1. A vehicle-driving device comprising:
an internal combustion engine;
a torque converter with a lockup clutch and an automatic transmission disposed in a motive force transfer path from the internal combustion engine to a drive wheel of a vehicle; and
a programmable controller programmed to:
perform a fuel-cut operation to stop fuel supply to the internal combustion engine and cause the lockup clutch to perform an unlock operation, when an accelerator pedal of the vehicle is released while the vehicle is running;
predict if a fuel recovery operation to resume fuel supply to the internal combustion engine is to be performed as a result of the fuel-cut operation and the unlock operation; and
prohibit the fuel-cut operation from being performed when the fuel recovery operation is predicted to be performed as a result of the fuel-cut operation and the unlock operation.
2. The vehicle-driving device according to claim 1, wherein the controller is further programmed to:
perform a torque down operation of the internal combustion engine to gradually decrease an output torque thereof;
prohibit the fuel-cut operation from being performed when the fuel recovery operation is predicted to be performed as a result of the fuel-cut operation and the unlock operation and a torque down amount due to the torque down operation is smaller than a predetermined amount; and
not to prohibit the fuel-cut operation when the fuel recovery operation is predicted to be performed as a result of the fuel-cut operation and the unlock operation and a torque down amount due to the torque down operation is greater than a predetermined amount.
3. A vehicle-driving device that transmits a rotation of an internal combustion engine that is responsive to a depression amount of an accelerator pedal to a drive wheel of a vehicle via a torque converter and an automatic transmission, comprising:
a lockup clutch that performs a lockup and an unlock operations of the torque converter;
an accelerator pedal depression sensor that detects a release of the accelerator pedal;
an engine rotation speed sensor that detects an engine rotation speed of the internal combustion engine; and
a programmable controller programmed to:
cause the lockup clutch to perform the unlock operation when the release of the accelerator pedal is detected while the vehicle is running;
perform a fuel-cut operation to stop fuel supply to the internal combustion engine when the engine rotation speed is equal to or greater than a predetermined recovery rotation speed in a state where the accelerator pedal is released;
perform a fuel recovery operation to resume fuel supply to the internal combustion engine when the engine rotation speed falls below the predetermined recovery rotation speed during the fuel-cut operation;
predict if the fuel recovery operation is to be performed as a result of the fuel-cut operation and the unlock operation;
suppress the fuel-cut operation from being performed when the fuel recovery operation is predicted to be performed as a result of the fuel-cut operation and the unlock operation.
4. The vehicle-driving device according to claim 3, wherein the controller is further programmed to:
selectively apply a lockup clutch ON recovery rotation speed that is applied when the lockup clutch is in a lockup state and a lockup clutch OFF recovery rotation speed that is higher than the lockup clutch ON recovery rotation speed and applied when the lockup clutch is in the unlock state, to the recovery rotation speed in response to an operation state of the lockup clutch; and
suppress the fuel-cut operation from being performed by altering the predetermined recovery rotation speed to the lockup clutch OFF recovery rotation speed from the lockup clutch ON recovery rotation speed.
5. The vehicle-driving device according to claim 3, wherein the controller is further programmed not to predict that the fuel recovery operation is to be performed as a result of the fuel-cut operation and the unlock operation as long as the engine rotation speed does not fall below the lockup clutch OFF recovery rotation speed.
6. The vehicle-driving device according to claim 3, wherein the internal combustion engine comprises a fuel injector and the controller is further programmed to retard an ignition timing of fuel injected by the fuel injector preceding the fuel-cut operation and not to predict that the fuel recovery operation is to be performed as a result of the fuel-cut operation and the unlock operation as long as a retard amount of the ignition timing does not fall below a predetermined amount.
7. A vehicle-driving device comprising:
an internal combustion engine;
a torque converter with a lockup clutch and an automatic transmission disposed in a motive force transfer path from the internal combustion engine to a drive wheel of a vehicle;
means for performing a fuel-cut operation to stop fuel supply to the internal combustion engine and cause the lockup clutch to perform an unlock operation, when an accelerator pedal of the vehicle is released while the vehicle is running;
means for predicting if a fuel recovery operation to resume fuel supply to the internal combustion engine is to be performed as a result of the fuel-cut operation and the unlock operation; and means for prohibiting the fuel-cut operation from being performed when the fuel recovery operation is predicted to be performed as a result of the fuel-cut operation and the unlock operation.
8. A driving method for a vehicle, the vehicle comprising an internal combustion engine, and a torque converter with a lockup clutch and an automatic transmission that are disposed in a motive force transfer path from the internal combustion engine to a drive wheel of a vehicle, the method comprising:
performing a fuel-cut operation to stop fuel supply to the internal combustion engine and causing the lockup clutch to perform an unlock operation, when an accelerator pedal of the vehicle is released while the vehicle is running;
predicting if a fuel recovery operation to resume fuel supply to the internal combustion engine is to be performed as a result of the fuel-cut operation and the unlock operation; and
prohibiting the fuel-cut operation from being performed when the fuel recovery operation is predicted to be performed as a result of the fuel-cut operation and the unlock operation.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method of forming a dopant implant region in a MOS transistor device, the dopant implant region having a dopant profile having a target dopant concentration, the method comprising the steps of:
implanting a first concentration of dopants into a region of a substrate, said first concentration of dopants being less than said target dopant concentration; and
without annealing the substrate after said implanting step, performing at least one second implanting step to implant at least one second concentration of dopants into the region of the substrate to bring the dopant concentration in the region to said target dopant concentration.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the dopant profile is associated with an implant energy setting, wherein the first concentration of dopants and at least one second concentration of dopants are implanted at said implant energy setting.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the implanting steps are performed in an implantation chamber of an implantation tool, the method, farther comprising the steps of unloading the substrate from the implantation chamber and then reloading the substrate into the implantation chamber in between said implanting steps.
4. The method of claim 3, wherein the method includes at least three implanting steps, with the sum of respective dopant concentrations from the at least three implanting steps providing said target dopant concentration, wherein the unloading and reloading steps are performed in between successive implanting steps.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein the method includes 3-5 of said implanting steps.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the method includes at least three of said implanting steps to implant said target dopant concentration and the substrate is not annealed in between any of said implanting steps.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the MOS implant region is the lightly doped drain (LDD) implant portion of a sourcedrain implant region of the MOS transistor device, wherein the MOS transistor device has a smaller gate-to-LDD implant overlap compared to the gate-to-LDD implant overlap of a device with its LDD implant region formed using a single implanting step to implant said target dopant concentration using the same implant energy.
8. A method of forming a dopant implant region is a MOS transistor device, the dopant implant region having a dopant profile having a target dopant concentration, the method comprising the steps of:
implanting a first concentration of dopants into a region of a substrate in an implantation chamber of an implantation tool;
after said implanting step, unloading the substrate from said implantation chamber and then reloading the substrate in said implantation chamber; and
after said reloading step, performing at least one second implanting step using said implantation tool to implant at least one second concentration of dopants into the region of the substrate to bring the dopant concentration in the region to said target dopant concentration
9. The method of claim 8, wherein the dopant profile is associated with an implant energy setting, wherein the first concentration of dopants and at least one second concentration of dopants are implanted at said implant energy setting.
10. The method of claim 8, wherein the method includes at least three implanting steps, with the sum of respective dopant concentrations from the at least three implanting steps providing said target dopant concentration, wherein the unloading and reloading steps are performed in between successive implanting steps.
11. The method of claim 10, wherein the method employs 3-5 implanting steps.
12. The method of claim 8, wherein the substrate is not annealed in between implanting steps.
13. The method of claim 8, wherein the MOS implant region is the lightly doped drain (LDD) implant portion of a sourcedrain implant region of the MOS transistor device, wherein the MOS transistor device has a smaller gate-to-LDD implant overlap compared to the gate-to-LDD implant overlap of a device with its LDD implant region formed using a single implanting step to implant said target dopant concentration using the same implant energy.
14. A method of forming a dopant implant region in a MOS transistor device, the dopant implant region having a dopant profile having a target dopant concentration, the method comprising the steps of:
in an implantation chamber, performing multiple implanting steps, each at the same implantation energy setting and using the same dopant species, to implant dopants into a region of a semiconductor substrate until the dopant concentration of said region reaches said target dopant concentration, each implanting step implanting a respective dopant concentration that is less than said target dopant concentration; and
exposing said semiconductor substrate to the ambient environment in between each implanting step.
15. The method of claim 14, wherein the exposing step includes the steps of unloading the substrate from the implantation chamber and then reloading the substrate into the implantation chamber.
16. The method of claim 14, wherein the multiple implanting steps include at least three implanting steps.
17. The method of claim 14, wherein the substrate is not annealed in between any of said multiple implanting steps.
18. The method of claim 14, wherein the MOS implant region is the lightly doped drain (LDD) implant portion of a sourcedrain implant region of the MOS transistor device, wherein the MOS transistor device has a smaller gate-to-LDD implant overlap compared to the gate-to-LDD implant overlap of a device with its LDD implant region formed using a single implanting step to implant said target dopant concentration using the same implantation energy.
19. The method of claim 18, wherein the LDD implant portion is doped with P-type dopants.
20. The method of claim 14, wherein the multiple implanting steps includes at least first and second implanting steps, wherein the exposing step include, in between said first and second implanting steps:
unloading said semiconductor wafer from said implantation chamber;
loading a second semiconductor wafer into said implantation chamber for processing;
unloading said second semiconductor wafer from said implantation chamber; and
reloading said first semiconductor wafer into said implantation chamber.