Abstract: A mining riser pipe is extended from above water toward a water bottom containing water bottom resources, and a lower portion of an insertion pipe connected to a lower portion of the mining riser pipe is inserted into the water bottom. A liquid is supplied into the insertion pipe and a rotation shaft extends axially inside both of pipes is rotated to rotate stirring blades attached to a lower portion of the rotation shaft inside the insertion pipe, thereby drilling and dissolving mud S inside the insertion pipe into a slurry form is raised to an upper portion of the insertion pipe by a stirring flow generated by the rotation of the stirring blades, and the raised mud is lifted above the water through the mining riser pipe by lifting force.

Abstract: Provided is a method for manufacturing a laminate that is excellent in adhesion between the copper foil and the resin film while using a polyvinyl acetal resin having low reactivity with the copper foil. This method includes the steps of providing a copper foil having on at least one side a treated surface on which an amount of metal components is 30 atomic % or more and 40 atomic % or less, and attaching or forming a polyvinyl acetal resin film on the treated surface of the copper foil to form a laminate. The amount of metal components is a proportion of Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, Mo, Co, W, and Fe in a total amount of N, O, Si, P, S, Cl, Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, Mo, Co, W, and Fe when the treated surface is subjected to elemental analysis by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).

Abstract: Provided is a method for manufacturing a laminate that is excellent in adhesion between a copper foil and a resin film while using a polyvinyl acetal resin having low reactivity with the copper foil. This method includes the steps of providing a copper foil having a treated surface having a developed interfacial area ratio Sdr of 0.50% or more and 9.00% or less and a root mean square height Sq of 0.010 ?m or more and 0.200 ?m or less on at least one side, and attaching or forming a polyvinyl acetal resin film on the treated surface of the copper foil to form a laminate. The Sdr and Sq are values measured in accordance with ISO 25178 under conditions in which a cutoff wavelength of an S-filter is 0.55 ?m, and a cutoff wavelength of an L-filter is 10 ?m.

Abstract: A method for predicting the combustion state of an engine sets the operating condition of the engine, calculates the temperature of a highest temperature portion of the cylinder before combustion based on the operating condition, calculates the combustion start timing based on the temperature of the highest temperature portion, calculates the temperature of a lowest temperature portion of the cylinder based on the operating condition and the combustion start timing, and calculates the combustion end timing based on the temperature of the lowest temperature portion. The method calculates the temperature of a wall surface layer portion located adjacent the wall surface in the cylinder based on state changes in a burned portion, an unburned portion, and the wall surface layer portion that constitute a combustion chamber inside of the cylinder, and applies the temperature of the wall surface layer portion as the temperature of the lowest temperature portion.

Abstract: A diesel engine comprises: a cylinder head covering one end of a cylinder; a piston having a crown surface opposed to the cylinder head, and performing a reciprocating movement within the cylinder; and a fuel injector attached to the cylinder head. The cylinder head is formed with an intake port so as to generate a swirl flow within the cylinder. The crown surface of the piston is formed with a cavity which is recessed toward an opposite side of the cylinder head and which has a circular shape in planar view, and a notch which is recessed radially outward from a peripheral edge of the cavity. The fuel injector is formed with an injection hole oriented toward an inside of the cavity.

Abstract: In a diesel engine, a crown surface of a piston is formed with a cavity which is recessed toward an opposite side of a cylinder head, and which has a circular shape in planar view, and a wall surface forming the cavity includes a lip which is formed on a peripheral edge of the cavity, and which is protruded radially inward, and the lip is formed with a plurality of notches which are recessed radially outward from the peripheral edge of the cavity, and a fuel injector is arranged at a center of the cylinder head, and formed with a plurality of injection holes oriented toward an inside of the cavity so as to radially spray fuel within the cavity, and each of the plurality of the notches is arranged between oriented directions of two adjacent injection holes.

Abstract: The diesel engine is provided with a cylinder, a cylinder head, a fuel injection valve, and a piston. The piston has a cavity, and a notch formed in a circumferential edge of the cavity. The notch includes a first recessed portion which is recessed radially outward from an inner circumferential wall surface of the cavity, and a second recessed portion which is recessed from a crown surface of the piston toward a bottom side of the cavity and continuously extends radially outward from an end, on the crown surface side, of the first recessed portion. A vertical wall, on a downstream side of a swirl flow, of the second recessed portion is formed to extend, in an arched manner, radially inward and toward the downstream side of the swirl flow from a position corresponding to a radially outer side end of the second recessed portion in a plan view.

Abstract: A diesel engine includes a cylinder, a cylinder head, a fuel injection valve, and a piston. The piston has a cavity recessed so as to be capable of receiving fuel injected from the fuel injection valve when the piston is positioned at a top dead center, and a notch formed by recessing a part of a circumferential edge of an opening of the cavity radially outward. The notch inclines radially inward at an angle of 0° to 50° relative to a center axis of the cylinder from a piston crown surface toward an inner circumferential wall surface.

Abstract: An injector of a diesel engine has a first injection valve and a second injection valve disposed to face each other with respect to the center of a combustion chamber. Assuming that a straight line passing through the first injection valve and the second injection valve is a symmetrical line, one of two regions obtained by dividing a planar region of a combustion chamber (3) into two along the symmetrical line is a first region, and the other of the two regions is a second region, the first injection valve injects fuel toward the first region, and the second injection valve injects fuel toward the second region. A cavity portion is formed in the top surface of a piston. The first injection valve and the second injection valve respectively have injection holes at radially inner positions than the periphery of the cavity portion in plan view.

Abstract: A wafer flattening process designed to flatten the entire surface of the wafer including the outer rim of the wafer by inserting dummy data corresponding to the data of the outer rim of the wafer in the data of the outside of the wafer, and a storage medium for the same. An area S is set at an outside position exactly an etching radius r from an outer rim Wc of the wafer Wc ahd the nozzle relative speed at the position-speed data D of points P4-1 to P4-3 closest to an imaginary line L passing through the point P4 inside the area S near the outer rim Wc is set to be the same as the nozzle relative speed of the position-speed data D of the point P4. Due to this, the nozzle spraying the activated species gas G moves as if along the imaginary line L and the portion of the point P4 is etched flat by superposition of the activated species gas G of the nozzle passing through the points P4-1 to P4-3, the point P4, and the point P6.

Abstract: A wafer etching method wherein hydrogen gas, ammonia gas or mixed gas containing one of these gases is added to sulfur hexafluoride gas to suppress the occurrence of white turbidity on the surface of the wafer at the time of etching and to enable high quality mirror polishing of the wafer. In one embodiment, a mixed gas obtained by mixing SF6 gas G1 of a bomb 31 and H2 gas G2 of a bomb 32 in a predetermined ratio is fed to a discharge tube 2 and a microwave M is generated from a microwave oscillator 4 to cause plasma discharge. Further, the entire surface of the silicon wafer W can be flattened by locally etching the surface of the silicon wafer W by an activated species gas G sprayed from the nozzle portion 20.

Abstract: A wafer flattening system is provided to consecutively and automatically remove the natural oxide film from a wafer and flatten and smooth the wafer so as to improve the surface roughness of the wafer and improve the work efficiency. A step of immersing the wafer in an aqueous solution of hydrofluoric acid of a natural oxide film removing device is performed so as to remove the natural oxide film, then followed by a step of locally etching the surface of the wafer at a local etching apparatus by an activated species gas produced from SF6 gas to flatten the surface. Then, a step of giving a mirror finish to the wafer surface by a CMP apparatus is performed to smooth it.

Abstract: A local etching apparatus, and a local etching method are provided to give a high etching rate and enable fine etching. A quartz discharge tube 2 passes through a chamber 9 and has a spray port 21 of a nozzle portion 20 facing a silicon wafer W. A plasma generator 1 causes plasma discharge of a gas fed to the quartz discharge tube 2 so as to produce radicals. An exhaust portion 6 has an exhaust pipe 60 arranged near the nozzle portion 20 so that the spray port 21 of the nozzle portion 20 projects out to the silicon wafer W side from the suction port 60a. The exhaust portion 6 draws into the suction port 60a of the exhaust pipe 60 the reaction products G produced when locally etching the silicon wafer W by the radicals R and exhausts them to the outside of the chamber 9. Desirably, an etching region limiting portion 7 can be provided to feed into the chamber 9 a gas of a predetermined pressure for suppressing the spread of the radicals R sprayed from the spray port 21 of the nozzle portion 20.

Abstract: A corrosion-resistant system and method for a plasma etching apparatus are provided which are capable of reducing a corrosion or erosion phenomenon of a discharge tube, equipment and/or elements in a chamber of the plasma etching apparatus which is used for localized etching. A micro wave M is oscillated from a micro wave oscillator 20 toward a mixed gas of CF4 and O2 in a quartz discharge tube 110 to thereby produce plasma discharge. The micro wave oscillator 20 is controlled in an on-off manner by means of a pulse generator 21, to thereby oscillate a pulsed micro wave M. As a result, it is possible to reduce the erosion of the quartz discharge tube 110 caused by an active species gas G generated by the plasma discharge. Preferably, a corrosion-resistant oil A is filled in the chamber 100 for preventing an X-Y drive mechanism 130, etc., therein from being corroded or eroded by the active species gas G diffusing in the chamber 100.

Abstract: A local etching apparatus and a local etching method provide a high etching rate without impairing the mirror surface of the object to be etched and free from unevenness of the etching rate, thereby enabling the entire surface of an object to be etched to be etched by a uniform etching rate. The local etching apparatus includes a plasma generator 1 to cause plasma discharge of a mixed gas of CF4 and O2 fed from a gas feeder 3 to an alumina discharge tube 2 to produce F radicals R and spraying the F radicals R from the nozzle portion 20 to a silicon wafer W on a chuck 93 so as to locally etch the silicon wafer W. At this time, a power supply 71 of a wafer heating portion 7 is turned on and a voltage adjusted by a voltage regulator 72 is supplied to a spiral-shaped heating wire 70 in the chuck 93 to heat the entire silicon wafer W to, preferably, a heating temperature of the silicon wafer W set to a temperature range of from 20° C. to 300° C.

Abstract: A plasma etching method and apparatus are provided in which a distance between an ejection opening (20a) in a plasma generator (2) for ejecting an active species gas and a surface of an object to be etched can be changed to thereby shorten the time required for a surface flattening operation and reduce the cost of equipment as well. To this end, the ejection opening (20a) of a predetermined diameter is disposed in confrontation with a desired convex of the object to be etched in the form of a wafer (110). The active species gas in the form of an F gas (G) is ejected from the ejection opening (20a) to the convex to thereby flatten it through etching. A distance between the ejection opening and the convex is changed by means of a Z drive mechanism (4) to provide an etching area corresponding to an area of the convex, thus performing effective flattening of the wafer (110).

Abstract: A wafer flattening process and system enables a reduction of the surface roughness of a wafer resulting from local etching. A silicon wafer W is brought into close proximity to a nozzle portion 20 to feed SF6 gas to an alumina discharge tube 2, a plasma generator 1 is used to cause plasma discharge and spray a first activated species gas from the nozzle portion 20 to the silicon wafer W side, an X-Y drive mechanism 4 is used to make the nozzle portion 20 scan to perform a local etching step. Then the silicon wafer W is moved away from the nozzle portion 20 and O2 gas and CF4 gas are fed to the alumina discharge tube. At this time, the O2 gas is set to be greater in amount than the CF4 gas. When this mixed gas is made to discharge to generate plasma, a second activated species gas diffuses from the nozzle portion 20 to the entire surface of the silicon wafer W.

Abstract: A wafer flattening process and system enables a reduction of the surface roughness of a wafer resulting from local etching. A silicon wafer W is brought into close proximity to a nozzle portion 20 to feed SF6 gas to an alumina discharge tube 2, a plasma generator 1 is used to cause plasma discharge and spray a first activated species gas from the nozzle portion 20 to the silicon wafer W side, an X-Y drive mechanism 4 is used to make the nozzle portion 20 scan to perform a local etching step. Then the silicon wafer W is moved away from the nozzle portion 20 and O2 gas and CF4 gas are fed to the alumina discharge tube. At this time, the O2 gas is set to be greater in amount than the CF4 gas. When this mixed gas is made to discharge to generate plasma, a second activated species gas diffuses from the nozzle portion 20 to the entire surface of the silicon wafer W.

Abstract: A wafer flattening process designed to flatten the entire surface of the wafer to a higher precision by projecting the fall in the etching rate at the outer peripheral portion of the wafer and forming the outer peripheral portion of the wafer thinner in advance before plasma etching the entire surface of the wafer, a wafer flattening system, and a wafer flattened by the same. The wafer flattening system is provided with a CMP apparatus 1 and a plasma etching apparatus 2 are provided. The outer peripheral portion Wb of a wafer W held by a carrier 11 is polished thinner than an inside portion Wc of the wafer W by the CMP apparatus 1 having a platen 10 formed with a recessed surface. Specifically, it is polished so that the maximum thickness at the outer peripheral portion Wb of the wafer W becomes not more than the minimum thickness at the inside portion Wc.

Abstract: Plasma etching method and apparatus for removing relatively thick portions from wafers by etching while measuring an actual etch quantity to thereby manufacture the wafers excellent in flatness quality on a mass-production basis. A conduit 20 of a plasma generator 2 is positioned above a relatively thick portion 111 of the wafer 110 to etch away a wafer material from the relatively thick portion 111 by ejecting a fluorine gas G. A laser beam L0 is emitted from a laser displacement meter 30 of a measuring apparatus 3 to detect an interference state between a reflected light beam L1 from the relatively thick portion 111 and a reflected light beam L2 form a reflecting plate 32 and count periodical changes of the interference state. When the count value m coincides with an integral value derived by dividing a desired etch quantity by a half wavelength of the laser beam L0, etching of the relatively thick portion 111 by the fluorine gas G is terminated.