Abstract: A mixture of indium metal and titanium metal is fused to the inner surface of a quartz envelope of a mercury vapor discharge lamp.

Abstract: The system for simulating user activity on a multi-tier computer network includes an event capture database for capturing interface level information and kernel level information associated with the interface level information. A virtual script editor module creates a virtual script from the captured interface level information and captured kernel level information to simulate user activity on the network. A virtual script playback module is responsive to the virtual script to produce virtual kernel level information indicative of network and server activity associated with a virtual user.

Abstract: A method and system for enabling personal digital assistants (PDAs) and protecting stored private data. Specifically, one embodiment in accordance with the present invention includes a removable expansion card about the size of a postage stamp which plugs into a slot of a personal digital assistant. The removable expansion card, referred to as a personality card, is capable of storing all of a user's private information and data which is used within their personal digital assistant. By removing the personality card from the personal digital assistant, all of the user's private information and data may be removed from the personal digital assistant. Furthermore, the personal digital assistant may also be rendered totally or partially useless once the personality card is removed from it. There are several advantages associated with a personality card system in accordance with the present invention.

Abstract: The stack-gate flash memory cell structure of the present invention comprises a floating-gate structure with a thinner floating-gate layer being formed in a central portion by using a spacer-formation technique; an implanted region being formed in the central portion of a channel for adjusting threshold-voltage and forming a punch-through stop; and a highly conductive control-gate structure spaced with an intergate-dielectric layer being formed over the floating-gate structure. The contactless NOR-type array of the present invention comprises a plurality of common-source conductive bus lines and a plurality of planarized common-drain conductive islands being integrated with a plurality of metal bit-lines. The contactless parallel common-source/drain bit-line array comprises a plurality of common-source/drain conductive bit-lines and a plurality of metal word-lines being integrated with a plurality of planarized control-gate conductive islands.

Abstract: An image pickup device using a lens to pick up images and a transmission interface to transmit picked up image signal to a computer is disclosed to have an indication signal output device adapted to receive a control signal from the mail server of the computer been connected when the mail server of the computer received an e-mail, and to produce an output signal indicative of the receipt of an e-mail by the mail server of the computer upon receipt of the control signal.

Abstract: A passive low power device for detection of boundary crossings includes a dual element pyro-electric infrared (PIR) sensor. The sensor is designed with a lens that provides a very narrow field of view and two pyro-electric elements that produce a waveform with two voltage swings of opposite polarity when a warm object moves past the sensor. The waveform is filtered and amplified before it is passed on to a comparator. The comparator triggers off the extremes of each waveform. The comparator includes two outputs that are normally high, but go low when a change in infrared radiation is detected. A processor makes an approximation of the zero crossing time based on the rising edge of the first comparator output. This approximate zero crossing time serves as an estimate of the boundary crossing time.

Abstract: A stacked-gate cell structure having a tapered floating-gate layer and a laterally graded source/drain diffusion profile is implemented to form NAND cell strings over a self-aligned STI structure having a high coupling ratio. The paired string select lines and the paired ground select lines being formed over one-side tapered floating-gate layers are simultaneously defined by a spacer formation technique and are therefore scalable. Each of common-source conductive bus lines is formed over a first flat bed between a pair of sidewall dielectric spacers being formed over sidewalls of the paired ground select lines. A plurality of planarized common-drain conductive islands are formed over common-drain diffusion regions between another pair of sidewall dielectric spacers being formed over sidewalls of the paired string select lines and are patterned simultaneously with a plurality of metal bit-lines by using a masking photoresist step.

Abstract: A method for automatically updating firmware of a hand-held device. To initiate the automatic update, a reset of the hand-held device is detected. Once a reset is detected, an update application is executed, wherein the update application performs the required updating steps. The update application determines whether a flag has been set in a nonvolatile memory area of the hand-held device. The flag is used to indicate a previous execution of the update application. If the flag is set, the update application terminates, otherwise, the update application performs an identification test by determining whether a device ID of the device matches a device ID stored in a table of the update application. If the device ID does not match, the update application terminates and the flag is set. If the device ID matches, the update application updates the firmware of the hand-held device, sets the flag, and terminates.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for authenticating and authorizing online transactions. An authentication cookie is transmitted to a client system. The authentication cookie includes a user encryption key and an encrypted buffer that contains user identification data and a profile code. Subsequent requests for the particular service use the authentication cookie to generate a query that includes the encrypted buffer and user identification data entered by the user. Portions of the query are encrypted using the user encryption key. Queries received at each authentication and authorization server are authenticated by reconstructing the user encryption key using information transmitted in the clear and decrypting the query using both the reconstructed user encryption key and the secret key. The user identification data entered by the user is then compared with the user identification data in the encrypted buffer for further authentication. The profile code is analyzed for determining authorization.

Abstract: A self-aligned trench-type DRAM structure comprising a self-aligned DRAM capacitor structure and a self-aligned DRAM transistor structure are disclosed by the present invention, in which the self-aligned DRAM capacitor structure comprises a deep-trench capacitor region and a shallow-trench-isolation region being defined by a spacer technique and the self-aligned DRAM transistor structure comprises a scalable gate-stack region and a common-drain region being defined by another spacer technique. The self-aligned trench-type DRAM structure is used to implement two contactless DRAM arrays. A first-type contactless DRAM array comprises a plurality of metal bit-lines integrated with planarized common-drain conductive islands and a plurality of highly conductive word-lines. A second-type contactless DRAM array comprises a plurality of metal word-lines integrated with planarized conductive-gate islands and a plurality of common-drain conductive bit-lines.

Abstract: A scaled MOSFET device of the present invention comprises a shallow-trench-isolation structure being formed on a semiconductor substrate; a conductive-gate structure having a pair of second conductive sidewall spacers formed over each inner sidewall of a gate region and on a first conductive layer and first raised field-oxide layers for forming an implant region in a central portion of a channel and a planarized third conductive layer for forming a salicide-gate structure or a polycide-gate structure; a buffer-dielectric layer being formed over each sidewall of the conductive-gate structure for forming lightly-doped source/drain diffusion regions; a first sidewall dielectric spacer being formed over each sidewall of the buffer-dielectric layers for forming heavily-doped source/drain diffusion regions; and a second sidewall dielectric spacer being formed over each sidewall of the first sidewall dielectric spacers for forming a self-aligned silicidation contact over each of the heavily-doped source/drain diffus

Abstract: The stack-type DRAM memory structure of the present invention comprises a plurality of self-aligned thin third conductive islands over shallow heavily-doped source diffusion regions without dummy transistors to obtain a cell size of 6F2 or smaller; a rectangular tube-shaped cavity having a conductive island formed above a nearby transistor-stack being formed over each of the self-aligned thin third conductive islands to offer a larger surface area for forming a high-capacity DRAM capacitor of the present invention; a planarized third conductive island being formed between a pair of first sidewall dielectric spacers and on each of shallow heavily-doped common-drain diffusion regions to offer a larger contact area and a higher contact integrity; and a plurality of planarized conductive contact-islands being formed over the planarized third conductive islands to eliminate the aspect-ratio effect and being patterned and etched simultaneously with a plurality of bit lines.

Abstract: An electric cooking apparatus, e.g. a deep fryer, is disclosed as including a body, a tank for containing food to be cooked and a control module for controlling the operation of the deep fryer, in which the body, the tank and the control module are releasably engageable with one another, and the tank and control module each includes a respective engagement member which are complementary with and releasably engageable with each other, and the control module is locked against movement from the body when the body, the tank and the control module are engaged with one another. The tank has a bottom surface for supporting the food to be cooked, and when the apparatus is positioned on a horizontal surface, the bottom surface of the tank is inclined relative to the horizontal surface.

Abstract: A self-aligned lateral-transistor DRAM cell structure is disclosed by the present invention, in which a trench structure comprises a trench region and a trench-isolation region being formed in a side portion of the trench region and a self-aligned lateral-transistor structure comprises a merged common-source diffusion region, a self-aligned gate-stack region, and a self-aligned common-drain diffusion region being formed in another side portion of the trench region by using spacer-formation techniques. The unit cell size of the self-aligned lateral-transistor DRAM cell structure can be fabricated to be equal to 6 F2 or smaller. The self-aligned lateral-transistor DRAM cell structure is used to implement two contactless DRAM arrays for high-speed read and write operations.

Abstract: A shredder system and method in which wet chips travel in a flume. The wet chips in a fluid transport travel in a trough to a shredder having a shredder assembly made up of a plurality of combs that cooperate with a plurality of sizing members with at least a portion of the combs and members being positioned within the trough. The trough preferably is located above ground and the wet chips can be shredded in the trough without removal of the wet chips form the trough.

Abstract: An electrode shield for a fluorescent tanning lamp comprising an open cup encircling a filament or electrode increasing the service life of the fluorescent tanning lamp. The cup having an open end acts as a shield reducing the sputtering of impurities onto the glass tube and contaminating the phosphor surface. In one embodiment, the cup is electrically and thermally coupled to an electrode support. The life of the fluorescent tanning lamp is greatly increased despite the use of relatively high currents and large number of on and off cycles.

Abstract: A palmtop computer utilizes SD memory modules or other types of memory modules to provide expansion memory. The expansion memory module plugs in to the palmtop computer via an external slot or compartment that is easily accessed by the user. This provides additional memory to the palmtop computer. To facilitate use of expansion devices such as sled or cradle based devices, a connector is provided on the palmtop computer that not only includes conventional power, ground and serial communication terminals, but also provides direct access to the memory module for use by the expansion device. This provides the advantage that the sled or cradle based device can directly access the palmtop computer's memory without using the palmtop computer's processing resources.

Abstract: A vertical transistor DRAM structure is disclosed by the present invention, in which a trench structure comprises a deep-trench region having a vertical transistor and a second-type shallow-trench-isolation region being formed in a side portion of the deep-trench region and a common-drain structure comprises different implant regions being formed under a common-drain diffusion region in another side portion of the deep-trench region. The vertical transistor DRAM structure is, used to implement two contactless DRAM arrays. A first-type contactless DRAM array comprises a plurality of metal bit-lines integrated. with planarized common-drain conductive islands and a plurality of highly conductive word-lines. A second-type contactless DRAM array comprises a plurality of metal word-lines integrated with planarized common-gate conductive islands and a plurality of common-drain conductive bit-lines.

Abstract: A back pad for a chair having a back defined by a shell, the back pad being fitted over the back shell and providing the back with a resilient padded feel while additionally providing styling flexibility with respect to the appearance of the chair back.

Abstract: A non-modal help mode uses a verb/object paradigm where the current context of the application program for which the user needs help is determined and a help screen is provided which shows all of the actions that can be taken from that context. The non-modal help system includes a display screen providing a window for a number of output displays of an application program, a collection of pre-defined images mapped to the output displays by their context, a user input device for initiating non-modal help, and a non-modal displayer which displays one of the predefined images within the window in the place of its contextually-related output display. Preferably, the predefined images are stored as static bit map images including a dithered representation of the context in which the help was requested and a number of help balloons strategically positioned on the dithered image. Even more preferably, the balloons are positioned manually by a graphic artist to maximize their placement on the dithered image.