Abstract: A liquid crystal display includes opening patterns in the electrodes or protrusions on the electrodes. The opening patterns or the protrusions have a pattern which controls the direction of the liquid crystal molecules. Thus the quality of the LCD can be improved.

Abstract: A system is disclosed for controlling a plurality of pulse-width-modulated switching power converters. The system includes a sample and hold circuit which is configured to receive information at time-separated intervals. The information the sample and hold circuit receives includes information which is indicative of the performance of the power converters. In some embodiments, the sample and hold circuit takes samples of data from each of the switching power converters and provides information to an analog to digital conversion circuit coupled to the sample and hold circuit. In one embodiment, the plurality of pulse-width-modulated switching power are configured to independently provide power to unrelated loads.

Abstract: A liquid crystal display including a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix includes a variable common voltage generator. The variable common voltage generator includes a frame memory storing image data for one frame, an average gray calculator calculating the average gray of the image data for one frame, a comparator comparing the calculated average gray from the average gray calculator with a reference gray and generating an adjusting value based on the compared result, and a D/A converter selecting a voltage having an appropriate value among a plurality of voltages generated based on the adjusting value from the comparator and applying the selected voltage as a common voltage.

Abstract: A water saving faucet valve includes an elongated body having inlet and outlet ends, and high and low pressure chambers interconnected by a coaxial flow channel. A valve stem is slidably retained in the flow channel to move between a lowered position, in which water is prevented from flowing through the valve, and a raised position, in which water is permitted to flow through the valve. The valve stem is raised and lowered by movement of a cam on a shaft that is rotated by movement of an elongated actuation arm, such that the valve can be fully actuated by a slight pressure applied to the arm, and automatically shuts off when the pressure is removed. The valve includes apparatus for coupling it to the outlet of a conventional standard faucet, and may include apparatus for aerating the water flowing through it.

Abstract: A control system and method for simultaneously regulating the operation of a plurality of different types of switching power converters. The system utilizes in regulating the power converters sampled data and nonlinear feedback control loops.

Abstract: A system and method for controlling operation of a motor system that addresses the design challenges for the small form factor optical disk system. The control system can be operable to read a physical sector address (PSA) from an optical medium, calculate a table index based on the PSA, enter a lookup table module to acquire reference data, and maintain a constant data rate transfer from the optical medium for a range of PSAs.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for storing, updating, adding, deleting, and locating file system objects on a WORM storage medium, wherein information can be written to, but not erased from, the storage medium. The WORM storage medium has a writeable area that includes a system area and a data area. The system area includes system information regarding the file system objects on the storage medium. A system sector is written starting at one end of the system area, while the content of the file system objects is written in the data area starting at another end of the writeable area. When a change is made to the file system objects in the writeable area, an updated system sector is generated that replaces the previous file system information for those modified file system objects. Since the previous system sector is not erasable, the updated system sector is written in a location in the system area where it will be read before any previous system sectors.

Abstract: An avalanche photodiode having a reduced capacitance is provided. The avalanche photodiode includes a wide band gap layer in its depletion region. The width of the wide band gap layer increases the extent of the depletion region, thereby reducing the capacitance while minimizing the impact on the dark current.

Abstract: A radar transponder is provided that synchronizes the encoding of repeated radar pulses using an envelope detector to detect the envelope of received radar pulse signals. An edge detector detects the pulse edges in the envelope so that code words may be multiplied with the received radar pulse signals synchronously with the detected pulse edges to provide an encoded pulse train that may be transmitted to a radar interrogator.

Abstract: A system, method, and apparatus for coordinating tasks in a control system for an optical disc drive for optical media with a pitted premastered area that cannot be overwritten and a grooved user-writeable area that can be overwritten. The optical disc drive includes a first processor operable to communicate with a second processor, wherein the first processor includes instructions for performing non-time-critical tasks, and the second processor includes instructions for performing time-critical tasks, such as reading from and writing to optical media in the disc drive. The first processor monitors the status of the time critical tasks in the second processor and transmits commands to perform operations in the second processor. The first processor also controls power mode, manages recovery from errors, controls focus, tracking/seeking, spin, physical sector address (PSA), a laser, adjusts gains, and monitor cartridge load/eject.

Abstract: An algorithm is disclosed to partition input variables between a feeder logic block and a receiver logic block. For a given input variable partition, the algorithm assigns both a cost to the number of product terms cascaded from the feeder logic block to the receiver logic block as well as a cost that increases as the number of input variables assigned to the receiver logic block approaches its maximum input width. The costs for a variety of input variable partitions are tested to determine an optimal input variable partition.

Abstract: A method and apparatus is provided to power-up a device having both digital and analog circuitry. The analog circuitry requires a stabilization period before proper operation. During power-up, the digital circuitry is held in reset by a power-on reset circuit. The power-on reset circuit releases the reset after the expiration of a power-on reset period. During the period of time after expiration of the power-on reset period and before the analog circuitry reaches equilibrium, the digital circuitry operates in a mode that does not require input signals from the analog circuitry. After the analog circuitry has reached equilibrium, the digital circuitry begins normal operation during which inputs signals from the analog circuitry may be processed by the digital circuitry.

Abstract: A system with a plurality of servo algorithms executing on a digital signal processor is presented. The digital signal processor receives a sensor interrupt, indicating availability of digitized data from optical sensors, and decides which of a plurality of servo algorithms to service in response to the interrupt. In some embodiments, the plurality of servo algorithms includes a tracking servo algorithm. In some embodiments, the plurality of servo algorithms includes a focus servo algorithm. In some embodiments, multi-track seek operations or one-track jump operations can also be serviced during the interrupt period.

Abstract: A digital servo system with a biased feed-forward control is disclosed. The biased feed-forward control determines the low frequency component of a control signal from the digital servo system. The low frequency component can then be added to a future control signal to form an adjusted control signal. In some embodiments, the low frequency component is then removed from the future control signals. In some embodiments, a bias signal is incremented or decremented in response to the low frequency component, the bias signal being added to future control signals.

Abstract: A control system and method for simultaneously regulating the operation of a plurality of different types of switching power converters. The system utilizes in regulating the power converters sampled data and nonlinear feedback control loops.

Abstract: A defect detector in an optical disk drive is presented. The defect detector indicates a defect by monitoring a sum signal. The sum signal is calculated from optical signals from detectors in an optical pick-up unit of the optical disk drive. A defect can be indicated when a filtered sum signal, the filtered sum signal being the sum signal filtered with a high pass filter, is above a threshold value. In some embodiments, the defect detector can recognize changes in laser power or transitions between media types and not indicate defects during those occurrences.

Abstract: A first surface optical disk is disclosed that has machine readable code information, such as bar code information, disposed thereon to permit a disk drive or other device to obtain certain basic information regarding the disk in an efficient and reliable manner. The machine readable code may include error detection and error correction code to correct errors, such as those caused by surface dust, that may arise during reading the machine readable code. The machine readable code may be disposed within a portion of a ring on the optical disk. Human readable alphanumeric characters, including graphics, identifying the side of the optical disk and other basic information may also be disposed within the ring.

Abstract: An apparatus and method reduce jitter in SPE data transmitted to a switch fabric. A processor receives STS channel requests from the switch fabric, and retrieves SPE data in buffers assigned to the requested STS channels. The processor loads the SPE data in the PDU of a TDM cell, the TDM cell in the PDU of a PIC, and a length of the SPE data in the header of the PIC. The PIC is then embedded in a CSIX frame that is transmitted to the switch fabric through a CSIX interface. The length of the SPE data in the PIC PDU is variable since the processor retrieves SPE data upon demand from the switch fabric. Thus, even if enough data to fill an entire PDU is not in a channel buffer at the time of a channel request, the available data is transmitted so that the opportunity to transmit available SPE data is not lost.

Abstract: A combination electrospray/microwave induced plasma (MIP) ionization source is used as the ionization source for a mass spectrometer. The electrospray can be operated in positive mode, negative mode, or it can be switched off. The microwave-induced plasma can also be switched on or off. This allows the instrument to be operated in multiple modes. With the electrospray off and the MIP on, the instrument will normally have its maximum elemental sensitivity. Mixed mode operation potentially allows the determination of additional information about the chemical constituents present in the analyte. In pure electrospray mode, it is possible to obtain molecular information and to analyze organic compounds.

Abstract: A subranging analog-to-digital converter (ADC) includes an integrating sample-and-hold circuit. The integrating sample-and-hold circuit is configured to sample an input voltage by charging at least one capacitor by coupling a current proportional to the input voltage to the at least one capacitor. A coarsely-quantizing ADC is configured to convert the voltage on the at least one capacitor to a digitized value. A digital-to-analog converter is configured to convert the digitized value to an analog voltage. A finely-quantizing ADC is configured to convert the difference between the analog voltage and the voltage on the charged at least one capacitor in the integrating sample-and-hold circuit to another digitized value.