International Business Machines Corporation

Masahiro Uemura

Satsuo Kiyono

Eiji Ohno

Shinji Futatsugi

Yoshimichi Shimo

The service life of electrical equipment is predicted using a thermal history sensor mounted in the electrical equipment. At least one thermal history sensor is mounted inside or on an outer wall surface of electrical equipment. The thermal history sensor includes dissimilar metal joints, and the resistance values of the dissimilar metal joints change in response to the amount of intermetallic compound growing in the dissimilar metal joints due to the temperature inside the electrical equipment or of the outer wall thereof during operation. A determining mechanism periodically or irregularly monitors and stores in memory the resistance values of the dissimilar metal joints from the thermal history sensor, and uses the stored history of resistance values to predict the service life of the electrical equipment.

Predicting service life of electrical equipment

Chip mounting is provided in which the pitch between bumps can be further narrowed without establishing contact between bumps. In a chip mounting structure in which a flip-chip bond has been established between a chip and a board via bumps, the bumps are provided so that the height position of the bumps from the connection surface of the chip or the connection surface of the board has a difference in height exceeding the thickness of adjacent bumps. This further narrows the pitch between bumps without establishing contact between the bumps.

Chip mounting structure and manufacturing method therefor

A computer keyboard which enables a computer to automatically recognize nomenclature information (ID) of keys is provided. Preferably, the keyboard contains a first memory which stores a table in which nomenclature information (ID) of keys and resistance values are associated with each other, a resistor having a resistance value substantially equal to any one of the resistance values, and a controller connected to the first memory and the resistor. The controller detects the resistance value of the resistor and reads the ID of the key corresponding to the resistance value from the table.

Identification of key information of keyboard

A pointing device such as a mouse is provided with cleaning time determination circuitry 46, 48, 50 for determining whether the cleaning of its movable portions becomes necessary and the user is notified of the necessity of cleaning by visual indication at indicator 52 when an alarm signal is outputted from the determination circuitry.

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Kawasaki, Japan

Masahiro Uemura