The present invention provides a system, or kit, of blow molded panels having integrally formed connectors which combine to form an enclosure, commonly in the form of a utility shed. The corner sections, roof, wall and floor panels are formed of blow molded plastic with integrally formed connectors to interlock with one another. In one embodiment, the ends of the wall panels have locking plugs that are constructed and arranged to fit into corresponding sockets and slide to an engaged position for interlocking cooperative engagement rigidly connecting the components together.

This invention relates to hand manipulated toy construction equipment such as backhoes, trucks, etc. In one embodiment, the truck body is hollow at one end so that the truck may be manipulated by inserting one's arm into the truck body and grasping and manipulating a transverse dowel handle. Spring-loaded means are provided within the truck body and are coupled to the dumper to control the motion of the equipment. A sound module is also provided to simulate construction sounds.

A simplified modularized contact type of conductive building block includes: a brick, at least one pair of conductive pieces, a circuit board and a base. The brick includes at least one pair of studs projected from a top thereof. The conductive piece has an insertion electrode and a connection electrode respectively disposed at two ends thereof and a contact electrode disposed between the insertion electrode and the connection electrode. The conductive pieces are inserted through the insertion through holes of the circuit board. The circuit board includes a positive electrode circuit and a negative electrode circuit respectively contacted with the at least one pair of the conductive pieces. The conductive pieces are further inserted through the through holes of the base. The circuit board and the base are fixed in the brick.

A toy construction kit has a plurality of magnetic modules, each with a housing having a plurality of sides, each side having an internal hollow. A magnet is contained within each of the hollows at a given polar orientation relative to the housing and the hollow. The hollow has dimensions that permit the magnet to move within the hollow, but substantially constrains the magnet to the given polar orientation relative to the housing. When a side of a module is placed near a side of another module, they are bound by magnetic attraction by the respective aligned magnets, either because the polar orientations are opposite when they are initially juxtaposed or due to shifting of one or both magnets in their respective hollows to achieve relative polar opposition.

A toy construction system is provided that includes, in a toy construction system having a multiplicity of interconnecting members adapted for constructing a variety of projects, a rotator head device including a device housing having a conical-shaped cavity formed therein. The housing includes a plurality of female twist-lock connectors formed on the outer surface thereof, and the female connectors are adapted for attaching a first member of the toy construction system to the rotator head device housing. A rotating member, which is conical in shape and slightly smaller in size than the cavity formed in the device housing is included. The rotating member is rotatably disposed within the cavity and has a male twist-lock connector stem extending from an end thereof for connecting a second member of the toy construction system to the rotating member, whereby the first member is rotatable with respect to the second member.

Headgear that can be converted into another object, comprising a figurine provided with a hollow base which, in at least one configuration, defines an object including a volume for receiving an element. In a second configuration, the hollow base can be turned partially inside out to form a second object including another reception volume and, in a third configuration, the hollow base can be turned fully inside out to form a third object.

A model aircraft control and receiving device in a housing, comprising an electronic, gyroscopic multi-axis programmable flight attitude controller, having control inputs for a plurality of control channels and inputs for gyroscope signals, wherein the flight attitude controller provides at least one input for a receiver module disposed inside or outside of the housing of the flight attitude controller. The device may be used in a method for controlling and stabilizing a model helicopter, wherein the control comprises a self-learning function and/or the control comprises a coupling of the tail controller to the swashplate controller and/or the control comprises a stopping support function.

An aquatic toy that is a biomimetic fish with a watertight body portion. The body portion contains a battery electrically connected via a controller to at least one coil. The coil is positioned relative to a magnet and the coil can be caused to oscillate by virtue of a controller defined alternating current passing through the coil. The oscillation of the coil causes movement of a tail fin that is engaged to said watertight body to cause the fish to move forward through a body of water.

The existing diodes in an LED or laser diode package are used to measure the junction temperature of the LED or laser diode. The light or laser emissions of a diode are switched off by removing the operational drive current applied to the diode package. A reference current, which can be lower the operational drive current, is applied to the diode package. The resulting forward voltage of the diode is measured using a voltage measurement circuit. Using the inherent current-voltage-temperature relationship of the diode, the actual junction temperature of the diode can be determined. The resulting forward voltage can be used in a feedback loop to provide temperature regulation of the diode package, with or without determining the actual junction temperature. The measured forward voltage of a photodiode or the emissions diode in a diode package can be used to determine the junction temperature of the emissions diode.

A conduction cooled high power semiconductor laser and a method for fabricating the same are provided. The conduction cooled high power semiconductor laser comprises a heat sink (2) and one or more semiconductor laser units (1). The semiconductor laser unit consists of a laser chip (3), a substrate (4) bonded to the laser chip for heat dissipation and electrical connection, and an insulation plate (5) soldered to the substrate for insulation and heat dissipation. The semiconductor laser unit is soldered on the heat sink with the insulation plate therebetween. The semiconductor laser unit may be tested, aged, and screened in advance, and thereby the yield of the lasers can be improved and the manufacturing costs can be reduced. The laser has desirable heat dissipation performance, high reliability, and is applicable to high temperature and other complex and volatile environments.

An interposer (support substrate) for an opto-electronic assembly is formed to include a thermally-isolated region where temperature-sensitive devices (such as, for example, laser diodes) may be positioned and operate independent of temperature fluctuations in other areas of the assembly. The thermal isolation is achieved by forming a boundary of dielectric material through the thickness of the interposer, the periphery of the dielectric defining the boundary between the thermally isolated region and the remainder of the assembly. A thermo-electric cooler can be used in conjunction with the temperature-sensitive device(s) to stabilize the operation of these devices.

A method of manufacturing an optical semiconductor device including: forming a mesa structure including a first conductivity type cladding layer, an active layer and a second conductivity type cladding layer in this order on a first conductivity type semiconductor substrate, an upper most surface of the mesa structure being constituted of an upper face of the second conductivity type cladding layer; growing a first burying layer burying both sides of the mesa structure at higher position than the active layer; forming an depressed face by etching both edges of the upper face of the second conductivity type cladding layer; and growing a second burying layer of the first conductivity type on the depressed face of the second conductivity type cladding layer and the first burying layer.

An intra-cavity frequency doubled OPS-laser includes a laser-resonator terminated by a plane mirror and a mirror-structure of an OPS-chip. The resonator is folded by three fold-mirrors. The fold-mirrors are supported on a vibration-isolation plate supported by isolation posts above a base-plate. The plane mirror and the mirror-structure of the OPS-chip are mounted back to back on opposite parallel surfaces of a mounting block. The mounting-block is supported on the base-plate and extends through an aperture in the vibration-isolation plate. Movement of the vibration-isolation plate with respect to the base-plate does not change the resonator length.

A method for quasi-synchronous tuning of wavelength or frequency of grating external-cavity semiconductor laser and a corresponding semiconductor laser are provided. A grating or mirror is rotated around a quasi-synchronous tuning point (Pq) as rotation center, so as to achieve the frequency selections by grating and resonance cavity in quasi-synchronous tuning, wherein the angle of the line between the quasi-synchronous tuning point (Pq) and a conventional synchronous tuning point (P0) with respect to the direction of light incident on the grating is determined according to the angle difference between the incidence angle and diffraction angle of light on the grating. According to present invention, approximately synchronous tuning of laser is achieved with a simple and flexible design.

A method for fabricating a group-III nitride semiconductor laser device stably supplies laser cavity mirrors having a low lasing threshold current through the use of a semi-polar plane. A blade 5g is forced down through a first region ER1 to keep the first region ER1 squeezed between a support member H2 and a movable member H1 together with a part of a protective sheet TF in contact with the first region ER1 while the tension generated in the area of the protective sheet TF in contact with the first region ER1 with the movable member H1 increases until the semi-polar principal surface SF at an end face EG1 of the first region ER1 tilts by a deflection angle THETA from the semi-polar principal surface SF of a second region ER2, and a force is thereby generated in the first region ER1 in a direction opposite to the direction of travel of the blade 5g toward the first region ER1. For example, an angle ALPHA is within the range of 71 degrees to 79 degrees, and the deflection angle THETA is within the range of 11 to 19.

Tensile strained germanium is provided that can be sufficiently strained to provide a nearly direct band gap material or a direct band gap material. Compressively stressed or tensile stressed stressor materials in contact with germanium regions induce uniaxial or biaxial tensile strain in the germanium regions. Stressor materials may include silicon nitride or silicon germanium. The resulting strained germanium structure can be used to emit or detect photons including, for example, generating photons within a resonant cavity to provide a laser.

A semiconductor laser includes a semiconductor nanowire of a first conductivity type provided over a substrate, a light emitting layer provided around the semiconductor nanowire and insulated at an upper end and a lower end thereof, a cladding layer of a second conductivity type different from the first conductivity type, the cladding layer being provided at an outer periphery of the light emitting layer, a first electrode electrically coupled to an end portion of the semiconductor nanowire, a second electrode electrically coupled to an outer periphery of the cladding layer, a first reflection mirror provided at a one-end portion side of the semiconductor nanowire, and a second reflection mirror provided at the other end portion side of the semiconductor nanowire.

A fiber coupled semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing of such a device are disclosed. The method provides an improved stability of optical coupling during assembly of the device, whereby a higher optical power levels and higher overall efficiency of the fiber coupled device can be achieved. The improvement is achieved by attaching the optical fiber to a vertical mounting surface of a fiber mount. The platform holding the semiconductor chip and the optical fiber can be mounted onto a spacer mounted on a base. The spacer has an area smaller than the area of the platform, for mechanical decoupling of thermally induced deformation of the base from a deformation of the platform of the semiconductor device. Optionally, attaching the fiber mount to a submount of the semiconductor chip further improves thermal stability of the packaged device.

A method to tune an emission wavelength of a laser diode (LD) finely is disclosed. The method first controls a temperature of the etalon filter in T1 or T2, where the transmittance of the etalon filter becomes 40 to 50%, assuming a height between the peak and the bottom of the periodic transmittance to be 100%, at the grid wavelength λ1 or λ2, respectively. Then, the temperature of the LD is adjusted such that the intensity of light emitted from the LD and transmitted through the etalon filter becomes 40 to 50%.

Novel methods and systems for miniaturized lasers are described. A photonic crystal is bonded to a silicon-on-insulator wafer. The photonic crystal includes air-holes and can include a waveguide which couples the laser output to a silicon waveguide.

The invention provides a laser converter for converting a laser radiation of shorter wavelength to a laser radiation of longer wavelength using a single stage conversion. The laser converter comprises a laser diode for emitting a laser radiation in a first wavelength range, a cylindrical microlens for transferring and focusing the laser radiation to a laser chip and the laser chip for absorbing the laser radiation and emitting the laser radiation in a second wavelength range.

A device including one or more layers with lateral regions configured to facilitate the transmission of radiation through the layer and lateral regions configured to facilitate current flow through the layer is provided. The layer can comprise a short period superlattice, which includes barriers alternating with wells. In this case, the barriers can include both transparent regions, which are configured to reduce an amount of radiation that is absorbed in the layer, and higher conductive regions, which are configured to keep the voltage drop across the layer within a desired range.

A sheet processing apparatus which is capable of improving operability while suppressing an increase in apparatus size. In a front cover insertion mode, an insertion sheet for a front cover is inserted into a bundle of sheets on which images have been formed, and in a rear cover insertion mode, an insertion sheet for a rear cover is inserted into the bundle of sheets. Insertion sheets for the front cover and insertion sheets for the rear cover are set with the same orientation in a manual feed tray 105. An insertion sheet for the front cover stored in the manual feed tray 105 is conveyed to a finisher 500 in one of a face-down state and a face-up state. An insertion sheet for the rear cover stored in the manual feed tray 105 is conveyed to the finisher 500 in the other of the face-down state and the face-up state. The insertion sheets for the front cover and for the rear cover conveyed from the manual feed tray 105 and the sheets on which images have been formed are stacked on the finisher 500.

In an embodiment, a booklet conveying device includes: a pair of conveying units; a positioning unit; a pressing unit; and a conveying-force changing unit. The pair of conveying units convey a booklet made of a stack of folded sheets, and change a distance therebetween. The positioning unit positions the booklet by making a leading-end portion of the booklet abut thereto. The pressing unit presses the booklet positioned by the positioning unit onto one of the conveying units in order to fix. The conveying-force changing unit changes the conveying force exerted by the conveying units.

Apparatus is disclosed for controlling the depth of a layer of a layer of adhesive on a peripheral surface of a rotary member (e.g., a wheel) for the application of the adhesive to an object. The apparatus comprises a heated reservoir containing a supply of hot melt adhesive maintained within a desired temperature range, where the rotary member is partially immersed in the adhesive and is rotated by a motor such that the as the rotary member is rotated up out of the peripheral surface of the rotary member has the layer of adhesive thereon. A computer controls system controls the motor such that the speed of the rotary member may be increased or decreased so as to vary the depth of the adhesive on the peripheral surface of the rotary member.

Disclosed are various embodiments relating to verifying a printed work comprises a correct number of pages. Associated with a stack comprising one or more pages is an identifier that may be used to obtain an expected thickness of the pages in the stack. A sensor may then measure an actual thickness of the pages in the stack. Before binding the pages in the stack, the expected thickness of the stack may be compared to the actual thickness of the stack in order to verify the stack comprises the correct number of pages.

An image forming system includes: a ring bookbinding section which perform a ring bookbinding to a bundle of sheets by using a binder provided with a spine portion and a plurality of finger portions; and a judging section, wherein a last page is firstly fed immediately after job initiation and, subsequently after having fed the last page, image formation based on the image data is initiated, when the judging section judges that an image is not formed on the last page, and wherein all of the image data is firstly acquired completely after job initiation, subsequently the last page is fed and formed image thereon, and then image formation of remaining pages is carried out, when the judging section judges that image is formed on the last page.

A device for controlling the application of glue on the spine of a book. The device consists of a computerized controller that tracks the precise location of the book in the binding system, and a servo motor that controls a doctor blade, the servo motor is connected to the controller and is instructed when to open or close the doctor blade at the precise time to precisely place the glue on the book spine. The doctor blade can also be adjusted to control the thickness of the glue on the book spine.

A fastening element includes a holding part with a support plate and expanding cheeks, and a locking part guidingly received in the holding part. The expanding cheeks include cantilevered walls formed adjacent the support plate, which are offset radially outwardly with respect to a guide wall of the support plate which guides the locking part. The locking part can be pushed through the support plate substantially without force until it reaches inwardly protruding ramp projections formed on the expanding cheeks, which provide a better lever ratio for spreading the expanding cheeks.

A manufacturing method and device for supporting conductors. Using a non-metallic insulating material extending beyond one or both parallel legs of a staple the thumb and forefinger may grip this extension while the staple is being driven into a supporting structure. This finger grip allows for a small, insulated staple to be held with increased safety to thumb and forefinger during penetration of staple into support.

A threaded connector for securing a panel member to a structure and for adjusting the position of the panel member relative to the structure. The connector comprises an elongate one-piece stud, a first spacer, a threaded nut, a second spacer and a turning formation. The connector permits the panel member to be mounted on the stud and the stud to be rotated to adjust the position of the panel member relative to the structure.

A connecting arrangement is provided between a plastic component with at least two mutually adjacent and at least approximately parallel walls and another structural element, having at least one force-transmission element which is adhesively bonded to the plastic component via an adhesive bond on the plastic component in frusto-conical or spherical-segment-shaped depressions in the mutually adjacent walls of the plastic component. The force-transmission element has a carrying structure for the other structural element. With the exception of a possibly provided coating, the force-transmission element is composed only of metallic material and has a plate which is adapted to the depression in the outer wall of the plastic component, which outer wall is adjacent to the other structural element. The edge of the plate rests with interposition on the outer wall in the surrounding region of the depression, wherein the plate is connected via a web to an end section of the force-transmission element, which end section is adapted to the depression in the other inner wall of the plastic component. The depression is configured in the outer wall without a bottom to such an extent that the end section of the force-transmission element can be inserted through the outer wall into the recess of the inner wall.

Various structures and methods are disclosed related to configurable scrambling circuitry. Embodiments can be configured to support one of a plurality of protocols. Some embodiments relate to a configurable multilane scrambler that can be adapted either to combine scrambling circuits across a plurality of lanes or to provide independent lane-based scramblers. Some embodiments are configurable to select a scrambler type. Some embodiments are configurable to adapt to one of a plurality of protocol-specific scrambling polynomials. Some embodiments relate to selecting between least significant bit (“LSB”) and most significant bit (“MSB”) ordering of data. In some embodiments, scrambler circuits in each lane are adapted to handle data that is more than one bit wide.

A counter includes a buffer unit and a ripple counter. The buffer unit generates at least one least significant signal of a count by buffering at least one clock signal until a termination time point. The ripple counter generates at least one most significant signal of the count by sequentially toggling in response to at least one of the least significant signal. The counter performs multiple data rate counting with enhance operation speed and reduced power consumption.

A semiconductor device that includes transistors having the same polarity consumes less power and can prevent a decrease in amplitude of a potential output. The semiconductor device includes a first wiring having a first potential, a second wiring having a second potential, a third wiring having a third potential, a first transistor and a second transistor having the same polarity, and a plurality of third transistors for selecting supply of the first potential to gates of the first transistor and the second transistor or supply of the third potential to the gates of the first transistor and the second transistor and for selecting whether to supply one potential to drain terminals of the first transistor and the second transistor. A source terminal of the first transistor is connected to the second wiring, and a source terminal of the second transistor is connected to the third wiring.

A stage circuit including an output unit for supplying first or second power source to an output terminal is disclosed. The stage circuit may comprise a bidirectional driver for respectively supplying signals supplied to first and second input terminals, a first driver, and a second driver. The second driver controls the output unit to output the second power source to the output terminal without any voltage loss, corresponding to a second clock signal.

A semiconductor device which shifts a low-level signal is provided. In an example, a first transistor including a first terminal electrically connected to a first wiring and a second terminal electrically connected to a second wiring, a second transistor including a first terminal electrically connected to a third wiring and a second terminal electrically connected to the second wiring, a third transistor including a first terminal electrically connected to a fourth wiring and a second terminal electrically connected to a gate of the second transistor, a fourth transistor including a first terminal electrically connected to a fifth wiring, a second terminal electrically connected to a gate of the third transistor, and a gate electrically connected to a sixth wiring, and a first switch including a first terminal electrically connected to the third wiring and a second terminal electrically connected to a gate of the first transistor are included.

A counter configured to perform counting at both edges of an input clock to output an additional value or a subtraction value for a previous count value and a next count value includes a first latch circuit that latches the input clock, a second latch circuit that latches an output from the first latch circuit, a holding section that holds data of the 0th bit of a count value, and a correction section that performs count correction on data of the first and subsequent bits of the count value on the basis of an output of the second latch circuit.

A pallet system includes a pallet upon which cargo or other payloads may be carried. The pallet has a plurality of tie-down locations at which the pallet may be tied-down on a base, and at least one tie-down device for tying down the pallet on the base at any of the tie-down locations. The pallet further includes structure for mounting the tie-down device on the pallet at any of the tie-down locations.

An improved e-track connector, or lockdown, is presented that can be installed in single locations instead of provided in tracks as in the industry. It also possesses a finished slot that accepts logistics straps buckles. The slot is a complete rectangle with no excess material folded under it and has been deburred and finished smooth. The device also possesses a drain slot along the side of the tang and drain holes in the buckle receiver such that liquid will drain out of the connector when it is mounted horizontally.

An extendable, intermodal transport platform is disclosed. The invention comprises a standard ISO-length loading platform supported by main beams and crossmembers. The platform has ISO lifting and stacking fitments at its four corners. The platform has extendable supplemental platforms at each end, the extendable supplemental platforms fitting beneath the deck bed of the platform, or extendable to position stacking fitments at over-the-road trailer positions for North American fleet. Inner stacking fitments may laterally expand and retract so as to slide underneath the deck bed between the main beams. In some embodiments the platform includes posts that extend upward to position ISO lifting fitments at standard heights, such as under hydraulic power.

An automatic lock affixed to a cargo container for interconnecting two stacked containers, and for automatically locking and unlocking without reliance upon the overcoming of a friction force to release the device.

A novel configurable integrated circuit (IC) that has several configurable circuits for configurably performing different operations is provided. During the operation of the IC, each particular configurable circuit performs a particular operation that is specified by a particular configuration data set for the particular configurable circuit. While the IC operates and a first set of configurable circuits performs a first set of operations, configuration data is loaded from the outside of the IC for configuring a second set of configurable circuits. The configurable IC includes a configuration network for rapid loading configuration data in the IC from outside of the IC. The configuration network is a pipelined network.

A programmable routing scheme provides improved connectivity both between Universal Digital Blocks (UDBs) and between the UDBs and other micro-controller elements, peripherals and external Inputs and Outputs (I/Os) in the same Integrated Circuit (IC). The routing scheme increases the number of functions, flexibility, and the overall routing efficiency for programmable architectures. The UDBs can be grouped in pairs and share associated horizontal routing channels. Bidirectional horizontal and vertical segmentation elements extend routing both horizontally and vertically between different UDB pairs and to the other peripherals and I/O.

A latch circuit includes a latch unit and a clock propagation suppressing unit. The latch circuit holds and outputs input data of 0 or 1. The clock propagation suppressing unit compares the input data input to the latch unit with output data output from the latch unit. When it is detected that the input data matches the output data at 0, or that the input data matches the output data at 1, an externally input clock signal is prevented from propagating to the latch unit.

A device for passive equalization and slew-rate control of a signal includes a first branch and a second branch. The first branch includes a first driver coupled in series with an equalization capacitor. The second branch includes a second driver coupled in series with a resistor. The second branch may be coupled in parallel to the first branch. The first branch may be configurable to enable either passive equalization or slew-rate control of the signal based on a mode control signal.

A semiconductor integrated circuit includes: a main-interconnect to which supply voltage or reference voltage is applied; a plurality of sub-interconnects; a plurality of circuit cells configured to be connected to the plurality of sub-interconnects; a power supply switch cell configured to control, in accordance with an input control signal, connection and disconnection between the main-interconnect and the sub-interconnect to which a predetermined one of the circuit cells is connected, of the plurality of sub-interconnects; and an auxiliary interconnect configured to connect the plurality of sub-interconnects to each other.

A method of configuring a programmable integrated circuit device with a user logic design includes analyzing the user logic design to identify unidirectional logic paths within the user logic design and cyclic logic paths within the user logic design, assigning the cyclic logic paths to logic in a first portion of the programmable integrated circuit device that operates at a first data rate, assigning the unidirectional logic paths to logic in a second portion of the programmable integrated circuit device that operates at a second data rate lower than the first data rate, and pipelining the unidirectional data paths in the second portion of the programmable integrated circuit device to compensate for the lower second data rate. A programmable integrated circuit device adapted to carry out such method may have logic regions operating at different rates, including logic regions with programmably selectable data rates.

An isolator circuit capable of two-way electrical disconnection and a semiconductor device including the isolator circuit are provided. A data holding portion is provided in an isolator circuit without the need for additional provision of a data holding portion outside the isolator circuit, and data which is to be input to a logic circuit that is in an off state at this moment is stored in the data holding portion. The data holding portion may be formed using a transistor with small off-state current and a buffer. The buffer can include an inverter circuit and a clocked inverter circuit.

Disclosed herein is a device that includes first and second buffer circuits connected to a data terminal and a first control circuit controlling the first and second buffer circuits. The first control circuit receives n pairs of first and second internal data signals complementary to each other from 2n input signal lines and outputs a pair of third and fourth internal data signals complementary to each other to first and second output signal lines, where n is a natural number more than one. The first and second buffer circuits are controlled based on the third and fourth internal data signals such that one of the first and second buffer circuits turns on and the other of the first and second buffer circuits turns off.