Abstract: A foreign material removing structure includes an inserting hole, a battery-side terminal, and a push-out section. The hole provided in a battery pack extends in an attaching direction of the pack, and has an opening that a charger-side terminal can enter, the opening being formed in one end side in an extending direction. The battery-side terminal is provided in the hole to contact the charger-side terminal that enters the hole from the opening when the pack is attached to the charger. The section provided on the further forward side in the attaching direction than the opening in the pack has a surface that intersects the attaching direction. The structure is configured such that the section is at a region shifted to the further forward side in the attaching direction than the charger-side terminal when the forward side in the attaching direction of the battery-side terminal contacts the charger-side terminal.

Abstract: Target rotation speed at a reference point set at TDC slightly preceding a target stop position of engine rotation is set. A target trajectory of an engine rotation behavior extending since an engine rotation stop behavior starts until the target rotation speed at the reference point is reached is calculated based on the target rotation speed at the reference point and an engine friction. Torque of an alternator is controlled to conform the engine rotation behavior to the target trajectory during the engine rotation stop behavior. Generation of the torque of the alternator stops at a position preceding the reference point by a predetermined crank angle. Therefore, the torque of the alternator is controlled such that an energy deviation between the target trajectory and the engine rotation behavior becomes zero at the position preceding the reference point by the predetermined crank angle.

Abstract: A foreign material removing structure includes an inserting hole, a battery-side terminal, and a push-out section. The hole provided in a battery pack extends in an attaching direction of the pack, and has an opening that a charger-side terminal can enter, the opening being formed in one end side in an extending direction. The battery-side terminal is provided in the hole to contact the charger-side terminal that enters the hole from the opening when the pack is attached to the charger. The section provided on the further forward side in the attaching direction than the opening in the pack has a surface that intersects the attaching direction. The structure is configured such that the section is at a region shifted to the further forward side in the attaching direction than the charger-side terminal when the forward side in the attaching direction of the battery-side terminal contacts the charger-side terminal.

Abstract: In a coating and developing apparatus applied to liquid-immersion light exposure, substrates without an appropriately formed protective film can be recovered without adversely affecting normal-substrate processing efficiency, and in addition, removal of protective films can be simplified. In the coating and developing apparatus of the present invention, abnormal substrates not appropriately surface-coated with a protective film during liquid-immersion light exposure are queued in a queuing module, instead of being loaded into an exposure unit, and after the immediately preceding substrate has been unloaded from the exposure unit and loaded into a designated module, for example, a pre-developing second heating module, each abnormal substrate is loaded into the designated module in order to prevent so-called “scheduled transfer” from being affected, and a protective-film removing unit is also controlled to process the abnormal substrate.

Abstract: In the present invention, a heating plate is divided into a plurality of regions. Integrated values of temperature fluctuations in each of the regions when a substrate is mounted on the heating plate in a normal state without extraneous matter are collected. A Mahalanobis reference space in the discriminant analysis method is formed based on the integrated values at normal time. During actual heat processing, an integrated value of temperature fluctuation of each of the regions when the substrate is mounted on the heating plate is then detected, so that a Mahalanobis distance about the integrated value during the processing is calculated based on the integrated value during the processing and the Mahalanobis reference space obtained in advance. Whether or not there is extraneous matter on the heating plate is determined by comparing the calculated Mahalanobis distance to a predetermined threshold value.

Abstract: In the present invention, a heating plate is divided into a plurality of regions. Integrated values of temperature fluctuations in each of the regions when a substrate is mounted on the heating plate in a normal state without extraneous matter are collected. A Mahalanobis reference space in the discriminant analysis method is formed based on the integrated values at normal time. During actual heat processing, an integrated value of temperature fluctuation of each of the regions when the substrate is mounted on the heating plate is then detected, so that a Mahalanobis distance about the integrated value during the processing is calculated based on the integrated value during the processing and the Mahalanobis reference space obtained in advance. Whether or not there is extraneous matter on the heating plate is determined by comparing the calculated Mahalanobis distance to a predetermined threshold value.

Abstract: In a coating and developing apparatus applied to liquid-immersion light exposure, substrates without an appropriately formed protective film can be recovered without adversely affecting normal-substrate processing efficiency, and in addition, removal of protective films can be simplified. In the coating and developing apparatus of the present invention, abnormal substrates not appropriately surface-coated with a protective film during liquid-immersion light exposure are queued in a queuing module, instead of being loaded into an exposure unit, and after the immediately preceding substrate has been unloaded from the exposure unit and loaded into a designated module, for example, a pre-developing second heating module, each abnormal substrate is loaded into the designated module in order to prevent so-called “scheduled transfer” from being affected, and a protective-film removing unit is also controlled to process the abnormal substrate.

Abstract: An audio collector collects an ambient sound near a sound-catching ear and converts the collected ambient sound into a collected-sound electrical signal. A noise canceller generates an offset sound for acoustically canceling the ambient sound based on a phase-inverted collected-sound electrical signal obtained when a phase of the collected-sound electrical signal is inverted and emits the generated offset sound near the sound-catching ear. An ambient sound monitor generates a monitor sound which is a phase inversion sound of the ambient sound based on the phase-inverted collected-sound electrical signal and emits the generated monitor sound near the sound-catching ear.

Abstract: The present invention is a method of performing processing for a substrate including the step of carrying the substrate, which has been pre-treated, to a heat treatment unit for heating the substrate, prior to supplying a treatment solution to the substrate to perform solution treatment, in which the carrying is performed such as to fix a period after the pretreatment for the substrate is completed and before it is carried to the heat treatment unit. According to the present invention, for example, in a lithography process, the substrate is carried such as to fix the period after exposure processing that is the pretreatment and before the substrate is carried to the heat treatment unit where heat treatment that is the following treatment is performed, whereby the degrees of chemical reaction of coating films by the exposure processing become uniform between the substrates.

Abstract: The present invention is a method of judging whether a substrate is accurately placed at a predetermined position when placing the substrate at the predetermined position on a plate to perform heat treatment or cooling treatment therefor. The present invention has the step of measuring temperature of the plate at least from a first point of time to a second point of time during which the plate temperature changes, after placing the substrate at the plate, the step of calculating a temperature integrated area I determined by a range enclosed the measured temperature curve changing in time sequence and a set temperature of the plate, and the step of comparing the calculated temperature integrated area I with threshold values of a temperature integrated area set in advance.

Abstract: The present invention is a method of performing processing for a substrate including the step of carrying the substrate, which has been pre-treated, to a heat treatment unit for heating the substrate, prior to supplying a treatment solution to the substrate to perform solution treatment, in which the carrying is performed such as to fix a period after the pretreatment for the substrate is completed and before it is carried to the heat treatment unit. According to the present invention, for example, in a lithography process, the substrate is carried such as to fix the period after exposure processing that is the pretreatment and before the substrate is carried to the heat treatment unit where heat treatment that is the following treatment is performed, whereby the degrees of chemical reaction of coating films by the exposure processing become uniform between the substrates.

Abstract: The present invention is a method of performing processing for a substrate including the step of carrying the substrate, which has been pre-treated, to a heat treatment unit for heating the substrate, prior to supplying a treatment solution to the substrate to perform solution treatment, in which the carrying is performed such as to fix a period after the pretreatment for the substrate is completed and before it is carried to the heat treatment unit. According to the present invention, for example, in a lithography process, the substrate is carried such as to fix the period after exposure processing that is the pretreatment and before the substrate is carried to the heat treatment unit where heat treatment that is the following treatment is performed, whereby the degrees of chemical reaction of coating films by the exposure processing become uniform between the substrates.

Abstract: The present invention is a method of judging whether a substrate is accurately placed at a predetermined position when placing the substrate at the predetermined position on a plate to perform heat treatment or cooling treatment therefor.

Abstract: The present invention is a method of performing processing for a substrate including the step of carrying the substrate, which has been pretreated, to a heat treatment unit for heating the substrate, prior to supplying a treatment solution to the substrate to perform solution treatment, in which the carrying is performed such as to fix a period after the pretreatment for the substrate is completed and before it is carried to the heat treatment unit. According to the present invention, for example, in a lithography process, the substrate is carried such as to fix the period after exposure processing that is the pretreatment and before the substrate is carried to the heat treatment unit where heat treatment that is the following treatment is performed, whereby the degrees of chemical reaction of coating films by the exposure processing become uniform between the substrates.

Abstract: The substrate unloaded from the exposure device is received at the interface unit, and then carried by the substrate carrying means to the heat treatment unit, where a heat treatment is carried out on the substrate. After that, the substrate is carried from the heat treatment unit to the cooling unit, where the substrate is cooled. After the completion of the cooling process, the substrate is carried by the carrying means from the cooling unit to the development unit, where the resist film on the substrate is developed. In this resist process, the required time for the process at the heat treatment unit is changed in accordance with the required time for the process at the exposure unit. The required time for the process at the heat treatment unit is equalized with the required time for the process at the exposure device. The required time for the process at the heat treatment process is changed by prolonging or shortening the pre-process at the heat treatment unit.

Abstract: The substrate unloaded from the exposure device is received at the interface unit, and then carried by the substrate carrying means to the heat treatment unit, where a heat treatment is carried out on the substrate. After that, the substrate is carried from the heat treatment unit to the cooling unit, where the substrate is cooled. After the completion of the cooling process, the substrate is carried by the carrying means from the cooling unit to the development unit, where the resist film on the substrate is developed. In this resist process, the required time for the process at the heat treatment unit is changed in accordance with the required time for the process at the exposure unit. The required time for the process at the heat treatment unit is equalized with the required time for the process at the exposure device. The required time for the process at the heat treatment process is changed by prolonging or shortening the pre-process at the heat treatment unit.

Abstract: A quick-response optical disk system corrects signals from photodiodes through a differential amplifier to a tracking error signal TE that is further converted to a tracking drive signal TRD and a slide driving signal SLD by a tracking control circuit. The signal TRD through a driving circuit effects a tracking actuator. The signal TRD is also converted to a signal TRDFS by a low-pass filter. The signals SLD and TRDFS are sent through a selector to a microcomputer which drives a slide motor through a slide driving circuit according to the signals SLD and TRDFS.

Abstract: A first process of the invention comprises forming two constricted portions (28) at a quartz reaction tube (4), charging a solution of a compound of a rare earth element as a solution into the section between the constricted portions (28) for doping. By this, the doping concentration becomes uniform along the length of an optical fiber preform (30) with defects being rarely produced. This process does not involve any complicated operation. A second process of the invention comprises impregnating a solution in the form of a mist in a soot-like core glass (26) by which it becomes possible to control the doping concentration in high accuracy. A third process of the invention comprises impregnating a solution while controlling the concentration in response to a quantity of a transmitted laser beam through a soot-like core glass (26), by which the doping concentration is ensured independently of the density of the soot-like core glass.

Abstract: A first process of the invention comprises forming two constricted portions (28) at a quartz reaction tube (4), charging a solution of a compound of a rare earth element as a solution into the section between the constricted portions (28) for doping. By this, the doping concentration becomes uniform along the length of an optical fiber preform (30) with defects being rarely produced. This process does not involve any complicated operation.A second process of the invention comprises impregnating a solution in the form of a mist in a soot-like core glass (26) by which it becomes possible to control the doping concentration in high accuracy.A third process of the invention comprises impregnating a solution while controlling the concentration in response to a quantity of a transmitted laser beam through a soot-like core glass (26), by which the doping concentration is ensured independently of the density of the soot-like core glass.

Abstract: A constricted portion (14) is formed on an optical fiber (6) composed of a core (2) and a clad (4), and one or two belt-like conductive layers (20) elongated in a longitudinal direction of the optical fiber (6) are provided on a surface of the constricted portion (14). With the structure, the device functions as a polarizer which removes a polarized light component having a polarization plane perpendicular to the conductive layers (20). The optical fiber polarizer is suitably inserted in and used with an optical transmission line of an optical communication system and is also suitable for use as a component of an optical isolator.