Abstract: An object of the invention is to provide a chip pickup apparatus, a chip pickup method, a chip releasing device and a chip releasing method in each of which chips can be picked up at a high speed without being damaged. In the pickup apparatus wherein a chip 6 adhered on a sheet 5 is sucked and held by a picking nozzle 20 and then picked up by the nozzle, a sheet push-up member 24 configured by forming flexible elastic material such as rubber in a spherical shape is attached on the abutment supporting surface of the upper surface of a tool 20, then the push-up surface of the sheet push-up member 24 is followed in a flat surface state along the lower surface of the sheet 5 and abutted thereto in the moving down state of the picking nozzle 20, and then the push-up surface pushes up the lower surface of the sheet 5 while being deformed in a upwardly protruded curved surface shape in the moving up operation where the picking nozzle 20 moves up together with the chip 6.

Abstract: An object of the present invention is to provide a specimen transport system that can easily be installed without requiring much time and regardless of various transport distances and also is inexpensive. In the present invention, the distance between apparatuses, which had been difficult to be met by a specimen transport line when a specimen transport system is built, can easily be met by providing a structure in which a conveyor belt is formed in an endless loop and the shape of the loop of the conveyor belt is changed according to the length of a rack transport surface (rack transport surface length), and flexibility for apparatus and system installation and space efficiency can be enhanced, enabling substantial reduction of time and costs in building a specimen transport system.

Abstract: In a semiconductor wafer including a plurality of imaginary-divided-regions which are partitioned by imaginary-dividing-lines that are respectively arranged in a grid-like arrangement on the semiconductor wafer and a circumferential line that is the outer periphery outline of the semiconductor wafer, a mask is placed so as to expose an entirety of surfaces of the wafer corresponding to respective removal-regions, the removal-regions being regions in approximately triangular form partitioned by the circumferential line of the wafer and the imaginary-dividing-lines and being some of the imaginary-divided-regions, and then plasma etching is performed on a mask placement-side surface, by which the semiconductor wafer is divided into the individual semiconductor devices along dividing lines while portions correspond to the removal-regions in the wafer are removed.

Abstract: A collision mitigation controller drives a target brake to be controlled for assisting driver's collision-avoidance operation when a calculated collision time is less than an automatic brake a1 judgment line which is determined in advance. The controller drives the automatic brake a1 in order to mitigate damage generated by a collision with an obstacle or another vehicle when the collision time is less than an automatic brake a2 judgment line which is also less than the automatic brake a1 judgment line. The controller decreases the braking force for the automatic brake a2 when judged that the automatic brake a1 is not driven, as compared with the judgment where the automatic brake a1 is driven. When the automatic brake a2 drives the target brake, it is possible to avoid a collision where own vehicle is struck from behind by the rear vehicle which runs on a same traffic lane.

Abstract: Hybrid silica polymer applicable to electrochemical elements and a method for economical production thereof, the former excelling in thermal stability, mechanical stability, solvent resistance, and proton conductivity at low humidity is provided. The method includes a step of heating a mixture of 3-mercaptopropyltrialkoxylsilane, surfactant, water, and base or acid for their reaction with one another at 25 to 180° C., thereby providing a hybrid thiol group-containing silica polymer, and an optional step of oxidizing said hybrid thiol group-containing silica polymer with a peroxide, thereby giving a hybrid silica polymer which is composed of hybrid (thiol group-containing and/or sulfonic group-containing) silica polymer. The resulting silica polymer is used as a proton conducting material for electrochemical elements such as fuel cells, capacitors, and electrolytic cells.

Abstract: An electrode is composed of a carbon carrying a metal and a binder polymer, and it is used as a counter electrode of a dye-sensitized solar cell. The metal carried by carbon is at least one kind of metal selected from the group consisting of Pt, Ru, Co, Ti, Ni, Al and Au. The carbon is needle-like carbon, fullerene, carbon nanotube, conductive carbon black, or the like, and its specific surface area is equal to or larger than 100 m2/g.

Abstract: In a radiation detector, electrodes are provided on both sides of a photoconductive layer for recording. When the photoconductive layer for recording is irradiated with radiation during application of a predetermined bias voltage between the electrodes, electric charges are generated within the photoconductive layer for recording. Then, the generated electric charges are detected as an electric signal by the radiation detector. As the material for the photoconductive layer for recording, amorphous selenium having a coordination number of 1.95±0.02 is used.

Abstract: With use of a length-dimension of a second-line-segment of a unit-device-formation-region as an arrangement interval, a plurality of parallel lines are disposed in a device-formation-effective-region on a wafer so as to form a plurality of parallel-line-partition-regions, the unit-device-formation-regions are arranged in each of the parallel-line-partition-regions independently of and separately from other parallel-line-partition-regions so that the acquisition number of the unit-device-formation-regions is maximized, and an arrangement of the respective unit-device-formation-regions in the respective parallel-line-partition-regions is determined as an arrangement of the entire device-formation-effective-region.

Abstract: A collision mitigation controller drives a target brake to be controlled for assisting driver's collision-avoidance operation when a calculated collision time is less than an automatic brake a1 judgment line which is determined in advance. The controller drives the automatic brake a1 in order to mitigate damage generated by a collision with an obstacle or another vehicle when the collision time is less than an automatic brake a2 judgment line which is also less than the automatic brake a1 judgment line. The controller decreases the braking force for the automatic brake a2 when judged that the automatic brake a1 is not driven, as compared with the judgment where the automatic brake a1 is driven. When the automatic brake a2 drives the target brake, it is possible to avoid a collision where own vehicle is struck from behind by the rear vehicle which runs on a same traffic lane.

Abstract: Disclosed herein are an ion-dissociative functional compound, a method for production thereof, an ionic conductor, and an electrochemical device, the ion-dissociative functional compound being thermally and chemically stable under the condition required of fuel cells and being suitable for use as a material such as protonic conductor in fuel cells. The proton-dissociative functional compound shown in FIG. 1A is composed of a fullerene C60 molecule and about 10 sulfonic acid groups —SO3H as proton-dissociative groups each attached to the fullerene through a difluoromethane group —CF2—. The proton-dissociative functional compound shown in FIG. 1B is composed of fullerene molecules three-dimensionally connected to each other through a linking group —CF2SO2NHSO2CF2—. It contains, as the proton-dissociative group, sulfoneimide groups —SO2NHSO2— and sulfoneamide groups —SO2H2 in addition to sulfonic acid groups.

Abstract: The vehicle-use collision mitigation apparatus includes a function of calculating a TTC indicative of a time remaining before collision with a forward obstacle on the basis of the distance to this obstacle and the reference speed therebetween, a function of alarming a driver of the vehicle of presence of a risk of collision with the obstacle if the TTC is shorter than a predetermined first time, a function of increasing a braking force generated by a braking operation performed by the driver if the TTC is shorter than a predetermined second time not longer than the predetermined first time, and a function of automatically generating a braking force if the TTC is shorter than a predetermined third time shorter than the predetermined first time. The alarming function is configured to make an alarm for a driver of a following vehicle that the preceding vehicle may decelerate abruptly.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a photovoltaic cell, a method of manufacturing such photovoltaic cell, and to uses of such cell.

Abstract: In a radiation detector, electrodes are provided on both sides of a photoconductive layer for recording. When the photoconductive layer for recording is irradiated with radiation during application of a predetermined bias voltage between the electrodes, electric charges are generated within the photoconductive layer for recording. Then, the generated electric charges are detected as an electric signal by the radiation detector. As the material for the photoconductive layer for recording, amorphous selenium having a coordination number of 1.95±0.02 is used.

Abstract: In a photoelectric conversion device using a semiconductor electrode composed of semiconductor nanoparticles, the semiconductor electrode is made by coating and drying a paste containing a binder and semiconductor nanoparticles dispersed therein on a transparent conductive substrate, and pressing the paste to bond the semiconductor nanoparticles onto the transparent conductive substrate while heating it to a temperature in the range from 30° C. to the softening temperature of the transparent conductive substrate, or, if the semiconductor nanoparticles retain a sensitizing dye, to a temperature in the range from 30° C. to lower one of the softening temperature of the transparent conductive substrate and the deactivation temperature of the sensitizing dye.

Abstract: A display includes a pixel array, a vertical scan circuit, a horizontal drive circuit, and an auxiliary scan circuit. The pixel array includes scan lines, signal lines, pixels, and auxiliary scan lines. Each pixel includes a transistor, a pixel electrode, and an auxiliary capacitor. The auxiliary scan circuit sequentially applies auxiliary pulses, of which potential is reversed between a high level and a low level relative to a predetermined reference potential, to the auxiliary scan lines synchronously with selection pulses to control such that a potential of one electrode of each auxiliary capacitor in a selected pixel row is opposite in polarity to that of a signal written in the corresponding pixel electrode in the selected row, and further control such that the potential of the electrode of each auxiliary capacitor is returned to the reference potential when the selected row is released.

Abstract: Between each transparent pixel electrode driven by TFT as a drive device and a common electrode, a polymer layer located in contact with the transparent pixel electrode and electrically active to change in color by electrochemical oxidization or reduction and a polymeric solid electrolytic layer located in contact with the polymer layer and containing a coloring agent are interposed. Since electrochemical oxidization or reduction brings about a color change, the contrast and the black concentration can be enhanced, and bronzing after long-time use does not occur.

Abstract: A solid electrolyte battery includes a cathode having a cathode active material and a solid electrolyte and an anode. The solid electrolyte includes a first polymer having a binding force and a second polymer composed of alkali metal ion conducting polymers. Thus, the solid electrolyte battery has a high capacity and is excellent in its battery characteristics.

Abstract: A shift register includes unit circuits cascade-connected to form a plurality of shift stages. Each of the unit circuits has a time-shifter including a NAND circuit to receive an input pulse as one input, and a holder having a PMOS transistor and a NMOS transistor, connected in series between a power supply and a clock input of which gates and drains are mutually connected in common respectively. The input of the holder is connected to the output of the NAND circuit, and the output thereof is fed as another input to the NAND circuit. The odd-stage unit circuits and the even-stage unit circuits operate in synchronism respectively with clock pulses having a ¼ phase difference from each other. In this structure, the number of transistors between the positive and negative power supplies can be reduced for lowering the required supply voltage and accelerating the shift register operation.

Abstract: Disclosed herein are a hybrid silica polymer applicable to electrochemical elements and a method for economical production thereof, the former excelling in thermal stability, mechanical stability, solvent resistance, and proton conductivity at low humidity. Said method includes a step of heating a mixture of 3-mercaptopropyltrialkoxylsilane, surfactant, water, and base or acid for their reaction with one another at 25 to 180° C., thereby giving a hybrid thiol group-containing silica polymer, and an optional step of oxidizing said hybrid thiol group-containing silica polymer with a peroxide, thereby giving a hybrid silica polymer which is composed of hybrid (thiol group-containing and/or sulfonic group-containing) silica polymer. The resulting silica polymer is used as a proton conducting material for electrochemical elements such as fuel cells, capacitors, and electrolytic cells.

Abstract: An electrochemical device having battery characteristics and an electrode used therefor. The electrochemical device has a first pole, a second pole, and an electrolyte, said first pole containing an active material having at least one element selected from the group consisting of 1B Group, 2B Group, 6A Group, 7A Group, and 8 Group of the short-form periodic table, and said electrolyte containing an element belonging to 2A Group and/or 3B Group of the periodic table. Interactions between the electrolyte and the active material cause the occlusion and release of said ions.