Abstract: An Electro-Static-Discharge (ESD) protection circuit has a Silicon-Controlled Rectifier (SCR) with a discharge current path in a first direction. A triggering transistor has a trigger current flowing in a second direction that is perpendicular to the first direction. Triggering transistors can be Fin Field-Effect Transistor (FinFET) transistors with current flowing along the long direction of the fins. The trigger current flows into a connecting N+ drain and into an N-Well under a center portion of the connecting N+ drain to inject carriers into the N-base of a PNPN SCR. The injected current flows through the base to generate a voltage gradient that turns on the PN junction in a P+ emitter that is parallel to but spaced apart from the FinFET transistors, causing a discharge current to flow perpendicular to the fins. The perpendicular discharge current flows through the substrate which can handle a larger current than the small fins.

Abstract: The invention provides a chromatic confocal system for inspecting an object. The system comprises a first light modulator for providing a spatially modulated light beam arranged to project on one or more parts of the object to form a reflected light beam carrying image information of the one or more projected parts of the object; a second light modulator for spatially filtering the reflected light beam to form a light beam carrying filtered image information of the one or more projected parts of the object; wherein operation of the first light modulator and the second light modulator is synchronized such that the spatial filtering of the second light modulator varies in concert with variations in the spatial modulation of the first light modulator.

Abstract: Described is a method of reducing uplink inter-cell interference in a cellular communications network. The method comprises identifying in a cell any user equipments (UEs) which are susceptible to interference (ISUs) from another UE, particularly another UE in a neighboring cell. The method includes identifying in said cell any UEs causing interference (ICUs) to at least one neighboring cell and, more particularly, causing interference to a UE in a neighboring cell. The identified ISUs and ICUs are combined into a priority list for frequency resource reservation or allocation in said cell. The method may include limiting the identification of ISUs and ICUs to a selected number of UEs within the cell.

Abstract: Described is a power connector device for separating an electrical connection under direct current (DC) voltage or alternating current (AC) voltage between an electrical connector element and an electrical contact element. The power connector device includes the electrical contact element. The electrical contact element has a first conductive part and a second conductive part spaced apart one from the other so as not to be directly electrically conductively connected to one another. The power connector device includes a semiconductor switch for maintaining an electrical connection between the electrical connector element and the electrical contact element during separation of contact between said electrical connector element and said first conductive part to thereby prevent arcing during electrical disengagement of the electrical connector element from the electrical contact element.

Abstract: Systems and methods which provide a high-throughput point source light coupling structure implementing a condenser configured according to one or more condenser configuration rules are described. Embodiments of a high-throughput point source light coupling structure utilize a birefringent plate configuration in combination with a condenser and point source to provide a light coupler structure for a birefringent-static-Fourier transform interferometer implementation. According to some examples, the optical axis of a first and second birefringent plate of a birefringent plate configuration are not in the same plane. A condenser of a high-throughput point source light coupling structure of embodiments is provided in a defined (e.g., spaced, relational, etc.) relationship with respect to the point source and/or a camera lens used in capturing an interference pattern generated by the light coupling structure.

Abstract: Systems and methods which provide iterative multi-directional image searching are described. Embodiments utilize a multi-directional searching pattern for defining one or more searching areas within a source image. A searching area of embodiments provides a searching area within a source image for searching for a template image in the multiple directions of the multi-directional searching pattern. A location of the searching area within the source image may be updated iteratively, such as based upon motion vectors derived from the searching, until a template image match position is identified within the source image. Embodiments transform the template image and the searching area within a source image to 1D representations corresponding to each direction of the multi-directional image search. Embodiments accommodate rotation and scale variance of the subject (e.g., object of interest) of the template image within the source image.

Abstract: A method of performing carrier frequency offset (CFO) estimation and/or time offset (TO) estimation at a radio equipment in a mobile communications system. The method allows, for each of a plurality of synchronization signal (SS) blocks (SSBs) in a SS Burst detected at said radio equipment, determining a CFO estimation and/or a TO estimation based on network information signal prediction. The method includes selecting at least some of said detected SSBs in said SSB Burst and combining the CFO estimations and/or the TO estimations to obtain improved CFO compensation and/or TO compensation for signal processing at said radio equipment.

Abstract: Described is a method and apparatus for processing an uplink (UL) signal at a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) in a wireless communication system to determine a discontinuous transmission (DTX) state. The method comprises receiving a UL channel signal at a PUCCH receiver apparatus and, after resource element (RE) demapping of said received UL channel signal in said PUCCH receiver apparatus, normalizing a signal power of at least one signal element or resource. The normalized power is compared to a selected, calculated or predetermined threshold and, based on said comparison, a determination is made on whether or not a DTX state has occurred.

Abstract: A method for improving road safety of a vehicle in a system having a plurality of communicatively connected roadside units (RSUs) placed within a defined geographical area, each RSU configured to receive data from a plurality of sources located within its respective coverage area forming part of said defined geographical area and to at least transmit the received data and/or data derived from the received data to one or more data processing units located within its coverage area. The method has the steps of: receiving data defining an event E1 occurring within the coverage area of an event RSU; determining a type of the event E1; and based on the type of event E1, communicating data defining the event E1 or data related to the event E1 from the event RSU to one or more selected RSUs from remaining RSUs.

Abstract: A deep neural network models semiconductor devices. Measurements of test transistors are gathered into training data including gate and drain voltages and transistor width and length, and target data such as the drain current measured under the input conditions. The training data is converted by an input pre-processor that can apply logarithms of the inputs or perform a Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Rather than use measured drain current as the target when training the deep neural network, a target transformer transforms the drain current into a transformed drain current, such as a derivative of the drain current with respect to gate or drain voltages, or a logarithm of the derivative. Weights in the deep neural network are adjusted during training by comparing the deep neural network's output to the transformed drain current and generating a loss function that is minimized over the training data.

Abstract: A switch-less transceiver has parallel LC resonances that act as OFF switches and series LC resonances act as ON switches when resonating at the transmit (TX) or receive (RX) frequency. When the transmitter is disabled, no current flows through series LC filters. Instead, series impedances to ground provide an RF ground to the transmitter output node. A TX inductor between the transmitter output node and the antenna is in parallel with a TX blocking capacitor to ground, which together form a parallel resonance to ground that has a high impedance when resonating at the receiver frequency. This high impedance acts as an OFF switch to block antenna signals from entering the transmitter. The two paths are in parallel, presenting a high impedance to the antenna and forming an OFF switch when the receiver is disabled.

Abstract: A method of generating an AR user manual in an electronic 3D viewing environment, comprising: recording a moving trajectory of the 3D viewing environment's optical sensor; receiving a landmark location information; executing an iterative target object pose estimation comprising: estimating an estimated target object pose from each of the optical sensor poses in the recorded moving trajectory and the landmark location; calculating an estimation error from a 3D model being arranged in the estimated target object pose and projected onto the target object in the real-world scene; calculating a mean of the estimation errors; and reiterating the iterative target object pose estimation to optimize the estimated target object pose for a minimum mean estimation error; if the minimum mean estimation error is within a predefined estimation error threshold, then rendering the AR user manual onto the target object according to the optimized estimated target object pose.

Abstract: A method for applying image encoding recognition in the execution of natural language processing (NLP) tasks, comprising the processing steps as follows. A sentence from a textual source is extracted by an NLP-based feature extractor. A word vector is generated in response to the sentence by the NLP-based feature extractor. The word vector is converted into a feature vector {right arrow over (b)} by the NLP-based feature extractor, in which the feature vector {right arrow over (b)} satisfies {right arrow over (b)}?m and the parameter m is a positive integer. The feature vector is transformed into an image set having a plurality of two-dimensional images by a transformer. The image set is fed to a neural network to execute image recognition by a processor, so as to analyze the sentence.

Abstract: Provided herein is a method for measuring a concentration of a metal ion in an electrodeposition solution. The method of the present disclosure can substantially reduce the interference of organic additives and different electrode conditions on voltammetric metal ion concentration measurements.

Abstract: An assembly for power converting includes a circuit board, a power switching circuit mounted on the circuit board, an inductor coil that includes a winding and two ends, a magnetic core that is surrounded by the winding of the inductor coil, and a magnetic mixture that encapsulates the circuit board, the power switching circuit, the inductor coil and the magnetic core. The winding of the inductor coil is stacked above the power switching circuit and is sufficiently large to fill up a size of the assembly.

Abstract: The present disclosure describes methods, devices, and non-transitory computer readable storage medium for managing lifecycle of a knowledge base (KB) in chatbot systems. The method includes receiving an update request and updating a current-version KB as a new current-version KB. The method also includes receiving a first test request from a knowledge point (KP) operator and determining whether the new current-version KB passes a first test; and in response to the determination that the new current-version KB passes the first test, submitting the new current-version KB as a new submit-version KB. The method further includes receiving a second test request from a KP manager and determining whether the new submit-version KB passes a second test; and in response to the determination that the new submit-version KB passes the second test, storing an original production-version KB as a pervious-version KB and submitting the new submit-version KB as a new production-version KB.

Abstract: A bit-depth optimization engine reduces the hardware cost of a neural network. When training data is applied to a neural network during training routines, accuracy cost and hardware costs are generated. A hardware complexity cost generator generates costs for weights near bit-depth steps where the number of binary bits required to represent a weight decreases, such as from 2N to 2N?1, where one less binary bit is required. Gradients are generated from costs for each weight, and weights near bit-depth steps are easily selected since they have a large gradient, while weights far away from a bit-depth step have near-zero gradients. The selected weights are reduced during optimization. Over many cycles of optimization, a low-bit-depth neural network is generated that uses fewer binary bits per weight, resulting in lower hardware costs when the low-bit-depth neural network is manufactured on an Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC).

Abstract: A method and apparatus for transporting packets over a wide area network (WAN) in a communications network are provided where the WAN comprises a plurality of interconnected nodes including at least a first communication node, a second communication node and a WAN controller node. The method comprises establishing virtual private network (VPN) tunnel connections on communication links between some or all of the communication nodes comprising the WAN, using a non-stream-oriented transport layer protocol to establish a non-stream-oriented association for each VPN tunnel connection, and, on receiving a packet connection from a source device at said first communication node, encapsulating packets from said packet connection into one or more non-stream-oriented associations between the first communication node and the second communication node to thereby transport said packets from the source device to the second communication node.

Abstract: An Electrical Protective Device for Low-Voltage DC networks (EPDL) has a controller that on start-up first closes a mechanical relay in a ground line, waits a first delay, then closes a bipolar transistor to allow current to flow through a positive supply line, then turns on a Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor (MOSFET) connected in parallel with the bipolar transistor once an output voltage reaches a minimum target. The controller reverses the start-up order to open the MOSFET, bipolar transistor, and finally the relay when an over-voltage, input-power, or integrated-current fault is detected. The output current is integrated over time and compared to a threshold, allowing for capacitor charging or other temporary over-loads. When the output voltage dips below the minimum target, the MOSFET is turned off until the voltage recovers. If the voltage does not recover within a time period, the bipolar transistor and then the relay are turned off.

Abstract: Provided is a method for determining a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) transmission signal. The method comprises receiving soft bits from a wireless communication physical channel uplink signal, said received soft bits being deemed to comprise HARQ LLRs and soft decoding said HARQ LLRs to output a hard ACK/NACK decision. The method includes processing said HARQ LLRs based on said hard ACK/NACK decision such that the processed HARQ LLRs map to a same or identical constellation point or points if the physical channel uplink signal contains an ACK or NACK transmission signal. The method also includes using said processed HARQ LLRs to determine if the physical channel uplink signal contains an ACK or NACK transmission signal or to determine if the physical channel uplink signal comprises discontinuous transmission (DTX).