Abstract: A guide 2 for supporting a device in a flow of coolant includes a deflector 4 for modifying the coolant flow. The guide include apertures 6 so that the coolant can flow over both the upper and lower faces of a device, for example a printed circuit board 24.

Abstract: The present invention provides a plasma reactor having a plasma source chamber capable of generating a high density plasma typically utilizing a helicon wave. The plasma is delivered to a process chamber having a workpiece. The present invention may provide a plurality of magnets, each being located longitudinally around an axis perpendicular to the plane of the workpiece to form a magnetic bucket that extends the length of the side wall of the processing chamber and across a workpiece insertion opening and a vacuum pump opening. The magnetic bucket of the present invention may be formed so that the pedestal need not be raised to be within the bucket, or may be formed by permanent magnets oriented with one pole of each magnet facing the interior of the processing chamber, or with opposite poles of adjacent magnets facing each other, thereby forming cusps around the axis perpendicular to the plane of the workpiece. Current carrying conductors may generate all or part of the magnetic bucket.

Abstract: A plasma chamber defining an evacuated interior environment for processing a substrate includes a substrate support, an apertured gas distribution plate in spaced facing relationship to the substrate support, and adapted to flow process gases into the chamber interior environment adjacent the substrate support, the gas distribution plate and substrate support defining a substrate processing region therebetween. A hollow conduit having respective ends opening into the substrate processing region on opposite sides of the gas distribution plate, with the interior of the conduit sharing the interior environment. The conduit being adapted to accept irradiation by an RF field of processing gases within the conduit to sustain a plasma in a path extending around the conduit interior and across the substrate processing region within the chamber interior environment.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a magnetic resonance medical treatment device for applying magnetism to the body of a patient to thereby treat decease or improve the patient's health condition. The invention also relates to a method for magnetism variation control adapted to control magnetism generated by a magnetism generator such as the magnetic resonance medical treatment device. In order to enable diversified magnetic medical treatments, a magnetic resonance medical treatment device according to the present invention includes a director which contains two magnetism generators—which each include a bar core and a conductor wound on the bar core—and a magnetism regulator connected to the director and adapted to individually regulate the intensities and directions of magnetic forces generated by the magnetism generators. A method for magnetism variation control according to the present invention causes one magnetism generator to resonate with the other magnetism generator.

Abstract: The invention is embodied in a method of cleaning a plasma reactor by creating a vacuum in the chamber while introducing an etchant gas into the chamber through the gas injection ports, and applying RF energy to a ceiling electrode in the chamber while not necessarily applying RF energy to the coil antenna, so as to strike a predominantly capacitively coupled plasma in the vacuum chamber. In another embodiment the method includes, whenever the reactor is to be operated in an inductive coupling mode, applying RF power to the reactors coil antenna while grounding the ceiling electrode, and whenever the reactor is to be operated in a capacitive coupling mode, applying RF power to the ceiling electrode, and whenever the reactor is to be cleaned, cleaning the reactor by applying RF power to the ceiling electrode and to the coil antenna while introducing an etchant gas into the vacuum chamber.

Abstract: A technique for implementing in a networked client-server environment, e.g., the Internet, network-distributed advertising in which advertisements are downloaded, from an advertising server to a browser executing at a client computer, in a manner transparent to a user situated at the browser, and subsequently displayed, by that browser on an interstitial basis, in response to a click-stream generated by the user to move from one web page to the next. Specifically, an HTML advertising tag is embedded into a referring web page. This tag contains two components. One component effectively downloads, from an distribution web server and to an extent necessary, and then persistently instantiates an agent at the client browser. The other component is a reference, in terms of a web address, of the advertising management system. The ad management system selects the given advertisement that is to be downloaded, rather than having that selection or its content being embedded in the web content page.

Abstract: Information system for a traffic network (1). Information of importance to travellers is transmitted by a transmitter system (3) to data receivers (pagers) in vehicles (2) making use of the traffic network. The traffic network is broken down into information regions (6). The transmitter system transmits information modules (5) which each relate to an information region and which are characterised by a region-identification code (ID1, ID2 etc.). The information system comprises means for transmitting, upon entry by a vehicle of an information region, to the data receiver in said vehicle the region-identification code of said region, the data receiver setting itself using said region-identification code for receiving information characterised by said region-information code, transmitted by the transmitter system. The region-identification code in the data receiver may be set using regional or local beacon transmitters (4) which transmit one or two region-identification codes.

Abstract: The invention is realized in a plasma reactor for processing a semiconductor workpiece. The reactor includes a vacuum chamber having a side wall and a ceiling, a workpiece support pedestal within the chamber and generally facing the ceiling, a gas inlet capable of supplying a process gas into the chamber and a solenoidal interleaved parallel conductor coil antenna overlying the ceiling and including a first plurality conductors wound about an axis of symmetry generally perpendicular to the ceiling in respective concentric helical solenoids of at least nearly uniform lateral displacements from the axis of symmetry, each helical solenoid being offset from the other helical solenoids in a direction parallel to the axis of symmetry. An RF plasma source power supply is connected across each of the plural conductors.

Abstract: A plasma chamber defining an evacuated interior environment for processing a substrate includes a substrate support, an apertured gas distribution plate in spaced facing relationship to the substrate support, and adapted to flow process gases into the chamber interior environment adjacent the substrate support, the gas distribution plate and substrate support defining a substrate processing region therebetween, a hollow reentrant conduit having respective ends opening into the substrate processing region on opposite sides of the gas distribution plate, with the interior of said conduit sharing the interior environment. The conduit is adapted to accept irradiation of processing gases within the conduit to sustain a plasma in a path extending around the conduit interior and across the substrate processing region within the chamber interior environment.

Abstract: In accordance with a first aspect of the invention, a plasma reactor having a chamber for containing a plasma and a passageway communicating with the chamber is enhanced with a first removable plasma confinement magnet module placed adjacent the passageway including a first module housing and a first plasma confinement magnet inside the housing. It may further include a second removable plasma confinement magnet module placed adjacent the passageway including a second module housing, and a second plasma confinement magnet. Preferably, the first and second modules are located on opposite sides of the passageway. Moreover, the first and second plasma confinement magnets have magnetic orientations which tend to oppose plasma transport or leakage through the passageway. Preferably, the module housing includes a relatively non-magnetic thermal conductor such as aluminum and is in thermal contact with said chamber body.

Abstract: The invention is embodied in an inductively coupled RF plasma reactor including a reactor chamber enclosure defining a plasma reactor chamber and a support for holding a workpiece inside the chamber, a non-planar inductive antenna adjacent the reactor chamber enclosure, the non-planar inductive antenna including inductive elements spatially distributed in a non-planar relative to a plane of the workpiece to compensate for a null in an RF inductive pattern of the antenna, and a plasma source RF power supply coupled to the non-planar inductive antenna. The planar inductive antenna may be symmetrical or non-symmetrical, although it preferably includes a solenoid winding such as a vertical stack of conductive windings. In a preferred embodiment, the windings are at a minimum radial distance from the axis of symmetry while in an alternative embodiment the windings are at a radial distance from the axis of symmetry which is a substantial fraction of a radius of the chamber.

Abstract: The present invention is embodied in a method of operating an inductively coupled plasma reactor for processing a semiconductor wafer, the reactor including a vacuum chamber for containing the wafer, a process gas source, a semiconductor window electrode facing an interior portion of the chamber, an inductive power radiator on an exterior side of the semiconductor window electrode, the inductive field having a skin depth generally decreasing with the frequency of the RF inductive field and with the density of the plasma in the chamber and generally increasing with the pressure inside the vacuum chamber, the inductive coupling of the RF field tending to approach extinguishment as the skin depth approaches the spacing between the wafer and the window electrode, a method for maintaining an intermediate plasma density inside the chamber without extinguishing the inductive coupling of the RF field, the method including operating the reactor at a selected flow rate of the process gas, a selected chamber pressure an

Abstract: Described is the use, [in the absence of (a) fertilizers and (b) Periodic Table Group IIa and greater Group metal cations and chelated metals], of aqueous solutions of the N-substituted aspartic acids, (i) N-(1,2-dicarboxyethyl)aspartic acid [‘IDS’] and (ii) N,N′-1,2-ethanediylbis-aspartic acid [‘EDDS’], ammonium salts, alkali metal salts, ammonium-alkali metal salts and optical isomers thereof in stimulating or regulating the growth of a living, growing plant precursor [germinating seed] or plant [from the ‘seedling stage’ to the ‘late-maturity stage’]. Such use, optionally, is in the presence of aditional adjuvants free from fertilizer as well as Periodic Table Group IIa and greater metal Group cations and chelated metals.

Abstract: A general method of the invention is to provide a polymer-hardening precursor piece (such as silicon, carbon, silicon carbide or silicon nitride, but preferably silicon) within the reactor chamber during an etch process with a fluoro-carbon or fluoro-hydrocarbon gas, and to heat the polymer-hardening precursor piece above the polymerization temperature sufficiently to achieve a desired increase in oxide-to-silicon etch selectivity. Generally, this polymer-hardening precursor or silicon piece may be an integral part of the reactor chamber walls and/or ceiling or a separate, expendable and quickly removable piece, and the heating/cooling apparatus may be of any suitable type including apparatus which conductively or remotely heats the silicon piece.

Abstract: A digital camera includes a flash lamp and a CCD imager. A microcomputer first exposes the CCD imager without a light-emission of the flash lamp. Therefore, a luminance evaluation value is calculated by a calculator on the basis of a luminance signal included in a camera signal generated by the CCD imager. The microcomputer succeedingly makes the flash lamp perform a preliminary light-emission, and exposes the CCD imager by {fraction (1/1500)} seconds. The calculator evaluates the luminance evaluation value on the basis of the luminance signal included in the camera signal obtained at this time. Then, the microcomputer calculates a major light-emission amount of the flash lamp on the basis of the two luminance evaluation values obtained in such a manner.

Abstract: The present invention increases data transfer rate and reduces interrupt latency while avoiding a concomitant increase in interrupts to the host, by pacing the data flow between the UART and DSP using burst modes and wait modes.

Abstract: There is described a laser processing device (1) whereby, by means of laser light (6), a workpiece (4) can be processed and wherein, at the same time, an image of the workpiece (4) to be processed is obtained, wherein the focusing of the imaging optics is independent of the focusing of the laser optics. The device (1) comprises a stationary laser mirror (21) and laser focusing optics (22), which laser focusing optics (22) are axially displaceable relative to the laser mirror (21). The device (1) further comprises imaging optics (23) which are al axially displaceable relative to the laser mirror (21), such that the axial distance between the laser focusing optics (22) and the imaging optics (23) is constant.

Abstract: A plasma reactor embodying the invention includes a wafer support and a chamber enclosure member having an interior surface generally facing the wafer support. At least one miniature gas distribution plate for introducing a process gas into the reactor is supported on the chamber enclosure member and has an outlet surface which is a fraction of the area of the interior surface of said wafer support. A coolant system maintains the chamber enclosure member at a low temperature, and the miniature gas distribution plate is at least partially thermally insulated from the chamber enclosure member so that it is maintained at a higher temperature by plasma heating.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method and a system for making up and managing a logistic chain for transporting goods, such as parcels. Such a chain may consist of a combination of collecting, delivery and packing/unpacking actions—elementary activities. The chain-management system breaks down a logistic chain chosen by a principal into the elementary activities required therefor, sees to the supply of orders to a transporter fitting the choice of the principal and indicated by the system, and makes it possible to collect information on the status of execution of the elementary activities.

Abstract: Thermodynamic material testing apparatus and a method for use therein which are capable of controllably inducing very large strains in crystalline metallic specimens. The apparatus prevents longitudinal flow elongation, that otherwise results in conventional testing systems when a specimen is compressively deformed, from occurring but permits sideways material flow outwards from a specimen work zone. The specimen is rotated between successive deformations through a predefined angle, e.g., 90 degrees, in order to present strained specimen material to opposing anvil faces for a next successive compressive deformation. Rotating the specimen between hits and hence compressing previously strained material permits the same work zone material to be deformed many times with very high strains induced therein.