Abstract: A method of soldering comprises disposing first and second balls of solder adjacent one another on a wire; disposing flux on the wire between and in contact with both of the first and second balls and so as to substantially fill a space between the first and second balls; disposing the wire on a substrate so that the first and second balls of solder contact a single conductor on the substrate; and melting the first and second balls of solder and flux and soldering the wire to the conductor.

Abstract: An active matrix electroluminescent display device has an array of current-driven electroluminescent display elements (20), for example comprising organic electroluminescent material, whose operations are each controlled by an associated switching means (10) to which a drive signal for determining a desired light output is supplied in a respective address period and which is arranged to drive the display element according to the drive signal following the address period. Each switching means comprises a current mirror circuit (24, 25, 30, 32) which samples and stores the drive signal with one transistor (24) of the circuit controlling the drive current through the display element (20) and having its gate connected to a storage capacitance (30) on which a voltage determined by the drive signal is stored. Through the use of current mirror circuits improved uniformity of light outputs from the display elements in the array is obtained.

Abstract: Audio-centered information is stored on a unitary medium by a Table-of-Contents (TOC) mechanism for specifying an actual configuration of various audio items on the medium. In addition to the TOC mechanism a file-based access mechanism to the information is assigned through a ROOT directory that contains a highest level TOC directory pointing at various audio items.

Abstract: The invention provides an organic electroluminescent device whose electroluminescence efficiency is independent of the work function of the cathode material, and whose service life under ambient conditions is excellent without the necessity of taking additional protective measures. These properties are obtained as a result of the fact that an organic layer of the device comprises mobile ions which are compensated by immobile ions in such a manner that the polarity of all mobile ions is the same.

Abstract: Normally, in an MPEG recorder, during recording, a time stamp counter is locked to the program clock reference of the incoming stream by pulling the clock frequency of a controllable oscillator. During playback, the oscillator is left free running. Playback and recording situation lead to conflicting requirements. A solution is presented that does not have these conflicting requirements, namely by using an adder that adds an increment value to a count value in order to obtain the next count value. The time stamp values are derived from the count values. During recording, the value of the increment value is controllable, and during playback, the value of the increment value is fixed.

Abstract: The data processing device maintains two stacks. The length of the basic unit of information is different for each stack. Pops and pushes cause a change in the stack pointer which differs dependent on which stack is used. Instructions refer to different locations on the stack as registers defined by an offset of a number of basic units relative to the top of stack. In an embodiment a reference to registers is normally interpreted as a reference to one of a set of registers (including the top of stack register) without push or pop, but a reference to one register is interpreted as a reference to top of stack including a push or pop.

Abstract: Two joining parts (2, 3) made of molded plastic comprise the female part (6) and the male part (7) of the device. These parts are obtained by molding them at the same time as their joining parts. According to the invention, the female part comprises at least two symmetrical hooks (11, 12) which determine between them a first space (13) for inserting the male part, in a form widening towards the free end, and a second space (14) of rectangular or triangular section called retaining space. The interface between these two parts consists of two female shoulders (15, 16) for said hooks. The male part situated opposite comprises an inserting end (17) whose form is adapted to the first inserting space, which end is terminated by a common shoulder of the male part (18).

Abstract: A radio communication system comprises a primary station (100) for transmitting information signals on a downlink channel (122) and for receiving signals from one or more secondary stations (110) on an uplink random access packet channel (RACH) (124), the downlink and uplink channels being independent of each other. Power control is applied to the transmitted downlink signals by at least one of the secondary stations transmitting indicia indicating the prevailing radio channel characteristics of the uplink channel, the indicia being used by the primary station to apply power control to the downlink signals.

Abstract: An active matrix display device of the kind having two terminal non-linear switching devices (15) such as thin film diodes connected in series with the electro-optic, e.g. LC, display elements (12) between associated row and column address conductors (16, 17), in which the display elements are driven using pulse width modulated data signals and a wide range of grey-scale levels is achieved by using selection signals whose form is determined such that the current flow through the switching devices upon selection is controlled in an appropriate manner. To this end, the selection signals can be shaped to provide a more constant charging level over the selection period.

Abstract: A method of fabricating an electronic device comprising a thin-film transistor, which addresses a problem of increased off-state current and reduced carrier mobility in self-aligned thin-film transistors. According to the method, a gate layer (2,46) is etched back underneath a mask layer (20,48). Following an implantation step using the mask layer as an implantation mask, the etch-back exposes implant damage which is then annealed by an energy beam (42).

Abstract: A trench-gate semiconductor device, for example a MOSFET or an IGBT, has a network of connected trenches (20) containing gate material (21) in a semiconductor body (10) in an active transistor cell area 100 with an n-type source region (13A) and an underlying channel accommodating p-type region (15A) in each cell. A source electrode (51) contacts the source regions (13A). Trenches (20) containing gate material (21) extend from the network of connected trenches in the area 100 to an inactive area (200) having a gate electrode contact area (201) where a gate electrode (53) contacts the gate material (21) on the whole area of the trenches (20) adjacent the semiconductor body surface (10a) and where the gate electrode (53) also contacts the semiconductor body surface (10a) adjacent the trenches (20).

Abstract: A method of providing a display (10) for a graphical user interface in which a user may define a selected region (20) of a subject image (3) is disclosed together with a computer program, a computer-readable storage medium (72) and apparatus for the same (71). The method comprising the steps of displaying the subject image (3); displaying at least one mask (12, 13, 14, 15) over the subject image wherein at least part of the or each mask extends to the periphery of the subject image (11); and defining the selected region (20) as those parts of the subject image not covered by a mask. The or each mask has a geometry which may vary in accordance with a user's input whereby the user selecting a first point within a mask and a second point displaced therefrom causes the geometry of that mask to vary in relation to the displacement (16, 17, 18, 19, 21) between the first and second points.

Abstract: According to a known projection lithography method an object is imaged on an imaging surface by means of a telescopic system of rotationally symmetrical electron lenses. The throughput during the production of integrated circuits by means of projection lithography is determined by the amount of current in the imaging electron beam; this current is limited by the resolution-limiting interaction of the electrons (Coulomb interaction). The invention allows for a larger beam current in that areas with a high current concentration are avoided. To this end, the imaging system includes five mutually perpendicular quadrupoles, so that the electrons are concentrated in line-shaped focal spots instead of a (small) circular cross-over. The system is telescopic and the imaging is stigmatic with equal magnifications in the x-z plane and the y-z plane.

Abstract: A semiconductor device with a semiconductor body (1) provided with a memory capacitor (12, 26) with a lower electrode (11, 23) consisting of a layer of semiconductor material (7, 23) having a rough surface (8, 24) formed by hemispherical grains (9, 25) of the relevant semiconductor material on which a dielectric layer (12, 27) and an upper electrode (13, 28) are provided. The semiconductor material from which the lower electrode is manufactured is Si1-xGex, wherein 0.2<x<1. The semiconductor device can be manufactured in a simple manner because a layer of Si1-xGex having a rough surface formed by hemispherical grains of this material can be simply directly formed through deposition by means of usual CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) processes.

Abstract: In a audio reproduction arrangement (2) such as a mobile phone terminal the decoded speech signal is compressed by compression means (14) in order to improve the understanding of the speech signal in the presence of strong background noise.

Abstract: Semiconductor device comprising an integrated CMOS circuit with NMOS and PMOS transistors (A, B) having semiconductor zones (23, 24, 29, 30) formed in a silicon substrate (1). At the locations of the gate zones (29, 30), the surface (3) of the substrate is provided with a layer of gate oxide (11) on which gate electrodes (16, 17) are formed. The gate electrodes (17) of the PMOS transistors (B) are formed in a layer of p-type doped polycrystalline silicon (14) and a layer of p-type doped polycrystalline silicon-germanium(13) (Si1-xGex; 0<x<1) sandwiched between the silicon-germanium layer and the gate oxide. The gate electrodes (16) of the NMOS transistors (A) are formed in a layer of n-type doped polycrystalline silicon (14) without germanium. The integrated CMOS circuit combines advantages of PMOS transistors having p-type doped silicon-germanium gate electrodes with advantages of NMOS transistors having n-type doped silicon gate electrodes.

Abstract: In a radio communication system comprising a plurality of stations (100a,100b,100c) operating in a peer-to-peer mode, each station stores information relating to the transmission parameters of other stations. Such information may include the frequency offset and received signal strength of signals from the other stations. One station acts as central controller and allocates time slots for transmission from a first station (100a) to a second station (100b). Before the first station (100a) receives a signal from the second station (100b) it makes initial adjustments to its receiver circuitry depending on the stored information about previous signals received from that station (100b). This simplifies the task of adjusting the receiver circuitry during the preamble of the signal transmitted by the second station (100b).

Abstract: An arrangement (1) for verifying a playing authorization for an encrypted information signal (I) reproduced by means of a reproducing device (2, 3) and for supplying a decrypted information signal (I) when a playing authorization is available, comprises verification means (19) for verifying a playing authorization for a reproduced encrypted information signal (I), and comprises decryption means (32) fro decrypting a reproduced encrypted information signal (I) when a playing authorization is available, and comprises interrogation means (43, 35) for independently requesting a playing authorization, which interrogation means include communication means (43) which, in the absence of a playing authorization for a reproduced encrypted information signal (I) are capable of setting up a data link (49, 52, 56, 59) and of supplying playing authorization request information to a playing authorization allocation device (51, 53, 57, 60) via the data link (49, 52, 56, 59) and of receiving a playing authorization for the re

Abstract: A data processing system comprises a cluster of devices (16) interconnected for the communication of data in streams, particularly digital audio and/or video data. One of the devices (10) is a source device for at least two data streams to be sent to one or more other devices (12, 14) as destination devices of the cluster. To enable synchronization of the stream presentations by the destination devices, some or all of the devices (10, 12, 14) carry respective tables (11, 13, 15) identifying, for that device, an identifier for each type of data stream that the device can process together with the processing delay for that stream. The or each such table is accessible via the cluster connection (18) to whichever of the devices, at source, destination or in between for the signal, is handling application of the necessary offsets.

Abstract: A method is described of manufacturing a semiconductor material having a zone (200) with p-conductivity type and n-conductivity type regions with dopant concentrations and dimensions such that, when the n- and p-conductivity type regions are depleted of free charge carriers the space charge per unit area of the regions balances at least to the extent that the resulting electric field is lower than that at which avalanche breakdown would occur in the area. The method starts with a semiconductor body having adjacent a first major surface (10b) a first semiconductor region (2) of one conductivity type. A mask (3, 4, 5) is provided on the first major surface, having at least one mask area masking a part (2a) of the first region. At least a part of the unmasked first region (2) is then removed to provide at least one opening (7) in the first region.