Watkins- Johnson Company

Diablo Research Corporation

Applied Materials, Inc.

Aladdin Knowledge Systems Ltd.

Scansoft, Inc.

Ron Van Os

Eric D Ross

Richard H Matthiesen

William J Durbin

Dennis C Fenske

David Chazen

Lydia J Young

Derek Bray

Simon I Selitser

Steve Goldband

Jay W Hanson

Rudolph E Burger

Jeffrey Barth

The present invention, generally speaking, 'instruments' an arbitrary software program, without changing the software program, to automate malfunction detection and reporting. Although users can be invited to enter a description of what the user was doing prior to receiving the error, report generation and transmission to a remote server can be fully automatic and transparent to the user. In the case of beta testing, therefore, a software developer is guaranteed to receive all pertinent information about malfunctions of an application without having to rely on 'fallible humans' for this information. The effectiveness of beta testing, in terms of ultimately contributing to an improved product, is therefore greatly increased. Various kinds of malfunctions may be detected and reported, including an application &#x201c;crashing,&#x201d; becoming &#x201c;hung,&#x201d; etc.

User transparent software malfunction detection and reporting

A method and apparatus for scanning a document which utilizes scanning hardware and associated software to automate the entire scanning process. The software analyzes a host computer and automatically maps user interface buttons of a scanner with application programs installed on the host computer. The software also establishes appropriate pre-defined scan configurations for each application program mapped to the user-interface buttons. When one of the user-interface buttons is pressed, the scanning process is invoked to generate a scanned image of a document. The scanned image is automatically delivered to the application program mapped to the pressed button and is generated with an image type and resolution according to the pre-defined scan configuration established for the application program mapped to the pressed button.

Scanning system and method

Broad-based, systematic, individualized, interactive customer software support is provided through a two-way, voluntary automated exchange of information between a software agent installed on a customer's machine and a server machine via a wide area computer network, e.g., the Internet. Communication between the agent and the server is optimized to be unobtrusive or transparent, e.g. using spare bandwidth of intermittent Internet connections. The agent is software non-specific and may be instructed to operate with respect to any arbitrary software program, and may further be instructed at various different times to operate with respect to various different software programs, including multiple different software programs on a single machine. The agent, with the user's informed consent, gathers activity information about the operations of the software program(s) and uploads this information to a particular server machine within a distributed server machine architecture, where it is stored in a database on a per-software-copy basis. A rules engine may cause instructions carrying a message targeted specifically toward the customer to be downloaded to the agent. Based on these instructions, the agent may take any of various actions, such as present a survey, present an advertisement, send an upgrade notice, present a limited-time offer, deliver individualized marketing messages, offer goods for sale and fulfill the commercial transaction, install an upgrade or bug fix for either an application or the agent itself, etc. Message presentation to the customer may be timed (e.g., delayed from the time of download) to achieve maximum impact.

Interactive customer support for computer programs using network connection of user machine

An apparatus for processing a substrate comprising a processing chamber and a substrate support system comprising an electrostatic chuck having a body portion and a substrate support surface and one or more arms extending from the body portion to mount the electrostatic chuck to a side wall portion of the processing chamber is provided.

Plasma enhanced chemical processing reactor and method

A plasma enhance chemical processing reactor and method. The reactor includes a plasma chamber and a source of electromagnetic energy. The plasma chamber is in communication with a process chamber which includes a wager support and a gas manifold. The plasma generated in the plasma chamber extends into the process chamber and interacts with the reactive gases to deposit a layer of material on the wafer. The reactor also includes a vacuum system for exhausting the reactor. The method includes the steps of generating a plasma within the plasma chamber, introducing at least one gaseous chemical into the process chamber proximate to the wafer support and applying r.f. gradient to induce diffusion of the plasma to the area proximate the wafer support.

Plasma enhanced chemical processing reactor

A plasma enhanced chemical processing reactor and method. The reactor includes a plasma chamber including a first gas injection manifold and a source of electromagnetic energy. The plasma chamber is in communication with a process chamber which includes a wafer support and a second gas manifold. The reactor also includes a vacuum system for exhausting the reactor. The method includes the steps of generating a plasma within the plasma chamber, introducing at least one gaseous chemical into the process chamber proximate to the wafer support, applying r.f. gradient to induce diffusion of the plasma to the area proximate the wafer support, and exhausting the reactor in a substantially symmetrical manner.

Plasma enchanced chemical method

A discharge vessel for an electrodeless lamp having a pair of substantially parallel front and back walls. In one implementation, the front wall of the discharge vessel has a collimating structure, e.g a fresnel lens, for directing the light in a preferential direction such as in a flood light. In another implementation, the flat discharge vessel is quadrilateral and together with one or more quadrilateral excitation coils can be used as a backlight for a flat panel display. In yet another implementation, a cup-shaped discharge vessel with a collimating structure on the front wall is used in an electrodeless lamp for a task lighting such as a spot light.

Vessel shapes and coil forms for electrodeless discharge lamps

A system for injecting a gaseous substance into a semiconductor processing chamber. The injection system includes at least one plenum formed in a plenum body and a plurality of nozzles associated with each plenum for injecting gaseous substances from the plenums into the chamber. A conduit structure transports gaseous substances along an indirect path from the plenum to the nozzles. The nozzles are positioned and configured to provide a uniform distribution of gaseous substances across the wafer surface.

Gas injection system for semiconductor processing

An electrostatic support system for retaining a wafer. The support system generally includes a support body having a support surface for retaining said wafer, a voltage source coupled to the support body for electrostatically coupling the wafer to the support surface, and a cooling system for cooling the wafer. A plurality of arm members extend from the support body to a carriage assembly for releasably mounting the support body to the processing chamber with the support body and the arm members separated from the chamber floor. This invention also includes the method of supporting a wafer in a processing chamber which includes the steps of positioning the wafer on a wafer supporting surface, applying a voltage to an electrode assembly to electrostatically attract the wafer to the support surface and, after processing the wafer, substantially grounding the electrode assembly to sufficiently deactivate the electrostatic charge for release of the wafer from the support surface.

Electrostatic chuck assembly

An amalgam system for optimizing the mercury vapor pressure of an electrodeless discharge fluorescent lamp is disclosed. A coil network induces an electric discharge in a gas mixture contained in a sealed lamp vessel. An amalgam is supported in the discharge and thermally isolated from the lamp vessel by a thin glass strand. The discharge transfers power directly to the amalgam, thus quickly heating the amalgam. Rapid heating of the amalgam provides a rapid increase in mercury vapor pressure in the lamp so that the light output rises quickly when the lamp is energized. An impedance matching and filter network is constructed such that, in combination with the coil/plasma load, it provides a desired steady-state impedance and a desired start-up impedance.

Electrodeless discharge lamp with control amalgam in the plasma

A plasma enhanced chemical processing reactor and method. The reactor includes a plasma chamber including a first gas injection manifold and a source of electromagnetic energy. The plasma chamber is in communication with a process chamber which includes a wafer support and a second gas manifold. The plasma generated in the plasma chamber extends into the process chamber and interacts with the reactive gases to deposit a layer of material on the wafer. The reactor also includes a vacuum system for exhausting the reactor. The method includes the steps of generating a plasma within the plasma chamber, introducing at least one gaseous chemical into the process chamber proximate to the wafer support and applying r.f. gradient to induce diffusion of the plasma to the area proximate the wafer support.

Amalgam system for electrodeless discharge lamp

An electrodeless discharge lamp includes a discharge vessel containing an ionizable vapor, a generator for providing a high frequency signal, and an induction coil adjacent the discharge vessel and connected to the generator. The induction coil is shaped in the form of a planar spiral. The spiral coil is formed of wire or made of metal etched in a spiral pattern onto a substrate. The electrodeless discharge lamp having a spiral induction coil shows low lumen depreciation, a high linear relationship between light output and power input and produces low radio frequency interference.

Growing community of inventors

Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Ron Van Os