[ "[0001] This application is based on and claims the benefit of priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2016-080874, filed on 14 Apr. 2016, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a waterproof structure for an electric motor in which the stator includes a power connector.", "Related Art [0003] Conventionally, connection between the winding of a stator and a power connector in this type of electric motor is performed by way of soldering as shown in FIG. 5 .", "More specifically, a winding 104 of a stator 102 is directly soldered to the back side of a power connector 106 .", "In addition, it is necessary to ground the power connector 106 to the stator 102 .", "For this reason, such a means of connection is unfit for automation.", "[0004] To address this, it has been proposed to make a structure that is easy to automate by performing wiring (wire connection) of a winding 204 of a stator 202 by way of a wiring substrate 205 , and using the wiring substrate 205 in which a power connector 206 has been integrated with this wiring substrate 205 .", "In addition, an easily replaceable connector has also been proposed (refer to Patent Document 1).", "[0005] Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2009-43839 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0006] However, in the case of the wiring substrate 205 in which the power connector 206 is integrated with the wiring substrate 205 of the form shown in FIG. 6 , a gap forms at a boundary portion between the surface of the stator 202 and the power connector 206 .", "For this reason, in the case of making an electric motor 201 as a waterproof structure, it is necessary to fill the gap between the resin of the surface of the stator 202 and the power connector 206 with a sealing agent or the like.", "In addition, it is necessary to ground the wiring substrate 205 to the stator 202 .", "[0007] The present invention has an object of providing a waterproof structure for an electric motor that, with a specification separating a power connector from a wiring substrate, can simultaneously achieve electrical connection between the power connector and the wiring substrate for performing wiring of a winding, earth connection between the power connector and a stator, and sealing between the power connector and the stator, in a state in which the power connector is installed.", "[0008] According to a first aspect of the present invention, in a waterproof structure for an electric motor (for example, the electric motor 1 described later) including a stator (for example, the stator 2 described later) that includes a wiring substrate (for example, the wiring substrate 5 described later) for performing wiring of a winding (for example, the winding 4 described later), and a power connector (for example, the power connector 6 described later) that is separate from the wiring substrate, in which a sealing member (for example, the sealing member 7 described later) for sealing between the power connector and the stator, in a state of the power connector being installed to the stator, is provided to the power connector;", "the wiring substrate includes a connector connecting part (for example, the connector connecting part 53 described later) that is electrically connected with the power connector;", "the stator includes an earth connecting part (for example, the earth connecting part 34 described later);", "the power connector includes a substrate connecting part (for example, the substrate connecting part 63 described later) that is electrically connected with the connector connecting part of the wiring substrate, and an earth connecting part (for example, the earth connecting part 64 described later) that is electrically connected with the earth connecting part of the stator;", "and the substrate connecting part of the power connector and the connector connecting part of the wiring substrate are electrically connected, the earth connecting part of the power connector and the earth connecting part of the stator are electrically connected, and between the power connector and the stator are sealed by way of the sealing member, in a state of the power connector being installed to the stator.", "[0009] According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the waterproof structure for an electric motor as described in the first aspect, the power connector may be selectable among a plurality of types of connectors.", "[0010] According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the waterproof structure for an electric motor as described in the first or second aspect, the sealing member may be a sealing member consisting of an elastic body.", "[0011] According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the waterproof structure for an electric motor as described in the first or second aspect, the sealing member may be a sealing member consisting of liquid.", "[0012] According to the present invention, it is possible to simultaneously achieve electrical connection between a substrate connecting part of a power connector and a wiring substrate for performing wiring of a winding, earth connection between an earth connecting part of the power connector and an earth connecting part of a stator, and sealing between the power connector and the stator, in a state in which the power connector is installed to the stator.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0013] FIG. 1 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view showing a stator of an electric motor according to an embodiment;", "[0014] FIG. 2 is an enlarged view showing a principal part of the stator in FIG. 1 ;", "[0015] FIG. 3 is a plan view showing an example of a connector;", "[0016] FIG. 4 is a plan view showing another example of a connector;", "[0017] FIG. 5 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view showing an example of a stator of a conventional electric motor;", "and [0018] FIG. 6 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view showing another example of a stator of a conventional electric motor.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0019] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be explained while referencing the drawings.", "[0000] FIG. 1 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view showing a stator of an electric motor according to the present embodiment, and FIG. 2 is an enlarged view showing a principal part of the stator in FIG. 1 .", "[0020] As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 , a stator 2 of an electric motor 1 includes a housing 3 , a winding 4 , a wiring substrate 5 , a power connector 6 , and a sealing member 7 .", "The housing 3 forms an outer side of the stator 2 .", "The winding 4 is wound around a predetermined position of the housing 3 and retained.", "The wiring substrate 5 is provided at a predetermined position of the housing 3 , and performs wiring (wire connection) of the winding 4 .", "The power connector 6 is configured separately from the wiring substrate 5 , and is retrofitted to a predetermined position of the stator 2 .", "The sealing member 7 is arranged at a predetermined position of the power connector 6 .", "The sealing member 7 seals between the power connector 6 and the stator 2 , when the power connector 6 is installed to the stator 2 .", "[0021] More specifically, the power connector 6 has an abutting face 61 .", "The abutting face 61 abuts a supporting face 31 of the housing 3 of the stator 2 when the power connector 6 is retrofitted to the stator 2 .", "A recess groove 62 is provided in this abutting face 61 .", "The sealing member 7 is arranged within the recess groove 62 , and seals between the abutting face 61 of the power connector 6 and the supporting face 31 of the housing 3 of the stator 2 .", "[0022] The power connector 6 has a substrate connecting part 63 .", "The wiring substrate 5 has a connector connecting part 53 .", "The substrate connecting part 63 of the power connector 6 and the connector connecting part 53 of the wiring substrate 5 are provided at mutually corresponding positions when the power connector 6 is retrofitted to a predetermined position of the stator 2 .", "Then, when the power connector 6 is retrofitted to the stator 2 , the substrate connecting part 63 of the power connector 6 and the connector connecting part 53 of the wiring substrate 5 are electrically connected to each other.", "For this reason, the winding 4 of the stator 2 and the power connector 6 are electrically connected via the wiring substrate 5 .", "[0023] The power connector 6 has an earth connecting part 64 .", "The housing 3 of the stator 2 has an earth connecting part 34 .", "The earth connecting part 64 of the power connector 6 and the earth connecting part 34 of the housing 3 of the stator 2 are provided at mutually corresponding positions when the power connector 6 is retrofitted to a predetermined position of the stator 2 .", "Then, when the power connector 6 is retrofitted to the stator 2 , the earth connecting part 64 of the power connector 6 and the earth connecting part 34 of the housing 3 of the stator 2 are electrically connected to each other.", "[0024] For this reason, when the power connector 6 is retrofitted to the stator 2 , the following three items are achieved simultaneously.", "First, the substrate connecting part 63 of the power connector 6 and the connector connecting part 53 of the wiring substrate 5 are electrically connected.", "Second, the earth connecting part 64 of the power connector 6 and the earth connecting part 34 of the housing 3 of the stator 2 are electrically connected.", "Third, between the abutting face 61 of the power connector 6 and the supporting face 31 of the housing 3 of the stator 2 are sealed by way of the sealing member 7 .", "[0025] According to the present embodiment, since the wiring (wire connection) of the winding 4 is performed by way of the wiring substrate 5 in the above way, it is a wiring (wire connection) method that is easy to automate.", "In addition, it is possible to seal between the abutting face 61 of the power connector 6 and the supporting face 31 of the housing 3 of the stator 2 by way of the sealing member 7 , due to separating the wiring substrate 5 and power connector 6 , and then retrofitting the power connector 6 to the stator 2 .", "[0026] FIG. 2 illustrates so that the substrate connecting part 63 of the power connector 6 and the connector connecting part 53 of the wiring substrate 5 connect with each other in a butting system.", "However, the electrical connection system between the substrate connecting part 63 of the power connector 6 and the connector connecting part 53 of the wiring substrate 5 is not limited thereto.", "For example, using a connection system engaging with each other, a connection system that pushes together, or another arbitrary electrical connection system, it is possible to electrically connect the substrate connecting part 63 of the power connector 6 and the connector connecting part 53 of the wiring substrate 5 .", "This similarly applies also for the earth connection between the earth connecting part 64 of the power connector 6 and the earth connecting part 34 of the housing 3 of the stator 2 .", "[0027] FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a rectangular connector 6 A. FIG. 4 is a plan view showing a round connector 6 B. The power connector 6 can adopt the rectangular connector 6 A shown in FIG. 3 , or can adopt the round connector 6 B shown in FIG. 4 depending on the application, and it is further possible to adopt a connector of another arbitrary shape.", "[0028] The sealing member 7 is a sealing member consisting of a rubber-like elastic body.", "However, the sealing member 7 may be a sealing member consisting of liquid.", "[0029] Although an embodiment of the present invention has been explained above, the present invention is not to be limited to the aforementioned embodiment, and modifications and improvements within a scope that can achieve the objects of the present invention are also included in the present invention.", "In addition, the effects described in the present embodiment are merely listing the most preferred effects produced from the present invention, and the effects according to the present invention are not to be limited to those described in the present embodiments.", "EXPLANATION OF REFERENCE NUMERALS [0030] 1 electric motor [0031] 2 stator [0032] 34 earth connecting part [0033] 4 winding [0034] 5 wiring substrate [0035] 53 connector connecting part [0036] 6 power connector [0037] 63 substrate connecting part [0038] 64 earth connecting part [0039] 7 sealing member" ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention This invention relates to container devices, and more particularly, to a container device having a body for enclosing one substance and a cap for closing an opening of the body so as to keep the other substance enclosed within the cap separate from the substance enclosed by the body.", "Description of Related Art There has been a tendency for a beverage or a soft drink to come with a liquid solvent that is separate from a solute, which is usually in a form of tablet.", "This tablet is dissolved or mixed with the liquid solvent to become a drinkable solution at the time a person is to consume the drinkable solution.", "The reason why the solute is kept separate from the liquid solvent is such a drinkable solution is inappropriate for storage or to be in a ready-to-drink status and the solute is unstable with respect to the environment, such as moisture and air.", "Therefore, the solute should be sealed air-tight inside an enclosure prior to being dissolved in or mixed with the liquid solvent.", "There are two types of conventional container devices, which provide the solute with a protective enclosure.", "One typically consists of a main container for retaining a liquid solvent and an annex container for retaining a solute.", "This type of container device requires a person to in turn open the main container and the annex container or vice versa in order to have the solute contact with the liquid solvent and thereby to become a drinkable solution.", "However, the problem is that two independent opening operations are necessary for making the aforementioned drinkable solution, causing this conventional container device to be inconvenient and complicated in operation.", "Another type of conventional container devices is one including a container body having an opening for a plug assembly closably inserted thereinto and a storage space defined by the container body for retaining a liquid solvent.", "The plug assembly consists of a plug body having a guide sleeve, the guide sleeve having an upper end integral with the plug body and a lower end covered by a sealing member for retaining a solute inside the guide sleeve;", "and a tabular cutting member slidably plugged into the guide sleeve via the upper end of the guide sleeve.", "The tabular cutting member is capable of air-tight sealing the guide sleeve so as to prevent the solute received in the guide sleeve from being in contact with the ambient.", "In use, a user has to first remove from the container body a protection cover used to protect the tabular cutting member from being compressed prior to use, and then press down the tabular cutting member to separate the sealing member from the lower end of the guide sleeve in order to release the solute from the guide sleeve and to allow the solute to resolve in or mix with the liquid solvent in the container body.", "After this, the plug assembly is removed away from the container body for the user to consume the thus-obtained solution.", "Accordingly, the problem which comes with this type of container device is that it requires three steps to make available a solution ready for consumption.", "It is therefore laborious and inconvenient in operation.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is the objective of the present invention to provide a container device which is simpler and easier in operation than the prior art, allowing a second substance received in a cap member, originally separate from a first substance enclosed in a body cooperative with the cap member, to be in contact with the first substance and which is reliable in preserving the quality of the second substance as well as that of the first substance.", "In accordance with the foregoing objective, the container device of the present invention includes a hollow body having a neck integral therewith, the neck being formed with an opening penetrating through the neck to connect a storage space defined by the body for a first substance to be retained therein, and the neck being formed with an annular rib on its outer surface;", "a cap member reclosably coupled to the neck of the body for air-tightly closing the opening;", "an air-tight closure assembly received from inside the cap member for encapsulating a second substance and being synchronously movable with the cap member at the time the cap member is driven by a manual force to move in an axial manner along the neck of the body;", "a cutting means adapted for releasing the second substance from the air-tight closure assembly;", "and a collar detachably attached to a bottom of the cap member, allowing the cap member to be driven from an upper position where the air-tight closure assembly remains at a distance from the cutting means to a lower position where the bottom of the cap member abuts against the annular rib to thereby cause the air-tight manner of the air-tight closure assembly to be released by the cutting means, after the collar is detached from the cap member.", "In one embodiment according to the invention, the air-tight closure assembly is formed by a sealing film circumferentially adhered to the inner surface of a side wall of the cap member, the inner surface of the side wall of the cap member, and the inner surface of a base wall attached to the side wall of the cap member.", "The second substance is thus capable of being encapsulated by the air-tight closure assembly and being isolated from the external environment.", "The air-tight closure structure should further cooperate with at least an annular protrusion upwardly protruded from the top surface of the neck in order to tightly seal the opening of the body to prevent leakage.", "The annular protrusion is adapted to abut against and upwardly push the sealing film of the air-tight closure structure in such a manner that the sealing film is deformed from a planar shape to a convex shape, after the cap member is mounted on the neck of the body to a position that the collar attached to the bottom of the cap member abuts against the annular rib, allowing the first substance encapsulated in the body to be prevented from leaking.", "In another embodiment according to the embodiment, the air-tight closure assembly comprises an inner housing having a downward-facing opening, a sealing film for an air-tight sealing of the downward-facing opening, and a closed space defined by the inner wall of the inner housing and the sealing film for receiving a second substance.", "The second substance can be placed in the inner housing and then the downward-facing opening is sealed with the sealing film, followed by installing the air-tight closure assembly of this embodiment inside the cap member by way of a conventional bonding method, ultrasonic melting method, engaging method or the like so as to have the air-tight closure assembly securely coupled to the cap member.", "Therefore, when the cap member is mounted on the neck of the body to a position that the collar of the cap member abuts against the annular rib, the annular protrusion on the top surface of the neck will upwardly push and tightly abut against the sealing film of the air-tight closure assembly so that the opening of the body is sealed air-tight to prevent leakage.", "In a further embodiment according to the invention, the inner housing of the air-tight enclosure assembly is formed by a flexible annular body, which is outwardly curved and has a top end and a lower end, and a base substrate connected to the top end of the flexible annular body for closing the top end.", "The lower end of the flexible annular body is sealed by the sealing film for receiving a second substance within the closed space defined by the base substrate, flexible annular body and sealing film.", "As the cap member installed with the air-tight enclosure assembly is mounted to the neck of the body, the air-tight enclosure structure will partly be inserted into the opening of the body, making the flexible annular body be inwardly compressed by the neck of the body so as to seal air-tight the opening of the body to prevent leakage.", "The aforementioned first substance and second substance can be in a gas, liquid or solid form.", "Therefore, the first substance is capable of being chemically reacted with or physically resolved in or mixed with the second substance.", "These and other features, and advantages, will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.", "It is important to point out that the illustrations may not necessarily be drawn to scale, and that there may be other embodiments of the present invention which are not specifically illustrated.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of a container device in accordance with the first embodiment of the present invention, showing that the cap is separable from the body;", "FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view of the container device illustrated in FIG. 1 with the cap mounted to the body;", "FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional view of the container device illustrated in FIG. 2 with its collar peeled off from the cap, followed by downwardly turning the cap clockwise by 90° to have the sealing film cut by the cutting means;", "FIG. 4 is a schematic sectional view of the container device illustrated in FIG. 3 with the bottom of the cap abutting against the annular rib of the body;", "FIG. 5 is a schematic sectional view of a cap for use in the container device in accordance with the second embodiment of the present invention with its air-tight closure assembly separable from the cap;", "FIG. 6 is a schematic sectional view of the container device illustrated in FIG. 5 with its air-tight closure assembly installed within the cap;", "FIG. 7 is a schematic sectional view of a cap for use in the container device in accordance with the third embodiment of the present invention;", "FIG. 8 is a schematic sectional view of the container device illustrated in FIG. 7 with its cap downwardly turned to a position that the bottom of the cap abuts against the annular rib of the body, after the collar of the cap is peeled off;", "FIG. 9 is a schematic sectional view of a cap for use in the container device in accordance with the fourth embodiment of the present invention with its air-tight closure assembly separable from the cap;", "and FIG. 10 is a schematic sectional view of the cap illustrated in FIG. 9 with its air-tight closure assembly installed within the cap.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to the drawings most particularly FIGS. 1 and 2, a container device is illustrated according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and is seen to generally include a body 3 and a cap 4 for being removably mounted to the body 3.", "The body 3 is typically in a cylindrical shape and is integrally formed with a neck 31 on its top.", "The neck 31 has an outer surface threaded to form a first threaded portion 311 and an inner surface opposing the outer surface defining a through opening 310 which connects a storage space 300 defined by an inner wall of the body 3 for receiving a liquid solvent 5.", "Beneath the first threaded portion 311 an annular rib 312 is further integrally provided on the outer surface of the neck 31.", "Also, on the top surface 313 of the neck 31 there is upwardly projected an annular protrusion 314.", "The annular protrusion 314 may be singly or concentrically multiply formed on the top surface 313 and may be in a simple circular shape, a wave-like circular shape, or the like.", "The cap 4 has an annular body 40 with an the upper surface 400, a lower surface 402 opposing the upper surface 400, and an inner surface 401.", "A lid 41 is attached to the upper surface 400 of the annular body 40 in order to close one end of the annular body 40 which is coupled with a cutting member 42 on its bottom surface extending toward the lower surface 402 of the annular body 40.", "On the inner surface 401 of the annular body 40 a second threaded portion 43 is formed to engage the first threaded portion 311 so as to securely mount the threadable cap 4 to the neck 31 of the body 3.", "A sealing film 44 made of a conventional flexible and extendible material, such as aluminum alloy, is provided so as to make a circumferential attachment to the inner surface 401 of the annular body 40 above the second threaded portion 43, allowing the sealing film 44, the inner surface 401 and the bottom surface of the lid 41 in combination to form an air-tight closure assembly to provide an air-tight room 46 for air-tightly encapsulating a solute 6 therein and for preventing external contaminants such as moisture or air from entering.", "In addition, a collar 45 is detachably coupled to both the lower surface 402 of the annular body 40 and the annular rib 312 of the neck 31 after the cap 4 is mounted to the body 3.", "The collar 45 is adapted to have a thickness L to allow the tip 420 of the cutting member 42 to remain separable from the sealing film 44, while the cap 4 is securably mounted to the body 3 by means of the collar 45 to allow the cap 4 to have a maximum turning of less than 360 degrees so as to prevent the sealing film 44 from being cut off from the annular body 40 by the cutting member 42, subsequent to the removal of the collar 45 from the cap 4.", "A more detailed description as to the relationship between the cap 4 and the body 3 will be given below.", "As clearly shown in FIG. 2, the sealing film 44 is upwardly pressed by the annular protrusion 314 on the neck 31 of the body 3 to be deformed from a planar shape to a convex shape, while the threadable cap 4 is mounted to the neck 31 of the body 3 and is securable coupled to the annular rib 312 of the neck 31 by means of the collar 45.", "By this arrangement, the opening 310 of the neck 31 is liquid-tight, sealed by the sealing film 44, allowing the liquid solvent 5 received in the storage space 300 of the body 3 to prevent leakage through the opening 310 to the outside of the body 3.", "In the meantime, the tip 420 of the cutting member 42 is kept an appropriate distance from the sealing film 44, assuring that the solute 6 is encapsulated air-tight in the enclosed room 46.", "Also, the cap 4 is restrained from being turned downwardly toward the annular rib 312, if the collar 45 is held in position.", "The cutting member 42 is formed with a tip 420 on its end and with a cutting edge 421 along one of its sides.", "Therefore, as shown in FIG. 3, when the collar 45 is peeled off, the cap 4 is allowed to be turned downward, clockwise toward the annular rib 312.", "With the downward movement of the cap 4 the cutting member 42 will simultaneously descend to allow the tip 420 of the cutting member 42 to first penetrate the sealing film 44 and the cutting edge 421 of the cutting member 42 to then cut open the sealing film 44, as the convex portion of the sealing film 44 will remain in position due to the annular protrusion 314 of the neck 31.", "Proceeding with the clockwise turning of the cap 4, the sealing film 44 is able to be cut wide-open to allow the solute 6 to drop by its gravity from the air-tight room 46 to the storage space 300 of the body 3 via the opening 310, as shown in FIG. 4. As a result, the solute 6 can be solved in the liquid solvent 5 to become a drinkable solution for a person to consume.", "The downward movement of the cap 4 ends at the time the lower surface 402 of the annular body 40 abuts against the annular rib 312 of the neck 31.", "It is the point that the cutting member 42 stops cutting open the sealing film 44.", "As the descending distance of the cap 4, which is corresponding to the thickness L of the collar 45, is set to limit the turning of the cap 4 to an extent of less than 360 degrees, the cutting member 42 is restrained from cutting off the sealing film 44 from the cap 4.", "Consequently, as shown in FIG. 4, the sealing film 44 is still partly attached to the inner surface 401 of the annular body 40 to thereby prevent the sealing film 44 from falling down to the storage space 300 of the body 3.", "When the solute 6 is well dissolved in the liquid solvent 5 to become a drinkable solution, the drinkable solution is ready to be consumed via the opening 310 of the neck 31 simply by upwardly turning the cap 4 counterclockwise to remove it from the neck 31 of the body 3.", "FIGS. 5 and 6 are schematic sectional views of a cap for use in a container device according to the second embodiment of the present invention.", "The structure of the container device according to the second embodiment of the present invention is similar to that of the first embodiment of the present invention illustrated in the above, except for the structure of the cap.", "Accordingly, detailed description of the body is herein omitted for the purpose of simplification.", "Referring now to FIG. 5, the cap 4a includes an annular body 40a having an inner surface 401a and a lower surface 402a and a lid 41a attached to the top of the annular body 40a for closing one end of the annular body 40a.", "The lower part of the inner surface 401a of the annular body 40a is threaded to form a second threaded portion 43a for engagement with a first threaded portion formed on the body (not shown) for mounting the threadable cap 4a to the body.", "Above the second threaded portion 43a an annular groove 403a is annularly formed on the upper part of the inner surface 401a.", "An air-tight closure assembly 47a is provided to be installed inside the cap 4a.", "The air-tight closure assembly 47a has an inner annular body 470a, an inner lid 471a attached to the top end of the inner annular body 470a, a sealing film 472a attached to the bottom end of the inner annular body 470a, and a cutting member 473a coupled to the bottom surface of the inner lid 471a.", "The inner lid 471a, the sealing film 472a, and the inner wall of the inner annular body 470a, in combination, form an air-tight room 474a for air-tightly encapsulating a solute 6 therein so as to keep the solute 6 from the ambient.", "On the outer wall of the inner annular body 470a there is also formed an annular engaging protrusion 475a for engagement with the groove 403a of the annular body 40a in order to securely couple the air-tight closure assembly 47a to the cap 4a, as shown in FIG. 6. FIGS. 7 and 8 are schematic sectional views of the container device according to the third embodiment of the present invention.", "The container device according to the third embodiment of the present invention includes a cutting structure 2b, a body 3b for receiving the cutting structure 2b, and a threadable cap 4b mounted to the body 3b.", "The cutting structure 2b has an outer tubular body 21b and an inner tubular body 22b coaxially received within the outer tubular body 21b and formed with a passage 221b.", "On the top end of the outer tubular body 21b a flange 211b is integrally formed and extending outward.", "A bottom cover 23b is provided to respectively connect the bottom ends of outer tubular body 21b and inner tubular body 22b and is formed with a plurality of through holes 231b for fluid to pass therethrough.", "In order to provide a cutting function with the inner tubular body 22b, the inner tubular body 22b is formed with a tip 222b and has its peripheral edge 223b become sharpened.", "The body 3b is integrally formed with a neck 31b on its top.", "The neck 31b has an upper surface 313b, a cylindrical outer surface threaded to form a first threaded portion 311b, and a cylindrical inner surface defining an opening 310b connecting a storage space 300b defined by an inner wall of the body 3b for receiving a liquid solvent 5b.", "In addition, an annular rib 312b is integrally formed on the outer surface of the neck 31b below the first threaded portion 311b.", "The cutting structure 2b is adapted to be received within the opening 310b of the neck 31b so that the flange 211b abuts the upper surface 313b to hold the cutting structure 2b in position and so that the opening 310b can be connected to the passage 221b of the cutting structure 2b.", "The cap 4b includes an annular body 40b having an upper end 400b, an inner surface 401b, a lower end 402b opposing the upper end 400b, a lid 41b attached to the upper end 400b for closing one end of the annular body 40b, and an encapsulating structure 42b mounted to the bottom surface of the lid 41b for encapsulating a solute 6b therein.", "The encapsulating structure 42b is formed which has a resilient and outwardly curved annular body 421b with one end adhered by any conventional adhering method to the lid 41b and with another end sealed by a sealing film 422b.", "The annular body 421b, the sealing film 422b and the lid 41b together form an air-tight room 423b for encapsulating a solute 6b therein.", "The bottom end of the outwardly curved annular body 421b is diametrically greater than the inner tubular body 22b but is diametrically smaller than the outer tubular body 21b;", "however, the middle of the annular body 421b is of a diameter greater than the outer tubular body 21b.", "As a result, the annular body 421b of the encapsulating structure 42b is subject to an inwardly pressing force caused by the inner wall 212b of the outer tubular body 21b, allowing the annular body 421b to abut liquid-tight against the inner wall 212b of the outer tubular body 21b thereby preventing the liquid solvent 5b from leaking out of the body 3b.", "Between the lower end 402b of the annular body 40b and the annular rib 312b, a collar 45b is detachably attached when the threadable cap 4b is mounted to the body 3b.", "The collar 45b should have a thickness sufficient to refrain the tip 222b of the inner tubular body 22b from being in contact with the sealing film 422b of the encapsulating structure 42b.", "In the meantime, when the collar 45b is peeled off, the maximum descending distance of the cap 4b, which corresponds to the thickness of the collar, permits the sealing film 422b not to be cut off from the encapsulating structure 42b.", "In addition, the inner surface 401b of the annular body 40b is threaded to form a second threaded portion 43b for engagement with the first threaded portion 311b so as to securely mount the threadable cap 4b to the body 3b.", "When the collar 45b is peeled off, the cap 4b is allowed to descend.", "With the downward movement of the cap 4b by a clockwise turning force, the sealing film 422b simultaneously descends to approach the tip of the inner tubular body 22b which remains still in position.", "Proceeding to downwardly turn the cap 4b, the tip 222b is allowed to first penetrate the sealing film 422b, followed by cutting open the sealing film 422b by the peripheral edge 223b of the inner tubular body 22b.", "At the time the sealing film 422b is cut wide-open enough to let the solute 6b to drop by gravity, the solute 6b can free-fall from the encapsulating structure 42b to the storage space 300b to be dissolved in the liquid solvent 5b.", "The downward movement of the cap 4b concludes until the lower surface 402 of the cap 4b abuts the annular rib 312b of the body 3b.", "As the cap 4b is downwardly turned to an extent of less than 360 degrees, the sealing film 422b is not completely cut off from the encapsulating structure 42b and is still partly attached to the annular body 421b so as to prevent the sealing film 422b from dropping down to the storage space 300b.", "FIGS. 9 and 10 are schematic sectional views of a cap for use in a container device according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention.", "The fourth embodiment is structurally similar to the third embodiment as described in the above, except for the structure of the cap.", "Accordingly, detailed description to the body is herein omitted for the purpose of simplification.", "In the cap 4c of the fourth embodiment, a groove 403c is annularly formed on the inner surface 401c of the annular body 40c above the second threaded portion 43c in order to engage the peripheral rim 4240c of an inner lid 424c to cover the top end of the resilient and outwardly curved annular body 421c of the encapsulating structure 42c.", "An air-tight room 423c is thus formed by the annular body 421c, the inner lid 424c and the sealing film 422c for sealing the bottom end of the annular body 421c, and for an air-tight encapsulation of a solute 6c." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF INVENTION [0001] 1.", "Field of Invention [0002] This invention relates generally to electronic systems and more specifically to electronic systems using optical fibers to carry data between components of the system.", "[0003] 2.", "Discussion of Related Art [0004] Many types of electronic systems are known.", "Common examples of electronic systems are computers, routers and telecommunications switches.", "Complex electronic systems have long been built as subassemblies that are then integrated into an overall system.", "Integration requires that data be passed between subassemblies.", "[0005] Traditionally, integration of subassemblies has included making connections for electrical signals to carry data between the subassemblies.", "In some systems, printed circuit boards, sometimes called backplanes, are used to carry electrical signals between subassemblies.", "Backplanes are usually built as printed circuit boards.", "Conductive traces within the board carry electrical signals and electrical connectors attached to the board allow subassemblies to be connected to those traces.", "[0006] In some instances, subassemblies are also built on printed circuit boards, called daughter cards.", "The conductive traces on the daughter cards interconnect electronic components mounted on the board.", "The traces also connect those components to connectors on the daughter card.", "The daughter card connectors mate with backplane connectors to allow the electronic circuitry on the daughter card to pass information in the form of electrical signals through the backplane to other subassemblies connected to the backplane.", "Where interconnections are made through a backplane, all of the subassemblies to be connected together are usually mounted in one housing.", "[0007] In other instances, some electronic systems are made up of subassemblies that are contained in separate housings.", "The system might be too big to fit in a single enclosure or might require subassemblies located in physically separate locations.", "For example, data storage farms are made of interconnected storage units because it is likely that one unit containing all the necessary circuitry would be too large to easily fit within a single housing.", "Routers and switches in networks are made as separate pieces to allow the network to span a wide geographic range.", "A system also might be manufactured as separate components as a matter of convenience.", "For example, a system might be made from modules to allow systems of many different sizes to be constructed by integrating different numbers of modules.", "[0008] Where systems are assembled from separate components, cables are often used to interconnect the components.", "Electronic components that are intended to be integrated into a much larger system often have “panels”", "or “bulkheads”", "to which cables interconnecting the subsystems can be connected.", "[0009] Often, the panel on a subassembly contains electrical connectors.", "Inside the subassembly, these connectors might be connected to backplanes or daughter cards or otherwise tied into the system.", "On the outside of the subassembly, the connectors are shaped to receive connectors on the ends of cables.", "In this way, cables can be plugged into panels to interconnect the subassemblies.", "[0010] As electronic systems became more powerful, the data rate between subassemblies increased.", "To carry more data, optical interconnections were often used.", "Rather than transmit data as electrical signals on conductors, optical interconnections transmit data as modulated light in a structure that acts as an optical waveguide—often an optical fiber.", "To facilitate the interconnection of subassemblies using optical fibers, optical connectors have been developed.", "Both backplane/daughtercard and panel type optical connectors are known.", "[0011] Several problems exist with optical interconnections that do not exist with corresponding electrical connectors.", "One particular problem is that the optical fibers must be aligned with much higher precision than electrical conductors for optical connectors to reliably transmit signals.", "[0012] Alignment in optical connectors is often achieved through the use of several levels of alignment mechanisms.", "At the most precise level, the fiber in both halves of the connector is held in ferrules.", "Ferrules are precision manufactured components that contain alignment features.", "[0013] Early designs used single fiber ferrules.", "These ferrules are generally cylindrical, with the outer surface of the cylinder being the alignment feature.", "Alignment of the fibers was achieved by inserting the ferrules into opposite ends of a sleeve.", "The sleeve was also a precision component, ensuring that the faces of the ferrules would align inside the sleeve.", "Often, the sleeve was incorporated into an adapter and connectors holding the ferrules were plugged into both sides of the adapter.", "[0014] Multi-fiber ferrules have also been developed, such as the MT ferrule.", "Alignment features in these ferrules include posts and holes.", "The fibers held in the ferrules are aligned when the posts of one ferrule are in the holes of another ferrule.", "[0015] However, for the ferrules to align the fibers as two connectors are mated, the ferrules must first be aligned such that the posts engage with the holes.", "This level of alignment is often provided through a connector housing.", "The connector housings have features that, when interlocked, ensure that the ferrules will be aligned with sufficient precision.", "[0016] Another level of alignment is often used to ensure the housings line up and also to hold the connectors together when mated.", "A device that provides this level of alignment is also called an adapter.", "In a simple form, an adapter can be a sleeve into which two connectors can be inserted from opposite directions.", "The sleeve forces the connector housings into alignment when they come together in the center of the sleeve.", "Latching features can be incorporated into the sleeve to hold the connector housings together.", "[0017] An example of an optical connector system can be found in U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 10/243,458, filed Sep. 13, 2002, entitled Techniques for Forming Fiber Optic Connections in an Modularized Manner;", "U.S. Patent Application 2003/0044127 filed Jul. 16, 2002 entitled Modular Fiber Optic Connection System;", "U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 10/326,480 entitled Latch and Release System for a Connector, filed on Dec. 20, 2002, by Roth, et al.", "all of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.", "[0018] The above referenced patents and applications describe optical interconnection systems that use multi-fiber ferrules, housings and adapters for alignment.", "The adapters used for the backplane/daughter card interconnection in some of the examples have several sleeves tied together in a row.", "Though ferrules that can simultaneously align multiple fibers are known, forming several housings into a connector assembly allows even more connections to be made simultaneously for applications that require many connections.", "[0019] Despite the development of multi-fiber ferrules, single fiber ferrules are still in use.", "Not all electronic systems require large numbers of optical fiber interconnects to be made at one time.", "A particular system simply might not require an exchange of a sufficiently large amount of data to justify a multi-fiber interconnect.", "And, single fiber interconnects often have different performance characteristics than multi-fiber interconnects.", "Single fiber connectors are more likely to be made with multimode fiber, which is larger than single mode fiber traditionally used in multi-fiber interconnects.", "Multimode fibers tend to exhibit less loss at mating interfaces than smaller single mode fibers.", "[0020] For this reason, it will sometimes be preferable to create a connector with multiple single fibers for ferrules than to use one multifiber ferrule.", "There are tradeoffs between use of single fiber interconnection and multi-fiber interconnections, making some types more suitable for certain applications and others more suitable for other applications.", "Consequently, suppliers of optical fiber interconnection systems are required to stock or build many types of components to be able to meet the needs for any particular system.", "[0021] We have recognized a significant advantage can be obtained by providing components of an optical interconnection system that can be flexibly assembled into many different configurations.", "SUMMARY OF INVENTION [0022] It is an object to provide an optical interconnection system that can be flexibly assembled into multiple configurations.", "[0023] The foregoing and other objects are achieved in an optical interconnection system that employs a ferrule carrier inserted in a housing.", "In one embodiment, the housing can receive different types of ferrule carriers, with ferrule carriers adapted to hold ferrules that align either single fibers or multiple fibers.", "[0024] In another embodiment, a ferrule carrier adapted to hold ferrules for aligning single fibers can be modified by the addition of an adapter member to allow two ferrule carriers of the same design to be aligned.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS [0025] The accompanying drawings, are not intended to be drawn to scale.", "In the drawings, each identical or nearly identical component that is illustrated in various figures is represented by a like numeral.", "For purposes of clarity, not every component may be labeled in every drawing.", "In the drawings: [0026] FIG. 1 is a sketch of a prior art multi-fiber ferrule;", "[0027] FIG. 2 is a sketch of a ferrule carrier holding the multi-fiber ferrule;", "[0028] FIG. 3 is a sketch of the multi-fiber ferrule carrier of FIG. 2 in a housing;", "[0029] FIG. 4 is a sketch of an adapter, such as might be used in a panel configuration, for aligning two optical connectors;", "[0030] FIG. 5 is a sketch of an adapter, such as might be used in a backplane configuration, for aligning multiple optical connectors;", "[0031] FIG. 6 is a sketch of a prior art single fiber ferrule;", "[0032] FIG. 7 is a sketch of a ferrule carrier holding two single fiber ferrules as shown in FIG. 6 ;", "[0033] FIG. 8 is a sketch of a ferrule carrier for single fiber ferrules and a housing;", "[0034] FIG. 9 is an exploded view of the ferrule carrier of FIG. 8 ;", "[0035] FIG. 10 is an exploded view of the ferrule carrier of FIG. 9 shown from a reverse angle;", "[0036] FIG. 11 is an view of the interior alignment of single mode fibers using ferrule carriers as shown in FIG. 8 .", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0037] This invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and the arrangement of components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings.", "The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or of being carried out in various ways.", "Also, the phraseology and terminology used herein is for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.", "The use of “including,” “comprising,” or “having,” “containing”, “involving”, and variations thereof herein, is meant to encompass the items listed thereafter and equivalents thereof as well as additional items.", "[0038] FIG. 1 shows a multi-fiber ferrule 100 , as is known in the art.", "Ferrule 100 has a mating face 110 .", "Mating face 110 includes alignment features, such as holes 112 .", "Fiber ends project through holes 114 , that are precisely positioned relative to alignment holes 112 .", "In operation, ferrule 100 would be held within a connector.", "That connector would mate with another connector that included a similar ferrule.", "However, the mating connector would have complementary mating features.", "For example a mating ferrule might have alignment posts in place of holes 112 .", "[0039] FIG. 2 shows a ferrule carrier assembly 200 .", "In use, a ferrule can be incorporated into a ferrule carrier assembly 200 for easy application into an optical connector.", "FIG. 2 shows an example of a ferrule mounted in a ferrule carrier.", "[0040] As shown in FIG. 2 , ferrule 210 has a mating face 212 .", "Alignment features in mating face 210 include a hole 214 and a post 216 .", "Ferrule 210 may mate with a similarly shaped ferrule, with the post of one ferrule aligning with the hole of the other.", "As with ferrule 100 , ends of optical fibers are positioned in the mating face of ferrule 210 relative to the alignment features.", "[0041] Ferrule carrier 200 includes a support member 220 .", "Support member 220 might be in the shape of a frame or other suitable support.", "[0042] Compliant member 222 is mounted to support member 220 .", "Preferably, the ferrule will have compliance relative to the support member 220 .", "Compliance ensures that, as two optical fiber connectors are pressed together for mating, the alignment features determine the final alignment of the ferrules.", "Compliance automatically corrects for misalignment of the connectors.", "[0043] In FIG. 2 , compliance is provided through a spring coupling (not numbered) between compliant member 222 and support member 220 .", "[0044] Support member 220 also includes attachment features that can hold the ferrule carrier 200 in a housing.", "In the example of FIG. 2 , the attachment features are shown as latches 224 on cantilevered beams extending from the support member.", "[0045] Cantilevered beams include handles 226 that may be pressed to flex the cantilevered beams and release the latches 224 from a housing.", "Handles 226 also provide a convenient manner for a user to grasp ferrule carrier 200 when assembling or disassembling a connector.", "[0046] An optical fiber bundle 250 extends from the rear of ferrule carrier 200 .", "In the case of a multifiber ferrule, optical fiber bundle 250 contains multiple fibers encased in a protective covering.", "[0047] FIG. 3 shows a connector 300 incorporating ferrule carrier 200 .", "Connector 300 includes a housing that has an outer shell 310 .", "In this example, outer shell 310 is tubular and sized to receive a single ferrule carrier 200 .", "Embodiments in which the outer shell receives multiple ferrule carriers are also possible.", "[0048] Outer shell 310 includes features that receive latches 224 , here a slot 312 .", "[0049] The housing of connector 300 also includes an inner shell 322 .", "Inner shell 322 fits within outer shell 310 and may slide relative to outer shell 310 .", "Spring 324 biases inner shell 322 forward.", "[0050] When two connectors mate, mating faces 326 of the connectors press against each other.", "The pressure causes inner shell 322 to be retract into outer shell 310 .", "[0051] Inner shell 322 includes a door assembly 330 .", "Door assembly 330 contains one or more retractable doors (not numbered) that normally cover mating face 326 .", "When inner shell 310 retracts into outer shell 310 , the doors are actuated to swing open.", "In this way, the mating faces of the ferrules are protected, but are exposed for mating when the connectors are pressed together.", "[0052] FIG. 4 shows a connector assembly, including two connectors, 410 A and 410 B. Alignment of connectors 410 A and 410 B is achieved in a panel adapter 420 .", "Here, connectors 410 A and 410 B are duplex connectors, meaning that each contains two ferrule carriers, such as ferrule carrier 200 ( FIG. 2 ).", "[0053] Adapter 420 aligns connectors 410 A and 410 B so that they will properly mate.", "Adapter 420 also includes latching features 422 and 424 to latch the connectors in place when mated.", "[0054] FIG. 5 shows an alternative configuration of a connector assembly.", "FIG. 5 shows a backplane connector assembly 500 .", "Daughter card connector 520 is mounted to a daughtercard 512 .", "Backplane connector 550 is mounted to backplane 510 .", "[0055] Daughter card connector 520 contains multiple connectors 522 A, 522 B and 522 C. Also, latching modules 524 engage complementary latching modules 554 that are part of backplane connector 550 .", "Engagement between latching modules 524 and 554 holds the connectors together when mated.", "[0056] Daughter card connector 520 includes a support member 526 .", "Here, an elongated metal member having openings to receive individual connectors provides a base to which the components of the connector can be attached.", "[0057] Backplane connector 550 also includes a support member.", "Here, a housing 556 provides a base to which components of the connector can be attached.", "Housing 556 has multiple channels formed in it.", "Individual connectors, such as 410 A and 410 B, can be mounted inside the channels in housing 556 .", "The channels also receive connectors 522 A, 522 B and 522 C of daughter card connector 520 .", "Housing 556 aligns the individual connectors for mating.", "[0058] Connector assemblies shown in FIGS. 3, 4 and 5 are described for use with multifiber ferrules in the above referenced patent applications.", "These assemblies contain substantial numbers of components in addition to a ferrule and the ferrule holder.", "Housings are needed to hold the ferrule carriers.", "Adapters are used with the connectors.", "And, as part of a connector assembly, latching must be provided.", "[0059] FIG. 6 shows a single fiber ferrule, as is known in the art.", "It would be desirable to have a fiber optic connector assembly like those shown above that could be used for single fiber ferrules.", "A manufacturer or seller of optical fiber assemblies would achieve significant advantages if connector assemblies for single fiber ferrules could be assembled with the same pieces as used to make connector assemblies for multifiber ferrules.", "[0060] Single fiber ferrule 600 has a mating face 610 .", "Cylindrical portion 612 is a precision component.", "A fiber end is exposed in the mating face at a location precisely positioned relative to the outer surfaces of cylindrical portion 612 .", "When two ferrules, such as ferrule 600 mate, they are held together in a sleeve that aligns the outer surface of cylindrical portion 612 , which also aligns the fibers.", "[0061] Block 614 aids in connection of the ferrule to a connector.", "The fiber projects from rear surface 616 .", "The fiber is usually enclosed in a protective sheath.", "[0062] FIG. 7 shows two single fiber ferrules 600 assembled into a ferrule carrier assembly 700 .", "[0063] Ferrule carrier assembly 700 contains a support member 720 .", "Support member 720 preferably has the same exterior dimensions as ferrule carrier assembly 200 ( FIG. 2 ).", "Support member 720 has latches 724 positioned similarly and serving the same function as latches 726 .", "Also, handles 726 are positioned similarly and serve the same function as handles 226 .", "And, as with ferrule carrier assembly 200 , the mating faces of the ferrules are exposed at a forward end of the ferrule carrier assembly.", "[0064] Optical fibers are not shown in FIG. 7 .", "However, the mating faces 610 of the ferrules are visible.", "As in FIG. 6 , the fiber is preferably positioned in the center of the mating faces.", "Also, boots 750 A and 750 B are shown.", "In a completed assembly, optical fiber would extend through the boots.", "The boots protect the fiber and aid in attachment of the fiber to the ferrule carrier assembly.", "[0065] Support member 720 also includes attachment features such as 730 .", "Attachment features provide a place to attach a cap to ferrule carrier assembly 700 .", "As will be described in greater detail below, the ability to attach a cap provides several advantages that allows a ferrule carrier assembly to be used for many applications.", "[0066] FIG. 8 shows a connector assembly 800 .", "Connector assembly 800 includes a single fiber ferrule carrier 810 , similar to the one shown in FIG. 7 .", "Connector assembly 800 also includes a connector housing 860 , similar to the housings shown for the connectors of FIGS. 3, 4 and 5 .", "Ferrule carrier 810 is inserted into housing 860 .", "Because of the design of ferrule carrier 810 , the same housing 860 can be used for ferrule carrier 810 , carrying single fiber ferrules, or ferrule carrier 200 , carrying a multifiber ferrule.", "For example, single fiber ferrule carrier 810 includes latching features, such as latches 824 that operate similarly to the latching features 224 on multifiber ferrule carriers.", "[0067] A further reason that single fiber ferrule carrier is operable in housing 860 is that alignment features normally found in an adapter used to mate connectors with single fiber ferrules have been incorporated into ferrule carrier 810 .", "Cap 830 contains alignment sleeves normally contained within a single fiber ferrule adapter.", "[0068] In the preferred embodiment, cap 830 is made as a separate piece from support member 820 .", "Only one alignment sleeve is needed for each pair of mating ferrules.", "Therefore, only one cap is needed for two ferrule carriers.", "By constructing the cap containing the alignment sleeves as a separate component, the same support member can be used for all single fiber ferrule carriers in the connector assembly.", "Cap 830 can then be attached to support 820 .", "[0069] FIG. 9 shows an exploded view of single fiber ferrule carrier 810 .", "Cover 910 engages with support 820 .", "With cover 910 removed, a cavity in the interior of support 820 is accessible.", "Ferrule assemblies are inserted into this cavity.", "Here, two ferrule assemblies are shown, with ferrule assembly 950 A being numbered.", "[0070] Ferrule assembly 950 A includes a ferrule 600 .", "Ferrule 600 is inserted through an opening 922 in the mating face of support 820 .", "Block 614 does not fit through opening 922 , thereby retaining ferrule 600 within carrier 810 .", "Support 820 includes a channel 980 into which block 614 fits.", "In this way, the ferrule can slide, over at least a certain range of motion within support 820 .", "This range of motion is important to provide compliance as connectors mate.", "[0071] Cylindrical ring 952 surrounds the fiber to the rear of clock 614 .", "Spring 954 surrounds the optical fiber.", "The forward end of spring 954 presses against ring 952 .", "A similar ring 956 surrounds the fiber to the rear of spring 954 .", "[0072] During installation of ferrule assembly 950 A in ferrule carrier 810 , spring 954 is compressed, allowing ring 956 to move forward of abutments 926 and 928 in the cavity of support 820 .", "When spring 954 is released, the spring force will cause ring 956 to press against abutments 926 and 928 .", "Likewise, ring 952 will press against block 614 , ensuring that it is biased forwards in the connector.", "However, spring 954 allows sufficient compliance to take up for any mismatch in ferrule positioning when ferrules in two connectors are mated.", "[0073] The rearward portion of ferrule assembly 950 A includes a crimp ring, such as crimp ring 960 .", "Crimp ring 960 holds a protective sheath to the cable.", "Boot 970 fits over the fiber and crimp ring 960 .", "Boot 970 protects the fiber, such as by preventing it from being bent into too tight a curve.", "[0074] Rib 924 provides a channel to ensure that spring 954 stays positioned.", "[0075] FIG. 9 also shows cap 830 in greater detail.", "In the preferred embodiment, cap 830 is made of two identical shell pieces 930 A and 930 B that snap together.", "When snapped together and installed on a support member, openings 934 surround an attachment feature such as feature 730 ( FIG. 7 ).", "However, the precise method of attachment is not critical.", "Latching, friction or interference fit might be used.", "Additionally, permanent forms of attachment might be used, attachment methods using glue or heat fusion might be used.", "Also, though making the cap as a separable piece is desirable for many applications, it could be integrally formed with support 820 .", "[0076] Shell pieces 930 A and 930 B include latching structures such as posts 934 and holes 940 that hold the shell pieces together.", "The precise form of attachment of shell pieces 930 A and 930 B is also not critical.", "The pieces could be joined in a separable or permanent method.", "Also, it is possible that cap 830 could be made as a single piece.", "[0077] Each shell piece 930 A and 930 B includes channels 936 .", "When the shell pieces 930 A and 930 B are connected together, alignment sleeves 932 A and 932 B are held within the channels 936 .", "Alignment sleeves are held adjacent the openings 822 in the mating face of ferrule carrier 810 .", "In this way, each of the ferrules 600 will enter one of the alignment sleeves 932 A or 932 B. [0078] In the preferred embodiment, alignment sleeves 932 A and 932 B are alignment sleeves as are generally used in adapters for single fiber ferrules.", "They can be made of material such as brass or ceramic.", "The also contain a split along their long axis to allow for a precise fit around a ferrule.", "[0079] The material used to form support 820 and cap 830 is not critical.", "These components could, for example, be molded of plastic.", "[0080] FIG. 10 shows an alternative implementation of a ferrule carrier for single fiber ferrules.", "Single fiber ferrule carrier 1010 includes a support 1020 .", "Support 1020 is adapted to receive a ferrule assembly 1050 , that includes two ferrules in one assembly.", "[0081] As in the embodiment of FIG. 9 , each of the ferrules has a fiber running to it.", "Also, a forward ring 952 , a spring 954 and a rearward ring 956 are provided around each fiber.", "[0082] In the embodiment of FIG. 10 , the ferrule assembly is inserted from the rear of the ferrule carrier.", "Rather than having a removable side, such as 910 ( FIG. 9 ), support 1020 has an rearward opening 1012 into an interior cavity sized to receive the ferrule assembly 1050 .", "To secure ferrule assembly 1050 in support 1020 , clip 1024 is used.", "[0083] Clip 1024 has curved portions 1026 that conform to the shape of ferrule assembly 1050 at locations 1052 .", "Clip 1024 fits through window 1022 in support 1020 and has latching features that hold it in the window once inserted.", "[0084] To install ferrule assembly 1050 into support 1020 , ferrule assembly 1050 is pressed forward into support 1020 until location 1052 is visible through window 1022 .", "Clip 1024 is then inserted through the window, engaging the ferrule assembly 1050 at location 1052 , which is rearward of ring 956 .", "Clip 1024 therefore precludes the ferrule assembly from being removed from support 1020 .", "However, the ferrules 600 may still exhibit compliant motion by compression of springs 954 .", "[0085] Clip 1024 has latching features 1028 that hold it in support 1020 once installed.", "An alternative embodiment to facilitate removal of clip 1024 would be to make the clip with non-latching shoulders in place of latching features 1028 .", "To secure the clip, window 1022 would have two regions.", "The first region would be sized to receive the entire clip 1024 .", "The second region would be positioned to the rear of the first region.", "This region would be partially closed off with overhangs.", "These overhangs would be sized to project over the shoulder regions of the clip.", "Thus, the clip could be inserted into the first region and then slid rearward into the second region.", "Once in the second region, the overhanging portions would prevent the clip from being pulled out from the side.", "Because, in operation, spring 954 presses clip 1024 to the rear, force from spring 954 would keep clip in the second region once the ferrule carrier was assembled.", "[0086] With the alternative embodiment, the clip could be removed by pressing the ferrule assembly 1050 forward in support 1020 .", "Pressing the ferrule assembly forward would relieve the force on the clip and allow it to slide forward into the first region, where it could be removed from the side.", "Various tools might be used to aid in the removal of the clip.", "One possibility is that the clip could be made of a magnetic material, such as magnetic stainless.", "A magnet placed to the side of the ferrule carrier would remove the clip once the force from springs 954 was removed.", "[0087] FIG. 10 also shows that an identifying chip 1030 may be inserted into support 1020 .", "The use of chips that can be inserted and removed from connectors to provide easy visual identification of components is described more fully in our co-pending US patent application entitled “Fiber Optic Bullhead Connector”", "filed on the same date as the present application, which is incorporated herein by reference.", "[0088] FIG. 11 shows the mating configuration of portions of two single fiber ferrule carriers.", "In the preferred embodiment, the ferrule carriers would be inserted in connectors, such as is shown in FIG. 3 .", "The connectors would likely then be held within an adapter.", "The shell portions, such as 310 and the adapter are not shown in FIG. 11 for clarity.", "However, a suitable adapter is described in our co-pending US patent application entitled “Fiber Optic Bulkhead Connector”", "filed on the same date as the present application, which is incorporated by reference herein.", "[0089] Portions of ferrule carriers 810 A and 810 B. One shell piece 930 B of cap 830 is shown attached to ferrule carrier 810 B. Support 820 A of a ferrule carrier 810 A is shown.", "Ferrule carrier 810 A does not include a cap 830 because only one such cap is required to align a pair of ferrule carriers.", "[0090] As can be seen, ferrules 600 A and 600 B are aligned within channels 936 .", "Alignment sleeves 932 A or 932 B are not shown.", "However, they would be present in a preferred embodiment and would surround the mating interfaces of the ferrules within the channels 936 .", "[0091] The optical connection system described above has a modular design that simplifies the manufacture of optical interconnection systems.", "The carrier for single fiber ferrules can be assembled into an optical interconnection system using the same components as a multi-fiber ferrule connector.", "This feature allows a manufacturer or distributor of interconnection components to have a smaller number of component types that are each more widely used.", "There is an advantage to using many copies of one component type rather than needing to make a smaller number of more component types.", "[0092] Also, this compatibility allows a system to be designed for single fiber ferrule interconnects but upgraded to ferrules with more fibers if need changes.", "This upgrade can be performed by changing only the ferrule carrier, leaving the rest of the connector assembly, including adapters, latching members, etc.", "intact.", "[0093] Modularity of design is also employed in single fiber ferrule carriers.", "Even though only one ferrule carrier in a mating pair requires alignment features, the same basic design for each ferrule carrier can be used.", "A cap, which can be made as a separate module, can be added to one of the carriers to incorporate the alignment features.", "[0094] Having alignment features on the ferrule carriers means that no ferrule specific alignment features are required in an adapter.", "This feature has the further advantage of promoting modularity of the overall connector system.", "Changes in the specific ferrule design do not require changes in the adapater or other portions of the interconnection system except the ferrule carrier.", "[0095] Having thus described several aspects of at least one embodiment of this invention, it is to be appreciated various alterations, modifications, and improvements will readily occur to those skilled in the art.", "Such alterations, modifications, and improvements are intended to be part of this disclosure, and are intended to be within the spirit and scope of the invention.", "[0096] For example, a ferrule carrier is described as suitable for use with cylindrical ferrules.", "Such a ferrule carrier has round openings in a support member that generally match the outline of the ferrule.", "It is not necessary either that the ferrules used be cylindrical, that the openings through which the ferrule face is exposed are round or that the openings match the outline of the ferrule.", "The ferrule carrier might have a U-shaped section that provides support but still provides an opening through which the face of the ferrule is accessible while still providing support.", "Alternatively, ferrule carrier might employ a rigid sheet or beam with the ferrule mounted to it.", "Accordingly, many different shapes for support members may be used.", "[0097] Accordingly, the foregoing description and drawings are by way of example only." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to a data transfer interface and more particularly to a serial digital data interface system useful to disseminate digital data from a microprocessor or central station to any number of remote or slave stations as well as from any remote station to any other remote station or the microprocessor.", "Digital computer technology, numerical machine and process control, large scale integrated circuits and microcircuit sophistication are combining to produce a revolution in the field of manufacturing and production information gathering and dissemination.", "The operations performed in a subsequent operation may be dependent upon the precise conditions under which the previous operation was performed.", "Production data required by a machine performing one phase of a manufacturing process may be stored in a central memory unit.", "Thus there is a necessity for a constant flow of data along a production line--data that must be produced, routed, verified and received throughout a complex system.", "The requirement that any station be capable of receiving data from or transferring data to any or all other stations in the system is of some moment.", "One approach which requires a direct two-way interconnection between each station becomes intractable when the number of stations is great.", "Such an approach has often been abandoned in favor of a single data line along which the various stations are serially connected.", "A message is then preceded by an address code which identifies the station or stations to which it is addressed.", "The data is received and stored by every station in sequence.", "If the station is one to which the data were not addressed, the data would be retransmitted to the next, downstream station.", "Alternately, if the data were received by an addressed station, the data would be retained as well as retransmitted.", "Such a system has two shortcomings.", "First, since the data is transmitted ad seriatim through the stations, every station must be functioning in order for the data to be received by any downstream station.", "Secondly, a station cannot, without additional circuitry, transmit upstream, that is, it cannot transmit data to a station from which it receives data.", "Optical couplers including light emitting diodes have proven to be a highly practical method of digital data transmission and an exemplary transmission system employing them is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,970,784.", "This patent discloses digital data stations both having receive and transmit capability linked by a single bi-directional data line.", "It is clear, however, that if this system were to be used with multiple stations, it would be necessary to utilize a separate pair of data lines to interconnect each station with every other station.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The instant invention relates to a serial digital data information interface which overcomes the difficulties of prior art data interface systems.", "The interface includes a series string of photo-couplers or optical-isolation devices operating at the input and output of each data station.", "Each photo-coupler consists of a light source such as a light emitting diode (LED) optically coupled to a light responsive driven element such as a photo transistor or light dependent resistor (LDR).", "The light emitting diodes of two optical couplers are connected in series with the driven element (i.e., photo transistor) of the third coupler across the output of a direct current power supply.", "When a station is receiving data, the series driven element of the interface is intermittently shunted by the serial data pulses from an upstream transmitting station.", "Current is then allowed to flow through the two LEDs of the interface thereby generating light.", "The first LED drives an optically coupled driven element which retransmits the data to a subsequent or downstream station.", "The second LED activates an optically coupled driven element which supplies the data to the adjacent station.", "The system may be extended almost without limit and may further include a closed loop feature wherein the last station in the line retransmits the data to the initiating station.", "To transmit, the light emitting diode of the optical-coupler which is shunted by the upstream station when it is transmitting data is activated by the serial digital data pulses from the output of the adjacent station.", "Current then flows through the driven element, such as a photo transistor, and through the light emitting diodes of the other two photo-couplers in the interface.", "Not only are serial data pulses transmitted to the next station, but also the transmitting station is capable of verifying the transmission by the utilization of the photo-coupler output used to receive the data pulses.", "In a closed loop system any data station may thus transmit to any other data station.", "The interface is modified to prevent transmission through an interface while the associated station is transmitting.", "It is therefore an object of the instant invention to provide a data interface for use with serial digital data receiving and transmitting stations.", "It is a further object of the instant invention to provide a digital data interface which eliminates the storage and retransmittal of data within a station to which the data was not addressed.", "It is still a further object of the instant invention to provide a data interface system which is capable of closed loop operation.", "It is also an object of the instant invention to provide a serial digital data interface wherein each data station is capable of receiving and transmitting data from every other data station on a single pair of data lines.", "It is also an object of the instant invention to provide a digital data interface wherein each transmitting station is immediately capable of reading and verifying the data from the data lines on which it is currently transmitting.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic circuit diagram of a digital information system employing the instant invention;", "FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a closed loop digital information system having interfaces in accordance with a modified embodiment of the instant invention;", "and FIG. 3 is a schematic circuit diagram of the modified interfaces in the closed loop system of FIG. 2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to FIG. 1, a digital information system employing the instant invention is generally designated by the numeral 10.", "A microprocessor 12 provides serial digital data pulses on a pair of data lines 14.", "The microprocessor 12 may be of virtually any size and include any quantity of memory, computational and software devices.", "The microprocessor 12 is shown here solely as a representative source of digital information and should neither be construed as any part of the invention herein nor viewed as a limitation thereof.", "The digital information pulses from the microprocessor 12 are passive, that is to say, no voltage is produced in the line 14 by the microprocessor 12.", "Rather, in the zero signal or null state the data line 14 is open circuited by the microprocessor 12 and in the high or positive signal state the data lines 14 are shorted together in the microprocessor 12.", "The output of the microprocessor 12 on the data lines 14 is connected to an interface 21 at a first data station 22.", "The lines 14 are connected in the interface 21 to shunt a driven element, namely, a light dependent resistor (LDR) or photo transistor 18 which is part of a first photo-coupler 16.", "The first photo-coupler 16 also includes a light source, generally, a light emitting diode (LED) 20 in optical communication with the photo transistor 18.", "The light emitting diode 20 is connected to the data output of the first data station 22, the operation of which will be described subsequently.", "The photo transistor 18 of the photo-coupler 16 is connected in series with a light emitting diode 26 of a second photo-coupler 24 and another light emitting diode 32 of a third photo-coupler 30.", "The light emitting diodes 26 and 32 and the photo transistor 18 are connected in series with a current limiting resistor 36 across the output of a low voltage direct current power supply (not shown) which typically delivers a nominal five volts.", "The photo-coupler 24 includes a light dependent resistor or photo transistor 28 which is optically coupled to the light emitting diode 26.", "Finally, the photo-coupler 30 includes a light dependent resistor or photo transistor 34 which is optically coupled to the light emitting diode 32.", "The output of the photo transistor 34 is applied on a pair of data lines 38 to an interface 41 at a second data station 40 which is remote from the first data station 22.", "The interface 41 at the data station 40 is identical to data interface 21 and includes three photo-couplers 42, 44 and 46 which are operably connected as has been previously described in connection with the interface 21.", "The operation of the data interface is straightforward.", "The microprocessor 12 provides data pulses on the data lines 14 by alternately opening and short-circuiting the data lines 14 as has been previously described.", "The intermittent shunting of the photo transistor 18 which normally has a high impedance, lowers the resistance of the series circuit formed by the resistor 36, the light emitting diodes 26 and 32 and the photo transistor 18 to produce a current flow through the light emitting diodes 26 and 32 and resistor 36 from the DC power source.", "Light from the energized light emitting diodes 26 and 32 produces a resistance decrease or signal output from the associated light dependent resistors or photo transistors 28 and 34, respectively.", "The photo transistor 28 thus supplies the data pulses transmitted by the microprocessor 12 to the first data station 22.", "Likewise, the photo transistor 34 transmits the data pulses from the microprocessor 12 on the data lines 38 to the next data station 40.", "The data pulses in the data lines 38 are functionally identical to the data pulses on the data lines 14 from the microprocessor 12 and shunt the passive element, namely a light dependent resistor or photo transistor 43 in the photo-coupler 42, causing a current flow from a DC power source through the active elements, namely light emitting diodes 45 and 47 in the photo couplers 44 and 46, respectively.", "The output of the photo-coupler 44 supplies the pulsed data from the interface 21 to the data station 40 and the output of the photo-coupler 46 supplies the pulsed data information to the next data station (data station number 3) as is indicated in FIG. 1. Thus, it can be appreciated that the data interface system of the instant invention can be utilized in cascade to transmit and retransmit data pulses to any number of data stations within practical limits.", "It should be noted that data pulses from the microprocessor 12 will appear on the data lines 38 even when the data station 22 is not functioning, as when the station 22 is down for servicing.", "In order to transmit data, a data station, such as the first data station 22, pulses the light emitting diode 20 of the photo-coupler 16.", "This decreases the impedance of the drum element 18 which affects the series connected photo-couplers 24 and 30 in a fashion similar to the data pulses received on the data lines 14 from the microprocessor 12.", "Light generated by the light emitting diode 20 lowers the resistance of the photo transistor 18 which causes current to flow through it to illuminate the light emitting diodes 26 and 32.", "Light pulses from the diode 32 fall on the photo transistor 34 which reproduce the data pulses at its output connected to the data lines 38.", "Thus, the pulsed data is transmitted on the data lines 38 to the interface 41 at the second data station 40.", "Furthermore, the data pulses are available at the output of the photo transistor 28 of the photo-coupler 24 and readable by the data station 22 as an immediate check on the data transmitted by it.", "It can thus be appreciated that, as illustrated in FIG. 1, any data station may transmit data to any other station downstream of it and that any station may receive data from any other data station upstream of it.", "Digital data may be addressed to any one of a specific group of data stations by the use of address prefixes appended to the data.", "Each station is then programmed or connected to be responsive to a specific digital address.", "Furthermore, since data is transmitted around an unaddressed station in a system utilizing the instant invention, rather than through it, by incorporating dead band timing into the data stations, an unaddressed station may be designed to disregard a transmission not addressed to it.", "Basically, this feature requires circuitry or programming which deactivates the data input section of a data station once an address prefix for a different station has been detected on the data lines.", "The station continues to monitor the data lines for dead time.", "After an interval of dead time (e.g., seven milliseconds), the unaddressed data station will reactivate its data input section and monitor the data lines for a transmission addressed to it.", "Referring now to FIG. 2, a data interface system 49 of the instant invention is illustrated in a closed loop configuration.", "The system includes a central station 50 having an interface 51 connected to a microprocessor or other data gathering and distribution system 52 in a manner which has been previously described.", "A pair of data lines 53 transfers serially pulsed digital data to a first data terminal 54.", "The first data terminal 54 likewise includes the interface 55 connected to a data station 56.", "The output of the first data terminal 54 is carried in a pair of lines 57 to a second data terminal (not shown) and so on to an nth data terminal 58.", "The nth data terminal 58 likewise includes an interface 59 and a data station 60.", "The output of the nth data terminal 58 is returned over a pair of data lines 61 to the central station 50 and is connected through the interface 51 as an input signal to the processor 52 through the interface 51.", "The serial digital data system illustrated in FIG. 2 is a closed loop system and not only permits an immediate check by the processor 52 of data transmitted by it but also permits any data station in the data transmission system to transmit data to any other station either upstream or downstream from it since the data signal will be circulated about the entire closed loop system and return to the data generating station.", "By using an addressing system and dead band monitoring, any station can address any other station connected in the closed loop.", "The two stations then can communicate back and forth so long as the circuit is not allowed to be inactive for the predetermined dead band time.", "When the communication is completed and the circuit is dead for the predetermined time, all stations will become reactivated and any of the stations in the circuit can address and communicate with any other station.", "The interface shown in FIG. 1 does not work satisfactorily in a closed loop system such as that shown in FIG. 2. This is due to the fact that once one of the stations applies a data pulse to the loop, the entire loop goes to a high logic level.", "The high logic level will then continue indefinitely even after the data pulse is terminated by the transmitting station.", "Turning now to FIG. 3, a modified interface 70 is shown connected to a data station 71 which is arbitrarily designated station No. i. The station 71 may be any one of the stations including the microprocessor 52, the station 56 or the other stations in the closed loop of FIG. 2. The interface 70 has a pair of data input lines 73 which are connected to the output from the interface of the previous station in the closed loop and a pair of output data lines 74 which are connected to the input to the interface at the next data station in the closed loop.", "The interface 70 also has a pair of input data lines 75 from the station 71 and a pair of output data lines 76 connected to the station 71.", "The interface 70 generally comprises four optical couplers 77-80.", "A low voltage power supply, such as a conventional five volt DC power supply, is connected from a terminal 81 through a current limiting resistor 82, an LED 83 in the coupler 78, an LED 84 in the coupler 77, and the input data lines 73 to ground 85.", "When a data pulse is received on the lines 73 from the previous station, the circuit is completed to energize the LEDs 83 and 84.", "The LED 84 is optically coupled to a phototransistor 85 which is connected to the output lines 74 for applying the pulse to the next station in the closed loop.", "Similarly, the LED 83 in the photocoupler 78 is optically coupled to a phototransistor 86 which applies the received data pulse to the input lines 76 to the station 71.", "The photocouplers 79 and 80 operate when data is outputed from the station 71.", "Generally, the photocoupler 79 applies the output data from the station 71 to the output lines 74 and the photocoupler 80 inhibits a through transmission from the input lines 73 to the output lines 74.", "The photocoupler 79 includes an LED 87 and the photocoupler 80 includes an LED 88 which are connected in series across the output lines 75 from the station 71.", "When the station 71 applies an output pulse on the line 75, both LEDs 87 and 88 are energized.", "The energized LED 87 in the photocoupler 79 excites a phototransistor 89 which is connected across the output lines 74 in parallel with the phototransistor 85.", "Thus, the output data from the station 71 is applied over the line 74 to the next data station in the closed loop.", "The illuminated LED 88 excites a phototransistor 90 in the optical coupler 80.", "The phototransistor 90 is connected to shunt the diode 84 in the photocoupler 77.", "As a consequence, a data pulse received on the input lines 73 from the previous station in the closed loop is shunted around the photocoupler 77 while the station 71 is transmitting data.", "However, the input pulse received on the lines 73 will still illuminate the LED 83 in the photocoupler 78.", "This permits the data transmitted from the station 71 to pass around the entire loop to the photocoupler 78 and thence to the input lines 76 for the station 71 for verification.", "Since the data passing around the entire closed loop does not pass through the photocoupler 77, the closed loop will go to its normally low logic level when an output pulse from the station 71 is removed from the line 75.", "If desired, a relay may be connected between the input and output lines for each of the interfaces shown in either FIG. 1 of FIG. 3. The relay at each interface is normally maintained open by the low voltage power supply which drives the interface.", "In the event that the low voltage power supply fails or a station is shut down, the relay closes to connect the input lines for that station to the output lines for that station to maintain continuity in the system.", "It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications may be made to the preferred embodiment described above wthout departing from the spirit and scope of the following claims.", "As used herein, the term photo-coupler means any type of radiant energy coupling means having a sufficiently fast response time to handle the data transmitted in the system incorporating the interface." ]

[ "[0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Ser.", "No. 10/924270 filed Aug. 23, 2004 BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1.", "Field of the Invention [0003] The subject invention generally relates to a nozzle assembly for a kinetic spray system.", "[0004] 2.", "Description of the Related Art [0005] A nozzle assembly for a kinetic spray system typically comprises a mixing chamber for mixing a stream of powder particles under positive pressure with a flow of a heated gas.", "The mixing chamber is connected to a converging diverging deLaval type supersonic nozzle.", "The heated gas is also introduced into the mixing chamber under a positive pressure, which is set lower than the positive pressure of the stream of powder particles.", "In the mixing chamber, the flow of heated gas and the stream of powder particles mix together to form a gas/powder mixture.", "The gas powder mixture flows from the mixing chamber into the supersonic nozzle, where the powder particles are accelerated to a velocity between the range of 200 to 1,300 meters per second.", "[0006] U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 2005/0214474 A1 (the '474 application) discloses a deLaval type nozzle assembly for a kinetic spray system.", "The nozzle assembly includes a convergent portion defining an inlet and an outlet.", "The outlet is in spaced relationship relative to the inlet.", "A divergent portion defines an entrance and an exit, with the exit in spaced relationship relative to the entrance.", "A throat portion interconnects the outlet of the convergent portion and the entrance of the divergent portion.", "The convergent portion, the throat portion, and the divergent portion define a passage therethrough having a perimeter narrowing between the inlet and the outlet of the convergent portion, and expanding between the entrance and the exit of the divergent portion.", "[0007] During operation of the nozzle assembly, such as the nozzle assembly disclosed in the '474 application, the particles exit the nozzle and adhere to a substrate placed opposite the nozzle assembly, provided that a critical velocity has been exceeded.", "The critical velocity of the powder particles is dependent upon its material composition and its size.", "Higher density particles generally need a higher velocity to adhere to the substrate.", "Additionally, it is more difficult to accelerate larger powder particles.", "Accordingly, the coating density and deposition efficiency of the particles can be very low with harder to spray powder particles.", "The velocity of the powder particles, upon exiting the nozzle assembly, varies inversely to the size and the density of the powder particles.", "Increasing the velocity of the flow of heated gas increases the velocity of the powder particles upon exiting the nozzle assembly.", "However, there is a limit to the achievable velocity of the flow of heated gas within the kinetic spray system.", "Thus, there is a need to improve the nozzle assembly to increase the velocity of the powder particles to improve adherence to the substrate of hard to spray powder particles having a high density and a larger size.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION AND ADVANTAGES [0008] The subject invention provides a nozzle assembly for a kinetic spray system.", "The nozzle assembly comprises a convergent portion defining an inlet and an outlet.", "The outlet is in spaced relationship relative to the inlet.", "A divergent portion defines an entrance and an exit, with the exit in spaced relationship relative to the entrance.", "A throat portion interconnects the outlet of the convergent portion and the entrance of the divergent portion.", "The convergent portion, the throat portion, and the divergent portion define a passage therethrough.", "The passage includes a perimeter narrowing between the inlet and the outlet of the convergent portion, and expanding between the entrance and the exit of the divergent portion.", "An extension portion further defines the passage and extends from the exit of the divergent portion to a distal end spaced a pre-determined length from the exit.", "The perimeter of the passage defined by the extension portion is at least equal to or greater than the perimeter of the passage defined by the exit of the divergent portion.", "[0009] The subject invention also provides a method of coating a substrate with a powder applied by the kinetic spray system.", "The method comprises the steps of mixing the powder with a flow of heated gas;", "directing the flow of heated gas through the convergent portion, the throat portion, and the divergent portion of the nozzle assembly to accelerate the flow of heated gas and provide a drag force to act upon the powder to accelerate the powder;", "and passing the accelerated flow of heated gas and the powder through the extension portion of the nozzle assembly to provide additional time for the drag force of the flow of heated gas to act upon the powder to further accelerate the powder to a critical velocity.", "[0010] Accordingly, the subject invention increases the overall length of the nozzle assembly while limiting an expansion ratio of the passage over the pre-determined length of the extension portion to avoid any negative effects that occur by merely extending the divergent portion.", "This increases the amount of time a stream of powder particles is exposed to a dragging force created by a flow of a heated gas through the nozzle assembly.", "This increased exposure of the stream of powder particles to the dragging force provides more time for the dragging force to accelerate the powder particles to an increased velocity not previously achievable.", "The increased velocity of the powder particles improves the ability of the kinetic spray system to adhere hard to spray materials such as high density and larger sized powder particles.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0011] Other advantages of the present invention will be readily appreciated, as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein: [0012] FIG. 1 is a schematic layout illustrating a kinetic spray system;", "[0013] FIG. 2 is a cross sectional view of a nozzle for use in the kinetic spray system;", "[0014] FIG. 3 is an enlarged cross sectional view of an extension portion of the nozzle;", "[0015] FIG. 4 is an end view of the extension portion of the nozzle shown in FIG. 3 ;", "[0016] FIG. 5 is an enlarged cross sectional view of an alternative embodiment of the extension portion of the nozzle;", "[0017] FIG. 6 is an end view of the alternative embodiment of the extension portion of the nozzle shown in FIG. 5 ;", "[0018] FIG. 7 is a cross sectional view of an alternative embodiment of a conditioning chamber for the nozzle;", "[0019] FIG. 8 is a cross sectional view of an alternative embodiment of the nozzle showing an alternative method of injecting a powder into a high pressure gas flowing through the nozzle;", "and [0020] FIG. 9 is an end view an alternative embodiment of the extension portion of the nozzle showing a circular cross section.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0021] The present invention comprises an improvement to the kinetic spray system and nozzle assembly 20 as generally described in U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 2005/0214474 A1;", "U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,139,913 and 6,283,386;", "and the article by Van Steenkiste, et al.", "entitled “Kinetic Spray Coatings”", "published in Surface and Coatings Technology Volume III, Pages 62-72, Jan. 10, 1999.", "The disclosures of which are all herein incorporated by reference.", "[0022] Referring to the Figures, wherein like numerals indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views, a kinetic spray system is generally shown at 20 .", "Referring to FIG. 1 , the kinetic spray system 20 applies a coating of powder particles 22 to a substrate material 24 .", "A flow of heated gas suspends the powder particles 22 , which are then sprayed onto the substrate 24 at high velocities.", "As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,139,913 the substrate material 24 may be comprised of any of a wide variety of materials including a metal, an alloy, a plastic, a polymer, a ceramic, a wood, a semiconductor, or any combination and mixture of these materials.", "The powder particles 22 used in the kinetic spray system 20 may comprise any of the materials disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,139,913 and 6,283,386 in addition to other known powder particles 22 .", "These powder particles 22 generally comprise a metal, an alloy, a ceramic, a polymer, a diamond, a metal coated ceramic, a semiconductor, or any combination and mixture of these materials.", "Preferably, the particles have an average nominal diameter between the ranges of 1 micron to 250 microns.", "[0023] The kinetic spray system 20 includes an enclosure 26 in which a support table 28 or other support device is located.", "A mounting panel 30 is fixed to the support table 28 , and supports a work holder 32 .", "The work holder 32 is capable of movement in three dimensions and is able to support a suitable work piece.", "The work piece is formed from the substrate material 24 that is to be coated.", "The enclosure 26 includes surrounding walls defining at least one air inlet (not shown) and at least one air outlet 34 connected by a suitable exhaust conduit 36 to a dust collector (not shown).", "During operation of the kinetic spray system 20 the dust collector continually draws air from within the enclosure 26 , and collects any dust or particles contained in the air for subsequent disposal before exhausting the air.", "[0024] The kinetic spray system 20 further includes a gas compressor 38 capable of supplying a flow of a gas at a pressure up to 3.4 MPa (500 psi) to a ballast tank 40 .", "Many different gases may be utilized in the kinetic spray system 20 including air, helium, argon, nitrogen, or some other noble gas.", "The ballast tank 40 is in fluid communication with a powder feeder 42 and a gas heater 44 through a system 20 of lines 46 .", "The gas heater 44 supplies a flow of heated gas, the heated main gas described below, to a nozzle assembly 48 .", "The powder feeder 42 mixes the powder particles 22 to be sprayed into a stream of unheated gas and supplies the mixture of unheated gas and powder particles 22 to a supplemental inlet line 50 to supply the nozzle assembly 48 with the powder particles 22 .", "A computer 52 controls the pressure of the gas supplied to the gas heater 44 and to the powder feeder 42 , and the temperature of the heated main gas exiting the gas heater 44 .", "[0025] Referring to FIG. 2 , a main gas passage 54 connects the gas heater 44 to the nozzle assembly 48 .", "A premix chamber 56 is connected to the main gas passage 54 and directs the heated main gas through a flow straightener 58 and into a mixing chamber 60 .", "The mixing chamber 60 mixes the powder particles 22 into the flow of heated main gas to suspend the powder particles 22 in the heated main gas.", "Preferably, the mixing chamber 60 is disposed upstream of a conditioning chamber 62 (described below).", "A temperature of the heated main gas is monitored by a temperature thermocouple 64 in the main gas passage 54 , and a pressure sensor 68 connected to the mixing chamber 60 monitors a pressure of the heated main gas.", "[0026] A powder injector tube 70 is in fluid communication with the supplemental inlet line 50 and directs the mixture of the gas and the powder particles 22 to the mixing chamber 60 to supply the mixing chamber 60 with the powder particles 22 .", "The powder injection tube extends through the premix chamber 56 and the flow straightener 58 into the mixing chamber 60 .", "Preferably, the injector tube has an inner diameter between the ranges of 0.3 millimeters to 3.0 millimeters, and is aligned collinear with a central axis C of the nozzle assembly 48 .", "[0027] The conditioning chamber 62 is positioned between the powder-gas mixing chamber 60 and a convergent portion 72 (described below) of the nozzle assembly 48 .", "The conditioning chamber 62 increases the temperature of the powder particles 22 prior to mixing the powder particles 22 with the heated main gas flowing through the nozzle assembly 48 .", "Preferably, as shown in FIG. 2 , the conditioning chamber 62 is disposed upstream of the convergent portion 72 .", "The conditioning chamber 62 includes a length along a longitudinal axis B, preferably collinear with the central axis C of the nozzle assembly 48 .", "The interior of the conditioning chamber 62 has a cylindrical shape having an interior diameter equal to the inlet 77 of the convergent portion 72 of the nozzle assembly 48 .", "The conditioning chamber 62 releasably engages the convergent portion 72 of the nozzle assembly 48 and the powder-gas mixing chamber 60 .", "Preferably, the releasable engagement is by correspondingly engaging threads (not shown) between the exchange chamber, the convergent portion 72 , and the conditioning chamber 62 respectively.", "It should be understood, however, that the releasable engagement may be through other devices such as a snap fit connection, a bayonet-type connection, or some other suitable type of connection.", "The length along the longitudinal axis B is preferably at least 20 millimeters or longer.", "The optimal length of the conditioning chamber 62 depends on the particles that are being sprayed and the substrate material 24 .", "The optimal length can be determined experimentally, but is preferably between the ranges of 20 millimeters to 1000 millimeters.", "[0028] As best shown in FIG. 3 , the nozzle assembly 48 includes the convergent portion 72 , which defines an inlet 77 and an outlet 74 .", "The outlet 74 is in spaced relationship relative to the inlet 77 .", "A divergent portion 76 defines an entrance 78 and an exit 80 , with the exit 80 being in spaced relationship relative to the entrance 78 .", "A throat portion 82 interconnects the outlet 74 of the convergent portion 72 and the entrance 78 of the divergent portion 76 .", "The convergent portion 72 , the throat portion 82 , and the divergent portion 76 form a de Laval type converging diverging nozzle as is known in the art, and cooperate together to define a passage 66 therethrough.", "The passage 66 includes a perimeter 84 , which narrows between the inlet 77 and the outlet 74 of the convergent portion 72 and expands between the entrance 78 and the exit 80 of the divergent portion 76 .", "An extension portion 86 further defines the passage 66 and extends from the exit 80 of the divergent portion 76 to a distal end 88 spaced a pre-determined length L from the exit 80 .", "The pre-determined length L of the extension portion 86 is between the ranges of 20 millimeters and 1,000 millimeters.", "Accordingly, the nozzle assembly 48 includes an overall length spanning the convergent portion 72 , the throat portion 82 , the divergent portion 76 , and the extension portion 86 between the ranges of 100 millimeters and 1,500 millimeters.", "[0029] Based on aerodynamics, a drag force is applied to the powder particles 22 by the flow of heated main gas.", "The drag force may be expressed by the equation: D = 1 2 · C p · ρ g · ( V g - V p ) 2 · A p .", "1 [0030] Wherein C p is a drag coefficient, ρ g is a density of the heated main gas, V g is a velocity of the heated main gas, V p is a velocity of the powder particles 22 , and A p is an average cross sectional area of the powder particles 22 .", "The drag force accelerates the powder particles 22 to a critical velocity.", "It has been discovered that there is a wasted potential in the drag force because the powder particles 22 are not exposed to the drag force for a long enough period of time, i.e., the powder particles 22 may achieve a higher velocity if the powder particles 22 are exposed to the drag force for a longer period of time.", "Accordingly, by adding the extension portion 86 onto the divergent portion 76 of the nozzle assembly 48 , the powder particles 22 are exposed to the drag force for a longer period of time, thereby minimizing the wasted potential, and thereby maximizing the drag force applied to the powder particles 22 .", "[0031] The heated main gas flows through the convergent portion 72 , throat portion 82 , and then into the divergent portion 76 , where the heated main gas accelerates to high velocities.", "As the velocity of the heated main gas increases, the density of the heated main gas decreases.", "This is evident with reference to the conservation of mass within the nozzle assembly 48 expressed by the equation: f=A·V g ·ρ g 2.", "[0032] Wherein f is a mass flow rate of the heated main gas, A is a cross sectional area of the perimeter 84 of the nozzle assembly 48 at any given location within the passage 66 , V g is the velocity of the heated main gas, and ρ g is the density of the heated main gas.", "The decrease in the density of the heated main gas negatively affects the drag force.", "Additionally, an expansion ratio defined as a rate of change of the perimeter 84 of the passage 66 over a distance along the central axis C extending through the passage 66 limits the increase in the velocity achievable in the divergent portion 76 .", "As the heated main gas flows through the divergent portion 76 , a boundary layer near an outer wall of the nozzle assembly 48 develops, and tends to separate, creating a shock wave in the flow of heated main gas.", "The shock wave significantly decreases the velocity of the heated main gas.", "Accordingly, it is not effective to merely extend the divergent portion 76 of the nozzle assembly 48 outward.", "Therefore, the perimeter 84 of the passage 66 defined by the extension portion 86 is at least equal to or greater than the perimeter 84 of the passage 66 defined by the exit 80 of the divergent portion 76 .", "It should be understood that the perimeter 84 of the passage 66 defines a cross sectional shape.", "Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4 , the cross sectional shape defined by the perimeter 84 may be uniform throughout the pre-determined length L of the extension portion 86 .", "It should be understood that the uniform cross sectional shape of the extension portion 86 includes an expansion ratio equal to zero or negligibly small.", "Alternatively, referring to FIGS. 5 and 6 , the cross sectional shape of the perimeter 84 defined by the extension portion 86 may slightly increase in area relative to the exit 80 of the divergent portion 76 as the extension portion 86 extends from the exit 80 of the divergent portion 76 to the distal end 88 of the extension portion 86 .", "Nevertheless, the slightly increasing cross sectional shape defined by the extension portion 86 includes a significantly smaller expansion ratio relative to the expansion ratio of the divergent portion 76 .", "The uniform cross sectional shape and the alternative slightly increasing cross sectional shape defined by the perimeter 84 of the extension portion 86 permit the drag force to act on the powder particles 22 for a longer period of time without significantly decreasing the density of the heated gas, and also without creating the shock wave within the flow of heated gas.", "[0033] As described above, the expansion ratio of the passage 66 defined by the divergent portion 76 is greater than the expansion ratio of the passage 66 defined by the extension portion 86 .", "This permits the heated main gas to flow through the extension portion 86 without continuing to decrease the density of the heated main gas and to avoid shock waves in the heated main gas.", "While it is contemplated that the divergent portion 76 may include a constant expansion ratio as shown in FIGS. 3 and 5 , the expansion ratio of the divergent portion 76 preferably continuously decreases from the entrance 78 to the exit 80 of the divergent portion 76 as shown in FIG. 7 .", "This may further be described as having a parabolic or curved shape that continuously diverges from the central axis C at a continuously decreasing rate as the distance from the entrance 78 of the divergent portion 76 increases in a direction toward the exit 80 of the divergent portion 76 .", "The parabolic or curved shaped divergent portion 76 provides the greatest possible expansion ratio immediately downstream of the throat portion 82 , thereby rapidly increasing the velocity of the heated main gas near the throat portion 82 than near the extension portion 86 to maximize the velocity difference between the heated main gas and the powder particles 22 and to increase the drag force applied on the powder particles 22 .", "Accordingly, the divergent portion 76 has the largest expansion ratio nearest the throat portion 82 , and the smallest expansion ratio at the exit 80 of the divergent portion 76 .", "As a result, the gas pressure at the divergent portion 76 drops rapidly due to a high expansion ratio.", "This allows the powder particles 22 to be injected by a low pressure powder feeder 42 through the powder injector tube 70 as shown in FIG. 7 .", "[0034] The cross section of the perimeter 84 defined by the divergent portion 76 and the extension portion 86 may include a variety of shapes, but preferably includes a rectangular shape.", "The rectangular shaped cross section of the perimeter 84 defined by the extension portion 86 at the distal end 88 includes a long dimension between the range of 6.0 millimeters and 24.0 millimeters and a short dimension between the range of 1.0 millimeters and 6.0 millimeters.", "Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 9 , the perimeter 84 of the passage 66 defined by the divergent portion 76 and the extension portion 86 may define a cross section having a circular shape.", "[0035] Preferably, as indicated in FIG. 5 , the extension portion 86 is releasably attached to the divergent portion 76 .", "The releasable attachment may be by correspondingly engaging threads between the divergent portion 76 and the extension portion 86 , a snap fit connection, a bayonet type connection, or some other suitable connection.", "However, as shown in FIG. 3 , it is contemplated that the extension portion 86 may be integrally formed with the divergent portion 76 as a single unit.", "[0036] The perimeter 84 of the passage 66 defined by the throat portion 82 defines a cross section.", "As shown in FIG. 9 , the cross section may include a circular shape.", "The circular shaped cross section of the throat may include a diameter between the ranges of 1.0 millimeters and 5.0 millimeters.", "However, it should be understood that the cross section of the throat portion 82 may include other shapes.", "Preferably, referring to FIGS. 4 and 6 , the cross section of the throat portion 82 includes an elliptical shape.", "Excessive wear in the rectangular shaped cross section of the divergent portion 76 adjacent the throat portion 82 has been noticed.", "The excessive wear negatively affects the performance of the nozzle assembly 48 .", "The excessive wear has been attributed to rapid radial expansion of the heated main gas and powder particles 22 exiting the circular shaped cross section of the throat portion 82 .", "This excessive wear is reduced by elongating the cross section of the throat portion 82 .", "Accordingly, the elliptically shaped cross section of the throat portion 82 helps minimize the excessive wear noticed in the rectangular shaped cross section of the divergent portion 76 .", "[0037] Referring to FIGS. 7 and 8 , an alternative embodiment of the nozzle assembly 48 is shown.", "In the alternative embodiment, the particle injector tube interconnects the conditioning chamber 62 and the divergent portion 76 of the nozzle assembly 48 to supply the powder particles 22 to the divergent portion 76 of the nozzle assembly 48 .", "The mixing chamber 60 is disposed within the divergent portion 76 , adjacent the throat portion 82 , for mixing the powder particles 22 with the flow of heated main gas in the divergent portion 76 of the nozzle assembly 48 as the heated main gas enters the divergent portion 76 from the throat portion 82 .", "In the alternative embodiment, the longitudinal axis B of the conditioning chamber 62 is not collinear with the central axis C, and in fact, the conditioning chamber 62 is separated form the nozzle assembly 48 .", "The particle injector tube interconnects in fluid communication the conditioning chamber 62 and the mixing chamber 60 within the divergent portion 76 .", "Powder buildup and clogging of the throat portion 82 is thereby minimized by providing the powder particles 22 directly into the divergent portion 76 of the nozzle assembly 48 instead of directing the powder particles 22 through the throat portion 82 .", "In the alternative embodiment, the gas pressure in the divergent portion 76 drops rapidly due to the high expansion ratio.", "This enables the powder particles 22 to be injected at a lower pressure (less than 100 psi), compared to the preferred embodiment shown in FIG. 2 , which injects the powder particles 22 at a higher pressure (typically greater than 300 psi).", "Furthermore, a detached conditioning chamber 62 may be included that uses external heating to heat the powder particles 22 to an elevated temperature (up to 80% of the melting temperature of the powder particles 22 ).", "The detached conditioning chamber 62 is in fluid communication with the divergent portion 76 through the powder injector tube 70 , as shown in FIG. 7 .", "Alternatively, the detached conditioning chamber 62 may also be in fluid communication with the premix chamber 56 through the powder injector tube 70 , as shown in FIG. 2 .", "[0038] The foregoing invention has been described in accordance with the relevant legal standards;", "thus, the description is exemplary rather than limiting in nature.", "Variations and modifications to the disclosed embodiments may become apparent to those skilled in the art and do come within the scope of the invention.", "Accordingly, the scope of legal protection afforded this invention can only be determined by studying the following claims." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] This invention pertains to a molding unit for molding closures onto containers.", "More particularly, this invention pertains to a molding unit for directly injection molding a closure onto a paperboard container.", "Consumers have come to recognize and appreciate resealable closures for containers to store, for example, liquid food products and the like.", "These resealable closures permit ready access to the product while providing the ability to reseal the container to prolong the life and freshness of the product.", "Typically, the containers or cartons are formed from a composite of paperboard material having one or more polymer coatings or layers to establish a liquid impervious structure.", "[0002] In known containers having such closures, the closures, which are formed in a separate process and transported to the packaging process, are conventionally affixed to the containers as part of the overall form, fill and seal operation.", "Typically, the closures are affixed to the partially erected carton prior to filling the carton with product.", "One known method for affixing the closure to the carton uses an ultrasonic welding process.", "In this process, the carton is partially erected and the closure is brought into contact with the carton, overlying an opening in the carton.", "Subsequently, an anvil is placed against the carton material and an ultrasonic horn is brought into contact with a flange of the closure.", "The ultrasonic horn is actuated which ultrasonically welds the flange to the carton material.", "[0003] Another method for affixing closures to cartons uses an induction heating process.", "In this process, again, an anvil is placed on the carton material and an induction sealing head is brought into contact with the flange.", "A current is induced in the induction sealing head which, again, results in welding the flange to the carton.", "[0004] In still another method for incorporating such closures onto paperboard cartons, a mold tool is closed over the carton (having an open area around which the closure is formed).", "The tool includes internal and external tool portions that are positioned at the interior and exterior regions of the carton, respectively.", "[0005] Such an arrangement is disclosed in Lees et al.", ", U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,467,238 and 6,536,187, which patents are commonly assigned with the present application and are incorporated herein by reference.", "In the Lees et al.", "patent, internal and external tools form inner and outer surfaces of the mold cavity.", "The internal tool is stationary and is rigidly mounted to a mandrel for supporting the carton during the molding process.", "The internal tool further includes a bore for receiving a sprue bushing (or injecting the plastic) and a gate through which the liquefied plastic flows into the cavity.", "[0006] A pair of external tools compress the carton against the internal tool.", "The external tools are mounted to a press mechanism to provide two-directional movement of the external tools.", "One direction of movement is toward and way from the internal tool and the other direction of movement moves the external tool halves toward and away from one another.", "When the external tools are pressed against one another and pressed against the internal tool, the tools collectively form the mold cavity into which the polymer is injected.", "[0007] While this arrangement functions well, it has been found that it is quite cumbersome and requires a configuration, at angles, of parts to insert into the carton interior for introducing the molten plastic (at the carton interior) for injection into the mold.", "It has also been found that with the internally-injected arrangement, the carton must move in a direction that is perpendicular to the surface onto which the closure is molded.", "This tends to reduce carton handling reliability.", "Moreover, it has been observed that this can limit the size and type or configuration of the closure that can be molded onto the carton.", "As such, standing alone such a system configuration is quite acceptable.", "However, in that the closure molding process and system must be integrated into an overall form, fill and seal process and machine, the injection molding system in which plastic is introduced into the mold from the interior of the carton, adversely impacts overall system integration and the final carton/closure product.", "[0008] Accordingly, there exists a need for a molding system for directly molding resealable closures onto cartons.", "Such a system includes a plastic injection site that is at an exterior region of the carton.", "Desirably, such a system is configured for integration into existing form, fill and seal packaging machine systems.", "BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0009] A form, fill and seal packaging machine is configured to mold a closure directly onto a carton.", "The machine includes a carton erection station to receive and erect a carton and a direct injection molding station.", "[0010] The molding station has an internal mold tool for receipt in the carton, and an external mold tool set.", "The internal tool and external tool set are configured to receive and secure a portion of the carton therebetween and define a mold cavity with the portion of the carton disposed therein.", "The external mold tool set defines an opening for receiving a polymer injection system to inject polymer into the mold cavity.", "[0011] A closure is directly molded in place on the carton, with the polymer encapsulating the inner peripheral edge of the carton opening that is disposed within the mold cavity.", "The packaging machine also includes a filling station for filling the carton and a sealing station for forming a seal on the carton.", "[0012] Such a system includes a plastic injection site that is at an exterior region of the carton.", "A preferred system is configured for integration into existing form, fill and seal packaging machine systems.", "[0013] In a preferred system, the external tool set is formed having first and second portions configured to move toward and engage one another in a closed position and away from one another in an open position, such that the internal tool moves toward the external tool set and engages the external tool set to define the mold cavity.", "[0014] In one embodiment, the molding station includes a frame to which a mandrel is mounted onto which the carton is mounted during molding of the closure.", "The internal mold tool is mounted to the mandrel, and the mandrel is moved toward and away from the external tool set by a drive.", "A clamp assembly engages the external tool set to maintain the tool set portions engaged with one another during molding of the closure.", "[0015] A preferred molding system includes a carton stop surface located to properly longitudinally position the carton between the internal tool and the external tool set and to properly position the inner peripheral edge of the carton opening in the mold cavity.", "In such an arrangement, the carton stop surface is formed on the internal tool.", "The external tool set includes a recess for mating with the carton stop surface.", "[0016] In a present molding system, a carton centering element is located to properly laterally position the carton between the internal tool and the external tool set and to properly position the inner peripheral edge of the carton opening in the mold cavity.", "The centering element is disposed on the internal tool and is received in the external tool recess.", "[0017] The tool set (that is, the internal or external tool) includes a stop wall that is adapted to engage the other of the tools.", "The stop wall is configured to space the internal and external tools from one another a precise and predetermined distance to properly define the mold cavity.", "[0018] The internal mold tool includes a plug portion extending outwardly therefrom.", "A plurality of carton gripping elements are formed in the tool with that gripping elements being disposed adjacent the plug and within the mold cavity.", "In a present tool, the carton gripping elements are disposed in a shallow well, peripherally around the plug, and oriented generally radially relative to the plug.", "[0019] Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description, the accompanying drawings, and the appended claims.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS [0020] The benefits and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the relevant art after reviewing the following detailed description and accompanying drawings, wherein: [0021] FIG. 1 is a side view of a form, fill and seal packaging machine and a carton magazine/erector with a closure forming device (molding unit) embodying the principles of the present invention disposed between the magazine and the packaging machine and further illustrating an associated carton transfer unit positioned above the molding unit;", "[0022] FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the molding unit and transfer unit, the molding unit being positioned on a cart within a frame (that supports the transfer unit), the frame and molding unit cart being positioned between the magazine and the packaging machine;", "[0023] FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the molding unit as supported on the cart within the frame;", "[0024] FIG. 4 is a perspective side view of the molding unit shown removed from the cart and frame for ease of illustration;", "[0025] FIG. 5 is a perspective side view of the molding unit shown from the opposite side of that of FIG. 4 and which, similar to FIG. 4 , is shown removed from the cart and frame for ease of illustration;", "[0026] FIG. 6 is a perspective illustration of the molding unit showing one of the molding stations and illustrating a carton as it is inserted onto the molding unit mandrel, the molding unit being shown with the external tools separated;", "[0027] FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the carton inserted onto the mandrel and the external tools closed for molding the closure;", "[0028] FIG. 8 is a top view illustrating the internal tool moved forward into engagement with the external tools and the external tools closed;", "[0029] FIG. 9 is a top view illustrating the internal tool moved rearward (for loading the carton onto or removing the carton from the mandrel) and with the external tool clamp disengaged from the external tools;", "[0030] FIG. 10 is a top view of the molding unit showing the external tools in the closed position and showing the clamp in the engaged position;", "[0031] FIG. 11 is a top view of the molding unit showing the external tools in the closed position but with the clamp in the disengaged position;", "[0032] FIG. 12 is a partial cross-sectional view of the molding components showing the needle positioned within the sprue bushing and the sprue bushing positioned within the internal mold tool;", "[0033] FIG. 13 is an enlarged partial view showing the internal tool engaged with one of the external tool portions;", "[0034] FIG. 14A is a perspective view of the external tools engaged with one another;", "[0035] FIG. 14B is a perspective view of the internal tool for use with the external tools of FIG. 14A ;", "[0036] FIGS. 15 and 16 illustrate alternate embodiments of the internal tool;", "[0037] FIG. 17 is a schematic illustration of the mold tools engaged with one another to form the mold cavity;", "[0038] FIG. 18 illustrates an exemplary closure molded to a carton (shown in part);", "and [0039] FIG. 19 illustrates a portion of an exemplary carton having a single, central centering notch for use with the present molding unit.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0040] While the present invention is susceptible of embodiment in various forms, there is shown in the drawings and will hereinafter be described a presently preferred embodiment with the understanding that the present disclosure is to be considered an exemplification of the invention and is not intended to limit the invention to the specific embodiment illustrated.", "[0041] It should be further understood that the title of this section of this specification, namely, “Detailed Description Of The Invention”, relates to a requirement of the United States Patent Office, and does not imply, nor should be inferred to limit the subject matter disclosed herein.", "[0042] In the present disclosure, the words “a”", "or “an”", "are to be taken to include both the singular and the plural.", "Conversely, any reference to plural items shall, where appropriate, include the singular.", "[0043] Referring now to the figures in particular to FIG. 1 there is shown an exemplary form, fill and seal packaging machine 10 having a molding unit 12 embodying the principles of the present invention interposed between a carton magazine/erector 14 and a carton bottom sealing station machine turret 16 .", "A transfer unit 18 is positioned over the molding unit 12 .", "[0044] The transfer unit 18 and molding unit 12 are mounted at a transfer unit frame 20 (with the molding unit 12 mounted to a cart 22 residing within the frame 20 ), that is disposed between the magazine/erector 14 and the form, fill and seal machine 10 .", "An exemplary form, fill and seal machine 10 can be such as that disclosed in Katsumata, U.S. Pat. No. 6,012,267, which patent is commonly assigned with the present application and is incorporated herein by reference.", "[0045] A carton C is transferred from the carton magazine/erector 14 and is delivered to the molding unit 12 by the transfer unit 18 .", "Following molding of the closure S, the carton C is removed from the molding unit 12 and is transferred, again by the transfer unit 18 , to the carton mandrels 24 on the machine turret 16 for bottom forming and sealing.", "The transfer unit 18 is disclosed in copending U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 10/763,893 to Breidenbach et al.", ", which application is commonly assigned with the present application, and which application is incorporated herein by reference.", "[0046] It was found that although the molding device disclosed in the aforementioned Lees et al.", "patents functions well, the carton has to move in a direction that is perpendicular to the direction (plane) of the carton surface onto which the closure is molded.", "This tends to reduce carton handling reliability.", "Moreover, it has been found that this can limit the size and type or configuration of the closure that can be molded onto the carton.", "[0047] As seen in FIG. 1 , a molding unit 12 embodying the principles of the present invention includes a frame 26 and carries a plurality of mandrels 28 onto which cartons C are positioned for molding of the closures S. The illustrated molding unit 12 includes four molding stations 30 , each having a mandrel 28 , onto which cartons C are loaded for simultaneous closure S molding.", "It will be appreciated that the number of stations 30 can vary depending upon the desired arrangement.", "[0048] The station 30 is mounted to the frame 26 .", "The station 30 includes a polymer injection system 32 having a needle 34 , and a sprue bushing 36 , as disclosed in the aforementioned patent to Lees et al.", "The station 30 further includes an internal tool or mold 38 , the mandrel 28 , and a mandrel cap 40 mounted to the mandrel 28 .", "The internal tool 38 is mounted to the mandrel 28 for insertion into the carton C (e.g., for positioning the carton C on the mandrel 28 over the tool 38 ) for closure S molding.", "The station 30 also includes an external tool or mold 42 that is formed from mating external tool portions 42 a,b (or halves) that mate with one another and with the internal tool 38 (with the carton C between the internal and external tools 38 , 42 ).", "[0049] The frame 26 is provided for structure and for mounting the system components.", "The frame 26 supports the mandrels 28 on which the cartons C reside for molding.", "[0050] The mandrel 28 is mounted to the frame 26 by a reciprocating element 44 , such as the illustrated hydraulic cylinder.", "A shaft assembly 46 is mounted to the frame 26 , extending parallel to the cylinder 44 extension, to assure straight, even movement of the mandrel 28 .", "To this end, the mandrel 28 “slides”", "along the shaft assembly 46 .", "Guide rollers (not shown) are operably mounted to the frame 26 for contact with the mandrel 28 to prevent rotational movement of the mandrel 28 .", "The mandrel 28 is moved by the cylinder 44 toward and away from a rigid, fixed chassis plate 50 .", "The chassis plate 50 is rigidly mounted to the frame 26 .", "The pressure generated by the cylinder 44 holds the mandrels 28 in place during molding.", "[0051] The internal mold tool 38 is mounted to the mandrel 28 and the external mold tool 42 is operably and movably mounted to the chassis plate 50 .", "The internal mold tool 38 includes a plug portion 52 that defines the inside of the closure S spout.", "Conversely, the external tool 42 defines the outer bounds of a cavity 54 that defines the outside of the closure S spout.", "When the internal and external tools 38 , 42 are mated with one another, they define the cavity 54 that spatially defines the closure S. [0052] The polymer injection system 32 is that portion of the molding unit 12 that receives the polymer (e.g., in a solid, such as pellet form), liquefies the polymer and transports (injects) it to the closure mold tools 38 , 42 .", "A contemplated polymer injection system can be such as that disclosed in the aforementioned patents to Lees et al.", "[0053] Referring again to FIGS. 6-9 , the mandrels 28 move longitudinally toward and away from the external mold tools 42 by action of the cylinder 44 .", "The external tools 42 are split tools, that is, each of the external tools 42 is formed from first and second tool portions 42 a and 42 b (or halves) that move toward and away from each other.", "The external tools 42 move laterally or transverse to the direction that the mandrels 28 move.", "Thus, when the external tool portions 42 a,b separate and the mandrel 28 moves away from the external tools 42 , the mold is fully open.", "[0054] Each of the first external tool portions 42 a move by action of a single drive element, such as the exemplary pneumatic cylinder 56 and reciprocating drive rod 60 that are mounted to each of the first tool portions 42 a and each of the second tool portions 42 b move by action of a single drive element, such as the exemplary pneumatic cylinder 58 .", "The cylinder 56 rod (not shown) is mounted to the frame 26 and the cylinder body 56 is mounted to a yoke 57 .", "The yoke 57 is attached to a pair of drive rods 60 (one shown) that traverse through a side of the frame 26 and through each of the first and second tool portions, 42 a and 42 b but is affixed or mounted to only the first tool portions 42 a. [0055] The second tool portions 42 b are mounted to one another by a connecting flange 62 that extends from each of the second tool portions 42 b and mounts to adjacent second tool portions.", "The second tool portions 42 b are also driven such that actuation of the second cylinder 58 moves each of the second tool portions 42 b. In this manner, the first and second tool portions 42 a and 42 b move between the open and closed positions in a coordinated manner.", "[0056] In the open position, the tool portions 42 a,b are separated from one another.", "In the closed position, the tool portions 42 a,b are engaged with one another to form the outer part of the mold cavity.", "Those skilled in the art will recognize that the pressure at which the plastic is injected into the mold can be quite high, on the order of 10,000 to 12,000 pounds per square inch.", "As such, in order to maintain the tool portions 42 a,b engaged with one another to define the mold cavity 54 , a clamp assembly 64 (two associated with each of the mold assemblies 30 ) moves longitudinally into engagement with the external tools 42 a,b to assure that the tools 42 are secured together to maintain the mold closed and the cavity 54 defined.", "[0057] In addition, in order to maintain the external tool portions 42 a,b engaged with one another and flush against the chassis plate 50 when the clamp assemblies 64 are actuated, as seen in FIGS, 6 - 7 , a pair of securing posts 65 engage locking flanges 67 on each of the tools 42 a,b.", "The posts 65 are fixedly mounted to the chassis plate 50 , and are thus quite rigidly supported.", "As the tools 42 a,b move together, the flanges 67 (which are rigidly mounted to the external tool portions 42 a,b ) engage heads 69 on the posts 65 and prevent the tools 42 a,b from pulling forward (toward the mandrel 28 ) and rotating away (from the mandrel 28 ).", "[0058] The clamp assembly 64 moves longitudinally in toward the mold portions 42 ab, to interfere with lateral movement (opening) of the portions 42 a,b.", "In a present molding unit 12 , the clamp 64 includes a body 66 that moves over and engages a locking stub 68 extending from each of the tool portions 42 a, 42 b. The body 66 moves toward and away from the tool portions 42 a,b, i.e., is driven, by actuation of a drive 70 , such as the illustrated pneumatic cylinder.", "Other drives, including electric actuators, pneumatic actuators and the like are also contemplated.", "[0059] Referring to FIGS. 12-14 , the internal tool 38 (which includes the outwardly extending plug 52 ) and the external tool 42 , when engaged with one another, define the cavity 54 which defines the closure S (when plastic is injected into the cavity 54 ).", "Each of the tools 38 , 42 also serves to assure that it is properly positioned relative to the other so that the cavity 54 is of the proper size for plastic to fill the cavity 54 .", "This assures that the dimensions of the closure S are as designed and that the closure S properly forms.", "To this end, the tools 38 , 42 include a stop wall 72 that serves to space the internal tool 38 from the external tool 42 to properly define the space between the tools 38 , 42 (and thus define the mold cavity 54 ).", "In this manner, the space or gap between the tools 38 , 42 (or the cavity 54 ), when the tools are closed, is a measured, gauged distance that is dependent upon the distance d 72 (see FIGS. 14A and 14B ) that the wall 72 extends from the tool 38 surface in conjunction with the depth d 78 of the external tool recess 78 .", "[0060] Control of the distance between the tools 38 , 42 facilitates controlling the thickness of the closure and in particular the thickness of the tear membrane that is (in this closure S) formed as part of the closure S. The internal tool 38 also includes a physical carton stop surface, as indicated at 73 , for engaging the carton C to prevent over-insertion as the carton C is moved onto the mandrel 28 and as the tools 38 , 42 engage one another.", "The carton stop surface 73 essentially provides for longitudinal positioning of the carton C, i.e., positioning along the length of the mandrel 28 as indicated by the arrow 74 in FIG. 7 , by stopping inward movement of the carton C. In a current embodiment, the carton stop surface 73 is formed as part of the stop wall 72 , thus integrating the two structures (and functions) into a single element.", "The surface 73 (as part of the wall 72 ) extends out farther from the face 39 of the tool 38 than the plug 52 extends out from the face 39 of the tool 38 .", "[0061] The tools 38 , 42 also include a centering or aligning projection 76 .", "In the illustrated embodiment, the aligning projection 76 is also formed with, or as part of, the stop wall 72 and the carton stop surface 73 .", "The centering projection 76 has a predetermined, particular shape such that the projection 76 mates with a portion 76 ′ of the carton C (see FIG. 21 ) to properly laterally position the carton between the mold tools 38 , 42 .", "Thus, with the stop surface 73 and the centering projection 76 , the carton C is properly positioned between the mold tools 38 , 42 by virtue of moving the carton C into the space between until the carton C stops, and the tools 38 , 42 are properly spaced from one another by the stop wall 72 .", "[0062] In the illustrated embodiment, the stop wall 72 , stop surface 73 and centering projection 76 are positioned on the internal tool 38 .", "The external tool 42 recess 78 receives the stop wall 72 and centering projection 76 .", "As set forth briefly above, dimensionally, the stop wall 72 extends outwardly a distance d 72 (see FIGS. 14A and 14B ), that spaces the internal and external tools 38 , 42 from one another a predetermined amount to accommodate the carton C material thickness without over-compressing the material or leaving it “loose”", "within the mold, between the tools 38 , 42 .", "Although the stop wall 72 , stop surface 73 and aligning projection 76 are shown integrated into a single structural element in the present tool set 38 , 42 , those skilled in the art will recognize that these integrated elements 72 , 73 and 76 can be formed as separate structural and functional elements.", "In addition, although the stop wall 72 , stop surface 73 and aligning projection 76 are shown projecting outwardly from the internal tool 38 , and the cooperating recess 78 is are formed in the external tool set 42 a,b, those skilled in the art will recognize that the projecting elements 72 , 73 and 76 can be formed on the external tool set 42 a,b and the receiving element or recess 78 formed in the internal tool 38 .", "[0063] In a present embodiment, the centering projection 76 is formed having a triangle or wedge shape and the carton C has a like triangle or wedge cut-out portion 76 ′ such that as the carton C is moved between the mold tools 38 , 42 , the sides of the cut-out 76 ′ contact the sides of the projection 76 , and laterally shift the carton C, as needed, to position the carton C in the mold unit 12 .", "It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that other shapes, such as semicircles 176 ( FIG. 15 ), truncated pyramidal shapes 276 ( FIG. 16 ) and the like, as well as plural or other shapes, e.g., pairs of spaced apart projections, can be used, as can cut-out or recess(es) formed in the tool, mating with a tab or projection in the carton, which shapes and configurations, as well as other shapes and configurations, are within the scope and spirit of the present invention.", "It will also be appreciated that mating carton C cut-outs (or projections or tabs) will be used with such other shapes and configurations.", "[0064] In order to minimize deflection of the carton C material once it is in the mold and as plastic is injected into the mold cavity 54 , paper control ribs 82 extend generally radially from about the base of the plug 52 .", "In a present embodiment, a shallow well or channel 84 is formed around the base of the plug 52 in which the ribs 82 are formed.", "The ribs 82 support the paper to prevent localized deflection of the carton C. The ribs 82 also tend to improve contact between the flowing polymer and the carton (paper) material which enhances bonding.", "As seen in FIGS. 13 and 14 B, a paper compression ring 85 is formed on the external tool 42 for engaging and compressing the paperboard against the internal tool 38 , outside of the well 84 .", "This forms the boundary to which the polymer flows during closure S molding.", "Those skilled in the art will appreciate that (even though not shown) the paper compression ring can alternately be formed on the internal tool.", "When the internal and external tools 38 , 42 are closed and secured, the paper compression ring 85 is about 0.35 mm from the internal tool to compress the paper to about 0.35 mm from about 0.5 mm.", "[0065] As will be recognized by those skilled in the art, in conventional closure application techniques, the carton C is provided with a pre-punched or pre-formed opening into which the closure is fitted and subsequently sealed to the carton.", "The edges around the this area are uncoated in that the opening is formed after manufacture of the composite or laminate structure of the carton material.", "[0066] Although it is anticipated that cartons with such pre-formed openings will be used with the molding unit 12 , it is also anticipated that non-pre-formed material may also be used and that the opening can be formed as part of or integrated with the direct injection molding process.", "[0067] In operation, the transfer unit 18 rotates to position the cartons C above the molding unit 12 .", "The cartons C are transferred onto the four molding station mandrels 28 simultaneously.", "The carton molding panel P (that is, that panel of the carton C onto which the closure is molded) is moved between the internal tool plug 52 and the external tool 42 .", "To minimize the amount of movement required within the molding unit, the distance (space) between the plug 52 and the external tool 42 is maintained relatively small, about 4.0 millimeters, or 3.5 mm larger than the thickness of the carton panel P, when the molding unit 12 is in the open position.", "[0068] As the carton C is moved onto the mandrel 28 , between the plug 54 and external tool 42 , the edge E of the carton C contacts the stop surface 72 on the internal tool 38 .", "This longitudinally positions the carton C in the mold.", "In addition, the movement of the carton C into the mold and mating of the internal tool centering projection 76 with the carton cut-out 76 ′ laterally positions the carton C in the mold.", "In this manner, the carton C is longitudinally and laterally positioned in the molding assembly 30 .", "The mold tools 38 , 42 then close, as by inward movement of the external tool portions 42 a, 42 b and movement of the mandrel 28 (with the internal tool 38 ) toward the external tools 42 .", "The compression ring 85 grips the carton C material while the control ribs 82 prevent deflection, to facilitate maintaining the position of the carton C between the tools 38 , 42 and within the mold cavity 54 .", "The carton C is now positioned between the mold tools 38 , 42 , the clamp 64 moves into position to secure the external tool portions 42 a and 42 b, and polymer is injected into the mold cavity 54 .", "It will be appreciated that the external tool portions 42 a,b can be closed and the clamps 64 engaged, prior to engaging the internal tool 38 with the external tool 42 .", "[0069] Following a period of time to cool, the mold is opened by releasing the clamp 64 , separating the external tool portions 42 a, 42 b and withdrawing the mandrel 28 (alternately, the mandrel 28 can be withdrawn prior to or contemporaneous with separating the external tool portions 42 a,b ).", "The carton C is then removed (pulled) from the mandrel 28 back on to the transfer unit 18 .", "It will be appreciated that because the external tools 42 a,b separate from one another, and the internal tool 38 (on the mandrel 28 ) withdraws, there is sufficient space for the carton C with the closure S molded thereon to move passed the tools 38 , 42 without damage to the closure S. [0070] All patents referred to herein, are hereby incorporated herein by reference, whether or not specifically done so within the text of this disclosure.", "[0071] From the foregoing it will be observed that numerous modifications and variations can be effectuated without departing from the true spirit and scope of the novel concepts of the present invention.", "It is to be understood that no limitation with respect to the specific embodiments illustrated is intended or should be inferred.", "The disclosure is intended to cover by the appended claims all such modifications as fall within the scope of the claims." ]

[ "CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a divisional of and claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §121 of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 11/935,910, filed Nov. 6, 2007 and entitled “Systems and Methods of All-Optical Fourier Phase Contrast Imaging Using Dye Doped Liquid Crystals,” which claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/856,972, filed Nov. 6, 2006 and entitled “Phase Contrast Imaging Using Dye Doped Liquid Crystals,” the entire contents of both applications are incorporated herein by reference.", "STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT [0002] This research is supported in part by a BAA contract W911QY-04-C-0063 from U.S. Army Natick Soldier Center.", "BACKGROUND [0003] 1.", "Field [0004] The disclosed subject matter generally relates to phase contrast imaging, e.g., phase contrast microscopy.", "[0005] 2.", "Discussion of Related Art [0006] Translucent objects or phase objects can alter only the phase of the optical wave, not its amplitude.", "Hence, these objects are very difficult to see with the naked eye and cannot be captured by an ordinary camera.", "A phase contrast microscope can be used to obtain high-contrast images of transparent specimens, such as living cells (usually in culture), micro-organisms, thin tissue slices, lithographic patterns, fibers, latex dispersions, glass fragments, and subcellular particles (including nuclei and other organelles).", "One useful feature of a phase contrast microscope is that living cells can be examined in their natural state without being fixed, and/or stained.", "As a result, the dynamics of ongoing biological processes can be observed and recorded in high contrast with sharp clarity of minute specimen details.", "[0007] In 1933, Zernike developed a non-destructive mechanism based on the principle of phase contrast to observe translucent microscopic objects.", "It is a two step process: (1) separation of deviated and undeviated components in the light transmitted through the specimen with a π/2 phase difference between them and (2) obtaining an additional π/2 phase separation thereby converting phase information into amplitude (intensity) contrast for display.", "If the undeviated light is phase shifted by π/2, then the undeviated and diffracted light arriving at the eyepiece would produce destructive interference and the object details appear dark in lighter background.", "This is known as dark or positive phase contrast.", "If, however, the undeviated light is phase shifted by −π/2 then the diffracted and undeviated light beams interfere constructively.", "This produces a bright image of the details of the specimen in dark background and is known as negative or bright contrast.", "This principle is exploited for the phase contrast microscope.", "[0008] Existing phase contrast microscopes employ a tungsten-halogen lamp as a light source and a condenser annulus for separation of the deviated and undeviated light.", "They also use phase plates for generating the additional phase retardation between undeviated light and light diffracted by the object, thereby transforming minute variations in phase of the object into corresponding changes in image contrast.", "The collimated light passes through the condenser plate which typically contains several transparent annular rings (carefully positioned and designed to be an optical conjugate to a phase plate residing in the image plane) and is focused onto the specimen.", "The light transmitted by the specimen consists of undeviated light and diffracted light.", "The undeviated and diffracted light differs in phase by π/2 due to the inherent phase variations in the specimen.", "The light is then collected by the objective and is spatially separated at its back focal plane.", "A phase plate selectively placed at this back focal plane introduces an additional π/2 relative phase difference.", "Thus the undeviated and diffracted light interferes destructively so that the phase variations in the specimen appear bright against a dark background.", "Two types of phase plates, positive and negative, are available to produce a bright image in dark background or vice versa.", "[0009] However, there are some unavoidable disadvantages associated with the use of these plates: [0010] 1.", "Halo and shade-off contrast patterns are frequently observed in phase contrast images.", "These observed intensity patterns do not directly correspond to the optical path difference between the specimen and the surrounding medium.", "The artifacts depend on both the geometrical and optical properties of the phase plate and the specimen being examined.", "In particular, the width and transmittance of the phase plate material play a critical role in controlling these effects.", "In addition, these effects are heavily influenced by the objective magnification.", "Apodized phase plates are used for reducing the severity of halos.", "[0011] 2.", "In order to resolve minute details and edges in the specimen, a large angle of diffracted light must be captured by the microscope objective and must be brought into a sharp focus at the image plane.", "The condenser aperture diaphragm opening size partially controls the coherence of the light incident on the specimen.", "Decreasing the opening size of the diaphragm yields greater spatial coherence but it introduces diffraction related artifacts.", "Thus the system is limited by the working numerical aperture of the objective thereby reducing the resolution of the instrument.", "[0012] 3.", "When the object is changed or a different magnification is desired, the bright-field image has to be obtained first and then the condenser plate has to be rotated to position the annular ring to match the new phase plate.", "Thus as a result of frequent rotations of the condenser plate, the annular ring tends to be out of alignment with the phase plate requiring regular maintenance of the system.", "Special tools are provided for adjusting the condenser plate, which require skill and experience on the part of the operator.", "Furthermore, rotation of the condenser plate can sometimes cause the specimen to move as it is positioned just before the condenser.", "[0013] Existing phase contrast microscopes have been modified since their invention, in terms of phase plate design and detection schemes.", "However, conventional phase contrast microscopes do not exploit advantages that come with a coherent source.", "For example, the white light sources of conventional phase contrast microscopes cannot provide Fourier transformation, as a result which the object information cannot be well separated at the Fourier plane.", "[0014] With the growing demand for a variety of imaging modalities that offer different distinct advantages, improved methods for imaging phase objects in transparent media and imaging phase objects in tissue-like scattering media are needed.", "SUMMARY [0015] Embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods of all-optical Fourier phase contrast imaging using dye doped liquid crystals.", "[0016] Under one aspect, a phase contrast imaging system includes a coherent light source emitting a coherent beam, the beam being directed toward a sample area;", "a lens arranged to collect at least part of the beam from the sample area;", "a first optical Fourier element that Fourier transforms the collected beam, wherein the Fourier transform occurs in a Fourier plane;", "a liquid crystal cell in the Fourier plane that transmits at least part of the transformed beam, wherein the cell includes liquid crystal molecules having a phase transition temperature, and wherein at temperatures exceeding the phase transition temperature, light transmitted through the liquid crystal molecules obtains a different phase than light transmitted through the liquid crystal molecules obtains at temperatures below the phase transition temperature;", "a second optical Fourier element that receives the transmitted beam and inversely Fourier transforms the transmitted beam to provide an image;", "an image sensor that detects the image and generates an electronic representation of the image;", "and an optical element configured and arranged to adjust the beam intensity to a level at which part of the transformed beam has an intensity sufficient to heat a portion of the liquid crystal molecules above the phase transition temperature.", "[0017] Some embodiments include one or more of the following features.", "The lens includes a microscope objective.", "The optical element selected to adjust the beam intensity includes a neutral density filter.", "The first and second optical Fourier elements include lenses.", "The image sensor includes a CCD.", "A polarizer positioned between the second optical Fourier element and the image sensor, the polarizer being rotatable to a position selected to eliminate at least a part of the information about the sample area from the image.", "An optical element to direct at least part of the beam toward a fluorescence imaging system.", "At temperatures below the phase transition temperature, the liquid crystal molecules are birefringent, and wherein at temperatures above the phase transition temperature, the liquid crystal molecules are isotropic.", "The beam has a predominant polarization, and wherein the liquid crystal cell is oriented at about 45° to the predominant polarization.", "The liquid crystal cell further includes dye molecules selected to at least partially absorb the beam, and wherein at least partial absorption of the beam by a portion of the dye molecules heats the part of the liquid crystal molecules above the phase transition temperature.", "The phase transition temperature, the liquid crystal molecules are in an aligned nematic phase.", "The optical element is configured and arranged to adjust the beam intensity to a level at which a portion of the transformed beam transmits through the cell with a phase that is delayed relative to an other portion of the transformed beam by one of about π/2 and about −π/2.", "The portion of the transformed beam that is phase delayed corresponds to low spatial frequencies, and wherein the other portion of the transformed beam corresponds to spatial frequencies that are higher than the portion that is phase delayed and also has a lower intensity than does the portion that is phase delayed.", "The coherent light source includes a continuous-wave laser.", "The coherent light source includes a diode.", "The liquid crystal cell is passive, in that no voltage is applied to the cell.", "The optical element is further configured and arranged to adjust the beam to an intensity such that it does not damage a living organism placed in the sample area.", "[0018] Under another aspect, a method of imaging an object includes generating a coherent beam;", "irradiating an object with the coherent beam;", "collecting at least a part of the beam that irradiated the object;", "Fourier transforming the collected beam;", "phase delaying a portion of the transformed beam relative to another portion of the transformed beam;", "inversely Fourier transforming the partially phased-delayed beam;", "and detecting the inversely Fourier transformed beam.", "[0019] Some embodiments include one or more of the following features.", "Fourier transforming the collected beam includes transmitting the collected beam through a lens.", "Inversely Fourier transforming the partially phase-delayed beam includes transmitting the partially phase-delayed beam through a lens.", "Phase delaying the portion of the transformed beam relative to another portion of the transformed beam includes transmitting the transformed beam through a cell including liquid crystal molecules.", "The liquid crystals have a phase transition temperature, and wherein at temperatures exceeding the phase transition temperature, light transmitting through the liquid crystal molecules obtains a different phase than light transmitting through the liquid crystal molecules obtains at temperatures below the phase transition temperature.", "Selecting an intensity of the beam such that a portion of the transformed beam heats the liquid crystal molecules to a temperature exceeding the phase transition temperature, and another portion of the transformed beam does not heat the liquid crystal molecules to a temperature exceeding the phase transition temperature.", "Selecting the intensity of the beam such that the portion of the transformed beam that heats the liquid crystal molecules to a temperature exceeding the phase transition temperature accrues a phase delay of one of about π/2 and −π/2 relative to the portion of the transformed beam that does not heat the liquid crystal molecules to a temperature exceeding the phase transition temperature.", "Below the phase transition temperature, the liquid crystal molecules are in an aligned nematic phase.", "The cell further includes a dye selected to absorb a wavelength of the beam.", "The cell is passive in that no voltage is applied to the cell.", "The object includes a living organism that is not damaged by the coherent beam.", "Detecting the inversely Fourier transformed beam includes irradiating an imaging device with the inversely Fourier transformed beam.", "Displaying output of the imaging device on a display device.", "[0020] Under another aspect, an assembly for converting a conventional microscope into a phase contrast microscope, wherein the conventional microscope includes a microscope objective and a specimen stage, and the microscope objective is constructed and arranged to collect light directed toward the specimen stage, includes a first optical Fourier element that Fourier transforms light, wherein the Fourier transform occurs in a Fourier plane;", "a cell in the Fourier plane, wherein the cell includes liquid crystal molecules having a phase transition temperature, and wherein at temperatures exceeding the phase transition temperature, light transmitting through the liquid crystal molecules obtains a different phase than light transmitting through the liquid crystal molecules obtains at temperatures below the phase transition temperature;", "a second optical Fourier element that receives the transmitted beam and inversely Fourier transforms the transmitted beam to provide an image;", "an image sensor that detects the image and generates an electronic representation of the image;", "and an adaptor capable of coupling the first and second Fourier elements, the cell, and the image sensor to the conventional microscope such that the first Fourier element Fourier transforms light collected by the microscope objective.", "[0021] In some embodiments, the microscope includes a brightfield or ordinary microscope.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS [0022] FIG. 1A is a schematic illustration of a Fourier phase contrast imaging system, according to some embodiments of the invention.", "[0023] FIG. 1B schematically illustrates the mechanism of the phase delays accumulated by light transmitting through different parts of the Fourier phase contrast imaging system of FIG. 1A , according to some embodiments of the invention.", "[0024] FIG. 2A is an image of an amoeba obtained using the system of FIG. 1A in bright-field microscopy mode (with low laser power), according to some embodiments of the invention.", "[0025] FIG. 2B is a phase contrast image of an amoeba obtained using a conventional phase contrast microscope.", "[0026] FIG. 2C is a phase contrast image of the amoeba of FIG. 2A obtained using the system of FIG. 1A in Fourier phase contrast imaging mode (with increased laser power), according to some embodiments of the invention.", "[0027] FIG. 3A is an image of a live paramecium obtained using the system of FIG. 1A in bright-field microscopy mode, according to some embodiments of the invention.", "[0028] FIG. 3B is a phase contrast image of a live paramecium obtained using a conventional phase contrast microscope.", "[0029] FIG. 3C is a phase contrast image of the live paramecium of FIG. 3A obtained using the system of FIG. 1A in Fourier phase contrast imaging mode, according to some embodiments of the invention.", "[0030] FIG. 4A is an image of onion cells in a scattering medium obtained using the system of FIG. 1 in bright-field microscopy mode, according to some embodiments of the invention.", "[0031] FIG. 4B is an image of the onion cells of FIG. 4A obtained using the system of FIG. 1A in Fourier phase contrast imaging mode, according to some embodiments of the invention.", "[0032] FIG. 5A is an image of a glass speck placed on a glass micro slide obtained using the system of FIG. 1A in bright-field microscopy mode, according to some embodiments of the invention.", "[0033] FIG. 5B is an image of the glass speck of FIG. 5A obtained using the system of FIG. 1A in Fourier phase contrast imaging mode, according to some embodiments of the invention.", "[0034] FIG. 5C is a negative phase-contrast image of the glass speck of FIG. 5A obtained using the system of FIG. 1A in Fourier phase contrast imaging mode, according to some embodiments of the invention.", "[0035] FIG. 6 is a schematic illustration of a conventional ordinary microscope.", "[0036] FIG. 7 is a schematic illustration of a microscope that is modified to perform phase contrast microscopy, according to some embodiments of the invention.", "[0037] FIG. 8 is a schematic illustration of the system of FIG. 1A that has been modified to further provide perform fluorescence imaging of a sample, according to some embodiments.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0038] Embodiments of the invention are directed to systems and methods of all-optical Fourier phase contrast imaging using a low power coherent source (laser) and dye-doped liquid crystals.", "In general, the Fourier spectrum of an object contains low spatial frequencies at the center of the spectrum, with high intensities, while high spatial frequencies are on the edges, with lower intensities.", "The laser source provides precise separation of these frequency regimes through an all-optical Fourier transform.", "In some embodiments, high monochromaticity of the coherent source facilitates a well defined Fourier plane in which different spatial frequency bands are clearly resolved.", "In addition the intensity of the laser source makes object features bright and clearly visible.", "Some embodiments provide bright-field, positive phase contrast and negative phase contrast images of “phase objects,” i.e., objects that are at least partially optically transparent and thus are difficult to image using conventional amplitude-based imaging such as, for example, ordinary bright-field microscopes and photographs.", "Specifically, different regions of a phase object have different optical characteristics, for example, have different indices of refraction and/or different thicknesses, which diffract, refract, and/or impart phase changes onto coherent light passing through the object relative to light that does not pass through the object.", "The difference in phase between light that passes through the object, and that does not pass through the object, is manipulated using a dye-doped liquid crystal cell in the Fourier plane of the object, as described in greater detail below.", "The resulting phase difference is used to generate a phase contrast image of the object.", "While conventional phase contrast microscopy uses a white-light source and a phase plate (fixed in the amount of phase retardation it can induce and diameter), the systems and methods described herein are robust and “self-adaptive,” that is, readily provide images regardless of changes in the shape, size and magnitude of phase variations of phase objects.", "The systems and methods are also relatively user-friendly, allowing the contrast of images of a phase object to be modified by simply changing the intensity of the light that impinges the sample.", "As illustrated below, the systems and methods can be used to produce high-quality phase contrast images of a phase object (even in a scattering medium).", "For example, the shape of micro organisms can be clearly displayed and quantitative information such as the dimensions of the objects can be obtained.", "[0039] In many embodiments, coherent light waves that are in phase with one another are directed in phase onto an at least partially transparent object.", "Some of the light waves accumulate a phase shift as they pass through the object, while light waves that do not pass through the object do not accumulate a phase shift.", "The light is then Fourier transformed using a lens or microscope objective, and a cell containing dye-doped liquid crystals is placed at the resulting Fourier plane.", "The dye in the cell at least partially absorbs the light, and the resulting temperature increase causes an intensity-dependent, liquid-crystal phase transition within the cell.", "The spatial profile of the temperature increase corresponds to the spatially-varying intensity of the Fourier transform of the object.", "In some regions of the liquid crystal, the light intensity (and concomitant temperature increase) is sufficiently high to cause the liquid crystal molecules in those regions to change phase, for example, to an isotropic phase.", "In other regions of the liquid crystal, the light intensity is insufficiently high to cause the liquid crystal molecules in those regions to change phase.", "The particular phase of the liquid crystal modifies the phase of the light passing through the cell.", "The phase of the liquid crystal (and concomitant relative phase shift of different regions of the Fourier transform of the light) can be modified by adjusting the amplitude of the light with which the sample is irradiated.", "[0040] A phase-contrast image of the object is then obtained by detecting phase differences between the high and low spatial frequencies, e.g., by interfering the high and low spatial frequencies with each other.", "In some embodiments, this is done by inversely Fourier-transforming the light transmitted by the cell, and then imaging the light onto a CCD array.", "At the CCD (i.e., in the image plane of the light), the different spatial frequencies of the light interfere with one another, generating an amplitude image of the object that is based, in part, on the relative phases that the object imparts on the light, as well as on the relative phases that the liquid crystal cell imparts on the light.", "The contrast of the image can be modified by adjusting the amplitude of the light.", "In one example, the amplitude of the light is selected to generate an approximately π/2 or −π/2 phase difference between the high and low spatial frequencies.", "[0041] The CCD array can be, for example, a two-dimensional array of detectors integrated into single, compact electronic chip.", "The CCD array converts photons to electrons using closely spaced metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) diodes and thereby generates a discrete electronic representation of a received optical image.", "A controller/processor reads the image representation from the CCD sensor pixel-by-pixel and organizes it into a digital array.", "The digital array can then be output to a memory or image store.", "The images can be displayed on an image display, such as a cathode ray tube or another type of electronic image display.", "[0042] Some embodiments include a nematic liquid crystal cell in the plane of the Fourier transform of the light, e.g., a cell containing twisted nematic liquid crystals, and an absorber or dye that is selected to at least partially absorb the wavelength of interest, and to cause a sufficient temperature increase in the liquid crystal upon irradiation to induce a phase change in the liquid crystal.", "Nematic liquid crystals (LC) include rod-like molecules which line up parallel to a preferred direction and hence are anisotropic.", "When a linearly polarized monochromatic light wave propagates through a homogeneously aligned LC cell with its polarization axis at 45° to the axis of orientation, the anisotropy property of the liquid crystal adds a certain amount of phase to the transmitting beam.", "This phase is attributed to the refractive index differences of the ordinary and extraordinary rays.", "[0043] Relatively high intensity regions of the Fourier transform of the light, e.g., low spatial frequencies at the center of the Fourier spectrum, are intense enough to cause molecules in those regions to undergo a transition from nematic or anisotropic phase to isotropic phase.", "Lower intensity regions of the Fourier transform of the light, e.g., high spatial frequencies near the edges of the Fourier spectrum, are not sufficiently intense to induce a phase transition, and molecules in these regions remain in an anisotropic phase.", "Aligned liquid crystal molecules (molecules that are in anisotropic or nematic phase) add a certain amount of phase to the incident light wave as it passes through, whereas isotropic liquid crystals substantially do not add additional phase to the transmitted beam.", "Thus the high intensity, low spatial frequency light will transmit through the self-induced isotropic phase of liquid crystal cell without accumulating phase change, while the low intensity, high spatial frequency light will acquire a phase change relative to the high intensity light as it transmits through the liquid crystal phase (anisotropic phase) of the liquid crystal cell.", "This leads to a relative phase difference between these two spatial frequency regions, which is then used to generate a phase contrast image.", "Usefully, the phase difference is on the order of about π/2 or −π/2, which generates images of high contrast.", "However, other phase differences also produce useful images.", "In many embodiments, the liquid crystal cell is passive, that is, it needs no applied voltage in order to perform its function.", "[0044] The relative phase retardation experience by light transmitting through the cell is expressed by Γ=πΔ nd/λ, where d is the cell thickness, λ is the wavelength, and Δn=(n e -n 0 ) is the induced birefringence.", "As the temperature of the liquid crystal increases, the ordinary refractive index (n 0 ) increases while the extraordinary refractive index (n e ) decreases.", "Thus, the birefringence decreases with increasing temperature and vanishes when the liquid crystal molecules undergo phase transition, liquid crystal phase to isotropic phase.", "At low light input intensities, the temperature of the liquid crystal is well below its phase transition temperature T c .", "Thus, a phase, e.g., of 90°, is added to the transmitted beam because of the large birefringence Δn in the liquid crystal phase.", "When the incident light intensity increases, the temperature of the liquid crystal increases owing to the absorption by dye molecules.", "At temperatures exceeding the phase transition temperature of the liquid crystals (T≧T c ) there is no birefringence and hence light transmitting through those crystals experiences no phase retardation.", "This results in the increase of ordinary refractive index (n 0 ) and decrease in the extraordinary refractive index (n e ).", "For T≧T c n 0 =n e and the induced birefringence Δn vanishes.", "Hence no additional phase is added to the transmitted beam.", "Therefore, if two light beams of different intensity are incident simultaneously at different spatial locations on the liquid crystal, the local liquid crystal molecules undergo respective intensity-dependent, liquid-crystal phase transitions.", "This leads to a relative phase difference, e.g., of π/2, −π/2, or some other value, between these two light beams at the exit plane of liquid crystal cell, depending on the intensities of the beams.", "[0045] FIG. 1A schematically illustrates an all-optical Fourier phase-contrast imaging system, according to some embodiments.", "Laser 110 generates a laser beam with which a phase object is to be irradiated, e.g., a CW beam from an Ar—Kr laser with a wavelength centered at 480 nm.", "In general, the laser wavelength is selected such that the dye in the liquid crystal cell can at least partially absorb the light, and the resulting temperature rise sufficient to induce a phase transition within some of the liquid crystal molecules.", "Neutral density filter 115 adjusts the intensity of the generated laser beam, e.g., in response to user input, in order to adjust the relative phase of the different spatial frequencies of light in an image of an object being imaged by the system.", "Spatial filter 120 includes a pinhole 130 at the focal plane of a microscope objective 125 .", "Spatial filter 120 spatially filters the laser beam in order to provide a clean, expanded Gaussian profile, and to remove random fluctuations from the intensity profile of the laser beam, thereby improving the resolution of the imaging system.", "Other types of spatial filters can also be used, such as, for example, diffractive optical elements, beam shapers, and fiber illuminators etc.", "Lens 140 then collimates the spatially filtered light.", "As discussed in greater detail below, beamsplitter 142 and mirror 145 are optional, and can be used in systems having additional functionalities, such as epifluorescence imaging, as described in greater detail below.", "The filtered light is then directed by beamsplitter 142 and mirror 145 onto specimen holder 150 , which holds the object of interest.", "[0046] A microscope objective 155 , e.g., a 10× microscope objective, collects the light transmitted by the object as well as light that did not pass through the object.", "The magnification of the image of the object is related, in part, to the numerical aperture (NA) of the microscope objective 155 , which is defined by the half-angle of the cone of light that the objective can collect and the index of refraction of the medium between the object of interest and the objective.", "In general, the higher the NA of the microscope objective 155 , the larger the cone of collected light, and thus the more magnified and higher resolution image of the object can be obtained.", "Microscope objective 155 is optionally mounted on a motorized x-y-z translation stage.", "The light transmitted by the microscope objective 155 is then collimated using a lens ( 156 ).", "[0047] Fourier lens 160 , e.g., a bi-convex lens, then performs a Fourier transform of the light collimated by lens 156 .", "Fourier lens 160 is placed such that the object or lens 156 is at the front focal plane of the lens 160 .", "A liquid crystal cell 165 is placed at the back focal plane of the lens 160 .", "In some embodiments, e.g., embodiments having a dye-doped twisted nematic liquid crystal cell, the cell is oriented so that the incident light is polarized at 45° to the axis of orientation of the liquid crystal.", "As discussed in greater detail above and below, light in some regions of the Fourier transform of the light accumulate a phase delay relative to light in other regions of the Fourier transform of the light as a result of an intensity-driven phase change.", "Fourier lens 170 performs an inverse Fourier transformation on the light transmitted by liquid crystal cell 165 , and images the light onto a CCD array 180 .", "Fourier lens 170 is placed such that the liquid crystal cell 165 is at its front focal plane and the CCD array 180 is at its back focal plane.", "CCD array 180 is in communication with a processor 185 that stores (e.g., in an image store, or a computer-readable medium) or otherwise manipulates the image obtained by CCD array 180 (see above).", "For example, the processor 185 is in communication with a display device (not shown) on which it displays the resulting phase-contrast image of the object.", "[0048] Optionally, the system includes a polarizer 175 between the Fourier lens 170 and the CCD array 180 in order to introduce a self-adaptive spatial filtering system.", "Specifically, undesired features of an image can be filtered out by blocking the corresponding spatial frequency components at the Fourier plane.", "In the embodiment of FIG. 1A , the polarization state of high spatial frequencies (e.g., regions of liquid crystal phase) is rotated while passing through the liquid crystal cell, while there is substantially no such polarization rotation for low spatial frequencies (e.g., in the isotropic region).", "Thus, by rotating the analyzer the desired features of interest can be selectively enhanced, e.g., in order to provide edge enhancement.", "Hence, for example the (edges) shape of micro organisms can be clearly displayed and even the dimensions can be obtained, e.g., using microscopic rulers.", "[0049] As noted above, neutral density filter 115 is used to control the incident laser light intensity that illuminates the phase object.", "By adjusting the intensity of the laser light, the system illustrated in FIG. 1A can be used in either bright-field imaging mode or phase contrast imaging mode.", "Specifically, in bright-field imaging mode, the incident intensity is maintained below the level at which the liquid crystal phase transition occurs even for low spatial frequencies but at a level that produces a detectible image at the CCD (e.g., from about 100 μW to about 10 mW), and the CCD captures a bright-field image.", "In phase contrast imaging mode, the incident intensity is increased so that the relative phase of some regions of the Fourier transform can be modified by a phase transition of the liquid crystal, in order to produce a phase contrast image of the object.", "[0050] FIG. 1B schematically illustrates the relative phases of light waves as they travel through different parts of the system of FIG. 1A .", "Region “A”", "represents the waves initially transmitted by the laser.", "In region “A,” substantially all the waves are in phase with each other.", "As illustrated in region “B,” as the light waves pass through the object on specimen holder 150 , some waves get diffracted and/or refracted because of phase gradients (refractive index differences) and accumulate a phase delay, e.g., of π/2.", "The undeviated waves from those portions of the specimen where there is no phase gradient substantially do not accumulate a phase delay.", "In the Fourier plane of these waves within liquid crystal cell 165 , the undeviated light corresponds to low spatial frequencies situated in the center of the Fourier spectrum, and the deviated light corresponds to high spatial frequencies nearer the edges of the Fourier spectrum.", "The low spatial frequencies at the center of the Fourier spectrum have sufficient intensity to induce a phase change in the liquid crystal cell.", "In a nematic liquid crystal cell, the low spatial frequencies are thus located in a region having isotropic phase, which does not have birefringence, and the high spatial frequencies near the edges of the Fourier spectrum are located in a region having liquid crystal phase with associated birefringence.", "This causes a phase difference between high and low spatial frequencies, e.g., of μ/2, which allows the CCD to obtain a phase contrast image of the object.", "[0051] In one illustrative example, the liquid crystal cell included 90° twisted nematic liquid crystals.", "The cell walls were unidirectionally-rubbed poly(vinyl alcohol)-coated glass substrates with the two directions arranged in a crossed configuration.", "The substrates were used to support the polymer film and to hold the liquid crystal together.", "The approximately 10 μm path length cell was filled with a uniform mixture of liquid crystal 4-cyno-4′-pentyl1′-1,1′-biphenyl (K15, EM Industries, T c ≈35° C.) and absorbing dye N-ethyl-N-(2-hydroxyethyl)-4-(4-nitrophenylazo) aniline (Disperse Red 1, from Aldrich) which has an absorption peak around 502 nm.", "In general, any dye concentration providing a temperature increase to cause a phase change in the liquid crystal in response to a selected laser power, while allowing the cell to transmit sufficient light to produce an image detectable at the CCD, can be used.", "It was observed that typical incident power required to induce a π/2 phase difference between light that passed through the sample, and light that did not, was about 3 mW.", "[0052] The examples in FIGS. 2A-5C illustrate that some embodiments of systems and methods of all-optical Fourier phase-contrast imaging using dye-doped liquid crystals can be used to image biological specimens.", "Phase contrast images of live amoebae and paramecia include clearly identifiable nuclei and other internal organelles.", "The images equal the quality of images obtained with a standard phase contrast microscope and in some cases display additional features.", "[0053] FIG. 2A is a bright-field image of a spherical amoeba obtained using the system of FIG. 1A in bright-field mode, i.e., at a laser power low enough to not induce a phase transition in the liquid crystal.", "This bright-field image of the amoeba is a two dimensional structure with poorly defined edges, and its two larger organelles 210 , 211 appear as clouded areas in the center of the specimen.", "FIG. 2B is a phase contrast image of a similar amoeba obtained using a conventional phase contrast microscope (Leitz Model SM-Lux).", "This image suggests a partly three dimensional view of the amoeba, and the nucleus 212 and contractile vacuole 213 are more visible than with bright-field microscopy, although they are not sharply focused.", "Features such as small internal organelles inside the cytoplasm, and edge 214 , are more clearly seen than in the case of the bright-field microscopy image.", "FIG. 2C is a phase contrast image of the amoeba of FIG. 2A , obtained using the system of FIG. 1A in phase contrast imaging mode.", "The nucleus 215 , contractile vacuole 216 , and smaller organelles that move within the cytoplasm are clearly defined, and have a visible volume.", "The image also has a more three dimensional representation of the amoeba than does the conventional phase microscope image of FIG. 2B , for example, showing multiple pseudopodia 217 at varying depth and in good focus.", "Phase halos 218 , which are one of the drawbacks of a standard phase contrast microscope, can be clearly seen as white outline in FIG. 2B , but are absent in FIG. 2C .", "[0054] FIGS. 3A-3C are images of paramecia, which, like amoebae, are difficult to image using conventional methods because they are they are substantially transparent and also frequently move.", "These unicellular microorganisms belong to the protoctist phylum Ciliophora.", "Members of this phylum (ciliates) are characterized by their cigar or slipper shape and external covering of continuously beating, hair-like cilia.", "These fine structures in particular are not always easy to visualize with bright-field microscopy unless the rest of the specimen is out of focus.", "Shapes of some of the internal organelles such as a pumping star shaped structure which constantly expands, contracts, disappears and appears, are typically available only for couple of seconds to take a clear image.", "[0055] FIG. 3A is a bright-field image of a paramecium obtained using the system of FIG. 1A in bright-field mode, i.e., using a laser power low enough to not induce a phase transition in the liquid crystal.", "The image shows the distinguishing outline 310 and oral groove 311 of the paramecium, but not much else.", "FIG. 3B is a phase contrast of a similar paramecium obtained using the conventional phase contrast microscope of FIG. 2B .", "Details of internal organs 312 can be clearly observed in commercial phase contrast microscope image.", "FIG. 3C is a phase contrast image of the paramecium of FIG. 3A , obtained using the system of FIG. 1A in phase contrast imaging mode.", "The outline 313 of the paramecium is identifiable, and the external fine hair-like structures called cilia 314 can be seen.", "The feeding structure, the oral groove, and other internal structures are visible in greater detail as compared to FIG. 3B .", "[0056] The system of FIG. 1A can also be used to image a phase object in a scattering medium.", "FIGS. 4A and 4B are images of translucent onion cells from the skin (peel) of an onion bulb, in a scattering medium.", "The onion skin was placed in a 2 mm glass cuvette filled with uniform mixture of 100 ml of water and 3 ml of Intralipid.", "Intralipid is widely used in optical experiments to simulate the scattering properties of biological tissues.", "Solutions of appropriate concentrations of intralipid can be prepared that closely mimic the response of human or animal tissue to light at wavelengths in the red and infrared ranges, where tissue is highly scattering but has a rather low absorption coefficient.", "Kabivitrum Inc., California and Stockholm is a source of Intralipid;", "there are also other brands (Nutralipid™ (Pharmicia, Quebec), Liposyn™ (Abbot Labs, Montreal)) that can be used.", "Conventionally, solutions of distilled water and Intralipid are used as scattering media for biomedical imaging applications.", "The mixture simulates the tissue environment and matches optical parameters like absorption coefficient, scattering coefficient and the anisotropy coefficient (mean cosine of the scattering angle).", "The reduced scattering coefficient of the solution is about 6/cm.", "FIG. 4A is a bright-field image of onion skin in the scattering medium, obtained using the system of FIG. 1A in bright-field imaging mode.", "The cell walls 411 are visible and a nucleus 410 is noticeable in the picture.", "FIG. 4B is a phase contrast image of the onion skin of FIG. 4A , obtained using the system of FIG. 1A in phase contrast imaging mode.", "FIG. 4B shows edges 413 of the cells with much better contrast and the nuclei 412 within are also clearly visible.", "A striking feature is that the edge effect is very noticeable in this image.", "It is not possible to obtain phase contrast images for this sample with a standard instrument as it uses an incoherent light source.", "The high order phase coherence of the coherent source preserves the phase of the scattering medium.", "However this information is lost when a conventional white light source (incoherent source) is used.", "[0057] Positive as well as negative phase contrast images can be achieved by simply varying the intensity of the laser light incident upon the sample.", "FIGS. 5A-5C are images of a small glass piece that is placed on a micro slide glass.", "Since the light has to travel through extra glass piece, it accumulates additional phase as it passes through.", "FIG. 5A is a bright field image of the glass piece, obtained using the system of FIG. 1A in bright-field imaging mode.", "Substantially only the edges 510 of the glass piece can be seen.", "In contrast, phase contrast images such as illustrated in FIGS. 5B and 5C show variations in optical phase resulting from transmission through the glass piece.", "FIG. 5B is a positive phase contrast image, obtained using the system of FIG. 1A in phase contrast imaging mode, FIG. 5C is negative phase contrast image obtained using the same system but using an incident intensity selected to provide a −π/2 phase shift between the light passing through the glass piece and the light not passing through the glass piece.", "[0058] Although phase contrast imaging using 90° twisted nematic liquid crystals with azobenzene as an absorbing medium is described above, other liquid crystals and other absorbing dyes can also be used.", "For example, zinc 2,9,16,23-tetra-tent-butyl-29H,31H-phthalocyanine as an absorbing medium and similar phase contrast images were obtained when the 648 nm line of Ar—Kr laser is used as pump.", "Zinc phthalocyanines have an absorption peak around 677 nm and the liquid crystal cell is prepared in a similar manner as discussed earlier except that the two rubbed substrates are aligned 100 to each other.", "Broadband dyes can also be used, e.g., with a variety of light sources.", "Thus by selectively choosing the absorbing medium, the proposed technique can be used for any wavelength region.", "For instance 700 nm could be used because it is useful for in vivo imaging of tissue.", "Similarly, useful amounts of phase difference can be achieved by the right combination of birefringence and cell thickness as the phase shift accumulates with length of the birefringent material.", "[0059] System arrangements other than those described above can be used to provide phase contrast imaging using dye doped liquid crystals.", "For example, otherwise conventional microscopes can be modified to have phase contrast imaging capability.", "FIG. 6 includes a schematic illustration of a conventional microscope 600 , along with a photograph of an actual conventional microscope.", "The microscope includes a white light source 610 , a specimen stage 630 , a lens (not shown) between the white light source and the specimen stage, a set of interchangeable objective lenses 640 , an eyepiece 650 , and a CCD camera 660 .", "[0060] FIG. 7 includes a schematic illustration, as well as a photograph, of a microscope 700 that includes some of the conventional components of the microscope of FIG. 6 , but performs phase contrast microscopy.", "Microscope 700 includes specimen stage 630 and a set of interchangeable objective lenses 640 , but, instead of a white light source, includes a collimated laser source 710 , e.g., a diode laser coupled to a fiber collimator.", "Microscope 700 also includes a phase contrast imaging assembly 760 that attaches to the body of the conventional microscope, e.g., in place of CCD 660 .", "Assembly 760 includes Fourier transform lens 761 , dye doped liquid crystal cell 762 , Fourier transform lens 763 , and CCD array 764 .", "In operation, an objective selected from interchangeable objective lenses 640 performs an equivalent function to objective 155 in FIG. 1A , i.e., the objective collects light from an object on specimen holder 630 .", "Fourier transform lens 761 Fourier transforms the collected light, and the resulting Fourier plane is inside of liquid crystal cell 762 , which modifies the relative phases of the transformed light, as described in greater detail above.", "Fourier transform lens 764 performs an inverse Fourier transform on the light, and images the light onto the CCD 764 , thus generating a phase contrast image of the object.", "CCD 764 is in communication with a processor (not shown) that stores (e.g., in an image store, or a computer-readable medium) or otherwise manipulates the image obtained by CCD 764 (see above).", "For example, the processor is in communication with a display device (not shown) on which it displays the resulting phase-contrast image of the object.", "[0061] The systems and methods described above can further be modified to include additional functionalities, e.g., that may be complementary to phase contrast imaging.", "For example, the systems and methods can be adapted to perform other kinds of optical microscopy, such as fluorescence imaging.", "In contrast to phase contrast microscopy, fluorescence microscopy is capable of imaging the distribution of a single molecular species based on the properties of its fluorescence emission.", "Thus, using fluorescence microscopy, the precise location of intracellular components labeled with specific fluorophores can be monitored, for example.", "Addition of fluorescence imaging capability to a phase contrast microscope allows the system to provide both structural and functional information.", "[0062] FIG. 8 illustrates a system 800 that can perform both phase contrast imaging and fluorescence imaging.", "System 800 is similar in many respects to the system illustrated in FIG. 1A , and the same components are numbered with like numbers.", "System 800 uses a coherent laser source 810 , which can be the same or different from the laser source 110 used for phase contrast microscopy.", "In one example, the laser source is the same, but is tuned to a wavelength that excites a selected fluorophore in the object to be imaged.", "[0063] In the illustrated embodiment, signal is obtained from the same side at which the object is irradiated, e.g., in an epi-illumination configuration.", "In this configuration, system 800 includes a mirror 815 that directs light transmitted by beamsplitter 142 towards dichroic mirror 820 .", "Dichroic mirror directs light through microscope objective 155 to irradiate the object on the specimen holder 155 .", "Fluorescent emission from the object is then captured by microscope objective 155 , and transmits through dichroic mirror 820 .", "The emission is then imaged by Fourier lenses 160 and 170 onto CCD array 180 .", "As above, CCD array 180 is in communication with a processor 185 that stores (e.g., in an image store, or a computer-readable medium) or otherwise manipulates the image obtained by CCD array 180 (see above).", "For example, the processor 185 is in communication with a display device (not shown) on which it displays the resulting phase-contrast image of the object.", "The CCD array and/or processor may have multi-modal imaging capability.", "[0064] While the invention has been described in connection with specific methods and apparatus, those skilled in the art will recognize other equivalents to the specific embodiments herein.", "It is to be understood that the description is by way of example and not as a limitation to the scope of the invention and these equivalents are intended to be encompassed by the claims set forth below." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims benefit of the following provisional patent applications, which are also hereby incorporated by reference herein: Application Serial No. 60/338,004 entitled “MICRO-SPRING CONFIGURATIONS FOR POWER DELIVERY FROM VOLTAGE REGULATOR MODULES TO INTEGRATED,” by Joseph T. DiBene, II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian filed Nov. 8, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/359,504 entitled “HIGH EFFICIENCY VRM CIRCUIT CONSTRUCTIONS FOR LOW VOLTAGE, HIGH CURRENT ELECTRONIC DEVICES,” by Philip M. Harris, filed Feb. 25, 2002;", "Application Serial No. 60/361,554 entitled “RIGHT ANGLE POWER CONNECTOR ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke filed Mar. 4, 2002;", "Application Serial No. 60/376,578 entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SURFACE POWER DELIVERY,” by Edward J. Derian and Joseph T. DiBene, II filed Apr. 30, 2002;", "Application Serial No. 60/377,557 entitled “EVRM STACK-UP, POWER DELIVERY SOLUTION,” by Joseph T. DiBene, II and David H. Hartke filed May 3, 2002;", "Application Serial No. 60/387,941 entitled “INTEGRATED MAGNETIC BUCK CONVERTER WITH MAGNETICALLY COUPLED SYNCHRONOUSLY RECTIFIED,” by Philip M. Harris filed Jun. 11, 2002;", "Application Serial No. 60/388,412 entitled “MICRO-SPRING INTERCONNECT SYSTEMS FOR LOW IMPEDANCE HIGH POWER APPLICATIONS,” by Joseph T. DiBene, II and Edward J. Derian filed Jun. 12, 2002;", "This application is a continuation in part of the following U.S. patent applications, each of which applications are hereby incorporated by reference herein: (1) U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 10/147,138, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene, II and David H. Hartke filed May 16, 2002, which application claims benefit of the following provisional patent applications, which are also hereby incorporated by reference herein: Application Serial No. 60/301,753, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY USING HIGH PERFORMANCE LINEAR REGULATORS ON PACKAGE WITH A MICROPROCESSOR”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, and Carl E. Hoge, filed Jun. 27,2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,930, entitled “Micro-i-PAK”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, David H. Hartke, and Edward J. Derian, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,749, entitled “MICRO I-PAK ARCHITECTURE HAVING A FLEXIBLE CONNECTOR BETWEEN A VOLTAGE REGULATION MODULE AND SUBSTRATE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,772, entitled “I-PAK ARCHITECTURE POWERING MULTIPLE DEVICES,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/292,125, entitled “VORTEX HEATSINK FOR LOW PRESSURE DROP HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL MANAGEMENT ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY SOLUTIONS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Farhad Raiszadeh, filed May 18, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/299,573, entitled “IMPROVED MICRO-I-PAK STACK-UP ARCHITECTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/301,753, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY USING HIGH PERFORMANCE LINEAR REGULATORS ON PACKAGE WITH A MICROPROCESSOR,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 27, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,929, entitled “BORREGO ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,930, entitled “MICRO-I-PAK,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, David H. Hartke, and Edward J. Derian, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/310,038, entitled “TOOL-LESS CONCEPTS FOR BORREGO,” by Edward J. Derian and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 3, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/313,338, entitled “TOOL-LESS PRISM IPA ASSEMBLY TO SUPPORT IA64 MCKINLEY MICROPROCESSOR,” by David H. Hartke and Edward J. Derian, filed Aug. 17, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/338,004, entitled “MICRO-SPRING CONFIGURATIONS FOR POWER DELIVERY FROM VOLTAGE REGULATOR MODULES TO INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND MICROPROCESSORS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed Nov. 8, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/376,578, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SURFACE POWER DELIVERY,” by Edward J. Derian, filed Apr. 30, 2002;", "Application Serial No. 60/377,557, entitled “EVRM STACK-UP, POWER DELIVERY SOLUTION,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed May 3, 2002;", "Application Serial No. 60/361,554, entitled “RIGHT ANGLE POWER CONNECTOR ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 4, 2002;", "and Application Serial No. 60/359,504, entitled “HIGH EFFICIENCY VRM CIRCUIT CONSTRUCTIONS FOR LOW VOLTAGE, HIGH CURRENT ELECTRONIC DEVICES,” by Philip M. Harris, filed Feb. 25, 2002, and which application is also a continuation-in-part of the following co-pending and commonly assigned patent applications, each of which applications are hereby incorporated by reference herein: application Ser.", "No. 09/885,780, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 19, 2001 now abandoned, which is a continuation in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,356,448, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000 now abandoned, which claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications: Application Serial No. 60/167,792, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 29, 1999;", "Application Serial No. 60/171,065, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 16, 1999;", "Application Serial No. 60/183,474, entitled “DIRECT ATTACH POWER/THERMAL WITH INCEP,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Feb. 18, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/187,777, entitled “NEXT GENERATION PACKAGING FOR EMI CONTAINMENT, POWER DELIVERY, AND THERMAL DISSIPATION USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/196,059, entitled “EMI FRAME WITH POWER FEED-THROUGH AND THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL IN AN AGGREGATE DIAMOND MIXTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Apr. 10, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,506, entitled “HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL MECHANICAL INTERFACE,” by Wendell C. Johnson, David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 20, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH-CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEAT SINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, James J. Hjerpe Kaskade, and Carl E. Hoge, filed Feb. 16, 2001now U.S. Pat. No. 6,452,113, which claims priority to the following Provisional Patent Applications;", "Application Serial No. 60/183,474, entitled “DIRECT ATTACH POWER/THERMAL WITH INCEP,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Feb. 18, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/186,769, entitled “THERMACEP SPRING BEAM,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 3, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/187,777, entitled “NEXT GENERATION PACKAGING FOR EMI CONTAINMENT, POWER DELIVERY, AND THERMAL DISSIPATION USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/196,059, entitled “EMI FRAME WITH POWER FEED-THROUGH AND THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL IN AN AGGREGATE DIAMOND MIXTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Apr. 10, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,506, entitled “HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL MECHANICAL INTERFACE,” by Wendell C. Johnson, David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 20, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH-CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEAT SINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVERY TO MICROELECTRONICS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke, James M. Broder, Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Feb. 6, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/798,541, entitled “THERMAL/MECHANICAL SPRINGBEAM MECHANISM FOR HEAT TRANSFER FROM HEAT SOURCE TO HEAT DISSIPATING DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 2, 2001 now abandoned, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000 now abandoned, and a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Feb. 16, 2001 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,452,113, and a continuation in part of application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY”, by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,356,448, which is a continuation in part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450, and which claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications: Application Serial No. 60/183,474, entitled “DIRECT ATTACH POWER/THERMAL WITH INCEP,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Feb. 18, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/186,769, entitled “THERMACEP SPRING BEAM,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 3, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/187,777, entitled “NEXT GENERATION PACKAGING FOR EMI CONTAINMENT, POWER DELIVERY, AND THERMAL DISSIPATION USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/196,059, entitled “EMI FRAME WITH POWER FEED-THROUGH AND THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL IN AN AGGREGATE DIAMOND MIXTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Apr. 10, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,506, entitled “HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL MECHANICAL INTERFACE,” by Wendell C. Johnson, David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 20, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH-CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEATSINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 4,2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVERY TO MICROELECTRONICS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR POWER DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke, James M. Broder, Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Feb. 6, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/801,437, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DELIVERING POWER TO HIGH PERFORMANCE ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLIES”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, James M. Broder, Edward J. Derian, Joseph S. Riel, and Jose B. San Andres, filed Mar. 8, 2001, which is a continuation in part of the following patent applications: application Ser.", "No. 09/798,541, entitled “THERMAL/MECHANICAL SPRINGBEAM MECHANISM FOR HEAT TRANSFER FROM HEAT SOURCE TO HEAT DISSIPATING DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 2, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, James J. Hjerpe Kaskade, and Carl E. Hoge, filed Feb. 16, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450;", "and which claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications: Application Serial No. 60/187,777, entitled “NEXT GENERATION PACKAGING FOR EMI CONTAINMENT, POWER DELIVERY, AND THERMAL DISSIPATION USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/196,059, entitled “EMI FRAME WITH POWER FEED-THROUGH AND THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL IN AN AGGREGATE DIAMOND MIXTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Apr. 10, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH-CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEATSINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David II Hartke, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVERY TO MICROELECTRONICS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR POWER DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke, James M. Broder, Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Feb. 6, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/802,329, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THERMAL AND MECHANICAL MANAGEMENT OF A POWER REGULATOR MODULE AND MICROPROCESSOR IN CONTACT WITH A THERMALLY CONDUCTING PLATE”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2001, which is a continuation in part of the following patent applications: application Ser.", "No. 09/798,541, entitled “THERMAL/MECHANICAL SPRINGBEAM MECHANISM FOR HEAT TRANSFER FROM HEAT SOURCE TO HEAT DISSIPATING DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 2, 2001, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke,'filed Nov. 28, 2000, and a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Feb. 16, 2001, and a continuation in part of application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY”, by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999, which is a continuation in part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, James J. Hjerpe Kaskade, and Carl E. Hoge, filed Feb. 16, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450, and which claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications: Application Serial No. 60/187,777, entitled “NEXT GENERATION PACKAGING FOR EMI CONTAINMENT, POWER DELIVERY, AND THERMAL DISSIPATION USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/196,059, entitled “EMI FRAME WITH POWER FEED-THROUGH AND THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL IN AN AGGREGATE DIAMOND MIXTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Apr. 10, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH-CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEAT-SINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVERY TO MICROELECTRONICS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR POWER DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke, James M. Broder, Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Feb. 6, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/910,524, entitled “HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL/MECHANICAL INTERFACE FOR FIXED-GAP REFERENCES FOR HIGH HEAT FLUX AND POWER SEMICONDUCTOR APPLICATIONS”, by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, Farhad Raiszadeh, Edward J. Darien and Jose B. San Andres, filed Jul. 20, 2001, which is a continuation in part of the following patent applications: application Ser.", "No. 09/801,437, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DELIVERING POWER TO HIGH PERFORMANCE ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLIES”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, James M. Broder, Edward J. Derian, Joseph S. Riel, and Jose B. San Andres, filed Mar. 8, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/802,329, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THERMAL AND MECHANICAL MANAGEMENT OF A POWER REGULATOR MODULE AND MICROPROCESSOR IN CONTACT WITH A THERMALLY CONDUCTING PLATE”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/798,541, entitled “THERMAL/MECHANICAL SPRINGBEAM MECHANISM FOR HEAT TRANSFER FROM HEAT SOURCE TO HEAT DISSIPATING DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 2, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, James J. Hjerpe Kaskade, and Carl E. Hoge, filed Feb. 16, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000, which claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications;", "Application Serial No. 60/167,792, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 29, 1999;", "Application Serial No. 60/171,065, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATION PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 16, 1999;", "Application Serial No. 60/183,474, entitled “DIRECT ATTACH POWER/THERMAL WITH INCEP TECHNOLOGY, ”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Feb. 18, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/187,777, entitled “NEXT GENERATION PACKAGING FOR EMI CONTAINMENT, POWER DELIVERY, AND THERMAL DISSIPATION USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY, ”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/196,059, entitled “EMI FRAME WITH POWER FEED-THROUGHS AND THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL IN AN AGGREGATE DIAMOND MIXTURE, ”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Apr. 10, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS, ”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE, ”", "by Joseph T. DiBene and James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY, ”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING, ”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450, and which claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications: Application Serial No. 60/187,777, entitled “NEXT GENERATION PACKAGING FOR EMI CONTAINMENT, POWER DELIVERY, AND THERMAL DISSIPATION USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY, ”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,506, entitled “HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL MECHANICAL INTERFACE, ”", "by Wendell C. Johnson, David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 20, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH-CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS, ”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT, ”", "by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEATSINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT, ”", "by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE, ”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS, ”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVERY TO MICROELECTRONICS, ”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING, ”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR POWER DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE, ”", "by David H. Hartke, James M. Broder, Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Feb. 6, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/277,369, entitled “THERMAL-MECHANICAL MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS OF AN ADVANCED THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL CONSTRUCTION, ”", "by Farhad Raiszadeh and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/287,860, entitled “POWER TRANSMISSION DEVICE, ”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 1, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,749, entitled “MICRO I-PAK ARCHITECTURE HAVING A FLEXIBLE CONNECTOR BETWEEN A VOLTAGE REGULATION MODULE AND SUBSTRATE, ”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,772, entitled “I-PAK ARCHITECTURE POWERING MULTIPLE DEVICES, ”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/292,125, entitled “VORTEX HEAT SINK FOR LOW PRESSURE DROP HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL MANAGEMENT ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY SOLUTIONS, ”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and Farhad Raiszadeh, filed May 18, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/299,573, entitled “MICRO I-PAK STACK UP ARCHITECTURE, ”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/301,753, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY USING HIGH PERFORMANCE LINEAR REGULATORS ON PACKAGE WITH A MICROPROCESSOR, ”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 27, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,929, entitled “BORREGO ARCHITECTURE, ”", "by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "and Application Serial No. 60/304,930, entitled “MICRO I-PAK, ”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, David H. Hartke, Edward J. Derian, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/818,173, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING, ”", "by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Mar. 26, 2001, which is a continuation in part of the following patent applications: application Ser.", "No. 09/801,437, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DELIVERING POWER TO HIGH PERFORMANCE ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLIES”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, James M. Broder, Edward J. Derian, Joseph S. Riel, and Jose B. San Andres, filed Mar. 8, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/802,329, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THERMAL AND MECHANICAL MANAGEMENT OF A POWER REGULATOR MODULE AND MICROPROCESSOR IN CONTACT WITH A THERMALLY CONDUCTING PLATE”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/798,541, entitled “THERMAL/MECHANICAL SPRINGBEAM MECHANISM FOR HEAT TRANSFER FROM HEAT SOURCE TO HEAT DISSIPATING DEVICE, ”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 2, 2001, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY, ”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000, and a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT, ”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David FI Hartke, filed Feb. 16, 2001, and a continuation in part of application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY”, by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999, which is a continuation in part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING, ”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6, 304,450;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT, ”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, James J. Hjerpe Kaskade, and Carl E. Hoge, filed Feb. 16, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000, which claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications;", "Application Serial No. 60/167,792, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY, ”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 29, 1999;", "Application Serial No. 60/171,065, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATION PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY, ”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 16, 1999;", "Application Serial No. 60/183,474, entitled “DIRECT ATTACH POWER/THERMAL WITH INCEP TECHNOLOGY, ”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Feb. 18, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/187,777, entitled “NEXT GENERATION PACKAGING FOR EMI CONTAINMENT, POWER DELIVERY, AND THERMAL DISSIPATION USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY, ”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/196,059, entitled “EMI FRAME WITH POWER FEED-THROUGHS AND THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL IN AN AGGREGATE DIAMOND MIXTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Apr. 10, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene and James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450, and which claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications: Application Serial No. 60/187,777, entitled “NEXT GENERATION PACKAGING FOR EMI CONTAINMENT, POWER DELIVERY, AND THERMAL DISSIPATION USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/196,059, entitled “EMI FRAME WITH POWER FEED-THROUGH AND THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL IN AN AGGREGATE DIAMOND MIXTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Apr. 10, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH-CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEATSINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVERY TO MICROELECTRONICS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR POWER DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke, James M. Broder, Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Feb. 6, 2001;", "and Application Serial No. 60/277,369, entitled “THERMAL-MECHANICAL MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS OF AN ADVANCED THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL CONSTRUCTION,” by Farhad Raiszadeh and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/287,860, entitled “POWER TRANSMISSION DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 1, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,749, entitled “MICRO I-PAK ARCHITECTURE HAVING A FLEXIBLE CONNECTOR BETWEEN A VOLTAGE REGULATION MODULE AND A SUBSTRATE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,772, entitled “I-PAK ARCHITECTURE POWERING MULTIPLE DEVICES,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/292,125, entitled “VORTEX HEATSINK FOR LOW PRESSURE DROP HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL MANAGEMENT ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY SOLUTIONS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Farhad Raiszadeh, filed May 18, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/299,573, entitled, “MICRO I-PAK STACK UP ARCHITECTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/301,753, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY USING HIGH PERFORMANCE LINEAR REGULATORS ON PACKAGE WITH A MICROPROCESSOR,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 27, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,929, entitled “BORREGO ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,930, entitled “MICRO I-PAK,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, David H. Hartke, Edward J. Derian, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/921,153 entitled “VAPOR CHAMBER WITH INTEGRATED PIN ARRAY”, by Joseph T. DiBene, II and Farhad Raiszadeh, filed on Aug. 2, 2001, which is a continuation in part of the following patent applications: application Ser.", "No. 09/921,152, entitled “HIGH SPEED AND HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR CONNECTOR FOR BOARD-TO-BOARD INTERCONNECT SYSTEMS,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/910,524, entitled “HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL/MECHANICAL INTERFACE FOR FIXED-GAP REFERENCES FOR HIGH HEAT FLUX AND POWER SEMICONDUCTOR APPLICATIONS”, by Joseph T. DiBene, II, David H. Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, Farhad Raiszadeh, Edward J. Darien and Jose B. San Andres, filed Jul. 20, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/801,437, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DELIVERING POWER TO HIGH PERFORMANCE ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLIES”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, James M. Broder, Edward J. Derian, Joseph S. Riel, and Jose B. San Andres, filed Mar. 8, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/802,329, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THERMAL AND MECHANICAL MANAGEMENT OF A POWER REGULATOR MODULE AND MICROPROCESSOR IN CONTACT WITH A THERMALLY CONDUCTING PLATE”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/798,541, entitled “THERMAL/MECHANICAL SPRINGBEAM MECHANISM FOR HEAT TRANSFER FROM HEAT SOURCE TO HEAT DISSIPATING DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 2, 2001, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000, and a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Feb. 16, 2001, and a continuation in part of application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY”, by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999, which is a continuation in part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, James J. Hjerpe Kaskade, and Carl E. Hoge, filed Feb. 16, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450, and which claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications: Application Serial No. 60/187,777, entitled “NEXT GENERATION PACKAGING FOR EMI CONTAINMENT, POWER DELIVERY, AND THERMAL DISSIPATION USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/196,059, entitled “EMI FRAME WITH POWER FEED-THROUGH AND THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL IN AN AGGREGATE DIAMOND MIXTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Apr. 10, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH-CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEAT-SINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 4,2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVERY TO MICROELECTRONICS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR POWER DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke, James M. Broder, Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Feb. 6, 2001;", "and Application Serial No. 60/277,369, entitled “THERMAL-MECHANICAL MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS OF AN ADVANCED THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL CONSTRUCTION,” by Farhad Raiszadeh and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/287,860, entitled “POWER TRANSMISSION DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 1, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,749, entitled “MICRO I-PAK ARCHITECTURE HAVING A FLEXIBLE CONNECTOR BETWEEN A VOLTAGE REGULATION MODULE AND SUBSTRATE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,772, entitled “I-PAK ARCHITECTURE POWERING MULTIPLE DEVICES,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/292,125, entitled “VORTEX HEAT SINK FOR LOW PRESSURE DROP HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL MANAGEMENT ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY SOLUTIONS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Farhad Raiszadeh, filed May 18, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/299,573, entitled “MICRO I-PAK STACK UP ARCHITECTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/301,753, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY USING HIGH PERFORMANCE LINEAR REGULATORS ON PACKAGE WITH A MICROPROCESSOR,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 27, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,929, entitled “BORREGO ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "and Application Serial No. 60/304,930, entitled “MICRO I-PAK,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, David H. Hartke, Edward J. Derian, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/921,152, entitled “HIGH SPEED AND DENSITY CIRCULAR CONNECTOR FOR BOARD-TO-BOARD INTERCONNECTION SYSTEMS,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed on Aug. 2, 2001, which is a continuation in part of the following patent applications: application Ser.", "No. 09/921,153 entitled “VAPOR CHAMBER WITH INTEGRATED PIN ARRAY”, by Joseph T. DiBene, II and Farhad Raiszadeh, filed on Aug. 2, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/910,524, entitled “HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL/MECHANICAL INTERFACE FOR FIXED-GAP REFERENCES FOR HIGH HEAT FLUX AND POWER SEMICONDUCTOR APPLICATIONS”, by Joseph T. DiBene, II, David H. Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, Farhad Raiszadeh, Edward J. Darien and Jose B. San Andres, filed Jul. 20, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/801,437, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DELIVERING POWER TO HIGH PERFORMANCE ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLIES”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, James M. Broder, Edward J. Derian, Joseph S. Riel, and Jose B. San Andres, filed Mar. 8, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/802,329, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THERMAL AND MECHANICAL MANAGEMENT OF A POWER REGULATOR MODULE AND MICROPROCESSOR IN CONTACT WITH A THERMALLY CONDUCTING PLATE”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/798,541, entitled “THERMAL/MECHANICAL SPRINGBEAM MECHANISM FOR HEAT TRANSFER FROM HEAT SOURCE TO HEAT DISSIPATING DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 2, 2001, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000, and a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Feb. 16, 2001, and a continuation in part of application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY”, by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999, which is a continuation in part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, James J. Hjerpe Kaskade, and Carl E. Hoge, filed Feb. 16, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450;", "and which claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications: Application Serial No. 60/187,777, entitled “NEXT GENERATION PACKAGING FOR EMI CONTAINMENT, POWER DELIVERY, AND THERMAL DISSIPATION USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/196,059, entitled “EMI FRAME WITH POWER FEED-THROUGH AND THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL IN AN AGGREGATE DIAMOND MIXTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Apr. 10, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH-CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEATSINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVERY TO MICROELECTRONICS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR POWER DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke, James M. Broder, Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Feb. 6, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/277,369, entitled “THERMAL-MECHANICAL MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS OF AN ADVANCED THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL CONSTRUCTION,” by Farhad Raiszadeh and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/287,860, entitled “POWER TRANSMISSION DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 1, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,749, entitled “MICRO I-PAK ARCHITECTURE HAVING A FLEXIBLE CONNECTOR BETWEEN A VOLTAGE REGULATION MODULE AND SUBSTRATE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,772, entitled “I-PAK ARCHITECTURE POWERING MULTIPLE DEVICES,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/292,125, entitled “VORTEX HEAT SINK FOR LOW PRESSURE DROP HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL MANAGEMENT ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY SOLUTIONS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Farhad Raiszadeh, filed May 18, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/299,573, entitled “MICRO I-PAK STACK UP ARCHITECTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/301,753, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY USING HIGH PERFORMANCE LINEAR REGULATORS ON PACKAGE WITH A MICROPROCESSOR,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 27, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,929, entitled “BORREGO ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "and Application Serial No. 60/304,930, entitled “MICRO I-PAK,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, David H. Hartke, Edward J. Derian, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 10/022,454, entitled “ULTRA LOW IMPEDANCE POWER INTERCONNECTION SYSTEM FOR ELECTRONIC PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed Oct. 30, 2001, which is a continuation in part of the following U.S. Patent Applications: application Ser.", "No. 09/818, 173, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene, II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 26, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/921,152, entitled “HIGH SPEED AND DENSITY CIRCULAR CONNECTOR FOR BOARD-TO-BOARD INTERCONNECTION SYSTEMS,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed on Aug. 2, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/921,153 entitled “VAPOR CHAMBER WITH INTEGRATED PIN ARRAY”, by Joseph T. DiBene, II and Farhad Raiszadeh, filed on Aug. 2,2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/910,524, entitled “HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL/MECHANICAL INTERFACE FOR FIXED-GAP REFERENCES FOR HIGH HEAT FLUX AND POWER SEMICONDUCTOR APPLICATIONS”, by Joseph T. DiBene, II, David H. Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, Farhad Raiszadeh, Edward J. Darien and Jose B. San Andres, filed Jul. 20, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/885,780, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 19, 2001, which is a continuation of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450;", "Application Ser.", "No[.", "].09/801,437, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DELIVERING POWER TO HIGH PERFORMANCE ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLIES”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, James M. Broder, Edward J. Derian, Joseph S. Riel, and Jose B. San Andres, filed Mar. 8, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/802,329, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THERMAL AND MECHANICAL MANAGEMENT OF A POWER REGULATOR MODULE AND MICROPROCESSOR IN CONTACT WITH A THERMALLY CONDUCTING PLATE”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/798,541, entitled “THERMAL/MECHANICAL SPRINGBEAM MECHANISM FOR HEAT TRANSFER FROM HEAT SOURCE TO HEAT DISSIPATING DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 2, 2001, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000, and a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Feb. 16, 2001, and a continuation in part of application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY”, by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999, which is a continuation in part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, James J. Hjerpe Kaskade, and Carl E. Hoge, filed Feb. 16, 2001 application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450;", "and which claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications: Application Serial No. 60/187,777, entitled “NEXT GENERATION PACKAGING FOR EMI CONTAINMENT, POWER DELIVERY, AND THERMAL DISSIPATION USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/196,059, entitled “EMI FRAME WITH POWER FEED-THROUGH AND THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL IN AN AGGREGATE DIAMOND MIXTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Apr. 10, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH-CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEATSINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 4,2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVERY TO MICROELECTRONICS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke, James M. Broder, Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Feb. 6, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/277,369, entitled “THERMAL-MECHANICAL MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS OF ADVANCED THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL CONSTRUCTION,” by Farhad Raiszadeh and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/287,860, entitled “POWER TRANSMISSION DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 1, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,749, entitled “MICRO I-PAK ARCHITECTURE HAVING A FLEXIBLE CONNECTOR BETWEEN A VOLTAGE REGULATION MODULE AND SUBSTRATE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,772, entitled “I-PAK ARCHITECTURE POWERING MULTIPLE DEVICES,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/292,125, entitled “VORTEX HEATSINK FOR LOW PRESSURE DROP HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL MANAGEMENT ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY SOLUTIONS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Farhad Raiszadeh, filed May 18, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/299,573, entitled “MICRO I-PAK STACK UP ARCHITECTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/301,753, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY USING HIGH PERFORMANCE LINEAR REGULATORS ON PACKAGE WITH A MICROPROCESSOR,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 27, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,929, entitled “BORREGO ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,930, entitled “MICRO I-PAK,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, David H. Hartke, Edward J. Derian, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "and Application Serial No. 60/310,038, entitled “TOOL-LESS CONCEPTS FOR BORREGO,” by Edward J. Derian and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 3, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/313,338, entitled “TOOL-LESS PRISM IPA ASSEMBLY TO SUPPORT IA64 MCKINLEY MICROPROCESSOR,” by David H. Hartke and Edward J. Derian, filed Aug. 17, 2001;", "and Application Serial No. 60/338,004, entitled “MICRO-SPRING CONFIGURATIONS FOR POWER DELIVERY FROM VOLTAGE REGULATOR MODULES TO INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND MICROPROCESSORS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed Nov. 8, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 10/036,957, entitled “ULTRA-LOW IMPEDANCE POWER INTERCONNECTION SYSTEM FOR ELECTRONIC PACKAGES,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed Dec. 20, 2001, which is a continuation-in-part of the following patent applications: application Ser.", "No. 10/022,454, entitled “ULTRA LOW IMPEDANCE POWER INTERCONNECTION SYSTEM FOR ELECTRONIC PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed Oct. 30, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/818,173, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene, II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 26, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/921,152, entitled “HIGH SPEED AND DENSITY CIRCULAR CONNECTOR FOR BOARD-TO-BOARD INTERCONNECTION SYSTEMS,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed on Aug. 2, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/921,153 entitled “VAPOR CHAMBER WITH INTEGRATED PIN ARRAY”, by Joseph T. DiBene, II and Farhad Raiszadeh, filed on Aug. 2, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/910,524, entitled “HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL/MECHANICAL INTERFACE FOR FIXED-GAP REFERENCES FOR HIGH HEAT FLUX AND POWER SEMICONDUCTOR APPLICATIONS”, by Joseph T. DiBene, II, David H. Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, Farhad Raiszadeh, Edward J. Darien and Jose B. San Andres, filed Jul. 20, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/885,780, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 19, 2001, which is a continuation of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/801,437, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DELIVERING POWER TO HIGH PERFORMANCE ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLIES”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, James M. Broder, Edward J. Derian, Joseph S. Riel, and Jose B. San Andres, filed Mar. 8, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/802,329, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THERMAL AND MECHANICAL MANAGEMENT OF A POWER REGULATOR MODULE AND MICROPROCESSOR IN CONTACT WITH A THERMALLY CONDUCTING PLATE”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/798,541, entitled “THERMAL/MECHANICAL SPRINGBEAM MECHANISM FOR HEAT TRANSFER FROM HEAT SOURCE TO HEAT DISSIPATING DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 2, 2001, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000, and a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Feb. 16, 2001, and a continuation in part of application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY”, by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999, which is a continuation in part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, James J. Hjerpe Kaskade, and Carl E. Hoge, filed Feb. 16, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450;", "and which claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications: Application Serial No. 60/187,777, entitled “NEXT GENERATION PACKAGING FOR EMI CONTAINMENT, POWER DELIVERY, AND THERMAL DISSIPATION USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/196,059, entitled “EMI FRAME WITH POWER FEED-THROUGH AND THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL IN AN AGGREGATE DIAMOND MIXTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Apr. 10, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH-CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEATSINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVERY TO MICROELECTRONICS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke, James M. Broder, Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Feb. 6, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/277,369, entitled “THERMAL-MECHANICAL MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS OF ADVANCED THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL CONSTRUCTION,” by Farhad Raiszadeh and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/287,860, entitled “POWER TRANSMISSION DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 1, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,749, entitled “MICRO I-PAK ARCHITECTURE HAVING A FLEXIBLE CONNECTOR BETWEEN A VOLTAGE REGULATION MODULE AND SUBSTRATE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,772, entitled “I-PAK ARCHITECTURE POWERING MULTIPLE DEVICES,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/292,125, entitled “VORTEX HEATSINK FOR LOW PRESSURE DROP HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL MANAGEMENT ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY SOLUTIONS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Farhad Raiszadeh, filed May 18, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/299,573, entitled “MICRO I-PAK STACK UP ARCHITECTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/301,753, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY USING HIGH PERFORMANCE LINEAR REGULATORS ON PACKAGE WITH A MICROPROCESSOR,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 27, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,929, entitled “BORREGO ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,930, entitled “MICRO I-PAK,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, David H. Hartke, Edward J. Derian, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/310,038, entitled “TOOL-LESS CONCEPTS FOR BORREGO,” by Edward J. Derian and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 3, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/313,338, entitled “TOOL-LESS PRISM IPA ASSEMBLY TO SUPPORT IA64 MCKINLEY MICROPROCESSOR,” by David H. Hartke and Edward J. Derian, filed Aug. 17, 2001;", "and Application Serial No. 60/338,004, entitled “MICRO-SPRING CONFIGURATIONS FOR POWER DELIVERY FROM VOLTAGE REGULATOR MODULES TO INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND MICROPROCESSORS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed Nov. 8, 2001;", "and application Ser.", "No. 10/005,024, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY HIGH POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 4, 2001, which is a continuation-in-part of the following patent applications: application Ser.", "No. 09/885,780, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 19, 2001, which is a continuation of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, James J. Hjerpe Kaskade, and Carl E. Hoge, filed Feb. 16, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/798,541, entitled “THERMAL/MECHANICAL SPRINGBEAM MECHANISM FOR HEAT TRANSFER FROM HEAT SOURCE TO HEAT DISSIPATING DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 2, 2001;", "Application Ser.", "No[.", "].09/801,437, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DELIVERING POWER TO HIGH PERFORMANCE ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLIES”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, James M. Broder, Edward J. Derian, Joseph S. Riel, and Jose B. San Andres, filed Mar. 8, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/802,329, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THERMAL AND MECHANICAL MANAGEMENT OF A POWER REGULATOR MODULE AND MICROPROCESSOR IN CONTACT WITH A THERMALLY CONDUCTING PLATE”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/910,524, entitled “HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL/MECHANICAL INTERFACE FOR FIXED-GAP REFERENCES FOR HIGH HEAT FLUX AND POWER SEMICONDUCTOR APPLICATIONS”, by Joseph T. DiBene, II, David H. Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, Farhad Raiszadeh, Edward J. Darien and Jose B. San Andres, filed Jul. 20, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/921,153 entitled “VAPOR CHAMBER WITH INTEGRATED PIN ARRAY”, by Joseph T. DiBene, II and Farhad Raiszadeh, filed on Aug. 2, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/818,173, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Mar. 26, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/921,152, entitled “HIGH SPEED AND DENSITY CIRCULAR CONNECTOR FOR BOARD-TO-BOARD INTERCONNECTION SYSTEMS,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed on Aug. 2, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/921,153, entitled “VAPOR CHAMBER WITH INTEGRATED PIN ARRAY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, and Farhad Raiszadeh, filed Aug. 2, 2001, application Ser.", "No. 10/022,454, entitled “ULTRA-LOW IMPEDANCE POWER INTERCONNECTION SYSTEM FOR ELECTRONIC PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed Oct. 30, 2001;", "and which also claims benefit of and incorporates by reference the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications: Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO-I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVERY TO MICROELECTRONICS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR POWER DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, and James M. Broder, filed Feb. 6, 2001 Application Serial No. 60/277,369, entitled “THERMAL-MECHANICAL MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS OF ADVANCED THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL CONSTRUCTION,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke and Farhad Raiszadeh, filed Mar. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/287,860, entitled “POWER TRANSMISSION DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 1, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,749, entitled “MICRO I-PAK ARCHITECTURE HAVING A FLEXIBLE CONNECTOR BETWEEN A VOLTAGE REGULATION MODULE AND SUBSTRATE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,772, entitled “I-PAK ARCHITECTURE POWERING MULTIPLE DEVICES,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/292,125, entitled “VORTEX HEATSINK FOR LOW PRESSURE DROP HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL MANAGEMENT ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY SOLUTIONS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Farhad Raiszadeh, filed May 18, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/299,573, entitled “IMPROVED MICRO-I-PAK STACK-UP ARCHITECTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/301,753, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY USING HIGH PERFORMANCE LINEAR REGULATORS ON PACKAGE WITH A MICROPROCESSOR,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 27, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,929, entitled “BORREGO ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,930, entitled “MICRO-I-PAK,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, David H. Hartke, and Edward J. Derian, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/310,038, entitled “TOOL-LESS CONCEPTS FOR BORREGO,” by Edward J. Derian and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 3, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/313,338, entitled “TOOL-LESS PRISM IPA ASSEMBLY TO SUPPORT IA64 MCKINLEY MICROPROCESSOR,” by David H. Hartke and Edward J. Derian, filed Aug. 17, 2001;", "and Application Serial No. 60/338,004, entitled “MICRO-SPRING CONFIGURATIONS FOR POWER DELIVERY FROM VOLTAGE REGULATOR MODULES TO INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND MICROPROCESSORS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David F Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed Nov. 8, 2001.", "(2) U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 10/132,586, entitled “SEPARABLE POWER DELIVERY CONNECTOR”, by Edward J. Derian, Joseph T. DiBene, II and David H. Hartke filed May 1, 2002, which application claims benefit of the following provisional patent applications, which applications are hereby incorporated by reference herein: Application Serial No. 60/287,860, entitled “POWER TRANSMISSION DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 1, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,749, entitled “MICRO I-PAK ARCHITECTURE HAVING A FLEXIBLE CONNECTOR BETWEEN A VOLTAGE REGULATION MODULE AND SUBSTRATE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,772, entitled “I-PAK ARCHITECTURE POWERING MULTIPLE DEVICES,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/292,125, entitled “VORTEX HEATSINK FOR LOW PRESSURE DROP HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL MANAGEMENT ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY SOLUTIONS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Farhad Raiszadeh, filed May 18, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/299,573, entitled “IMPROVED MICRO-I-PAK STACK-UP ARCHITECTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/301,753, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY USING HIGH PERFORMANCE LINEAR REGULATORS ON PACKAGE WITH A MICROPROCESSOR,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 27, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,929, entitled “BORREGO ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,930, entitled “MICRO-I-PAK,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, David H. Hartke, and Edward J. Derian, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/310,038, entitled “TOOL-LESS CONCEPTS FOR BORREGO,” by Edward J. Derian and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 3, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/313,338, entitled “TOOL-LESS PRISM IPA ASSEMBLY TO SUPPORT IA64 MCKINLEY MICROPROCESSOR,” by David H. Hartke and Edward J. Derian, filed Aug. 17, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/338,004, entitled “MICRO-SPRING CONFIGURATIONS FOR POWER DELIVERY FROM VOLTAGE REGULATOR MODULES TO INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND MICROPROCESSORS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed Nov. 8, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/361,554, entitled “RIGHT ANGLE POWER CONNECTOR ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 4, 2002;", "and Application Serial No. 60/359,504, entitled “HIGH EFFICIENCY VRM CIRCUIT CONSTRUCTIONS FOR LOW VOLTAGE, HIGH CURRENT ELECTRONIC DEVICES,” by Philip M. Harris, filed Feb. 25, 2002, and which application is also a continuation-in-part of the following and commonly assigned patent applications, each of which applications are hereby incorporated by reference herein: application Ser.", "No. 09/885,780, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 19, 2001, which is a continuation in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000, which claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications: Application Serial No. 60/167,792, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 29, 1999;", "Application Serial No. 60/171,065, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 16, 1999;", "Application Serial No. 60/183,474, entitled “DIRECT ATTACH POWER/THERMAL WITH INCEP,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Feb. 18, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/187,777, entitled “NEXT GENERATION PACKAGING FOR EMI CONTAINMENT, POWER DELIVERY, AND THERMAL DISSIPATION USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/196,059, entitled “EMI FRAME WITH POWER FEED-THROUGH AND THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL IN AN AGGREGATE DIAMOND MIXTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Apr. 10, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,506, entitled “HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL MECHANICAL INTERFACE,” by Wendell C. Johnson, David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 20, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH-CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEAT SINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, James J. Hjerpe Kaskade, and Carl E. Hoge, filed Feb. 16, 2001, which claims priority to the following Provisional Patent Applications;", "Application Serial No. 60/183,474, entitled “DIRECT ATTACH POWER/THERMAL WITH INCEP,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Feb. 18, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/186,769, entitled “THERMACEP SPRING BEAM,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 3, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/187,777, entitled “NEXT GENERATION PACKAGING FOR EMI CONTAINMENT, POWER DELIVERY, AND THERMAL DISSIPATION USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/196,059, entitled “EMI FRAME WITH POWER FEED-THROUGH AND THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL IN AN AGGREGATE DIAMOND MIXTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Apr. 10, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,506, entitled “HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL MECHANICAL INTERFACE,” by Wendell C. Johnson, David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 20, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH-CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEAT SINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVERY TO MICROELECTRONICS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4,2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke, James M. Broder, Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Feb. 6, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/798,541, entitled “THERMAL/MECHANICAL SPRINGBEAM MECHANISM FOR HEAT TRANSFER FROM HEAT SOURCE TO HEAT DISSIPATING DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 2, 2001, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000, and a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Feb. 16, 2001, and a continuation in part of application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY”, by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999, which is a continuation in part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450, and which claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications: Application Serial No. 60/183,474, entitled “DIRECT ATTACH POWER/THERMAL WITH INCEP,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Feb. 18, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/186,769, entitled “THERMACEP SPRING BEAM”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 3, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/187,777, entitled “NEXT GENERATION PACKAGING FOR EMI CONTAINMENT, POWER DELIVERY, AND THERMAL DISSIPATION USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/196,059, entitled “EMI FRAME WITH POWER FEED-THROUGH AND THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL IN AN AGGREGATE DIAMOND MIXTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Apr. 10, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,506, entitled “HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL MECHANICAL INTERFACE,” by Wendell C. Johnson, David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 20, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH-CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEATSINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVERY TO MICROELECTRONICS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR POWER DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke, James M. Broder, Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Feb. 6, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/801,437, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DELIVERING POWER TO HIGH PERFORMANCE ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLIES”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, James M. Broder, Edward J. Derian, Joseph S. Riel, and Jose B. San Andres, filed Mar. 8, 2001, which is a continuation in part of the following patent applications: application Ser.", "No. 09/798,541, entitled “THERMAL/MECHANICAL SPRINGBEAM MECHANISM FOR HEAT TRANSFER FROM HEAT SOURCE TO HEAT DISSIPATING DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 2, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, James J. Hjerpe Kaskade, and Carl E. Hoge, filed Feb. 16, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450;", "and which claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications: Application Serial No. 60/187,777, entitled “NEXT GENERATION PACKAGING FOR EMI CONTAINMENT, POWER DELIVERY, AND THERMAL DISSIPATION USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/196,059, entitled “EMI FRAME WITH POWER FEED-THROUGH AND THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL IN AN AGGREGATE DIAMOND MIXTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Apr. 10, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH-CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEATSINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVERY TO MICROELECTRONICS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR POWER DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke, James M. Broder, Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Feb. 6, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/802,329, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THERMAL AND MECHANICAL MANAGEMENT OF A POWER REGULATOR MODULE AND MICROPROCESSOR IN CONTACT WITH A THERMALLY CONDUCTING PLATE”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2001, which is a continuation in part of the following patent applications: application Ser.", "No. 09/798,541, entitled “THERMAL/MECHANICAL SPRINGBEAM MECHANISM FOR HEAT TRANSFER FROM HEAT SOURCE TO HEAT DISSIPATING DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 2, 2001, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000, and a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Feb. 16, 2001, and a continuation in part of application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY”, by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999, which is a continuation in part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, James J. Hjerpe Kaskade, and Carl E. Hoge, filed Feb. 16, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450, and which claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications: Application Serial No. 60/187,777, entitled “NEXT GENERATION PACKAGING FOR EMI CONTAINMENT, POWER DELIVERY, AND THERMAL DISSIPATION USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/196,059, entitled “EMI FRAME WITH POWER FEED-THROUGH AND THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL IN AN AGGREGATE DIAMOND MIXTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Apr. 10, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH-CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEAT-SINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVERY TO MICROELECTRONICS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR POWER DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke, James M. Broder, Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Feb. 6, 2001 application Ser.", "No. 09/910,524, entitled “HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL/MECHANICAL INTERFACE FOR FIXED-GAP REFERENCES FOR HIGH HEAT FLUX AND POWER SEMICONDUCTOR APPLICATIONS”, by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, Farhad Raiszadeh, Edward J. Darien and Jose B. San Andres, filed Jul. 20, 2001, which is a continuation in part of the following patent applications: application Ser.", "No. 09/801,437, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DELIVERING POWER TO HIGH PERFORMANCE ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLIES”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, James M. Broder, Edward J. Derian, Joseph S. Riel, and Jose B. San Andres, filed Mar. 8,2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/802,329, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THERMAL AND MECHANICAL MANAGEMENT OF A POWER REGULATOR MODULE AND MICROPROCESSOR IN CONTACT WITH A THERMALLY CONDUCTING PLATE”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/798,541, entitled “THERMAL/MECHANICAL SPRINGBEAM MECHANISM FOR HEAT TRANSFER FROM HEAT SOURCE TO HEAT DISSIPATING DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 2, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, James J. Hjerpe Kaskade, and Carl E. Hoge, filed Feb. 16, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000, which claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications;", "Application Serial No. 60/167,792, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 29, 1999;", "Application Serial No. 60/171,065, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATION PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 16, 1999;", "Application Serial No. 60/183,474, entitled “DIRECT ATTACH POWER/THERMAL WITH INCEP TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Feb. 18, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/187,777, entitled “NEXT GENERATION PACKAGING FOR EMI CONTAINMENT, POWER DELIVERY, AND THERMAL DISSIPATION USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/196,059, entitled “EMI FRAME WITH POWER FEED-THROUGHS AND THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL IN AN AGGREGATE DIAMOND MIXTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Apr. 10, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene and James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450, and which claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications: Application Serial No. 60/187,777, entitled “NEXT GENERATION PACKAGING FOR EMI CONTAINMENT, POWER DELIVERY, AND THERMAL DISSIPATION USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,506, entitled “HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL MECHANICAL INTERFACE,” by Wendell C. Johnson, David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 20, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH-CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEATSINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVERY TO MICROELECTRONICS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR POWER DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke, James M. Broder, Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Feb. 6, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/277,369, entitled “THERMAL-MECHANICAL MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS OF AN ADVANCED THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL CONSTRUCTION,” by Farhad Raiszadeh and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/287,860, entitled “POWER TRANSMISSION DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 1, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,749, entitled “MICRO I-PAK ARCHITECTURE HAVING A FLEXIBLE CONNECTOR BETWEEN A VOLTAGE REGULATION MODULE AND SUBSTRATE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,772, entitled “I-PAK ARCHITECTURE POWERING MULTIPLE DEVICES,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/292,125, entitled “VORTEX HEAT SINK FOR LOW PRESSURE DROP HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL MANAGEMENT ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY SOLUTIONS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Farhad Raiszadeh, filed May 18, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/299,573, entitled “MICRO I-PAK STACK UP ARCHITECTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/301,753, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY USING HIGH PERFORMANCE LINEAR REGULATORS ON PACKAGE WITH A MICROPROCESSOR,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 27, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,929, entitled “BORREGO ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "and Application Serial No. 60/304,930, entitled “MICRO I-PAK,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, David H. Hartke, Edward J. Derian, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/818,173, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Mar. 26, 2001, which is a continuation in part of the following patent applications: application Ser.", "No. 09/801,437, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DELIVERING POWER TO HIGH PERFORMANCE ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLIES”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, James M. Broder, Edward J. Derian, Joseph S. Riel, and Jose B. San Andres, filed Mar. 8, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/802,329, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THERMAL AND MECHANICAL MANAGEMENT OF A POWER REGULATOR MODULE AND MICROPROCESSOR IN CONTACT WITH A THERMALLY CONDUCTING PLATE”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/798,541, entitled “THERMAL/MECHANICAL SPRINGBEAM MECHANISM FOR HEAT TRANSFER FROM HEAT SOURCE TO HEAT DISSIPATING DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 2, 2001, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000, and a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Feb. 16, 2001, and a continuation in part of application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY”, by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999, which is a continuation in part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, James J. Hjerpe Kaskade, and Carl E. Hoge, filed Feb. 16, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450, and which claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications: Application Serial No. 60/187,777, entitled “NEXT GENERATION PACKAGING FOR EMI CONTAINMENT, POWER DELIVERY, AND THERMAL DISSIPATION USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/196,059, entitled “EMI FRAME WITH POWER FEED-THROUGH AND THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL IN AN AGGREGATE DIAMOND MIXTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Apr. 10, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH-CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEATSINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVERY TO MICROELECTRONICS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR POWER DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke, James M. Broder, Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Feb. 6, 2001;", "and Application Serial No. 60/277,369, entitled “THERMAL-MECHANICAL MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS OF AN ADVANCED THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL CONSTRUCTION,” by Farhad Raiszadeh and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/287,860, entitled “POWER TRANSMISSION DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 1, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,749, entitled “MICRO I-PAK ARCHITECTURE HAVING A FLEXIBLE CONNECTOR BETWEEN A VOLTAGE REGULATION MODULE AND A SUBSTRATE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,772, entitled “I-PAK ARCHITECTURE POWERING MULTIPLE DEVICES,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/292,125, entitled “VORTEX HEATSINK FOR LOW PRESSURE DROP HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL MANAGEMENT ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY SOLUTIONS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Farhad Raiszadeh, filed May 18, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/299,573, entitled “MICRO I-PAK STACK UP ARCHITECTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/301,753, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY USING HIGH PERFORMANCE LINEAR REGULATORS ON PACKAGE WITH A MICROPROCESSOR,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 27, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,929, entitled “BORREGO ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,930, entitled “MICRO I-PAK,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, David H. Hartke, Edward J. Derian, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/921,153 entitled “VAPOR CHAMBER WITH INTEGRATED PIN ARRAY”, by Joseph T. DiBene, II and Farhad Raiszadeh, filed on Aug. 2, 2001, which is a continuation in part of the following patent applications: application Ser.", "No. 09/921,152, entitled “HIGH SPEED AND HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR CONNECTOR FOR BOARD-TO-BOARD INTERCONNECT SYSTEMS,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/910,524, entitled “HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL/MECHANICAL INTERFACE FOR FIXED-GAP REFERENCES FOR HIGH HEAT FLUX AND POWER SEMICONDUCTOR APPLICATIONS”, by Joseph T. DiBene, II, David H. Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, Farhad Raiszadeh, Edward J. Darien and Jose B. San Andres, filed Jul. 20, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/801,437, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DELIVERING POWER TO HIGH PERFORMANCE ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLIES”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, James M. Broder, Edward J. Derian, Joseph S. Riel, and Jose B. San Andres, filed Mar. 8, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/802,329, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THERMAL AND MECHANICAL MANAGEMENT OF A POWER REGULATOR MODULE AND MICROPROCESSOR IN CONTACT WITH A THERMALLY CONDUCTING PLATE”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/798,541, entitled “THERMAL/MECHANICAL SPRINGBEAM MECHANISM FOR HEAT TRANSFER FROM HEAT SOURCE TO HEAT DISSIPATING DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 2, 2001, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000, and a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Feb. 16, 2001, and a continuation in part of application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY”, by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999, which is a continuation in part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, James J. Hjerpe Kaskade, and Carl E. Hoge, filed Feb. 16, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450, and which claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications: Application Serial No. 60/187,777, entitled “NEXT GENERATION PACKAGING FOR EMI CONTAINMENT, POWER DELIVERY, AND THERMAL DISSIPATION USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/196,059, entitled “EMI FRAME WITH POWER FEED-THROUGH AND THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL IN AN AGGREGATE DIAMOND MIXTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Apr. 10, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH-CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEAT-SINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVERY TO MICROELECTRONICS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR POWER DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke, James M. Broder, Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Feb. 6, 2001;", "and Application Serial No. 60/277,369, entitled “THERMAL-MECHANICAL MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS OF AN ADVANCED THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL CONSTRUCTION,” by Farhad Raiszadeh and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/287,860, entitled “POWER TRANSMISSION DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 1, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,749, entitled “MICRO I-PAK ARCHITECTURE HAVING A FLEXIBLE CONNECTOR BETWEEN A VOLTAGE REGULATION MODULE AND SUBSTRATE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,772, entitled “I-PAK ARCHITECTURE POWERING MULTIPLE DEVICES,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/292,125, entitled “VORTEX HEAT SINK FOR LOW PRESSURE DROP HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL MANAGEMENT ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY SOLUTIONS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Farhad Raiszadeh, filed May 18, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/299,573, entitled “MICRO I-PAK STACK UP ARCHITECTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/301,753, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY USING HIGH PERFORMANCE LINEAR REGULATORS ON PACKAGE WITH A MICROPROCESSOR,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David F Hartke, filed Jun. 27, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,929, entitled “BORREGO ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "and Application Serial No. 60/304,930, entitled “MICRO I-PAK,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, David H. Hartke, Edward J. Derian, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/921,152, entitled “HIGH SPEED AND DENSITY CIRCULAR CONNECTOR FOR BOARD-TO-BOARD INTERCONNECTION SYSTEMS,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed on Aug. 2, 2001, which is a continuation in part of the following patent applications: application Ser.", "No. 09/921,153 entitled “VAPOR CHAMBER WITH INTEGRATED PIN ARRAY”, by Joseph T. DiBene, II and Farhad Raiszadeh, filed on Aug. 2, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/910,524, entitled “HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL/MECHANICAL INTERFACE FOR FIXED-GAP REFERENCES FOR HIGH HEAT FLUX AND POWER SEMICONDUCTOR APPLICATIONS”, by Joseph T. DiBene, II, David H. Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, Farhad Raiszadeh, Edward J. Darien and Jose B. San Andres, filed Jul. 20, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/801,437, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DELIVERING POWER TO HIGH PERFORMANCE ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLIES”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, James M. Broder, Edward J. Derian, Joseph S. Riel, and Jose B. San Andres, filed Mar. 8, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/802,329, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THERMAL AND MECHANICAL MANAGEMENT OF A POWER REGULATOR MODULE AND MICROPROCESSOR IN CONTACT WITH A THERMALLY CONDUCTING PLATE”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/798,541, entitled “THERMAL/MECHANICAL SPRINGBEAM MECHANISM FOR HEAT TRANSFER FROM HEAT SOURCE TO HEAT DISSIPATING DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 2, 2001, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000, and a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Feb. 16, 2001, and a continuation in part of application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY”, by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999, which is a continuation in part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, James J. Hjerpe Kaskade, and Carl E. Hoge, filed Feb. 16, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450;", "and which claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications: Application Serial No. 60/187,777, entitled “NEXT GENERATION PACKAGING FOR EMI CONTAINMENT, POWER DELIVERY, AND THERMAL DISSIPATION USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/196,059, entitled “EMI FRAME WITH POWER FEED-THROUGH AND THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL IN AN AGGREGATE DIAMOND MIXTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Apr. 10, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH-CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEATSINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVERY TO MICROELECTRONICS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR POWER DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke, James M. Broder, Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Feb. 6, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/277,369, entitled “THERMAL-MECHANICAL MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS OF AN ADVANCED THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL CONSTRUCTION,” by Farhad Raiszadeh and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/287,860, entitled “POWER TRANSMISSION DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 1, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,749, entitled “MICRO I-PAK ARCHITECTURE HAVING A FLEXIBLE CONNECTOR BETWEEN A VOLTAGE REGULATION MODULE AND SUBSTRATE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed May 16, 2001 Application Serial No. 60/291,772, entitled “I-PAK ARCHITECTURE POWERING MULTIPLE DEVICES,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/292,125, entitled “VORTEX HEAT SINK FOR LOW PRESSURE DROP HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL MANAGEMENT ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY SOLUTIONS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Farhad Raiszadeh, filed May 18, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/299,573, entitled “MICRO I-PAK STACK UP ARCHITECTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/301,753, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY USING HIGH PERFORMANCE LINEAR REGULATORS ON PACKAGE WITH A MICROPROCESSOR,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 27, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,929, entitled “BORREGO ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "and Application Serial No. 60/304,930, entitled “MICRO I-PAK,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, David H. Hartke, Edward J. Derian, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 10/022,454, entitled “ULTRA LOW IMPEDANCE POWER INTERCONNECTION SYSTEM FOR ELECTRONIC PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed Oct. 30, 2001, which is a continuation in part of the following U.S. patent applications: application Ser.", "No. 09/818, 173, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene, II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 26, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/921,152, entitled “HIGH SPEED AND DENSITY CIRCULAR CONNECTOR FOR BOARD-TO-BOARD INTERCONNECTION SYSTEMS,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed on Aug. 2, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/921,153 entitled “VAPOR CHAMBER WITH INTEGRATED PIN ARRAY”, by Joseph T. DiBene, II and Farhad Raiszadeh, filed on Aug. 2, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/910,524, entitled “HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL/MECHANICAL INTERFACE FOR FIXED-GAP REFERENCES FOR HIGH HEAT FLUX AND POWER SEMICONDUCTOR APPLICATIONS”, by Joseph T. DiBene, II, David H. Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, Farhad Raiszadeh, Edward J. Darien and Jose B. San Andres, filed Jul. 20, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/885,780, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 19, 2001, which is a continuation of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/801,437, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DELIVERING POWER TO HIGH PERFORMANCE ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLIES”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, James M. Broder, Edward J. Derian, Joseph S. Riel, and Jose B. San Andres, filed Mar. 8, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/802,329, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THERMAL AND MECHANICAL MANAGEMENT OF A POWER REGULATOR MODULE AND MICROPROCESSOR IN CONTACT WITH A THERMALLY CONDUCTING PLATE”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/798,541, entitled “THERMAL/MECHANICAL SPRINGBEAM MECHANISM FOR HEAT TRANSFER FROM HEAT SOURCE TO HEAT DISSIPATING DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 2, 2001, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000, and a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Feb. 16, 2001, and a continuation in part of application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY”, by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999, which is a continuation in part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, James J. Hjerpe Kaskade, and Carl E. Hoge, filed Feb. 16, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450;", "and which claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications: Application Serial No. 60/187,777, entitled “NEXT GENERATION PACKAGING FOR EMI CONTAINMENT, POWER DELIVERY, AND THERMAL DISSIPATION USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/196,059, entitled “EMI FRAME WITH POWER FEED-THROUGH AND THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL IN AN AGGREGATE DIAMOND MIXTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Apr. 10, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH-CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEATSINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVERY TO MICROELECTRONICS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke, James M. Broder, Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Feb. 6, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/277,369, entitled “THERMAL-MECHANICAL MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS OF ADVANCED THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL CONSTRUCTION,” by Farhad Raiszadeh and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/287,860, entitled “POWER TRANSMISSION DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 1, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,749, entitled “MICRO I-PAK ARCHITECTURE HAVING A FLEXIBLE CONNECTOR BETWEEN A VOLTAGE REGULATION MODULE AND SUBSTRATE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,772, entitled “I-PAK ARCHITECTURE POWERING MULTIPLE DEVICES,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/292,125, entitled “VORTEX HEATSINK FOR LOW PRESSURE DROP HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL MANAGEMENT ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY SOLUTIONS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Farhad Raiszadeh, filed May 18, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/299,573, entitled “MICRO I-PAK STACK UP ARCHITECTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/301,753, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY USING HIGH PERFORMANCE LINEAR REGULATORS ON PACKAGE WITH A MICROPROCESSOR,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 27, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,929, entitled “BORREGO ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,930, entitled “MICRO I-PAK,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, David H. Hartke, Edward J. Derian, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "and Application Serial No. 60/310,038, entitled “TOOL-LESS CONCEPTS FOR BORREGO,” by Edward J. Derian and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 3, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/313,338, entitled “TOOL-LESS PRISM IPA ASSEMBLY TO SUPPORT IA64 MCKINLEY MICROPROCESSOR,” by David H. Hartke and Edward J. Derian, filed Aug. 17, 2001;", "and Application Serial No. 60/338,004, entitled “MICRO-SPRING CONFIGURATIONS FOR POWER DELIVERY FROM VOLTAGE REGULATOR MODULES TO INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND MICROPROCESSORS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed Nov. 8, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 10/036,957, entitled “ULTRA-LOW IMPEDANCE POWER INTERCONNECTION SYSTEM FOR ELECTRONIC PACKAGES,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed Dec. 20, 2001, which is a continuation-in-part of the following patent applications: application Ser.", "No. 10/022,454, entitled “ULTRA LOW IMPEDANCE POWER INTERCONNECTION SYSTEM FOR ELECTRONIC PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed Oct. 30, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/818,173, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene, II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 26, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/921,152, entitled “HIGH SPEED AND DENSITY CIRCULAR CONNECTOR FOR BOARD-TO-BOARD INTERCONNECTION SYSTEMS,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed on Aug. 2, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/921,153 entitled “VAPOR CHAMBER WITH INTEGRATED PIN ARRAY”, by Joseph T. DiBene, II and Farhad Raiszadeh, filed on Aug. 2, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/910,524, entitled “HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL/MECHANICAL INTERFACE FOR FIXED-GAP REFERENCES FOR HIGH HEAT FLUX AND POWER SEMICONDUCTOR APPLICATIONS”, by Joseph T. DiBene, II, David H. Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, Farhad Raiszadeh, Edward J. Darien and Jose B. San Andres, filed Jul. 20, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/885,780, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 19, 2001, which is a continuation of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/801,437, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DELIVERING POWER TO HIGH PERFORMANCE ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLIES”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, James M. Broder, Edward J. Derian, Joseph S. Riel, and Jose B. San Andres, filed Mar. 8, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/802,329, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THERMAL AND MECHANICAL MANAGEMENT OF A POWER REGULATOR MODULE AND MICROPROCESSOR IN CONTACT WITH A THERMALLY CONDUCTING PLATE”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/798,541, entitled “THERMAL/MECHANICAL SPRINGBEAM MECHANISM FOR HEAT TRANSFER FROM HEAT SOURCE TO HEAT DISSIPATING DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 2, 2001, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000, and a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Feb. 16, 2001, and a continuation in part of application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY”, by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999, which is a continuation in part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, James J. Hjerpe Kaskade, and Carl E. Hoge, filed Feb. 16, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450;", "and which claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications: Application Serial No. 60/187,777, entitled “NEXT GENERATION PACKAGING FOR EMI CONTAINMENT, POWER DELIVERY, AND THERMAL DISSIPATION USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/196,059, entitled “EMI FRAME WITH POWER FEED-THROUGH AND THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL IN AN AGGREGATE DIAMOND MIXTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Apr. 10, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH-CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEATSINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVERY TO MICROELECTRONICS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke, James M. Broder, Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Feb. 6, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/277,369, entitled “THERMAL-MECHANICAL MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS OF ADVANCED THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL CONSTRUCTION,” by Farhad Raiszadeh and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/287,860, entitled “POWER TRANSMISSION DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 1, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,749, entitled “MICRO I-PAK ARCHITECTURE HAVING A FLEXIBLE CONNECTOR BETWEEN A VOLTAGE REGULATION MODULE AND SUBSTRATE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,772, entitled “I-PAK ARCHITECTURE POWERING MULTIPLE DEVICES,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/292,125, entitled “VORTEX HEATSINK FOR LOW PRESSURE DROP HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL MANAGEMENT ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY SOLUTIONS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Farhad Raiszadeh, filed May 18, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/299,573, entitled “MICRO I-PAK STACK UP ARCHITECTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/301,753, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY USING HIGH PERFORMANCE LINEAR REGULATORS ON PACKAGE WITH A MICROPROCESSOR,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 27, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,929, entitled “BORREGO ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,930, entitled “MICRO I-PAK,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, David H. Hartke, Edward J. Derian, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/310,038, entitled “TOOL-LESS CONCEPTS FOR BORREGO,” by Edward J. Derian and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 3, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/313,338, entitled “TOOL-LESS PRISM IPA ASSEMBLY TO SUPPORT IA64 MCKINLEY MICROPROCESSOR,” by David H. Hartke and Edward J. Derian, filed Aug. 17, 2001;", "and Application Serial No. 60/338,004, entitled “MICRO-SPRING CONFIGURATIONS FOR POWER DELIVERY FROM VOLTAGE REGULATOR MODULES TO INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND MICROPROCESSORS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed Nov. 8, 2001.", "(3) U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 10/005,024, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY HIGH POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS”, by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene, II filed Dec. 4, 2001, which application claims benefit of the following provisional patent applications, which are hereby incorporated by reference herein: Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO-I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVERY TO MICROELECTRONICS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR POWER DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, and James M. Broder, filed Feb. 6, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/277,369, entitled “THERMAL-MECHANICAL MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS OF ADVANCED THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL CONSTRUCTION,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke and Farhad Raiszadeh, filed Mar. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/287,860, entitled “POWER TRANSMISSION DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 1, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,749, entitled “MICRO I-PAK ARCHITECTURE HAVING A FLEXIBLE CONNECTOR BETWEEN A VOLTAGE REGULATION MODULE AND SUBSTRATE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,772, entitled “I-PAK ARCHITECTURE POWERING MULTIPLE DEVICES,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/292,125, entitled “VORTEX HEATSINK FOR LOW PRESSURE DROP HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL MANAGEMENT ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY SOLUTIONS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Farhad Raiszadeh, filed May 18, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/299,573, entitled “IMPROVED MICRO-I-PAK STACK-UP ARCHITECTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/301,753, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY USING HIGH PERFORMANCE LINEAR REGULATORS ON PACKAGE WITH A MICROPROCESSOR,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 27, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,929, entitled “BORREGO ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,930, entitled “MICRO-I-PAK,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, David H. Hartke, and Edward J. Derian, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/310,038, entitled “TOOL-LESS CONCEPTS FOR BORREGO,” by Edward J. Derian and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 3, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/313,338, entitled “TOOL-LESS PRISM IPA ASSEMBLY TO SUPPORT IA64 MCKINLEY MICROPROCESSOR,” by David H. Hartke and Edward J. Derian, filed Aug. 17, 2001;", "and Application Serial No. 60/338,004, entitled “MICRO-SPRING CONFIGURATIONS FOR POWER DELIVERY FROM VOLTAGE REGULATOR MODULES TO INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND MICROPROCESSORS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed Nov. 8, 2001.", "and which application is also continuation-in-part of the following co-pending and commonly assigned patent applications, each of which applications are hereby incorporated by reference herein: application Ser.", "No. 09/885,780, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 19, 2001, which is a continuation of application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999 and now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000, which claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications: Application Serial No. 60/167,792, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 29, 1999;", "Application Serial No. 60/171,065, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATION PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 16, 1999;", "Application Serial No. 60/183,474, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Feb. 18, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/187,777, entitled “NEXT GENERATION PACKAGING FOR EMI CONTAINMENT, POWER DELIVERY, AND THERMAL DISSIPATION USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/196,059, entitled “EMI FRAME WITH POWER FEED-THROUGHS AND THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL IN AN AGGREGATE DIAMOND MIXTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Apr. 10, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEATSINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000, application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, James J. Hjerpe Kaskade, and Carl E. Hoge, filed Feb. 16, 2001 which claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications: Application Serial No. 60/183,474, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT, by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Feb. 18, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/186,769, entitled “THERMACEP SPRING BEAM,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 3, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/187,777, entitled “NEXT GENERATION PACKAGING FOR EMI CONTAINMENT, POWER DELIVERY, AND THERMAL DISSIPATION USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/196,059, entitled “EMI FRAME WITH POWER FEED-THROUGHS AND THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL IN AN AGGREGATE DIAMOND MIXTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Apr. 10, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEATSINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY HIGH POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO-I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVERY TO MICROELECTRONICS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING,” By Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, James M. Broder, and Joseph S. Riel, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR POWER DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke, James M. Broder, and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Feb. 6, 2001, application Ser.", "No. 09/798,541, entitled “THERMAL/MECHANICAL SPRINGBEAM MECHANISM FOR HEAT TRANSFER FROM HEAT SOURCE TO HEAT DISSIPATING DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 2, 2001 which claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications: Application Serial No. 60/185,769, entitled “THERMACEP SPRING BEAM,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 3, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/183,474, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Feb. 18, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/187,777, entitled “NEXT GENERATION PACKAGING FOR EMI CONTAINMENT, POWER DELIVERY, AND THERMAL DISSIPATION USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/196,059, entitled “EMI FRAME WITH POWER FEED-THROUGHS AND THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL IN AN AGGREGATE DIAMOND MIXTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Apr. 10, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEATSINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO-I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVERY TO MICROELECTRONICS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR POWER DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke, James M. Broder, and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Feb. 6, 2001, application Ser.", "No. 09/801,437, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DELIVERING POWER TO HIGH PERFORMANCE ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLIES”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, James M. Broder, Edward J. Derian, Joseph S. Riel, and Jose B. San Andres, filed Mar. 8, 2001, which claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications: Application Serial No. 60/187,777, entitled “NEXT GENERATION PACKAGING FOR EMI CONTAINMENT, POWER DELIVERY, AND THERMAL DISSIPATION USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/196,059, entitled “EMI FRAME WITH POWER FEED-THROUGHS AND THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL IN AN AGGREGATE DIAMOND MIXTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Apr. 10, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT, by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEATSINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO-I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVERY TO MICROELECTRONICS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR POWER DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE”", "by David H. Hartke, James M. Broder and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Feb. 6, 2001, application Ser.", "No. 09/802,329, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THERMAL AND MECHANICAL MANAGEMENT OF A POWER REGULATOR MODULE AND MICROPROCESSOR IN CONTACT WITH A THERMALLY CONDUCTING PLATE”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2001 which claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications: Application Serial No. 60/187,777, entitled “NEXT GENERATION PACKAGING FOR EMI CONTAINMENT, POWER DELIVERY, AND THERMAL DISSIPATION USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/196,059, entitled “EMI FRAME WITH POWER FEED-THROUGHS AND THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL IN AN AGGREGATE DIAMOND MIXTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Apr. 10, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT, by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEATSINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO-I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVERY TO MICROELECTRONICS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Dec. 4,2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR POWER DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE”", "by David H. Hartke, James M. Broder and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Feb. 6, 2001, application Ser.", "No. 09/910,524, entitled “HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL/MECHANICAL INTERFACE FOR FIXED-GAP REFERENCES FOR HIGH HEAT FLUX AND POWER SEMICONDUCTOR APPLICATIONS”, by Joseph T. DiBene, II, David H. Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, Farhad Raiszadeh, Edward J. Darien and Jose B. San Andres, filed Jul. 20, 2001 which claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications: Application Serial No. 60/219,506, entitled “HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL/MECHANICAL INTERFACE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, and Wendell C. Johnson, filed Jul. 20, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEATSINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO-I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVERY TO MICROELECTRONICS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR POWER DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, and James M. Broder, filed Feb. 6, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/277,369, entitled “THERMAL-MECHANICAL MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS OF ADVANCED THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL CONSTRUCTION,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke and Farhad Raiszadeh, filed Mar. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/287,860, entitled “POWER TRANSMISSION DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 1, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,749, entitled “MICRO I-PAK ARCHITECTURE HAVING A FLEXIBLE CONNECTOR BETWEEN A VOLTAGE REGULATION MODULE AND SUBSTRATE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,772, entitled “I-PAK ARCHITECTURE POWERING MULTIPLE DEVICES,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/292,125, entitled “VORTEX HEATSINK FOR LOW PRESSURE DROP HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL MANAGEMENT ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY SOLUTIONS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Farhad Raiszadeh, Filed May 18, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/299,573, entitled “IMPROVED MICRO-I-PAK STACK-UP ARCHITECTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/301,753, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY USING HIGH PERFORMANCE LINEAR REGULATORS ON PACKAGE WITH A MICROPROCESSOR,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 27, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,929, entitled “BORREGO ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "and Application Serial No. 60/304,930, entitled “MICRO-I-PAK, by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, David H. Hartke, and Edward J. Derian, filed Jul. 11, 2001, application Ser. No. 09/921,153 entitled “VAPOR CHAMBER WITH INTEGRATED PIN ARRAY”, by Joseph T. DiBene, II and Farhad Raiszadeh, filed on Aug. 2, 2001 which claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications: Application Serial No., 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEATSINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO-I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVERY TO MICROELECTRONICS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR POWER DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE”", "by David H. Hartke, James M. Broder and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Feb. 6, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/277,369, entitled “THERMAL-MECHANICAL MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS OF ADVANCED THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL CONSTRUCTION,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke and Farhad Raiszadeh, filed Mar. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/287,860, entitled “POWER TRANSMISSION DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 1, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,749, entitled “MICRO I-PAK ARCHITECTURE HAVING A FLEXIBLE CONNECTOR BETWEEN A VOLTAGE REGULATION MODULE AND SUBSTRATE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,772, entitled “I-PAK ARCHITECTURE POWERING MULTIPLE DEVICES,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/292,125, entitled “VORTEX HEATSINK FOR LOW PRESSURE DROP HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL MANAGEMENT ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY SOLUTIONS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Farhad Raiszadeh, Filed May 18, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/299,573, entitled “IMPROVED MICRO-I-PAK STACK-UP ARCHITECTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/301,753, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY USING HIGH PERFORMANCE LINEAR REGULATORS ON PACKAGE WITH A MICROPROCESSOR,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 27, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,929, entitled “BORREGO ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "and Application Serial No. 60/304,930, entitled “MICRO-I-PAK, by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, David H. Hartke, and Edward J. Derian, filed Jul. 11, 2001, application Ser. No. 09/818,173, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Mar. 26, 2001, which claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications: Application Serial No. 60/196,059, entitled “THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL IN AN AGGREGATE DIAMOND MIXTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Apr. 10, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEATSINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO-I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVERY TO MICROELECTRONICS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR POWER DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE”", "by David H. Hartke, James M. Broder and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Feb. 6, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/277,369, entitled “THERMAL-MECHANICAL MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS OF ADVANCED THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL CONSTRUCTION,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke and Farhad Raiszadeh, filed Mar. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/287,860, entitled “POWER TRANSMISSION DEVICE;”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 1, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,749, entitled “MICRO I-PAK ARCHITECTURE HAVING A FLEXIBLE CONNECTOR BETWEEN A VOLTAGE REGULATION MODULE AND SUBSTRATE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,772, entitled “I-PAK ARCHITECTURE POWERING MULTIPLE DEVICES,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/292,125, entitled “VORTEX HEATSINK FOR LOW PRESSURE DROP HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL MANAGEMENT ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY SOLUTIONS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Farhad Raiszadeh, Filed May 18, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/299,573, entitled “IMPROVED MICRO-I-PAK STACK-UP ARCHITECTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/301,753, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY USING HIGH PERFORMANCE LINEAR REGULATORS ON PACKAGE WITH A MICROPROCESSOR,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 27, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,929, entitled “BORREGO ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "and Application Serial No. 60/304,930, entitled “MICRO-I-PAK, by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, David H. Hartke, and Edward J. Derian, filed Jul. 11, 2001, application Ser. No. 09/921,152, entitled “HIGH SPEED AND DENSITY CIRCULAR CONNECTOR FOR BOARD-TO-BOARD INTERCONNECTION SYSTEMS,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed on Aug. 2, 2001;", "Application Serial No., 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEATSINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO-I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVERY TO MICROELECTRONICS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR POWER DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE”", "by David H. Hartke, James M. Broder and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Feb. 6, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/277,369, entitled “THERMAL-MECHANICAL MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS OF ADVANCED THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL CONSTRUCTION,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke and Farhad Raiszadeh, filed Mar. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/287,860, entitled “POWER TRANSMISSION DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 1, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,749, entitled “MICRO I-PAK ARCHITECTURE HAVING A FLEXIBLE CONNECTOR BETWEEN A VOLTAGE REGULATION MODULE AND SUBSTRATE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,772, entitled “I-PAK ARCHITECTURE POWERING MULTIPLE DEVICES,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/292,125, entitled “VORTEX HEATSINK FOR LOW PRESSURE DROP HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL MANAGEMENT ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY SOLUTIONS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Farhad Raiszadeh, Filed May 18, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/299,573, entitled “IMPROVED MICRO-I-PAK STACK-UP ARCHITECTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/301,753, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY USING HIGH PERFORMANCE LINEAR REGULATORS ON PACKAGE WITH A MICROPROCESSOR,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 27, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,929, entitled “BORREGO ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "and Application Serial No. 60/304,930, entitled “MICRO-I-PAK, by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, David H. Hartke, and Edward J. Derian, filed Jul. 11, 2001, application Ser. No. 09/921,153, entitled “VAPOR CHAMBER WITH INTEGRATED PIN ARRAY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, and Farhad Raiszadeh, filed Aug. 2, 2001, which claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications: Application Serial No. 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEATSINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 4,2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO-I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVERY TO MICROELECTRONICS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR POWER DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE”", "by David H. Hartke, James M. Broder and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Feb. 6, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/277,369, entitled “THERMAL-MECHANICAL MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS OF ADVANCED THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL CONSTRUCTION,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke and Farhad Raiszadeh, filed Mar. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/287,860, entitled “POWER TRANSMISSION DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 1, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,749, entitled “MICRO I-PAK ARCHITECTURE HAVING A FLEXIBLE CONNECTOR BETWEEN A VOLTAGE REGULATION MODULE AND SUBSTRATE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,772, entitled “I-PAK ARCHITECTURE POWERING MULTIPLE DEVICES,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/292,125, entitled “VORTEX HEATSINK FOR LOW PRESSURE DROP HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL MANAGEMENT ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY SOLUTIONS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Farhad Raiszadeh, Filed May 18, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/299,573, entitled “IMPROVED MICRO-I-PAK STACK-UP ARCHITECTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/301,753, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY USING HIGH PERFORMANCE LINEAR REGULATORS ON PACKAGE WITH A MICROPROCESSOR,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 27, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,929, entitled “BORREGO ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "and Application Serial No. 60/304,930, entitled “MICRO-I-PAK, by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, David H. Hartke, and Edward J. Derian, filed Jul. 11, 2001, and application Ser. No. 10/022,454, entitled “ULTRA-LOW IMPEDANCE POWER INTERCONNECTION SYSTEM FOR ELECTRONIC PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed Oct. 30, 2001, which application claims priority to the following U.S. Provisional Applications: Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO-I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVERY TO MICROELECTRONICS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR POWER DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, and James M. Broder, filed Feb. 6, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/277,369, entitled “THERMAL-MECHANICAL MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS OF ADVANCED THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL CONSTRUCTION,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke and Farhad Raiszadeh, filed Mar. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/287,860, entitled “POWER TRANSMISSION DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 1, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,749, entitled “MICRO I-PAK ARCHITECTURE HAVING A FLEXIBLE CONNECTOR BETWEEN A VOLTAGE REGULATION MODULE AND SUBSTRATE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,772, entitled “I-PAK ARCHITECTURE POWERING MULTIPLE DEVICES,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/292,125, entitled “VORTEX HEATSINK FOR LOW PRESSURE DROP HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL MANAGEMENT ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY SOLUTIONS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Farhad Raiszadeh, filed May 18, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/299,573, entitled “IMPROVED MICRO-I-PAK STACK-UP ARCHITECTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/301,753, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY USING HIGH PERFORMANCE LINEAR REGULATORS ON PACKAGE WITH A MICROPROCESSOR,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 27, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,929, entitled “BORREGO ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,930, entitled “MICRO-I-PAK,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, David H. Hartke, and Edward J. Derian, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/310,038, entitled “TOOL-LESS CONCEPTS FOR BORREGO,” by Edward J. Derian and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 3, 2001;", "and Application Serial No. 60/313,338, entitled “TOOL-LESS PRISM IPA ASSEMBLY TO SUPPORT IA64 MCKINLEY MICROPROCESSOR,” by David H. Hartke and Edward J. Derian, filed Aug. 17, 2001.", "(4) U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 09/801,437, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DELIVERING POWER TO HIGH PERFORMANCE ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLIES”, by Joseph T. DiBene, II, David Hartke, Edward J. Derian, Carl E. Hoge, James M. Broder, Jose B. San Andres, and Joseph S. Riel filed Mar. 8, 2001;", "which application claims benefit of the following provisional patent applications: Application Serial No. 60/301,753, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY USING HIGH PERFORMANCE LINEAR REGULATORS ON PACKAGE WITH A MICROPROCESSOR”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, and Carl E. Hoge, filed Jun. 27, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,930, entitled “Micro-i-PAK”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, David H. Hartke, and Edward J. Derian, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,749, entitled “MICRO I-PAK ARCHITECTURE HAVING A FLEXIBLE CONNECTOR BETWEEN A VOLTAGE REGULATION MODULE AND SUBSTRATE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/291,772, entitled “I-PAK ARCHITECTURE POWERING MULTIPLE DEVICES,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed May 16, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/292,125, entitled “VORTEX HEATSINK FOR LOW PRESSURE DROP HIGH PERFORMANCE THERMAL MANAGEMENT ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY SOLUTIONS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Farhad Raiszadeh, filed May 18, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/299,573, entitled “IMPROVED MICRO-I-PAK STACK-UP ARCHITECTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 19, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/301,753, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY USING HIGH PERFORMANCE LINEAR REGULATORS ON PACKAGE WITH A MICROPROCESSOR,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, and David H. Hartke, filed Jun. 27, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,929, entitled “BORREGO ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/304,930, entitled “MICRO-I-PAK,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, Carl E. Hoge, David H. Hartke, and Edward J. Derian, filed Jul. 11, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/310,038, entitled “TOOL-LESS CONCEPTS FOR BORREGO,” by Edward J. Derian and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 3, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/313,338, entitled “TOOL-LESS PRISM IPA ASSEMBLY TO SUPPORT IA64 MCKINLEY MICROPROCESSOR,” by David H. Hartke and Edward J. Derian, filed Aug. 17, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/338,004, entitled “MICRO-SPRING CONFIGURATIONS FOR POWER DELIVERY FROM VOLTAGE REGULATOR MODULES TO INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND MICROPROCESSORS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, and Edward J. Derian, filed Nov. 8, 2001;", "Application Serial No. 60/376,578, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SURFACE POWER DELIVERY,” by Edward J. Derian, filed Apr. 30, 2002;", "Application Serial No. 60/377,557, entitled “EVRM STACK-UP, POWER DELIVERY SOLUTION,” by David H. Hartke and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed May 3, 2002;", "Application Serial No. 60/361,554, entitled “RIGHT ANGLE POWER CONNECTOR ARCHITECTURE,” by David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 4, 2002;", "and Application Serial No. 60/359,504, entitled “HIGH EFFICIENCY VRM CIRCUIT CONSTRUCTIONS FOR LOW VOLTAGE, HIGH CURRENT ELECTRONIC DEVICES,” by Philip M. Harris, filed Feb. 25, 2002, and which patent application is also continuation-in-part of the following co-pending and commonly assigned patent applications, each of which applications are hereby incorporated by reference herein: application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, James J. Hjerpe Kaskade, and Carl E. Hoge, filed Feb. 16, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,452,113 issued Sep. 17, 2002;", "and application Ser.", "No. 09/798,541, entitled “THERMAL/MECHANICAL SPRINGBEAM MECHANISM FOR HEAT TRANSFER FROM HEAT SOURCE TO HEAT DISSIPATING DEVICE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Wendell C. Johnson, and Edward J. Derian, filed Mar. 2, 2001 now abandoned.", "This patent application is also related to application Ser.", "No. 09/802,329, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THERMAL AND MECHANICAL MANAGEMENT OF A POWER REGULATOR MODULE AND MICROPROCESSOR IN CONTACT WITH A THERMALLY CONDUCTING PLATE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed on Mar. 8, 2001, which application is hereby incorporated by reference herein;", "and (5) U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 10/201,384, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT”, by Joseph T. DiBene, II, David H. Hartke, James J. Hjerpe Kaskade, and Carl E. Hoge filed Jul. 23, 2002, which application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. 09/785,892, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING POWER TO A MICROPROCESSOR WITH INTEGRATED THERMAL AND EMI MANAGEMENT, by Joseph T. DiBene, II, David H. Hartke, James Hjerpe Kaskade, and Carl E. Hoge, filed Feb. 16, 2001, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,452,113;", "which application claims benefit of the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications which are hereby incorporated by reference herein: Application Serial No. 60/183,474, entitled “DIRECT ATTACH POWER/THERMAL WITH INCEP TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Feb. 18, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/186,769, entitled “THERMACEP SPRING BEAM”, by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 3, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/187,777, entitled “NEXT GENERATION PACKAGING FOR EMI CONTAINMENT, POWER DELIVERY, AND THERMAL DISSIPATION USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Mar. 8, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/196,059, entitled “EMI FRAME WITH POWER FEED-THROUGHS AND THERMAL INTERFACE MATERIAL IN AN AGGREGATE DIAMOND MIXTURE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Apr. 10, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/219,813, entitled “HIGH CURRENT MICROPROCESSOR POWER DELIVERY SYSTEMS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Jul. 21, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/232,971, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DISTRIBUTION AND SEMICONDUCTOR PACKAGE,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and James J. Hjerpe, filed Sep. 14, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,386, entitled “HIGH DENSITY CIRCULAR ‘PIN’ CONNECTOR FOR HIGH SPEED SIGNAL INTERCONNECT,” by David H. Hartke, and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/222,407, entitled “VAPOR HEATSINK COMBINATION FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY THERMAL MANAGEMENT,” by David H. Hartke, and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Aug. 2, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,222, entitled “INTEGRATED POWER DELIVERY WITH FLEX CIRCUIT INTERCONNECTION FOR HIGH DENSITY HIGH POWER CIRCUITS FOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS,” BY Joseph T. DiBene II and David Hartke, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,223, entitled “MICRO-I-PAK FOR POWER DELIVER TO MICROELECTRONICS,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and Carl E. Hoge, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "Application Serial No. 60/251,184, entitled “MICROPROCESSOR INTEGRATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David Hartke, Carl E. Hoge, James M. Broder, and Joseph S. Riel, filed Dec. 4, 2000;", "and Application Serial No. 60/266,941, entitled “MECHANICAL INTERCONNECTION TECHNOLOGIES USING FLEX CABLE INTERCONNECT FOR POWER DELIVERY IN ‘INCEP’ INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE,” by David Hartke, James M. Broder, and Joseph T. DiBene II, filed Feb. 6, 2001;", "and which application is a continuation in part of the following co-pending and commonly assigned patent applications, all of which applications are incorporated by reference herein: application Ser.", "No. 09/353,428, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Jul. 15, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,450, issued Oct. 16, 2001;", "application Ser.", "No. 09/432,878, entitled “INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING FOR POWER DELIVERY,” by Joseph T. DiBene II and David H. Hartke, filed Nov. 2, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,356,448, issued Mar. 12, 2002;", "and application Ser.", "No. 09/727,016, entitled “EMI CONTAINMENT USING INTER-CIRCUIT ENCAPSULATED PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY”", "by Joseph T. DiBene II and David Hartke, filed Nov. 28, 2000.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.", "Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a system architecture for arranging power conversion, power interconnect and power dissipation elements associated with high performance microprocessors onto a computer's main board in a compact form factor.", "Description of the Related Art In high density, high power devices such as microprocessors for servers and desktop systems it is often difficult to adequately interconnect power conversion modules close to the devices loads due to thermal, mechanical, and other constraints.", "This is because the power in such devices often requires large heatsinks, which encroach on the power conversion modules and force the power conversion to be further away than desired.", "Thus, what often results are high static and dynamic voltage drops across the power interconnect, due to high currents and high slew-rate switching of the microprocessor load, potentially resulting in false switching of the device itself which may corrupt data.", "Furthermore, the thermal management of the microprocessor and the power conversion module is usually handled separately resulting in high costs and inefficient packaging volumes.", "Therefore, it is seen that there is a need to bring the power regulation circuitry closer to the load while reducing the interconnect impedance and combining the thermal management of both the microprocessor and the power regulation circuitry all within a small form factor and easy to assemble construction which is of reasonably low cost.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is described by an integrated electronic assembly.", "The electronic assembly comprises a heat dissipating device, a power conditioning circuit board, a power dissipating device mounted on a substrate, and a power interconnect assembly.", "The power conditioning circuit board includes a first side thermally coupled to the heat dissipating device, a power conditioning circuit for producing a conditioned power signal, and an aperture.", "The power dissipating device has a top surface thermally coupled to the heat dissipation device through the aperture.", "The substrate includes at least one power conductor disposed proximate at least one of the edges of the substrate.", "The power interconnection assembly, which electrically couples the conditioned power signal to the substrate and provides substantially all power to the substrate, includes an edge connector assembly removably coupled to the at least one edge of the substrate.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an exploded view of the features of one embodiment of the present invention, including an integrated processor assembly (iPA) comprising a shared heatsink, a voltage regulation module, a microprocessor assembly, and an interconnection device to couple the power from the voltage regulation module to the microprocessor.", "Secondly, a lower assembly comprising a main board, a processor signal socket and a retention frame is illustrated to which the preceding iPA electrically and mechanically couples;", "FIG. 2A is an isometric diagram illustrating the under portion of the iPA revealing the relationship between the shared heatsink, the microprocessor assembly and the voltage regulation module;", "FIG. 2B is an isometric diagram illustrating the upper portion of the iPA;", "FIG. 3 is an isometric diagram illustrating how the iPA engages the lower assembly, FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a side view of the assembled iPA and lower assembly, FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a side view of the assembled iPA and lower assembly with a cutaway section view revealing the relationship between the heatsink, processor assembly, voltage regulation module and the power interconnect assembly, FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a detail section view of the power interconnect assembly, FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a detail section view of an alternate power interconnect assembly in which the flexible circuits of the power interconnect assembly attach directly to circuit pads on the voltage regulation module;", "FIG. 8A is an isometric diagram similar to FIG. 2A illustrating the under portion of an iPA utilizing the direct attach connection method shown in FIG. 7 for the power interconnect assembly, and FIG. 8B is an exploded isometric diagram of the alternate power interconnect assembly revealing the interdigitated tab and pad connection structure.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the following description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof, and which is shown, by way of illustration, several embodiments of the present invention.", "It is understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.", "FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an exploded view of an integrated power delivery and cooling system structure for microprocessors 10 .", "The structure comprises an integrated Processor Assembly (iPA) 20 which is located over a lower assembly 30 .", "The top portion of iPA 20 comprises a heatsink 100 having a substantially planar base 102 .", "Located within the base 102 are four spring tensioned hold down screws 104 which will be further described.", "Beneath the heatsink base 102 is a Voltage Regulation Module (VRM) 108 which comprises a planar printed circuit board and power conversion circuitry.", "The low voltage, high current DC output of VRM 108 is connected to low impedance coaxial power interconnect elements 112 .", "Such low power coaxial power interconnect elements 112 are described in U.S. patent application Ser.", "No. US01/07410, for “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DELIVERING POWER TO HIGH PERFORMANCE ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLIES,” by Joseph T. DiBene II, David H. Hartke, Edward J. Derian, Carl E. Hoge, James M. Broder, Jose B. San Andreas, and Joseph S. Riel, filed Mar. 8, 2001, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,452,804 which are hereby incorporated by reference herein.", "Such devices (also known as POWER DIRECTS) are available from INCEP TECHNOLOGIES, INC.", "In the instantiation shown, the coaxial power interconnect elements 112 are leaded devices soldered to VRM 108 .", "The precise number of coaxial power interconnects 112 will depend on the desired electrical impedance and the amount of DC current in the power path from the VRM 108 to a power dissipating device such as microprocessor 124 .", "Input power to VRM 108 is provided at the interface 116 which can be either direct wire attach or a pluggable connector.", "Connector 114 is used to provide interface control and sense signals to VRM 108 .", "Located generally in the center of VRM 108 is an aperture 110 which allows thermal access from the microprocessor 124 to a subtended portion of heatsink base 102 .", "This feature will be described further below.", "The upper surface of VRM 108 is urged against the base 102 of heatsink 100 .", "In order to enhance the passage of thermal energy from VRM 108 to the base 102 an interposing thermal interface material (TIM) 106 is located between base 102 and VRM 108 .", "TIM 106 may comprise compliant high thermal conduction sheet material or may comprise thermally conductive grease.", "The preferred material is electrically insulative sheet material such as BERGQUIST SILPAD 800 with pressure sensitive adhesive on one side so as to isolate circuit pads on the top side of VRM 108 from heatsink base 102 .", "Thus, as it can be seen, thermally dissipative components on VRM 108 conduct their thermal energy from VRM 108 through TIM 106 to the heatsink base 102 and to finned heatsink 100 .", "VRM 108 and TIM 106 are secured to heatsink base 106 using screws 118 and guide pins 116 .", "Alternatively, TIM 106 may utilize a thermally conductive sheet with double sided pressure sensitive adhesive to attach VRM 108 to heatsink base 102 such as BERGQUIST BONDPLY 100 which may improve the thermal contact by reducing void areas.", "Microprocessor assembly 40 is located generally below VRM 108 and comprises substrate 120 and lidded microprocessor 124 package.", "Substrate 120 has pins (not shown) on the bottom side to interface signals to socket 136 .", "Power is supplied to substrate 120 through one or more edge card power pads 122 located on the right side of substrate 120 .", "Power is then routed from power pads 122 to microprocessor 124 using conductive layers on or in the substrate 120 .", "Power interconnection assembly 50 plugs into the edge card power interface on substrate 120 , thus engaging power pads 122 .", "Then, through flexible circuits internal to power interconnection assembly 50 , power is routed to junction areas 129 of power interconnection assembly 50 that engages with coaxial power interconnect devices 112 .", "This junction is secured through screws 130 which pass through the coaxial power interconnect devices 112 and engage into tapped holes in the heatsink base 102 .", "There are two principal requirements for the power interconnection assembly 50 .", "The first is to provide a low impedance power path between the power interface pads 122 on substrate 120 and the coaxial power interconnect devices 112 .", "The second is to provide a ‘Z’ axis compliance to accommodate manufacturing tolerances in the stack up of the assembly 20 .", "Both are accomplished by providing a power path internal to power interconnection assembly 50 which comprises flexible conductive planes that are separated by a thin dielectric.", "Planar (X-Y) misalignment is accommodated by tolerance within the junction area 129 .", "Flexible tail 128 interfaces with VRM connector 114 to communicate control and sense signals between microprocessor assembly 40 and VRM 108 .", "As can be seen, with power interconnection assembly 50 engaged into microprocessor assembly 40 and VRM 108 attached to heatsink 100 the two can be joined together with the lid of microprocessor package 124 extending through aperture 110 and coming to rest on a mesa area which is a part of heatsink base 102 .", "Through the use of a thermal grease 126 or other suitable thermal interface material the lid of microprocessor package 124 is maintained in good thermal contact with heatsink base 102 .", "Finally, retention clip 132 is used to secure microprocessor assembly to heatsink 100 .", "Lower assembly 30 comprises a main board 134 , microprocessor signal socket 136 and retention frame 138 .", "Microprocessor signal socket 136 is conveniently soldered to main board 134 using ball grid array technology or other suitable methods.", "Signal socket 136 can be any of a number of pin grid array sockets.", "The socket shown is a Zero Insertion Force (ZIF) type which requires actuation through actuator feature 137 .", "Retention frame 138 is secured to main board 134 using rivets or other suitable fasteners in hole locations 140 .", "In order to provide alignment of iPA 20 into socket 136 , guidepins 104 previously described engage with holes 142 prior to signal pins engaging into socket 136 .", "Finally, spring tensioned hold down screws 104 engage into threaded holes 144 of retention frame 144 applying a continuous ‘Z’ axis force between the two assemblies 20 and 30 noting that this force is entirely transmitted through the lid of microprocessor 124 , TIM 126 and the heatsink base 102 , thus, insuring continuous thermal contact between microprocessor 124 and heatsink 100 .", "It is seen that other instantiations of the construction shown in FIG. 1 may be accomplished.", "For example, retention frame 138 may be placed on the underside of main board 134 or may be integrated in some fashion (through retention features in assembly 20 along with other features in 134 ) to remove the retention frame altogether.", "Additionally, other methods of retaining microprocessor assembly 40 to iPA 20 may be envisioned as well, including simple clips on the ends of the Interposer instead of clip 132 .", "FIG. 2A is an isometric diagram illustrating an underside view of the elements of integrated Processor Assembly 20 shown in FIG. 1 after they have been assembled.", "Locating pins 148 which are installed in heatsink base 102 are used to precisely align both the VRM 108 through VRM holes 147 and substrate 120 mouse holes 148 .", "Pin 150 is representative of a field of pins associated with substrate 120 and which engage with signal socket 136 .", "Note how retention clip 132 attaches to side feature 152 of heatsink base 102 .", "FIG. 2B is an isometric diagram illustrating a topside view of the elements of integrated Processor Assembly 20 shown in FIG. 1 after they have been assembled.", "Note the access hole 154 in heatsink base 102 and the relief area just above it in the fin structure of heatsink 100 .", "This is to provide access to actuation feature 137 in signal socket 136 after iPA 20 has been placed over signal socket 136 and prior to tensioning of iPA 20 using spring tensioned hold down screws 104 .", "FIG. 3 is an isometric diagram illustrating how iPA 20 engages with lower assembly 30 .", "Guide pins 116 engage into retention frame holes 142 .", "Specifically, guide pins 116 are designed to touch the top surface of retention frame 138 prior to signal pin 150 establishing contact with the top surface of signal socket 136 thus reducing the possibility of pin damage during the installation of iPA 20 into lower assembly 30 .", "Again, as noted previously, spring tensioned hold down screws engage into threaded holes 144 of retention frame 138 completing the assembly of iPA 20 to lower assembly 30 .", "FIG. 4 is a 2-dimensional diagram further illustrating the assembled relationship between iPA 20 and lower assembly 30 .", "FIG. 5 is similar to FIG. 4, except that a cutaway has been provided cutting in front of processor 124 and power interconnection assembly 50 to better illustrate the internal components of the integrated architecture 10 .", "Note how a mesa 156 projects down from heatsink base 102 to contact the top of microprocessor package 124 .", "Also note how power interconnection assembly 50 engages substrate 120 and coaxial power interconnect devices 112 .", "FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a section view of the power interconnect assembly 50 and how it engages with processor substrate 120 and VRM 108 .", "Previously described power pad 122 on substrate 120 is shown as forward pad 122 a on top of substrate 120 which is assigned one of the power polarities.", "Similarly, a lower pad 122 b is assigned the opposite power polarity.", "Additional pads on the top and bottom of substrate 120 located behind power pads 120 a and 120 b are identified as pads 122 c and 122 d. These pads may be used for control and sense signals, as required.", "Note that the power pads 122 a and 122 b are located at the forward portion of the substrate 120 to reduce the inductance effect of feeding power into the substrate by reducing the loop area of the power feed.", "Upper flexible circuit 158 connects power from coaxial power interconnect element 112 to upper power pad 122 a and then wraps around in the cavity of upper shell 162 a for mechanical attachment purposes.", "At the pad 122 a upper flexible circuit 158 is arranged with a defined set of conductive “bumps”", "which provide concentrated pressure points to achieve good electrical contact between the conductors of flexible circuit 158 and the pad 122 a. In a similar manner, lower flexible circuit 160 connects power from coaxial power interconnect element 112 to lower power pad 122 b and then wraps around lower shell 162 b. Auxiliary signal circuits which can be incorporated into upper and lower flexible circuits 158 and 160 can be used to interface to pads 122 c and 122 d with tail extensions 128 previously identified.", "Upper and lower shells 162 a and 162 b respectively contain spring assemblies 168 a and 168 b which provide normal force pressure on flexible circuits 158 and 160 at the contact interface to pads 122 a and 122 b. Similarly, spring assemblies 170 a and 170 b provide normal force pressure on flexible circuits 158 and 160 at the contact interface to pads 122 c and 122 d. Upper and lower housing 162 a and 162 b have bosses 164 which are used to join the two housing mechanically and to serve as a positional stop for substrate 120 .", "Similar bosses not shown are used on the outer portion edges of the clamp housings to define lateral positioning of the power interconnection assembly 50 .", "Rear bosses 166 in clamp housings 162 a and 162 b are used to positionally align the flexible circuits 158 and 160 to the clamp housing via holes in the flexible circuits.", "The yoke area generally identified by the dashed circle 172 is arranged to provide reasonable compliance with small variations in ‘Z’ axis misalignment of substrate 120 relative to heatsink base 102 and VRM 108 .", "FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a detail section view of an alternate power interconnect assembly 60 in which the flexible circuits 176 and 178 which have interdigitated tabs 180 at their terminus are routed up to VRM 108 and terminate to circuit pads 182 on VRM 108 using solder 184 negating the need for power interconnect devices 112 on VRM 108 .", "Upper shell 174 a and lower shell 174 b are similar to upper and lower shells 162 a and 162 b respectively of power interconnect assembly 50 except they have been modified to accommodate the shorter flexible circuits 176 and 178 .", "Internal contact and spring structures remain the same as shown in assembly 50 .", "FIG. 8A is an isometric diagram illustrating an underside view of the elements of integrated processor Assembly 20 when direct attachment of the power interconnect assembly 60 is used for power interconnect between VRM 108 and microprocessor assembly 40 .", "Assembly of integrated Processor Assembly 20 is slightly different using power interconnect assembly 60 .", "Since power interconnect assembly 60 is permanently attached to VRM 108 (e.g. by interdigitated tabs 180 soldered to circuit pads 182 ), power interconnect assembly 60 is tilted up sufficiently to allow microprocessor assembly 40 to be plugged into power interconnect assembly 60 with thermal grease 126 previously being applied to the lid of microprocessor package 124 .", "Then, the attached microprocessor assembly 40 is hinged back down and secured using spring clip 132 as before.", "FIG. 8B is a detail view of the power interconnect assembly 60 mounted to VRM 108 revealing the interdigitated tab and pad structures.", "Tabs 180 a are a part of the upper flex circuit 176 and tabs 180 b are a part of the lower flex circuit 178 .", "These tabs connect to pads 182 a and 182 b respectively on VRM 108 .", "Since the two flex circuits carry opposing polarities of current, the interdigitated tab and pad structure creates a low impedance interconnection between the voltage polarities on the VRM 108 and the flex circuit power planes 176 and 178 which are a part of the interconnect assembly 60 .", "It should be noted that additional tabs and pads may be used to route control and sense signals as required between VRM 108 and microprocessor assembly 40 .", "Conclusion This concludes the description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention.", "The foregoing description of the preferred embodiment of the invention has been presented for the purposes of illustration and description.", "It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed.", "Many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching.", "It is intended that the scope of the invention be limited not by this detailed description, but rather by the claims appended hereto.", "The above specification, examples and data provide a complete description of the manufacture and use of the composition of the invention.", "Since many embodiments of the invention can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, the invention resides in the claims hereinafter appended." ]

[ "RELATED APPLICATION DATA [0001] This application is a divisional of U.S. application Ser.", "No. 11/373,952, filed Mar. 13, 2006, which is hereby incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.", "TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention is in the field of hybrid vehicles, such as hybrid electric vehicles.", "BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0003] The present invention relates to an environmental friendly vehicle.", "More particularly, the present invention relates to hybrid vehicles, such as hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs).", "[0004] Hybrid electric vehicles include an internal combustion engine and at least one electric motor powered by a battery array.", "The HEV of the present invention uses an engine in combination with an electric motor.", "An energy storage device is also used to store energy for driving the electric motor.", "The engine, preferably in conjunction with a generator (for series drive embodiment or without for a parallel embodiment), and the energy storage device work in combination to provide energy for powering the vehicle motor.", "A series HEV typically uses an engine with a generator (APU/PPU) to supply electricity to the motor and the energy storage system.", "A parallel HEV has a direct mechanical connection between the engine and the wheels.", "The use of electric power substantially cuts down on chemical emissions and vastly improves fuel economy.", "[0005] In a parallel type hybrid electric vehicle, both the internal combustion engine and the electric motor are coupled to the drive train via mechanical means.", "The electric motor may be used to propel the vehicle at low speeds and to assist the internal combustion engine at higher speeds.", "The electric motor may also be driven, in part, by the internal combustion engine and be operated as a generator to recharge the battery array.", "[0006] In a series type hybrid electric vehicle, the internal combustion engine is used only to run a generator that charges the battery array.", "There is no mechanical connection of the internal combustion engine to the vehicle drive train.", "The electric traction drive motor is powered by the battery array and is mechanically connected to the vehicle drive train.", "[0007] Although HEVs have been previously known, the HEV technology of the present invention provides significant advantages of providing a viable HEV technology that allows for a high performance HEV with a unique management of the charge and energy distribution system.", "[0008] Other features of the invention will become apparent as the following description proceeds and upon reference to the drawings.", "[0009] In general terms, the present invention includes an energy storage system, the energy storage system adapted to accept energy so as to be capable of discharging and accepting energy through a series of discharge and energy acceptance events, and having a maximum energy state level and an actual minimum energy state level;", "and wherein the power unit and the energy storage system provide electricity to the electric motor for powering the vehicle;", "and an energy storage controller programmed to control the energy storage system by setting an artificial minimum energy state level to an initial level above the actual minimum energy state level, and, during a series of discharge and energy acceptance events, to be able to adjust the artificial minimum energy state level such that: [0010] (a) in the case where a discharge and energy acceptance event results in the acceptance of insufficient energy to replenish the energy storage system to the maximum energy state level, the artificial minimum energy state level is raised;", "and [0011] (b) in the case where a discharge and energy acceptance event results in the acceptance of sufficient energy to replenish the energy storage system to the maximum energy state level, the artificial minimum energy state level is lowered.", "[0012] The energy storage controller preferably is further programmed to control the energy storage system by restricting the raising of the artificial minimum energy state level beyond a predetermined level below the maximum energy state level.", "It is also preferred that the energy storage controller is further programmed to control the energy storage system by restricting the lowering of the artificial minimum energy state level beyond a predetermined level above the actual minimum energy state level.", "[0013] The energy storage system may comprise energy storage systems of any type capable of energy discharge acceptance events such as those selected from the group of: (1) at least one ultracapacitor and (2) at least one hydraulic cylinder.", "The energy storage system may also comprise an internal combustion engine and a generator adapted to provide energy to the energy storage system, such as electric energy.", "[0014] The present invention also includes a method of controlling an energy storage system, the method comprising: providing an energy storage system electrically coupled to a power conversion device, the energy storage system adapted to recapture energy from the power conversion device so as to be capable of discharging and recapturing energy through a series of discharge and energy acceptance events, and having a maximum energy state level and an actual minimum energy state level;", "and the energy storage system providing energy to the power conversion device, and the power conversion device adapted to supply energy to the energy storage system;", "and an energy storage controller programmed to control the energy storage system by setting an artificial minimum energy state level to an initial level above the actual minimum energy state level, and, during a series of discharge and energy acceptance events, to be able to adjust the artificial minimum energy state level such that: [0015] (a) in cases where a discharge and energy acceptance event results in the acceptance of insufficient energy to recharge the energy storage system to the maximum energy state level, raising the artificial minimum energy state level;", "and [0016] (b) in cases where a discharge and energy acceptance event results in the acceptance of sufficient energy to recharge the energy storage system to the maximum energy state level, lowering the artificial minimum energy state level.", "[0017] The present invention also includes a method and apparatus by which power is controlled in a hybrid electric vehicle such that high levels of performance and efficiency are realized.", "The invention relates specifically to the alternate energy source and optimization of its use.", "[0018] The present invention includes a method and apparatus developed to optimize the use of energy in a hybrid vehicle application from the hybrid energy storage device.", "[0019] The method and apparatus of the present invention is particularly useful with energy storage devices where the state of charge is readily determined by an easily measured attribute.", "Ultracapacitors and hydraulic storage cylinders are examples of the types of energy storage devices to which the present invention may be applied.", "[0020] The state of charge, or energy level, is proportional to the voltage of the ultracapacitor or the pressure of the hydraulic cylinder.", "The method and apparatus of the present invention is particularly well-suited to hybrid vehicle applications where the hybrid power is primarily utilized during acceleration and deceleration.", "[0021] The present invention is particularly well-suited to hybrid electric vehicle applications where the hybrid power is primarily used during acceleration and deceleration.", "The method includes three fundamental features which may be illustrated with respect to a parallel hybrid electric vehicle using storage of the type described above: (1) energy is expended from the hybrid energy storage device at a predetermined rate until a minimum energy level target is reached, whereupon the energy storage device is later replenished with energy from the vehicle.", "There is an equilibrium of energy expended to that replenished that will result;", "(2) the minimum energy target is continuously adjusted such that that equilibrium can be maintained at a higher power state of the storage device;", "and (3) replenishing the energy storage device with both the kinetic energy from the vehicle while decelerating, and with energy drawn from the primary power source of the vehicle during opportune events (i.e., typically when the vehicle is cruising or coasting, such as when moving downhill or otherwise not in need of accelerating power).", "[0022] In one aspect of the invention, during vehicle acceleration, when hybrid energy is desired, energy is expended from the hybrid energy storage device at a pre-determined rate until a target minimum energy level is reached.", "Subsequently, during deceleration the recapture of energy from the kinetic energy of the vehicle to replenish the storage device is maximized.", "The more energy recovered in the energy storage device prior to a given acceleration event, the more energy that can be expended in that acceleration event.", "[0023] In contrast to earlier methods, the method of the present invention features a system that is self-adjusting and will seek equilibrium with the energy balance of what is expended and replenished.", "The method of the present invention does not utilize fixed relationships between the hybrid storage level and vehicle state such as, for example, energy level and vehicle speed.", "Accordingly, changes to the energy and power requirements of the vehicle due to variations in terrain, drive cycle, vehicle weight, tire pressure, and the like will not adversely affect its performance.", "The hybrid drive following the minimum target level strategy will naturally adjust its contribution to maintain consistent vehicle performance and operator/passenger feel.", "[0024] The rate at which energy is expended from the energy storage device may be any rate, so long as it is consistent.", "[0025] The present invention also includes the adjustment of the minimum energy target level continuously so the energy storage device and corresponding power conversion system maintain a higher power state at equilibrium.", "For the energy storage devices described herein, the power is a product of the potential and flow.", "Accordingly, for a given flow, a higher potential will provide higher power.", "[0026] There are two advantages to maintaining a higher potential.", "First, available hybrid power will be more consistent with peak power despite drive cycles with low vehicle kinetic energy.", "Second, for powers less than peak power of the system, a higher potential means less flow required.", "For energy storage devices such as Ultracapacitors and hydraulic cylinders, and the corresponding power conversion systems, lower flow means less energy loss as heat and thus higher efficiency.", "In addition, lower heat loss means that cooling systems do not work as hard.", "[0027] In operation, each time the hybrid vehicle comes to rest at zero speed, and accounting for settling time of the storage device, the energy level of the storage device can be evaluated to see if the level has reached maximum capacity.", "If not, the minimum energy target level can then be raised.", "If so, the minimum target level can be lowered.", "This process repeats until equilibrium is reached.", "Anticipating disruptions to equilibrium will maximize the effectiveness of the strategy.", "[0028] In another aspect of the invention, the higher energy level of the storage device prior to acceleration, the more that can be expended by way of hybrid assist.", "Striving for maximum hybrid contribution, two approaches as presented for increasing the amount of energy available prior to an acceleration event, beyond what is recovered during vehicle deceleration with regenerative braking.", "[0029] One approach is to “siphon”", "power from the primary power source while it is operating at high efficiency or while it could be made to operate more efficiently.", "That is, to charge the energy storage system from the primary power source at a nominal rate that is just enough so as not to drastically alter its operation.", "Examples of operating points ideally suited for siphoning include when the vehicle is cruising at a steady state where fuel economy is relatively high and when the vehicle is stopped with the engine at idle doing little work with fixed operating overhead.", "[0030] A small siphon charge over a period of time can significantly increase the energy level of the storage device.", "As a means to preserve storage capacity for the vehicle deceleration with regenerative braking, a target energy level is set below which siphoning is permitted.", "The target energy level is established in some relation to the kinetic energy of the vehicle.", "[0031] The other approach is to simulate the drag normally associated with internal combustion engines at closed throttle through the use of regenerative braking.", "By applying a moderate level of regenerative braking when the operator lifts from the accelerator pedal, the vehicle will decelerate slightly and the energy storage device will be charged at a low rate.", "[0032] The present invention allows for consistency in the power output during acceleration which is proportionate to apparent power demand.", "[0033] The method and apparatus of the present invention feature the function of certain algorithms for system control.", "These algorithms use real-time inputs from the vehicle systems and provide real-time outputs for control of vehicle systems.", "The principal function of the present invention is to supplement the primary power source in a manner that is relatively transparent to the operator while preserving standard, consistent vehicle performance.", "This allows for consistent feel to the operator and the passengers as the vehicle accelerates and decelerates.", "[0034] The present invention features a control algorithm that maintains the state of charge of the energy storage device (such as one or more ultracapacitors) within a pre-determined range as the vehicle proceeds through a number of energy expending and recapture events which may involve net energy loss or net energy gain.", "[0035] The present invention is an improvement over the technology described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,484,830 and 6,651,759, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference, and which may be used with hybrid electric vehicles and drive systems as described therein as an example.", "[0036] In general terms, the present invention includes a hybrid electric vehicle comprising a drive train;", "an electric motor for driving the drive train;", "a power unit electrically coupled to the electric motor;", "an electric energy storage system electrically coupled to the electric motor, the electric energy storage system adapted to recapture energy from the braking of the vehicle so as to be capable of discharging and recapturing energy through a series of discharge and energy recapture events, and having a maximum charge level and an actual minimum charge level;", "and wherein the power unit and the electric energy storage system provide electricity to the electric motor for powering the vehicle;", "and an electric energy storage controller programmed to control the electric energy storage system by setting an artificial minimum charge level to an initial level above the actual minimum charge level, and, during a series of discharge and energy recapture events, to be able to adjust the artificial minimum charge level such that: (a) in the case where a discharge and energy recapture event results in the recapture of insufficient energy to recharge the electric energy storage system to the maximum charge level (e.g., the energy discharged in an acceleration and the energy recaptured from braking after that acceleration), the artificial minimum charge level is raised;", "and (b) in the case where a discharge and energy recapture event results in the recapture of sufficient energy to recharge the electric energy storage system to the maximum charge level, the artificial minimum charge level is lowered.", "[0037] It is preferred that the electric energy storage controller is further programmed to control the electric energy storage system by restricting the raising of the artificial minimum charge level beyond a predetermined level below the maximum charge level.", "[0038] It is preferred that the electric energy storage controller is further programmed to control the electric energy storage system by restricting the lowering of the artificial minimum charge level beyond a predetermined level above the actual minimum charge level.", "[0039] The present invention may be applied to any energy storage system, although, in the case of a hybrid electric vehicle, it is preferred that the energy storage system is a bank of Ultracapacitors, and that this system be used in association with an internal combustion engine and a generator adapted to charge the energy storage system with electrical energy.", "[0040] Another aspect of the present invention is a hybrid electric vehicle comprising a drive train;", "an electric motor for driving the drive train;", "a power unit electrically coupled to the electric motor;", "an electric energy storage system electrically coupled to the electric motor, the electric energy storage system adapted to recapture energy from the braking of the vehicle so as to be capable of discharging and recapturing energy through a series of discharge and energy recapture events, and having a maximum charge level and an actual minimum charge level having a working range therebetween and which working is defined at its lower end by an artificial minimum charge level;", "and wherein the power unit and the electric energy storage system provide electricity to the electric motor for powering the vehicle;", "and an electric energy storage controller programmed to control the electric energy storage system by setting an artificial minimum charge level to an initial level above the minimum charge level, and, during a series of discharge and energy recapture events, to be able to adjust the artificial minimum charge level such that the working range of the electric energy storage system is biased toward the maximum charge level over the series of discharge and energy recapture events.", "[0041] The present invention also includes a method of controlling an energy storage system, the method comprising: providing an electric energy storage system electrically coupled to the electric motor, the electric energy storage system adapted to recapture energy from the braking of the vehicle so as to be capable of discharging and recapturing energy through a series of discharge and energy recapture events, and having a maximum charge level and an actual minimum charge level;", "and wherein the power unit and the electric energy storage system provide electricity to the electric motor for powering the vehicle;", "and an electric energy storage controller programmed to control the electric energy storage system by setting an artificial minimum charge level to an initial level above the actual minimum charge level, and, during a series of discharge and energy recapture events, to be able to adjust the artificial minimum charge level such that: (a) in the case where a discharge and energy recapture event results in the recapture of insufficient energy to recharge the electric energy storage system to the maximum charge level, raising the artificial minimum charge level;", "and (b) in the case where a discharge and energy recapture event results in the recapture of sufficient energy to recharge the electric energy storage system to the maximum charge level, lowering the artificial minimum charge level.", "[0042] The method of the present invention thus maintains the charge level of the energy storage device, such as an ultracapacitor, at a level in the higher end of the charge range over time.", "[0043] Other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description and accompanying drawings.", "It should be understood, however, that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the present invention, are given by way of illustration and not limitation.", "Many modifications and changes within the scope of the present invention may be made without departing from the spirit thereof, and the invention includes all such modifications.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0044] FIG. 1 is a schematic of an energy storage system describing the extent of the charge and discharge of the energy storage system as it proceeds through a series of energy discharge and recapture events.", "[0045] FIG. 2 is a schematic of an energy storage system describing the extent of the charge and discharge of the energy storage system as it proceeds through a series of energy discharge and recapture events while being controlled by the method and system of one embodiment of the present invention.", "[0046] FIG. 3 shows a schematic of a hybrid electric vehicle in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.", "[0047] FIG. 4 is a schematic representation of the control nodes that may be used in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0048] In accordance with the foregoing summary of the invention, the following presents a detailed description of the preferred embodiments, which are considered to be the best mode thereof.", "[0049] Energy storage devices like the ultracapacitor and hydraulic cylinder can be charged or discharged only with a change in energy potential.", "Energy storage is typically sized for the recapture of vehicle (system) kinetic energy from some maximum speed, representing a full charge event, referred to herein as an energetically favorable event.", "[0050] A full discharge/charge event of the energy storage device will utilize the absolute maximum and minimum energy levels (potentials) of the device.", "This is the full working range of the device.", "Partial discharge/charge events will utilize only a portion of the full working range.", "These typically will be events wherein the energy expended will be only partially replaced by the energy recaptured during regenerative braking, referred to herein as an energetically disfavorable event.", "The working range of partial discharge and charge events will tend toward the absolute minimum potential of the energy storage.", "The present invention takes advantage of the fact that a working range nearer the absolute maximum potential has an advantage over a working range nearer the absolute minimum.", "In order to move the working range toward the maximum in partial charge events, an artificial minimum level must be utilized rather than the absolute.", "The artificial minimum must be set between the absolute minimum and the absolute maximum.", "The artificial minimum is adjusted upward after a charge event if the absolute maximum potential is not reached (i.e., after an energetically disfavorable event).", "The adjustment upward may be a constant increment value.", "Conversely, the artificial minimum is adjusted downward toward the absolute minimum after a charge event if the maximum absolute potential is reached (i.e., after an energetically favorable event).", "The adjustment downward may also be a constant decrement value.", "The artificial minimum level is adjusted after a charge event as long as the energy state of the storage device has not reached or exceeded the absolute maximum.", "[0051] The present invention accordingly allows one to achieve a balance between energy expended and replenished.", "That is, the net charge energy ought to be greater than or equal to the discharge energy of the storage device.", "A net loss of energy charge-to-discharge will tend to drive the working range of the device to the minimum potential.", "[0052] A portion of the vehicle (system) kinetic energy is unavailable for charging the energy storage because of electrical and mechanical losses.", "To help achieve the balance between energy expended and replenished, the present invention attempts to limit the discharge energy to less than the charge energy.", "One approach is to discharge to vehicle speed A and charge from vehicle speed B where speed A is less than B. Another is to limit the discharge maximum power to less than the maximum charge power.", "[0053] The present invention may also be applied to limit the artificial minimum to some maximum value so as to preserve a determined working range.", "[0054] The present invention thus utilizes a strategy that optimizes the energy storage use over successive discharge/charge events.", "The average use is optimized not necessarily any one event.", "[0055] Level determination and adjustment of the energy storage can be achieved, for instance, through either measuring energy potential or counting energy units in and out.", "[0056] The process of limit adjustment will tend to preserve the optimal working range of an energy storage bank regardless of the capacity.", "Ideally and preferably, one may initialize the artificial minimum limit to the midpoint of the absolute minimum and maximum levels.", "[0057] Without using the method of the present invention, the energy storage utilization will be driven toward the low power range of the storage device.", "This is especially the case with energy storage devices with more capacity than the kinetic energy of the vehicle or system.", "[0058] Enhancement of the strategy is recommended to ensure all requests for power are satisfied with some hybrid power regardless of the energy level of the storage device.", "Also, in cases where a future charge event will be more favorable in terms of energy recapture, a lower artificial minimum can be set to allow more energy than normal to be expended at present.", "This may require a “fuzzy”", "or non-strict implementation of the artificial minimum.", "Fuzzy logic and/or expert systems can be utilized to predict future behavior based on past and present behavior.", "This may be especially successful with vehicles and systems with specific and consistent missions.", "In the case of vehicles, the use of GPS satellite data can provide valuable information to this end, such as overall route length, numbers and distance between acceleration and deceleration events, etc.", "[0059] FIG. 1 is a schematic of an energy storage system describing the extent of the charge and discharge of the energy storage system as it proceeds through a series of energy discharge and energy recapture events.", "As may be appreciated from this Figure, an electric energy storage device (i.e., a capacitor;", "represented by a cylinder) proceeds through a series of energy discharge and energy recapture events while acceleration of the vehicle and regenerative braking occurs.", "FIG. 1 shows that, in instances where there is no control over the lower charge limit of the capacitor, the charge of the capacitor continues to drop over successive energy discharge and energy recapture events that are energetically disfavorable (i.e., where the output of energy upon acceleration exceeds the energy recaptured upon regenerative braking).", "[0060] In contrast, FIG. 2 is a schematic of an energy storage system describing the extent of the charge and discharge of the energy storage system as it proceeds through a series of energy discharge and recapture events while being controlled by the method and system of one embodiment of the present invention.", "FIG. 2 shows that in accordance with the present invention the lower charge limit of the capacitor is controlled and adjusted.", "As shown in FIG. 2 , the charge of the capacitor drops in the case of an energy discharge and energy recapture event that is energetically disfavorable (i.e., where the output of energy upon acceleration exceeds the energy recaptured upon regenerative braking).", "In such cases, the controller of the present invention adjusts an artificial lower charge limit upward and above the absolute lowest charge level (i.e., the level of complete discharge).", "For instance, FIG. 2 shows a fully charged capacitor which proceeds through a full discharge event followed by a partially charging capture event.", "Thereafter, an artificial lower charge limit is set such that a subsequent discharge prevents complete discharging of the capacitor.", "During a subsequent discharge event, the capacitor is restricted from discharging below the artificial lower charge limit.", "Subsequently, and as this event is energetically unfavorable, the artificial lower charge limit is again raised from the previously set artificial lower charge limit.", "This process may be allowed to continue until an energy discharge and energy recapture event results in the complete recharging of the capacitor.", "In this instance, the artificial lower charge limit is lowered to a point lower than previously set, and above the absolute lowest charge level.", "[0061] The apparatus and methods of the present invention may be produced using microprocessors and computer languages known and used in the art.", "[0062] An example of an algorithm in pseudo code showing the adjustment of the artificial minimum charge level with the energy storage potential measured following a deceleration event is shown below.", "This may be used to bring about the control of the energy storage system of the present invention and may be understood by reference to the following logic for adjusting the minimum charge level with optional reference to system torque: Pseudo Code for Adjusting Artificial Minimum Charge Level Energy Storage Potential Measured Following a Deceleration Event Simplest Form [0063] The following algorithm is executed every iteration of the control loop.", "Ideally, the control loop is executed several times per second.", "The variables, constants, and flags indicated in the algorithm are defined as follows: [0064] VehicleSpeed, variable, measure of vehicle ground speed.", "[0065] PotentialLevel, variable, measure of energy storage potential (e.g. voltage).", "[0066] TargetLevel, variable, artificial minimum potential level to reach during discharge events, can be initialized to the midpoint between MAX_LEVEL and MIN_LEVEL.", "[0067] Prev_At_Speed, flag, indicates if vehicle has reached a pre-determined speed to trigger the level adjustment calculation after next deceleration event, initialized to false.", "[0068] MIN_LEVEL, constant, the lowest potential level allowed to be reached, oftentimes the absolute minimum potential of the storage device.", "[0069] MAX_LEVEL, constant, the highest potential level to be reached, oftentimes the absolute maximum potential of the storage device.", "[0070] MAX_TARGET_LEVEL, constant, the highest artificial minimum potential allowed, set to preserve a minimum working range.", "[0071] LEVEL_STEP, constant, the step value for target level adjustment, could also be a parameter resulting from a transfer function.", "[0072] LEVEL_ADJ_THRESHOLD, constant, minimum speed threshold before the level adjustment calculation can be triggered.", "[0073] AT_REST_THRESHOLD, constant, speed threshold below which the vehicle is considered to be at rest.", "[0000] INITIALIZE: .", "Prev_At_Speed = FALSE TargetLevel = ((MAX_LEVEL − MIN_LEVEL) / 2) + MIN_LEVEL .", "End INITIALIZE CONTROL LOOP: .", "If VehicleSpeed >", "LEVEL_ADJ_THRESHOLD Then Prev_At_Speed = TRUE End If If VehicleSpeed <", "AT_REST_THRESHOLD Then If Prev_At_Speed = TRUE Then If PotentialLevel >= MAX_LEVEL Then TargetLevel = TargetLevel − LEVEL_STEP If TargetLevel <", "MIN_LEVEL Then TargetLevel = MIN_LEVEL End If Else TargetLevel = TargetLevel + LEVEL_STEP If TargetLevel >", "MAX_TARGET_LEVEL Then TargetLevel = MAX_TARGET_LEVEL End If End If Prev_At_Speed = FALSE End If End If .", "Go to CONTROL LOOP [0074] An example of an algorithm in pseudo code showing the adjustment of the artificial minimum charge level with the energy storage potential measured prior to an acceleration event is shown below.", "Pseudo Code for Adjusting Artificial Minimum Charge Level Energy Storage Potential Measured Prior to an Acceleration Event Simplest Form [0075] The following algorithm is executed every iteration of the control loop.", "Ideally, the control loop is executed several times per second.", "The variables, constants, and flags indicated in the algorithm are defined as follows: VehicleSpeed, variable, measure of vehicle ground speed.", "[0076] PotentialLevel, variable, measure of energy storage potential (e.g. voltage).", "[0077] TargetLevel, variable, artificial minimum potential level to reach during discharge events, can be initialized to the midpoint between MAX_LEVEL and MIN_LEVEL.", "[0078] Prev_At_Speed, flag, indicates if vehicle has reached a pre-determined speed to trigger the level adjustment calculation after next deceleration event, initialized to false.", "[0079] MIN_LEVEL, constant, the lowest potential level allowed to be reached, oftentimes the absolute minimum potential of the storage device.", "[0080] MAX_LEVEL, constant, the highest potential level to be reached, oftentimes the absolute maximum potential of the storage device.", "[0081] MAX_TARGET_LEVEL, constant, the highest artificial minimum potential allowed, set to preserve a minimum working range.", "[0082] LEVEL_STEP, constant, the step value for target level adjustment, could also be a parameter resulting from a transfer function.", "[0083] LEVEL_ADJ_THRESHOLD, constant, minimum speed threshold before the level adjustment calculation can be triggered.", "[0084] AT_REST_THRESHOLD, constant, speed threshold below which the vehicle is considered to be at rest.", "[0085] Torque Request, variable, indicator of drive torque requested of the hybrid system.", "[0086] ZERO_TORQUE, constant, torque threshold below which the hybrid drive applies no driving torque.", "[0000] INITIALIZE: .", "Prev_At_Speed = FALSE TargetLevel = ((MAX_LEVEL − MIN_LEVEL) / 2) + MIN_LEVEL .", "End INITIALIZE CONTROL LOOP: .", "If VehicleSpeed >", "LEVEL_ADJ_THRESHOLD Then Prev_At_Speed = TRUE End If If VehicleSpeed <", "AT_REST_THRESHOLD Then If Prev_At_Speed = TRUE Then If TorqueRequest >", "ZERO_TORQUE Then If PotentialLevel >= MAX_LEVEL Then TargetLevel = TargetLevel − LEVEL_STEP If TargetLevel <", "MIN_LEVEL Then TargetLevel = MIN_LEVEL End If Else TargetLevel = TargetLevel + LEVEL_STEP If TargetLevel >", "MAX_TARGET_LEVEL Then TargetLevel = MAX_TARGET_LEVEL End If End If Prev_At_Speed = FALSE End If End If End If .", "Go to CONTROL LOOP [0087] As may be appreciated from the foregoing, other algorithms and programming may be used to bring about the results described herein, such as is illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 .", "[0088] FIG. 3 shows a schematic of a hybrid electric vehicle in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.", "FIG. 3 shows Internal combustion engine 1 (e.g., Cummins ISB170 Diesel), Multi-speed automatic transmission 2 , (e.g., Allison T2000 series), Ultracapacitor energy storage unit 3 , (e.g., Maxwell BCAP series cells, 400 Volt maximum), Induction motor 4 , (e.g., liquid cooled NEMA 215 frame, EVI Part 205-0000), Induction motor inverter/controller 5 , (e.g., IGBT-based EMS FluxDrive 7 ), Hybrid supervisory controller with CAN interface 6 (e.g., 8-bit microcontroller based, PIC18F248), Commercial truck chassis 7 , (e.g., 15,000 pound GVWR, Workhorse Custom Chassis) and Vehicle control network 8 (e.g., Controller Area Network (CAN), SAE J1939 protocol).", "[0089] FIG. 4 is a schematic representation of the control nodes that may be used in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.", "[0090] In accordance with the preferred embodiment, a parallel electric hybrid is provided which uses ultracapacitors as the energy storage device.", "As electric power is transferred in and out of the bank of ultracapacitors through successive discharge and charge events, the present invention works to maximize the usefulness of the ultracapacitor bank by regulating the minimum discharge set point.", "[0091] As indicated above, the major system components of the hybrid vehicle are linked together via an electronic data bus that allows for control and state messages to be passed freely between connected nodes (as shown schematically in FIG. 4 ).", "This embodiment uses a standard high-speed data network commonly used in commercial medium and heavy duty truck and bus systems.", "The network is based on the Controller Area Network (CAN) topology commercially available from Robert Bosch and preferably utilizes the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) J1939 software protocol which dictates a message bit rate of 250K bits per second and message addressing conventions.", "[0092] Conventional medium and heavy duty vehicles typically link the engine, transmission, and brake systems on the network for control and data sharing.", "Tens of standard messages are broadcast by these nodes several times per second.", "The hybrid components of this embodiment also use this electronic network.", "Nodes key to the present invention that link the motor drive and the hybrid supervisory controller to the network are added.", "Other hybrid component nodes which supplement the supervisory controller are also added.", "These include a brake pedal module, a dashboard/display module, an ultracapacitor module, and a motor/gearbox module.", "[0093] The supervisory controller of this embodiment is an electronic controller that accepts and transmits data messages from the network and executes algorithms to elicit behavior from the motor drive, engine, and transmission of the vehicle, although equivalent controllers may be used.", "This behavior creates the expected hybrid performance, such as supplanting engine torque with motor torque under acceleration and supplanting friction braking with reverse motor torque under deceleration.", "Also, the present invention allows an optimizing of the use of the hybrid energy storage unit.", "[0094] The controller preferably is based on an 8-bit microcontroller from Microchip, the PIC18F248.", "The algorithms of the present invention are translated from a high-level programming language, such as C or Basic, to machine code that can be written to the microcontrollers FLASH program memory.", "For instance, the algorithms are coded into Basic, compiled into Assembly language, then assembled and linked into machine code for the particular PIC device.", "The machine code, typically in the form of a string of hexadecimal numbers, is then programmed into the FLASH memory of the target microcontroller using a hardware programming device.", "Once programmed, the microcontroller begins execution of the algorithms immediately after power is applied.", "[0095] Vehicle speed and potential level of the energy storage device, in the case of ultracapacitors, Voltage.", "The state of charge (or energy state) of the ultracapacitor follows directly the following relation, [0000] energy=½*capacity*potential 2 , [0000] where energy is in Joules, capacity is in Farads, and potential is in Volts.", "[0096] Assuming that the capacity of the device does not change with operation, it can be seen that the energy level of the device is directly proportional to the square of the potential, or of voltage.", "Therefore, a simple measure of the ultracapacitor voltage can allow one to derive the energy level rather easily and is the basis of the algorithm of the present invention.", "The capacity of the ultracapacitor or similar energy storage device can be obtained experimentally or by consulting the manufacturer's specifications.", "[0097] Aside from the 10 Hz control loop, the supervisory controller is also programmed to watch the network traffic on the CAN bus for messages of interest, particularly the ones cited above.", "When a message of interest is detected, the active process is interrupted and the message is decoded and the data elements stored.", "This ensures that state parameters used in the algorithms, such as vehicle speed and ultracapacitor voltage, are current.", "[0098] During each pass of the control loop the state parameters and local variables are evaluated and the algorithms executed.", "Simple example algorithms of the present invention are provided in pseudo code.", "The algorithm of the present invention can be made perhaps more effective by incorporating other sophisticated techniques.", "These techniques may include predictive elements, the use of energy level instead of potential level for adjustment strategy, and others as indicated elsewhere.", "[0099] Many other changes and modifications may be made to the present invention without departing from the spirit thereof.", "The scope of these and other changes will become apparent from the appended claims." ]

[ "TECHNICAL FIELD This invention relates to digital signal processing and, more specifically, to the digital generation of sine wave signals.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Heretofore, sine waves have been generated with digital circuitry either by direct read-out of values stored in a memory unit or by a digital signal processor generating the sequential values of the sine wave using a recursive process.", "One known method calculates successive samples of a pair of orthogonal sine waves (i.e., a sine wave and a cosine wave) by means of recursion equations.", "Each successive value, y(n) and z(n) of the sine and cosine wave can be calculated from the previous values, y(n-1) and z(n-1), using the well-known trigonometric formulae: y(n)=y(n-1) cos ω+z(n-1) sin ω (1) z(n)=z(n-1) cos ω-y(n-1) sin ω (2) where ω=2πFT, T is the interval between successive samples and F is the frequency of the sine wave.", "The calculating procedure suffers from the accumulation of round-off errors leading to the generation of an exponentially increasing or decreasing sine wave.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,285,044, L. Thomas et al.", ", issued Aug. 18, 1981, proposed that round-off error accumulation could be moderated by the use of rather elaborate circuitry for calculating the quantity ##EQU2## and using the calculated quantity as an approximation for a normalization factor to be applied to calculated sample values to ensure that the value of the z 2 (n)+y 2 (n) calculated from sample values of the sine and cosine waves would initially converge to 1 and subsequently remain at approximately 1.", "The Thomas patent normalizing factor circuitry prevents exponential build up or exponential decay of the calculated values of the sine and cosine waves.", "A less complex arrangement for avoiding the exponential build up or decay problem in a system for generating successive sample values of a sine wave in digital format would clearly be attractive.", "It would also be advantageous to permit a given digital signal processor system to generate the sample values for more sine waves or generate more frequent samples of a sine wave and thereby achieve a more perfect output wave when an analog sine wave is generated by a digital to analog converter and a filter at the output of that converter is not perfect.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,577,287 by C. Chrin, issued Mar. 18, 1986, proposed that roundoff error accumulation could be moderated by the use of circuitry or calculations which limit the magnitudes of calculated values of sine and cosine to one.", "Initial constants would be rounded up so that successive calculated values would tend to build up exponentially very slowly and be limited by the limiting step.", "By biasing the initial constants exponential decay is avoided.", "However, the solution proposed by Chrin suffers from the fact that a large number of calculating steps are required for calculating each sample, and that, for many frequencies, the amplitude of the desired output varies by several percent over an extended interval of time.", "A problem of the prior art is therefore that the number of computation steps for computing successive values of samples of a sine wave is high and that the amount of computation for stabilizing the magnitude of such samples is high.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION These problems are solved and an advance is made in the art through a process of calculating digital values of consecutive samples spaced at intervals of T, of a sine wave of frequency F, amplitude A, where F<1/2T, using the formula y(n)=2 cos ω(y(n-1))-y(n-2), where y(n), y(n-1), and y(n-2) represent the most recently calculated sample value of the sine wave and the two immediately preceding sample values and ω=2πFT;", "using this basic formula, exponential build up can be prevented by periodically adjusting or normalizing the values of the samples by multiplying them by a normalizing factor N, where ##EQU3## where the period for adjusting need not be exact and may be different from the sampling period.", "Advantageously, such an approach substantially reduces the amount of calculation required for generating successive samples of a sine wave, prior to normalization.", "In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the calculations are performed by a signal processor operating under program control.", "Advantageously, such a signal processor can be time-shared to calculate sine wave sample amplitudes for a number of frequencies concurrently.", "In accordance with one aspect of the invention, normalization is not performed with each sample value calculation.", "Advantageously, this sharply reduces the total time required to perform sample value calculations.", "In a system in accordance with this invention, initial values of two samples of sine signal amplitudes are needed.", "In accordance with one embodiment of this invention, these initial values are set to 0 and -Asin ω, where A is the magnitude of the desired sine wave;", "this choice causes sample values for a sine wave of amplitude A to be generated.", "Advantageously, this choice reduces the time required for performing calculations of sample values since no scaling is required to generate sample values of the correct amplitude.", "In one embodiment of the invention, a digital signal processor capable of generating digital amplitudes of sample values of several sine waves at the same time is employed since the required data processing load for generating each sample is sufficiently small that samples for several sine waves may be generated in one interval T. Advantageously, in a system requiring the concurrent generation of a plurality of sine waves, fewer digital signal processors are required to carry out this function using this invention since fewer calculations are required.", "In accordance with one aspect of the invention, the output of a digital signal processor is transmitted to one or more digital to analog converters whose outputs when filtered are sinusoidally varying electrical signals.", "Advantageously, this is a low cost apparatus for generating one or more high quality sine waves.", "In accordance with one specific embodiment of this invention, if digital sine waves of only a limited number of frequencies are required of a digital signal processor, the constants 2 cos ω and sin ω or, alternatively, 2 cos ω and a scaling factor of (Asin ω)(2 -0 [.", "].5), where A is the desired amplitude of the output sine wave, can be precalculated and stored in memory for each frequency.", "In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the formula based on equations (1) and (2) is used for generating sample values, and the adjustment calculation is performed much less frequently than the basic sample value calculation.", "Advantageously, this approach reduces the computation resources required to calculate the normalized sample values.", "In accordance with another aspect of the invention, digital signals representing samples of a frequency shift keyed or phase shift keyed sine wave are efficiently generated using generating formulas (1) and (2) as the basis.", "Advantageously, this method can be combined with the less frequent normalization calculation.", "In accordance with another aspect of the invention, two sine waves offset in phase by φ can be generated using the following formulas, where y(n) and z(n) represent the n'th sample of the two sine waves: y(n)=ay(n-1)+bz(n-1) (3) z(n)=cz(n-1)-by(n-1) (4) where: ##EQU4## Advantageously, normalization need not be performed with each calculation.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING A more complete understanding of the present invention may be obtained from a consideration of the following description when read in conjunction with the drawing, in which: FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the apparatus used for generating and utilizing successive sample values of a sine wave;", "FIGS. 2-4 are flow charts of programs for initializing memory, calculating sample values, and normalizing sample values of a sine wave;", "FIG. 5 is a memory layout for storing initialization constants and intermediate sample values;", "and FIGS. 6-8, 9-11, 12-13, and 14-16 are flow charts for generating digital samples of a pair of sine waves offset in phase by φ, a frequency shift keyed sine wave, a phase shift keyed sine wave, and for an alternative method of generating digital samples of a sine wave, respectively.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION FIG. 1 shows a digital signal processor 70 including central processing unit 71, random access read/write memory 72, and read-only memory 74.", "The signal processor may be a unit such as the commercially available WE® DSP32 manufactured by AT&T Technologies, Inc. Where a particular application requires the generation of only a limited number of possible digital sine waves, for example, a transceiver for transmitting telephone data in the form of a pair of selected tones, which requires that between 6 and 100 different frequencies need to be generated, the values of 2 cos ω and sin ω for these frequencies can advantageously be stored in read-only memory 74 or can be loaded as necessary from another processor or data link (not shown) into the writable memory 74.", "From the values of these constants, other initialization constants, discussed below, can be readily calculated.", "Read-only memory 74 or memory 72 is also used for storing the program for generating the digital sine waves of the invention.", "Blocks 72 and 74 are shown with heavy shading to emphasize that the novelty of the present invention is in the contents of these blocks.", "The digital output signals provided by digital signal processor 70 are applied to digital to analog converter 76 which generates an analog sine wave signal from the digital sine wave.", "In addition, the output of signal processor 70 may be delivered to transmission facility 78 for utilization by remote user device (not shown).", "The program for controlling the generation of successive samples of a sine wave as described herein is computationally more efficient than other programs which have been implemented in the past for generating successive samples of a stable high precision sine wave in digital form.", "FIGS. 2-4 are flows chart of programs for generating successive sample values in digital form of a sine wave.", "Memory slots 121-125 (FIG.", "5) are used for storing temporary data.", "The basic formula for deriving successive sample values is: y(n)=y(n-1)2 cos ω-y(n-2).", "This formula can be derived from equations (1) and (2) as follows.", "Extending equations (1) and (2) gives: y(n-1)=y(n-2)cos ω+z(n-2)sin ω (8) and z(n-1)=z(n-2)cos ω-y(n-2)sin ω (9) Substituting the value of z(n-1) of equation (9) into equation (1): 4 y(n)=y(n-1)cos ω+[z(n-2)cos 107 -y(n-2)sin ω] sin ω=y(n-1)cos ω-y(n-2)sin.", "sup[.", "].2 ω+z(n-2)cos ωsin ω (10) From equation (8), zg(n-2)sin ω=y(n-1)-y(n-2)cos ω (11) Substituting this into equation (10): ##EQU5## FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a program for initializing the processor for subsequent iterative calculations.", "In block 203 the initialization constants are calculated.", "The constant d=2 cos ω is required in the iterative loop for calculating the next sample value of a sine wave given the two previous values and in the normalization calculation of FIG. 4. The constant sin ω is required to calculate magnitude dependent factors.", "The factor -Asin ω is subsequently used as the initial value of y(n-2);", "if the initial values are y(n-1)=0 and y(n2)=-Asin ω, then a sample value for a sine wave of amplitude A will be generated.", "By using -Asin ω an initially rising sine wave is generated;", "alternatively, by using an initial value of Asiω, an initially decreasing sine wave is generated.", "The factor ##EQU6## is also calculated and is used for normalization.", "In block 205 the values of d and m are stored in locations 122 and 125.", "In block 206, initial values of two previous samples of the sine wave, e and f, are set at 0 and -Asin ω and stored in locations 123 and 124.", "FIG. 3 is the program for generating one sample value of a sine wave.", "This program is executed once every T seconds.", "Step 208 shows the calculation of the next sample value E from the two previous sample values e and f and the frequency constant d. The formula for making this calculation is E=de-f.", "In step 210, the previous value of e (location 123) is stored in f (location 124) and the value of E is stored in e (location 123) to prepare for the next iteration.", "In step 212 the value E is delivered to a user such as digital to analog converter 76, transmission facility 78, or digital processing system 80.", "A normalization calculation (FIG.", "4) is carried out much less frequently than the sample sine wave calculation.", "Since the basic sample calculation is approximately correct, buildup or decay is very slow so that a normalization calculation carried out every 0.1 seconds for T=125 microseconds (i.e., once for every 800 samples), for example, is adequate to generate samples for a high quality sine wave generated by a precision signal processor.", "In any particular application, the required magnitude accuracy and the arithmetic precision of the signal processor will limit the length of the normalization interval.", "N is calculated by the formula N=1.5-m(e 2 +f 2 -def).", "The value N is then used to multiply the present value of e to produce a new value of e and is used to multiply the present value of f to produce a new value of f. These normalized values are stored in step 232.", "An alternative method of generating the digital sample values of a sine wave is shown illustratively in FIGS. 6-8.", "This method is particularly appropriate when two sine waves of the same frequency but displaced by an arbitrary phase φ are required by a user.", "The equations associated with this method are equations (3) and (4) below: y(n)=ay(n-1)+bz(n-1) (3) z(n)=cz(n-1)-by(n-1) (4) If y(n) represents a sample of the first sine wave and z(n) represents a sample of the second sine wave, displaced by phase φ from the first sine wave, then if a, b, c and d have the values given by equations (5)-(7), below, wherein ω2πFT, (also shown in block 300 of FIG. 6) and if y(n-1) and z(n-1) represent the previous sample values of the first and second sine waves, respectively, equations (3) and (4) can be used recursively to generate the desired sine waves.", "##EQU7## FIG. 6 shows how the system is initialized to generate these sine waves of amplitude A. First (block 300) the four basic constants cos ω, sin ω, cos φ, sin φ are generated.", "Next, a, b, and c are generated from these four values.", "Next, the value of g=2 cos φ is calculated, for later use in the normalization calculations.", "Finally, the value of m, ##EQU8## used in subsequent normalization calculations is calculated.", "The values of a, b, c, g and m are stored (action box 301) and the initial value of the first sine wave, e, is set to 0, and the initial value of the second sine wave, f, is set to Asin φ (action box 302).", "FIG. 7 illustrates the calculation performed every T seconds in order to generate the sample values E and F of the two sine waves.", "In action box 311, the values of E and F are calculated using equations (3) and (4).", "E and F are stored in the locations set aside for storing e and f to prepare for the next calculation of the values of the two sine waves (action box 314).", "Finally, E and F are delivered to the user of these sample values of the sine waves (action box 316).", "FIG. 8 illustrates the normalization function and is similar to FIG. 4. However, in FIG. 8 the formula for N is N=1.5-m(e 2 +f 2 -efg), wherein g=2 cos φ (action box 330).", "This value of N is then used to normalize the previously calculated values of e and f so that exponential build up or decay of the sample values of the sine waves is prevented.", "The principles of the invention can also be used for generating sample values of a sine wave which is modulated by either frequency or phase shift keying.", "FIGS. 9-11 illustrate frequency shift keying and FIGS. 12, 13, and 11 illustrate phase shift keying.", "In these illustrative examples, two frequencies F(1) and F(2) are used, and four values of phase shift (corresponding to i=0, 1, 2, and 3) are used for phase shift keying.", "Clearly other values of the number of frequencies or the number of possible phase shifts could also be used.", "FIG. 9 shows the initialization required for frequency shift keying.", "Values of c(1) and d(1) representing sin 2πF(1)T and cos 2πF(1)T are calculated for generating successive samples of a srne wave of frequency F(1).", "Similarly, values of c(2) and d(2), representing sin 2πF(2)T, and cos 2πF(2)T, are calculated for generating samples for a sine wave of frequency F(2).", "##EQU9## is also calculated and used as described with respect to FIG. 11.", "The sine wave, e, is initialized to 0 and the cosine wave, f, is initialized to -A, where A is the amplitude of the desired sine waves.", "FIG. 10 illustrates the generation of a frequency shifted sine wave.", "Decision block 410 tests which frequency is being generated.", "If frequency F(1) is generated (action box 411), then c(1) and d(1) are used to calculate the next values of the sine and cosine waves;", "if frequency F(2) is to be generated (action box 412), then c(2) and d(2) are used in the calculations of the values of the next sample of the sine and cosine waves.", "These values E and F are then substituted for the previous values e and f (action box 414) and the value of E is delivered to a user (action box 416).", "The equations used in boxes 411 and 412 (and 511 and 513) are equations (1) and (2), where E and F represent y(n) and z(n) and e and f represent y(n-1) and z(n-1).", "The normalization factor N=1.5-m(e 2 +f 2 ) is calculated (action box 430, FIG. 11).", "Note that this is equivalent to the value of N in action box 330 (FIG.", "8) for the special case φ=π/2 radians, wherein cos φ=0.", "The normalization is then performed (action block 432) and the normalized results stored in the locations of the most recently calculated sample.", "Because the normalization calculation (430) is frequency independent and the amplitude is fixed, the frequency shift causes no perturbation to the normalization operation.", "That is, N is correcting only for very small errors (drift) even in the presence of the frequency shift, and thus infrequent normalization operations are possible.", "This comment also applies to the phase shift keying normalization.", "FIG. 12 illustrates initialization necessary to generate phase shift modulated sine wave.", "In this example, four different values of phase shift may be introduced at the point where the modulation takes place.", "These four values are zero, 90 degrees, 180 degrees, or 270 degrees corresponding to 0, π/2, π, and 3π/2 radians.", "The four values of sine and four values of cosine constants necessary for introducing phase shift, including the constants required for introducing no phase shift, are calculated (action block 500).", "These eight constants are referred to as c(i) and d(i), where i varies for 0 to 3, for the sine value and the cosine value, respectively.", "m is also calculated for reasons discussed with respect to FIGS. 8 and 11.", "Finally, e is initialized to 0 representing the initial value of the sine wave and f is initialized to A representing the initial value of the corresponding cosine wave (action block 502).", "FIG. 13 illustrates the process of introducing phase shift into the calculated values of sine and cosine.", "Decision block 510 checks whether a phase shift is required.", "If not, then action box 511 calculates the new values of E and F in essentially the same way as these values are calculated in action box 411, previously discussed with respect to FIG. 10.", "If a phase shift is required then the proper values of c(i) and d(i) are selected according to the value of the desired symbol to introduce the appropriate phase shift (action box 512).", "The selected values c(i) and d(i) are then used to calculate the next value of the sine wave and the corresponding cosine wave (action box 513).", "The next values of sine and cosine wave are then stored to replace the previous values (action box 514) and the value E is delivered to the user (action box 516).", "The normalization technique illustrated in FIG. 11 is used with respect to either the frequency shift or the phase shift generated signals.", "Again, infrequent normalization is entirely appropriate.", "An alternative arrangement for calculating digital sample values for a sine wave is shown in FIGS. 14-16.", "These figures are similar to FIGS. 2-4 with certain exceptions.", "The numbering of the blocks has been increased by 400 from the numbers of the comparable blocks in FIGS. 2-4.", "Block 603 is similar to block 203 except that instead of calculating an initial value of f and calculating a value of m, a scaling factor, S, is calculated.", "This scaling factor, used as described below in block 611, is the product of the desired amplitude, A, c (the value of sin ω), and 2 to the power -0.5 (one-half of the square root of 2).", "In block 605, the values of d and S are stored and in block 606, the initial value of f is set to -(2 -0 [.", "].5) FIG. 15 shows the calculation of one sample of the sine wave in block 608, 610, 611, and 612.", "Blocks 608 and 610 are the same as blocks 208 and 210 of FIG. 3. Block 611 shows that an output is calculated which is the product of E and S, the scaling factor.", "In block 612, this output is delivered to the user.", "FIG. 16 is similar to FIG. 4 except that the equivalent of the factor m is one and there is no need to multiply e 2 , f 2 and def by this factor.", "The alternative embodiment permits a sine wave to be calculated from stored constants using only two stored constants, namely, the values of S, the scaling factor, and d, 2 cos ω.", "It is not necessary to store the value of sin ωand A since the critical product of these two values is stored in the value S. The actual calculation of a sample value requires the extra step represented by block 611 of generating an output from the value of E by multiplying this value by the scaling factor, S. The normalizing calculation has been simplified through avoidance of multiplying e 2 , f 2 and def by the factor m. It is to be understood that the above-described embodiments are merely illustrative of the principles of this invention;", "other arrangements may be devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention." ]

[ "FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The invention pertains to field of athletic shoes.", "More particularly, the invention relates to athletic shoes designed to accept a variable amount of additional weight for purposes of training and exercise.", "The weights for these athletic shoes further include magnetic inserts for health enhancing reasons.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Various shoe designs have been developed which include weights for purposes of providing additional exercise or weight training to the wearer of the shoe.", "U.S. Pat. No. 5,231,776 issued to Wagner incorporates a plurality of small metallic spheres entrapped in a lattice grid matrix molded to the sole.", "U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,638,613 and 4,709,921 issued to Williams and Valuikas et al.", ", respectively, utilize flattened weights integrated into the soles of shoes, as does U.S. Pat. No. 3,109,245, issued to R. P. Glynn.", "More advanced shoes have included various means to add varying amounts of weight to the shoe.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,777,743 issued to Roehrig, Jr. uses one or more weighted fastening straps disposed about the upper ankle portion of the shoe top.", "U.S. Pat. No. 4,686,781, issued to Bury includes a chamber in the sole of the shoe designed to accommodate lead shot or similar weighting material.", "U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,114,982 and 4,458,432, issued to McGowan, and Stempski, respectively, incorporate pockets to hold shoe weights.", "U.S. Pat. No. 7,028,417 issued to Tingle is directed to a therapeutic slipper having pockets designed to receive therapeutic devices such as magnets, satchels of herbal compositions, cold packs or hot packs.", "An instep panel with a pocket designed to receive therapeutic devices can be removably attached to the slipper.", "U.S. Pat. No. 6,360,457 issued to Qui et al.", "is directed to a health care shoe that has a plurality of magnets that are located above and below the user's foot.", "Either the sole or the insole has a plurality of cavities adapted to receive magnets that may be cemented in place.", "U.S. Pat. Application No. 2002/0193498 published for Brown is directed to shock reduction footwear that has a plurality of springs installed in the sole.", "A set of springs is supplemented by opposing magnets that may be a single rectangular plate-type magnet but preferably is a plurality of spaced parallel magnetic strips orientated across the width of the heel.", "[0003] Prior art designs for weighted shoes either do not provide a capability to remove or vary the weight attached to the shoe or provide only a limited capacity to vary the weight.", "Some of the designs include external weight pockets that provide relatively unbalanced weighting and do not integrate smoothly with the appearance of the shoe.", "Some of the designs allow the shoe weights to shift within cavities in the shoe, increasing the shoe's instability to the wearer.", "[0004] It is an objective of the present invention to provide for variable weighting of the shoe.", "It is a further objective to allow the wearer to remove the weight from the shoe entirely without interfering with the structural integrity of the shoe.", "It is a still further objective of the invention to have the weighting capability integrate smoothly with the appearance of the shoe.", "It is yet a further objective to permit the wearer to change the weighting of the shoe without the use of external tools.", "Finally, it is an objective of the invention, to provide removable weights for an athletic shoe that integrate magnetic inserts.", "[0005] While some of the objectives of the present invention are disclosed in the prior art, none of the inventions found include all of the requirements identified.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0006] The present invention addresses all of the deficiencies of prior art weighted shoe inventions and satisfies all of the objectives described above.", "A variable weight athletic shoe may be constructed from the following components.", "An athletic shoe having an upper portion and a resilient sole portion is provided.", "The upper portion has a forefoot enclosing section and a heel-enclosing section.", "The heel-enclosing section has a first side and a second side.", "The sole portion has a forward end, an after end and a bottom surface.", "The after end extends upwardly from the bottom surface to a top edge and upon the heel-enclosing section of the upper portion.", "[0007] A removable shoe weight is provided The weight is formed of a resilient material and is shaped to conform to the after end on the sole portion.", "The weight has an inner surface, an outer surface, a top edge and a bottom edge.", "The shoe weight including at least one magnetic insert.", "Means are provided for removably attaching the weight to the after end of the sole portion.", "[0008] In a variation of the invention, the means for removably attaching the weight to the after end of the sole portion further comprises a cavity located between the bottom surface and the top edge of the after end of the sole portion of the athletic shoe.", "The cavity has an upper edge, a lower edge and a back portion and is sized, shaped and disposed to receive the removable shoe weight.", "[0009] A lower receiving notch located at the lower edge of the cavity and an upper receiving notch located at the upper edge of the cavity are provided.", "A projecting tab is fixedly attached to the bottom edge of the weight.", "The tab is sized, shaped and located to removably engage the lower receiving notch of the cavity.", "[0010] A resilient latch is fixedly attached to the top edge of the weight.", "The latch is sized, shaped and located to releasably engage the upper receiving notch of the cavity.", "In use, the projecting tab is inserted into the lower receiving notch and the weight is tilted upwardly toward the athletic shoe.", "The resilient latch is pressed downwardly toward the projecting tab, and the weight is pressed into the cavity.", "The resilient latch is released to engage the upper receiving notch.", "Thus the weight is removably attached to the athletic shoe.", "[0011] In another variation of the invention, a plurality of weights of varying heaviness, formed to attach to the cavity of the athletic shoe, are provided.", "Each of the shoe weights including at least one magnetic insert.", "In still another variation, the weights are encased in a covering material selected to protect the weight from corrosive forces and enhance the appearance of the shoe.", "[0012] In yet another variation of the invention, the means for removably attaching the weight to the after end of the sole portion further comprises a cavity located between the bottom surface and the top edge of the after end of the sole portion of the athletic shoe.", "The cavity has an upper edge, a lower edge and a back portion and is sized, shaped and disposed to receive the removable shoe weight.", "[0013] An upper receiving notch is located at the upper edge of the cavity and a latch is located adjacent to the lower edge of the cavity.", "The latch comprises a resilient, elongated member located roughly parallel to the back portion of the cavity and a projecting finger extending at a right angle from the elongated member adjacent to the cavity.", "[0014] A projecting lip is formed at the top edge of the weight.", "The lip is sized, shaped and located to engage the upper receiving notch.", "A receiving tab is fixedly attached to the bottom edge of the weight.", "The tab includes an orifice sized, shaped and located to removably engage the projecting finger of the latch.", "[0015] In use, the projecting lip is inserted into the upper receiving notch, and the weight is tilted downwardly toward the athletic shoe.", "The elongated member of the latch is pulled outwardly from the athletic shoe and the weight is pressed into the cavity.", "The elongated member is released to allow the projecting finger to engage the orifice in the receiving tab.", "Thus, the weight is removably attached to the athletic shoe.", "[0016] In a further variation, an athletic shoe having an upper portion and a resilient sole portion is provided.", "The upper portion has a forefoot enclosing section and a heel-enclosing section.", "The heel-enclosing section has a first side and a second side.", "The sole portion has a predetermined thickness, a forward end, an after end and a bottom surface.", "[0017] The sole portion includes a heel weight cavity that has an opening at the after end of the sole portion and extends forwardly for a first predetermined distance.", "The cavity has an upper surface, a lower surface and a front surface.", "[0018] A weight is provided that has a forward end, a rearward end, a top surface and a bottom surface.", "The weight is shaped to fit slidably within the cavity.", "The weight includes at least one magnetic insert.", "Means are provided for ejecting the weight from the cavity as are means for releasably retaining the weight within the cavity.", "[0019] In this variation, a plurality of weights of varying heaviness, formed to fit slidably within the heel weight cavity of the athletic shoe, are also provided.", "Each of the weights includes at least one magnetic insert.", "[0020] In another variation of the invention the means for ejecting the weight from the heel weight cavity comprises a first compression spring secured to the front surface of the weight cavity and disposed between the cavity and the weight.", "[0021] In still another variation, the means for releasably retaining the weight within the heel weight cavity comprises a detent opening positioned in the upper surface of the weight cavity at a right angle to the upper surface and a latch fixedly attached to the top surface of the weight.", "The latch is positioned adjacent to the rearward end of the weight.", "The latch includes a resilient, elongated member projecting upwardly from the top surface of the weight at an acute angle and a projecting finger extending at a right angle from the member.", "The finger is sized, shaped and located to releasably engage the detent opening of the cavity.", "[0022] In use, the weight is inserted into the weight cavity, thereby compressing the first compression spring.", "The elongated member is pressed downwardly toward the upper surface of the weight.", "The elongated member is then released, thereby permitting the elongated member to spring upwardly and the projecting finger to engage the detent opening in the weight cavity.", "Thus removably retaining the weight within the weight cavity of the athletic shoe.", "To remove the weight from the cavity the elongated member is pressed downwardly against the weight, thereby disengaging the projecting finger of the latch from the detent opening.", "The first compression spring will then urge the weight outwardly from the cavity, allowing the wearer of the shoe to remove the weight.", "[0023] In yet a further variation of the invention, a variable weight athletic shoe may be constructed comprising an athletic shoe having an upper portion and a resilient sole portion.", "The upper portion has a forefoot enclosing section and a heel-enclosing section.", "The sole portion has a predetermined thickness, a forward end, an after end, a central arch section and a bottom surface.", "[0024] The arch section is located between the forward end and the after end of the sole portion and has a first side and a second side.", "The arch section includes an arch weight cavity that has an opening at the first side of the sole portion and extends toward the second side for a second predetermined distance.", "The cavity has an upper surface, a lower surface and a distal end surface.", "[0025] A weight, having a forward end, a rearward end, a top surface and a bottom surface is provided.", "The weight is shaped to fit slidably within the cavity.", "The weight includes at least one magnetic insert.", "Means are provided for ejecting the weight from the cavity and for releasably retaining the weight within the cavity.", "[0026] In this variation a plurality of weights of varying heaviness, formed to fit slidably within the arch cavity of the athletic shoe, are provided.", "Each of the weights includes at least one magnetic insert.", "[0027] In still another variation of the invention the means for ejecting the weight from the arch weight cavity comprises a second compression spring secured to the distal end surface of the weight cavity and disposed between the cavity and the weight.", "[0028] In yet a further variation, the means for releasably retaining the weight within the arch weight cavity comprises a detent opening positioned in the upper surface of the weight cavity at a right angle to the upper surface of the cavity and a latch fixedly attached to the top surface of the weight.", "The latch is attached adjacent to the rearward end of the weight.", "The latch includes a resilient, elongated member projecting upwardly from the top surface of the weight at an acute angle and a projecting finger extending at a right angle from the member.", "The finger is sized, shaped and located to releasably engage the detent opening of the cavity.", "[0029] In use, the weight is inserted into the weight cavity, thereby compressing the second compression spring.", "The elongated member is pressed downwardly toward the top surface of the weight, and the elongated member is then released.", "This permits the elongated member to spring upwardly and the projecting finger to engage the detent opening in the weight cavity thus removably retaining the weight within the weight cavity of the athletic shoe.", "[0030] When the elongated member is pressed downwardly against the weight, thereby disengaging the projecting finger of the latch from the detent opening, the second compression spring will urge the weight outwardly from the cavity, allowing the wearer of the shoe to remove the weight from the cavity.", "[0031] In still a further variation of the invention the means for removably attaching the weight to the after end of the sole portion further comprises first and second L-shaped alignment rails.", "The alignment rails are located on the after end of the sole portion adjacent its top edge.", "A cavity is provided.", "The cavity has an upper edge, a lower edge and a back wall and is centrally located between the first and second L-shaped alignment rails on the after end of the sole portion.", "The cavity is spaced from the bottom surface of the sole portion.", "[0032] A latching member is provided.", "The latching member includes a vertical portion that has first end and a second end.", "The first end is pivotally attached to the lower edge of the cavity.", "A projecting finger element is fixedly attached to the second end of the latching member and extends outwardly from the cavity.", "[0033] A third compression spring is located between the back wall of the cavity and the latching member and urges the latching member outwardly from the cavity.", "First and second access opening are provided.", "The access openings are sized, shaped and located on the inner surface of the removable shoe weight to receive the first and second L-shaped alignment rails.", "[0034] First and second L-shaped alignment slots are provided.", "The alignment slots extend from the first and second access openings to the top edge of the weight.", "The at least one magnetic insert is located between said first and second access openings.", "The alignment slots are sized, shaped and located to slidably receive the L-shaped alignment rails.", "[0035] A receiving notch is provided.", "The receiving notch is sized shaped and located adjacent to the bottom edge of the weight to removably engage the projecting finger element of the latching member.", "In use, the first and second access openings in the inner surface of the shoe weight are located over the first and second L-shaped alignment rails.", "The weight is urged downwardly so that the first and second alignment rails will engage the first and second alignment slots.", "The latching member is urged inwardly against the coil spring, thereby permitting the receiving notch to pass the projecting finger element of the latching member.", "When the latching member is released the projecting finger element engages the receiving notch in the weight, thereby removably attaching the weight to the athletic shoe.", "[0036] When the latching member is urged inwardly against the coil spring and the weight pulled upwardly from the athletic shoe the projecting finger element will disengage from the receiving notch.", "The weight will then slide upwardly permitting the first and second L-shaped alignment rails to enter the first and second access openings, thus permitting the weight to be pulled outwardly and removed from the after end of the sole portion of the athletic shoe.", "[0037] In still another variation a plurality of weights of varying heaviness, formed to attach to the after end of the sole portion of the athletic shoe, are provided.", "Each of the weights includes at least one magnetic insert.", "[0038] In a yet a further variation, the weights are encased in a covering material selected to protect the weight from corrosive forces and enhance the appearance of the shoe.", "[0039] In still another variation of the invention, the means for removably attaching the weight to the after end of the sole portion further comprises first and second L-shaped brackets located on the first and second sides of the heel-enclosing section.", "Each of the L-shaped brackets is spaced a third predetermined distance from the bottom surface of the sole portion.", "[0040] A weight is provided that includes a first weight portion, a second weight portion and a cam-lock lever.", "The cam-lock lever has a first end, a second end, a top surface and a bottom surface.", "The first weight portion has a first end and a second end and includes at least one magnetic insert.", "A first hooking element sized and shaped to removably engage the first L-shaped bracket is provided.", "The first hooking element is located at the first end of the first weight portion.", "[0041] A plurality of adjustment notches located adjacent the second end of the first weight portion are provided.", "The second weight portion has a first end and a second end.", "A second hooking element sized and shaped to removably engage the second L-shaped bracket is provided.", "The second hooking element is located at the second end of the second weight portion.", "[0042] A pivot pin is located adjacent the first end of the second weight portion.", "A relief depression sized and shaped to accept the bottom surface of the cam-lock lever and spaced from the first end of the second weight portion is provided.", "The cam-lock lever is pivotally attached at the first end to the pivot pin of the second weight portion.", "A notch engaging pall sized, shaped and located to engage the plurality of adjustment notches on the first weight portion is provided.", "The pall is pivotally mounted between the first end and the second end of the cam-lock lever.", "[0043] An opening is located between the first end of the cam-lock lever and the pivotal mounting of the notch-engaging pall.", "The opening is sized and shaped to permit the second end and plurality of adjustment notches of the first weight portion to pass slidably through it.", "An operating handle is located at the second end of the cam-lock lever.", "[0044] In operation the second end of the first weight portion is inserted through the opening in the cam-lock lever and the cam-lock lever is moved to a first, open position with the operating handle.", "The first hooking element is then located over the first L-shaped bracket and the second hooking element is located over the second L-shaped bracket.", "The pall then engages one of the adjusting notches on the first weight portion and the cam-lock lever is moved to a second, closed position.", "The bottom surface of the cam-lock lever is now located in the relief depression of the second weight portion and the first and second weight portions of the weight will be removably attached to the after end of the sole portion of the athletic shoe.", "[0045] When the operating handle is moved to locate the cam-lock lever to the first, open position the first and second hooking elements will disengage the first and second L-shaped brackets and the weight may be removed from the athletic shoe.", "[0046] Still another variation further comprises a plurality of weights of varying heaviness formed to attach to the after end of the sole portion of the athletic shoe.", "Each of the weights includes at least one magnetic insert.", "[0047] Yet a further variation of the invention comprises an athletic shoe having an upper portion and a resilient sole portion.", "The upper portion of the athletic shoe has a forefoot-enclosing section and a heel-enclosing section.", "The forefoot enclosing section has a first side and a second side and includes at least one pair of first and second L-shaped brackets disposed on the first and second sides.", "[0048] A weight is provided that includes a first weight portion, a second weight portion and a cam-lock lever.", "The cam-lock lever has a first end, a second end, a top surface and a bottom surface.", "The first weight portion has a first end and a second end.", "The first weight portion includes at least one magnetic insert.", "A first hooking element sized and shaped to removably engage the first L-shaped bracket is provided.", "The first hooking element is located at the first end of the first weight portion.", "[0049] A plurality of adjustment notches located adjacent the second end of the first weight portion are provided.", "The second weight portion has a first end and a second end.", "A second hooking element sized and shaped to removably engage the second L-shaped bracket is provided.", "The second hooking element is located at the second end of the second weight portion.", "[0050] A pivot pin is located adjacent the first end of the second weight portion.", "A relief depression sized and shaped to accept the bottom surface of the cam-lock lever and spaced from the first end of the second weight portion is provided.", "The cam-lock lever is pivotally attached at the first end to the pivot pin of the second weight portion.", "A notch engaging pall sized, shaped and located to engage the plurality of adjustment notches on the first weight portion is provided.", "The pall is pivotally mounted between the first end and the second end of the cam-lock lever.", "[0051] An opening is located between the first end of the cam-lock lever and the pivotal mounting of the notch-engaging pall.", "The opening is sized and shaped to permit the second end and plurality of adjustment notches of the first weight portion to pass slidably through it.", "An operating handle is located at the second end of the cam-lock lever.", "[0052] In operation the second end of the first weight portion is inserted through the opening in the cam-lock lever and the cam-lock lever is moved to a first, open position with the operating handle.", "The first hooking element is then located over the first L-shaped bracket and the second hooking element is located over the second L-shaped bracket.", "The pall then engages one of the adjusting notches on the first weight portion and the cam-lock lever is moved to a second, closed position.", "The bottom surface of the cam-lock lever is now located in the relief depression of the second weight portion and the first and second weight portions of the weight will be removably attached to the forefoot-enclosing section of the athletic shoe.", "[0053] When the operating lever is moved to locate the cam-lock lever to the first, open position the first and second hooking elements will disengage the first and second L-shaped brackets and the weight may be removed from the athletic shoe.", "[0054] Still another variation further comprises a plurality of weights of varying heaviness formed to attach to the forefoot-enclosing section of the athletic shoe.", "Each of the weights includes at least one magnetic insert.", "[0055] An appreciation of the other aims and objectives of the present invention and an understanding of it may be achieved by referring to the accompanying drawings and the detailed description of a preferred embodiment.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0056] FIG. 1 is a front elevation of a first embodiment of a removable shoe weight with magnetic insert, employing a first latching mechanism, attached to the after end of the sole portion of an athletic shoe;", "[0057] FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the FIG. 1 embodiment illustrating a first embodiment of a weight-retaining clip with magnetic insert;", "[0058] FIG. 3 is a side elevation of the FIG. 1 embodiment attached to the athletic shoe;", "[0059] FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional side elevation of the FIG. 1 embodiment taken along the line 4 - 4 and illustrating the magnetic insert;", "[0060] FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the FIG. 1 embodiment with holes provided for lighter weight and illustrating the magnetic insert;", "[0061] FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional side elevation of a second embodiment of a removable shoe weight, employing a second latching mechanism, attached to the after end of the sole portion of an athletic shoe and illustrating the magnetic insert;", "[0062] FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional side elevation of the second embodiment of a removable shoe weight with magnetic insert inserted into a cavity in the heel portion of an athletic shoe;", "[0063] FIG. 8 is a rear elevational view of the FIG. 7 embodiment of the removable shoe weight illustrating the receiving tab, orifice and magnetic insert;", "[0064] FIG. 9 is a partial break-away side elevational view of a third embodiment of a removable shoe weight with magnetic insert installed in the heel of an athletic shoe;", "[0065] FIG. 10 is a perspective view of the FIG. 9 embodiment illustrating the latching mechanism;", "[0066] FIG. 11 is a perspective view of the FIG. 9 embodiment with holes provided for lighter weight and illustrating the magnetic insert;", "[0067] FIG. 12 is a partial break-away side elevational view of a fourth embodiment of a removable shoe weight with magnetic insert, employing the first latching mechanism, attached to the arch of an athletic shoe;", "[0068] FIG. 13 is a cross-sectional side elevational view of the FIG. 12 embodiment taken along the line 13 - 13 illustrating the magnetic insert in cross-sectional view.", "[0069] FIG. 14 is a cross-sectional side elevation of a fifth embodiment of a removable shoe weight, employing a third latching mechanism, attached to the after end of the sole portion of an athletic shoe and illustrating the magnetic insert;", "[0070] FIG. 15 is a perspective view of the FIG. 14 embodiment illustrating the latching mechanism, alignment rails and inner surface features of the shoe weight and illustrating the magnetic insert;", "[0071] FIG. 16 is a rear elevational view of a sixth embodiment of a removable shoe weight with magnetic insert, illustrating a cam-lock latching mechanism attached to the after end of the sole portion of an athletic shoe;", "[0072] FIG. 17 is a plan view of the FIG. 16 embodiment illustrating the cam-lock latching mechanism in a closed position;", "[0073] FIG. 18 is a plan view of the FIG. 16 embodiment illustrating the cam-lock latching mechanism in an open position;", "and [0074] FIG. 19 is a perspective view of the FIG. 16 shoe weight with magnetic insert attached to the forefoot enclosing section of the athletic shoe.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT [0075] As illustrated in FIGS. 1-19 , a variable weight athletic shoe 10 may be constructed from the following components.", "As illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 3 , an athletic shoe 14 having an upper portion 18 and a resilient sole portion 22 is provided.", "The upper portion 18 has a forefoot enclosing section 26 and a heel-enclosing section 30 .", "The heel-enclosing section 30 has a first side 34 and a second side 38 .", "The sole portion 22 has a forward end 42 , an after end 46 and a bottom surface 50 .", "The after end 46 extends upwardly from the bottom surface 50 to a top edge 54 and upon the heel-enclosing section 30 of the upper portion 18 .", "[0076] As illustrated in FIGS. 1-5 , a removable shoe weight 58 is provided.", "The weight is formed of a resilient material and is shaped to conform to the after end 46 on the sole portion 22 .", "The weight 58 has an inner surface 62 , an outer surface 66 , a top edge 70 and a bottom edge 74 .", "The shoe weight includes at least one magnetic insert 76 .", "Means 78 are provided for removably attaching the weight 58 to the after end 46 of the sole portion 22 .", "[0077] In a variation of the invention, as illustrated in FIG. 4 , the means.", "78 for removably attaching the weight 58 to the after end 46 of the sole portion 22 further comprises a cavity 82 located between the bottom surface 50 and the top edge 54 of the after end 46 of the sole portion 22 of the athletic shoe 14 .", "The cavity 82 has an upper edge 86 , a lower edge 90 and a back portion 94 and is sized, shaped and disposed to receive the removable shoe weight 58 .", "[0078] A lower receiving notch 98 located at the lower edge 90 of the cavity 82 and an upper receiving notch 102 located at the upper edge 86 of the cavity 82 are provided.", "A projecting tab 106 is fixedly attached to the bottom edge 74 of the weight 58 .", "The tab 106 is sized, shaped and located to removably engage the lower receiving notch 98 of the cavity 82 .", "[0079] As shown in FIGS. 2 , 4 and 5 , a resilient latch 110 is fixedly attached to the top edge 70 of the weight 58 .", "The latch 110 is sized, shaped and located to releasably engage the upper receiving notch 102 of the cavity 82 .", "In use, the projecting tab 106 is inserted into the lower receiving notch 98 and the weight 58 is tilted upwardly toward the athletic shoe 14 .", "The resilient latch 110 is pressed downwardly toward the projecting tab 106 , and the weight 58 is pressed into the cavity 82 .", "The resilient latch 110 is released to engage the upper receiving notch 102 .", "Thus the weight 58 is removably attached to the athletic shoe 14 .", "[0080] In another variation of the invention, illustrated in FIG. 5 , a plurality of weights 58 of varying heaviness, formed to attach to the cavity 82 of the athletic shoe 14 , are provided.", "Each of the shoe weights includes at least one magnetic insert 76 .", "In still another variation, the weights 58 are encased in a covering material selected to protect the weight from corrosive forces and enhance the appearance of the shoe 14 .", "[0081] In yet another variation of the invention, illustrated in FIGS. 6-8 , the means 78 for removably attaching the weight 58 to the after end 46 of the sole portion 22 further comprises a cavity 114 located between the bottom surface 50 and the top edge 54 of the after end 46 of the sole portion 22 of the athletic shoe 14 .", "The cavity 114 has an upper edge 118 , a lower edge 122 and a back portion 126 and is sized, shaped and disposed to receive the removable shoe weight 58 .", "[0082] An upper receiving notch 130 is located at the upper edge 118 of the cavity 114 and a latch 134 is located adjacent to the lower edge 122 of the cavity 114 .", "The latch 134 comprises a resilient, elongated member 138 located roughly parallel to the back portion 126 of the cavity 114 and a projecting finger 142 extending at a right angle from the elongated member 138 adjacent to the cavity 114 .", "[0083] A projecting lip 146 is formed at the top edge 70 of the weight 58 .", "The lip 146 is sized, shaped and located to engage the upper receiving notch 130 .", "A receiving tab 150 is fixedly attached to the bottom edge 74 of the weight 58 .", "The tab 150 includes an orifice 154 sized, shaped and located to removably engage the projecting finger 142 of the latch 134 .", "[0084] In use, the projecting lip 146 is inserted into the upper receiving notch 130 , and the weight 58 is tilted downwardly toward the athletic shoe 14 .", "The elongated member 138 of the latch 134 is pulled outwardly from the athletic shoe 14 and the weight 58 is pressed into the cavity 114 .", "The elongated member 138 is released to allow the projecting finger 142 to engage the orifice 154 in the receiving tab 150 .", "Thus, the weight 58 is removably attached to the athletic shoe 14 .", "[0085] In a further variation, as illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 9 - 11 an athletic shoe 14 having an upper portion 18 and a resilient sole portion 22 is provided.", "The upper portion 18 has a forefoot enclosing section 26 and a heel-enclosing section 30 .", "The heel-enclosing section 30 has a first side 34 and a second side 38 .", "The sole portion 22 has a predetermined thickness 158 , and a forward end 42 , an after end 46 and a bottom surface 50 .", "[0086] The sole portion 22 includes a heel weight cavity 162 that has an opening 166 at the after end 46 of the sole portion 22 and extends forwardly for a first predetermined distance 170 .", "The cavity 162 has an upper surface 174 , a lower surface 178 and a front surface 182 .", "[0087] A weight 186 is provided that has a forward end 190 , a rearward end 194 , a top surface 198 and a bottom surface 202 .", "The weight 186 is shaped to fit slidably within the cavity 162 .", "The weight includes at least one magnetic insert 76 .", "Means 206 are provided for ejecting the weight 186 from the cavity 162 as are means 210 for releasably retaining the weight 186 within the cavity 162 .", "[0088] In this variation, as illustrated in FIG. 11 , a plurality of weights 186 of varying heaviness, formed to fit slidably within the heel weight cavity 162 of the athletic shoe 14 , are also provided.", "Each of the weights includes at least one magnetic insert 76 .", "[0089] In another variation of the invention, as illustrated in FIGS. 9-11 , the means 206 for ejecting the weight 186 from the heel weight cavity 162 comprises a first compression spring 214 secured to the front surface 182 of the weight cavity 162 and disposed between the cavity 162 and the weight 186 .", "[0090] In still another variation, as illustrated in FIGS. 9-11 , the means 210 for releasably retaining the weight 186 within the heel weight cavity 162 comprises a detent opening (not shown) positioned in the upper surface 174 of the weight cavity 162 at a right angle to the upper surface 174 and a latch 218 fixedly attached to the top surface 198 of the weight 186 .", "The latch 218 is positioned adjacent to the rearward end 194 of the weight 186 .", "The latch 218 includes a resilient, elongated member 222 projecting upwardly from the top surface 198 of the weight 186 at an acute angle and a projecting finger 226 extending at a right angle from the elongated member 222 .", "The finger 226 is sized, shaped and located to releasably engage the detent opening of the cavity 162 .", "[0091] In use, the weight 186 is inserted into the weight cavity 162 , thereby compressing the first compression spring 214 .", "The elongated member 222 is pressed downwardly toward the upper surface 198 of the weight 186 .", "The elongated member 222 is then released, thereby permitting the elongated member 222 to spring upwardly and the projecting finger 226 to engage the detent opening in the weight cavity 162 .", "Thus removably retaining the weight 186 within the weight cavity 162 of the athletic shoe 14 .", "To remove the weight 186 from the cavity 162 the elongated member 222 is pressed downwardly against the weight 186 , thereby disengaging the projecting finger 226 of the latch 218 from the detent opening.", "The first compression spring 214 will then urge the weight 186 outwardly from the cavity 162 , allowing the wearer of the shoe 14 to remove the weight 186 .", "[0092] In yet a further variation of the invention, illustrated in FIGS. 12 and 13 , a variable weight athletic shoe 10 may be constructed comprising an athletic shoe 14 having an upper portion 18 and a resilient sole portion 22 .", "The upper portion 18 has a forefoot enclosing section 26 and a heel-enclosing section 30 .", "The sole portion 22 has a predetermined thickness 158 , and a forward end 42 , an after end 46 , a central arch section 230 and a bottom surface 50 .", "[0093] The arch section 230 is located between the forward end 42 and the after end 46 of the sole portion 22 and has a first side 234 and a second side (not shown).", "The arch section 230 includes an arch weight cavity 242 that has an opening 246 at the first side 234 of the sole portion 22 and extends toward the second side for a second predetermined distance 250 .", "The cavity 242 has an upper surface 254 , a lower surface 258 and a distal end surface 262 .", "[0094] A weight 266 , having a forward end 270 , a rearward end 274 , a top surface 278 and a bottom surface 282 is provided.", "The weight 266 is shaped to fit slidably within the cavity 242 .", "The weight includes at least one magnetic insert 76 .", "Means 286 for ejecting the weight 266 from the cavity 242 and means 290 for releasably retaining the weight 266 within the cavity 242 are provided.", "[0095] In this variation a plurality of weights 266 of varying heaviness, formed to fit slidably within the arch cavity 242 of the athletic shoe 14 , are provided.", "Each of the weights includes at least one magnetic insert 76 .", "[0096] In still another variation of the invention the means 286 for ejecting the weight 266 from the arch weight cavity 242 comprises a second compression spring 294 secured to the distal end surface 262 of the weight cavity 242 and disposed between the cavity 242 and the weight 266 .", "[0097] In yet a further variation, the means 290 for releasably retaining the weight 266 within the arch weight cavity 242 comprises a detent opening 298 positioned in the upper surface 254 of the weight cavity 242 at a right angle to the upper surface 254 of the cavity 242 and a latch 302 fixedly attached to the top surface 278 of the weight 266 .", "The latch 302 is attached adjacent to the rearward end 274 of the weight 266 .", "The latch 302 includes a resilient, elongated member 306 projecting upwardly from the top surface 278 of the weight 266 at an acute angle and a projecting finger 310 extending at a right angle from the elongated member 306 .", "The finger 310 is sized, shaped and located to releasably engage the detent opening 298 of the cavity 242 .", "[0098] In use, the weight 266 is inserted into the weight cavity 242 , thereby compressing the second compression spring 294 .", "The elongated member 306 is pressed downwardly toward the top surface 278 of the weight 266 , and the elongated member 306 is then released.", "This permits the elongated member 306 to spring upwardly and the projecting finger 310 to engage the detent opening 298 in the weight cavity 242 thus removably retaining the weight 266 within the weight cavity 242 of the athletic shoe 14 .", "[0099] When the elongated member 306 is pressed downwardly against the weight 266 , thereby disengaging the projecting finger 310 of the latch 302 from the detent opening 298 , the second compression spring 294 will urge the weight 266 outwardly from the cavity 242 , allowing the wearer of the shoe 14 to remove the weight 266 from the cavity 242 .", "[0100] In still a further variation of the invention, illustrated in FIGS. 14 and 15 , the means 314 for removably attaching the weight 378 to the after end 46 of the sole portion 22 further comprises first 322 and second 326 L-shaped alignment rails.", "The alignment rails 322 , 326 are located on the after end 46 of the sole portion 22 adjacent its top edge 54 .", "A cavity 330 is provided.", "The cavity 330 has an upper edge 334 , a lower edge 338 and a back wall 342 and is centrally located between the first 322 and second 326 L-shaped alignment rails on the after end 46 of the sole portion 22 .", "The cavity 330 is spaced from the bottom surface 50 of the sole portion 22 .", "[0101] A latching member 346 is provided.", "The latching member 346 includes a vertical portion 350 that has first end 354 and a second end 358 .", "The first end 354 is pivotally attached to the lower edge 338 of the cavity 330 .", "A projecting finger element 362 is fixedly attached to the second end 358 of the latching member 346 and extends outwardly from the cavity 330 .", "A third compression spring 368 is located between the back wall 342 of the cavity 330 and the latching member 346 and urges the latching member 346 outwardly from the cavity 330 .", "[0102] First 366 and second 370 access opening are provided.", "The access 366 , 370 openings are sized, shaped and located on the inner surface 374 of the removable shoe weight 378 to receive the first 322 and second 326 L-shaped alignment rails.", "[0103] First 382 and second 386 L-shaped alignment slots are provided.", "The alignment slots 382 , 386 extend from the first 366 and second 370 access openings to the top edge 390 of the weight 378 .", "The at least one magnetic insert 76 is located between said first and second access openings.", "The alignment slots 382 , 386 are sized, shaped and located to slidably receive the L-shaped alignment rails 322 , 326 .", "[0104] A receiving notch 394 is provided.", "The receiving notch 394 is sized shaped and located adjacent to the bottom edge 398 of the weight 378 to removably engage the projecting finger element 362 of the latching member 346 .", "In use, the first 366 and second 370 access openings in the inner surface 374 of the shoe weight 378 are located over the first 322 and second 326 L-shaped alignment rails.", "The weight 378 is urged downwardly so that the first 322 and second 326 alignment rails will engage the first 382 and second 386 alignment slots.", "The latching member 346 is urged inwardly against the coil spring 366 , thereby permitting the receiving notch 394 to pass the projecting finger element 362 of the latching member 346 .", "When the latching member 346 is released the projecting finger element 362 engages the receiving notch 394 in the weight 378 , thereby removably attaching the weight 378 to the athletic shoe 14 .", "[0105] When the latching member 346 is urged inwardly against the coil spring 366 and the weight 378 pulled upwardly from the athletic shoe 14 the projecting finger element 362 will disengage from the receiving notch 394 .", "The weight 378 will then slide upwardly permitting the first 322 and second 326 L-shaped alignment rails to enter the first 366 and second 370 access openings, thus permitting the weight 378 to be pulled outwardly and removed from the after end 46 of the sole portion 22 of the athletic shoe 14 .", "[0106] In still another variation a plurality of weights 378 of varying heaviness, formed to attach to the after end 46 of the sole portion 22 of the athletic shoe 14 , are provided.", "Each of the weights includes at least one magnetic insert 76 .", "[0107] In a yet a further variation, the weights 378 are encased in a covering material selected to protect the weight 378 from corrosive forces and enhance the appearance of the shoe 14 .", "[0108] In still another variation of the invention, illustrated in FIGS. 16-18 the means 398 for removably attaching the weight 402 to the after end 46 of the sole portion 22 further comprises first 406 and second 410 L-shaped brackets located on the first 34 and second 38 sides of the heel-enclosing section 30 .", "Each of the L-shaped brackets 406 , 410 is spaced a third predetermined distance 414 from the bottom surface 50 of the sole portion 22 .", "[0109] The weight 402 includes a first weight portion 422 , a second weight portion 426 and a cam-lock lever 430 .", "The cam-lock lever 430 has a first end 434 , a second end 438 , a top surface 442 and a bottom surface 446 .", "The first weight portion 422 has a first end 450 and a second end 454 and includes at least one magnetic insert 76 .", "A first hooking element 458 sized and shaped to removably engage the first 406 L-shaped bracket is provided.", "The first hooking element 458 is located at the first end 450 of the first weight portion 422 .", "[0110] A plurality of adjustment notches 462 located adjacent the second end 454 of the first weight portion 422 are provided.", "The second weight portion 426 has a first end 466 and a second end 470 .", "A second hooking element 474 sized and shaped to removably engage the second L-shaped bracket 410 is provided.", "The second hooking element 474 is located at the second end 470 of the second weight portion 426 .", "[0111] A pivot pin 478 is located adjacent the first end 466 of the second weight portion 426 .", "A relief depression 482 sized and shaped to accept the bottom surface 446 of the cam-lock lever 430 and spaced from the first end 446 of the second weight portion 426 is provided.", "The cam-lock lever 430 is pivotally attached at the first end 434 to the pivot pin 478 of the second weight portion 426 .", "A notch-engaging pall 482 sized, shaped and located to engage the plurality of adjustment notches 462 on the first weight portion 422 is provided.", "The pall 482 is pivotally mounted between the first end 434 and the second end 438 of the cam-lock lever 430 .", "[0112] An opening 486 is located between the first end 434 of the cam-lock lever 430 and the pivotal mounting 490 of the notch-engaging pall 482 .", "The opening 486 is sized and shaped to permit the second end 454 and plurality of adjustment notches 462 of the first weight portion 422 to pass slidably through it.", "An operating handle 494 is located at the second end 438 of the cam-lock lever 430 .", "[0113] In operation the second end 454 of the first weight portion 422 is inserted through the opening 486 in the cam-lock lever 430 and the cam-lock lever 430 is moved to a first, open position ( FIG. 18 ) with the operating handle 494 .", "The first hooking element 458 is then located over the first L-shaped bracket 406 and the second hooking element 474 is located over the second L-shaped bracket 410 .", "The pall 482 then engages one of the adjusting notches 462 on the first weight portion 422 and the cam-lock lever 430 is moved to a second, closed position ( FIGS. 16 and 17 ).", "The bottom surface 446 of the cam-lock lever 430 is now located in the relief depression 482 of the second weight portion 426 and the first 422 and second 426 weight portions of the weight 402 will be removably attached to the after end 46 of the sole portion 22 of the athletic shoe 14 .", "[0114] When the operating handle 494 is moved to locate the cam-lock lever 430 to the first, open position the first 458 and second 474 hooking elements will disengage the first 406 and second 410 L-shaped brackets and the weight 402 may be removed from the athletic shoe 14 .", "[0115] Still another variation further comprises a plurality of weights 402 of varying heaviness formed to attach to the after end 46 of the sole portion of the athletic shoe.", "Each of the weights includes at least one magnetic insert 76 .", "[0116] Yet a further variation of the invention, illustrated in FIG. 19 , comprises an athletic shoe 14 having an upper portion 18 and a resilient sole portion 22 .", "The upper portion 18 of the athletic shoe 14 has a forefoot-enclosing section 26 and a heel-enclosing section 30 .", "The forefoot enclosing section 26 has a first side 498 and a second side 502 and includes at least one pair of first 506 and second (not shown) L-shaped brackets disposed on the first 498 and second 502 sides.", "[0117] The FIG. 16 embodiment of the removable shoe weight 402 may be attached to the first 506 and second (not shown) L-shaped brackets disposed on the first 498 and second 502 sides of the forefoot-enclosing section 26 of the upper portion 18 of the athletic shoe 14 in the manner previously described and illustrated for FIGS. 16-18 .", "[0118] A final variation of the invention further comprises a plurality of weights 402 of varying heaviness formed to attach to the forefoot-enclosing section of the athletic shoe 14 .", "Each of the weights includes at least one magnetic insert 76 .", "[0119] The variable weight athletic shoe 10 has been described with reference to particular embodiments.", "Other modifications and enhancements can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the claims that follow." ]

[ "BACKGROUND The present invention relates to testing of data packet signal transceivers, and in particular, to systems and methods for parallel testing of multiple such devices.", "Many of today's electronic devices use wireless technologies for both connectivity and communications purposes.", "Because wireless devices transmit and receive electromagnetic energy, and because two or more wireless devices have the potential of interfering with the operations of one another by virtue of their signal frequencies and power spectral densities, these devices and their wireless technologies must adhere to various wireless technology standard specifications.", "When designing such devices, engineers take extraordinary care to ensure that such devices will meet or exceed each of their included wireless technology prescribed standard-based specifications.", "Furthermore, when these devices are later being manufactured in quantity, they are tested to ensure that manufacturing defects will not cause improper operation, including their adherence to the included wireless technology standard-based specifications.", "For testing these devices following their manufacture and assembly, current wireless device test systems employ a subsystem for analyzing signals received from each device.", "Such subsystems typically include at least a vector signal analyzer (VSA) for analyzing signals produced by the device, and a vector signal generator (VSG) for generating signals to be received by the device.", "The analyses performed by the VSA and the signals generated by the VSG are generally programmable so as to allow each to be used for testing a variety of devices for adherence to a variety of wireless technology standards with differing frequency ranges, bandwidths and signal modulation characteristics.", "Among the wireless technologies being tested are those where the transmitters and receivers of the devices operate on the same frequency.", "One such operation is time-division-duplex (TDD), with one increasingly common example known as Bluetooth.", "When performing simultaneous testing of two or more such devices employing TDD technologies, there is a possibility of error caused during testing due to variations in the start times of the devices.", "For example, in one scenario, one or more devices may synchronize to a response data packet generated by another device under test (DUT) rather than responding to the intended test data packet generated by the tester (e.g., by the VSG).", "As a result, a DUT that becomes synchronized to the wrong signal will remain so and, therefore, produce erroneous or invalid test results.", "Accordingly, a method for synchronizing multiple TDD DUTs that avoids such improper synchronization scenarios would advantageously reduce faulty device synchronization and test time, and thereby reduce overall testing costs on a per device basis.", "SUMMARY In accordance with the presently claimed invention, a method and system are provided for facilitating testing of multiple time-division-duplex (TDD) data packet signal transceivers.", "Replicas of a data packet signal are transmitted by a tester to multiple TDD devices under test (DUTs), where the replicated signal is either a null or TDD data packet signal.", "In one embodiment, replica null data packet signals are transmitted for a predetermined time interval sufficient for the DUTs to synchronize with the tester.", "In another embodiment, following successful and unsuccessful receptions of responsive signals from respective DUTs indicating successful reception of their respective replica TDD data packet signals and, therefore, synchronization with the tester, corresponding replica TDD data packet signals are provided with data packet signal characteristics causing such replica data packet signals to fail to conform or to conform, respectively, with a predetermined data packet signal standard.", "Following synchronization, test and responsive data packet signals can be exchanged between the tester and DUTs.", "In accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the presently claimed invention, a method of facilitating testing of multiple time-division-duplex (TDD) data packet signal transceivers includes: providing a plurality of outgoing data packet signals for a plurality of TDD data packet signal transceivers, wherein each one of said plurality of outgoing data packet signals corresponds to a common data packet signal comprising at least one of a null data packet signal, and a TDD data packet signal with a data packet signal characteristic;", "when said common data packet signal comprises a null data packet signal, continuing to provide said plurality of outgoing data packet signals for a predetermined time interval;", "and when said common data packet signal comprises a TDD data packet signal, responding to successful and unsuccessful receptions of respective ones of a plurality of responsive signals from said plurality of TDD data packet signal transceivers by providing one or more of said plurality of outgoing data packet signals, wherein each one of said plurality of responsive signals is indicative of a successful reception of a valid data packet by a corresponding one of said plurality of TDD data packet signal transceivers, and following a successful reception of one of said plurality of responsive signals from a corresponding one of said plurality of TDD data packet signal transceivers, a corresponding one of said plurality of outgoing data packet signals is provided with said data packet signal characteristic such that said corresponding one of said plurality of outgoing data packet signals fails to conform with a predetermined data packet signal standard, and following an unsuccessful reception of one of said plurality of responsive signals from a corresponding one of said plurality of TDD data packet signal transceivers, a corresponding one of said plurality of outgoing data packet signals is provided with said data packet signal characteristic such that said corresponding one of said plurality of outgoing data packet signals conforms with said predetermined data packet signal standard.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 depicts a conventional test environment for testing multiple DUTs in parallel.", "FIG. 2 depicts a testing environment for testing multiple DUTs in parallel in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the presently claimed invention.", "FIG. 3 depicts a testing environment for testing multiple DUTs in parallel in accordance with another exemplary embodiment of the presently claimed invention.", "FIG. 4 depicts a testing environment for testing multiple DUTs in parallel in accordance with another exemplary embodiment of the presently claimed invention.", "FIG. 5 depicts a testing environment for testing multiple DUTs in parallel in accordance with another exemplary embodiment of the presently claimed invention.", "FIG. 6 depicts an exemplary embodiment of the signal characteristic control circuitry of FIGS. 4 and 5 .", "FIG. 7 depicts another exemplary embodiment of the signal characteristic control circuitry of FIGS. 4 and 5 .", "FIG. 8 depicts another exemplary embodiment of the signal characteristic control circuitry of FIGS. 4 and 5 .", "FIG. 9 depicts circuitry for conveying test signals to and confirmation signals from the DUTs in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the presently claimed invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION The following detailed description is of example embodiments of the presently claimed invention with references to the accompanying drawings.", "Such description is intended to be illustrative and not limiting with respect to the scope of the present invention.", "Such embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable one of ordinary skill in the art to practice the subject invention, and it will be understood that other embodiments may be practiced with some variations without departing from the spirit or scope of the subject invention.", "Throughout the present disclosure, absent a clear indication to the contrary from the context, it will be understood that individual circuit elements as described may be singular or plural in number.", "For example, the terms “circuit”", "and “circuitry”", "may include either a single component or a plurality of components, which are either active and/or passive and are connected or otherwise coupled together (e.g., as one or more integrated circuit chips) to provide the described function.", "Additionally, the term “signal”", "may refer to one or more currents, one or more voltages, or a data signal.", "Within the drawings, like or related elements will have like or related alpha, numeric or alphanumeric designators.", "Further, while the present invention has been discussed in the context of implementations using discrete electronic circuitry (preferably in the form of one or more integrated circuit chips), the functions of any part of such circuitry may alternatively be implemented using one or more appropriately programmed processors, depending upon the signal frequencies or data rates to be processed.", "Moreover, to the extent that the figures illustrate diagrams of the functional blocks of various embodiments, the functional blocks are not necessarily indicative of the division between hardware circuitry.", "In accordance with exemplary embodiments of the presently claimed invention, a method is provided for testing TDD devices simultaneously while avoiding improper tester-DUT synchronization.", "In one exemplary embodiment, using a test system, or tester, capable of replicating VSG signals simultaneously for sending to multiple TDD devices, and a demultiplexing subsystem for receiving response signals from the multiple TDD devices using a single VSA, the VSG sends sets of null data packets to the multiple TDD devices until a predetermined synchronization time interval has elapsed.", "This synchronization time interval is chosen to allow properly operating TDD devices to become ready for testing.", "Once this synchronization time interval has elapsed, the tester can begin sending sets of predefined test data packets to the devices and begin receiving response data packets from the devices, or, alternatively, the TDD devices can begin sending sets of predefined test data packets to the tester and receiving response data packets from the tester.", "In another exemplary embodiment, the tester replicates the VSG signal for simultaneous transmission to multiple TDD devices and imparts signal characteristic control such that individual data packet signals can be corrupted so as to make them non-receivable by their corresponding TDD devices, e.g., by reducing the power level of a replicated VSG signal below a threshold level.", "Also included is a multiplexing subsystem for receiving the response signals from the multiple TDD devices for conveyance to the VSA of the tester, and for detecting reception of null data packets from the devices and communicating with the signal characteristic control subsystem for controlling the power levels of the respective replicated VSG signals.", "As discussed in more detail below, the tester sends a set of replicated predefined synchronization data packets to the multiple TDD devices.", "Those devices ready to receive such data packets respond by returning null data packets.", "The tester detects which devices have returned such null data packets and communicates the status of returned and non-returned null data packets to the signal characteristic control subsystem.", "As a result, subsequent sets of the predefined synchronization data packets are sent to the TDD devices as before, but those synchronization data packets being sent to the TDD devices that have identified their readiness for testing by returning a null data packet are corrupted (e.g., by markedly reducing signal power following initiation of the data packet transmission and prior to termination of data packet transmission).", "Meanwhile, the replicated data packets sent to those TDD devices that had not yet identified their readiness for testing by sending a null data packet are transmitted in accordance with the applicable signal standard, i.e., they are not corrupted.", "As a result, those TDD devices that are not yet ready for testing continue to receive synchronization data packets until they do indicate readiness for testing, and, therefore, will not improperly synchronize to responsive null data packets generated by another DUT indicating its readiness for testing, since the DUTs that are ready for testing are receiving corrupted data packets and will, therefore, produce no responsive null data packets.", "Once all DUTs have indicated their readiness for testing by having replied with a null data packet, synchronization is complete and the tester may now begin sending predefined test data packets to and receiving responsive data packets from the DUTs, or, alternatively, the DUTs can begin sending sets of predefined test data packets to and receiving response data packets from the tester.", "Exemplary embodiments of the presented claimed invention are discussed below in the context of a testing environment in which a single tester is used for testing multiple devices under test (DUTs).", "In the particular examples discussed, the testing environment includes three DUTs.", "However, it should be readily understood that the testing of three DUTs is merely exemplary and that the presently claimed invention can be practiced for any multiple (i.e., two or more) of DUTs.", "Referring to FIG. 1 , a conventional testing environment includes a test system, or “tester”, 100 for testing multiple DUTs 200 , e.g., three DUTs 200 a , 200 b , 200 c .", "The tester 100 includes a VSG 102 and VSA 104 for providing a VSG test signal 101 and receiving a multiplexed DUT signal 115 , respectively.", "Also included is signal routing or replication circuitry 112 (e.g., a power splitter) for replicating the VSG signal 101 to provide multiple replicated VSG signals 113 a , 113 b , 113 c for the DUTs 200 .", "The responsive signals 201 a , 201 b , 201 c from the DUTs 200 are conveyed to the VSA 104 via additional signal routing circuitry 114 , e.g., a multiplexor, which can be controlled by one or more control signals (not shown) provided by the tester 100 or an external controller (not shown).", "As will be readily appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, and as discussed in more detail below, the respective signal paths for the replicated VSG signals 113 a , 113 b , 113 c and responsive DUT signals 201 a , 201 b , 201 c are shared, e.g., a single wired signal path is used to convey a test signal 113 a / 113 b / 113 c to a DUT 200 a / 200 b / 200 c and also convey the DUT signals 201 a / 201 b / 201 c. In accordance with well known principles, the testing system begins transmitting the replicated VSG signals 113 a , 113 b , 113 c and, at various subsequent points in time, the various DUTs 200 a , 200 b , 200 c become ready for testing and indicate such readiness by responding with a null data packet.", "In this example, the first DUT 200 a is the first one to become ready 203 a for testing, followed soon thereafter by the second DUT 200 b becoming ready for testing 203 b .", "Accordingly, after a first time slot 205 a the first 200 a and second 200 b DUTs transmit responsive null data packets, thereby indicating their respective states of readiness for testing.", "However, when the third DUT 200 c is finally ready for testing 203 c , the first signal it sees is an attenuated version of one of the response null data packets from one of the other DUTs 200 a , 200 b (e.g., due to some form of signal leakage).", "However, since the third DUT 200 c is expecting to receive a TDD data packet, but instead receives an attenuated null data packet, its responsive signal 201 c does not indicate readiness by the third DUT 200 c for testing.", "Hence, while the other DUTs 200 a , 200 b have properly synchronized with the tester 100 and are properly responding to TDD data packets 113 a , 113 b with responsive null data packets 201 a, 201 b , the third DUT 200 c , though ready for testing, is improperly synchronized with a leaked null data packet signal instead of its TDD data packet signal 113 c. Referring to FIG. 2 , in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the presently claimed invention, VSG 102 provides a VSG signal 101 containing sets of null data packets during a predetermined synchronization time interval 207 a .", "During this time interval 207 a , the DUTs 200 a , 200 b , 200 c receive a number of the replicated null data packets 113 a , 113 b , 113 c and become ready for testing 203 a , 203 b , 203 c .", "Though now ready for testing, the null data packets 113 a , 113 b , 113 c from the tester 100 evoke no responses 201 a , 201 b , 201 c from the DUTs 200 a , 200 b , 200 c .", "Following this time interval 207 a , the tester 100 can begin sending predefined test data packets during a receive test interval 209 r , in response to which the DUTs 200 a , 200 b , 200 c return null data packet signals 201 a , 201 b , 201 c .", "Alternatively, the DUTs 200 a , 200 b , 200 c can begin sending sets of test data packets to the tester 100 and receive responsive data packets from the tester 100 in return (not shown).", "Referring to FIG. 3 , in accordance with another exemplary embodiment, following the synchronization time interval 207 a , the tester 100 can perform a transmit test 209 t in which the replicated VSG signals 113 a , 113 b , 113 c contain TDD data packets, in response to which the DUTs 200 a , 200 b , 200 c return duplicates of such data packets, i.e., loop-back data packets.", "Referring to FIG. 4 , in accordance with another exemplary embodiment, the signal routing circuitry 124 in the receive path for the VSA 104 of the tester 100 includes null signal detection circuitry (e.g., in addition to the multiplexing circuitry) which detects the presence of null data packets in the return signals 201 a , 201 b , 201 c from the DUTs 200 a , 200 b , 200 c .", "When a null data packet is detected, one or more control signals 125 to the signal characteristic control circuitry 122 in the transmit path (discussed in more detail below) cause such circuitry 122 to alter one or more signal characteristics of the replicated VSG signals 123 a , 123 b , 123 c .", "For example, as shown for time interval 211 , two of the DUTs 200 a , 200 b have become ready for testing 203 a , 203 b and respond by transmitting null data packets as part of their return signals 201 a , 201 b .", "These null data packets are detected by the null detection circuitry within the return signal routing circuitry 124 and the one or more control signals 125 cause the signal characteristic control circuitry 122 to corrupt the corresponding replicated VSG control signals 123 a , 123 b , e.g., by reducing signal power during the data packet interval.", "Meanwhile, the third DUT 200 c , now ready for testing 203 c , initially receives a null data packet signal from one of the other DUTs 203 a , 203 b that had been transmitted to indicate its readiness for testing.", "However, since the other DUTS 203 a , 203 b are no longer receiving valid, e.g., non-corrupted, data packet signals, they no longer transmit null data packets in return.", "As a result, the third DUT 200 c now begins receiving valid test data packets 123 c and responds accordingly with null data packets 201 c .", "Following this time interval 211 , the tester can then perform a receive test 213 r in which predefined test data packets 123 a , 123 b , 123 c can be transmitted for reception by the DUTs 200 , in response to which the DUTs 200 transmit null data packet signals 201 , 201 b , 201 c. Referring to FIG. 5 , in accordance with another exemplary embodiment, following the time interval 211 in which synchronization occurs, the tester 100 can perform a transmit test 213 t in which replicated test data packets 123 a , 123 b , 123 c can be transmitted, duplicated within the DUTs 200 a , 200 b , 200 c and returned as their responsive signals 201 a , 201 b , 201 c , i.e., as loop-back data packet signals.", "Referring to FIG. 6 , in accordance with an exemplary embodiment, corruption of the replicated data packet signal 113 can be achieved by switching open the signal path using a switch 122 a in accordance with a control signal 125 to significantly reduce the signal power of the replicated data packet signal 123 .", "Referring to FIG. 7 , in accordance with another exemplary embodiment, corruption of the data packet signal 113 can be achieved using a programmable signal attenuator 122 b .", "In accordance with the control signal 125 , signal attenuation can be increased such that the signal power of the replicated data packet signal 123 is reduced below a threshold value necessary for the signal to be deemed to be in conformance with the applicable signal standard.", "Referring to FIG. 8 , in accordance with another exemplary embodiment, instead of switching 122 a or attenuation 122 b circuitry, signal mixing circuitry 122 c can be used.", "Corruption of the data packet signal 113 is achieved by altering the frequency of the replicated data packet signal 123 by mixing it with another radio frequency (RF) signal 131 from a local RF signal source 130 controlled by a control signal 125 .", "Hence, it can be seen that signal corruption can be achieved by altering virtually any data packet signal characteristic, including signal power and signal frequency.", "Referring to FIG. 9 , in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the presently claimed invention, the wired signal paths for testing the DUTs 200 are typically in the form single wired connection for each DUT 200 a , 200 b , 200 c , as noted above.", "For example, for the first DUT 200 a , the test data packet signal 123 a 2 and return null data packet signal 201 a 1 are conveyed via a shared, or common, wired signal path 202 a .", "(Similarly, the test data packet signals 123 b 2 , 123 c 2 to and responsive null data packet signals 201 b 1 , 201 c 1 from the remaining DUTs 200 b , 200 c are conveyed via respective shared wire signal paths 202 b , 202 c .) Each of the replicated VSG signals 123 a 1 , 123 b 1 , 123 c 1 from the data corruption circuitry 122 is conveyed via a respective wired signal path 142 a , 142 b , 142 c to additional signal routing circuitry 140 (discussed in more detail below) to be conveyed over the wired DUT signal paths 202 a , 202 b , 202 c as the respective replicated VGA signals 123 a 2 , 123 b 2 , 123 c 2 .", "The responsive null data packet signals 201 a 1 , 201 b 1 , 201 c 1 are conveyed in return via the wired DUT signal paths 202 a , 202 b , 202 c to the routing circuitry 140 for conveyance via a respective output signal path 144 a , 144 b , 144 c to the null detection and multiplexing circuitry 124 .", "The additional signal routing circuitry 140 can be implemented in a variety of forms, in accordance with techniques well known in the art.", "For example, such routing circuitry 140 can be implemented as a 1:2 signal divider, or splitter, in which case the responsive null data packet signals 201 a 1 , 201 b 1 , 201 c 1 are divided and provided via the corresponding output signal path 144 a , 144 b , 144 c as lower powered versions 201 a 2 , 201 b 2 , 201 c 2 of the original null data packet signals.", "Alternatively, such routing circuitry 140 can be implemented as a signal coupler providing a coupled version of the responsive null data packet signals 201 a 1 , 201 b 1 , 201 c 1 at the corresponding output signal port 144 a , 144 b , 144 c .", "Further alternatively, such routing circuitry 140 can be implemented as a signal switch controlled in accordance with a control signal (not shown) from the tester 100 or an external controller (not shown) such that, during transmission of the replicated VSG test signals 123 a 1 , 123 b 1 , 123 c 1 , corresponding signal paths 142 a , 142 b , 142 c and 202 a , 202 b , 202 c are connected.", "Similarly, during the time intervals in which the DUTs 200 are expected to respond, corresponding signal paths 202 a , 202 b , 202 c and 144 a , 144 b , 144 c are connected.", "Based upon the discussion above, it can be seen that when simultaneously testing TDD devices, there is a possibility that one or more TDD devices will start at such time relative to the other TDD devices as to improperly synchronize to another TDD device response data packet rather than a tester test data packet.", "Typically, multiple DUTs will not become synchronized at the same time once a test process begins.", "Therefore, when the replicated test data packets are transmitted, the DUTs ready for testing will respond with null data packet signals, while those that are not yet ready for testing will not respond until they become ready.", "Transmitting test data packets before a DUT is ready may be done during bit error ratio (BER) testing where one need only test a minimum number of bits, in which case, sending more data packets to some DUTs than others is not critical so long as the DUT receiving the smallest number of bits receives the minimum number of bits required for test purposes.", "However, it is possible that a DUT becomes ready after the tester has sent its set of data packet signals, in which case, instead of receiving a tester data packet, the now-ready DUT receives leaked null data packet signal sent by another DUT.", "Meanwhile, the tester will have no way of knowing that this has occurred.", "Hence, as the tester continues to send its predefined test data packets to the multiple DUTs, the properly synchronized DUTs will receive those test data packets, while those that have not been properly synchronized will not.", "With reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 , in accordance with these exemplary embodiments, the tester sends null data packets at the beginning of the test sequence.", "The DUTs will not respond to those null data packets.", "The tester continues to send null data packets until the synchronization time interval has elapsed.", "This interval is chosen such that properly operating DUTs will be ready before it elapses.", "During that time interval, since the tester is sending null data packets, the DUTs are sending no responses.", "Therefore, no leaked response data packets can cause another DUT to erroneously synchronize to them.", "With reference to FIGS. 4 and 5 , in accordance with these other exemplary embodiments, a shorter test time can be achieved because the synchronization time period is dynamic rather than static, or fixed.", "As discussed above, as the tester transmits replicated test data packets, the DUTs that become ready for testing respond by transmitting null data packet signals.", "These responsive null data packet signals are detected and the corresponding DUTs are identified, following which, subsequent transmissions of the corresponding replicated test data packet signals will be altered, e.g., corrupted, so as to not be in conformance with the applicable signal standard.", "The DUTs receiving such corrupted signals will no longer send responsive null data packet signals thereby preventing an erroneous synchronization of a DUT not yet ready for testing to a responsive null data packet signal instead of a replicated VSG signal.", "Various other modifications and alterations in the structure and method of operation of this invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and the spirit of the invention.", "Although the invention has been described in connection with specific preferred embodiments, it should be understood that the invention as claimed should not be unduly limited to such specific embodiments.", "It is intended that the following claims define the scope of the present invention and that structures and methods within the scope of these claims and their equivalents be covered thereby." ]

[ "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS The present application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.", "No. 124,570, filed Feb. 25, 1980, and now abandoned, which in turn is a continuation of application Ser.", "No. 12,723, filed Feb. 16, 1979 and now abandoned.", "Applicants claim piority under 35 USC 119 for application No. P 28 06 497.3, filed Feb. 16, 1978 in the Patent Office of the Federal Republic of Germany.", "A copy of the priority document is in the file of application Ser.", "No. 12,723, filed Feb. 16, 1979.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a base coat where the last and cover layer is a clear lacquer which contains a modified polyester resin as the essential film-forming agent, prepared by ensuing baking, and it further relates to a coating process for making such an enamel multi-coat.", "The last layer of the base coat to be covered by the clear-lacquer coat contains pigments and/or metal pigments.", "The clear-lacquer coating is meant to protect the overall enamel against mechanical, chemical and weather-induced stresses, and furthermore, it is meant to contribute to reinforcing esthetic effects, for instance in the case of metal-effect or luster enamel.", "Base coats built up from at least one layer of lacquers are used in high-grade baking enamels, for instance in motor vehicle enameling.", "The clear lacquer coating forming the last layer of the base coat as a rule will be baked.", "It is obtained from clear lacquers containing alkyd resins from phthalic acids and polyols modified with various fatty acids or other monocarboxylic acids as film-forming agents, and aminoplast resins.", "The state of the art of articles having a multilayer coating and processes for producing the same may be ascertained by reference to U.S. Pat. No. 3,639,147 of Benefiel et al which issued Feb. 1, 1972, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein.", "According to Benefiel et al, an article having a substrate and a multilayer coating adhered thereto is formed from a composition comprising: A. a dried nonaqueous base film produced from a composition comprising: 1.", "a first film-forming material selected from the group consisting of alkyd resins, polyester resins, acrylic resins, and polyurethane resins, wherein said first film-forming material contains from about 2 to about 50 weight percent, based on the film-forming solids, of a cellulose ester, 2.", "uniformly dispersed pigments, and 3.", "volatile organic solvents for said first film-forming material, and B. a baked transparent coating composition deposited on said base film in a relationship to maintain substantially no intermixing and no intersolution of said base film and said transparent coating composition, said transparent coating composition comprising: 1.", "a second film-forming material selected from the group consisting of alkyd resins, polyester resins, acrylic resins and polyurethane resins, and 2.", "volatile organic solvents for said second film-forming material.", "In the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 3,639,147, a clear coat is applied to a basecoat containing metal pigments.", "Two different proposals are made for the composition of the clear coat.", "One refers to the use of acrylate resins in combination with aminoplast resins as binder (Column 3).", "The second proposal relates to alkyd resins as binders, namely those consisting of polybasic acids and polyols and which, moreover, are modified with fatty acids (Column 4 to Column 5, line 30).", "The polyester resins of the present application differ from the polyester resins of U.S. Pat. No. 3,639,147 in that the polyester resins may not have any aromatic groups within the molecular structure.", "Only when this happens, will there be no cracking of the clear coat in the case of solar radiation.", "The present invention can additionally contain acrylate resins, but these resins, too, whould not have aromatic groups in their structure.", "When there are any aromatic groups in the molecule the crack resistance of the coating is lost.", "The more aromatic groups the molecule contains, the more the crack resistance worsens.", "The upper limit, whereby aromatic groups should not be contained in the molecule of the acrylate resin amounts to about 15%.", "Alkyd resins containing essentially phthalic acids as the esterification component and modified with saturated and/or unsaturated monocarboxylic acids are known together with aminoplast resins as the binder component in coating compositions which offer high-grade coatings.", "The aminoplast resins are preferably used in the form of melamine formaldehyde resins and the coating compositions are in the form of solutions in organic solvents.", "In many cases, the coating compositions also contain levelling agents, surfactants or reaction catalysts.", "Other clear lacquers besides the alkyd resins also contain poly(meth)acrylates or their copolymers.", "Occasionally the alkyd resins may also be replaced entirely by such poly(meth)acrylates or copolymers.", "They are obtained by copolymerizing (meth)acrylic acid esters of monovalent alcohols with (meth)acrylic acid esters containing functional hydroxyl groups.", "They may also contain other comonomers such as styrene, vinyl toluol, vinyl ester and also small amounts of monomers containing carboxyl groups polymerized therein.", "These acrylate resins also are used in combination with aminoplast resins in organic solvents.", "These known clear lacquers are characterized by good hardness, elasticity and resistance to chemical corrosion.", "When used as covering lacquers in enamel multi-coats in which the last layer to be covered contains metal pigments, that is, for metallic looking enamels, the known clear lacquers following exposure to weather and ultra-violet illumination--as is the case in sunny climates--will crack.", "Where clear lacquers made of acrylate resins are concerned, they are furthermore difficult to apply and clear coatings made of them following exposure to weather or ultraviolet light also tend to become matte, whereby the metallic effect becomes unsightly.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has an an object the creation of polyester resins and correspondingly also coating compositions which can be used as the clear lacquer for enamel multiple coats and which are free from those drawbacks of the prior art and thereby will expand the applicability of enamel multicoats with clear lacquer coatings.", "The object of the present invention was surprisingly achieved by means of an enamel multicoat where the last layer is a clear lacquer coating containing as the essential film-forming agent a polyester resin besides any aminoplast resins and prepared by ensuing baking, which is characterized in that the polyester resin of the clear lacquer is a cross-linking resin containing hydroxyl groups obtained by esterifying aliphatic and/or cycloaliphatic polycarboxylic acids with aliphatic and/or cycloaliphatic polyols.", "The term "polyester resins"", "in the sense of the present invention comprises saturated polyester resins, alkyd resins and polyester resins containing urethane groups.", "This includes polyester resins containing hydroxyl groups from polycarboxylic acids and polyols.", "They may be additionally modified by saturated and/or unsaturated monocarboxylic acids and/or aromatic monocarboxylic acids.", "In the polyester resin groups containing urethane groups or in the alkyd resins, part of the polycarboxylic acids is replaced by polyisocyanates.", "For the sake of simplicity therefore all the above cited resins will be termed as "polyester resins"", "below.", "In another embodiment the clear lacquer contains an acrylate resin containing hydroxyl groups as a further film forming agent.", "As regards an advantageous embodiment, the clear lacquer contains, for 10 to 40% by weight of aminoplast resin, up to 60 to 90% by weight of a mixture of 5 to 100% by weight of a polyester resin containing hydroxyl groups and from 0 to 95% by weight of an acrylate resin containing hydroxyl groups, the sums of these percentages by weight adding up to 100%.", "Another object of the present invention furthermore is that the outer layer of the enamel multicoats covered by the clear lacquer coating contains pigments and/or metal pigments.", "The base coat is applied on a substrate.", "The substrates consist of different materials, e.g., of metal, plastic or glass.", "Preferred substrates are car body sheets.", "The substrates may be untreated or degreased metals.", "The substrates may also be pretreated by phosphatizing or chromatizing.", "Preferred substrates may also be sheets coated with a primer, putty, filler, in one or more layers.", "It is very advantageous to use such sheets coated with a filler possessing an electro-coat layer as it is known from car bodies.", "By the "pigments"", "of the present invention is meant organic and inorganic coloring pigments, such as titanium dioxide, iron oxide, chrome yellow, chrome green, cadmium pigments, phthalo cyanine blue, phthalo cyanine green, further silica, kaolin, talcum, barium sulphates, chalk, etc.", "By the "metal pigments"", "of the present invention is meant aluminum, copper or other metals in the form of powder or flakes.", "It was found that the drawbacks of the prior art do not arise in the presence of weathering if there are no aromatic groups within the lattice structure of the polyester.", "Even though the results are degraded by the content in aromatic groups, slight amounts of aromatic polycarboxylic acids may be used simultaneously.", "However, their proportion should not exceed 15% by weight of the total amount of polycarboxylic acid.", "Aromatic monocarboxylic acids such as benzoic acid, which do not crosslink during the polyesterification, do not significantly affect the weathering parameters.", "Still another object of the present invention furthermore is the process for preparing enamel multicoats covered by a clear coating containing a polyester resin as the essential film forming agent besides any aminoplast resins, this clear lacquer coating being deposited on the last layer of the enamel which contains pigments and/or metal pigments, such deposition being followed by baking, the process being characterized in that the polyester resin of the clear lacquer is a crosslinking resin containing hydroxyl groups and obtained by esterifying aliphatic and/or cycloaliphatic polycarboxylic acids with aliphatic and/or cycloaliphatic polyols.", "Yet another object of the present invention is the use of a clear lacquer containing a crosslinking polyester resin as the film-forming agent besides any aminoplast resins, this polyester resin containing hydroxyl groups and being obtained by esterifying aliphatic and/or cycloaliphatic polycarboxylic acids with aliphatic and/or cycloaliphatic polyols, this clear lacquer being used as a baking covering lacquer to achieve a clear lacquer coating transparent to ultraviolet light on an enamel multicoat of which the last layer contains pigments and/or metal pigments.", "The systems to be protected by the clear lacquer are characterized with respect to the prior art systems by improved resistance to cracking following weathering or exposure to sunlight or ultraviolet light in various weathering tests.", "The polyester resins contained in the clear lacquers of the present invention as a rule are used together with aminoplast resins.", "It is furthermore advantageous in some applications to also use jointly acrylate resins containing hydroxyl groups, in which cases it is necessary that aromatic groups also be absent in these copolymers or be present only in slight amounts.", "Thus the proportion of monomers which are polymerized-in and which hold aromatic groups should not exceed 15% by weight.", "In some instances, however, it is possible and in fact appropriate to make use of the polyester resins also as physically drying binders in the clear lacquer.", "The clear lacquers of the present invention are used in the form of solutions or dispersions in organic solvents.", "They permit a wide field of application.", "Even though the use of this clear lacquer in the form of solutions or dispersions in organic solvents is preferred and as a rule will be the one used, it is nevertheless possible to neutralize the polyester resins for a sufficiently high acid number with alkalies, ammonia and/or organic amines or quaternary ammonium bases and to use them as water dilutable coating compositions or clear lacquer.", "It was surprising and furthermore unforeseeable that the crosslinking polyester resins containing hydroxyl groups and contained in these clear lacquers and obtained by esterifying aliphatic and/or cycloaliphatic polycarboxylic acids with aliphatic and/or cycloaliphatic polyols result in clear lacquers so outstanding in their performance as the final coating of an enamel multicoat that they will evidence practically no cracks or premature matting under weathering or following exposure to sunlight or ultraviolet light in various weathering tests.", "Clear lacquers of the present invention can easily be worked and meet all the other technological properties required of enamel multicoats completely.", "The replacement of the aromatic groups by aliphatic and/or cycloaliphatic groups in the polyester resin is decisive for the outstandingly good results and the complete lack of crack formation.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The polyester resins contained in the clear lacquer of the present invention are esterification products of polycarboxylic acids with polyols and always contain still unesterified carboxyl groups which endow an acid character to the resin, and further still contain free hydroxyl groups which will ensure crosslinking during baking.", "The degree of acidity of such resins is expressed by the acid number, the magnitude of which depends on the conditions of esterification.", "The content in free hydroxyl groups is determined by the hydroxyl number.", "The hydroxyl number is defined by the amount in milligram of KOH required to neutralize the amount of acetic acid consumed by 1 g of resin during acetylation.", "The suitable polyester resins or alkyd resins have acid numbers between 0 and 150 and a hydroxy number between 20 and 300.", "The following is to be noted with respect to the individual components of synthesis: Polycarboxylic acids in the sense of the present invention are aliphatic and/or cycloaliphatic polycarboxylic acids.", "Suitable aliphatic polycarboxylic acids for instance are succinic acid, adipic acid and sebacic acid.", "Suitable cycloaliphatic polycarboxylic acids are in particular those of the general formula: ##STR1## where R represents a non-substituted residue or an alkylene residue with 1 to 4 C atoms substituted by at least one --COOR 3 residue and/or a methyl group, or residues of the general formula: ##STR2## where R 1 =H or --COOR 3 or CH 3 --;", "R 2 =H or CH 3 --;", "R 3 =H or an alkyl residue with 1 to 4 C atoms or a hydroxyalkyl residue with 1 to 4 C atoms;", "R 4 =H or --COOR 3 ;", "n=0, 1 or 2.", "Among the polycarboxylic acids belonging to the general formula and offering especially good results are for instance cyclohexane-1,2-dicarboxylic acid, cyclohexane-1,3-dicarboxylic acid, cyclohexane-1,4-dicarboxylic acid, tricyclodecane-dicarboxylic acid, endomethylenehexahydrophthalic acid, endoethylenehexahydrophthalic acid, 4-methylhexahydrophthalic acid, camphoric acid, cyclohexanetetracarboxylic acid and cyclobutanetetracarboxylic acid.", "In addition to the polycarboxylic acids being suitable for esterification with the polyols, their monovalent or polyvalent esters with aliphatic alcohols having 1 to 4 C atoms or hydroxyalcohols having 1 to 4 C atoms also are appropriate for such purposes.", "Anhydrides also may be used so long as the polycarboxylic acids are capable of forming them.", "The polyester resins used in the clear lacquers of the present invention may be modified by incorporating saturated and/or unsaturated monocarboxylic acids, for instance fatty acids derived from natural oils and fats, or synthetic fatty acids.", "However, aromatic monocarboxylic acids such as benzoic acid also may be esterified concurrently.", "In this manner a plurality of possible alkyl resins may be prepared.", "For the purposes of the present invention, their acid numbers and hydroxy numbers should respectively be between 0 and 150 and 20 and 300.", "Aliphatic and/or cycloaliphatic polyols are used for esterifying the polycarboxylic acids.", "Illustratively suitable substances are trimethylolethane, trimethylolpropane, glycerin, pentaerythrite, further ethylene glycol, propylene glycol, hexanediol-1,6, neopentyl glycol, diethylene glycol, 1,3-dimethylolcyclohexane, 8- or 9-hydroxy-tricyclo (5,2,1,0 2 [.", "].6)decane-3,4-epoxy (Union Carbide USA Polycyclol 1222).", "It is furthermore advantageous in this respect to make use of polyols of the general formula: ##STR3## where X 1 =X 2 =H or CH 3 --;", "X 3 =OH-- or ##STR4## n=0 or 1.", "Especially good results are achieved with such polyalcohols of this general formula which are related to 1,4-dimethylolcyclohexane and to 4,4-dihydroxydicyclohexyl propane.", "The above cited alkyd resins or polyester resins may furthermore be so modified that the aliphatic and/or cycloaliphatic polycarboxylic acids are partly replaced by cycloaliphatic polyisocyanates such as isophoronediisocyanate or by aliphatic polyisocyanates such as hexamethylene diisocyanate.", "The products obtained when using polyisocyanates are polyester or alkyd resins containing urethane groups which are lumped into the expression "polyester resins"", "in the sense of the present invention.", "The polyester resins are prepared by known methods.", "They are described and summarized in these reference works: (1) Temple, C. Patton, Alkyd Resin Technology Interscience Publishers, John Wiley &", "Sons New York and London, 1962.", "(2) Dr. Johannes Scheiber, Chemie und Technologie der kuenstlichen Harze, Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Stuttgart, 1943.", "(3) Hans Wagner and Hans Friedrich Sarx, Lackkunstharze, 4th ed.", ", Karl Hanser Verlag, Munich, 1959.", "(4) Ullmanns Enzyklopaedie der technischen Chemie, volume 14, pp. 80-106, 1963.", "The solutions of the polyester resins in organic solvents can be used as clear lacquers and provide clear, transparent coatings.", "It is however advantageous and proposed as such to use a clear lacquers those solutions in which the polyester resins are combined with an aminoplast resin.", "Such a combination allows adjusting at will many surface properties such as the hardness and elasticity of the coating.", "Applicable aminoplast resins are known hardening condensation products as are obtained in known manner by reacting formaldehyde with urea or melamine.", "These are further ordinarily etherified, in part or in whole, with alkanols comprising from 1 to 6 C atoms.", "Such condensates are described for instance in Ullmanns Enzyklopaedie der technischen Chemie, 3rd vol.", ", pp. 475-496 (1953) and in Houben-Weyl, Methoden der organischen Chemie, vol.", "14/2, pp. 319-388 (1963).", "In another advantageous embodiment, the clear lacquer besides the polyester resin and any aminoplast resin may further contain a crosslinking acrylate resin itself containing hydroxyl groups.", "This results in good surface properties in coatings made from such clear lacquers.", "Hereunder the term of crosslinking acrylate resins containing hydroxyl groups will mean known hardening copolymers made from esters of acrylic and/or methacrylic acids with monovalent alcohols with such esters of acrylic and/or methacrylic acids still containing functional hydroxyl groups and possibly also comprising other comonomers such as styrene, vinyltoluol, vinylester and also small amounts of monomers containing carboxyl groups which are polymerized-in, and as are obtained by known processes.", "Such copolymers for instance are described in J. Scheiber, Chemie und Technologie der kuenstlichen Harze, vol.", "1, pp. 652-709 L (1961).", "The clear lacquers used in conformity with the present invention furthermore may contain conventional additives in the form of viscosity or foam controlling substances.", "The clear lacquers used in conformity with the present invention result in coatings with improved resistance to weathering.", "This protection offered by the clear lacquer may be enhanced by adding ultraviolet absorbers.", "Known ultraviolet absorbers are derivatives from the group of benzotriazoles, oxamides, benzophenones and diphenylacrylonitrile acid esters.", "The processing solutions are clear lacquers resulting in clear and transparent films which become hard elastic films following baking at temperatures between 80° and 200° C. for a time between 5 and 60 minutes, these films being endowed with a high resistance to chemical corrosion and to the effects of sunlight or ultraviolet radiation.", "After 2,500 hours in a Weather-O-meter test, using a carbon-arc lamp, no crack formation was observed, whereas the known lacquers, of which the polyester resins are high in aromatic constituents, already crack after 650 hours.", "The clear lacquer is applied conventionally with a spray gun or by pouring, dipping or rolling.", "The dry-film thicknesses following hardening or baking as a rule will be between 5 and 50 microns.", "The clear lacquers used in conformity with the present invention are preferred as the final coat in enamel multicoats of which the last layer, which is to be covered by the clear lacquer, contains pigments or metal pigments.", "If metal pigments are present, the enamel multicoat assumes the appearance of metallic effects or lusters.", "If, for instance, it is desired to achieve a metal-luster enamel on a motor vehicle, the body as a rule is first immersed in an electrocoating bath and is coated anodically or cathodically.", "Following baking and possibly after grinding or sanding of this layer, a filler is deposited which following baking forms the substrate or the base for the enameling with the metal-luster effect.", "The base lacquer containing metal pigments and, if necessary to obtain a desired color tone, organic or inorganic coloring pigments or dyestuffs are deposited on the substrate.", "Aluminum, copper or other metals may be used in the form of powders or flakes as the metal pigments.", "The coloration of the various color tones is achieved by organic and/or inorganic pigments and/or soluble dyestuffs.", "The film-forming materials may be used provided they have artificial adhesion to the layer below them and to the clear lacquer layer above them.", "Each layer of the enamel multicoat is dried individually or baked individually.", "It is advantageous, however, to apply the clear lacquer wet-on-wet to the base lacquer of this base layer.", "Then both lacquer layers are baked together at a temperature between 80° and 200° C. from 5 to 30 minutes.", "Such an enamel multicoat offers an extraordinarily hard and scratch-resistant surface and furthermore is elastic.", "The surface is very glossy and retains this gloss even after appreciable time.", "The films are resistant to chemicals.", "The base lacquer film covered by the clear lacquer of the present invention offers improved resistance to atmospheric factors such as humidity, heat and ultraviolet light.", "Whereas a double layer metallic-luster material with a clear lacquer coating containing an alkyd resin on the bases of phthalic acid with aromatic groups cracks after 650 hours in the Weather-O-meter test, a double layer metal-luster material made according to the present invention remains free from defects even after 3,600 hours and more.", "A so-called uni-colored multicoat system can be obtained by a similar procedure except that the base lacquer contains pigments conventional in lacquer manufacture which are other than the metal pigments.", "SPECIFIC EXAMPLES The following specific examples explain the present invention without however implying restriction thereto.", "Percentages are by weight.", "Viscosities are in mPas (millipascals).", "EXAMPLE 1: COMPARISON (A) 1.0 mole of phthalic acid anhydride, 1.0 mole of pentaerythrite, 0.6 moles of coconut oil fatty acid, and 0.6 moles of 2-ethylhexanic acid are weighed and placed into a stirring vessel provided with heater, stirrer and distillation attachment, 20 g of xylol are added, and the mixture is raised to 180° C. within 1 hour while stirring.", "Within three hours the temperature is then raised to 220° C. and kept at 220° C. for 5 hours.", "The entire duration of reaction is under a nitrogen atmosphere.", "The water of reaction generated during the reaction is so distilled off that the xylol, which is used as a drag means, can always return to the reaction vessel.", "As soon as the reaction mixture reaches an acid number of 13 and a viscosity of 190 in mPas (measured as a 50% solution in xylol in the ICI plate-cone viscosimeter), it is cooled to below 140° C. and diluted further with xylol until a solution with a solid content of 60% is obtained.", "The hydroxyl number of the resin is 114.", "(B) 55 G from this 60% solution of resin in xylol are used and reacted with 30 g of a 55% solution of a commercial, reactive partially butanol etherified melamine-formaldehyde condensation resin in butanol-xylol (2:1), and 15 g of a mixture of solvents of ethylglycol acetate and butylglycol acetate (1:1) are added.", "The clear lacquer obtained after thorough stirring has a solid content of 49% and an efflux time of 60 seconds from an efflux cup with a nozzle 4 mm in diameter according to German Industrial Standard DIN 53 211.", "EXAMPLE 2 (A) Example 1 A is repeated except that 1.0 mole of hexahydrophthalic acid is used in lieu of 1.0 mole of phthalic acid anhydride.", "Observing a similar procedure, a polyester resin is obtained with an acid number of 14 and a viscosity of 140 mPas (measured as a 50% solution in xylol wth an ICI plate-cone viscosimeter), xylol being used to adjust the solid content to 60%.", "The OH number of the resin is 110.", "(B) Similarly to Example 1B, 55 g of the 60% solution of resin 2A are reacted with 30 g of the melamine-formaldehyde resin solution described in 1B and with 15 g of a mixture of solvents of ethylglycol acetate and butylglycol acetate (1:1).", "The clear lacquer obtained following thorough stirring has a solid content of 40% and an efflux time of 61 seconds from an efflux cup with a nozzle 4 mm in diameter per DIN 53 211.", "EXAMPLE 3 (A) Example 1A is repeated except that 1.0 mole of camphoric acid replaces the 1.0 mole of phthalic acid anhydride.", "A polyester resin with an acid number of 28 and a viscosity of 80 mPa (measured as a 50% solution in xylol in the ICI plate-cone viscosimeter) is obtained, which is adjusted by means of xylol to a solid content of 60%.", "The OH number of the resin is 120.", "(B) The resin solution from 3A is used as in Example 1B and a clear lacquer with a solid content of 40%, an efflux time of 35 seconds from an efflux cup with a nozzle 4 mm in diameter per DIN 53 211 is obtained.", "EXAMPLE 4 18.4 g of the 60% polyester resin solution prepared per Example 2A are reacted with 36.6 g of a 60% solution of a commercial thermosetting polymethacrylate-copolymer resin with less than 10% styrene polymerized-in and containing hydroxyl groups and with 30 g of the 55% solution of the melamine-formaldehyde resin described in Example 1B and mixed with 15 g of a mixture of solvents of ethylglycol acetate and butylglycol acetate (1:1) by thorough stirring.", "The clear lacquer so obtained has a solid content of 49% and an efflux time of 63 seconds in the efflux cup with a nozzle 4 mm in diameter per DIN 53 211.", "EXAMPLE 5 (A) A saturated polyester is prepared from: 1.0 mole of hexahydrophthalic acid anhydride, 0.25 moles of trimethylol propane, 0.6 moles of ethyl-butyl-propanediol-1,3, and 0.2 moles of 2,2-methylphenyl-propanediol-1,3.", "The materials are weighed-in at the cited amounts in a reaction vessel with filler tube, descending distillation condenser and stirrer.", "10 g of a higher-boiling fraction of aromatics (boiling point interval: 150°-170° C.) are added to the reaction mixture and the procedure of Example 1A is then followed, the temperature in the reaction vessel being so controlled that it does not exceed 105° C. at the top of the filler tube.", "A nitrogen atmosphere is used.", "After 10 hours the reaction mixture reaches an acid number of 11 and a viscosity of 320 mPas (measured as 60% solution in xylol in the ICI plate-cone viscosimeter).", "The saturated polyester so obtained is dissolved in xylol to obtain a solution with a solid content of 60%.", "The hydroxyl number of the resin in 78.", "(B) 55 g of the resin solution obtained per 5A are reacted with 30 g of the melamine-formaldehyde resin solution described in Example 1B and diluted with 15 g of a solvent mixture of ethylglycol acetate and butylglycol acetate (1:1) and are well mixed by stirring.", "The clear lacquer so obtained has a solid content of 49% and an efflux time of 43 seconds in the efflux cup with a nozzle 4 mm in diameter per DIN 53 211.", "EXAMPLE 6 Example 2 is repeated except that 1.5% by weight of 2,2',4,4'-tetrahydroxybenzophenone is added as ultraviolet light absorber to the clear lacquer obtained per 2B.", "EXAMPLE 7 The clear lacquer obtained per Examples 1 through 6 are adjusted by means of a mixture of solvents of xylol-butyl acetate in the ratio of 2:1 to a working consistency (about 20 to 23 seconds efflux time from an efflux cup with a 4 mm nozzle) for spraying on prepared iron sheet metal panels by means of spray guns.", "For preparing the sheet metal panels they are first passivated by iron phosphatizing and they receive then an electrocoat layer from an electrocoating primer by using an electrodeposition process.", "The electrocoat layer is then baked, whereupon they are coated with a commercial baking filler and also baked.", "The panels so prepared are divided into two equal parts.", "On one set of these panels there is applied a base coat by means of a commercial paint material based on acrylate-resin/melamine-resin.", "On the other set there is applied a base coat from a commercial paint material based on an aluminum pigment and a transparent iron oxide red pigment.", "On the base coat layers of both sets there is sprayed wet-on-wet by a spray gun the clear lacquer of Examples 1-6.", "Following an air drying time of 15 minutes, baking is performed for 15 to 30 minutes at 130° C. in a circulating-air oven.", "The tests are carried out in such a manner that the dry thickness of the clear lacquer layer is between 35 and 40 microns and the overall thickness of the base coat and clear coat is about 120 microns.", "The panels so prepared and coated with the two-layer metallic system are stored in a climate-controlled chamber at 23° C. and a relative humidity of 50% for 24 hours, whereupon they are tested as follows: (1) Erichsen test (2) Pendulum hardness (seconds) 3.", "Weather-O-meter with carbon arc lamp--permanent light exposure Cycling: 17 minutes drying followed by 3 minutes rain, black panel temperature: 65° C. maximum (4) Weather-O-meter edge filters with xenon-burner Cycling: 10 minutes drying, 10 minutes rain black panel temperature: 65° C. maximum.", "The test results are shown summarized in the table.", "TABLE I__________________________________________________________________________Clear Lacquer per Example 1 2 3 4 5 6__________________________________________________________________________On polyesterBase CoatLayer thickness:(a) Overall ca.", "120 μm 120 μm 120 μm 120 μm 120 μm 120 μm(b) Clear Lacquer 35-40 μm 35-40 μm 35-40 μm 35-40 μm 35-40 μm 35-40 μmCoatingWeather-O-meter 650 >3500 2500 2800 >3500 >3500(carbon-arc lamp)cracked after somany hoursWeather-O-meter 374 >1480 900 1000 >1480 >1480(edge-filter,xenon burner)cracked after somany hoursOn PolyacrylateBase CoatLayer Thickness:(a) Overall ca.", "120 μm 120 μm 120 μm 120 μm 120 μm 120 μm(b) Clear Lacquer 35-40 μm 35-40 μm 35-40 μm 35-40 μm 35-40 μm 35-40 μmCoatingWeather-O-meter 650 >3500 2800 2600 >3500 >3500(carbon-arc lamp)cracked after somany hoursWeather-O-meter 374 >1027 1000 1100 >1027 >1027(edge-filter,xenon burner)cracked after somany hours__________________________________________________________________________ EXAMPLE 8 (A) Example 1A is repeated except that 1.0 mole of 3,6-endomethylene-hexahydrophthalic acid replaces the 1.0 mole of phthalic acid anhydride.", "The procedure is the same as in Example 1A, and an alkyd resin with an acid number of 32 and a viscosity of 580 mPas (measured in a 50% solution in xylol in the ICI plate-cone viscosimeter) is obtained.", "The hydroxyl number is 122.", "The resin is diluted with xylol to a solid content of 60%.", "(B) Similarly to Example 1B and the amounts used therein, a clear lacquer with a solid content of 49% is made.", "The efflux time from an efflux cup with a nozzle 4 mm in diameter per DIN 53 211 is 56 seconds.", "EXAMPLE 9 (A) An alkyd resin is prepared from: 1.0 mole of hexahydrophthalic acid, 1.05 moles of trimethylolpropane, 0.4 moles of coconut oil fatty acid, and 0.3 moles of benzoic acid.", "The above raw materials are weighed-in at a reaction vessel with filler tube, descending distillation condenser and stirrer in the amounts given.", "10 g of xylol are added to the reaction mixture and the procedure continues as described in Example 1A.", "An alkyd resin with an acid number of 12 and a viscosity of 400 mPas (measured in a 50% solution in xylol in the ICI plate-cone viscosimeter) is obtained.", "The OH number of the alkyd resin is 78.", "The resin is diluted with xylol to a 60% solution and used for preparing a clear lacquer.", "(B) A clear lacquer is made from the resin solution 9A according to the procedure described in 1A and using the same quantities.", "The solid content is 49% and the efflux time from an efflux cup with a nozzle 4 mm in diameter per DIN 53 211 is 46 seconds.", "EXAMPLE 10 (A) An alkyd resin is prepared from: 1.0 mole of hexahydrophthalic acid, 1.0 mole of pentaerythrite, 0.4 moles of tall oil fatty acid low in resinic acid, and 0.8 moles of 2-ethylhexane acid.", "These raw materials are weighed-in in the amounts cited and made to react according to the procedure of Example 1A.", "An alkyd resin with an acid number of 8.5 and a viscosity of 290 mPas (measured as 50% solution in xylol in the ICI plate-cone viscosimeter) is obtained.", "The hydroxyl number of the resin is 81.", "The alkyd resin so obtained is dissolved using xylol to achieve a solid content of 60%.", "(B) A clear lacquer is prepared from the resin solution 10A following the procedure of Example 1B, using the amounts stated therein, the solid content of the clear lacquer being 49%.", "The efflux time form the efflux cup with a nozzle 4 mm in diameter per DIN 53 211 is 58 seconds.", "EXAMPLE 11 (A) A saturated polyester is prepared from: 0.8 moles of hexahydrophthalic acid anhydride, 0.2 moles of adipic acid, 0.45 moles of ethylene glycol, 0.45 moles of neopentylglycol, and 0.2 moles of trimethylolpropane.", "The raw materials are weighed-in in the stated amounts according to Example 5A into a reaction vessel and the procedure of Example 5A is followed.", "The polyester so obtained is diluted with a mixture of solvents of xylol and ethylglycol acetate in the ratio of 3:1 into a solution with a 60% solid content.", "The polyester has an acid number of 8.5 and the 60% solution has a viscosity of 680 mPas (measured in the ICI plate-cone viscosimeter).", "The hydroxyl number of the polyester is 106.", "(B) 55 g from the 60% solution obtained in 11A are weighed-in and reacted with 30 g of a 55% solution of a commercial, reactive, melamine-formaldehyde condensation resin partly etherified with methanol, in butanol-xylol (2:1), and 15 g of a mixture of solvents of ethylglycol acetate and butylglycol acetate (1:1) are further added.", "The clear lacquer obtained after thorough stirring has a solid content of 49% and an efflux time of 45 seconds from an efflux cup with a nozzle 4 mm in diameter per DIN 53 211.", "EXAMPLE 12 (A) A saturated polyester is prepared from: 0.5 moles of succinic acid, 0.5 moles of adipic acid, 0.9 moles of perhydrobisphenol-A, and 0.25 moles of trimethylolpropane.", "The raw materials are weighed-in in the amounts stated and the reaction is carried out as indicated for Example 5A.", "The resin so obtained is diluted with a mixture of solvents of ethylglycol acetate and a medium boiling aromatic hydrocarbon fraction (boiling point limits between 160° and 175° C.) in the ratio of 1:1 into a 60% resin solution.", "The polyester so obtained has an acid number of 25 and the 60% solution has a viscosity of 450 mPas (measured in the ICI plate-cone viscosimeter).", "The hydroxyl number of the polyester resin is 114.", "(B) A clear lacquer is obtained from the synthetic resin obtained in Example 12A, following the procedure of Example 11B and the amounts used in the latter, the solid content being 49% and the efflux time from an efflux cup with a nozzle 4 mm in diameter per DIN 53 211 is 67 seconds.", "EXAMPLE 13 (A) A saturated polyester is prepared from: 0.7 moles of hexahydrophthalic acid, 0.3 moles of adipic acid, 0.2 moles of trimethylol propane, 0.4 moles of 1,4-dimethylolcyclohexane, 0.3 moles of propyleneglycol, and 0.2 moles of ethylene glycol.", "The raw materials are weighed-in in the stated amounts and the procedure follows that of Example 5A.", "A 60% resin solution is obtained.", "The polyester resin has an acid number of 25 and the viscosity of the 60% solution is 430 mPas (measured in the ICI plate-cone viscosimeter).", "The hydroxyl number of the polyester resin is 105.", "(B) A clear lacquer solution with a solid content of 49% is obtained from the resin solution from Example 13A following the procedure and the data of Example 1B.", "The efflux time of the solution is 57 seconds in the efflux cup with a 4 mm diameter nozzle of DIN 53 211.", "EXAMPLE 14 Proceeding precisely as in Example 7, the clear lacquer obtained under Examples 8 through 13 is adjusted to a working consistency using a mixture of solvents of xylolbutylacetate in the ratio of 2:1 and is sprayed wet-on-wet on the sheet metal panels described in Example 7 and provided with the base lacquer coatings.", "Following ventilation of 15 minutes, baking is carried out in an air circulating oven for 30 minutes at 130° C. and the material is stored in a climate chamber at 23° C. for 24 hours at a relative humidity of 50%.", "The tests listed in Example 7 then are carried out.", "Table II shows the test results.", "TABLE II__________________________________________________________________________Clear Lacquer per Example 8 9 10 11 12 13__________________________________________________________________________On polyesterBase CoatLayer Thickness:(a) overall ca.", "120 μm 120 μm 120 μm 120 μm 120 μm 120 μm(b) clear layer 35-40 μm 35-40 μm 35-40 μm 35-40 μm 35-40 μm 35-40 μmcoatingWeather-O-meter 3000 >3500 2800 2800 2500 >3500(carbon-arclamp)cracked after somany hoursWeather-O-meter 1400 >1400 1000 1100 900 >1400(edge-filter,xenon-burner)cracked after somany hoursOn PolyacrylateBase CoatLayer Thickness(a) overall ca.", "120 μm 120 μm 120 μm 120 μm 120 μm 120 μm(b) clear lacquer 35-40 μm 35-40 μm 35-40 μm 35-40 μm 35-40 μm 35-40 μmcoatingWeather-O-meter 2800 3400 2500 2600 2000 3500(carbon arc lamp)cracked afterso many hoursWeather-O-meter 1200 >1400 900 1000 750 1250(edge filter,xenon-burner)cracked afterso many hours__________________________________________________________________________" ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] Thermoplastic aromatic Polyether Ketone derivatives, such as Polyether Ether Ketone (PEEK), are well known to the art.", "These polymers have melting points greater than 330° C., continuous use temperatures of 260° C. or more and high mechanical strengths, such as tensile strength greater than 85 MPa.", "They have significant commercial utility as plastics, especially as molded articles and as composites with glass/carbon/Kevlar fibres for a variety of structural applications including in aerospace and general engineering industries.", "PEEK also finds applications as extruded rods and profiles for manufacture of bushings, seals, etc.", "In general they are processed using extruders and injection molding machines in temperature range of 360-400° C., thus requiring extremely high thermal stability.", "[0002] Literature teaches us two major processes, nucleophilic and electrophilic, for the production of thermoplastic aromatic Polyether Ether Ketone.", "One is described by Johnson et al.", "(J.", "Polymer Sci.", "5, A-1, 2371 1967).", "This nucleophilic route employs hydroquinone and dihalobenzophenone along with a base, in solvents like N-Methyl-Pyrrolidone or Sulfolane, at temperatures of about 200-250° C. The PEEK so produced, however, is found to be of low molecular weight [Inherent Viscosity (Inh, V.)<0.7 dl/g] and cannot be used as a molded plastic due to it's low mechanical properties.", "[0003] An improvement on this product and process (U.S. Pat. No. 4,320,224/GB 1586 972), involving nucleophilic route is brought about by employing a high boiling solvent Diphenyl Sulfone.", "In this reaction hydroquinone is transformed into its di-potassium salt by heating with an equivalent amount of potassium carbonate or potassium bicarbonate, with simultaneous removal of the water at 150-200° C., followed by addition of the second monomer, namely, 4,4′-difluoro benzopheone.", "The polymerization reaction is carried out at 320-350° C. to obtain polymer of desired Inh.", "V. range of 0.8 to 1.4 dl/g with melting point of 335-350° C. PEEK so produced has structure as well known in the art as given below with two fluoride end-groups.", "[0004] This process is commercially utilised today.", "It, however, has several drawbacks.", "First, it uses expensive raw materials containing Fluorine and Potassium, both of which end up as a by-product to be separated from PEEK.", "It also requires use of very high temperature for organic reactions, like 300° C. and above.", "The use of such high temperature also brings about some charring of material requiring special, melt filtration of the PEEK polymer to remove black specs formed during the manufacturing process.", "The formation of a stoichiometric amount of Potassium Fluoride as a by-product, requires elaborate salt separation procedures to obtain the polymer in pure form.", "The Diphenyl Sulfone solvent used has a high melting point of 129° C., which makes it inconvenient to process it except at high temperatures.", "Diphenyl Sulfone is further immiscible with water, hence requiring use of non-aqueous systems for precipitation of the polymer, making its removal from the reaction mass cumbersome.", "[0005] Hence a process of PEEK manufacturing which can be carried out at lower temperatures, where PEEK can be precipitated in water instead of non-aqueous non-solvents and where recycling of by-products is feasible is most desirable.", "[0006] Another route for production of thermoplastic aromatic Polyether Ketones like PEEK, involves use of Friedel-Crafts catalysts (electrophilic process).", "For example, European Patent No. 0174207 teaches the use of AlCl 3 for the polymerization of a carboxylic acid chloride derivative of Phenoxy Benzoic Acid (PBA) and Phenoxy Phenoxy Benzoic Acid (PPBA) to give Polyether Ketone (PEK) and Polyether Ether Ketone (PEEK) respectively.", "The process, though carried out at low temperatures such as 0-30° C., uses AlCl 3 in CH 2 Cl 2 solution.", "Due to the heterogeneous nature of this reaction, generally undesirable lower molecular weight polymers are produced.", "PEEK polymer obtained by this process is, also, predominantly non-linear and show a high degree of branching.", "These defects lead to a lowering of the melting point from greater than 330° C. to 315-320° C. There is also reduction of mechanical strength of the polymer formed.", "It also leads to a significant reduction in its ability to withstand high processing temperatures of 350-400° C. without getting cross-linked.", "Such a PEEK, therefore, can neither be processed nor be used as a high performance plastic.", "[0007] Further, the system is highly moisture sensitive due to excess AlCl 3 as well as the acid chlorides used as raw materials.", "Additionally, the precipitation treatment of the reaction mass to liberate the polymer from the catalyst AlCl 3 with water involves the liberation of large quantity of HCl gas, which forms effluent.", "The catalyst AlCl 3 used becomes an environmental burden, being non-recyclable and producing hugh quantities of effluents containing Al salts.", "The process itself is also therefore difficult and inconvenient to carry out with no stringent controls for molecular weights.", "[0008] Another electrophilic process exemplified by Ueda and Oda uses Methanesulfonic acid (MSA)/Phosphorous pentoxide (P 2 O 3 ) [JOC 38, 4071, 1973, and Polymer 29, 1903, 1983] at low temperatures like 60° C. Inh.", "V. as high as 1.08 dl/g was obtained.", "They teach the use of a 1:10 solution by weight of P 2 O 3 in MSA.", "A mixed anhydride is proposed as the active reagent.", "While PEEK so produced has less branched structure than one produced using AlCl 3 system, it also suffers, like the later, from high temperature instability and hence cannot be molded or extruded without extensive cross-linking and degradation.", "[0009] Colquhoun has suggested use of Trifluoromethane Sulfonic acid as the reaction medium to polymerize PPBA to give PEEK.", "(Polymer Preprints, 25, 17, 1984).", "It has also remained only of academic interest due to the extremely high cost and corrosive nature of the solvent used.", "Also, in all these above mentioned electrophylic processes, reactive end groups were present.", "It is part of this invention that PEEK so produced with such reactive groups, like —COOH, present cannot be processed, without end-capping, using traditional plastic processing techniques due to its high thermal instability.", "Such PEEK on being subjected to high temperature processing immediately cross-links producing gels, which cannot be shaped into desired articles.", "Therefore, PEEK production by electrophilic processes as described above has not been commercially successful owing to so many inherent limitations involved.", "[0010] In U.S. Pat. No. 4,247,682 (1981) Dahl has described processes for the condensation of p-phenoxy benzoyl chloride and p-phenoxy benzene sulfonyl chloride in HF using BF 3 as a catalyst and using biphenyl or benzoyl chloride as end-capping agents to prepare PEK and PES.", "These end-capping groups were reported to help maintain the polymer melt stability during extrusion in the absence of which the polymer was reported to degrade readily.", "[0011] In yet another patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,808,693 (1989) Dahl, Jansons and Moore have described a process for the condensation of terephthalolyl chloride with Diphenyl ether and diphenoxy benzede using AlCl 3 /EDC system to yield a copolymer of PEKK and PEEKK.", "Here too, the authors have highlighted the role of the relative ratio of the two electrophilic agents, where higher diphenoxy benzene quantity has increased thermal stability.", "It may be assumed that use of a given electrophylic system as well as the monomers employed also played a part in determining final structure giving higher thermal stability of the product.", "[0012] No mention has been made, by the above mentioned authors or to the best of our knowledge by anyone else, for polymerization of phenoxy phenoxy benzoic acid (PPBA) to yield a melt stable and thermally processible Polyether Ether Ketone (PEEK).", "[0013] In our studies we have found that not only is the nature of the repeat unit critical for obtaining good thermal and mechanical properties, but the nature of the end-group is also critical for attaining desired thermal stability.", "By manipulating end-groups, it is now possible to prepare electrophilically, novel PEEK structures which show excellent thermal stability and are therefore inherently melt processible.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0014] The present invention relates to the preparation of novel Polyether Ether Ketone (PEEK) by an improved electrophilic route.", "The PEEK so made contains un-reactive end-groups making it thermally stable and melt processible.", "It is hence mouldable and extrudable and useful as a plastic.", "Further, the process of preparation is not only novel but is very facile and can be made into a manufacturing process.", "This is because of lower temperature of polymerization, use of readily recyclable reagents, use of water as non-solvent and in general because of overall ease of processing.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0015] The process involves reacting phenoxy benzoic acid (PPBA) in alkane sulfonic acid with a condensing agent, with or without a diluent at 40° to 160° C. and subsequently endcapping it with a suitable endcapping agent.", "The alkane sulfonic acid used can be any aliphatic sulfonic acid including haloalkane sulfonic acid, preferably Methane Sulfonic acid (MSA), Trifluoro or Trichloro Methane Sulfonic acid.", "The condensing agents used for example are Thionyl Chloride, Phosphorous trichloride, Phosphorous pentachloride or Phosphorous pentoxide, Methane Sulfonic Anhydride or their mixtures.", "The diluent is, for example, a non-polar aprotic solvent such as Methylene Chloride, Ethylene Dichloride or Sulfolane, or their mixtures or any of the polar organic compounds remaining inert in this system.", "The end-capping agent is an aromatic compound like Benzene, Toluene, Xylene, Phenol, Anisole, Diphenyl Ether or any of their stable derivatives.", "[0016] The alkane sulfonic acid mixture with its anhydride was found to be a solvent as well as a powerful catalyst for polymerization, of phenoxy phenoxy benzoic acid (PPBA) to give PEEK.", "It was also found that in MSA-MSAN system, the Methane Sulfonic Acid Anhydride (MSAN), gets easily reconverted into MSA after reaction work-up in water, so that recycling is possible and waste generation is minimal, MSA being recoverable and recyclable.", "Additional, the MSAN need not be prepared separately and added during the reaction, but can also be prepared in-situ.", "When the reaction mass is added into water during the work-up of the reaction, the acid remains dissolved in water and the polymer easily precipitates out.", "The polymer is isolated by filtration, and is washed and dried.", "Any unreacted anhydride present in the reaction mass gets reconverted into the acid by reaction with water during the work-up.", "The resultant acid and water mixture can be easily separated by fractional distillation and both the acid and water can be recycled for the next batch.", "[0017] In MSA-P 2 O 3 system, similarly, MSA and H 3 PO 4 are formed on precipitation of PEEK in water, from which MSA can be separated and reused.", "Thus, a significant advantage of our process is the ease of work-up and isolation of polymer due to the use of aqueous system for precipitation of PEEK.", "Further purification of PEEK is required to remove traces of acid, which can be accomplished by washing with hot water containing alkali and refluxing in water again to remove last traces of salt and alkali.", "[0018] Generation of MSAN is readily carried out with any of the condensing agents.", "Thionyl Chloride (SOCl 2 ) or Phosphorous Pentoxide are the preferred reagents, due again to the ease of operation and feasibility of using the by-products, with minimum waste generation.", "[0019] SOCl 2 reacts with MSA to give flue gasses SO 2 and HCl, which can be reacted back to give SOCl 2 , and recycled, (Geiko V. I., Gladushko et al.", "Khim.", "Khim.", "Tecknol.", "1985, 28(5)-4 (Russ)).", "With P 2 O 3 , similar treatment yields H 3 PO 4 , a useful acid, which also can be separated from its mixture with MSA by extraction with suitable solvents or by fractional distillation of MSA and used as such.", "Such recycling was not achievable when a common catalyst like AlCl 3 was used for polmerization.", "[0020] The invention of this process makes it possible to prepare PEEK electrophilically using homogenous solutions.", "The old AlCl 3 process was heterogeneous making molecular weight control nearly impossible as PEEK tended to crystallise out of solution forming a slurry.", "In the present process, rate of polymerization reaction and ultimate molecular weights can be readily controlled by a proper choice of reaction, temperature, monomer concentration, and the quantity of anhydride employed.", "Thus, the kinetics of polymerization is easily controlled.", "Another advantage is the use of an acid monomer as the precursor, instead of the acid chloride as the precursor in case of manufacture based on Freidel-crafts synthesis with catalysts, like AlCl 3 .", "As is widely known, an acid chloride is susceptible to hydrolysis, even in presence of trace quantities of water.", "These problems are overcome here by using acid monomer itself.", "[0021] Another novel and important part of this invention is the end capping used for the removal of reactive end groups of PEEK.", "It has been shown using FTIR spectra that the PEEK chains contain a carboxyl group, —COOH, at one end.", "Such a group is known to be a reactive group, particularly at high processing temperatures of PEEK.", "It can thus lead to formation of cross-links or undergo other reactions disturbing rheology.", "To protect the PEEK produced by our method, a novel end capping process was carried out.", "The reaction mass was diluted with Toluene, after the desired Inherent Viscosity was attained.", "Over a period of a few hours, Toluene reacted with the chain end and formed a keto group, which shows low reactivity and high thermal stability unlike the carboxyl group.", "Other reagent like Benzene, Xylene, Phenol, Anisole, Diphenyl Ether etc.", "were also successfully used for end capping.", "This end capping is important to attain high thermal stability as will become evident from the examples.", "Thus, overall novel PEEK structures were developed which are melt processible exhibiting good thermal stability over extended periods of time at high temperatures of PEEK processing.", "[0022] Another novel part of the invention is use of diluents such as CH 2 Cl 2 , Dichloroethane, Sulfolane, etc.", "Since the polymerization temperatures are low to moderate in the range of 60-100° C. only, towards the end, the reaction mass viscosity increases and it makes efficient stirring difficult.", "Addition of diluents, like CH 2 Cl 2 or CH 2 Cl—CH 2 Cl or Toluene, helps in keeping the solution stirrable and improves mixing.", "Another advantage derived by the addition of a diluent, which can be low boiling and immiscible with water, is that on precipitation in hot water, it simply boils off and thus gets readily separated.", "Another advantage of adding a diluent is that the precipitating PEEK is obtained in this case as fine granules or powder.", "Without such a diluent, lumps or thick fibres are obtained requiring further size reduction.", "Yet another advantage of using the diluent is that the PEEK obtained as powder contains less than 10% MSA entrapped in it, while the lumpy or fibrous PEEK contains as much as 15-25% MSA entrapped, requiring more exhaustive post-polymerization treatments.", "[0023] After separation from the reaction mass by precipitation in water, the polymer is filtered and washed conveniently free of MSA and H 3 PO 4 , if any, as shown in the examples.", "PEEK is subsequently treated in refluxed water, followed by refluxing in alkaline solution.", "Alternately, an organic base like Dimethyl Formamide (DMF) or Dimethyl Acetamide (DMAc), etc.", "can also be used.", "A Formic acid treatment is optionally given to PEEK samples with higher UV absorbance or high As values, to reduce them to lower As levels required by our invention and to improve its color from buff to white during powder stage.", "[0024] It is a part of this invention that PEEK so produced has to be made completely free of the solvent, as even small quantities of the solvent left behind has very deleterious effect on the processability of PEEK at high temperatures.", "[0025] Thus, PEEK by the above process can be prepared under controlled moderate to high molecular weights as shown by its Inh.", "V. and Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) molecular weights.", "It also has a controlled structure as shown by its solutions having moderate to low absorbance in UV spectra.", "As against an absorbance value, As, of less than 20 for linear nucleophilic PEEK, PEEK prepared by this method as As values in the range of 300-600.", "It has been postulated hat this As value may possibly indicate presence of branch structure.", "However, no direct proof has yet been found to confirm such a postulate of branches on the backbone.", "However, this appears to have no influence on processibilty when the reactive ends of the polymer are suitably capped.", "The reactive groups on PEEK of this invention can be suitably reacted to end cap the polymer.", "All these make it possible to obtain high thermal stability and also processibility for such PEEK.", "It is therefore understood that PEEK structures of our invention are essentially linear polymers with novel end groups.", "[0026] Hence, an object of this invention is to provide novel Polyaryl Ether Ether Ketone (PEEK), prepared using electrophilic process but which is thermally stable and melt processible.", "[0027] Another object of this invention is to provide PEEK of novel structure, which contains controlled negligible number of branches on the backbone and whose reactive end groups are capped.", "[0028] Another object of the invention is to provide a process for the preparation of thermoplastic PEEK, which is carried out at low temperatures like 40°-100° C. and is therefore economically more attractive for commercial production.", "This process not only produces PEEK of high enough Inh.", "V. to be of practical interest but also helps in reduction of it's defects arising out of branch points and reactive end groups present on the backbone to make it thermally stable for high temperature processing and usage.", "[0029] Another object of this invention is to provide a process for the production of PEEK, which minimises waste generation, due to the possibility of recycling its reactants.", "[0030] According to the invention, there is provided a process for the production of a novel aromatic Polyaryl Ether Ether Ketone (PEEK), which involves polymerising Phenoxy phenoxy benzoic acid (PPBA) using alkyl sulfonic acid and a condensing agent with or without a diluent at 40-100° C. and subsequently end capping it using an end capping agent.", "Thereafter, separating PEEK from the reaction mixture by precipitation in water and giving further water treatments for purification.", "Further, treating it with organic solvent with or without Formic acid to improve the colour of the PEEK powder is also part of this invention.", "[0031] The specific examples that follow will serve to illustrate the invention but should not be construed to limit the scope thereof.", "EXAMPLE 1 [0032] Thionyl Chloride (238 g, 2.0) was charged into a clean, 4 neck, 1 litre glass flask equipped with a magnetic stirrer, a reflux condenser with chilled water circulation, scrubbing arrangement for off-gases, a thermowell, and a dropping funnel.", "Thionyl Chloride was heated to 50° C., and Methane Sulphonic acid, (96 g, 1 m), was gradually charged into it over a period of 1 h. The solution was then heated to 70° C. over a period of 2.5-3 h and subsequently to 75-80° C. over a period of additional 7 h. Thereafter, the solution was maintained at 80° C. for 3 h. During the course of heating, the off-gases which were evolved were scrubbed in an alkali scrubber.", "After evolution of the off-gases had ceased, the reflux condenser was removed and system modified for downward distillation.", "Excess Thionyl Chloride was first distilled off at atmospheric pressure, up to 120° C., then the temperature was raised to 140° C., pressure reduced to 10 mm, Hg, and an intermediate cut of volatile by-product was condensed and isolated.", "[0033] Further distillation of the main cut was continued at 120-130° C. liquid temperature and absolute pressure of 1-2 mm Hg.", "This product, later referred to as condensing agent or MSA Anhydride (MSAN);", "was then used for polymerisation of Phenoxy Phenoxy Benzoic Acid (PPBA) in Methane Sulfonic Acid medium for preparation of PEEK.", "The yield of MSAN was typically 90-94% based on MSA.", "The process was scaled-up to generate sufficient quantity of condensing agent required for larger scale polymerisation batches.", "[0034] In a clean four neck round bottom flask was charged 3640 g of Methane Sulfonic Acid (MSA).", "The liquid was heated to 60° C. and to this 1135 g of condensing agent, MSAN, preheated to 70° C. was charged.", "The condensing agent was prepared previously by the method described above.", "The mixture was maintained at 60° C. to form a homogenous solution, and 998 g of PPBA was then added to it.", "The solution was maintained at 60±1° C. for 7 h and samples were withdrawn periodically to monitor the solution viscosity.", "Polymerisation reaction was terminated when the desired solution viscosity, corresponding to an Inherent Viscosity of 0.92 dl/g (of a 0.2% solution in cone.", "H 2 SO 4 at 25° C.) was attained.", "Termination was done by addition of 554 g Diphenyl Ether, (1 m/m) and 2455 g of MSA (750 g/m).", "The endcapping reaction was allowed to continue for 10 h, at 60° C. by which the terminal —COOH groups of the polymer were converted to —CO—R 1 —O—R 1 , (where R 1 represents a phenyl ring), as seen by the disappearance of a peak at 1720 cm −1 in the FTIR spectra.", "The reaction mass was then precipitated in 22000 ml water to extract off the acid from the polymer.", "The precipitated polymer was then repeatedly extracted with water until the pH of the filtrate was neutral.", "The wet solids were then treated with Dimethyl Acetamide (DMAc) and again with water and then dried.", "The dry polymer, which predominantly consisted of the repeat unit of the structure (I), [0035] was then extruded in a laboratory extruder to obtain dark brown coloured pellets.", "When the wet solids from the same lot were treated with DMAc containing up to 25 ml of 85% Formic Acid (for 100 g polymer), the pellets after extrusion were significantly lighter in color.", "The polymer exhibited a Tg of 150.3° C., Tc of 180.1° C., and Tm of 341.8° C. The brown pellets exhibited good flow with Melt Volumetric Flow value of 18.3 cc/10 min (at 400° C., 7.06 kg, 6 min hold time) and 17.0 cc/10 min (400° C. 7.06 kg, 60 min hold time), indicating excellent thermal stability.", "The extrudate from the melt flow test had a glossy appearance.", "Thus, a product with food flow and thermal characteristics was obtained.", "The results of PEEK produced by the Example 1 were similar to those of PEEK known in prior art which had the following values;", "Tg of 149.0° C., Tc of 185.1° C., Tm of 342.2° C. and melt volumetric values of 18.9 cc/10 min (at 400° 0 C., 7.06 kg, 6 min hold time) and 19.3 cc/10 min (400° C., 7.06 kg, 60 min hold time).", "EXAMPLE 2 [0036] The procedure of example 1 was reproduced exactly on a larger scale wherein 317 kg MSA was charged in a 2500 l glass lined reactor, heated to 60° C. and 99 kg of condensing agent MSAN was added to it.", "The solution was maintained at 60° C. and 87 kg of PPBA was added to it.", "The solution was maintained at 60±1° C. for 10.5 h and samples were withdrawn periodically to monitor the solution viscosity.", "Polymerisation reaction was terminated when the desired solution viscosity, corresponding to an Inherent Viscosity of 0.88 dl/g of (of a 0.2% solution in conc.", "H 2 SO 4 at 25° C.) was attained.", "Termination was accomplished by addition of 48 kg Diphenyl Ether and 212 kg of MSA.", "The endcapping reaction was allowed to continue for 10 h, at 60° C. exactly as in Example 1.", "The reaction mass was then precipitated in 1900 l water to extract off the acid from the polymer.", "[0037] The precipitated polymer was then repeatedly extracted with water and DMAc exactly as in Example 1, and then dried.", "The polymer was then extruded in a laboratory extruder, injection moulded into test specimens and tested as per standard ASTM test procedures.", "The results of mechanical properties listed below suggest that very good mechanical properties are attained for PEEK made by the procedure of Example 1 and the properties are comparable to those known for commercially available PEEK.", "TABLE 1 Property Results Commercial PEEK Flexural strength (MPa) 156 145 Flexural Modulus (GPa) 4.14 3.95 Tensile strength (MPa) 99 98 Tensile modulus (GPa) 4.0 4.5 Elongation at break (%) 28 44 EXAMPLE 3 [0038] Polymerisation procedure was repeated exactly as described in Example 2, except that the reaction was terminated by the addition of suitable amounts of Diphenyl Ether and Methane Sulfonic Acid at reduced solution viscosity to give Inh.", "Viscosity of 0.79 dl/g.", "Subsequent water and DMAc treatments were completed as in Example 1 above, and the polymer powder was extruded in a laboratory extruder.", "The pellets so obtained were characterised for the thermal and melt flow behaviour.", "The polymer exhibited a Tg of 148.2° C., Tc of 181.9° C. and Tm 345.5° C. The melt flow values were 29 cc/10 min (at 400° C., 2.16 kg, for 6 min hold time) and 23 cc/10 min (at 400° C., 2.16 kg for 65 min hold time), indicating excellent thermal stability.", "The extrudates from the melt flow apparatus at both 6 and 60 min had a glossy appearance.", "Thus, the thermal and rheological characteristics clearly indicated that the product obtained had linear structure with negligible or no branching, which would have decreased its Tg &", "Tm as well as reduced flow through Melt Flow Indexer.", "It also showed that PEEK with an increased melt flow value can readily be prepared by the procedure of Example 3.", "EXAMPLE 4 [0039] The polymerisation procedure of Example 3 was repeated except that no endcapping agent was added.", "Polymerization was continued until desired viscosity was attained and the mass was then precipitated under conditions similar to that of example 3, treated with water and DMAc and then dried.", "This polymer when tested for melt flow at 400° C., 2.16 kg, and 6 min exhibited a lower value of 17 cc/10 min compared to resin of example 3.", "The extrudate exhibited a very rough surface indicative of gelation and after 60 min at 400° C. the resin was degraded into powder which did not flow through the melt flow apparatus.", "This result clearly highlights the significance of proper endcapping of the polymer chains to eliminate reactive end-groups and impart proper structural requirements to obtain good processability as well as thermal stability.", "The polymer exhibited a Tg of 150.7° C., Tc of 182.3° C., Tm of 328.7° C. Therefore, the melt temperature of PEEK not endcapped was nearly 10-12° C. lower than that of PEEK endcapped with Diphenyl Ether as in Example 1 above, again showing susceptibility to high temperature degradation.", "EXAMPLE 5-6 [0040] The examples below demonstrate the influence of varying quantities of condensing agent, MSAN, on the Inherent Viscosity of the polymer.", "Thus, PEEK was prepared by the procedure of Example 1, except that in one example (#5) only 1.0 m of MSAN was used while in another example (#6) 2.0 m of MSAN was charged into MSA per mole of PPBA.", "Reaction was continued for the stipulated time interval, thereafter, the polymer was terminated by addition of Diphenyl ether (1 m/m PPBA).", "The end-capped reaction mass was then diluted with MSA (750 g/m PPBA) and precipitated in water to isolate the polymer, and recover the solvent.", "The wet polymer was treated with water and DMAc as in Example 1 and Inherent Viscosity was determined as in examples above.", "TABLE 2 Condensing Agent Reaction Time Inh.", "V. Example (m/m PPBA) (h) (dl/g) 5 1 50 0.71 6 2 20 1.15 [0041] Thus, with 2 mol of MSAN/m PPBA, good reaction rates and Inherent Viscosity are obtained within 20 h of polymerization time.", "The treated sample of Example 6 further showed Melt Volumetric Rates of 2.98 and 2.41 cc/10 min in MVR test at 2.16 kg load and 400° C. with respective preheating times of 6 and 60 minutes indicating that it has excellent thermal stability.", "The polymer structure was verified further by conducting 13 C NMR analysis of the polymer using a 200 MHz NMR for up to 90000 scans, which showed absence of any branch structure.", "EXAMPLE 7-9 [0042] This example demonstrates the effect of temperature on the reaction conditions.", "Reactions were conducted at 40°, 80°, and 100° C. instead of 60° C. and procedure was followed as in example 3.", "The reactions were terminated at 12 h and the polymers were characterised for their inherent viscosity.", "TABLE 3 Reaction Temp Inherent Viscosity Ex.", "No. (° C.) (dl/g) 7 40 0.60 8 80 0.40 9 100 0.21 [0043] Thus, it can be seen that the process is useful at temperature range of 40° C. to 100° C. range, though at temperatures below 60° C., the reaction rate is somewhat slower resulting in lower Inherent Viscosity build-up compared to example 3, while at higher temperatures, also, the Inherent Viscosity is reduced.", "EXAMPLE 10 [0044] In a 63 liter glass lined reactor equipped with an impeller and high powered motor was siphoned Methanesulphonic acid (49.50 kg, 515.6 m) and heated to 60° C. Free flowing phosphorus pentoxide (10.0 kg, 70.42 m) was charged into the reactor under stirring at 60° C. and the mixture was heated at this temperature till all P 2 O 3 dissolved.", "Phenoxy phenoxy benzoic acid (10.0 kg, 32.68 mole) was added and the reaction was continued at this temperature for 12.5 h. The polymerization was marked by increase in viscosity.", "The polymerization was terminated at 12.5 h at which time the Inh.", "Viscosity was 1.39 dl/g.", "(Measured in 98% Sulphuric acid at 25° C. at 0.2% concentration).", "The reaction mass was then diluted with 50 kg of Methanesulphonic acid and the polymer was precipitated in 200 l water.", "The polymer was obtained as pink colored strands, which were crushed and filtered.", "The MSA recovered in the filtrate was about 66%.", "It was then refluxed in 100 L of water for 2 h to leach out more Methanesulphonic acid.", "The polymer after filtration was then pressure cooked at 170° C. with 100 L, 0.5 N NaHCO 3 for 1 h, followed by several washes till filtrate was neutral to pH.", "The above polymer was dried at 120° C./10 h till the weight loss was less than 0.1%.", "The yield of the polymer was 97%.", "[0045] 200 g of the dried polymer was then re-dissolved at 60° C. in 2 kg of MSA containing 40 g of dissolved phosphorus pentoxide in order to endcapp the polymer with Toluene as the endcapping agent.", "150 ml of Toluene was added and the reaction mixture was stirred at 60° C. for 10 h. PEEK was precipitated and worked up as described above to give dry powder essentially free of acids.", "When FTIR spectra were measured, the Toluene treated polymer showed absence of peak in FTIR at 1720 cm-1 vs.", "a peak for untreated sample.", "This peak signifies presence of —COOH group, which was absent in Toluene treated PEEK sample indicating end-capping to have occurred.", "The treated end-capped samples further showed MVR of 2.59 and 2.41 in MVR test, with respective preheating times of 6 and 60 minutes at 400° C. indicating that it has excellent thermal stability.", "The polymer which predominantly consisted of the repeat unit (II), [0046] had a Tm of 338° C. and a Tg of 150° C. using the method of differential scanning calorimetry.", "[0047] A thermal stability test was conducted in a Haake Rheocord.", "In the Haake test, 45 g of the polymer was melted in a mixer bowl equipped with roller rotors.", "The melt stability was determined by the changed in torque of the polymer melt under shear at 45 rpm and 380° C. In the Haake test the melt was found to be stable for 60 minutes with an initial torque of 4.5 N-m and finally reaching 6.0 N-m.", "The samples removed at 30 and 60 minutes dissolved in TCB (1,2,4-Trichloro benzene)-Phenol mixture indicating no significant crosslinking.", "[0048] Thus, PEEK having good molecular weight as manifested by high Inherent Viscosity, melt processible and having good thermal stability can be made by the above process.", "EXAMPLE 11 [0049] The polymerization was conducted as reported in Example 10 and terminated after 10 h followed by in-situ end capping with Toluene as the end-capping agent.", "It was worked up as mentioned in example 3, except that EDC was used as the diluent and the polymer had molecular weight corresponding to an Inh V. of 1.1 dl/g.", "The polymer was melt stable at 380° C. for 30 minutes.", "It was extruded and injection molded for evaluation of its mechanical properties.", "The results are tabulated below.", "TABLE 4 Property Results Commercial PEEK Flexural strength (MPa) 181 145 Flexural Modulus (GPa) 3.99 3.95 Tensile strength (MPa) 87 98 Tensile modulus (GPa) 3.93 4.5 Elongation at break (%) 21.8 44.0 [0050] Thus, PEEK with good molecular weight, easy processability, good thermal stability and excellent mechanical properties was made by the above process.", "EXAMPLE 12 [0051] The polymerization was conducted as in Example 10 on 33 mole scale, i.e., using 10 kg of PPBA and other reagents on proportionate basis, but additionally 1 mol % (56.1 g) of Diphenyl ether (DPE), which acts an end-capping agent, was added along with MSA before addition of PPBA.", "Thus, a fraction of end-capping agent required was added right at the onset of polymerization stage.", "Polymerization was continued as in example 5 and after 12 h, another 56.1 g of DPE was added to complete the end-capping.", "The second stage of end-capping was continued for additional 12 h. The batch was then worked-up as in example 10 with MSA as the diluent and a product with Inherent Viscosity of 1.12 dl/g was obtained.", "The polymer was melt stable at 380° C. and exhibited very good mechanical properties as listed in the Table below.", "TABLE 5 Property Results Commercial PEEK Flexural strength (MPa) 139 145 Flexural Modulus (GPa) 3.66 3.95 Tensile strength (MPa) 92 98 Tensile modulus (GPa) 4.2 4.5 Elongation at break (%) 44.0 44.0 [0052] Thus, even by adding end-capping agent from the beginning in the polymerization stage, a product with good molecular weight, excellent mechanical properties and thermal stability could be obtained by the above method.", "EXAMPLES 13-17 [0053] The examples below demonstrate the effectiveness of other end-capping agents to thermal stability of the polymer.", "The polymerization was conducted as mentioned in Example 10, except only half the amount of phosphorus pentoxide was used.", "The reaction was terminated when desired viscosity was obtained.", "The polymer was then worked up as mentioned in Example 10, except for the fact that reaction mass was diluted with EDC instead of MSA.", "[0054] 200 g of the polymer so obtained was re-dissolved in 2 kg of Methanesulphonic acid containing dissolved 40 g P 2 O 1 .", "150 ml of end capping agent was added and it was stirred at 60° C. and again worked up as in Example 10 to free it from MSA and any other impurities.", "FTIR indicated disappearance of peak at 1720 cm-1 ensuring complete end-capping.", "All the polymer samples were subjected to stability conditions as mentioned in Example 10.", "The end capped samples had shown good thermal stability and the samples removed at 30 minutes and 60 minutes of Haake run at 380° C. were found to be completely soluble in Dichloroacetic acid and Phenol-1,2,4 Trichlorobenzene mixture (50:50 w/w).", "The GPC of the samples also indicated no measurable change in the molecular weights of these end-capped polymers.", "For comparative purpose, an unendcapped PEEK sample was also tested in the Haake, and the results are presented in the Table below.", "High torque value shown by un-end-capped PEEK is clear proof that it has formed cross-links and has gelled, while end-capped PEEK of comparable Inh.", "Visc.", "has retained its original structure.", "TABLE 6 End capping Torque (N-m) Ex.", "No. Agent used 10 min.", "60 min.", "13 Unendcapped 7.5 8.9 14 Benzene 2.6 4.2 15 Toluene 1.7 2.3 16 Xylene 2.5 4.9 17 Anisole 2.2 4.9 EXAMPLE 18 [0055] In a clean, 4 neck, 1 liter glass reactor equipped with a high powered agitator, thermowell, reflux condenser;", "and scrubbing arrangement was taken Methanesulphonic acid (300 g, 3.125 mole) Thionyl chloride (96.0 g, 0.8 mole) was added drop wise and temperature slowly raised from 40° C. to 100° C., and maintained till all SO 2 /HCl ceased to evolve.", "100 mm of Hg vacuum was applied to remove dissolved gasses.", "The temperature was reduced to 60° C. and PPBA (60.0 g, 0.2 mole) was added.", "The polymerization was marked by an increase in viscosity.", "The table gives the progress of the reaction with time.", "The inherent viscosity was determined as described in examples above.", "TABLE 7 Time (h) Inh.", "Visc.", "(dl/g) 10.0 0.89 20.0 1.20 25.0 1.31 30.0 1.41 [0056] Thus, even using SOCl 2 in situ as the condensing agent, one can make PEEK with Inh.", "Viscosity as high as 1.4 dl/g.", "EXAMPLE 19 [0057] In another example, PEEK was prepared by the procedure of Example 18 above, but after 10 h of polymerization, 60 ml of Toluene was added to the reaction mass and stirred at this temperature for 10 h. The reaction mass was precipitated at 60° C. in 600 g water.", "It was further refluxed for 1 h in 600 g of water and filtered.", "Finally, the pink colored polymer was pressure cooked in 0.5 N NaHCO 3 solution for 1 h at 170° C. PEEK so obtained was white colored which was dried at 150° C. for 4 hr, giving a yield of 97.0%.", "It's DSC curve showed a Tg of 149° C. and Tm of 345.8° C. The inherent viscosity of the sample was 0.88 dl/g.", "A small sample of the above polymer was refluxed in 85% Formic acid for 10 h and filtered.", "45 g of the polymer was then heated to 380° C. in a Haake Rheocord equipped with roller rotor and a thermostated mixing head maintained at 380° C. The torque was taken as measure of the stability of the polymer.", "The torque was found to be constant for 60 min at 1.5 Nm indicating that the polymer was highly thermally stable.", "It is to be noted here that the color of the polymer was lighter when formic acid treatment was given to the polymer.", "Thus, even with this process of using SOCl 2 as the condensing agent, and suitable end-capping agent, PEEK with good molecular weight, easy processibility and good thermal stability could be made.", "EXAMPLE 20-22 [0058] The examples below demonstrate the influence of concentration of the condensing agent on the Inherent Viscosity of the polymer.", "Thus, PEEK was prepared by the procedure of Example 19, except that the quantity of SOCl 2 was varied from 2 to 6 moles per mole of PPBA.", "Reaction was continued for the stipulated time interval, thereafter the mass was precipitated in water to isolate the polymer and recover the solvent.", "The inherent viscosity was then determined as in examples above.", "TABLE 8 Example SOCl 2 (m/m PPBA) Inh.", "V. (dl/g) 20 2 0.5 21 4 1.4 22 6 1.0 [0059] Thus, with 4 m/m SOCl 2 an optimum value of Inh.", "V. of 1.4 dl/g is obtained." ]

[ "TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to the field of medical aids.", "It comprises a device for analgesic immobilisation of fractured ribs (thorax immobilization device) according to the preamble part of claim 1 .", "[0002] Such a device is known from e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 4,312,334.", "BACKGROUND ART [0003] Ribfractures are very painful, especially if more ribs are fractured simultaneously.", "The fractured ribs loose their mechanical stability, moreover, in specific cases, such as e.g. window-fractures, they are not capable any more of keeping the chest so thrown out that the lung inside could work undisturbed.", "This can be noticed especially at breathing when the patient experiences pain und this makes him/her to breath flatly (reduced forced vital capacity, FVC), or (in case of multiple fractures) forcing the patient to breath in a paradox way, in which the chest parts paricipating in breathing move in the opposite direction as usual.", "As in most of the rib fracture cases no intervention is performed, but natural healing occurs, it is desirable to administer some medicine for killing the pain of the patient in order to achieve better breathing.", "[0004] It has already been known for a long time that for immobilizing fractured ribs, the side with the fracture in the thorax can be fixed by an adhesive plaster, in order to reduce the movement of the fractured rib, however, this is usually not sufficient.", "There is a suggestion (GB-A-624,425) to use bundle-like, stretchable stripes instead of the plaster, which can be prestreched by means of a releasable stretching device.", "However, those immobilizing devices ensure a limited movability in the region of the fracture, but, at the same time, they hinder breathing to a large extent, as well.", "[0005] The earlier mentioned description U.S. Pat. No. 4,312,334 suggests to bind a frame around the patient the front side of the frame consisting of two vertical, arched supporting elements over the chest.", "The indented part of the thorax being in the fracture area is drawn out by means of a wire fixed on its one end to the chest and on the other end to the regarding supporting element.", "In this way, the fractured ribs can be kept in a position suitable for healing, easing the breathing resp.", "reducing pain.", "[0006] The draw-backs of this arrangement are partly the necessary intervention and the difficulty in positioning the wire, and partly the hindering of the patient in his/her movements by the streched wire and the frame.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0007] Based on the above, the task of the present invention is to create an analgesic immobilizing device for use in thorax fractures eliminating the draw-backs of the devices known, the device is simple to produce, easy to apply, quite safe to use and the application of the device results in a reduction of pain and improvement of breathing, without influencing significantly the free movement of the patient.", "[0008] The task is solved according to features described in claim 1 .", "The essence of the invention lies in a flat splint element covering the fracture area and possibly the fractured rib(s) and the neighbouring, not fractured ribs as well, which splint is provided with an adhesive layer on its side facing the body suitable for adhering the immobilizing device to the body.", "The splint element can be adhered to the fractured part of the thorax (fracture area) so that preferably the neighbouring, not fractured parts are also covered.", "The fractured ribs can be thus secured by the splint element being relatively rigid in itself, and at the same time, can be supported also by the uninjured ribs.", "This stabilization leads to reducing the pain and can facilitate breathing.", "[0009] In a preferred embodiment of the invention the splint element can be fitted to the outside contour of the thorax particularly without any additional aid or tool, whereas it preferably contains a deformable plastic plate or a plastically deformable metal plate.", "This plate increases further the efficiency of the splint and makes its application simpler.", "[0010] The plastically deformable metal plate is made preferably of aluminium, where the plastically deformable metal plate is corrugated in order to improve local deformability with increasing at the same time the rigidity, and the crests of corrugations of the plate are essentially parallel to the ribs to be treated.", "Such a splint material has already successful applications for different purposes (WO-A1-97/22312).", "[0011] The wear of such a splint element can be made more comfortable so that the upper and/or lower side of the splint element is provided with a covering, made preferably of some tissue, or of an elastic foam material particularly provided with open pores.", "In addition, some perforation can also be made in the splint element in order to achieve better permeability of the immobilizing device.", "[0012] In order to protect the immobilizing device against external effects, such as water or similar substances, it is preferable to use a protecting foil for covering the upper side of the splint element.", "This protecting foil can be adhered onto the splint element after applying the splint on the body.", "A protection of the sides can also be achieved in easy way so that the foil over the splint element sticks out on the sides, and forms a continuous rimstrip, whereas the lower side of the protecting foil is also provided with an adhesive layer in the field of the rimstrip.", "[0013] In order to reduce further the pain caused by rib fractures it is preferred if the immobilizing device is provided additionally also with some local analgesic substance.", "For this purpose, pain killers may be contained in pads or cushions coupled to the immobilizing device by a releasable bond.", "Another possibility is that parts of or the total of the adhesive layer contains a pain killer.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES [0014] The invention will be explained on the basis of figures showing some embodiments.", "[0015] FIG. 1 illustrates a very simplified perspective view of a first embodiment of the immobilizing device of the invention for putting to rest position the injured ribs, [0016] FIG. 2 shows a top view of the immobilizing device shown in FIG. 1 , [0017] FIG. 3 is a top view from the front of an example of rib fracture showing four ribs from among which the second from the top is fractured, [0018] FIG. 4 shows the rib fracture in FIG. 3 in a simplified section along the line IV-IV with the fracture area, [0019] FIG. 5 is a top view from the front of a second embodiment of the invention showing the immobilizing device adhered to the rib fracture shown in FIG. 3 , [0020] FIG. 6 illuestrates the effect of the adhered immobilizing device in a view similar to that in FIG. 4 , [0021] FIG. 7 shows an enlarged view of a section through the immobilizing device shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 .", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0022] The device according to the invention is applied to fractured (thorax fractures) or bruized ribs.", "In these cases the object is to prevent the movement of the injured ribs in the chest, or at least to reduce it to a great extent.", "It is especially of advantage that in case of a window-fracture (e.g. when more ribs being in a distance from each other are fractured forming thereby a window in the chest), the paradox breathing characteristic in these cases can be influenced in a positive way.", "[0023] An embodiment of such an immobilizing device and its application are shown in a significantly simplified way in FIGS. 1 and 2 .", "FIG. 1 shows the scheme of four ribs 15 - 18 from one side of a chest 13 , from among which the second rib from the top, rib 16 has a fracture 14 .", "The tissue and skin layers of the body over ribs 15 - 18 are not shown for simplicity reasons.", "The intercostal musculature is not shown either.", "A flat, splint-like immobilizing device 10 fitted to the arching of chest 13 is adhered to the area of chest 13 surrounding fracture 14 , on a large part of, or on the total surface.", "The main component of the immobilizing device 10 consists of a splint element 12 ( FIG. 2 ) in form of a plate made of a suitably rigid but plastically deformable material.", "Adhering is achieved by applying an appropriate adhesive layer 11 on the inside of splint element 12 , similarly to plasters ( FIG. 2 ).", "The size (lateral dimension) of the immobilizing device 10 is chosen preferably so that the immobilizing device 10 covers not only the injured rib 16 , but also the neighbouring ribs 15 and 17 in a sufficient manner.", "[0024] Through adhering, the immobilizing device 10 is supported by the not fractured part of the injured rib(s) and by the uninjured neighbouring ribs 15 and 17 and keeps the fractured rib 16 in a fixed position relative to the neighbouring ribs 15 and 17 .", "This hinders to a great extent any painful movement of the injured rib 16 at breathing, coughing, laughing or in other similar situations eliminating or at least reducing thereby the pain caused by these movements.", "[0025] Additionally, some means can also be applied locally to the inside of the immobilizing device 10 for reducing the pain caused by the injured rib 16 .", "Preferably pads or cushions impregnated with some analgesic material having its effect through the skin are used, which are connected to the inside of immobilizing device 10 by a releasable bond, e.g. by adhering or by hook and loop fastener.", "Another solution may be to impregnate parts of or the total adhesive layer 11 with a suitable pain killer.", "[0026] The effect of the immobilizing device 10 according to the present invention may be explained on the basis of FIGS. 3-6 .", "In this case, we also have four parallel ribs 15 - 18 , from among which the second one from the top, rib 16 has a fracture 14 (of course, it is also possible that more fractured ribs are present).", "Considering the section of the chest along the line IV-IV in FIG. 3 , the configuration shown in FIG. 4 is obtained in a simplified form.", "Ribs 15 - 18 are embedded into intercostal musculatur 21 serving, among other things, for breathing.", "This is covered by a multilayer consisting of skin and fat tissues which, in a simplified way, can be denoted as a skin/fat tissue layer 20 .", "In the area of fracture (fracture area 19 ), the fractured rib 16 looses at least in part its stability, and as a result, a frictional movement (marked in FIGS. 3 and 4 by duble arrows) of the ends of the fracture relatively to each other may occur causing significant pain to the patient at any movement of the chest.", "[0027] If, according to FIGS. 5 and 6 a flat immobilizing device 22 is adhered to fracture area 19 involving rib 16 and preferably to the not injured ribs 15 , 17 and 18 as well, fracture area 19 is stabilized so that rib 16 is immobilized in se and also relative to the other ribs 15 , 17 and 18 .", "This leads to a less painful breathing of the patient improving thereby the way of his/her breathing, as well.", "[0028] Clinical experiments were carried out in 42 patients (33 of them using the immobilizing device, 9 being in the control group) which patients had fractures up to 5 neighbouring ribs, in which experiments the intensity of pain was determined by an analogous scale before the admission of the patients to the study, and 1-2, 24 and 48 hours after that.", "In comparing with the control group, the intensity of pain in rest (p<0.05), and especially at forced inspiration (p<0.01) was over the whole period significantly less than in the control patients.", "The reduction of pain owing to the use of immobilizing devices 10 or 22 was measurable already even 1 hour after putting them on, whereas the control patients experienced a measurable reduction of pain only after 2-3 days.", "[0029] Spirometric measurements were carried out in 18 patients before, and 1-2, 24 and 48 hours after the adhering of the immobilizing device (in several patients in all these periods).", "Two different sizes of immobilizing devices (12×17 cm and 15×18 cm) were used according to the size of the fracture area.", "In five further patients (control patients) was the fracture area covered only by operation pads.", "In these control patients the forced vital capacity (FVC) hindered by the fracture, was further reduced by 174 ml in the average after 1-2 hours, and improved within further 24 or 48 hours only by 4 or 34 ml.", "To the contrary, in patients treated with the immobilizing device, the FVC continuously and significantly improved (p<0.001), by 153 ml in the average already after 1-2 hours, and by 384 and 474 ml after 24 and 48 hours, after the application of the immobilizing device.", "Just like FVC, the spirometric parameters FEV1, IVC and PEF improved also by using the immobilizing device.", "[0030] A preferred embodiment of immobilizing device 22 is shown in FIGS. 5-7 .", "The immobilizing device 22 comprises a flat splint element 24 as central component, in the present case made of a corrugated aluminium plate.", "The thickness and corrugation of the plate are chosen so that splint element 24 may be fitted easily to the area of the fracture to be treated in the arching of the chest by bare hands without any additional aid, and on the other hand, it is appropriately rigid for its function as support and immobilizing means for the fracture.", "Splint elements described in WO-A1-97/22312 are also suitable for this purpose (this is why the dates about the material used in that description are taken over in the present application).", "[0031] In order to fit immobilizing device 22 best to the chest, the crests of the corrugations of splint element 24 are arranged parallel to the ribs.", "Splint element 24 is provided with a covering 25 on its lower side and covering 23 on its upper side for making its wearing more comfortable.", "Coverings 23 and 25 are preferably made of an elastic, foamed open-pored or perforated plastic material.", "Covering 25 at the lower side is provided with an adhesive layer 26 on its outer surface, by means of which the immobilizing device 22 can be adhered to the fracture area.", "As adhesive materials for the adhesive layer, every adhesive suitable for medical applications can be used.", "During application, the upper side of the immobilizing device 22 , e.g. the outer surface of covering 23 is adhered to a protecting foil 27 which is greater on the sides than the covering, thus forming a protruding rim 28 ( FIG. 5 ).", "If the protecting foil 27 with its protruding rim 28 is adhered to the skin of the patient, immobilizing device 22 is protected against external effects, thus the patient can e.g. take a shower without any negative consequence.", "The protecting foil is permeable for air (so called breathing foil) and water-tight.", "Splint elements 24 in the present invention may be made of other materials than corrugated aluminium plate, such as plastic plates or similar materials being rigid enough and at the same time, sufficiently plastically deformable.", "Splint element 24 is preferably provided with holes, e.g. in form of a perforation, in order to be permeable and being more comfortable to wear.", "REFERENCE NUMBERS [0000] 10 , 22 immobilizing device 11 adhesive layer 12 splint element (flat) 13 chest 14 fracture 15 - 18 ribs 19 fracture area 20 skin/fat tissue layer 21 intercostal musculature 23 upper covering 24 splint element (flat) 25 lower covering 26 adhesive layer 27 protecting foil 28 rim (protecting foil)" ]

[ "FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to magnetic components formed on a semiconductor substrate basically by the same process steps involved in the manufacturing of an integrated circuit.", "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The invention concerns in particular, but not exclusively, electronic devices wherein one or more transistors and one or more passive components are integrated monolithically, and provides for the formation of a magnetic circuit structure concurrently therewith.", "The description to follow makes reference to this application of the invention for convenience of illustration only.", "Passive elements, such as resistors and capacitors, are easily formed along with active components (diodes and transistors) in semiconductor electronic devices.", "For certain applications, the availability of inductors would be highly desirable.", "Circuit configurations which haven't been integrated so far because of the unavailability of such components, would then be possible.", "Unfortunately, one of the features inherent to a magnetic circuit is the need for large areas or volumes in order to produce acceptable inductance values.", "The main difficulty lies in the formation of a structure which is three-dimensional in concept within an integrated circuit which is bi-dimensional in nature (all the active structures are located within a few microns from one of the two surfaces).", "As is well known, to form a magnetic circuit in a semiconductor component one must integrate on the silicon one or more inductors generating a magnetic field.", "An adequately exhaustive survey of practicable implementations is contained in U.S. Pat. No. 5,095,357.", "FIGS. 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 of that document illustrate different solutions to the commonest problems posed by that, i.e. the magnetic circuit is a three-dimensional element in concept, the host integrated circuit is basically a bi-dimensional structure.", "A feature shared by all of the solutions proposed in the above-referenced document, but for that shown in FIG. 13, is the generation of a magnetic field perpendicular to the semiconductor substrate.", "An evident disadvantage of this feature is represented by the induction of the magnetic field in the substrate altering the performance of the active components therein.", "It's known from the fundamental laws of physics and electromagnetism that any magnetic circuit produces magnetic induction and an associated electric field.", "Also known to anyone of ordinary skill in the art of integrated circuits is that the operation of an active component, such as an integrated transistor, is based on the movement of charges of opposite signs through a region of the semiconductor material.", "Thus, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the presence of magnetic fields with lines of force perpendicular and/or parallel to the silicon surface, unless suitably controlled, may cause considerable disturbance and make the operation of the electronic components in the integrated circuit unpredictable.", "An example of this phenomenon, albeit referred to a magnetic field perpendicular to the substrate, is illustrated in FIG. 2. Another disadvantage of the solutions listed in the reference, and illustrated by FIGS. 1 to 12, comes from the area required to form the coils and from the complexity inherent to providing a number of coupled coils, when transformers are to be formed.", "A further disadvantage of such solutions is the capacitive coupling to the substrate of the conductors of which the coils are made.", "FIG. 13 shows a magnetic component wherein the flux lies parallel to the surface of the semiconductor substrate.", "While achieving its objective, not even this solution is entirely devoid of shortcomings.", "The circuit of FIG. 13, although parallel to the surface of the semiconductor substrate, also generates a magnetic field whose flux lines fan out into the environment and, therefore, into the semiconductor material, at both ends of the winding.", "In addition, the inductor winding forming part of the magnetic circuit extends over both faces of the substrate, that is, each element of the coil is passed successively from one face to the other of the substrate by connections which extend through the substrate.", "It will be appreciated that this is an attempt at bringing the magnetic circuit back to a three-dimensional configuration, while the world of integrated circuits is basically bi-dimensional.", "Those skilled in the art will recognize that this technique is very unusual in the manufacturing of integrated circuits, and its adoption would entail substantial modifications to the standard manufacturing methods, including the application of lithographic processes to both surfaces of the semiconductor substrate.", "Furthermore, the problem of the magnetic field induced in the substrate remains unsolved, even though this problem is somewhat mitigated by the field lines being parallel to the substrate surface, whereby some of the flux is passed into the air and some into the substrate.", "Easily seen from the figures are, on the other hand, the complications involved in the manufacturing of structures with multiple coupled windings (FIGS.", "13a-e).", "Yet another disadvantage associated with the aforementioned prior art is that all the solutions proposed have an open magnetic flux: FIGS. 12 to 15 showing solutions which are of an extreme complexity and less than fully successful in their attempt at producing transformers against such a limitation.", "This invention concerns structures of a magnetic device which can be integrated on a semiconductor substrate, consistent with the manufacturing techniques for a standard integrated circuit.", "These structures provide improved performance over the prior art (including reduced area consumption), prevent magnetic flux losses (that is, ensure better utilization of the magnetic flux generated), and reduce the capacitive coupling to the substrate, while allowing the integration of transformers on a semiconductor substrate concurrently with an integrated circuit.", "The transformers occupy a limited area and have high magnetic coupling capabilities, thereby overcoming the aforementioned limitations and/or drawbacks of the prior art.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The technical problem is solved by a semiconductor device having one or more active components and one or more passive components, including a magnetic component, integrated thereon.", "This invention concerns the integration of inductor and/or transformer structures in integrated circuits having several metallization levels.", "This invention mainly distinguishes itself from prior art approaches mainly because of the following reasons: 1) the provision of a core which allows a significantly higher inductance per occupied unit area;", "2) the suppression of the magnetic field induced in the substrate by providing closed geometries;", "and 3) the possibility of integrating transformers with multiple windings on one core.", "The device preferably comprises a semiconductor substrate with a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first;", "at least one first electric conductor laid on the first surface;", "at least one first layer of an insulating material at least partially covering the first conductor;", "at least one layer of a magnetic material over the first insulating material layer;", "at least a second layer of an insulating material at least partially covering the magnetic material;", "at least a second conductor overlying the second insulating material layer;", "and at least first and second vertical conductive connections arranged to connect at least the first electric conductor to at least the second electric conductor, so as to form a first helical structure around the magnetic material which comprises at least the first conductor, at least the second conductor, and at least one of said first and second vertical conductive connections.", "The above structure constitutes the elementary coil turn of a magnetic circuit structure having a closed-loop magnetic core around which one or more coil turns are wound.", "Based on this idea, the technical problem is also solved by a semiconductor device having one or more active components and one or more passive components, including a magnetic component, integrated thereon and characterized in that the magnetic component has a closed magnetic core.", "In the last-mentioned case, toroidal inductors could be provided which exhibit no magnetic field losses even in the absence of a magnetic core.", "In this way, magnetic components can be provided which have a strong magnetic field, a closed core, a low area occupation on the semiconductor material, and are fully consistent with standard integrated circuit manufacturing processes.", "More particularly, in accordance with the invention, the formed elementary helical structures can be connected together to provide windings with a desired value of inductance, the magnetic core of each elementary magnetic structure can advantageously be connected to that of the next structure, and extended to form a closed magnetic core in order to avoid losses of the generated magnetic field and thus prevent it from affecting the characteristics of the electronic components integrated on the semiconductor material.", "In particular, the main steps of forming the magnetic component such as deposition, oxide growing, lithography, and etching, which are widely used in the manufacturing of integrated circuits, can be carried out without difficulties in the processing of the magnetic materials which may include deposition or galvanic processing according to the material of choice.", "This may take place after the deposition and definition of the first metallic interconnect level, and in processes providing for more than two interconnect levels, only affect the last interconnect level.", "Those skilled in the art know well how yield rate may be penalized by the contamination introduced by such "foul"", "process steps as are galvanic depositions in the manufacturing environment of semiconductor device with submicron geometries.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a prior art inductor.", "FIGS. 2a and 2b are plan and perspective views, respectively, of a prior art inductor.", "FIGS. 3a, 3b and 3c are perspective, plan, and sectional views, respectively, of a prior art inductor employing two electrically interconnected coils.", "FIGS. 4 and 5 show in plan view two different embodiments of devices which include a prior art inductor.", "FIGS. 6a and 6b are plan and sectional views, respectively, of a prior art coil inductor.", "FIGS. 7, 8a and 8b are plan and sectional views of prior art coil turn constructions.", "FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a prior art transformer employing two coil inductors laid onto different surfaces separated by an insulating film.", "FIGS. 10a, 10b and 10c are one sectional and two plan views, respectively, of a prior art transformer having a magnetic sheet between its coil turns.", "FIGS. 11a, 11b and 11c are plan, sectional, and perspective views, respectively, of a prior art transformer having two windings and a ferrite core laid onto the surface of a gallium arsenide substrate.", "FIGS. 12a, 12b and 12c are plan, sectional, and perspective views, respectively, of a prior art transformer having multiple windings and a ferrite core laid onto the surface of a gallium arsenide substrate.", "FIGS. 13a to 13e are a perspective view, two side views, a fragmentary view, an exploded view and another fragmentary view, respectively, of a prior art transformer having a helical coil surrounded by another helical coil, both coils being formed of conductors laid on either surfaces of a semiconductor substrate and connected by electrically conductive throughgoing connections.", "FIGS. 14a and 14b are two side views of a modification of the transformer shown in FIG. 13a, according to the prior art.", "FIG. 15 is a plan view of an inductor according to the invention.", "FIG. 16 is a plan view of a transformer according to the invention.", "FIG. 17 is a plan view of a possible modified construction of some coil turns of an inductor according to the invention.", "FIG. 18 is a plan view of some coil turns of the inductor in FIG. 15.", "FIG. 19 is a plan view of some coil turns of two inductors coupled in a coaxial fashion.", "FIG. 20 shows an integrated circuit including a magnetic circuit according to the invention.", "FIGS. 20a and 20b are perspective and sectional views, respectively, of a portion of a coil construction according to the invention.", "FIG. 21 is a sectional view showing schematically a coil turn constructed in accordance with the invention.", "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to the drawing figures, schematically shown at 100 is a device, embodying this invention, for forming a magnetic component, monolithically integrated on a semiconductor substrate together with other active and passive components.", "The embodiments of the invention will be discussed herein against the art background highlight the advantages of the invention over the prior art.", "In particular, FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a conventional inductor on a semiconductor substrate 1 which may be gallium arsenide, for example.", "In this inductor, a coiled conductor 2 is provided on a first surface of the substrate 1.", "The term "coil"", "means here a winding whose diameter increases from a center point out, with the conductor length.", "The coil may have either a round shape laid into a flat spiral of gradually increasing diameter, or a squared one, like those shown in FIG. 1. The coil is built up of metal either by evaporation or deposition, and includes an outer terminal 3 located outside the coil and an inner terminal 4 inside the coil.", "In FIG. 1, the outer terminal 3 is shown connected to a terminal 5 for convenient connection to other circuit components by wire or other connecting techniques.", "The inner terminal 4 is taken by a connection 6 to a terminal 7 for external connection-making purposes.", "The connection 6 goes through the windings of the conductor 2, and accordingly, must be insulated electrically therefrom.", "A conductive sheet 8 is provided on the opposite face of the substrate 1 from the conductor 2.", "FIGS. 9(a) and 2(b) show a plan view and a sectional view of a prior art inductor which is similar to the inductor of FIG. 1. An air bridge 9 enclosing an empty space 10 is included in the connection 6 to provide electrical isolation from the windings of the conductor 2.", "The air bridge is formed with a conventional technology, using a temporary support arranged to shield off the windings 2 while the metal for the air bridge 9 is being deposited.", "Once the metal is deposited, the temporary support is removed, e.g. by means of a solvent, to leave a self-supporting air bridge.", "Using conventional technologies, the gap between the metal of the air bridge and the conductor 2 can be a few microns at most.", "With so small a gap, even though the dielectric constant of air between the connection 6 and the turns 2 is relatively low, a significant parasitic capacitance exists at the air bridge 9 between the turns 2 and the connection 6.", "Respectively shown in perspective, plan, and section view in FIGS. 3(a), 3(b) and 3(c) is a further inductive structure.", "The substrate 1 employed in the structure, which may be made of a semiconductor material, has been omitted from FIG. 3(a) for clarity.", "The inductive structure of FIGS. 3(a)-(c) comprises two coiled conductors 2 and 12 located on opposite faces.", "The inner terminal 4 of the coil 2 is connected electrically to an outer terminal 13 of the coil 12 by means of a conductor 15.", "The inductive structure has a first terminal 5 connected electrically to the outer terminal 3 of the coil 2, and a second terminal 7 connected to the inner terminal 14 of the coil 12.", "A construction of the inductive structure depicted schematically in FIG. 3(a) is shown in section in FIG. 3(c).", "The structure is produced by depositing metal geometries together with insulating layers 20, 30, 40 and 50 laid in succession onto the substrate 1.", "After depositing the insulating layer 20, a window is cut first to establish the contact with a high-conductivity region 1a in the substrate 1.", "Thereafter, the coil 2 is formed by depositing a metal and defining its geometry.", "Then, the insulating layer 30 is deposited and a window is cut to form a connection to the inner terminal 4 of the coil 2.", "Following a further metal deposition and its patterning to form an interconnection with the conductor 15, the insulating layer 40 is deposited and a window is cut.", "After yet another metal deposition and the formation of the coil 12, while making an electric connection in the window to the outer terminal 13 of the coil 12, a final insulating layer 50 is deposited.", "The inductance of the structure shown in FIGS. 3(a)-(c) is the inductance of the individual coils plus a mutual inductance between the two coils.", "Since the mutual inductance between the two coils is larger than that to be had with the coils laid side-by-side, the overall inductance is larger than the inductance of two side-by-side coils, and less volume is occupied.", "However, the manufacturing process for the structure of FIGS. 3(a)-(c) is an extremely complicated one, and, as it happens to the conventional device described with reference to FIGS. 2(a) and 2(b), the spacing of the two coils is constrained by the thickness of the insulating layers 20, 30, 40 and 50.", "Consequently, in the structure of FIGS. 3(a)-(c), a significantly increased parasitic capacitance will be produced which restricts the useful frequency range.", "A known method of reducing the parasitic capacitance of a flat coil inductive structure is illustrated in FIGS. 6(a) and 6(b).", "In these plan and sectional views, a conductive coil 2 is suspended above the surface of a substrate 1 by a set of conductive pins 25.", "The metal pins 25 are separated from one another by gaps 26.", "The dielectric constant of air is approximately one, and is smaller than that of the underlying substrate, which may be twelve, for example, when the substrate is gallium arsenide.", "The supporting structure of FIGS. 6(a) and 6(b) lowers the capacitance between adjacent windings of the coil 2, effectively bringing the dielectric constant between windings from twelve down to one.", "However, the pins 25 will contribute an amount of parasitic capacitance.", "A transformer structure according to the prior art is shown in the exploded view of FIG. 9. This transformer structure comprises an insulating substrate 1 onto which insulating layers 20, 30 and 40 are laid successively.", "The conducting coils 2 and 12 are laid onto the layers 20 and 40, respectively.", "Each layer includes a hole passing through the respective insulating layers, through which the conductors 26 and 27 extend respectively to an underlying layer, the layer 30 for the coil 2 and the substrate 1 for the coil 12.", "These conductors led through the insulating layers provide electric connection to respective contacts 6 from the inner terminals 4 and 14 of the coils 2 and 12.", "The two coils 2 and 12 are coextensive, i.e. wound in the same direction, and laid one on top of the other in order to maximize their mutual inductive coupling.", "The mutual inductance of the two coils is governed by their relative geometries and the thickness of the insulating layer.", "However, the mutual inductance of the coils is limited, because the permeability of the adjacent material is relatively low.", "FIGS. 10(a)-(c) show, in section and plan view, another transformer structure intended for semiconductor integrated circuits according to the prior art.", "This transformer employs a layer of a relatively high permeability material to improve the inductive coupling of two windings.", "In this conventional structure, a conductive coil is provided on an insulating substrate 1.", "A second winding 28 comprises a one-turn loop which is separated from the coil 2 by an insulating layer 30.", "A ferromagnetic layer 31 is encapsulated within the insulating layer 29 between the coil 2 and the winding 28.", "The ferromagnetic layer 31 being located between the coil 2 and the winding 28, rather than within their central openings, would not be significantly effective to improve the inductive coupling of these two conductors.", "Thus, a large mutual inductance and a high transformer efficiency are difficult to achieve with such prior art structures.", "FIGS. 11(a), 11(b) and 11(c) are plan, section, and perspective views, respectively, of an another transformer in a conventional semiconductor integrated circuit.", "In this structure, a one-turn winding 28 consisting of a thin metal film is provided on the surface of a semiconductor substrate, e.g. of gallium arsenide.", "The winding 28 has a pair of connections 32.", "An insulating film 33, e.g. of silicon nitride (SiN) or silicon oxynitride (SiON), is formed onto the winding 28.", "Another one-turn winding 34 is provided on the insulator 33 directly above and opposite to the winding 28.", "The windings 28, 34 and the insulating film 33 have common central openings which are generally aligned to each other to form a single core.", "A ferromagnetic body 36 made of ferrite, for example, is provided within these common central openings to improve the mutual inductance of the windings 28 and 34.", "The magnetic permeability of the body 36 is significantly higher than that of the substrate 1.", "Further, by having the magnetic body disposed inside the common core of the two windings 28, 4, a good magnetic coupling can be achieved between the windings.", "Therefore, this embodiment provides a relatively high mutual inductance, i.e. a highly efficient transformer.", "As is well known in the art, the permeability of ferrite materials can be in a range upwards of two hundred and fifty, ensuring a very strong coupling between the two windings 28, 34.", "As shown in FIGS. 11(a) and 11(c), the connections 32 and 35 of the respective windings are preferably aligned along different directions to avoid undesired capacitive coupling therebetween.", "The structures of FIGS. 11(a)-(c) may be fabricated in part using conventional semiconductor device techniques, such as by patterning geometries of metals and insulating layers by photolithography, and may form parts of integrated circuits on a substrate which includes interconnected active and passive circuit elements.", "The ferromagnetic body 36 is formed separately and then fitted into the common central openings of the windings and the insulating film 33.", "Alternatively, the ferromagnetic material may be deposited into the common openings of the windings and the insulating layer using deposition techniques, followed by further steps as appropriate to provide the desired ferromagnetic properties.", "Preferably, the ferromagnetic material is deposited after depositing and patterning the geometries of the windings 28, 34 and their insulating film 33.", "FIGS. 12(a), 12(b) and 12(c) show plan, section, and perspective views, respectively, of an extension of the structure shown in FIGS. 11(a)-(c).", "The structure of FIGS. 12(a)-(c) is identical with that of FIGS. 11(a)-(c), except that a second insulating film 37 is provided on the winding 34 and a third winding 38 provided on the insulating film 37.", "This third winding 38 includes the connection 39.", "The connections of the three windings are routed in different directions.", "The magnetic body 36 depth is increased to fill the common core of the three windings and the two interposed insulating layers.", "This stack may be provided with additional windings and insulating layers.", "This embodiment is produced in the same way as the embodiment of FIGS. 11(a)-(c), except that additional process steps are required to deposit the second insulating layer 37 and the conductor forming the winding 38.", "The same good mutual coupling is achieved, only that it will take place among three rather than between two conductors.", "The technology of monolithic integrated circuits makes transformers with one-turn windings easy to manufacture, but these components have inherently low mutual inductances between their windings.", "In the prior art construction illustrated by FIGS. 11 and 12 in continuation, the mutual inductance and transformer efficiency of the one-turn windings are significantly improved over the structures of the previous conventional construction of FIG. 10(a), because the ferromagnetic material is closer to the transformer windings.", "However, not even this solution is devoid of shortcomings.", "In fact, it will be apparent that the structure described, while being an improvement over the previous ones, requires process steps not usually employed in a standard integrated circuit manufacturing process.", "Of these, the heterogeneity from the superimposition of several insulating and metal films compared to the integrated circuit manufacturing process is apparent;", "a magnetic core is then inserted at the film center as a separately prepared solid body, through a series of steps which make the process definitely non-planar.", "Also apparent is that, with a perpendicular magnetic flux to the substrate, the resultant structure would fail to meet the requirement for non-disturbance to the adjacent integrated components, being it evident that a substantial portion of the flux generated by the magnetic circuit, whether this happens to be an inductor or a transformer, is injected into the substrate.", "This phenomenon is exacerbated by the magnetic circuit described being an open core design, and therefore, susceptible to leakage of the generated magnetic field into the environment, be this the semiconductor substrate or the air.", "Another prior art transformer construction is shown in FIGS. 13(a)-(e).", "This transformer construction comprises a first, generally helical coil 47 surrounded by a second coil 48, also generally helical.", "The term "helical"", "means here a three-dimensional winding closely resembling a wire wound around a coil;", "however, the term also encompasses a winding which has corners in the wire.", "FIG. 13(a) is a perspective view of the above construction, and FIGS. 13(b) and 13(c) are side views of the construction in FIG. 13(a).", "These views include a large number of imaginary lines and superimposed elements which can be more easily understood by having reference to FIGS. 13(d) and 13(e).", "Considering FIG. 13(e) first, an insulating substrate 1 comprises a set of holes 51 which penetrate the substrate from a surface 43 to a surface 44 and are filled with a conductive material, such as a metal.", "The substrate 1 may be a semiconductor, e.g. gallium arsenide or indium phosphide.", "Pairs of holes are connected electrically to the surface 43 of the substrate 1 by electric conductors 53.", "Likewise, in the construction shown in FIG. 13(e), an electric conductor 52 provided on the surface 44 of the substrate connects electrically two of the holes on the surface 44.", "Two of the holes 51 are connected to their respective connections 54 provided on the surface 44.", "Thus, as FIG. 13(e) brings out, an inductive helical structure is first prepared which closely resembles a wound coil.", "The helical structure 48 that surrounds the helical structure 47 can be more clearly understood by having reference to FIG. 13(d).", "FIG. 13(d) is an exploded view, and the structure 47 has been omitted therefrom for clarity.", "After forming the helical structure 47, the insulating layers 41 and 42 are laid onto the surfaces 43 and 44 of the substrate 1.", "The insulating layers 41 and 42 cover the conductors 53 and 52, respectively.", "Thereafter, the electrically conducting holes 56 are formed which penetrate the insulating layers 41, 42 and the substrate 1.", "Pairs of holes exposed on the surface 45 of the insulating layer 41 are interconnected electrically by the conductors 58.", "A conductor interconnects two of the holes 56 on the surface 46 of the insulating layer 42.", "The electric connections 58 located on the surface 46 respectively contact one of the holes 56 to provide the external contacts of the structure.", "On completion of these helices, the structure of FIG. 13(a) is obtained.", "The process steps described up to now may seem conventional in the manufacture of integrated circuits, such as the formation of holes and their filling with metal, but actually they are unusual.", "It is in fact unusual to provide throughgoing holes in the semiconductor substrate and interconnect its two surfaces with metal inserted thereinto, even though this technique may bear some similarity to the formation of holes.", "Nor is the utilization of both faces of the semiconductor material conventional in the manufacturing of integrated circuits.", "The technique of lithography applied to both surfaces of the substrate is not current practice in the manufacturing processes of integrated circuits of high-complexity, mainly because of the difficulty of ensuring alignment for submicron geometries located on opposite sides of the substrate.", "Coming back to the description of the prior art construction, it can be seen that the helix 48 is laid around the helix 47, which maximizes the inductive coupling between the helices.", "Also suggested, as in the case of the construction in FIG. 6, is the removal of the insulating films to leave in their place structures resembling air bridges.", "Here too, we are confronted with process steps that are inconsistent with the manufacturing of integrated circuits.", "The structure of FIG. 13(a) provides a good mutual coupling between the helix structures, because these can be so close together, but the coupling can be improved by the inclusion of a material having a relatively high magnetic permeability between the two helices.", "An example of such a transformer is shown in FIGS. 14(a) and 14(b), which are side views similar to those of FIGS. 13(b) and 13(c).", "Besides the elements shown in FIGS. 13(b) and 13(c), in the embodiment of the invention shown in FIGS. 14(a) and 14(b), a magnetic material 36, such as ferrite, is provided in the substrate 1 inside the helix 47.", "The magnetic material is a solid body placed into a cavity formed in the substrate 1 before depositing the conductors 52 and 53.", "Even the provision of materials, such as ferrite, into pre-arranged cavities in the substrate, as previously mentioned, is an operation normally ruled out in ordinary integrated circuit manufacturing processes.", "All the arrangements described so far, with particular reference to FIGS. 13 and 14 and in relation to the state of the art, are invariably characterized by the provision of an open core.", "As a result, the only way of ensuring coupling between a number of windings has been that of providing coaxial windings which are contained one within the other.", "This entails, additionally to the use of four metallic interconnect levels, as previously mentioned, processing on both surfaces of the semiconductor substrate.", "The inventive idea consists in providing a closed core magnetic device.", "The coupling between two windings occurs, in the case of transformers, through the material that forms the core.", "And since the core is a closed one, no losses will occur either into the substrate or the air, as it is well known from the theory of magnetic circuits.", "This allows, in the case of transformers, more than one winding to be formed by just laying coil turns beside each other and suitably connecting them as shown in FIG. 16, without increasing the number of the interconnect levels, thereby to provide multiple taps and, hence, a range of output voltages.", "The prior art construction of multi-tapped transformers, i.e. transformers with multiple windings, such as the construction shown in FIG. 14, involves the addition of two interconnect levels for each additional winding.", "In the construction according to the invention, the number of the interconnect levels employed is wholly unrelated to the number of windings.", "Further embodiments of inductors, exhibiting the problems previously discussed, are described in the following references: 1) JP (A) 61-53760;", "2) J. Y. C. Chang, A. A. Abidi and M. Gaitan, "Large Suspended Inductors on Silicon and Their Use in a 2-micron CMOS RF Amplifier", Electron Device Letters, Vol. 14, No. 5, May 1993, pp. 246-248;", "3) JP (A) 61-268054;", "and 4) JP (A) 1-179444.", "Reference 1) above deals with an inductor formed of a coil positioned along the device edge (FIG.", "4), or in a dedicated area (FIG.", "5).", "Indicated at 1 is the semiconductor substrate whereon the integrated circuit 101 is formed.", "The magnetic coil is shown at 2;", "3 and 4 being its terminals.", "The connection for taking the terminal 3 of the coil to the terminal 105 of the integrated circuit is designated 6 and 105 is the integrated circuit terminal connected to the coil.", "The other terminal 105 of the integrated circuit is coincident with 4.", "This solution provides low inductance values per unit area and large induced currents in the substrate (the magnetic field is perpendicular to the plane of the coil and, therefore, to the device surface).", "Furthermore, providing coupled inductors is difficult, and the integration of transformers almost impossible.", "Reference 2) above proposes a reduction in the capacitive coupling between the inductor (made by the same technique as described in FIG. 6) and the substrate by a process of selective removal thereof (but for the four corners of the coils).", "Thus, the inductor will remain suspended above the substrate and only attached to it at the four corners.", "It is well known to the skilled ones in the art of integrated circuit manufacture that the technique of etching a material from beneath another to leave a volume of air is not commonly employed to fabricate conventional integrated circuits.", "References 3) and 4) above relate to a solenoid whose coil turns are formed by a set of parallel segments from two suitably connected metallization layers.", "FIGS. 7 and 8 illustrate the constructions respectively described in these two references.", "Shown at 61 and 62 are two interconnect levels wherefrom the coil is formed, and 63 denotes the interconnection between the two interconnect levels, namely the holes.", "Denoted by 69 is the dielectric that isolates the two interconnect levels.", "The component is parallel to the device surface.", "At its ends, however, the magnetic field lines close outside the solenoid and induce stray currents in the substrate.", "This case also has been discussed in connection with FIG. 14.", "It should be emphasized that all of these prior art proposals involve open-core inductor constructions, and that no mention is made therein of the possible construction of closed-core coupled inductors and transformers.", "Referring to FIG. 20, which shows an embodiment of a magnetic circuit according to the invention, denoted by 1 is the semiconductor substrate, by 101 the portion of the semiconductor substrate where the active and passive components have been formed using standard integrated circuit manufacturing techniques, and by 104 the windings which comprise the magnetic circuit wound around a core 102.", "A further portion of the substrate is denoted by 103 where passive and active components have been formed, again by standard integrated circuit manufacturing techniques, these components can be utilized to provide an oscillator if suitably connected by a coil 104.", "The closed core 102 ensures the coupling between the windings 104.", "FIG. 15 illustrates a particular layout for an inductor embodying this invention.", "Here again, 61 and 62 denote the two interconnect levels used to form the elementary coil turn, and 63 denotes the conducting connection between the two interconnect levels.", "Also, shown at 102 is the magnetic core which allows coupling of the two windings in accordance with the invention.", "Further, shown at 105 are the terminals of the integrated circuit to which the inductor is connected.", "FIG. 16 shows how simple the construction of a transformer in accordance with the method of this invention can be, and how well the two or more windings are coupled when a closed magnetic core is provided.", "The figure brings out, additionally to the symbols previously described, the terminals 106 and 107 of two transformer windings for later connection to the terminals 105 of the integrated circuit.", "FIG. 17 shows a different embodiment of the coil turn of an inductor or transformer, wherein three interconnect levels are employed to reduce the resistivity of the elementary turn and, most importantly, to allow an increased thickness for the magnetic core 102 being sandwiched between the first and third interconnect levels.", "The coil turns are formed by a set of parallel segments from two metallization layers having their ends connected by holes, in an otherwise conventional arrangement.", "The difference is given by the introduction of a metal core which concentrates the magnetic field lines within the solenoid, thereby enabling the inductance per unit area to be increased.", "This core is formed from an intermediate material layer between those forming the coil turns.", "FIG. 18 is a detail view of FIG. 15 illustrating the use of two interconnect levels only.", "FIG. 19 shows another embodiment requiring four interconnect levels to provide a coaxial coupling inductor, plus the closed core, and intended for applications where the inductance value is such that he surface area of the semiconductor substrate proves insufficient for the embodiment according to FIG. 16.", "FIG. 21 is a sectional view of coil turns constructed from two interconnect levels as shown in FIG[.", "].18, for example.", "This can be viewed as a ross-section taken through the magnetic circuit, perpendicularly to the core 102, from a point contained in the vias 63.", "A dielectric 69 is formed on the substrate 1 in the area intended to contain the inductor coil turn.", "Formed over this, again by the same process steps used to form the interconnections in other areas of the device, is the lower portion of the coil turn utilizing the first interconnect level 61.", "A further dielectric layer 69 is formed with polyimide, for example, which is then patterned with the vertical conducting interconnections or vias 63 using the same techniques as for the portion which contains the integrated circuit.", "A further dielectric layer 69 is formed over the first, and the structure of the core 102 and the vias 63 is defined thereon with conventional photolithographic techniques.", "The material forming the core 102 may also be used, if desired, to make the vias 63 conductive, depending on the material employed.", "A further dielectric layer 69 and vias 63 provide the basis for forming the second interconnect level 62.", "The next dielectric layer 69 completes the magnetic coil turn structure.", "The process steps for implementing the invention are already included in the standard process flow for forming integrated circuits on a semiconductor substrate, and require no significant changes except, of course, for the additional masking steps to form the magnetic core, where provided.", "Considering the basic element of the magnetic circuit, namely the coil turn, this consists of two interconnect levels 61 and 62, usually of metal for low resistivity, and two vertical connections or vias 63 commonly used for connecting the two interconnect levels.", "The invention provides for the formation, after forming the first interconnect layer 61 and patterning the vias 63, of an insulating material layer 69, e.g. made of a polyimide, to a thickness of a few microns.", "A magnetic material, e.g. ferronickel, is deposited over the latter, and will be used to produce the core 102 of the magnetic circuit according to the invention.", "Its size and thickness are set by the characteristics of the magnetic circuit to be formed, and can be obtained by applying well known laws of physics and magnetism.", "A suitable mask will be used to pattern the magnetic core structure in conformity with well-known photolithographic techniques.", "A second layer 69 of an insulating material, e.g. polyimide, is then deposited, it smooths out any unevenness in the underlying magnetic material because of its known planarizing action.", "Vias 63 will be later patterned in this layer at the locations of the previous holes to connect the first interconnect layer 61 of the magnetic circuit to the second interconnect layer 62 of the magnetic circuit.", "For best quality of the magnetic component, it is desirable that the holes be of the so-called plugged types, i.e. filled with a chemically vapor-deposited (CVD) wetting conductive material, e.g. tungsten.", "This process step is commonly used in the manufacture of large-scale integrated circuits.", "The two interconnect levels utilized in the magnetic circuit may be any two interconnect levels available in the integrated circuit manufacturing process, although it is preferable to use the first and the last ones to reduce the parasitic capacitance of the winding and increase the thickness of the magnetic core, where provided.", "Such choice is only dictated by their characteristics in view of the magnetic component to be made, being it known to those skilled in the art that the different interconnect levels have different thicknesses and, therefore, different electric characteristics.", "The simplicity of the process for forming a magnetic component on a semiconductor substrate and its consistency with current technologies for fabricating integrated circuits, even large-scale and submicron ones, will be appreciated from the foregoing.", "It can also be seen, in FIGS. 15 and 16, that the component has a closed geometry, this being a vital expedient if the magnetic field lines are to be prevented from exiting the solenoid and inducing stray currents in the substrate.", "For simplicity, an inductor of rectangular shape has been shown in FIGS. 15 and 16, but toroidal shape inductors could be provided instead.", "FIG. 16 shows a transformer with two windings.", "Compared to FIG. 15, it is sufficient to arrange for the turns to be broken at two points.", "It will be appreciated that transformers with any number of windings could be easily formed by the same method.", "As a result, a range of voltage values can be generated from a single AC source.", "Besides inductance, the parasitic series resistance (and hence, the quality factor Q) depends upon the inductor layout.", "Account should be taken of the layout and thickness rules for each metallization layer;", "in general, both the minimum dimensions (width and spacing) and thickness increase from the first to the last level.", "The second metallization level may be utilized not only for the solenoid core, but also to reduce the parasitic resistance associated with each via, to avoid direct interconnections between the first and the third metallization level, and eventually to allow a less stringent device layout.", "FIG. 17 shows a further embodiment which takes account of the considerations made hereinabove, and is directed to reduce the parasitic series resistance of the inductor without lowering its inductance per unit area.", "In the figure, which shows an inductor according to the invention, it can be seen that the third metallization layer determines the number of turns per unit length and that, in order to reduce the resistance of each turn, the width of the paths formed by the first metallization level has been increased.", "Once again, the holes are defined in the second intermediate metallization layer, never between the first and third layers.", "A further modification of the invention provides for the two interconnect layers and the core layer to be coincident with those from a current process featuring three interconnect levels.", "The second layer can be formed by a ferromagnetic material to further enhance the inductance values per unit of occupied area.", "It would also be possible to use silicide or polycide layers for the formation of the first interconnect layer." ]

[ "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] This invention relates to forming emulsions.", "[0002] We use the term “emulsion”", "for a system comprising two immiscible liquid phases, with one phase dispersed as small droplets in the other phase.", "For simplicity we will call the dispersed phase “oil”", "and the continuous phase “water”, although the actual components may vary widely.", "As additional components, emulsifying agents, known as emulsifiers or surfactants, serve to stabilize emulsions and facilitate their formation, by surrounding the oil phase droplets and separating them from the water phase.", "[0003] The uses of emulsions have been increasing for many years.", "Most processed food and beverage products, medicine and personal care products, paints, inks, toners, and photographic media are either emulsions or employ emulsions.", "In recent years, demand for emulsions with smaller and more uniform droplets has increased.", "Artificial blood applications, for example, require nearly uniform droplets averaging 0.2 micrometers.", "Jet-ink printing has similar requirements of size and distribution.", "[0004] High pressure homogenizers are often used to produce small and uniform droplets or particles, employing a device which is commonly referred to as an homogenizing valve.", "The valve is kept closed by a plug forced against a seat by means of a spring or hydraulic or pneumatic pressure.", "The pre-mixed raw emulsion is fed at a high pressure, generally between 1,000 and 15,000 psi, to the center of the valve seat.", "When the fluid pressure overcomes the force closing the valve, a narrow annular gap (10-200 um) is opened between the valve seat and the valve plug.", "The raw emulsion flows through, undergoing rapid acceleration as well as sudden drop in pressure which breaks down the oil phase into small droplets.", "More recently, a new type of high pressure homogenizer was introduced, employing two or more fixed orifices, and capable of reaching 40,000 psi.", "When forced through these orifices, the pre-mixed raw emulsion forms liquid jets which are caused to impinge at each other.", "A description is found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,533,254 and 4,908,154.", "[0005] The typical mechanism for emulsification in this type of device is the controlled use of shear, impact, and cavitation forces in a small zone.", "The relative effects of these forces generally depend on the fluid's characteristics, but in the vast majority of emulsion preparation schemes, cavitation is the dominant force.", "[0006] Fluid shear is created by differential velocity within the fluid stream, generated by the sudden fluid acceleration upon entering the orifice or small gap, by the difference between the extremely high velocity at the center of the orifice and zero velocity at the surfaces defining the orifice, and by the intense turbulence which occurs after exiting the orifice.", "[0007] Cavitation takes place when pressure drops momentarily below the vapor pressure of the water phase.", "Small vapor bubbles form and then collapse (within 10-3 to 10-9 sec.), generating shock waves which break down surrounding oil droplets.", "Cavitation occurs in homogenizing valves when the sudden acceleration in the orifice, with a simultaneous pressure drop, causes the local pressure to drop momentarily below the vapor pressure.", "[0008] More generally, it has become known that cavitation occurs when two surfaces are separated faster than some critical velocity, and that cavitation bubbles affect their surrounding only during the formation of the cavities, and not during the collapse of the cavities, as had been long assumed.", "Another discovery of interest is that cavitation can occur either totally within the liquid, or at the solid-liquid interfaces, depending on the relative strength of solid-liquid adhesion and the liquid-liquid cohesion.", "[0009] Typical emulsification schemes have several characteristics worth noting.", "Cavitation takes place only once, for a very short time (10-3 to 10-9 seconds), and equipment which employs high power density imparts emulsification energy only to a very small portion of the product at any given time.", "The emulsification process is thus highly sensitive to the uniformity of the feed stock, and several passes through the equipment are usually required before the desired average droplet size and uniformity are achieved.", "The final droplet size depends on the surfactant's rate of interaction with the oil phase.", "Because surfactants cannot generally surround the oil droplets at the same rate they are being formed by the emulsifying process, agglomeration takes place and average droplets size increases.", "There is a typical sharp increase in product temperature during the process, which limits the choice of emulsion ingredients and processing pressure, as well as accelerating the agglomeration rate of the droplets after the emulsification process.", "Some processes require very small solid polymer or resin particles;", "and this is often accomplished by dissolving solid polymers or resins in VOC's (volatile organic compounds), then employing mixing equipment to reduce the droplets size, and finally removing the VOC.", "SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0010] In general, in one aspect, the invention features a method for use in causing emulsification in a fluid.", "In the method, a jet of fluid is directed along a first path, and a structure is interposed in the first path to cause the fluid to be redirected in a controlled flow along a new path, the first path and the new path being oriented to cause shear and cavitation in the fluid.", "[0011] Implementations of the invention may include the following features.", "[0012] The first path and the new path may be oriented in essentially opposite directions.", "The coherent flow may be a cylinder surrounding the jet.", "The interposed structure may have a reflecting surface that is generally semi-spherical, or is generally tapered, and lies at the end of a well.", "Adjustments may be made to the pressure in the well, in the distance from the opening of the well to the reflecting surface, and in the size of the opening to the well.", "The controlled flow, as it exits the well, may be directed in an annular sheet away from the opening of the well.", "An annular flow of a coolant may be directed in a direction opposite to the direction of the annular sheet.", "[0013] In general, in another aspect, the invention features a method for use in stabilizing a hot emulsion immediately after formation.", "The emulsion is caused to flow away from the outlet end of an emulsion forming structure, and a cooling fluid is caused to flow in a direction generally opposite to the flow of the emulsion and in close enough proximity to exchange heat with the emulsion flow.", "[0014] Implementations of the invention may include the following features.", "The emulsion may be formed as a thin annular sheet as it flows out of the emulsion forming structure.", "The cooling fluid may be a thin annular sheet as it flows opposite to the emulsion.", "The cooling fluid may be a liquid or gas compatible with the emulsion.", "The flows of the emulsion and the cooling fluid may occur in an annular valve opening.", "[0015] In general, in another aspect, the invention features a method for use in causing emulsification of a first fluid component within a second fluid component.", "In the method, an essentially stagnant supply of the first fluid component is provided in a cavity.", "A jet of the second fluid component is directed into the second fluid component.", "The temperatures and the jet velocities of the fluids are chosen to cause cavitation due to hydraulic separation at the interface between the two fluids.", "[0016] Implementations of the invention may include the following features.", "The second fluid component may include a continuous phase of an emulsion or dispersion.", "The first fluid component may be a discontinuous phase in the emulsion, e.g., a solid discontinuous phase.", "The second fluid may be provided in an annular chamber, and the jet may be delivered from an outlet of an orifice which opens into the annular chamber.", "After emulsification by hydraulic separation, the product may be passed through an orifice to cause additional emulsification, or may be delivered to a subsequent processing chamber, where an additional component may be added to the emulsion.", "A cooling fluid may be applied to the product in the subsequent processing chamber to quickly cool and stabilize the emulsion.", "The subsequent processing chamber may be an absorption cell into which a jet of the product is directed.", "[0017] In general, in another aspect, the invention features an apparatus for reducing pressure fluctuations in an emulsifying cell fed from a fluid line by a high pressure pump.", "A coiled tube in the fluid line between the pump and the emulsifying cell has internal volume, wall thickness, coil diameter and coiling pattern adequate to absorb the pressure fluctuations and capable of withstanding the high pressure generated by the pump.", "The apparatus may include a shell around the coiled tube with ports for filling the shell with heating or cooling fluid.", "[0018] In general, in another aspect, the invention features a nozzle for use in an emulsification structure.", "In the structure, two body pieces having flat surfaces mate to form the nozzle, at least one of the members having a groove to form an orifice in the nozzle.", "The surfaces are sufficiently flat so that when the two body pieces are pressed together with sufficient force, fluid flow is confined to the orifice.", "In implementations of the invention, the cavitation inducing surfaces may be defined on the groove;", "and a wall of the groove may be coated with diamond or non-polar materials or polar materials.", "[0019] In general, in another aspect, the invention features an absorption cell for use in an emulsification structure.", "The cell includes an elongated chamber having an open end for receiving a jet of fluid having two immiscible components.", "A reflective surface is provided at the other end of the chamber for reflecting the jet.", "And a mechanism is provided for adjusting the distance from the reflective surface to the open end.", "[0020] Implementations of the invention may include the following features.", "The reflective surfaces may be interchangeable for different applications.", "There may be a removable insert for insertion into the chamber at the open end, the insert having an orifice of a smaller dimension than the inner wall of the chamber.", "There may be several different inserts each suitable for a different application.", "[0021] In general, in another aspect, the invention features a modular emulsification structure comprising a series of couplings that can be fitted together in a variety of ways.", "Each of at least one of the couplings includes an annular male sealing surface at one end of the coupling, and an annular female sealing surface at the other end of the coupling.", "An opening is provided between the male and female sealing surfaces, for communicating fluid from a up-stream coupling to a down-stream coupling.", "Ports are provided for feeding fluid into or withdrawing fluid from the coupling.", "At least some of the communicating openings are sufficiently small to form a liquid jet.", "The sealing surfaces are sufficiently smooth to provide a fluid-tight seal when the couplings are held together by a sufficient compressive force directed along the length of the structure.", "[0022] Implementations of the invention may include the following features.", "A processing chamber may be defined between the male sealing surface of one of the up-stream couplings and the female sealing surface of one of the downstream couplings.", "In some of the couplings, the orifice may extend from one end of the coupling to the other.", "An absorption cell coupling may be used at one of the structure.", "One of the couplings may extend into another coupling to form a small annular opening for generating an annular flow sheet of cooling fluid.", "Some of the ports in the couplings are used for CIP/SIP cleaning and/or sterilization procedures.", "[0023] Advantages of the invention include the following.", "[0024] Very small liquid droplets or solid particles may be processed in the course of emulsifying, mixing, suspending, dispersing, or de-agglomerating solid and/or liquid materials.", "Nearly uniform sub-micron droplets or particles are produced.", "The process is uniform over time because pressure spikes that are normally generated by the high pressure pump are eliminated.", "A broader range of types of emulsion ingredients may be used while maximizing their effectiveness by introducing them separately into the high velocity fluid jet.", "Fine emulsions may be produced using fast reacting ingredients, by adding each ingredient separately and by controlling the locations of their interaction.", "Control of temperature before and during emulsification allows multiple cavitation stages without damaging heat sensitive ingredients, by enabling injection of ingredients at different temperatures and by injecting compressed air or liquid nitrogen prior to the final emulsification step.", "The effects of cavitation on the liquid stream are maximized while minimizing the wear effects on the surrounding solid surfaces, by controlling orifice geometry, materials selection, surface characteristics, pressure and temperature.", "Absorption of the jet's kinetic energy into the fluid stream is maximized, while minimizing its wear effect on surrounding solid surfaces.", "A sufficient turbulence is achieved to prevent agglomeration before the surfactants can fully react with the newly formed droplets.", "Agglomeration after treatment is minimized by rapid cooling, by injecting compressed air or nitrogen and/or by rapid heat exchange, while the emulsion is subjected to sufficient turbulence to overcome the oil droplets'", "attractive forces and maintaining sufficient pressure to prevent the water from vaporizing.", "[0025] Scale-up procedures from small laboratory scale devices to large production scale systems is made simpler because every process parameter can be carefully controlled.", "The invention is applicable to emulsions, microemulsions, dispersions, liposomes, and cell rupture.", "A wide variety of immiscible liquids may be used, in a wider range of ratios.", "Smaller amounts of (in some cases no) emulsifiers are required.", "Emulsions can be produced in one pass through the process.", "The reproducibility of the process is improved.", "A wide variety of emulsions may be produced for diverse uses such as food, beverages, pharmaceuticals, paints, inks, toners, fuels, magnetic media, and cosmetics.", "The apparatus is easy to assemble, disassemble, clean, and maintain.", "The process may be used with fluids of high viscosity, high solid content, and fluids which are abrasive and corrosive.", "[0026] The emulsification effect continues long enough for surfactants to react with newly formed oil droplets.", "Multiple stages of cavitation assure complete use of the surfactant with virtually no waist in the form of micelles.", "Multiple ports along the process stream may be used for cooling by injecting ingredient at lower temperature.", "VOC's may be replaced with hot water to produce the same end products.", "The water will be heated under high pressure to well above the melting point of the polymer or resin.", "The solid polymer or resins will be injected in its solid state, to be melted and pulverized by the hot water jet.", "The provision of multiple ports eliminates the problematic introduction of large solid particles into the high pressure pumps, and requires only standard industrial pumps.", "[0027] Other advantages and features will become apparent from the following description and from the claims.", "BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0028] [0028 ]FIGS. 1 and 2 are block diagrams of emulsification systems.", "[0029] [0029 ]FIGS. 3A and 3B are an end view and a cross-sectional view (at A-A of FIG. 3A) of an emulsifying cell assembly.", "[0030] [0030 ]FIG. 4 is a larger scale cross-sectional view (at BB of FIG. 3A) of the emulsifying cell assembly.", "[0031] [0031 ]FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of another modular emulsifying cell assembly.", "[0032] [0032 ]FIG. 6 is an isometric exploded view, not to scale, of two types of a two-piece nozzle assembly.", "[0033] [0033 ]FIGS. 7A and 7B are an enlarged end view and a cross-sectional view of an adapter for the two-piece nozzle assembly.", "[0034] [0034 ]FIG. 8 is a schematic cross-sectional diagram, not to scale, of fluid flow in an absorption cell.", "[0035] [0035 ]FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view of an absorption cell.", "[0036] [0036 ]FIGS. 10 and 11 are cross-sectional diagrams, not to scale, of fluid flow in other modular absorption cell assemblies.", "[0037] [0037 ]FIGS. 12A, 12B and 12 C are an end view, a front view, and a top view of a coil for regulating process pressure in the emulsifying cell.", "[0038] [0038 ]FIG. 13 is an assembly of three coils shown in FIGS. 12A through 12C.", "DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [0039] In FIG. 1, the product ingredients are supplied from sources 110 , 112 , and 114 into a pre-mixing system 116 .", "For simplicity, only three types of ingredients are shown by way of example: water, oil, and emulsifier;", "but a wide variety of other ingredients could be used depending on the product to be made.", "The pre-mixing system 116 is of a suitable kind (e.g. propeller mixer, colloid mill, homogenizer, etc.) for the type of product.", "After pre-mixing, the ingredients are fed into the feed tank 118 .", "In some cases, the pre-mixing may be performed inside feed tank 118 .", "The pre-mixed product from tank 118 then flows through line 120 and valve 122 , by means of transfer pump 124 to the high pressure process pump 128 .", "Transfer pump 124 may be any type of pump normally used for the product, provided it can generate the required feed pressure for proper operation of the high pressure process pump.", "Pressure indicator 126 is provided to monitor feed pressure to pump 128 .", "The high pressure process pump 128 is typically a positive displacement pump, e.g., a triplex or intensifier pump.", "From process pump 128 the product flows at high pressure through line 130 into coil 132 , where pressure fluctuations generated by the action of pump 128 are regulated by expansion and contraction of the coil tubing.", "A more detailed explanation of the coil mechanism is given in the description of FIGS. 12A through 12C.", "It may be desirable or necessary to heat or cool the feed stock.", "Heating system 148 may circulate hot fluid in shell 154 via lines 150 and 152 , or cooling system 156 may be used.", "The heating medium may be hot oil or steam with the appropriate means to control the temperature and flow of the hot fluid, such that the desired product temperature is attained upon exiting coil 132 .", "The product exits coil 132 through line 134 , where pressure indictor 136 and temperature indicator 138 monitor these parameters, and enters the emulsifying cell 140 at a high and constant pressure, for example a pressure of 15,000 psi.", "[0040] The emulsification process takes place in emulsifying cell 140 , where the feed stock is forced through at least one jet generating orifice and through an absorption cell wherein the jet's kinetic energy is absorbed by a fluid stream flowing around the jet and in the opposite direction.", "In each of the treatment stages (there may be more than two), intense forces of shear, impact, and/or cavitation break down the oil phase into extremely small and highly uniform droplets, and sufficient time is allowed for the emulsifier to interact with these small oil droplets to stabilize the emulsion.", "[0041] Immediately following the emulsification process, cooling fluid from cooling system 156 is injected into the emulsion via line 158 , cooling the emulsion instantly by intimate mixing of the cooling fluid with the hot emulsion inside emulsification cell 140 .", "Cooling system 156 , may be a source of cool compatible liquid (e.g., cold water) or of compressed gas (e.g., air or nitrogen), with suitable means to control the temperature, pressure and flow of the cooling fluid, such that the desired product temperature is attained upon exiting emulsification cell 140 .", "The emulsion exits the emulsification cell 140 through line 142 , where metering valve 144 is provided to control back-pressure during cooling, and ensuring that the hot emulsion remains in liquid state while being cooled, thereby maintaining the emulsion integrity and stability.", "Finally, the finished product is collected in tank 146 .", "[0042] In the system illustrated by FIG. 2, the product's continuous phase is supplied from supply 110 into feeding tank 118 , while other ingredients are supplied from sources 112 and 114 directly into the emulsifying cell 140 .", "Some ingredients may be mixed together to reduce the number of separate feed lines, or there may be as many feed lines as product ingredients.", "[0043] Water from tank 118 flows through line 120 and valve 122 , by means of transfer pump 124 to the high pressure process pump 128 .", "Elements 128 through 138 , and 148 through 158 have similar functions to the same numbered elements of the system of FIG. 1. [0044] Oil and emulsifier, each representing a possibly unlimited number and variety of ingredients which may be introduced separately, flow from sources 112 and 114 into emulsifying cell 140 , through lines 162 and 164 , each with a pressure indicator 170 and 172 , and a temperature indicator 174 and 176 , by means of metering pumps 166 and 168 .", "Metering pumps 166 and 168 are suitable for type of product pumped (e.g. sanitary cream, injectable suspension, abrasive slurry) and the required flow and pressure ranges.", "For example, in small scale systems peristaltic pumps are used, while in production system and/or for high pressure injection, diaphragm or gear pumps are used.", "[0045] Inside emulsifying cell 140 the water is forced through an orifice, creating a water jet.", "Other product ingredients, as exemplified by the oil and emulsifier, are injected into emulsifying cell 140 .", "The interaction between the extremely high velocity water jet inside emulsifying cell 140 and the stagnant ingredients from lines 162 and 164 , subjects the product to a series of treatment stages, in each of which intense forces of shear, impact, and/or cavitation break down the oil and emulsifier to extremely small and highly uniform droplets, and allows sufficient time for the emulsifier to interact with the oil droplets.", "Immediately following the emulsification process, the emulsion is cooled and then exits the emulsification cell and is collected, all in a manner similar to the one used in the system of FIG. 1. [0046] As seen in FIGS. 3 through 9, the emulsifying cell is constructed using a series of interchangeable couplings, each for a particular purpose.", "The couplings are used to form an integral pressure containing unit by forcing together a smooth and tapered sealing surface of each coupling into a smooth and tapered corresponding sealing surface in the adjacent coupling, to create a metal-to-metal seal, much like the seal between a standard high pressure nipple and the corresponding female port.", "Each coupling (except possibly for the end couplings) has a large bore in one side, and a matching protrusion of slightly smaller diameter on the other side, such that each coupling's protrusion fits into the bore of the next coupling, thereby aligning sealing surfaces and facilitating assembly of a large number of couplings.", "The couplings are fastened together by four bolts.", "[0047] In the example of a basic emulsifying cell shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, the cell assembly has four couplings: product inlet coupling 10 , nozzle coupling 12 , coolant inlet coupling 14 , and product outlet coupling 16 .", "Referring also to FIG. 4, protrusion 26 of coupling 10 fits into bore 28 in coupling 12 , while sealing surface 22 of coupling 10 is aligned with sealing surface 24 in coupling 12 , to form a pressure containing metal-to-metal seal upon fastening of the assembly with four bolts 17 .", "The product fluid to be processed enters the emulsifying cell from port 18 , which is a standard ¼″ H/P port (e.g., Autoclave Engineers #F250C), and flows through round opening 20 (0.093″ dia.", "hole).", "Ejecting from opening 20 , the product impinges on surface 30 of coupling 12 , and then flows in a random turbulent pattern inside a generally cylindrical cavity 32 , which is formed between couplings 10 and 12 .", "[0048] Thus, from virtually zero velocity in the axial direction in cavity 32 , the product is accelerated to a velocity exceeding 500 ft/sec upon entering orifice 34 .", "This sudden acceleration which occurs simultaneously with a severe pressure drop causes cavitation in the orifice.", "Being a one piece metallic nozzle, coupling 12 is suitable for relatively low pressure applications in the range of 500 psi to 15,000 psi of liquid-liquid emulsions.", "Applications requiring higher pressure, or which contain solids, require a 2-piece nozzle assembly as shown in FIG. 6. The diameter of orifice 34 determines the maximum attainable pressure for any given flow capacity.", "For example a 0.015 in.", "diameter hole will enable 10,000 psi with a flow rate of 1 liter/min.", "of water.", "More viscous products require an orifice as large as 0.032 in.", "diameter to attain the same pressure and flow rate, while smaller systems with pumps'", "capacity under 1 liter/min, require an orifice as small as 0.005 in.", "diameter to attain 10,000 psi.", "The high velocity jet is ejected from orifice 34 into an absorption cell cavity 38 , the flow pattern of which is shown in FIG. 8. An alternate absorption cell is shown in FIG. 9. [0049] Referring now to FIG. 8, water jet 35 formed in orifice 34 is maintained essentially unchanged as it flows through opening 36 of the absorption cell.", "After impacting surface 40 , which may be flat or semi-spherical, or have another configuration otherwise enhancing its function, the jet fluid reverses its flow direction, and forms a coherent cylindrical flow stream 37 .", "The cylindrical flow pattern is formed because that is the only way for the fluid to exit cavity 38 .", "With opening 36 only slightly larger than orifice 34 , fluid stream 37 is forced to react with the jet fluid 35 , thereby absorbing the kinetic energy of the jet fluid, generating intense forces of shear and cavitation, and minimizing the wear effect of the jet impacting on surface 40 .", "The intensity of energy input into the product is much lower in cavity 38 than in orifice 34 .", "Rather than further breaking down oil droplets, the interaction of the two streams in cavity 38 serves to provide sufficient time for the emulsifier to interact with the oil droplets formed in orifice 34 and completely surround them, thereby maintaining the oil droplets at the same small size achieved in orifice 34 and preventing their agglomeration.", "The absorption cell provides a controllable environment for the interaction to occur, depending on the diameter of the bore, the shape of the impact surface at the end of the cell, the length of the cell, and other design factors.", "[0050] Cavity 38 is formed inside stem 42 , which is threaded into outlet coupling 16 (FIG.", "4).", "After exiting the cavity 38 , product flows between surface 44 of stem 42 and corresponding surface 46 in coupling 14 .", "The annular opening between surfaces 44 and 46 is adjusted by turning stem 42 in or out of coupling 16 , thereby controlling the back-pressure in cavity 38 .", "Stem 42 is provided with two flats to facilitate screwing it into coupling 16 , and with a lock-nut 48 for locking stem 42 in place.", "Port 50 is provided in coupling 14 for connection to a suitable cooling fluid supply.", "Cooling fluid flows through opening 52 and passes around “O”-ring 54 , which acts as a check-valve to prevent product flow to the cooling system.", "The cooling fluid then flows through a narrow annular opening formed between the tip of coupling 16 and surface 56 of coupling 14 , into cavity 58 .", "Thus, in cavity 58 , an annular flow sheet of cooling fluid interacts with an annular fluid sheet of hot emulsion, the two sheets flowing in opposite directions, thereby effecting intimate mixing and instantaneous cooling of the emulsion.", "The cooling fluid may be a compatible liquid or gas.", "For example, for oil-in-water emulsions, cold water may be used.", "In this case, the feed stock supplied to port 18 must contain a lower percentage of water, and the desired final oil/water ratio is accomplished by injecting the appropriate amount of cold water through port 50 .", "Alternatively, gas may be used as a cooling fluid.", "For example, compressed air or nitrogen may be supplied to port 50 under pressure, to be injected into cavity 58 , where the gas expansion from its compressed state requires heat absorption, thereby effecting instantaneous cooling of the hot emulsion.", "In this case, the air or nitrogen are released to atmosphere after the emulsion exits the emulsifying cell.", "From cavity 58 , the emulsion flows through annular opening 60 , to outlet port 62 which is a ¼″ H/P type.", "After exiting the emulsifying cell, the emulsion flows through a metering valve, provided to enable control of back-pressure in cavity 58 and to prevent “flashing”", "or sudden evaporation of liquid ingredient before temperature reduction.", "[0051] In the example of a more elaborate emulsifying cell shown in FIG. 5, multiple product inlet ports and multiple orifices are used.", "Couplings 10 and 12 are connected as described with respect to FIGS. 3 and 4.", "Couplings of the kind identified as 13 A and 13 B are provided to enable injection of other product ingredients through ports 72 and 74 , which are ¼″ H/P type, similar to port 18 .", "Coupling 13 may be installed before or after coupling 12 , or before or after coupling 15 , in conjunction with one or more orifices, all depending on the particular product characteristics and the desired results.", "Nozzle adapter 70 is provided to enable high-pressure sealing between couplings 12 and 13 A. Coupling 13 may be connected to another coupling 13 or to coupling 14 without any adapters.", "Coupling 15 contains a 2-piece nozzle assembly.", "Nozzle adapter 84 enables high-pressure sealing between the two orifice pieces 80 and 82 , as well as between the 2-piece nozzle assembly and the coupling down-stream.", "[0052] The product's continuous phase, water for example, is fed at high pressure through port 18 and then forced through orifice 34 , thereby forming a water jet.", "Another ingredient, oil for example, is fed through port 72 at an appropriate pressure and temperature.", "The required oil pressure is a function of inlet water pressure at 18 , the size of the orifice 34 , and the size of the orifice formed by members 80 and 82 .", "For example, using water pressure of 20,000 psi at 18 , orifice of 0.015 in.", "dia.", "at 34 , and round orifice of 0.032 in.", "dia.", "by members 80 and 82 , then water pressure between the two orifices is slightly below 4,500 psi, and thus oil pressure of 4,500 is required at port 72 to assure oil flow into the emulsifying cell.", "At the interface between the water phase and oil phase, cavitation takes place due to hydraulic separation, effecting a homogeneous oil in water mixture at the exit of coupling 13 A. The orifice formed between members 80 and 82 causes further break down of oil droplets, due to the severe acceleration with simultaneous pressure drop and due to orifice geometry.", "After this intense energy input, another product ingredient is added through port 74 , for example emulsifier, which interacts with the process jet in a manner similar to the interaction between oil and water described above.", "The required feed pressure at port 74 is determined by the adjustment of stem 42 , and will be generally in the range of 50 psi to 500 psi.", "This relatively low feed pressure enables use of ingredients that are difficult or impossible to pump with the high pressure process pump.", "For example, extremely viscous products and abrasive solids which would cause rapid wear to the plunger seals and check-valves of the high pressure pump, could be supplied to port 74 with standard industrial pumps.", "Port 74 may be also used for feeding melted polymers or resins, to be emulsified in liquid state into water, thereby replacing a common use of VOC's.", "[0053] In the two different two-piece nozzle arrangements shown in FIG. 6, the orifice is formed as an open groove on the face of each nozzle member, thereby enabling fabrication of intricate orifice geometries and facilitating coating with suitable materials.", "For example, when members 80 and 82 are pressed together, they form a rectangular cross section orifice, with surfaces 86 and 88 of member 82 being optically flat (within 1 light band), forming a pressure containing seal with the corresponding surfaces of member 80 .", "Surface 90 forms a step along the flow path in the orifice and serves to induce cavitation.", "The location of surface 90 along the orifice may be chosen to induce cavitation at the entrance of the orifice or at its exit, depending on the configuration of the emulsifying cell.", "Additionally, various slope angles of surface 90 and of the step formed after it may be used to control the rate of cavity formation and collapse, all depending on the product characteristics and desired results.", "The nozzle assembly made of members 92 and 94 will be essentially the same as a round hole in a solid block, but the two-piece construction allows coating of the inner surface the extremely small orifice with materials such as diamond, thereby enabling continuous production of abrasive products at high pressure.", "Such a scheme would be useful for producing small solid particles of materials such as ceramics or iron-oxide for magnetic media.", "[0054] As seen in FIG. 5, the two nozzle members 80 and 82 are inserted into a bore in a nozzle adapter 84 .", "The nozzle adapter is shown in greater detail in FIGS. 7A and 7B.", "Upon fastening the emulsifying cell assembly, the two nozzle members 80 and 82 are forced against surface 190 of adapter 84 , while the adapter tapered sealing surface 188 is forced against the adjacent coupling ( 13 B in FIG. 5).", "The axial compressive force on surface 188 has an inward radial component, which is transmitted through surface 186 to the two nozzle members 80 and 82 , thereby effecting a pressure containing seal between the members 80 and 82 .", "Slots 194 and 196 are provided to facilitate the translation of axial compression to radial compression of adapter 84 .", "Round hole 192 is provided for product flow.", "[0055] In the example of a more elaborate absorption cell shown in FIG. 9, the length of the cell and its effective internal diameter may be varied.", "Stem 242 has the same external dimensions as stem 42 in FIGS. 3, 4 and 5 , thus stems 42 and 242 are interchangeable.", "Stem 242 is provided with a smooth internal bore 238 at one end, internal threads at the other end, and a tapered sealing surface 208 in between.", "Nozzle insert 200 is fitted into the stem bore 238 , secured by such means as press-fitting or adhesive material, to form the cavity opening 236 .", "The use of inserts with a variety of lengths, internal surface geometry and size, enables control of the shear rate, cavitation, turbulence, and the impact at surface 240 .", "Rod 202 is inserted into stem 242 to provide the impact surface 240 of the absorption cell.", "The depth of cavity 238 , as determined by the positioning of rod 202 , controls the residence time of product in the absorption cell, which in turn enables providing sufficient interaction time between emulsifier and oil droplets.", "Sleeve 204 is provided to lock rod 202 in place, as well as to provide sealing between rod 202 and stem 242 .", "Once the location of rod 202 is selected, sleeve 204 is tightened.", "Tapered sealing surface 206 of sleeve 204 is then pressed against tapered sealing surface 208 of stem 242 , thereby forming a seal between sleeve 204 and stem 242 , as well as between sleeve 204 and rod 202 .", "Graduation marks at the exposed end of rod 202 facilitate accurate positioning of the rod and provide a convenient scale for recording.", "[0056] The two absorption cell assemblies in FIGS. 10 and 11 exemplify a large variety of ways to accommodate particular product requirements.", "Nozzle inserts 300 , 302 A, 302 B and 304 are examples of a large variety of inserts that may be used.", "The generally concave internal opening of insert 300 induces cavitation when fluid enters cavity 306 .", "The fluid immediately near surface 308 will flow along a path defined by that surface, tending to separate form the flow path defined by the previous surface 310 .", "With simultaneous pressure drop resulting from the larger cross-section area of cavity 306 , cavitation occurs.", "The generally convex internal opening of insert 304 (FIG.", "11) induces cavitation in the fluid stream upon exiting the insert.", "Fluid pressure is increased momentarily when fluid passes through the center of insert 304 .", "As in insert 300 , the fluid's tendency to follow the shape of the solid surface with a simultaneous pressure drop induces cavitation.", "Inserts 302 A and 302 B are identical and are arranged to achieve desired results for a particular product.", "Several identical inserts such as 302 may be used together, end-to-end, to form one continuous internal bore.", "Alternatively, several inserts with different internal diameters may be used to induce turbulence in the exiting fluid stream.", "Yet another alternative, shown in FIG. 10, is to leave a small space between the inserts to disrupt laminar flow and generate turbulence.", "Yet another alternative is to use several inserts such as 300 and/or 304 in series.", "In FIG. 11, reflecting surface 440 exemplifies a large variety of shapes that may be used to enhance its function or for a particular application.", "As compared with semi-spherical or flat reflecting surfaces, surface 440 has a much larger surface area reflecting the jet fluid.", "Such a scheme may be used to effect a more gradual flow reversal, and for abrasive solids applications for extending the service life of the reflecting surface.", "[0057] The coil shown in FIGS. 12A through 12C is used for removing pressure fluctuations (item 132 in FIGS. 1 and 2).", "The coil is made of standard high pressure tubing (E.g., Butech ¼″ M/P, #20-109-316), with coil diameter sufficiently large as not to effect significantly the pressure rating of the tubing (e.g., 4 in.), and of sufficient length to remove the pressure spikes (e.", "g, 60 ft.).", "The tubing expands slightly when the pump generates a pressure spike, thereby acting to absorb the excess energy generated by the pressure spike.", "At the end of the pressure spike, the tubing contracts, thereby releasing the stored energy.", "This action of the coil is similar to the action of standard hydraulic accumulators that are used in hydraulic systems for essentially the same purpose.", "Waterjet cutting systems employ similar principle (e.g. Flow International Corp.", "'s “Attenuator”), in the form of a long straight cylinder between the high pressure intensifier pump and the nozzle, for generating constant flow rate through the nozzle.", "As can be seen in FIGS. 12A through 12C, the tubing is coiled in a way that allows each coil ring to flex in response to pressure fluctuations, in a similar action of a Bourdon tube (used in pressure gauges).", "Because the external side of each coil ring has a larger area than the internal side, pressure in the tubing tends to open each ring.", "This movement in response to pressure fluctuations provides another mechanism for absorbing and releasing energy.", "The coil thus provides means for removing pressure fluctuations, heating or cooling the product, while being suitable for CIP/SIP sterile systems.", "FIG. 13 illustrates a scheme for connecting several coils such as in FIGS. 12A through 12C, enabling the use of standard tubing length (e.g. 20 ft.) and standard bending tools to produce coils as long as necessary.", "[0058] Other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims." ]