Nissan Motor Company Limited

Toshiba Ceramics Co., Ltd.

Nec Corporation

Masayuki Watanabe

Hiroshi Mouri

Masahiro Kubota

Yuuki Shiozawa

Kazuhiko Kashima

Ryota Shirato

Akihiko Kobayashi

Nami Horiguchi

Nami Nagae

Junichi Osanai

Hiroyuki Fujimori

A vehicular steering control apparatus is comprised of a steering system of receiving a steering torque inputted by a driver, a torque control actuator connected to the steering system to produce an actuator torque relative to the steering torque and a steering controlling section connected to the torque actuator. The steering controlling section controls the torque control actuator and increases a phase delay of the actuator torque relative to the steering torque toward a neighborhood of 180&#xb0; as the frequency of the inputted steering torque increases.

Vehicular steering control apparatus

A vehicle steering apparatus includes a vehicle steering system and a supplemental steering force applying device. The supplemental steering force applying device is configured and arranged to apply a supplemental steering force to the vehicle steering system to reduce a steering load on the operator. The supplemental steering force applying device includes a steering torque detecting section, a rectilinear driving condition detecting section, a pulling suppression control section. The rectilinear driving condition detecting section is configured and arranged to detect a rectilinear driving condition of the vehicle. The pulling suppression control section is configured and arranged to adjust the supplemental steering force in a direction canceling a pulling force imparted on the vehicle during the rectilinear driving condition by using a pulling suppression force calculated based on historical data of the steering torque detected during the rectilinear driving condition.

Vehicle steering apparatus and vehicle steering method

Using a seed crystal comprising a silicon single crystal not including a vacancy excess region, a neck comprising a silicon single crystal not including a vacancy excess region is grown with a diameter contracted smaller than, or equal to that of the contact surface of the silicon seed crystal in contact with a raw material silicon melt, and necking is performed so that the length L of the neck satisfies L&#x2267;d&#xb7;(cot &#x3c8;), where d denotes the length of the diameter or the diagonal of the contact surface of the silicon seed crystal in contact with the raw material silicon melt, and &#x3c8; denotes the angle formed between the propagation direction of dislocations and the growth direction of the neck, and then the silicon single crystal is grown with the diameter expanded.

Silicon seed crystal and method for manufacturing silicon single crystal

At the time of fabricating a silicon single crystal wafer from a nitrogen-doped silicon single crystal grown according to the Czochralski method, a silicon single crystal wafer covered with a region in which an oxygen precipitation bulk micro defect and an oxidation induced stacking fault mixedly exist is subjected to heat treatment at a temperature of 1100 to 1300&#xb0; C. in a reducing gas or inert gas atmosphere. In such a manner, a method of fabricating a high-quality silicon single crystal wafer and a silicon single crystal wafer in which no grown-in crystal defects exist in the whole surface and oxygen precipitation bulk micro defects (BMD) are formed at a sufficiently high density to display the IG effect on the inner side can be provided. The single crystal wafer can be suitably used to form an operation region of a semiconductor device.

Silicon single crystal wafer fabricating method and silicon single crystal wafer

A semiconductor device is constituted by a semiconductor substrate of a first conductivity type. An associated circuit element has a first electrode, a second electrode, and an impurity diffusion region of a second conductivity type formed in the semiconductor substrate and connected to the second electrode. An insulating layer is formed to cover the circuit element, and a conductive layer is formed on the insulating layer to cover the circuit element and thereby conceals the first and second electrodes and the impurity diffusion region of the circuit element. An aperture is selectively formed in the conductive layer such that respective parts of the first and second electrodes and the impurity diffusion region are exposed through the aperture, enabling transmission of electrons through the aperture and facilitating testing by an electron beam tester.

Semiconductor device having a conductive layer with an aperture

A rear wheel steering control system for automotive vehicles steers rear wheels of the vehicle with a same-phase angle as the front wheels for a relatively small steering wheel operation angle, and with an opposite-phase angle to the front wheels for a relatively large steering wheel operation angle. The control system serves to mitigate an enhanced understeering tendency of front wheel drive type vehicles during cornering. A delay means is operative in a particular steering wheel operation angle range in which the rear wheels steering angle changes between a maximum same-phase steering angle and a maximum opposite-phase steering angle. The delay means sets a delayed rear wheel steering response characteristic with reference to a manual steering wheel operation, for maintaining a stable maneuverability during a lane change. When the lane change is accompanied by steer-back of the rear wheels with a same-phase angle as the front wheels, an actual cornering state of the vehicle may be detected to generate a delayed cornering state signal which is used to limit the steer-back amount.

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Masayuki Watanabe