Author: claimsbot

1. A circuit comprising:
a magneto-resistive random access memory (MRAM) cell; and
a control circuit electrically coupled to the MRAM cell, wherein the control circuit comprises:
a current source configured to provide a first writing pulse to write a value into the MRAM cell; and
a read circuit configured to measure a status of the MRAM cell, wherein the control circuit is further configured to verify whether a successful writing is achieved through the first writing pulse.
2. The circuit of claim 1, wherein the control circuit is further configured to:
when the status of the MRAM cell indicates a successful writing by the first writing pulse, stop writing the value to the MRAM cell; and
when the status of the MRAM cell indicates an unsuccessful writing by the first writing pulse, provide a second writing pulse to write the value to the MRAM cell.
3. The circuit of claim 2, wherein the control circuit is further configured to:
verify an additional status of the MRAM cell by the second writing pulse;
when the additional status of the MRAM cell indicates a successful writing by the second writing pulse, stop writing the value to the MRAM cell; and
when the additional status of the MRAM cell indicates an unsuccessful writing by the second writing pulse, provide a third writing pulse to write the value to the MRAM cell.
4. The circuit of claim 2, wherein the current source is configured to control the second writing pulse to be substantially identical to the first writing pulse.
5. The circuit of claim 2, wherein the current source is configured to control the second writing pulse to be different from the first writing pulse.
6. The circuit of claim 1, wherein an intended one-write-probability of the first writing pulse is less than 100 percent.
7. The circuit of claim 6, wherein the intended one-write-probability of the first writing pulse is less than about 99 percent.
8. The circuit of claim 7, wherein the intended one-write-probability of the first writing pulse is less than about 70 percent.
9. The circuit of claim 1, wherein the control circuit is configured to verify the status of the MRAM cell within about 50 nanoseconds after the current source provides the first writing pulse to the MRAM cell.
10. A circuit comprising:
a magneto-resistive random access memory (MRAM) cell; and
a control circuit electrically coupled to the MRAM cell, wherein the control circuit comprises:
a current source configured to provide a plurality of writing pulses to write a same value to the MRAM cell, wherein an intended one-write-probability of each of the plurality of writing pulses is less than 100 percent; and
a read circuit configured to read a status of the MRAM cell, wherein the control circuit is configured to control the read circuit to read the status of the MRAM cell after each of the plurality of writing pulses is provided to the MRAM cell.
11. The circuit of claim 10, wherein the control circuit is further configured to stop writing to the MRAM cell when a pre-determined number of writing pulses is provided to the MRAM cell, and when the read circuit indicates that the same value is not successfully written into the MRAM cell.
12. The circuit of claim 10, wherein the control circuit is further configured to control the current source to increase a pulse length of a subsequent one of the plurality of writing pulses when the read circuit verifies that the MRAM cell fails to be written into in a preceding one of the plurality of writing pulses.
13. The circuit of claim 10, wherein the control circuit is further configured to control the current source to increase a pulse magnitude of a subsequent one of the plurality of writing pulses when the read circuit verifies that the MRAM cell fails to be written into in a preceding one of the plurality of writing pulses.
14. The circuit of claim 10, wherein the current source is configured to control the plurality of writing pulses to be identical to each other.
15. The circuit of claim 10, wherein the control circuit, the current source, and the read circuit are controlled not to write into and read from any additional MRAM cell in a same MRAM array before the plurality of writing pulses is finished.
16. The circuit of claim 10, wherein the intended one-write-probability of each of the plurality of writing pulse is less than about 90 percent.
17. A circuit comprising:
a magneto-resistive random access memory (MRAM) cell; and
a control circuit electrically coupled to the MRAM cell, wherein the control circuit is configured to provide a plurality of write-verification cycles, wherein each of the plurality of write-verification cycles comprises a writing step and a verification step, and wherein an intended one-write-probability of the writing step in each of the plurality of write-verification cycles is less than 100 percent.
18. The circuit of claim 17, wherein the control circuit is configured to stop writing to the MRAM cell when a verification result of a verification step indicates a previous writing step results in a successful writing into the MRAM cell.
19. The circuit of claim 17, wherein the control circuit is configured to stop writing to the MRAM cell when all of the plurality of write-verification cycles fails to result in a successful writing into the MRAM cell.
20. The circuit of claim 17, wherein a pulse length of each of a subsequent one of the plurality of write-verification cycles is greater than a pulse length of a preceding one of the plurality of write-verification cycles.

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 carburizing ferrous metal parts comprising the steps of:
(a) providing a furnace for heating the metal parts and a process chamber;
(b) purging an air atmosphere from the process chamber and heating said process chamber to a temperature of at least 1100\xb0 F.;
(c) feeding a fuel gas to the process chamber and a source of air at a constant flow rate to the process chamber;
(d) boosting the process chamber by feeding an enriching gas to the process chamber to create a carbon potential of at least 0.5%;
(e) cleaning the process chamber by decreasing the flow of enriching gas to the process chamber to create a carbon potential of less than about 0.25%;
(f) repeating the boosting step (d) after performing said cleaning step (e); and
(g) repeating the cleaning step(e) after performing said repeated boosting step (f).
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein during said boosting step (d) the enriching gas is supplied to the process chamber at a ratio of from about 0 to about 1.2 cubic feet of enriching gas to every cubic foot of air.
3. The method according to claim 1, wherein during said cleaning step (e) the enriching gas is supplied to the process chamber at a ratio of from about 0 to about 0.35 cubic feet of enriching gas to every cubic foot of air.
4. The method according to claim 1, wherein said boosting step (d) is performed for a period of from about 10 to about 90 minutes.
5. The method according to claim 1, wherein said cleaning step (e) is performed for a period of from about 3 to about 40 minutes.
6. The method according to claim 1, wherein said gas of said step (b) comprises a carrier gas formed by the partial combustion of a fuel gas.
7. The method according to claim 6, wherein during said boosting step (d) and said cleaning step (e) said total air flow comprises a flow rate of X cubic feet per hour, and during said boosting step (d) the maximum enriching gas flow comprises a flow rate of Y cubic feet per hour, and during said boosting step (d) and said cleaning step (e) the fuel gas flow rate used to form the carrier gas comprises a flow rate of Z cubic feet per hour, such that the flow rates of the Y plus Z equals approximately the total air flow rate X.
8. The method according to claim 6, wherein during said steps (d), (e), (f) and (g) said total air flow rate and said fuel gas flow rate is substantially constant.
9. The method according to claim 1, wherein during said purging step (b) the process chamber is purged using a carrier gas.
10. The method according to claim 9, wherein said carrier gas comprises an endothermic carrier gas formed by the partial reaction of the fuel gas and a portion of the air in an externally heated catalyst filled chamber.
11. The method according to claim 10, wherein said externally heated catalyst filled chamber comprises an endothermic gas generator.
12. The method according to claim 1, wherein during said purging step (b) the process chamber is purged using an inert gas.
13. The method according to claim 12, wherein said inert gas comprises nitrogen.
14. The method according to claim 6, wherein said furnace includes a generator device comprising a combustion tube and a radiant heater tube for combusting a source of hydrocarbon fuel and generating a source of heat, a generator tube surrounding at least a portion of said radiant heater tube, said generator tube having an inlet for receiving the air and the fuel gas, and an outlet tube for exhausting partially combusted fuel gas to the process chamber.
15. The method according to claim 6, wherein said enriching gas and said fuel gas both comprise methane (CH4).
16. The method according to claim 14, wherein said generator tube is at least partially isolated from said process chamber.
17. The method according to claim 14, wherein said generator device is mounted such that a substantial portion of the generator tube is not located in the process chamber of the furnace.
18. The method according to claim 14, wherein said enriching gas is inlet for receiving fuel gas and the air.
19. The method according to claim 1, wherein during said boosting step (d) the process chamber is maintained at a temperature of from about 1,500\xb0 F. to about 1,850\xb0 F.
20. The method according to claim 6, wherein said carrier gas is produced externally of the process chamber.
21. The method according to claim 1, wherein said gas of said step (b) is at least one gas selected from the group consisting of a carrier gas, CH4, CO, C2H6, C2H4, C6H6, C4H10, C3H8 and mixtures thereof.
22. The method according to claim 1, wherein said enriching gas is at least one gas selected from the group consisting of CH4, CO, C2H6, C2H4, C6H6, C4H10, C3H8 and mixtures thereof.
23. The method according to claim 1, wherein said furnace comprises a furnace selected from the group consisting of a rotary furnace, a rotary retort furnace, a continuous furnace and a batch furnace.
24. The method according to claim 1, wherein during said boosting step (d) a carbon potential of at least 1.4% is attained in the process chamber.
25. The method according to claim 1, wherein during said boosting steps (d) and (f) and said cleaning steps (e) and (g) a substantially constant total air flow rate is maintained.
26. A method of heat treating ferrous metal parts comprising the steps of:
(a) providing a furnace for heating the metal parts and a process chamber;
(b) purging an air atmosphere from the process chamber and heating said process chamber to a temperature of at least 1100\xb0 F.;
(c) feeding a fuel gas to the process chamber and a source of air;
(d) boosting the process chamber by feeding an enriching gas to the process chamber to create a carbon potential of at least 0.5%;
(e) cleaning the process chamber by decreasing the flow of enriching gas to the process chamber to create a carbon potential of less than about 0.25%;
(f) repeating the boosting step (d) after performing said cleaning step (e);
(g) repeating the cleaning step(e) after performing said repeated boosting step (f);
(h) wherein during said cleaning and boosting steps said fuel gas and said air is fed to the process chamber at a substantially constant flow rate.
27. The method according to claim 26, wherein said fuel gas is partially consumed to form an endothermic carrier gas.

1. An apparatus for applying a lubrication layer onto hard disks, comprising:
a lubrication tank being adapted to hold a lubricant bath;
a disk holding means being adapted to hold a plurality of hard disks, each said hard disk being disposed at a corresponding location along a length of said disk holding means; and
a plurality of projecting members, each said projecting member being disposed within said tank and adapted to be disposed between an adjacent pair of said plurality of hard disks, to interrupt a substantial portion of surface waves of said lubricant bath that travel between said adjacent pair of hard disks.
2. An apparatus for applying a lubrication layer onto hard disks as described in claim 1, wherein each of said projecting members are disposed at the surface of said lubricant bath.
3. An apparatus for applying a lubrication layer onto hard disks as described in claim 1, wherein said plurality of projecting members are integrally formed within a bath cover that is disposed to position said projecting members at a surface of said lubricant bath.
4. An apparatus for applying a lubrication layer onto hard disks as described in claim 3, wherein said bath cover comprises a generally rectangular integrally formed member having a central mandrel passage slot formed therethrough and a plurality of disk passage slots formed therethrough generally perpendicularly to said mandrel passage slot.
5. An apparatus for applying a lubrication layer onto hard disks as described in claim 1 wherein said projecting members include side surfaces for making contact with said surface waves, and wherein said side surfaces are irregularly shaped to diminish reflection of said surface waves from said projecting members.
6. An apparatus for applying a lubrication layer onto hard disks as described in claim 1 wherein said projecting members include side surfaces for making contact with said surface waves, and wherein said side surfaces are formed of a porous material to diminish reflection of said surface waves from said projecting members.
7. A hard disk, comprising:
an outer surface of the hard disk;
a lubrication layer being disposed on said outer surface, wherein said lubrication layer is substantially free of thickness variations caused by surface waves.
8. A hard disk as described in claim 7, wherein said lubrication layer is formed by a process comprising:
lowering a plurality of hard disks into a lubricant bath;
removing said hard disks from the lubricant bath; and
substantially intercepting surface waves within said lubricant bath, said intercepting of said surface waves occurring before said surface waves reach another of said hard disks.
9. A hard disk as described in claim 8 wherein said substantially intercepting of said surface waves is accomplished by disposing a wave intercepting member upon said surface of said lubricant bath between adjacent ones of said plurality of hard disks.
10. A hard disk as described in claim 9, wherein said wave intercepting member includes a plurality of projecting members that are integrally formed within a bath cover that is disposed to position said projecting members at said surface of said lubricant bath.
11. A hard disk as described in claim 10, wherein said bath cover comprises a generally rectangular member having a central mandrel passage slot formed therethrough and a plurality of disk passage slots formed therethrough generally perpendicularly to said mandrel passage slot.
12. A hard disk as described in claim 10 wherein said projecting members include side surfaces for making contact with said surface waves, and wherein said side surfaces are irregularly shaped to diminish reflection of said surface waves from said projecting members.
13. A hard disk as described in claim 10 wherein said projecting members include side surfaces for making contact with said surface waves, and wherein said side surfaces are formed of a porous material to diminish reflection of said surface waves from said projecting members.
14. A process for applying a lubrication layer onto an outer surface of a hard disk, comprising:
lowering a plurality of hard disks into a lubricant bath;
removing said hard disks from the lubricant bath; and
substantially intercepting surface waves within said lubricant bath, said intercepting of said surface waves occurring before said surface waves reach another of said hard disks.
15. A hard disk as described in claim 14 wherein said substantially intercepting of said surface waves is accomplished by disposing a wave intercepting member upon said surface of said lubricant bath between adjacent ones of said plurality of hard disks.
16. A process for applying a lubrication layer onto an outer surface of a hard disk as described in claim 15, wherein said wave intercepting member includes a plurality of projecting members that are integrally formed within a bath cover that is disposed to position said projecting members at said surface of said lubricant bath.
17. A process for applying a lubrication layer onto an outer surface of a hard disk as described in claim 16, wherein said bath cover comprises a generally rectangular member being defined by outer edges thereof, and having a central mandrel passage slot formed therethrough and a plurality of disk passage slots formed generally perpendicularly to said mandrel passage slot.
18. A process for applying a lubrication layer onto an outer surface of a hard disk as described in claim 16 wherein said projecting members include side surfaces for making contact with said surface waves, and wherein said side surfaces are irregularly shaped to diminish reflection of said surface waves from said projecting members.
19. A process for applying a lubrication layer onto an outer surface of a hard disk as described in claim 16 wherein said projecting members include side surfaces for making contact with said surface waves, and wherein said side surfaces are formed of a porous material to diminish reflection of said surface waves from said projecting members.

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 reductant delivery unit for selective catalytic reduction (SCR) after-treatment for vehicles in combination with an exhaust boss, the combination comprising:
a reductant delivery unit comprising:
a fluid injector having an inlet and an outlet, the inlet being constructed and arranged to receive a source of urea solution, and
a flange coupled with the fluid injector,

an exhaust boss separate from the flange and having a surface defining a through-hole constructed and arranged to communicate with a vehicle’s exhaust flow path, the flange being coupled to a planar mounting surface of the exhaust boss such that the outlet of the fluid injector communicates with the exhaust flow path so as to control injection of urea solution into the exhaust gas flow path,
a gasket sandwiched between the flange and the planar mounting surface of the exhaust boss, the gasket having a surface defining a through-hole therein that communicates with the through-hole in the exhaust boss to permit the urea solution to pass from the outlet to the exhaust flow path, with the outlet of the fluid injector being upstream of the through-holes, and
gasket shielding structure separate from the flange and engaged with and covering the surface defining the through-hole in the gasket so that the urea solution may contact the gasket shielding structure, with the gasket shielding structure preventing the urea solution from contacting the gasket.
2. The combination of claim 1, wherein gasket shielding structure comprises an annular protrusion associated with the exhaust boss.
3. The combination of claim 2, wherein the protrusion extends generally transversely with respect to the mounting surface of the exhaust boss.
4. The combination of claim 3, wherein the protrusion is part of the exhaust boss and defines the surface defining the through-hole in the exhaust boss.
5. The combination of claim 1, wherein the gasket shielding structure comprises a metal eyelet having a portion received in the though-hole of the gasket.
6. The combination of claim 5, wherein the eyelet is secured to the gasket by a crimp connection.
7. A reductant delivery unit for selective catalytic reduction (SCR) after-treatment for vehicles in combination with an exhaust boss, the combination comprising:
a reductant delivery unit comprising:
a fluid injector having an inlet and an outlet, the inlet being constructed and arranged to receive a source of urea solution, and
a flange coupled with the fluid injector,

an exhaust boss separate from the flange and having a surface defining a through-hole constructed and arranged to communicate with a vehicle’s exhaust flow path, the flange being coupled to a planar mounting surface of the exhaust boss such that the outlet of the fluid injector communicates with the exhaust flow path so as to control injection of urea solution into the exhaust gas flow path,
means for sealing, sandwiched between the flange and the planar mounting surface of the exhaust boss, the means for sealing having a surface defining a through-hole therein that communicates with the through-hole in the exhaust boss to permit the urea solution to pass from the outlet to the exhaust flow path, with the outlet of the fluid injector being upstream of the through-holes, and
means for shielding, separate from the flange and engaged with and covering the surface defining the through-hole in the means for sealing so that the urea solution may contact the means for shielding, with the means for shielding preventing the urea solution from contacting the means for sealing.
8. The combination of claim 7, wherein means for sealing is a gasket.
9. The combination of claim 7, means for shielding comprises an annular protrusion associated with the exhaust boss.
10. The combination of claim 9, wherein the protrusion extends generally transversely with respect to the mounting surface of the exhaust boss.
11. The combination of claim 10, wherein the protrusion is part of the exhaust boss and defines the surface defining the through-hole in the exhaust boss.
12. The combination of claim 7, wherein the means for shielding comprises a metal eyelet having a portion received in the though-hole of the means for sealing.
13. The combination of claim 12, wherein the eyelet is secured to the gasket by a crimp connection.
14. A method of preventing urea solution deposit build-up on a gasket disposed between a reductant delivery unit and an exhaust boss of selective catalytic reduction after-treatment system for vehicles, the method comprising:
providing a gasket sandwiched between a planar mounting surface of an exhaust boss and a flange of a reductant delivery unit (RDU), the exhaust boss being separate from the flange, the gasket having a surface defining a through-hole therein, the exhaust boss having a surface defining a through-hole in communicating with a vehicle’s exhaust flow path and in communication with the through-hole in the gasket, with the outlet of the fluid injector being upstream of the through-holes, and
providing gasket shielding structure, which is separate from the flange, to be engaged with and covering the surface defining the through-hole in the gasket so that urea solution sprayed from the RDU and into the exhaust flow path may contact the gasket shielding structure, with the gasket shielding structure preventing the urea solution from contacting the gasket.
15. The method of claim 14, wherein the step of providing the gasket shielding structure provides an annular protrusion associated with the exhaust boss.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein the protrusion extends generally transversely with respect to the mounting surface of the exhaust boss.
17. The method of claim 16, wherein the protrusion is part of the exhaust boss and defines the surface defining the through-hole in the exhaust boss.
18. The method of claim 14, wherein the step of providing the gasket shielding structure provides a metal eyelet having a portion received in the though-hole of the gasket.
19. The method of claim 18, further comprising crimping the eyelet to the gasket to secure the eyelet to the gasket.