1. A shoe insole including one or more elastomeric, energy-management cushions molded of a gelatinous, thermoplastic resin on a lower surface of the insole, each of said energy management cushions comprising:
a plurality of angularly spaced, geometrically shaped cushioning elements arranged in a pattern on the lower surface of said insole, each cushioning element being formed of multiple, angularly spaced and expandable projections, the projections of each of said cushioning elements, being interspersed between and spaced from the projections of adjacent cushioning elements, said interspersed projections absorbing and distributing compression forces applied to said cushion by a wearer of said insole as triangulated vector forces within and between the cushioning elements to which the compression forces are applied, thereby providing an insole with an elastomeric, energy management cushion.
2. The invention as defined in claim 1 wherein each spaced projection is provided with a top surface.
3. The invention as defined in claim 1 wherein said insole includes three of said elastomeric, energy-management cushions at the heel, ball of foot, and metatarsal areas respectively of said insole, said spaced projections extending from the bottom of cavities formed in said insole, the height of said spaced projections equaling the depth of said cavities.
4. The invention as defined in claim 1 wherein said spaced interspersed projections form channels around said adjacent cushioning elements.
5. The invention as defined in claim 1 wherein said top surface of each projection is triangular shaped.
6. The invention as defined in claim 1 wherein the top surface of each projection is semicircular.
7. The invention as defined in claim 2 wherein said top surface is flat.
8. The invention as defined in claim 5 wherein a portion of said triangular shaped top surface is flat.
9. The invention as defined in claim 3 wherein the height of said projections is greater than the depth of one or more of said cavities.
10. In an elastomeric, energy management cushion formed of a plurality of geometrically shaped cushioning elements the improvement wherein each cushioning element is provided with a plurality of expandable, angularly spaced projections wherein said spaced projections form channels around said adjacent cushioning elements, said spaced projections absorbing and distributing compression forces applied thereto as triangulated vector forces within said adjacent cushioning elements.
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 sourcedrain electrode for use in a thin-film transistor substrate comprising a substrate, a thin-film transistor semiconductor layer, sourcedrain electrodes, and a transparent picture electrode,
the sourcedrain electrode comprising a nitrogen-containing layer and a thin film of pure aluminum or an aluminum alloy,
wherein the sourcedrain electrode is so configured that nitrogen of the nitrogen-containing layer binds to silicon of the thin-film transistor semiconductor layer, and
wherein the sourcedrain electrode is so configured that the thin film of pure aluminum or aluminum alloy is connected to the thin-film transistor semiconductor layer through the nitrogen-containing layer.
2. The sourcedrain electrode according to claim 1, wherein the nitrogen-containing layer mainly comprises a silicon nitride.
3. The sourcedrain electrode according to claim 1, wherein the nitrogen-containing layer comprises a silicon oxynitride.
4. The sourcedrain electrode according to claim 1, wherein the nitrogen-containing layer has a surface density of nitrogen atoms (N1) of 1014 cm\u22122 or more and 2\xd71016 cm\u22122 or less.
5. The sourcedrain electrode of claim 3, wherein the nitrogen-containing layer has a surface density of nitrogen atoms \u201cN1\u201d and a surface density of oxygen atoms \u201cO1\u201d, and wherein the ratio of N1 to O1 (N1O1) is 1.0 or more.
6. The sourcedrain electrode according to claim 1, wherein the nitrogen-containing layer has a surface density of nitrogen atoms equal to or higher than the surface density of silicon effective dangling bonds constituting the semiconductor layer.
7. The sourcedrain electrode according to claim 1, wherein the nitrogen-containing layer has a thickness within the range of 0.18 nm or more and 20 nm or less.
8. The sourcedrain electrode according to claim 1, wherein the nitrogen-containing layer has a number of nitrogen atoms \u201cN\u201d and a number of silicon atoms \u201cSi\u201d, and wherein the maximum ratio of \u201cN\u201d to \u201cSi\u201d (NSi) is within the range of 0.5 or more and 1.5 or less.
9. The sourcedrain electrode according to claim 1, wherein the thin-film transistor semiconductor layer comprises an amorphous silicon or a polycrystalline silicon.
10. The sourcedrain electrode according to claim 1, wherein the aluminum alloy comprises 6 atomic percent or less of nickel (Ni) as an alloy element.
11. The sourcedrain electrode according to claim 10,
wherein the aluminum alloy comprises 0.3 atomic percent or more and 6 atomic percent or less of nickel (Ni) as an alloy element, and
wherein the sourcedrain electrode is so configured that the thin film of aluminum alloy is further directly connected to the transparent picture electrode.
12. The sourcedrain electrode according to claim 10, wherein the aluminum alloy further comprises 0.1 atomic percent or more and 1.0 atomic percent or less of at least one element selected from the group consisting of Ti, V, Zr, Nb, Mo, Hf, Ta, and W as an alloy element.
13. The sourcedrain electrode according to claim 10, wherein the aluminum alloy further comprises 0.1 atomic percent or more and 2.0 atomic percent or less of at least one element selected from the group consisting of Mg, Cr, Mn, Ru, Rh, Pd, Ir, Pt, La, Gd, Tb, Dy, Nd, Y, Co, and Fe as an alloy element.
14. A thin-film transistor substrate comprising the sourcedrain electrodes according to claim 1.
15. A display device comprising the thin-film transistor substrate according to claim 14.
16. A method for manufacturing the thin-film transistor substrate according to claim 14, comprising the steps of:
(a) depositing a semiconductor layer on or above a substrate to prepare a thin-film transistor substrate;
(b) forming a nitrogen-containing layer on the semiconductor layer; and
(c) depositing a layer of pure aluminum or aluminum alloy on the nitrogen-containing layer.
17. The method according to claim 16, wherein the semiconductor layer is deposited in a deposition system in the step (a), and wherein the step (b) is carried out in the same deposition system.
18. The method according to claim 16, wherein the semiconductor layer is deposited in a chamber in the step (a), and wherein the step (b) is carried out in the same chamber.
19. The method according to claim 16, wherein the semiconductor layer is deposited at a deposition temperature in the step (a), and wherein the step (b) is carried out at a temperature substantially the same as the deposition temperature.
20. The method according to claim 16, wherein the semiconductor layer is deposited using a gas in the step (a), and wherein the step (b) is carried out in an atmosphere of a mixture of the gas and a nitrogen-containing gas.
21. The method according to claim 16, wherein the step (b) is carried out in an atmosphere of a mixture of a nitrogen-containing gas and a reducing gas.
22. The method according to claim 16, wherein the step (b) is carried out by a plasma nitridation process.
23. The method according to claim 22, wherein the plasma nitridation process in the step (b) is carried out at a pressure of 55 Pa or more.
24. The method according to claim 22, wherein the plasma nitridation process in the step (b) is carried out at temperatures of 300\xb0 C. or higher.
25. The method according to claim 22, wherein the plasma nitridation process in the step (b) is carried out in an atmosphere of a mixture of a nitrogen-containing gas and a reducing gas.
26. The method according to claim 22, wherein the semiconductor layer is deposited using a gas in the step (a), and wherein the plasma nitridation process in the step (b) is carried out in an atmosphere of a mixture of the gas and a nitrogen-containing gas.
27. The method according to claim 16, wherein the step (b) is carried out by a thermal nitridation process.
28. The method according to claim 27, wherein the thermal nitridation process is carried out at temperatures of 400\xb0 C. or lower.
29. The method according to claim 16, wherein the step (b) is carried out by an amination process.
30. The method according to claim 29, wherein the amination process uses ultraviolet radiation.
31. The method according to claim 29, wherein the amination process uses solution which contains nitrogen atoms.
32. The method according to claim 16, wherein the step (c) comprises a sputtering process.